#DEFUNDPOLICE

'Kept under wraps': Edmonton police to replace plane operating 'covertly' for three decades

The Edmonton Police Service (EPS) should explain why a fixed-wing aircraft it’s been operating “covertly” for more than 30 years has just come to light now, a professor of criminology says.

Anna Junker -
Edmonton Journal

© Provided by Edmonton JournalThe Villeneuve Airport, where the Edmonton Police Service keeps its aircraft, is seen on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. EPS is in the process of acquiring a new fixed wing aircraft after operating its current plane ‘covertly’ for 30 years.

Police spokeswoman Cheryl Sheppard this week confirmed the service bought the 1980 Cessna 182Q in 1993. It’s been piloted all these years by police employees using it for a variety of operational purposes, including monitoring criminal flights, locating missing people, and working on joint force operations with various law enforcement partners, said Sheppard.

“The aircraft is not used for the transportation of members or goods,” she said in a statement. “It flies frequently and has been an asset to the EPS, contributing to the overall safety of Edmontonians over the last 31 years of its operation.”

But due to the “covert nature” of the aircraft, Sheppard said the police service has only discussed the plane in private meetings with the Edmonton Police Commission and city council “to ensure and maintain both public and officer safety.”

The existence of the plane was reported earlier this week by the Progress Report , citing a Nov. 8 community and public services committee meeting where Coun. Michael Janz asked about the plane.

Sheppard says the service, as a result of the public discussion, is “disappointed that the in-camera protocols were not followed. This aircraft assists with the efficiency of police response in high-risk files and situations”

“The effectiveness of the aircraft relies heavily on the fact that it operates covertly. As such, public knowledge of this could jeopardize investigations and put officers and citizens at risk.”

Janz told Postmedia he was unaware the plane was a confidential item at the time of the meeting, saying he learned of it from a constituent and understood Saskatoon and Regina had similar planes.
‘Extraordinary and unusual’: U of A professor

For Temitope Oriola, associate professor of criminology at the University of Alberta, having the police service keep the aircraft a secret from the public for 31 years is “extraordinary and unusual.”

“The Edmonton Police Service is not CSIS, the Edmonton Police Service is not the CIA,” he said. “We would generally expect that level of secrecy, micromanagement of information and all of that from our foreign intelligence services rather than local law enforcement services.”

He said the service should further explain what necessitated keeping the plane under wraps for so long.

“Keep in mind we’re not talking about just the tenure of a single police chief. We’re talking about multiple police chiefs who had come and gone in the last three-plus decades and yet this somehow was kept under wraps,” he said.


A Cessna 182 plane, similar to the Cessna the Edmonton Police Service has been using for 30 years.

“I would like to know why this was kept secret. What was the intrinsically complex nature of those operations that necessitated not having the public know that this thing existed?”

He also said the plane raises privacy concerns.

“What kinds of tracking was done by this aircraft? And was there any sort of risk to the privacy of Edmontonians and other Canadian citizens?”

He said police should also show what the plane’s operations have accomplished.

“There may well be compelling reasons for the covert nature of the Cessna plane’s operations. But the police need to provide empirically verifiable and reasonable justification,” he said. “I think it’s essential to also point out that there are aspects of policing that are necessary and by their very nature covert that simply cannot be publicized.”

Planes in use by other police services

Mount Royal University justice studies professor Doug King noted police services using planes isn’t unusual.

“Aircraft are very common in larger municipalities in the United States,” he said. “So Los Angeles will have a couple of airplanes as well as helicopters just because of the versatility of having both in their arsenal.”

In Canada, however, planes are less common, King said. The RCMP owns several, and the Saskatoon Police Service has its own Cessna 182. The Regina Police Service was also approved to purchase a plane in December.

In Edmonton, police also have two helicopters, Air 1 and Air 2, in their flight operations unit.

King said there are pros and cons to having helicopters and an airplane.

“One of the advantages airplanes have is that they are less noticeable in the air in the sense of noise,” he said. “A plane does assist in keeping a police operation, more covert, more quiet, but you have to then weigh that off with well how often do we need that kind of capabilities.”

Planes can also stay in the air for longer without having to be refuelled and generally cost less than helicopters.

As the Cessna is now 41 years old, it has exceeded its lifespan, Sheppard said. The police service recently received approval from the EPC to procure a replacement for approximately $4.3 million. The replacement plane is expected to arrive in late 2022.

ajunker@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/JunkerAnna

Opinion: Alberta's public health care isn’t broken; it’s being dismantled

Chris Gallaway - Yesterday 

OPINION EDMONTON JOURNAL

David Staples’ recent column titled “Fragility of ICU system shows health-care system is broken” is just the latest in what appears to be a co-ordinated chorus from reactionary columnists, right-wing politicians, and conservative think tanks, all of which are lining up to seed the narrative that our public health care is “broken.” Predictably, they go on to conclude that the only solution is privatization.


© Provided by Edmonton JournalA Calgary ICU team checks a screen to help intubate a patient.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. What we are seeing is our provincial government using the COVID-19 pandemic as cover for an ideologically driven agenda of funding cuts and privatization in Alberta’s public health-care system. They are intentionally “breaking” it to justify their real agenda: further privatization.

While the pandemic initially slowed the UCP’s early attempts to privatize pieces of our health care, they are now wasting no time in selling things off.

Upon getting elected, the UCP government quickly halted, then cancelled, the much-needed super lab project in Edmonton. Community lab funds were frozen and they were instructed not to buy new equipment. The government neglected our medical labs to the point of disrepair. Now they’re offering privatization through a sweetheart deal to a for-profit company, DynaLife, as the only solution.

Emergency medical services in Alberta have been in crisis for months, years even. Yet while health-care workers, unions, community groups, municipalities, and Albertans have all been raising the alarm bells, the government has let the crisis continue to grow without a plan. Now that Alberta’s EMS services have reached a breaking point, the government announced a 10-point plan and a new panel clearly designed to contribute to the creeping privatization of our EMS services.

Since 2019, the Canadian Blood Services has been implementing a strategy to grow the number of volunteer blood plasma donors in Canada. Rather than support the public agency, the UCP government passed MLA Tany Yao’s private member’s bill to allow pay-for-plasma operators to open in Alberta. Now Albertans are getting bombarded with advertisements encouraging them to sign up to make money by selling their blood plasma, which the company can then sell into the U.S. markets.

With talk of looming staff shortages throughout our public health-care system, our government should be working proactively with Alberta’s public universities, colleges and institutes to ensure we have the skilled workforce we need in the years ahead. Instead, we are seeing a hostile approach with secret bargaining mandates for workers and deep cuts that are decimating these important post-secondary institutions.

Not to mention the privatization of laundry services, attacks on doctors and health-care workers, ongoing layoffs, and new plans being developed for seniors’ care; truly the list goes on and on.

Rather than investing in our public health-care system in the interest of all Albertans, at every turn, the UCP government is choosing to offload their responsibility to provide quality health services, turning over much of our system into the hands of a private, for-profit companies.

Ultimately, this isn’t about fixing a “broken” system. History tells us this won’t save money. It’s about their ideological push to see more of our public health dollars going to reward private profit.

The provincial budget will soon be tabled. Tens of thousands of surgeries have been cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic. The idea of a new private orthopedic surgical facility, the largest ever in Alberta, has already been floated. Will the upcoming budget put our public hospitals and surgeries next into the privatization crosshairs?

Albertans should be concerned and watching closely. We can’t be fooled by claims of a “broken” system. The government is choosing this path. We need to be ready to stand up and demand they invest in the public health-care system we deserve. It’s time to say no more public dollars for private profit.

Chris Gallaway is the executive director of Friends of Medicare.

Climate migration fuels conflicts in Bay of Bengal region

Climate change pressures are pushing people from their homes and exacerbating tensions over control of valuable but shrinking natural resources like land, water and minerals, says new report

by Anuradha Nagaraj

Tuesday, 15 February 2022 

CHENNAI, India, Feb 15 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Military and civil conflicts could intensify along the Bay of Bengal coastline, fuelled by climate change-linked migration, land loss and displacement, researchers said on Tuesday.

The area is seeing frequent extreme weather, which combined with its strategic, social and economic fault-lines, makes it "fertile ground" for social friction and violence, they warned.

A report, by think-tanks the Netherlands-based Clingendael Institute and India's Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, said the region was already dotted with conflicts over resources, identity and growing migration flows.

"Climate change can widen socio-economic divides that in some cases can snowball into political instability and widen conflicts," said Angshuman Choudhury, one of the report authors.

"Migration is a key link in this chain of consequences... The so-called 'insider versus outsider' conflicts are increasing," he said, referring to tensions between those on the move and their host communities.

Disastrous floods, deadly heatwaves and devastating cyclones are taking a heavy toll in the Bay of Bengal region, which covers more than 2 million sq km (772,204 sq miles) - impacting Bangladesh and parts of Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Myanmar and India.

The report pointed to conflicts between social groups, communities and the state over control of valuable but shrinking natural resources like land, forests, water and minerals.

In Bangladesh, for example, there have been "periods of violence" between agricultural and shrimp farmers in the Khulna region over salinisation of water resources, the report noted.

It also pointed to a dozen ethnic separatist movements triggered by conflict over resources in Northeast India.

The Bay of Bengal coast, home to a quarter of the world's population, is a perfect example of the fight over fast-disappearing land, report co-author Siddharth Anil Nair told a webinar.



'THREAT MULTIPLIER'

Pointing to porous international borders cutting across countries that are home to socio-culturally similar groups, the report flagged growing conflicts triggered by migration, identifying "climate-induced" movement as a key driver.

And in all five countries, internal migration from coastal belts to the hinterland could lead to uncontrolled urbanisation, giving rise to tensions and crime, it warned.

In India, anti-immigrant violence in northeast Assam state has been triggered by people moving across the India-Bangladesh border, while Bangladesh has seen local protests against Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.

Rising sea levels, in particular, could result in land and infrastructure loss in the future, besides altering the location and allocation of strategic military assets, researchers said.

Calling climate stresses both "risk" and "threat multipliers", the researchers said the phenomenon was also impacting the resilience of displaced communities.

Citing the example of Bhashan Char in Bangladesh, the report said higher seas, erosion and cyclones could severely impact the living conditions of Rohingya refugees on the island.

Climate pressures could also aggravate land depletion, dispossession and degradation, fuelling economic and social insecurity among agrarian communities and ethnic minorities, leading to new phases of violent conflict, the report added.

"Climate change increases the risk of various types of violence and human insecurity," said Florian Krampe, director of the climate change and risk programme at SIPRI, a Swedish institute dedicated to research into conflict and disarmament.

Peace-building and development are needed to deal with the problem, he said.

The report suggested a multi-pronged strategy to help at-risk populations cope - from creating awareness and supporting traditional adaptation strategies to encouraging grassroots leadership and building public-private partnerships.

It also called for the creation of a regional task force for to create better early warning mechanisms and emergency response systems to protect affected groups.


Read more:

Climate migration predicted to rise in India as extreme weather worsens

Incomes dip for South Asia's women home workers as heat rises

Unequal risk: How climate change hurts India's poor most

(Reporting by Anuradha Nagaraj @AnuraNagaraj; Editing by Megan Rowling. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)

 

Chile’s constituent assembly begins debating new constitution

Constituents are discussing host of measures, such as water and Indigenous rights, that could end up in new magna carta.

The discussions come as Gabriel Boric, a 36-year-old leftist former student protest leader, is set to take over as Chile's next president in March [File: Rodrigo Garrido/Reuters]

Published On 15 Feb 202215 Feb 2022

Chile’s constituent assembly has begun formally debating motions for a new constitution, which is set to replace one dating back to the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.

The assembly on Tuesday began what is likely to be a lengthy process, discussing plans to nationalise mining, the creation of a one-chamber Congress, water rights, and protections for Indigenous territories, among other issues.end of list

“In this period we are going to see what is really going to remain in the proposed constitution,” said constituent assembly President Maria Elisa Quinteros, noting that the text would face a nationwide referendum planned for September.

The discussions come as Gabriel Boric, a 36-year-old leftist former student protest leader, is set to take over as Chile’s next president in March.

His ascendency to the nation’s highest office marks the country’s most dramatic political and social shift since its return to democracy in 1990.

The constitutional body is dominated by independent and left-leaning representatives

 [Ivan Alvarado/Reuters]

On the discussion list are water and property rights, central bank independence, and labour practices. Other themes include animal rights, feminist education, protection of the natural world, and the legalisation of cannabis.

The proposals will be debated in the coming months and will need approval by two-thirds of the delegates, some 103 votes.

If approved they would face a process of modifications before a second definitive vote to be included in the final text. If rejected they would go back to the commission to be revised or discarded.

The potential for sharp shifts in the country has caused some alarm among conservatives while also sparking jitters among investors and mining firms.

Quinteros sought to allay the fears, saying there had been lots of “misinformation” around the process and that the motions were at an early stage.

But those concerns have seen the process lose some support, with a survey by private pollster Cadem showing that the percentage of people who currently say they intend to vote to approve the new Constitution had fallen from 56 to 47 percent.

The proposals will be debated in the coming months and will need approval by two-thirds of the delegates [Ivan Alvarado/Reuters]

The constitutional body, elected last year, is dominated by independent and left-leaning representatives, some with roots in a 2019 protest movement that broke out over inequality in one of the region’s we

Kenneth Bunker, director of consultancy Tresquintos, said this was an important moment for “concerns” to be raised to avoid “wacky” motions moving forward and undermining trust in the process.

But Bunker said he still thought the new constitution would eventually pass, though it would create a challenge for Boric’s new government.

“In the short-term, the government of Gabriel Boric, if this Constitution comes to pass, will have a real challenge to balance the social infrastructure with the political and economic situation in Chile today,” he said.

Bernie Sanders’s Smart Take on NATO, Ukraine, and Diplomatic Options

“A simplistic refusal to recognize the complex roots of the tensions in the region undermines the ability of negotiators to reach a peaceful resolution,” said the Vermont senator.

By John Nichols
TODAY 

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) conducts a news conference on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction in the US Capitol on Wednesday, November 3. (Photo By Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)


Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) did something last week few members of the Biden administration and Congress have done in their public comments about the Ukraine crisis: offered a global perspective that goes beyond a simple recitation of State Department talking points.

RELATED ARTICLE

100 GROUPS DEMAND THAT BIDEN STOP ESCALATING TENSIONS OVER UKRAINE

The Senate Budget Committee chairman and former presidential candidate has long been a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interference in the political affairs of other nations and assaults on Russian dissidents, such as Alexei Navalny. And he remains so.

Speaking on the floor of the US Senate on Thursday, Sanders expressed deep concern about the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. He warned that the United States “must unequivocally support the sovereignty of Ukraine and make clear that the international community will impose severe consequences on Putin and his fellow oligarchs if he does not change course.”

Yet Sanders also steadily warned against abandoning hope for a diplomatic solution. He argued that, as part of a necessary focus on diplomacy, US officials must recognize the role that Russian fears about NATO expansion play in the crisis. This recognition could yet play a critical role in dialing down tensions and averting war.

RELATED ARTICLE

THE STRATEGIC BLUNDER THAT LED TO TODAY’S CONFLICT IN UKRAINE

“A simplistic refusal to recognize the complex roots of the tensions in the region undermines the ability of negotiators to reach a peaceful resolution,” Sanders told the Senate, in remarks that were all too rare for a chamber where too many members of both parties are rushing to hike defense spending and impose indiscriminate sanctions.

“I know it is not very popular in Washington to consider the perspectives of our adversaries, but I think it is important in formulating good policy,” Sanders said.

To that end, the senator explained:


One of the precipitating factors of this crisis, at least from Russia’s perspective, is the prospect of an enhanced security relationship between Ukraine and the United States and Western Europe, including what Russia sees as the threat of Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO), a military alliance originally created in 1949 to confront the Soviet Union.

It is good to know some history. When Ukraine became independent after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Russian leaders made clear their concerns about the prospect of former Soviet states becoming part of NATO and positioning hostile military forces along Russia’s border. U.S. officials recognized these concerns as legitimate at the time.

Sanders quoted former defense secretary William Perry, who in a 2016 interview said, “In the last few years, most of the blame can be pointed at the actions that Putin has taken. But in the early years I have to say that the United States deserves much of the blame. Our first action that really set us off in a bad direction was when NATO started to expand, bringing in eastern European nations, some of them bordering Russia.” He also quoted current CIA head William Burns, a former diplomat, who in a 2008 memo to then–Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrote:


Ukrainian entry into NATO is the brightest of all redlines for the Russian elite (not just Putin). In more than two and a half years of conversations with key Russian players, from knuckle-draggers in the dark recesses of the Kremlin to Putin’s sharpest liberal critics, I have yet to find anyone who views Ukraine in NATO as anything other than a direct challenge to Russian interests.

With this in mind, Sanders told his colleagues,

Clearly, invasion by Russia is not an answer; neither is intransigence by NATO. It is important to recognize, for example, that Finland, one of the most developed and democratic countries in the world, borders Russia and has chosen not to be a member of NATO. Sweden and Austria are other examples of extremely prosperous and democratic countries that have made the same choice.

US officials rarely note in debates about possible solutions to the Ukraine crisis the fact that key European nations remain outside the NATO tent. But Russian diplomats have made opposition to NATO expansion central to their position in negotiations over how to avert a war. US diplomats have been just as rigid in arguing that Ukraine’s right to join NATO must be maintained.

Sanders pointed out in his remarks that the United States has long accepted the idea that superpowers are concerned with maintaining “spheres of influence” in their regions.

For the last 200 years, our country has operated under the Monroe Doctrine, embracing the premise that as the dominant power in the Western Hemisphere, the United States has the right to intervene against any country that might threaten our alleged interests. Under this doctrine we have undermined and overthrown at least a dozen governments. In 1962 we came to the brink of nuclear war with the Soviet Union in response to the placement of Soviet missiles in Cuba, 90 miles from our shore, which the Kennedy Administration saw as an unacceptable threat to our national security.

And the Monroe Doctrine is not ancient history. As recently as 2018 Donald Trump’s Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, called the Monroe Doctrine ‘as relevant today as it was the day it was written.…

To put it simply, even if Russia was not ruled by a corrupt authoritarian leader like Vladimir Putin, Russia, like the United States, would still have an interest in the security policies of its neighbors. Does anyone really believe that the United States would not have something to say if, for example, Mexico was to form a military alliance with a U.S. adversary?

Countries should be free to make their own foreign policy choices, but making those choices wisely requires a serious consideration of the costs and benefits. The fact is that the U.S. and Ukraine entering into a deeper security relationship is likely to have some very serious costs—for both countries.

Recognizing the role that NATO expansion plays in Russia’s thinking about the Ukraine conflict is not, Sanders argued, a sign of weakness. It is an understanding, Sanders explained, that could yet play a part in achieving “a realistic and mutually agreeable resolution—one that is acceptable to Ukraine, Russia, the United States, and our European allies—and that prevents what could be the worst European war in over 75 years.”


John NicholsJohn Nichols is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and the author of the new book Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers: Accountability for Those Who Caused the Crisis (Verso). He’s also the author of The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party: The Enduring Legacy of Henry Wallace's Anti-Fascist, Anti-Racist Politics, from Verso; Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse: A Field Guide to the Most Dangerous People in America, from Nation Books; and co-author, with Robert W. McChesney, of People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy.

 

Canada’s banks seek clarification on Trudeau’s trucker crackdown

Banks may be required to report relationships with people involved in blockades and given authority to freeze accounts.

By Kevin OrlandBloomberg

Published On 15 Feb 202215 Feb 2022

A day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked emergency powers to choke off funding to protests against Covid-19 restrictions, Canada’s banks were still waiting Tuesday for details on how they’re supposed to enforce the government’s orders.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Monday that banks would be required to report relationships with people involved in blockades and would be given the authority to freeze accounts without a court order, among other measures

The banks still had numerous questions about how to implement the measures as of Tuesday morning, according to people familiar with the matter. Outstanding questions include which types of accounts the order covers, what recourse customers will have to make the banks reconsider account closures and how the banks will be indemnified, the people said.

Chief executive officers of Canada’s major banks have held two calls with government officials about the orders: one over the weekend, while the policy was being considered, and one on Monday evening, after it was announced, the people said. Public statements about the crackdown by public officials have been consistent with what the banks have been told, one of the people said.

The legal text of the government order was made public on Tuesday, but it didn’t clarify many of the banks’ questions. It says only that the government will require payment processors to report certain transactions to regulators and will require financial-services providers to “determine whether they have in their possession or control property that belongs to a person who participates in the blockade.”

Protests that began with a trucker convoy to Ottawa last month have gridlocked Canada’s capital city and closed border crossings. Although the bridge that carries a quarter of Canada’s commerce with the U.S. was reopened Sunday night, two major border crossings in Western Canada were blocked on Monday by semi-trailers and farm equipment.

As part of the financial crackdown, the government is also broadening its anti-money-laundering rules to cover cryptocurrency trading platforms and crowdfunding sites such as GoFundMe, both of which have been used to funnel donations to protesters.

Even before the government announced the emergency measures, Toronto-Dominion Bank last week froze accounts containing C$1.4 million ($1.1 million) that was donated to the protests and asked a court to take control of the funds.

 

Starbucks Workers United Holding Protests in Memphis and Seattle After Company Fired Unionizing Employees

Trabajadores de Starbucks Unidos protestan en Memphis y Seattle después de que empresa despidiera empleados sindicalizados

Rafael FigueroaFebruary 15, 2022

 2 minutes read

 Trabajadores de Starbucks Unidos protestan en Memphis Photo: Video screen capture Hunter Demster

MEMPHIS, TN (ABC 24 News) — Starbucks Workers United have called on the Memphis community to support a protest of Starbucks after seven employees who were part of a union organizing committee were fired last week.

The labor union are protesting Tuesday, February 15, 2022, at the Starbucks located at 3388 Poplar Ave. in Memphis.

That Starbucks location is one of seven stores nationwide which filed for union elections in December in hopes of becoming what the labor union called “equal partners of [their] rights.” The sudden firing of the seven union-organizing employees sparked outrage among unionizing supporters and activist groups across the U.S.

A member of the Seattle City Council also scheduled a rally for Tuesday, demanding that Starbucks immediately reinstate the seven employees that were fried from the Memphis store. Two of the employees fired from the Memphis Starbucks planned to attend the protest in Seattle.

Starbucks issued a response statement after firing members of the union organizing committee, explaining that actions taken by the employees violated safety and security policies.

According to Starbucks, the employees who were fired allowed unauthorized individuals in the store after closing time, did not properly secure the store, and opened the safe without authorization.

Last week, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, state senators, Shelby County commissioners, Memphis City council members, and other politicians also signed an open letter to Starbucks criticizing the company’s union busting practices.

CANADA

Dozens more graves found at former residential school sites

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

Image caption,

The discoveries of unmarked graves this summer triggered a nationwide reckoning over residential schools

An indigenous nation in Canada says it has discovered evidence of 54 unmarked graves at the sites of two former residential schools in Saskatchewan.

Keeseekoose First Nation said the graves were found nearby Fort Pelly and St Phillip's residential schools.

It is the latest finding amid a wave that has triggered a national debate over the residential school system.

Indigenous nations across the country have found evidence of more than 1,100 such graves since last spring.

Just weeks ago, the Williams Lake First Nation announced it had found evidence of 93 unmarked graves on the grounds of St Joseph Mission, a former residential school.

These government-funded boarding schools were part of a policy meant to assimilate indigenous children and destroy indigenous cultures and languages.

Survivors had long testified that children who died at the schools were buried in unmarked plots, now being rediscovered throughout the country.

Ted Quewezance, project leader of the Keeseekoose's search, said ground-penetrating radar technology suggested there were 42 grave sites at the grounds of Fort Pelly Residential School, and an additional 12 at St Phillip's.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Mr Quewezance said the discovery matched testimony of residential school survivors.

"It was not that they could not hear, but they did not believe our survivors," he said.

Fort Pelley was open as a residential school from 1905 to 1913.

The St Phillip's building was used as a boarding house for students from 1902 to 1914 before it was shut due to poor conditions. It was re-opened in 1927 as a residential school and, like the majority of Canada's residential schools, was run by the Roman Catholic Church.

Both were in eastern Saskatchewan.

More than 130 residential schools were operated in Canada between 1874 and 1996. A cornerstone of the government's policy of forced assimilation, some 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were taken from their families during this period and placed in the state-run boarding schools.

Conditions inside the schools were abhorrent. School buildings were often poorly built, poorly heated and unsanitary, and children were subject to emotional, physical and sexual abuse.

The landmark Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report, released in 2015, concluded Canada's residential school system amounted to "cultural genocide".

At least 3,200 children died while attending a residential school, though advocates have said this number is likely much higher. Former TRC chair Murray Sinclair estimated some 6,000 children may have never made it home.

If you or someone you know needs support related to these discoveries, you can contact The Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line (1-866-925-4419) 24 hours a day

Russian diplomat tells West to see doctor for ‘paranoia’ over Ukraine

By AFP
February 15, 2022

Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday told western leaders they should see a doctor for their “paranoia” over fears that the 100,000 or so Russian troops massed on Ukraine’s borders might invade.

“I think they need to have a good doctor, I recommend them to do it. Specialist on such paranoia cases,” said Dmitry Polyanskiy, denying that Russia intended to attack its neighbor, a former Soviet state.

“Our troops are on our territory, (they) represent (a) threat to no one,” he told reporters.

“I don’t know about the numbers, because there are a lot of speculations about it,” he said when asked about the size of the Russian deployment, which Moscow says is part of military exercises with its ally Belarus.

“I think the training with Belarus would be over in one week’s time. For the rest, I don’t know,” Polyanskiy said.

The United States on Tuesday demanded that Moscow show proof of a “de-escalation” after Russia said some of its forces had been withdrawn from the border.

QUEBEC CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS 1980

Your car hosts more germs than your toilet seat, research shows

It's easy to understand why toilets are gross. But cars may be worse. A study has found that cars can host more germs than the average toilet seat.

Researchers say we tend to clean our cars less than we clean our toilets and our cars are dirtier as a result

Cars are not only filthy on the outside, polluting the atmosphere with CO2 emissions — they are also filthy on the inside, more so than you possibly imagine.

The inside of a car can host significantly higher levels of germs than the average toilet seat, according to a study by researchers at Aston University in Birmingham, UK.

Researchers collected swab samples from the insides of five used cars and compared them with swabs from two toilets.

In most cases, they say they found high levels of bacteria in the cars, equaling or exceeding the bacterial contamination found on the toilets.

The highest concentrations of bacteria were discovered in the trunk of the car.

Next, it was the driver's seat, then the gearstick, back seat, and dashboard.

The steering wheels had the lowest amounts of bacteria of all the areas the researchers tested. They say that's likely because people have used more hand sanitizer during the COVID-19 pandemic than they did before.

E. coli in the trunk

Jonathan Cox, a microbiologist and lead author of the study, told DW they found large traces of E. coli in the trunk, or boot, of the cars.

The trunk of your car hosts higher amounts of bacteria than the average toilet seat, research shows

"We tend to care a little bit less about cleanliness in the boot of our cars because it's the main place we put things to transport them from A to B," said Cox.

People often transport pets or muddy shoes in the trunk, said Cox, and that may explain the high levels of E. coli. The E. coli bacteria can cause serious food poisoning.

It's also become common for people to have loose fruit and vegetables rolling around the boots of their cars, said Cox. That's been the case in the UK since recent campaigns started encouraging people to reduce their use of disposable plastic bags from supermarkets.

"That's one way we can introduce these fecal coliforms into our homes and into our kitchens and potentially introduce them into our bodies," Cox said. "The purpose of the study is to create some awareness around that."

A benchmark in surface bacteria studies

It's a reminder that just because a surface appears clean, it doesn't mean that it is clean.

Phones are no better than cars: They have also been found to be dirtier than toilets. Some studies suggest phones are up to ten times dirtier than toilet seats.

And money's even worse. Researchers at New York University have found that the surface of a single banknote can host about 3,000 types of bacteria.

Toilet seats are often used in studies of this nature — but why? It's about public perception.

"It gives people a comparison," said Cox. "Most of us bleach our toilets, probably on a daily basis, but when do we ever bleach our cars? We don't."

That attitude helps explain the results of the study, Cox said. While people know they have to clean their toilets, they don't think of their car interiors in the same way.

"The purpose of the study is not to scare people. It's just to get people thinking that the bacteria in their cars is not necessarily where they first thought, and also to get them thinking that it may be worth cleaning their cars on the inside as well as on the outside once in a while," said Cox.


TOILETS: HIGH-TECH, ANCIENT OR MADE OF GOLD
Ancient loo in Jerusalem
This square block of limestone with a hole in the middle is a toilet that was part of a magnificent royal estate in the 7th century B.C., according to the Israeli Antiquities Authority. The 2,700-year-old private toilet was discovered in October 2021. Underneath it, archaeologists found a septic tank hewn out of the rock, reportedly a rare find because only rich people could afford toilets.
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