'BodyBreak''s Hal Johnson: Racist Encounters Lead To Iconic Series' Creation

The health and fitness PSAs are well-loved by Canadians, but almost didn't happen.

By Al Donato and Shetu Modi
Updated June 18, 2020

To this day, the words, “Stay fit and have fun!” accompanied by a catchy tune can induce instant Canadian nostalgia for those who watched BodyBreak, the beloved ’90s fitness PSAs starring national treasures Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod.

While the show’s signature light-hearted approach to healthy living scored big with viewers, Johnson recently opened up on the couple’s YouTube channel about its more sombre origins: it turns out combating racism was the fitness show’s main goal when the couple created it in 1988.

Before the decade that gave us his iconic show (as well as Dunkaroos and Degrassi reruns), Johnson scored a dream job, as a sports reporter at TSN. However, he was fired hours after getting the good news.

“The higher-ups said that because I’m Black and ... because they already have a Black reporter, they don’t want to have two Black reporters,” he recalled.

Johnson and McLeod decided to challenge racist attitudes and perceptions about couples of different races, by building in acceptance from the show’s early planning stages.

They were turned down by 42 companies, before TSN once again got involved. The outlet expressed interest is airing the series. However, there was a catch; they wanted a white man to star instead of Johnson.

“We don’t think the Canadian public is ready for a Black and white couple together,” a TSN executive told Johnson.

That stung the pair, who have previously spoken out about racism on their website.

“The rejections that hurt Hal and I the most were those in which people expressed a concern about the image of a Black-Irish man and Italian-German woman interacting as equal partners,” McLeod wrote. “They said Canadians would not accept interracial hosts.”

The rejection inspired the couple to reach out to the government-funded organization, ParticpACTION. It signed them on for six successful episodes, which eventually spawned the full syndicated series.

“It turns out that Canadians have been far more accepting when it comes to matters of race than those early doubters gave them credit for,” McLeod stated.

The couple continue to enjoy successful careers as fitness experts and event speakers, with the show living on as online vlogs. Their latest videos partner with the Canadian Frailty Network to help older Canadians regain muscle strength.

“Without TSN [leading] me to go that route, without the racism they displayed, without the racism of that client ... all those little things created ‘BodyBreak,’” he said.

A day after Johnson’s video was posted, TSN released a public apology to the media personality and shared that they would be part of a diversity task force with Bell Media in order to address the outlet’s lack of diversity.

An apology to Hal Johnson (@bodybreak) from TSN: pic.twitter.com/vOih7kiiox— TSN PR (@TSN_PR) June 16, 2020

“We apologize to Hal Johnson for the racism he experienced at TSN, beginning in 1988, a shameful part of our past,” the statement read, going on to thank him for sharing his experiences “as a reminder of the impact of racism in Canadian media that continues today.”

Black people in Canadian media continue to face barriers

The uphill struggle Johnson faced is something Black Canadians in the media industry continue to face every day.

Journalists have shared their anti-Black experiences on Twitter, including TSN anchor Kayla Grey, one of the few Black women who are on-air talent in Canada. Last week, many stood by her after keynote speaker Tim McClure tried to make her apologize for not allowing a white colleague’s use of the N-word in a blog post slide. She made a statement of solidarity with Johnson in a series of tweets.

Racism has robbed so many Black people in media of their dreams.— Kayla Grey (@Kayla_Grey) June 16, 2020

My spirit aches for The Hal Johnson that we know and the countless of Hal Johnsons that we don’t.. the ones who had no choice but to walk away— Kayla Grey (@Kayla_Grey) June 16, 2020

Even emerging journalists have encountered early roadblocks: Journalism schools from around the country, notably Ryerson University and Carleton University, have been taken to task by their students for incidents of anti-Black racism, as well as the lack of support available for Black students and faculty. (Full disclosure: the author is a Ryerson journalism school graduate.)

There’s plenty of work to be done to prevent anyone from going through what Johnson and other Black Canadians have. Public accountability — such as Johnson’s candid video — has been proven to be a tool for change.


For example, writer Desmond Cole and other Canadian journalists are behind an open letter calling CBC’s Wendy Mesley to take responsibility after making a remark using an anti-Black term.
Younger generations are also taking part in actions that will pave the way for inclusive futures. After a petition by Ryerson students Tiffany Mongu, Breanna Xavier-Carter, Rosemary Akpan and Sara Jabakhanji garnered over 3,000 signatures, the university announced they would start a new course: “Reporting on Race: The Black community in the Media.”


PETITION FOLLOW UP: As a result of my wonderful friends & I’s petition, Ryerson School of Journalism will now offer “Reporting on Race: The Black Community in the Media” — in the Fall to 3rd/4th year undergraduate students + MJ2 graduate students. https://t.co/mJYLn3voyD— Tiffany Mongu (@mongumnews) June 15, 2020

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Alberta's Bill 1 Is 'Racially Targeted':
First Nations Leaders

The Critical Infrastructure Defence Act bans protests at pipelines, oilsands sites, and railways.
By Brandi Morin,
On Assignment For HuffPost Canada

JASON FRANSON/CANADIAN PRESS

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, left, sits with Grand Chief Wilton Littlechild, centre, Grand Chief Arthur Noskey, right, during a meeting in Edmonton with First Nations leaders about increasing Indigenous participation in the economy on June 10, 2019.

First Nations leaders are outraged the Alberta government is rushing to pass Bill 1, which would outlaw protests and other disruptions to “critical infrastructure.”

Arthur Noskey, Grand Chief of the Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta, said the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act violates Indigenous and treaty rights, calling it a “racialized bill,” and one that will aggravate tensions between police and Indigenous people.

“We knew this bill was enacted because of Wet’suwet’en protests,” said Noskey, referring to the First Nations-led demonstrations that lasted several weeks this year across Canada. The protests drew thousands of supporters, with some blocking highways and railway infrastructure in opposition to Coastal GasLink’s LNG pipeline slated to run through traditional Wet’suwet’en territory in B.C.

“The intent of this bill is racially targeted towards First Nation treaty partners in this country. With all of the racial tension happening today, the [United Conservative Party] government should realize this bill is not going to work,” said Noskey. “Under treaty, we have collective, inherent rights. When people come together to protest, it’s because of their collective rights.”


RENE JOHNSTON/TORONTO STAR VIA GETTY IMAGE
Hundreds of protesters occupy the Macmillan Yard in Vaughan, Ont. on Feb. 15, 2020 in solidarity with traditional Wet'suwet'en leaders opposed to an LNG pipeline through their territory.

The bill bans demonstrations at “critical infrastructure” areas, described as pipelines, oilsands sites, mining sites as well as utilities, streets, highways, railways, and telecom towers and equipment. Violators who protest, trespass, interfere with operations, or cause damage around that kind of infrastructure will face fines as high as $10,000 or six months in jail or both. Further offences will garner fines of up to $25,000 and jail time.

Bill 1 passed its third reading on May 28 and now awaits royal assent from the lieutenant-governor that would make it a law.

This is a desperate move by Premier Jason Kenney to save a “completely failing economy and energy system,” said Eriel Deranger, a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in northern Alberta and executive director of Indigenous Climate Action. 

“Bill 1 seems like it’s out of the same playbook as [U.S. President Donald] Trump. It’s fascist, anti-democratic, anti-civil rights and completely annihilates the rights of Indigenous communities,” she said.

“I think people will protest this bill given where we are in the world with the Black Lives Matter movement, and this bill has impacts across the nation. I hope the federal government intervenes and sees the true colours of this unconstitutional move by Alberta.”

Federal government says it remains committed to UNDRIP

The office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General said in a statement to HuffPost Canada that it wouldn’t be “appropriate to speak to provincial legislation.”

“We remain fully committed to introducing legislation to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) by the end of 2020,” it said.
One of UNDRIP’s authors, Cree lawyer, Indigenous rights expert, and former Alberta MP Wilton Littlechild said the declaration plays a crucial role in protecting and upholding Indigenous rights when it comes to Bill 1.
He says the bill is wide in scope and wonders if the Critical Infrastructure Act also applies on reserve and in traditional Indigenous territories.

“Utility lines, roads, railways, pipelines all go through reserves and nothing mentions this in the bill,” said Littlechild. “There’s no mention of us at all. It’s a complicated matter and we weren’t at the table for free, prior and informed consent on these serious issues.”
AFTER THE FACT VIOLATION OF SCC RULING ON CONSTITUTIONAL MEANING OF CONSULTATION Jonah Mozeson, senior press secretary to the Alberta Justice Minister and Solicitor General, said the province ”will work collaboratively to ensure that input from Indigenous and Metis Albertans are heard and are scheduling additional outreach to receive additional feedback and discuss the concerns being raised.”

ASSEMBLY OF FIRST NATIONS ALBERTA
Alberta Regional Chief Marlene Poitras, left, stands with activist Greta Thunberg, centre, at a climate rally in Montreal in 2019.

But Assembly of First Nations Regional Chief of Alberta, Marlene Poitras, who has participated in countless demonstrations for Indigenous rights in Canada and around the world, said the discriminatory elements in government law-making has to stop.

“We have a human right to voice our concerns. In our case, we have a treaty right and that’s not being respected,” explained Poitras, who marched alongside Greta Thunberg in Montreal last fall to bring awareness to climate change.

“Our people are concerned about the environment. Alberta is deregulating everything and doing whatever it can to open it up for oil and gas development without consulting our people — but our people will respond.”

There’s no chance of reconciliation with the UCP government with this.
Arthur Noskey, Grand Chief of the Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta

Noskey said he thinks Bill 1 further strains the relationship between police and Indigenous Peoples, mirroring an international narrative that’s dominating headlines. Protests have swelled in the U.S. and around the world against anti-Black racism and police brutality.

“Now, Alberta will be asking the peacekeeping police officers to arrest us. This is anti-racial law. So the racially motivated police in the force will say ‘I can do this’ (arrest and brutalize).”

Last week, his friend and colleague Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation told a news conference that he was beaten and his wife “manhandled” during an arrest by RCMP in Fort McMurray. Alberta’s independent police watchdog is investigating the allegations.

Prime Minister Trudeau said he was “deeply alarmed” by the incident and vowed to “do more” to address systemic racism in policing.

As for reconciliation in Alberta, Noskey believes the move by Kenney to implement Bill 1 abolishes reconciliation.

“You’re going to criminalize the First Peoples of this land who agreed to share the lands with foreigners that came in. This impacts our way of life. There’s no chance of reconciliation with the UCP government with this.”

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As Columbus, Davis Statues Topple, Debate Over Memorializing Historical Figures Rages

In Canada, heated debates are underway over memorials to people like John A. Macdonald and Henry Dundas.

REPLACE MACDONALD WITH DIEFENBAKER A CONSERVATIVE PM WHO GAVE US HUMAN RIGHTS

LEGISLATION

REPLACE DUNDAS, WITH WILLIAM MACKENZIE A LEADER OF THE REBELLION OF 1837James McCarten Canadian Press

WASHINGTON — Public anger over the police killing of George Floyd is unearthing difficult questions in the United States, Canada and around the world about statues, monuments and other permanent tributes to historical figures whose legacies include oppression, racism and cruelty.

For House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, there’s only one answer: the time to do away with them is now, she said Thursday — putting her on another collision course with President Donald Trump.

“Public sentiment is everything,” Pelosi told her weekly briefing on Capitol Hill, where the stately Statuary Hall showcases 100 statues of U.S. historical figures commissioned and contributed by state governments, many of them Confederate leaders.
YUI MOK/PA VIA AP

Workers prepare to take down a statue of slave owner Robert Milligan in London on Tuesday after a protest saw anti-racism campaigners tear down a statue of a slave trader in Bristol.
Pelosi wrote a letter this week urging the bipartisan committee responsible for the statues to do away with 11 of them, singling out in particular Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens — the president and vice-president of the Confederate States of America, both of whom were slave-owners who were charged with treason after the Civil War.

“This is a perfect time for us to move those statues,” Pelosi said. “Other times, people may think, ’Oh, who cares, I never go there anyway, they all look alike to me, they’re all these white men .... the timing might be just right.”

Pelosi also supports rechristening several U.S. military bases named after Confederate generals, a measure that appears to have the support of some Republican senators even though Trump has promised to veto it.

Protesters, lashing out across America following Floyd’s death on May 25, have made their feelings crystal clear.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

People gathered at the Jefferson Davis monument in Richmond, VA. on Thursday morning after the statue was pulled down the night before.
On Wednesday night in the Virginia capital of Richmond, where Confederate monuments have been bathed in graffiti since the protests erupted last month, protesters toppled a statue of Davis, whose name and image remain a familiar sight throughout the state. They also hauled down Christopher Columbus and tossed him in a lake.

Similar tributes to Columbus in Boston, Miami and St. Paul, Minn., have been defaced, upended or beheaded, a reflection of the famous explorer’s status as a symbol of a colonialism that perpetrated genocide, abuse and marginalization of Indigenous Peoples across North America.


The current groundswell of broad support for the Black Lives Matter movement isn’t just in response to Floyd’s death, but also other recent jarring inflection points in America’s shared racial history, said Jeremy Mayer, a public policy professor at Virginia’s George Mason University.

Those include the shooting deaths of nine Black members of a Bible study group at a church in Charleston, S.C., in 2015 and the infamous gathering of torch-wielding white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., two years later.

Even NASCAR, the stock-car racing association that long gave safe harbour to wavers of the Confederate battle flag, has announced a ban on a controversial symbol it says “runs contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors and our industry.”

“Once we lose the emotional reverence for symbols, powerful institutions can turn on a dime and go, ‘You know what, no more. That’s it,’” Mayer said. “I mean, NASCAR gave up the Confederate flag.”

YUI MOK/PA VIA AP

A worker rests after the statue of slave owner Robert Milligan was taken down in London.
In Canada, the historical treatment of Indigenous communities has fuelled a fearsome backlash against some of the country’s most storied historical figures, including Sir John A. Macdonald, the country’s first prime minister — and an architect of an oppressive and cruel residential-school system designed to commit what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission called “cultural genocide.”

Statues of Macdonald in Kingston, Ont., and Montreal are frequent targets for vandals. In B.C., the city of Victoria removed one in 2018. And Halifax has done away with a bronze tribute to founder Edward Cornwallis, a notorious enemy of the region’s Mi’kmaq, that became a flashpoint for racial tensions between Indigenous activists and white supremacists in 2017.

MARTIN OUELLET-DIOTTE VIA GETTY IMAGES

Protesters climb a statue of John A. Macdonald, the first prime minister of Canada, during a march against police brutality and racism in Montreal on June 7.
That same year, Langevin Block in Ottawa — the longtime home of the Prime Minister’s Office, named for Hector-Louis Langevin, another notorious residential-school champion — was unceremoniously stripped of that moniker. Calls are also growing for Toronto to rename Dundas Street, named for Henry Dundas, a British politician who delayed abolishing the Atlantic slave trade.

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller, whose downtown Montreal riding is home to a Macdonald statue, said as the son of a history professor at McGill University, he’s often thought about the thorny issue of memorializing figures with controversial pasts. James McGill himself, the university’s namesake, was a slave-owner, Miller noted.“I believe in educating. I believe in examining our history, criticizing it, re-examining it,” he said, recalling the time his father expressed a desire to go back and teach a more modern version of Canadian history. To eradicate such symbols of history entirely would risk losing the opportunity to learn from it, he suggested.

“We always have to re-examine our history, educate ourselves. If we’re blind to the past, we’re blind to the future.”

But public tributes that offend large portions of the population aren’t essential to remembering the past, at least when it comes to Confederate leaders in the U.S., Mayer said.

“What we’re talking about is not what do we remember, but what do we revere — and reverence and remembrance are very, very different things,” he said.

“There are no statues of Nazis in Germany by law. So it’s not that the Nazi history is forgotten; in fact, it’s taught very well in Germany. But reverence is denied. And that is what is happening with the Confederacy.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 11, 2020.

Ben Mulroney Quits As 'eTalk' Host To 'Create Space' For People Of Colour

'CAUSE HIS WIFE FUCKED UP 

He acknowledged recent scrutiny over his wife Jessica Mulroney, who bullied a Black woman on social media earlier this month, and highlighted a “national conversation” on CTV about how to take action against systemic racism.

TV Host Tracy Moore Wants Jessica Mulroney To ‘Unlearn White Fragility’

JESSICA MULRONEY: 'Very difficult for her to come back from ...

https://torontosun.com › news › national › jessica-mulroney-very-difficult-fo... 

Jun 12, 2020 - Cityline host Tracy Moore, who is black and a friend of the style maven, took to Instagram. She wrote: “Let's unlearn lashing out at Black women as a legitimate response to feeling called out. Unlearn privilege as a shield for your white fragility and use it instead to protect those who need it.”

'Trust Black women': Tracy Moore speaks out as 'Cityline' cuts ...

https://ca.hellomagazine.com › celebrities › tracy-moore-speaks-out-citylin... 

Jun 12, 2020 - TV; United Kingdom UK ... Cityline host Tracy Moore is urging fans to trust Black women and "unlearn privilege as a shield" after the show cut ties with Jessica Mulroney. In a video posted to ... Unlearn privilege as a shield for your white fragility and use it instead to protect those who need it. Jess has sat on ...

Racism Is Wreaking Havoc On Our Mental Health, Says Policy Expert Uppala Chandrasekera

"You need to start from a place of, 'Racism exists, and what are we going to do about it?"

By Lisa Yeung
12/10/2017 11:38am EST | Updated January 31, 2018


ANDREW FRANCIS WALLACE VIA GETTY IMAGES

Uppala Chandrasekera attends a Toronto Police Services Board meeting on Oct. 26, 2017.

Uppala Chandraesekera had just arrived in Canada as a refugee from Sri Lanka when she got her first taste of racism in this country. It was decades ago, when she was just a kid.


"I must have been a little over eight, and two teenagers in a car drove by and called me a 'Paki,'' she says.

Chandrasekera was confused. She wasn't Pakistani, she was Sri Lankan. Then her friend apologized. "We were eight, and she got what that meant, that it was a derogatory term."

That was just the beginning of her experience with racism in Canada.

Today, Chandrasekera is the director of public policy at the Canadian Mental Health Association Ontario and more recently, the first mental health expert appointed to the Toronto Police Services Board. Her work focuses on anti-racism, anti-oppression, and how inequality affects health and mental health.

The gist of her message: we need to start from the assumption that racism exists — because it can damage the mental health of racialized people in insidious ways.

HuffPost Canada spoke to Chandrasekera in advance of the United Nations' annual Human Rights Day on Dec. 10.

Can you talk a little bit about what you've seen in your work and the ways that racism prevents access to human rights?

There are lots of myths around that race is a biological construct. It's not. It's a social construct. And because it's a social construct, it actually impacts every social aspect of our lives. So there are layers of how racism is enacted.

A few years ago, [the Wellesley Institute, a policy think tank in Toronto] did this study that looked at how are racialized people excluded from the labour market. What they found is that ... for every dollar earned by a white man, a racialized woman makes only 66.5 cents. And a racialized man only makes 75.6 cents. We know that there's an actual barrier in terms of the labour market, and we know that access to income and jobs and the labour market has a direct impact on health.

Another piece could be environmental exposure. So, if you live in a community that is over-policed, or has a higher level of scrutiny — or for example, you live in northern communities in Canada, where there are very little resources, and very little access to health care — that has an impact on your health.

The piece around racism that is so insidious is that it's constant.

Uppala Chandrasekera

So the effects on mental health result in an increase in chronic stress levels, and so it might exacerbate some conditions that you already have.

Because of these chronic stressors, you might actually resort to unhealthy coping mechanism and coping behaviours. You might turn to drugs or alcohol as a way of coping with this. And then, that's still your health, and then there's another layer, which is racism might actually be a barrier in accessing health-care services.

For example, you might try to access services where your health-care provider says, "Oh, no, you're just imagining it." Because they're making assumptions about you. These are implicit assumptions that we all carry about people. We don't live on an island, we live in this society, we're all taught racism. And so, they might actually have a total barrier to health care.

And on the flip side, there's lots of research that talks about the over-diagnosis of racialized people with certain conditions ... research that looks at, for example, black men tend to be over-diagnosed with more severe mental health and addictions issues like schizophrenia. That, again, is grounded in these implicit assumptions. So the piece around race and racism being a social construct is really important.

NICOLAS MCCOMBER VIA GETTY IMAGES


How do people who are in the dominant community go about unlearning, and how do we address internalized racism?

A lot of people think that "slavery, colonialism happened hundreds of years ago. It has nothing to do with me; I'm not directly responsible for them." And the piece to understand is that in today's society, we perhaps didn't engage in those horrible acts hundreds of years ago; however, there is an inter-generational impact from those actions.


We need to kind of actively learn to understand what happened in our history, so that we can see what the impact of that is. And a really great example is residential schools in Canada.


I didn't come to Canada until I was eight. I did not grow up learning about that in the school system, and only as an adult and as a health-care professional have I really learned what the impact of the residential schools has been on Indigenous people in this country.

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Residential school survivor Lorna Standingready is comforted by a fellow survivor in the audience during the closing ceremony of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on June 3, 2015.
And that's why it's so important to remember that in moments of racism, those are traumatic moments and ... either we're not willing to or we don't have the capacity to deal with that. When an incident happens today, you might not process it ... some people are so fast to say, "Oh, there goes that angry coloured girl again."

And so they say that was a disproportionate response to that small thing that happened on the subway or on the bus. But actually, when you think about it, [she] might not just be reacting to what happened today, but the incident that happened 10 days ago, or 10 months ago, or 10 years ago, or the very first moment, and it's compounding impact, because you're re-living it.

The piece around racism that is so insidious is that it's constant, and the piece around unlearning these things and supporting people in those moments is that validating someone's experience of racism is so important. Because oftentimes, racialized people walk around thinking, "Oh, that probably was just in my head. Did that really happen, did that person actually say that to me? Or that subtle insult, was it actually directed at me?"

I think one of the things is, sometimes you don't even know you hold all of these internalized beliefs. What's the right place for people to start?

I think a couple of things. We all should be striving to educate ourselves about the impact of injustices, and especially when thinking about racism. An activity I've done in the past that's been super helpful is — I think it's Harvard Medical School — they did an implicit assumption test, and actually Malcolm Gladwell writes about it in his book, Blink. It's an online test you can take and it's called The Implicit Association Test.

It gives you pictures and images and words and gives you a few seconds to click. It will show you a picture of a gun and a racialized person, or a picture of a flower and a white person, and it tests how you associate positive things and negative things. And then what it spits out is how, what your implicit assumptions about people are. And I think doing a test like that is really eye-opening.

Anti-racism is an action or an engagement. It's not enough to write about it, it's not enough to talk about it, you actually have to do it.

Uppala Chandrasekera

So reaching out to these tools that can help you see what it is that we're doing is really important. So that's kind of a personal self-reflection piece.

The next piece is in moments when racism happens. It's so important ... anti-racism is an action or an engagement. It's not enough to write about it, it's not enough to talk about it, you actually have to do it.

Can you talk about some of the implicit assumptions [about mental health]?

When we think about people with mental health and addictions issues, the social perception immediately goes to the link between violence and mental health issues. A lot of people believe that people with mental health issues are violent. So about five, six years ago, we actually looked at this, and we looked at the research around violence and mental health and what we actually found was that people with mental health issues, they're no more likely to be violent than the general population. There's no causal link between violence and mental health.

But what we actually found was that people with mental health issues are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators. And the assumptions that people with mental health issues may be violent are at the core of the stigma around mental health issues. That's why so many people don't share their experiences, or don't come out and talk about it. When you combine that with fear or assumptions about racialized people, added, it compounds that impact.

How do you think institutions should be responding?

I would say any organization, whether policing, or health care, or any sector really, you need to start from a place of, 'Racism exists, and what are we going to do about it?' Because we've spent far too many years trying to build a case that racism exists, and we need to start with that it does exist, because we see the differential impact in the justice system, where racialized people are overpopulating our correctional [facilities]. And we see that in the health-care system, in huge health disparities among racialized populations.

So, if we start from a place of, this exists and how are we going to change it, it's a far easier conversation, but it's also in a way that is not blaming, or shaming, or guilting people.

This interview has been condensed and edited.

OPINION
Defunding The Police Will Save Black And Indigenous Lives In Canada

If we truly want to effect change that could stop police killings of Black people, we need to have this conversation.

By Sandy Hudson, Special To HuffPost 06/03/2020

GRAHAM HUGHES/CANADIAN PRESS

Police push back protesters during a demonstration on May 31, 2020 calling for justice in the death of George Floyd and victims of police brutality in Montreal.

As I write, demonstrations are raging across North America in protest of continued police violence against Black people. The police killings of Black people have sparked resistance uprisings, from Whitehorse to Miami and seemingly everywhere in between.

Demonstrators are calling for justice for Regis Korchinski-Paquet in Toronto, who fell to her death while police were in her apartment, D’Andre Campbell in Brampton, Ont., George Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, and countless others who have faced anti-Black police brutality.

If we truly want to effect change that could stop police killings of Black people, we must have a conversation about defunding the police.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/DARRYL DYCK

Thousands of people gather for a peaceful demonstration in support of George Floyd and Regis Korchinski-Paquet and protest against racism, injustice and police brutality, in Vancouver on May 31, 2020.
Perhaps you are thinking to yourself, “What about violent crime?”

I hear you. And I want you to consider this simple fact: police do not prevent violence. What we need in the event of violent crime is a service that will effectively respond to it, stop it from happening if it is ongoing, and investigate the circumstances surrounding it.

This is a conversation about safety, and the mechanism through which we as a society will provide safety for one another.

Policing is ill-equipped to suit these needs.

When victims are not the right kinds of victims, police have utterly failed. When the queer community in Toronto told police there was a serial killer targeting racialized queer men in the Church Street village, the police openly deniedthere was a serial killer and did not take the threat seriously. This allowed serial killer Bruce MacArthur to get away with murdering at least eight men over at least seven years.

In British Columbia, police failed to apprehend serial killer Robert Pickton for over 20 years, and this failure meant that Pickton was able to murder 49 women. The majority of these women were Indigenous, and police routinely refuse to take the disappearance of Indigenous women seriously. When Toronto police attended to the suspicious death of Black trans woman Sumaya Dalmarin 2015, they closed the investigation without ruling it a homicide or releasing a cause of death after social media outcry.
Defunding the police can free up funding that we can reinvest in services that provide real safety.

Black communities interact with police regularly because we live in neighbourhoods police target. We are experts in the ways that police can brutalize and inflict violence upon us. Their presence is no assurance of safety in Black communities. This is often true for Indigenous communities and communities living in poverty as well.

There are other communities who do not interact with police regularly. Wealthier, non-Black, non-Indigenous, privileged communities tend to feel safe because they have a rarely used option to call the police when they feel their safety is threatened. But, they are generally not interacting with police; their communities are not policed in the same way, and they are not targeted for criminalization.
Alternatives to policing

Instead of relying on police, we could rely on well-trained social workers, sociologists, forensic scientists, doctors, researchers and other well-trained individuals to fulfill our needs when violent crimes take place. In the event that intervention is required while a violent crime is ongoing, a service that provides expert specialized rapid response does not need to be connected to an institution of policing that fails in every other respect. Such a specific tactical service does not require the billions of dollars we waste in ineffective policing from year to year.

Defunding the police can free up funding that we can reinvest in services that provide real safety for both kinds of communities. The communities that are constantly exposed to police violence should not be deprived of effective safety and security services simply because more privileged communities feel safer when calling the police is an option.

We can rethink the way that we create safety in our communities by creating alternative services that truly create safety and security for everyone. Black Lives Matter - Toronto has been advocating for this since our inception, alongside our global counterparts and other Black justice organizations.

Right now, the only emergency option available for most people who are experiencing mental distress is to call 911. Both D’Andre Campbell and Regis Korchinski-Paquet died while the police were attending to calls about their mental distress.

Couldn’t we create a new emergency service that connects us with unarmed, mental health emergency service workers specifically trained to provide the health and social care required in crisis situations? It’s happening already, with front-line programs active and working in conjunction with police in parts of the U.K. and in states such as Oregon, where the CAHOOTS program has been active since 1989.
STEVE RUSSELL VIA GETTY IMAGES

Activists and protesters rally in front of Toronto police headquarters on May 30, 2020 after the death of 29-year-old Regis Korchinski-Paquet.
We can also decriminalize activities that are currently against the law, and reinvest the money we save on unnecessary policing and put it into programs supporting the security of communities who need it. The decriminalization of cannabis and our response to the opioid crisis show how a public-health approach to drug use is more effective than policing to support people who need help.

As another example, some public transportation systems use police to ensure that each passenger pays their fare. If we defund the police, we could reinvest our savings to help make public transit free. Fare evasion could no longer be a crime, and the policing of passengers would be unnecessary.

The minor services police provide — adherence to bylaw infractions, traffic services, attending to noise complaints — can be enforced by civilian services. In Ontario in 2015, Marc Ekamba-Boekwa was shot at 19 times and killed by Peel police after a noise complaint was made in his Mississauga, Ont. public-housing complex. Do we really need police attending to noise complaints with lethal force?
The very purpose of the police has always been antithetical to the safety of Black and Indigenous people.

In several large cities across Canada, policing accounts for some of the largest municipal budget expenditures. Let’s defund the police and create budgets that truly reflect our priorities. Perhaps then we could fund guaranteed access to housing, increased adult support for children in schools, and other services that create true safety and security.

Each year, police budgets generally increase. But rather than increased safety, all we see is increased militarization and criminalization. Police have been caught infringing on our privacy rights by implementing surveillance techniquesthat can access our smartphones. They have used the funding they receive to purchase stealth emergency vehicles, and to purchase increasingly militarized devices to harm civilians, including assault-style weaponry and sound cannonsin the case of the Toronto Police Service.

Why do we need these services? The police have utterly failed to deliver on their evergreen promise to create safety by being “tough on crime.”

But they have continued their original purpose of harming us. The institution of modern policing was created in France as a mechanism to protect the property of wealthy men — including enslaved people. The police acted as slave catchers to kidnap Black people who had liberated themselves from slaveowners.

In Canada, this mandate was expanded when the RCMP was created in 1873 to “free up land” of Indigenous people to make way for white settlement.

The very purpose of the police has always been antithetical to the safety of Black and Indigenous people. Why continue to try to reform this irredeemable institution?

Let’s not be constrained by an inability to imagine a system beyond the one that currently exists. We can do far better than the institution of policing to create safety for all of us. It’s high time we did so.

Sandy Hudson Co-founder, Black Lives Matter - Toronto. Political strategist, communications powerhouse, writer

Alleged Police Brutality Against Black Ontario Couple Reveals Hospital Failures Too: Lawyer

Livingston Jeffers was repeatedly punched in the head by police after leaving a hospital with his wife in 2018

By Samantha Beattie 06/18/2020 

TORONTO — Livingston Jeffers accompanied his wife Pamelia to the emergency department of an Ontario hospital one night in October 2018, seeking relief for her insomnia and stomach ache. Their grandson dropped them off, believing his grandmother would get the help she needed.

Hours later and tired of waiting, the Black couple, who are both in their 60s, attempted to leave the Lakeridge Health hospital in Ajax, Ont., said their lawyer.

Outside, they were stopped by a nurse, security guards and then two police officers. The nurse thought Pamelia was to be held at the hospital for up to 72 hours to see a psychiatrist, an order known as a Form 1, according to witness statements compiled in a police report. A doctor later told police that Pamelia was exhibiting signs of delusion and paranoia and he was in the process of completing the form.

Within minutes, the situation escalated, with police pinning Jeffers to the ground, punching and elbowing him four times in the face, as he screamed “Murder, murder, murder,” until he was nearly unconscious, the police report said.

When their grandson Tre returned to the hospital to pick them up later that night, he was shocked to find Jeffers slouched in a chair not moving, with bruises on his face and handcuffed.

I couldn’t believe it. A hospital is where you go when you’re sick or need help.Tre, the couple's grandson

What happened when the Jeffers were at the hospital is complicated, and raises questions about why the situation quickly escalated, and what could have been done by hospital staff and police to prevent the violent altercation.

“I couldn’t believe it. A hospital is where you go when you’re sick or need help,” Tre, 22, told HuffPost Canada. He requested his full name not be used out of concern for his safety. “I thought, ‘Wow this is our system. It’s scary.’”

Investigators determined Durham police had used a reasonable amount of force, but “cherry picked” evidence to charge Jeffers with assault, said his lawyer Faisal Kutty in a letter to the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD), which handles public complaints made against police. All charges against Jeffers were dropped once a video surfaced of the incident — a video witnesses allege police instructed them to delete.

“This case suggests that elderly Black people must weigh the dangers to their personal safety and exercise extra vigilance when attempting to leave a hospital,” Kutty wrote. The Jeffers are requesting the office reinvestigate the case, and declined HuffPost’s request to comment.

“What has occurred in this instance was an egregious act of police overreach, use of excessive force against two elderly and vulnerable individuals and abuse of authority when demanding that witnesses delete their videos.”
SUPPLIED

A photo of Livingston Jeffers shows bruising on his face following an altercation with police in Ajax, Ont., on Oct. 30, 2018.

The Jeffers’ story made headlines this week with the public release of the videos, as Canadians acknowledge the systemic racism rife in our institutions. Pressure continues to mount for an overhaul of police forces that are quick to use violence against Black Canadians, Indigenous people and other racialized people, following the recent police killing of George Floyd in the U.S., and the Toronto-area deaths of Regis Korchinski-Paquet and D’Andre Campbell.

But the Jeffers’ experience in the hospital, before police became involved, also highlights the discrimination Black Canadians and people who experience mental health challenges face in the health-care system, said Toronto clinical psychologist Dr. Taslim Alani-Verjee, who researches the health and wellbeing of racialized people. She reviewed the Jeffers’ case, but spoke generally.

“We expect, rightfully so, for health professionals to approach their patients with care and compassion but that turned into aggression and frustration — we see that way more with Indigenous and people of colour,” Alani-Verjee said.

“They’re often mistrusted within the health-care system, and are thought to be more likely to be violent and aggressive, leading to very quick escalation.”
Report paints husband as the aggressor: lawyer

In his letter to OIPRD, Kutty said Lakeridge Health staff failed in their handling of the situation.

“The attending physician, nurses and officers all note in their statements that Mr. Jeffers appeared disturbed, but took no action to address this appropriately,” Kutty wrote.

“The investigative report’s depiction of events without their context paints Mr. Jeffers as the aggressor. Examining Mr. Jeffers’ actions in context, however, clearly illustrates that he was acting out of fear and distress.”

Due to patient confidentiality, Lakeridge Health said it could not speak about individual cases, but that “it is committed to working withthe communities we serve to promote a just and equitable environment for all members of our diverse community, including those who are most vulnerable.”

SUPPLIED VIDEO SCREENSHOT

A witness filmed two police officers pinning Livingston Jeffers to the ground outside an Ajax, Ont. hospital, on Oct. 30, 2018.
Tre dropped off his grandfather and grandmother at the hospital around 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 30, 2018.

More than three hours later, Pamelia was assessed by a doctor who determined she was “delusional and paranoid” and advised that she see the hospital’s crisis intervention team, according to medical records supplied by the Jeffers’ lawyer.

The crisis team includes a nurse or social worker who helps to de-escalate situations, consults with the patient, and suggests possible treatments and community resources, hospital spokesperson Sharon Navarro said in a statement. In most cases, the patient is discharged. Sometimes patients are admitted to the mental health unit.

That crisis team, however, wasn’t staffed the night of the Jeffers’ visit, so the doctor advised Pamelia that she should go home and return the next day, according to the police investigation report.

(Since this incident, the hospital’s crisis team has become available 24/7.)

The doctor wrote in his note that Pamelia “never tried to hurt anybody or herself.” However, shortly after the assessment, he decided to place Pamelia on the Form 1, which would require her to remain on site. He later told police investigators he couldn’t remember why he changed his mind.

A nurse told the Jeffers that Pamelia now couldn’t leave the hospital and then left to prepare the form, according to the police report. Their medical records show that the hospital did not issue the Form 1 for Pamelia until after the violent incident with police.
SUPPLIED 

Pamelia and Livingston Jeffers are seen in a photo from this year.

Security footage from the hospital showed the Jeffers walking out of the hospital. The nurse, alerted by a colleague that they were leaving, followed them out the door and down the sidewalk near the ambulance bay, joined by two security guards. She was trying to explain that Pamelia wasn’t allowed to leave, but Jeffers “refused to listen,” according to the police report.

The nurse described him as “very angry” and said she was “afraid for her safety as he was yelling and very close to her.” One of the security guards described Jeffers as “confused,” said the police report.
Intersection of ethnicity and mental health

Little data is collected about racialized Canadians, making it difficult for researchers to study how ethnicity intersects with health care and mental health.

But studies do suggest that Black Ontarians experience double the wait times to get evidence-based mental health support than their white counterparts, and are more likely to be restrained or confined in the mental health and addictions system.

Mentally ill patients generally experience “some of the most deeply felt stigma” from doctors and nurses, and feel “patronized, punished or humiliated,” reported the Mental Health Commission of Canada in 2013. Front-line workers tend to misattribute unrelated symptoms and complaints to mental illness, and be pessimistic about a patient’s chance of recovery, while lacking training and skills to treat mental illness.

Health-care workers also tend not to explain processes, such as a Form 1, as effectively to racialized patients and their families, compared to white people, said Alani-Verjee.

“And when it comes to treatments, medications and side effects, health care professionals, for whatever reason, don’t take the time to explain those things and Black and Indigenous people feel less empowered to ask questions and challenge people in positions of authority,” she said.

There’s also evidence to suggest Black people are not taken seriously by health-care workers when they seek out treatment for physical ailments.

A landmark 2016 study found that systemically, Black Americans do not receive adequate treatment for pain because of health professionals’ racial bias, including the assumptions they will abuse medications, don’t feel pain as intensely as white people and other false beliefs.

Anecdotally, Black Canadians have reported similar failings in Canada’s health-care system. Canadian Rapper John River, whose real name is Matthew John Derrick-Huie, posted to social media in 2018 that he was experiencing chest pain, and despite visiting five Toronto-area hospitals, had not received medical treatment.

He ended up having to wait two months for an emergency procedure and in the meantime faced allegations he was a drug dealer or user, or imagining his symptoms.
The manner of the intervention displayed by police remains unacceptable.Faisal Kutty, lawyer


The Jeffers incident also calls into question if police responded appropriately to the situation.

“The manner of the intervention displayed by police remains unacceptable,” Kutty wrote in his letter to OIPRD. “We assume you’d agree with us that it would be odd to allow two police officers to nearly beat a 68-year-old man unconscious ostensibly to prevent him from harming himself.”

Two police officers were at the hospital that October night for an unrelated call when they heard yelling and walked up to the scene with the Jeffers, the nurse and the security guards, according to the police report. The nurse told the officers that Pamelia was being held on a Form 1, and wasn’t allowed to leave the hospital.

“Brother, take it easy. Please don’t hold on to me,” Jeffers said to officer Alex Edwards, as captured in body camera footage and partially transcribed in the police report. “I didn’t do you all nothing. Please take it easy brother and keep off of me.”

Jeffers told the police that people were trying to murder him and his family.

“This is going to go one of two ways,” said Edwards. “Now take a deep breath, take a deep breath.”

Jeffers told the officer that Pamelia did not want to stay in the hospital.

“You don’t have a choice,” Edwards said, putting his hand on Jeffers’ chest, attempting to separate him from his wife, according to the police report.

“Brother, easy, what am I doing?” Jeffers asked. He raised his arm “toward” Edwards, according to the transcript.

Within one minute of intervening, the police pinned Jeffers to the ground.
SUPPLIED

Livingston Jeffers experienced facial swelling after his violent arrest, as shown here in an Ajax, Ont. hospital, on Oct. 31, 2018.

Edwards told investigators the move was intended to de-escalate the situation, and he used his body weight to stop the grandfather from moving. Jeffers scratched Edwards’ face, and the other officer, Iyan Dusko, punched Jeffers in the head.

That’s when Jeffers screamed, “Murder, murder, murder.”

Edwards told investigators that he then “felt the pulling and tug on his use of force belt” where his gun was hoisted and yelled “Let go of my gun!” In response, Dusko punched Jeffers in the head, and then handcuffed him. Jeffers later said in his statement to investigators that it felt like he was struck with “something heavy” before blacking out.

Only one witness said they saw Jeffers reach for Edwards’ gun, and that witness did not have a clear view of the incident, according to their interview in the police report.

After the struggle, as the officers were escorting Jeffers to the hospital, Edwards said, according to the body camera video, “Why were you fighting us? What was going on? How much sense did that make?”

“That’s what you get for fighting us,” said Dusko.

“I not fight you guys. I just didn’t want me wife to be taken,” Jeffers responded.

Two witnesses filmed the incident on their phones, but were told by hospital staff and police to delete the videos, said Kutty. Only part of one video was not deleted, and shows officers pinning Jeffers to the ground, as he screams, while Pamelia is held back by security guards. She is also screaming.

Jeffers was restrained to a hospital bed, with a head injury. He and Pamelia were kept in the psychiatric ward overnight. In the morning, the doctor assessed both Jeffers, determined Pamelia “was not suicidal or homicidal at all” and they were discharged.

Calgary Police Officer's Lawsuit Against Force Says Work Crossed Moral, Ethical Boundaries

Kim Prodaniuk also says she experienced multiple encounters involving sexual harassment and intimidatio

Bill Graveland Canadian Press 
06/21/2020

SPRINGBANK, Alta. — Kim Prodaniuk didn’t plan to be a crusader for change but hopes her lawsuit against the Calgary Police Service alleging harassment and emotional distress will make a difference.

The 40-year-old officer joined the service in 2008 and left on stress leave in 2017. She joined other female officers who publicly alleged that the force failed to provide a safe environment against bullying and harassment.

Prodaniuk, who filed a statement of claim against the police chief’s office, the Calgary Police Association and the City of Calgary in March, recently added a 132-page affidavit with details about her time on the force.

“I see myself as a change agent. I’ve been standing up since 2017 about systemic issues in policing, police brutality, abuse of authority,” Prodaniuk said in an interview with The Canadian Press at her home in Springbank, Alta.

“It’s real and it exists. It’s the dark shadow over good policing and good police officers, and it exists here in Calgary as well.”

JEFF MCINTOSH/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Calgary Police Service Const. Kim Prodaniuk, photographed at her home in Spring Bank, Alta., on June 11, 2020, has filed a 132-page affidavit of allegations of police misconduct and sexual harassment with the Court of Queen's Bench.

Prodaniuk said the death of George Floyd, a Black man who protested he couldn’t breathe while a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes, is the catalyst for the change she’s talking about.

“This is the opportunity to fix it. Good cops don’t have the right to remain silent about this anymore.”

Protests over Floyd’s death across the United States, Canada and internationally are demanding an end to systemic racism and police brutality.

“It’s horrific, absolutely horrific, that we’re still dealing with this kind of thing in 2020,” Prodaniuk said as she wiped away tears.

“The things we see on video that happened are real and these can’t be reduced any more by the police.”

JEFF MCINTOSH/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Calgary Police Service Const. Kim Prodaniuk in her home on June 11.
In her affidavit, Prodaniuk alleges multiple encounters involving sexual harassment and intimidation. She describes one case involving an officer who she says told her about his domestic situation and that he was having visions of killing his girlfriend.

“He told me if I told anyone what he’d said he would make up rumours of a sexual nature about me and spread them around the CPS,” she wrote.

“Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine as a police officer I would be in a situation where reporting danger to my police employer could result in consequences to my career and reputation.”

Prodaniuk also alleges that when she was training to work undercover she was ordered to fake an orgasm while riding a carousel at a shopping mall and to make sexually explicit phone calls to audition for an imaginary phone sex line that the male officers shared among themselves.

“I could either fail the scenario, which would potentially end my ability to do undercover work in the CPS, or follow through ... What the CPS was asking me to do crossed my moral and ethical boundaries,” she wrote.

“In reality, it was a one-week long course dedicated to entertaining male CPS officers at the expense of female officers’ sexual dignity.”
JEFF MCINTOSH/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Mementos of Calgary Police Service Const. Kim Prodaniuk's career in the service are displayed at her home in Spring Bank, Alta. on June 11, 2020.

None of the allegations has been proven in court.

The police service has not filed a statement of defence, but has entered a motion to strike the lawsuit. It says the collective agreement covering officers requires grievances to be filed within 60 days.

Chief Mark Neufeld said he has read the affidavit.

“I’m not going to talk to you about this particular case because it is before the courts,” he said.

“What I will say is those allegations that I read in that statement of claim were repugnant. I’m very concerned about those types of things, and every person deserves a respectful workplace and to be safe in their workplace.”

Prodaniuk’s lawyer, Brendan Miller, said the Calgary Police Service could waive the 60-day limit for filing a complaint.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 21, 2020.

Greta Thunberg Calls Out Alberta Minister Who Said It’s A Great Time To Build Pipelines

The climate activist called out Alberta’s Sonya Savage for “at least being honest” for once.

By Melanie Woods

Greta Thunberg has no time for the Alberta energy minister’s pro-pipeline talk during the coronavirus pandemic.

Minster Sonya Savage said in a recent podcast that bans on mass gatherings mean there are fewer protests, which makes it “a great time” to build pipelines, but the Swedish climate activist was having none of it.

Savage’s comments were part of a discussion about the ongoing Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

“Now is a great time to be building a pipeline because you can’t have protests of more than 15 people, so let’s get it built,” Savage said.

In a tweet overnight Monday, Thunberg sarcastically praised Savage because “at least we are seeing some honesty for once.”

"Alberta minister says it’s a ‘great time’ to build a pipeline because COVID-19 restrictions limit protests against them."
Well, at least we are seeing some honesty for once... Unfortunately this how large parts of the world are run. https://t.co/1zrYjm286t— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) May 26, 2020

Who’s the savage one now?

Thunberg also pointed out that Savage’s mindset is not unique to Alberta.

“Unfortunately this [is] how large parts of the world are run,” she wrote.

The 17-year-old climate activist became a vocal presence on the global stage last year through her “Fridays For Future” demonstrations, which began as a school strike in her home Sweden to protest inaction on the climate crisis. Since then, she’s galvanized millions around the world to participate in climate marches and rallies.

But it’s not the first time Thunberg and Alberta have crossed paths.

Earlier this year, an Alberta oilfield company apologized after distributing stickers depicting Thunberg being sexually assaulted. The stickers showed a drawing of a nude female and two hands pulling from behind on her braided hair. The word “Greta” is written across her lower back.

MELISSA RENWICK/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Greta Thunberg attends a climate rally in Vancouver on Oct. 25, 2019.

“They are starting to get more and more desperate…” Thunberg tweeted in response to the stickers going viral. “This shows that we’re winning.”

X-Site management accepted full responsibility for the stickers and said they made “organizational changes,” and planned to hold training sessions about respect in the workplace.

Thunberg visited Alberta last fall when she appeared at a “Fridays For Future” march organized by Edmonton Youth For Climate.

“We need to start treating this crisis as a crisis,” she said at that rally. “Because you cannot solve an emergency without treating it as one.”

Ahead of Thunberg’s fall visit, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney acknowledged she likely wasn’t a “fan” of Alberta’s oil and gas industry.

“If you believe that the entire industrial modern economy should be shut down tomorrow, that the airplanes should stop flying, the cars should all stop driving, that millions of people should be put into unemployment, because we need to turn off the consumption of all hydrocarbon energy tomorrow, if that’s what you believe, then you’re probably not going to be a supporter of what we’re doing in Alberta,” Kenney said.

Melanie WoodsAssociate Editor, HuffPost Canada

UKRAINE PUPPY MILL
‘Nightmare’ Flight Packed With Puppies Lands In Toronto With 38 Dead Dogs

The CFIA says 500 dogs were being transported on a Ukraine International Airlines flight.


Canadian Press

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is investigating after thirty-eight dogs were found dead upon arrival to Toronto on a flight from Ukraine.

About 500 dogs had landed at Pearson International Airport last Saturday aboard a Ukraine International Airlines flight, according to the CFIA. Thirty-eight were found dead on arrival, and many others were dehydrated, weak or vomiting.
“CFIA officials are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding this incident and will determine next steps once the investigation is complete,″ a spokesperson said in a statement.

CBC reported that since the CFIA’s investigation has come to light, videos from witnesses at a loading dock at Kyiv airport have been released. The videos show crates of dogs being loaded onto a plane headed for Toronto.
JOZSEF SOOS VIA GETTY IMAGES

A Ukraine International Airlines plane carrying 500 puppies from Kyiv to Toronto arrived with 38 of the animals dead, according to authorities.

Witnesses told the National Post they could see the dogs visibly suffering and being stacked on top of each other, with two dogs to one crate, in extremely high temperatures. The CFIA said 500 dogs were on the flight.

Abby Lorenzen, a professional show dog handler, told CBC she was at the cargo area of the Toronto airport to pick up a different animal, when she saw what she described as a “nightmare.”

Lorenzen described seeing garbage cans filled with the bodies of dead puppies, according to the National Post.

The plane was filled mostly with French bulldogs, CBC reported. Animal welfare activists previously warned that the rising popularity and demand for French bulldogs would mean the rise of puppy mills — where the dogs are bred in large numbers and sold to new owners at too young of an age. Being sold off too young can bring an onslaught of health problems for bulldogs.

Ukrainian International Airlines is part of the International Air Transport Association, which has codes requiring dogs and other animals to travel in temperatures under 29.5 C.

In a Facebook post Friday, Ukraine International Airlines apologized for the “tragic loss of animal life″ on one of its flights. UIA did not address video footage from Kyiv in their statement.

Rebecca Aldworth, executive director of the Canadian branch of Humane Society International, called on authorities to get to the bottom of how so many puppies were transported at such high temperatures, possibly in violation of industry animal safety standards.

“It raises a lot of questions. And I definitely think the Canadian public wants answers to these questions,” Aldworth said.

“Responsible airlines will not transport animals in extreme heat, because they know there is a risk of dehydration, heat exhaustion and even suffocation.

“And I would question what airline has the capacity to put 500 dogs on one plane.”

Aldworth said the circumstances bear all the hallmarks of a puppy mill.

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“My organization has been working for more than a decade to shut down puppy mills in Canada. And we are devastated to see that animals continue to be imported from equally horrific facilities and other parts of the world into this country,″ she said.

“People are looking for (pets) on the internet, they’re buying sight unseen, and they’re importing cruelty into this country when we have so much of it to deal with right here at home.″

The CFIA’s standards are rigorous, a spokesperson told the Canadian Press. According to the agency website, most imports of commercial dogs require permits and they require containers that are adequately sized to travel.

In a separate case, one Calgary family who bought a French bulldog through Kijiji, found that dog soon developed breathing problems, according to CTV News. A lot of bulldogs being bought online or through unverified sellers were traced back to Ukraine, CTV reported.

With files from Premila D’Sa