THE OLD COLD WAR

India walks tightrope over calls for Russia’s isolation

By ASHOK SHARMA and AIJAZ HUSSAIN

1 of 8

Student activists are restrained by police as they tried to march during a protest against Russian invasion on Ukraine, in New Delhi, India, Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022. India on Friday regretted countries giving up the path of diplomacy but refrained from voting along with the United States that would have meant altering its ties with Russia spanning over seven decades. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)


NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s decision to abstain from voting on a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding that Russia cease its invasion of Ukraine does not mean support for Moscow, experts said, but reflects New Delhi’s reliance on its Cold War ally for energy, weapons and support in conflicts with neighbors.

India on Friday regretted countries giving up the path of diplomacy but refrained from voting along with the United States on the resolution that would have meant altering its ties with Russia spanning over seven decades. Russia vetoed the resolution while China and the United Arab Emirates also abstained.

“We have not supported what Russia has done. We have abstained. It is the right thing to do under the circumstances,” said G. Parthasarthy, a retired Indian diplomat.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday appealed for an “immediate cessation of violence.” Modi called for efforts to return to diplomacy, saying the “differences between Russia and the NATO group can only be resolved through honest and sincere dialogue.”

In the past, India depended on Soviet support and its veto power in the Security Council in its dispute over Kashmir with its longtime rival Pakistan.

The Himalayan territory is divided between India and Pakistan, but both claim it its entirety. India accuses Pakistan of supporting armed rebels in Kashmir in a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and pushed the nuclear-armed rivals to fight two wars.

India warily watched as Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan landed in Moscow as Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. Putin met with Khan for nearly three hours in the middle of the crisis.

The war in Ukraine not only added to challenges faced by New Delhi in Kashmir but also along its restive mountain frontier with China. Both Pakistan and China are seen to be on the Russian side, and India believes Moscow has leverage to change Beijing’s hard stance on the border issue.

A confrontation in June 2020 along the disputed China-India border dramatically altered their already fraught relationship as the rival troops fought with rocks, clubs and fists. At least 20 Indian troops and four Chinese soldiers were killed. Tensions have since persisted despite talks.

As the fighting continued in Ukraine, several organizations held protests in the Indian capital for a second day Saturday, demanding an end to the Russian aggression and pressing the Indian government to evacuate thousands of Indians, mostly students, stranded there.

Pratap Sen, a 20-year-old student, said India’s decision to abstain from the Security Council vote may not be ideal but it was a better option in the circumstances.

“International politics is like the wild, wild west. (India) has to balance between the U.S. and western world and Russia, a close ally of India for decades,” he said.

C. Raja Mohan, a senior fellow with the Asia Society Policy Institute, said the problem was India’s continued reliance on Russian weapons.

“This is not just an abstract question. But the fact is that India is in the middle of a war with China. India is locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with China over a disputed frontier,” he said.

India and Russia have set a target of $30 billion in bilateral trade by the end of 2025. India is also dependent on Russian oil and gas.

It imported 1.8 million tones of thermal coal from Russia in 2021, and accounts for about 0.2% of Russia’s natural gas exports. State-run Gas Authority of India Limited has a 20-year deal with Russia’s Gazprom for 2.5 million tones of liquefied natural gas a year, which started in 2018, according to Indian media reports.

Modi and Putin met last year to discuss defense and trade relations, and signed an agreement to extend their military technology cooperation for the next decade.

India’s acquisition of Russian S-400 missile systems, which it considers to be critical in countering China, could also prove to be an irritant in Indo-U.S. ties. The S-400 is a sophisticated surface-to-air defense system and is expected to give India strategic deterrence against rivals China and Pakistan.

New Delhi has sought support from Washington and its allies in confronting China, a common ground for the Indo-Pacific security alliance known as “the Quad” that also includes Australia and Japan.

And India has been diversifying its weapons purchases with U.S. equipment as well. During the Donald Trump presidency, the U.S. and India concluded defense deals worth over $3 billion. Bilateral defense trade increased from near zero in 2008 to $15 billion in 2019.

As the Ukraine crisis deepens, the real problem for India is how it navigates international sanctions against Russia.

The missile system deal with Moscow has put India at risk of U.S. sanctions, after Washington asked its partners to stay away from Russian military equipment.

“The problem for India has just begun. The urgent need for it is to break out of dependence on the Russian weapons,” Raja Mohan said.

Noor Ahmed Baba, a political scientist, said that Western countries will be unhappy with India, but they probably can’t afford to entirely alienate New Delhi.

“After all, countries balance principles with real politicking and diplomacy,” he said. “It’s not only India’s advantage to be with the West, but they also need India.”

___

Associated Press video journalist Shonal Ganguly contributed to this report.

Parents frustrated by closure of Edmonton Catholic school and its Polish bilingual program

Sat., February 26, 2022

St. Basil Catholic Elementary and Junior High School and its bilingual Polish program will close on June 30, 2022. (Trevor Wilson/CBC - image credit)

Parents of students who attend St. Basil Catholic Elementary and Junior High are frustrated by a decision to close the school and its Polish bilingual program.

That decision, along with one to close the junior high program at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, was made on Feb. 23 at a school board meeting of the Edmonton Catholic School Division (ECSD).

"I'm disappointed that ECSD planning was not willing to work with us further on a more viable, less permanent solution," said Emilia Ziomko, chair of the St. Basil parent council.

Ziomko, who moved to Canada from Poland when she was a child, has three children currently enrolled in the central Edmonton school, at 11510 102nd St.

"They picked up a lot of the Polish culture and the Polish heritage and history as well as the language," she said. "So that's going to be very disappointing that they don't get to continue that."

Supplied by Emilia Ziomko

A news release issued by the school division cites a multi-year decline in enrolment, along with transportation and operating deficits as reasons for the closure of St. Basil and its Polish program.

"As was shared in the school closure proposal, the Polish Bilingual Program has not been financially viable over a number of years despite marketing and recruitment efforts by the Division," it said.

"It is important that programs of choice be financially viable so as not to negatively impact the resources available to all Division students," board chair Sandra Palazzo said in the release.

The school district estimates 192 students will be impacted by the St. Basil closure and be in search of a new school in the fall.

"Kids attend this program from all over the city. We've got kids, like my kids who attend from Spruce Grove. We've got kids from Leduc all the way from Summerside and northeast, you name it." said Ziomko.

"Every corner of the city and they're going to be all separated and dispersed to their own neighbouring schools, some of which are already over capacity."

Parent Przemyslaw Simon Kursa, whose son is enrolled in the second grade, was involved in the school board's public participation process.

He was hoping the Polish program would at least be relocated to another school and his son Anthony could be transferred there.

But in a report, the board cites parental feedback received in February 2020 that it says did not support the relocation of the program.

"We've tried so many things and it's almost like falling on deaf ears," said Kursa, who is also a member of the school's parent council.

Trevor Wilson/CBC

Kursa hasn't given up yet as he keeps hunting for another suitable school for his son.

"We're trying everything right now. We're also opening up a line of communication to the public school system to see if they would be interested," he said.

"So we'll be asking parents, 'Are you interested in this? If we want to keep this program, would you be willing to move?'"

BC 

$22M core funding for programs helping sexual assault survivors is a 'huge deal,' service director says

Sat., February 26, 2022

Sexual assault is one of the most under-reported crimes in the country, according to Statistics Canada. (Ken stocker/Shutterstock - image credit)

Sexual assault support programs have welcomed the announcement in B.C.'s budget of $22 million in core funding for up to 50 such services across the province over the next three years.

The province hasn't said how it plans to distribute the money allocated in Tuesday's budget, but the Ministry of Finance said the solicitor general will come up with a plan in the months ahead.

"Work to support survivors of sexual assault means we must recognize the needs of experienced and compassionate community-based service providers who deserve stable annual funding to do their work," the ministry said.

Prince George Sexual Assault Centre executive director Lynnell Halikowski said government investment in these services throughout the province is a "huge deal."

"This is just critical to being able to provide consistent services in our community," she said.

According to 2019 data from Statistics Canada, sexual assault is one of the most under-reported crimes in the country — only about five per cent of sexual assaults experienced by women are reported to police.

An estimated 4.7 million Canadian women have been sexually assaulted at least once since the age of 15, and young people, sexual minorites, people with disabilities and Indigenous people are more likely to be the victims of these crimes.

In 2002, the government of then-premier Gordon Campbell cut core funding for sexual assault centres.

The new money is meant specifically for ongoing core funding, which is what keeps organizations like Halikowski's afloat. Sexual assault response programs are often funded instead by grants, which Halikowski said are usually meant for specific projects.

"This will allow us to ... offer more counselling and wraparound support and advocacy," Halikowski said, adding that the need for support for survivors has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020.

The Ending Violence Association of B.C. has been advocating for more funding for community-based sexual assault response programs for 20 years.

"We're thrilled that at this point in history supporting survivors and victims of sexual assault is being taken seriously," executive director Ninu Kang said.

"It's a big statement."

The organization has helped distribute $20 million in provincial grants starting in 2021 to assist with sexual assault response services in B.C.

The Kamloops Sexual Assault Counselling Centre is one of the centres that's benefited from that program, but it is due to run out in 2023, so the new funding was a relief.

"We were just so worried that we would have to return to that place of not being able to provide those services," agency co-ordinator Alix Dolson said.

A SURE UCP VOTE GETTER

Cancer society says Alberta chewing tobacco tax reduction 'lose-lose'
RED NECK TOBACCO 

Sat., February 26, 2022

A pinch of chewing tobacco being taken from a can. (CBC - image credit)

A policy analyst at the Canadian Cancer Society says Alberta is moving in the wrong direction by rolling back taxes on some types of tobacco products — something which could reduce the province's revenue by $10 million.

Chewing tobacco and snuff is a "real problem" in Alberta, especially among young men, said Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society, based out of Ottawa.

"This is a product that is addictive and causes cancer," he said.

The UCP is lowering the tax rate on smokeless tobacco, which includes products like chewing tobacco or snuff. Currently taxed at 41.25 cents per gram, it will have a new rate of 27.5 cents per gram, the same as the province's cigarette tax rate.

This change will take effect on Mar. 1, and the province estimates it will reduce its revenue by $10 million in 2022-23.

Cunningham says high tobacco tax is an effective strategy to reduce tobacco use, especially among youth.

"By lowering taxes and even giving up $10 million of revenue per year, this is a lose-lose."

'It's popular regardless'

Jo Calliou, manager at Cheap Smokes and Cigars in Calgary, says of the shop's smokeless tobacco products, snuff in particular is very popular.

And while she's never seen a tax roll-back on tobacco in seven years in the business, she says it won't have much of an impact.

"It's a popular product regardless. Even if there was a tax increase, which we all anticipate, the customers are still there, they like their [snuff] products."

She also feels the tobacco customer has been unfairly targeted by the government, and said the uncommon rollback is "very interesting."

Province says it's about competition

Kassandra Kitz, press secretary for Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews, said the province is aligning its taxation strategy with Saskatchewan, "our biggest competitor."

"By bringing our taxes on smokeless tobacco more in line with Saskatchewan, we will see more product purchased here, and a reduction in black market activity."

NB

Walk on 'coldest night' offers glimpse into homelessness in winter

Sat., February 26, 2022

Tony Dickinson, director of housing for the Outflow Ministry's men's shelter in Saint John, says he hopes the walk will give people a better understanding of what it's like to live outside this time of year. (CBC News - image credit)

A Saint John shelter is hoping to open a window on what it's like to be homeless in winter when it holds its Coldest Night of the Year walk today.

Outflow Ministry has partnered with the Blue Sea Foundation, which organizes the annual winter walks across Canada for local charities helping people who live in poverty.

Tony Dickinson, director of housing with Outflow Ministry, said the walk will give people just "a very brief glimpse of what winter in Canada is like."

But he hopes the experience will also leave them with a better understanding of what it's like to live outdoors at this time of year, even in a place like Saint John, where winters are relatively mild.

"And they'll be able to focus that learning on ways that we can concretely help people," he said.

Participants registered to walk two-kilometre or five-kilometre distances will check in for the event late this afternoon and can join Outflow Ministry afterward for a hot meal. The fundraising goal is $75,000.

How the walk helps

The walk is the shelter's major fundraising event of the year and contributes to the ministry as a whole.

This includes the Outflow Mission, a 30-bed men's shelter on Waterloo Street that serves hot meals five nights a week. The ministry's Catapult Social Enterprises works to provide employment and job training to address some of the barriers homeless people face.

In recent years, according to Outflow and the Human Development Council, there has been a gradual increase in overall need among the city's homeless.

"People are living more precariously in terms of their tenancy," said Michael MacKenzie of the Human Development Council.

"We've seen a bit of an increase in terms of the overall number of people experiencing homelessness, but in the past couple of years in Saint John, we've actually seen a slight decrease in the number of people who are experiencing chronic homelessness."

Chronic homelessness is characterized as homelessness that lasts six months or more over the course of one year.

"With respect to chronic homelessness, the front-line agencies of Saint John have really honed their efforts there and made a slight reduction."

City has fewer outreach services

But there are still about 115 people experiencing homelessness in Saint John, with around 60 in a state of chronic homelessness.

MacKenzie said Saint John has fewer formal outreach services than other parts of the province.

Fredericton and Moncton have more "formalized" teams to provide support to individuals who are unable to find sleeping accommodations, whether it's because there isn't room in a shelter or because they have an aversion to being indoors.

"That's something that we are working on right now, trying to kind of beef up the outreach services both to connect with people and provide them supplies like food and blankets and things like that but also, more importantly, to make sure they're connected to service providers."

Montreal's first Black bus driver honoured by transit corporation

Sat., February 26, 2022


Like many Montrealers, Rachel Guénin has fond memories of her father dropping her and her sister off at the mall when they were young.

The only difference is, unlike most dads, their father, Jean-Baptiste Jean, was driving the 161 bus.

"That route would start at Rosemont and then it would go to Cavendish Mall and then he would just leave us there for the next trip," said Guénin.

While at his side, the girls picked up their father's routine.

"He would…teach us about the bus. I knew how to open the door, start the bus, just his whole process," said Bernadette Jean, Guénin's sister.

Jean, a Haitian Montrealer, was the city's first Black bus driver in the 1970s and early 80s. He was recently honoured in the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) newsletter.

"It's truly special…It's something we always, growing up, knew about: the fact that he was one of the first Black bus drivers. We always had a lot of pride because of that," said Bernadette Jean.

Born in 1935 in Pilate, Haiti, Jean-Baptiste Jean first moved to New York, where he worked as a taxi driver and as a receptionist at the United Nations. He then moved to Montreal in 1969, and began his bus driving career with the local school board, according to the STM.

The corporation's newsletter highlights his work during the 1976 Olympic Games, when he "transported athletes from all over the world."

Baptiste spent nine years as a city bus driver, until 1982 when he went on medical leave following a heart attack. He passed away in 1987.

CBC/Kwabena Oduro

And while the city's public transit agency is honouring Jean's legacy, his wife Nicole Vigne Jean said, in breaking barriers, her husband also faced abuse from some customers.

"There was surprise, when they would see a Black bus driver," she said. "Some of them were nasty. They were cursing."

While it angered him to endure this treatment, Vigne Jean said her husband continued to treat customers with kindness and respect, and took pride in his work.

"He was a lovely guy…he was nice with everybody," she said.

"He probably stayed in the mind of many passengers, because he was very friendly and outgoing," her daughter Bernadette added.

Courtesy Bernadette Jean

Expo 67 a turning point for Black bus drivers, historian says

STM historian Benoît Clairoux said the public transit service only started recognizing diversity in the 80s. There were employees from various ethnic backgrounds before this time, but it wasn't discussed, he said, making it difficult to find any mention in the corporation's archives.

But after Guénin reached out to the STM, Clairoux started looking into Jean's career at the STM.

Clairoux said Jean "really enjoyed his job" and knew he was one the first Black employees.

"He knew the importance of what he was doing, but for him it was just another job," he said. "He wanted to be like any other bus driver."

CBC/Kwabena Oduro

Clairoux was pleased to see the beautiful photos Jean's family had kept of him in his uniform, and to hear that the family still had the powder blue jacket that he wore.

According to Clairoux, the transit corporation changed the colours of its uniforms from grey to blue around 1975, a few years after Jean started working as a driver.

"It was the same uniform, summer and winter. There was a time that you had to wear it every day…even if it was plus 30 degrees or minus 30 degrees," said Clairoux. "You know it was like the military, you had your number, you had to shine your shoes."

Clairoux said the photos of Jean in his uniform gave insight into how he viewed his work.

"You can see his pride of being a bus driver in Montreal," he said.

CBC/Kwabena Oduro

Clairoux is hoping to find more Black bus drivers from Jean's era to learn about their experiences. He said it's shameful that for many years, employers shut the Black community out of certain jobs, such as bus driver or tram operator.

Clairoux believes that Expo 67 played a part in opening people's eyes to the world, and led to some changes in hiring practices at the transit corporation.

Today, the STM says employees of colour, ethic minorities and Indigenous people make up more than a third of its staff.

Jean's granddaughter, Nicole Antoine, said it's amazing to know that her grandfather paved the way.

"To see that it's not that far removed: that there's a first Black bus driver," she said. "I hope that, in the future, my daughters don't have to worry about being the first of anything."

CALGARY

Unhappy with virtual campus life, some students hit pause on school to find new momentum
Sun., February 27, 2022

Anthony Russell leads an art class at Light of Christ School in Calgary on Feb. 24. He put university on hold after a full year of strictly online learning and is instead putting his skills to use by teaching art workshops to elementary and junior high students. 

(Ose Irete/CBC - image credit)

Anthony Russell has spent much of February teaching Calgary elementary and junior high students about street art: introducing Black artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and helping them create stenciled pieces in oil pastel, acrylic and watercolour paint.

The youngsters were so engaged that some stayed over lunch and even after school just to complete their creations.

Though Russell's been creating art himself since his own elementary school years, becoming an art teacher was never on the 19-year-old's radar. As the youngest child of immigrant parents, Russell said careers he'd considered growing up typically revolved around "doctor, lawyer, dentist, engineer."

Now, teaching kids art — while he's been taking a break from studying law, crime and justice at the University of Alberta — has completely changed his mind about his earlier intention to become a lawyer.

"It's one thing to make art and share it that way. It's another thing to have kids actually produce art and they learn from you," Russell said. "It kind of just clicked."

Ose Irete/CBC

Earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic, the prospect of being online to start university or college led some students to contemplate a gap year.

Now, some post-secondary students who've had only virtual learning amid the pandemic are hitting pause on school and finding that time away to be productive and rewarding.

The pandemic dashed Russell's dream of university being his first major experience away from his Calgary home and family, but he embraced the online university format in fall 2020.

While his grades were fine and he was enjoying the subjects being covered, he knew by the end of first term he didn't want to continuing paying "this obscene tuition" while still logging onto class from home — or, worse, from a dorm room if he actually made the move to U of A's Augustana campus in Camrose, Alta.

After he decided to defer his second year, Russell had thrown himself fully back into making art when an opportunity arose for an exhibition at Art Commons, a Calgary performing arts centre and gallery where he'd previously displayed work. That, in turn, led to the chance to speak via Zoom with an elementary class that had seen his exhibit.

"The show led to my first [teaching] session with the Arts Commons and my second session," Russell said. Then teachers at other schools in Calgary also began reaching out.

While his mom initially "couldn't fathom the idea of me not being in school," Russell said she's come around after realizing he is working toward a goal.

"I walked in today and she called me Mr. Russell because I was [teaching an art workshop].… She came a long way."

A break with intention and purpose

In Canada and especially within different cultural communities, taking a gap year ahead of or amid post-secondary studies isn't as commonly accepted as it is in countries such as the U.K. or Australia. Stigma about it persists here, according to Michelle Dittmer, president and co-founder of the Canadian Gap Year Association.

"We have this drive, this dream to go faster. Go harder. Go stronger. Do not stop … because you're going to fall off and you are going to be behind," she said.

"There's a difference between taking time off and sitting on the couch for a year and taking a gap year. A gap year is intentional time, planned time and purposeful time."

Submitted by Michelle Dittmer

The pandemic, however, may be encouraging more openness about gap years. Young people have told Dittmer they see college and university as a holistic experience. When classes and campus life moved online, "they're missing out on a lot of those other formative components of post-secondary studies, whether that's residence or frosh week or extracurriculars or labs or other components that build out the experience," she said.

She pointed to a 2017 report on the issue that was commissioned by the Privy Council of Canada. It reviewed various studies and international reports from a Canadian context, looked at factors influencing Canadian students' deferring post-secondary studies and identified barriers. It noted some young Canadians "would benefit from the extracurricular learning experiences afforded by a gap year."

Coming out of a gap year, Dittmer said, people self-report feeling more independent, confident and ready to take the next step, whatever that may be.

It all starts, however, with being intentional, reflecting on and setting goals, she noted. "You have to understand why you're taking a gap year and how you want to be different at the end before you can tackle the what are you going to do."

WATCH | Contemplating a gap year? Here are some words of advice:

Proactive planning

Stephen Mensah carefully thought out and planned for his gap period, which the Ryerson University student officially kicked off at the beginning of 2022.

Last month, he hit pause on his double major studying criminology and politics and governance after completing his entire sophomore year online. His marks fell during the pandemic, and the 21-year-old felt virtual learning was "overwhelming." He greatly missed the in-person connections and support he received from professors and classmates before the pandemic.

Aliyaan Amlani-Kurji

Though he tested out a shift to part-time studies for the recent fall term, it didn't really help. He was contemplating a full pause even then, with the intention to "come back strong" next September in hopes of having more consistent in-person learning.

"I have my goals and plans and taking this semester off is not something that was too crazy," said Mensah, who's aiming for law school after securing his undergrad degree. "I'm a person who really cares about my marks and wants to excel, especially looking to where I'm trying to go."

As a member of the Toronto Youth Cabinet — the youth advisory body to Toronto City Council — for the past three years and its current executive director, Mensah knew that taking a break from school would mean he could devote much more time to the group.

His advanced planning also included applying for job opportunities at City Hall — and landing one as an aide assigned to the legislative affairs team in Toronto Mayor John Tory's office.

Mensah says his goals for his gap period were to set himself up for success, stay productive and take time for his own mental health. He's excited that he's had a great start, with eight months still to go before hitting the books again.

Ose Irete/CBC

Back in Calgary, Russell calls himself "a struggling, starving artist" who will return to post-secondary studies to become an art teacher. For now, he's happy he opted for a break.

"I feel the most fulfilled right now than I have ever felt to my life," he said. "I am a strong believer of everything happens for a reason and nothing happens before its time.… Where I am right now is exactly right to be."

Canadian Navy brings gift from Maritimes to West African chimps

Sun., February 27, 2022

Chimpanzees at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone enjoy a new play area constructed with the help of members of the Royal Canadian Navy. The ropes were old rigging of the Halifax-based sailing vessel HMCS Oriole. (Cmdr. Daniel Rice/HMCS Goose Bay - image credit)

Spending the day at a chimpanzee sanctuary in Sierra Leone isn't something you might expect to do in the Royal Canadian Navy.

But that's exactly where Cmdr. Daniel Rice and some of his crew found themselves earlier this month.

"It was one of those unique experiences," Rice said when reached by satellite phone on HMCS Goose Bay off the coast of Nigeria.

The crew of the coastal defence vessel are truly living out the old adage "Join the Navy, see the world," Rice said.

Cmdr. Daniel Rice/Twitter.com

"It's a bit unusual for us, we're often supporting local schoolchildren," he said, usually by repairing buildings or making donations of needed supplies.

Rice said part of the navy's role in this three-month tour of West Africa is to reinforce diplomatic relations with the nations it visits, supporting the work of Global Affairs Canada.

Known as Operation Projection, the crews of HMCS Goose Bay and HMCS Moncton were invited to visit the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

At least, the visit on Valentine's Day started as just an invitation, but Rice said staff at the sanctuary had a followup question.

"You must have rope that isn't of any use?"

The sanctuary is home to hundreds of chimpanzees, Sierra Leone's national animal, and the play area for the most recent residents was in need of some TLC.

"As you can imagine, chimps can be pretty rough on things," Rice said.

As it happened, HMCS Oriole, a sailing vessel used for training that operates out of Halifax, the home port for both HMCS Goose Bay and HMCS Moncton, had just replaced all its rigging.

Cpl. Jaclyn Buell ©2022 DND-MDN Canada

"So we were able to bring more than 350 feet of rope with us to Sierra Leone," Rice said.

The chance to visit the sanctuary was popular with his crew, but with strict COVID-19 protocols in place, the sanctuary could only allow 10 crew members to take part to protect the staff and the chimpanzees from illness.

"When we arrived we all had to do a rapid test and our temperature was taken," Rice said, adding that all crew on board are fully vaccinated.

Beyond the challenges of COVID-19, a crew that is used to Atlantic Canadian weather also had to deal with the heat of Africa in February.

"Lots of water, lots of sunscreen, lots of bug spray," Rice said, admitting there aren't many complaints about 30 C temperatures this time of year.

Cmdr. Daniel Rice/HMCS Goose Bay

It took a little over two hours for the crew and sanctuary staff to replace poles and string the new ropes, while the chimpanzees watched from nearby enclosures.

"They knew something was up."

The Canadians got to see the reaction when the chimps were allowed into the new play area, and based on the hoots and screeches, they seem to appreciate the effort.

"One came over and gave us what looked like a thumbs up," Rice said.

"It was really interesting to get a closeup look at our closest relatives."

Cpl. Jaclyn Buell ©2022 DND-MDN Canada

The crews also took part in a more traditional aspect of the Navy's charitable efforts, delivering 2,500 sanitary napkins to local schools for girls, a project supported by Sierra Leone's First Lady, Fatima Bio.

Rice said many young women in the country can miss 25 per cent of the school year simply because they don't have access to menstrual products.

This three-month deployment has already taken the ships to Côte d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

They also have scheduled stops in Ghana and Senegal before returning home to Halifax in mid-April.

Global Affairs Canada-Sierra Leone/Twitter.com

"We spent last August and September in the Arctic," Rice said, "So the joke on board is, 'We had winter in summer so now we're having summer in winter'.

"Hopefully, when we get back home in April, the snow will be gone."

On the ground in Churchill: Polar bears fight for survival as ice disappears

Neil Ever Osborne and M.A. Jacquemain
Sun., February 27, 2022

On the ground in Churchill: Polar bears fight for survival as ice disappears

On the bay this fall morning, there’s a wind-carved rim of ice and a gathering of floes. One male polar bear, bony after a season without seal blubber, struggles along the slushy edge, haunches soaked, nearly slipping into the sea.

We are on Gordon Point, in northern Manitoba, where Hudson Bay widens into its northwest crescent. Polar winds make it colder than at comparable latitudes, and the shallow waters of the bay freeze early. Having passed the summer months in the subarctic wild of Wapusk National Park to the south, polar bears now congregate here, waiting for the ice to come in.

The air is harsh, dry, frigid. We huddle on the deck of Tundra Buggy One, a big-wheeled bus retrofitted for travelling over frozen ground and viewing polar bears. Geoff York, senior director of conservation for Polar Bears International (PBI), uses Buggy One as a roving research station. It’s equipped with GPS, Wi-Fi and polar bear cams that beam live footage to classrooms around the world.

© Neil Ever Osborne

Polar Bear International's (PBI) Senior Director of Conservation Geoff York works with Dave Allcorn, a Churchill Field Assistant with PBI, to clear snow and ice from the Tundra Buggy One front window. Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. © Neil Ever Osborne

PBI monitors polar bears across the Arctic partly to determine the impacts of climate change on the behavior and physical condition of the animals as well as population trends. One program has tracked polar bears outfitted with GPS ear tags or collars that transmit locations to researchers to gain insight into the animals’ movements. York says, “Our understanding of polar bear biology, ecology and behavior is critical for long-term conservation and can inform on-the-ground efforts like human-bear conflict management.”

From the deck of Buggy One, there are several bears in sight, mostly large males. Invisible in an Arctic blizzard, their double-layer coats, not stark white but golden like sheep’s wool, stand out faintly in the distance on a clear day such as this. They tussle playfully or sleep among the twiggy willow stands on shore. One immense bear sits humanlike on its haunches, blades of grass in its teeth. Others wander the ice rim with a lazy gait that belies their lethal quickness.

York has warned us of the threat the bears pose. “The big bears have likely scared off the family groups,” York says, explaining that at this desperate time of year, when adults are near-starving before the sealing season, males are more likely to cannibalize cubs and attack humans. Despite the dangers, York has focused his 22-year career on stewardship of the polar bear. He and his wife, Rachel, are planning to move from Montana to Manitoba so he can be close to them.

Resting polar bear on tundra near Churchill. Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. © Neil Ever Osborne

The polar bear has become perhaps the pre-eminent symbol of the consequences of climate change because it needs sea ice to survive. From November, when the ice fastens to shore, to May, when it breaks up, the ice is polar bear territory across the Arctic. The bears sleep on the ice at night, and pregnant females can even hibernate there during the winter. Males and non-pregnant females stay active through the winter days, and the ice is their hunting ground. Laying ambush behind a pressure ridge of ice fragments, the bears stalk seals. “On the ice, they’re slow,” York says of the seals. “The bears are explosive as they run them down.”

There are between 16,000 and 31,000 polar bears in the world today, congregating in 19 populations across the Arctic. In some areas where the bears were heavily impacted by hunting, bans helped their numbers resurge. But the shrinking of their Arctic habitat is making the species more and more fragile worldwide. In Greenland and Norway, the World Wildlife Foundation lists polar bears as vulnerable. In Russia, they’re rare or recovering, depending on the location, and in Alaska (the only place in the United States where they’re found), polar bears are threatened. In Canada, where 60 to 80 percent of polar bears live, they’re a species of special concern, a click of the dial below threatened or endangered.

The population in the Western Hudson is particularly at risk, having fallen from 1,200 polar bears in the 1990s to about 800 today. Climate change has shrunk the expanse of sea ice that once spread from the North Pole to southern Hudson Bay. In 2020, the ice area was the second smallest since measuring began in the 1970s, and it is thinner than ever.

Sea ice on Hudson Bay. Churchill, Manitoba. Canada. © Neil Ever Osborne

During our visit in early November, the bay’s newly formed ice, having warmed, began to shatter like a teacup. Days later, a south wind pushed it all ashore. “We need north winds bringing cool air and a few days at minus 20 Celsius,” York said, a note of concern in his voice.

Polar bears are hardy creatures—they can fast for upward of 180 days and swim hundreds of miles without a break—but consensus among scientists is the animals won’t be able to find new food sources once they can no longer hunt seals. If a warming climate shrinks sea ice at projected rates, most polar bear populations will be too nutrient-starved to reproduce by the end of the 21st century.

Meanwhile, shrinking sea ice seems to be leading bears to wander into human settlements from Russia to Norway, Greenland to Alaska. Problems ensue. In Alaska, an offshoot of a Russian polar bear patrol program trains communities to use tools like bear spray, flashlights, air horns and rubber bullets to deter bears and protect themselves, while Canada’s Nunavut Territory administers similar efforts through a polar bear conflict manager based in Igloolik. Here in northern Manitoba, a comparable program operates in Churchill, “The Polar Bear Capital of the World.”

Sea ice drifting on Hudson Bay. Churchill. Manitoba, Canada. © Neil Ever Osborne

Churchill is a town utterly of the north. Its gridded blocks of aluminum-sided houses sit between miles of cratered tundra and the icy mouth of the Churchill River. This cold flank of Hudson Bay was once a meeting place for Inuit hunters and the Cree and Dene First Nations. Today, about three-quarters of Churchill’s almost 900 residents identify as Indigenous. The town boasts one of the only movie theaters within a thousand miles, as well as access to Canada’s only deep-water port in the Arctic.

As the climate warms, more bears wander into Churchill to scavenge—or moon around in backyards, or chew the seat off a snowmobile. Mayor Michael Spence, a member of the Cree First Nation, says bear sightings were a novelty when he was a boy in the early 1960s—he remembers playing in a game of road hockey that was interrupted by a mother and two cubs—but today they are more common.

Polar bear mother with two cubs on the tundra. Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. © Neil Ever Osborne

On Halloween 2013, a 30-year-old woman named Erin Greene, who had moved to Churchill from Montreal the previous year, was leaving a party with friends when she looked over her shoulder. “There’s this bear that’s already full-speed running at us,” Greene says. While her friends ran for help, the bear began carrying her off. “I realized that this was a fight I couldn’t win on my own and just accepted that this is the way I was going to die,” she says.

Just in time, a neighbor appeared, striking the bear’s head with a shovel. The bear dropped her and she was airlifted to the hospital to treat her life-threatening injuries. Despite the terrifying ordeal Greene suffered, and the scars and occasional pains she still bears, she returned to Churchill. The reason, she says, is a quality particular to the north. “The cold burns your face, the sky is beautiful, the animals could be around every corner. It’s so real, it’s so raw,” she says. She feels a different connection to polar bears now—“a different understanding.” Her medical bills added up to thousands of dollars, but the local community paid them all.

Churchill resident Dave Allcorn, a naturalist and guide who provides seasonal support to Polar Bears International, observes a polar bear on the tundra from Tundra Buggy One. Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. © Neil Ever Osborne

About 10,000 people arrive in Churchill every fall to see polar bears. Visitors gather at the Tundra Buggy Lodge, a research and tourism outpost built from conjoined buggies. It’s also home to PBI’s newest technology, the SpotterRF—a compact surveillance device designed to contend with threats like drone attacks. Here, it’s used to spot polar bears.

In the most basic sense, the SpotterRF is a motion detector—much like those used to turn porch lights on. As bears move on the tundra, they trigger the sensors. Their locations pulsate on a digital map, which can be analyzed by York and other scientists. The software performs well at night and in snowstorms, and may one day serve as an early warning system for Churchill.

To keep us safe, Buggy One has backed into a fenced platform at the Tundra Buggy Lodge, like a spaceship docking into port. Inside the Lodge, the SpotterRF radar beeps to signal the approach of a trio of bears. One of them, precocious and curious, toddles near enough that we could poke a finger through the bars and touch its nose. York has told us about “bear jail,” an enclosure that captures bears in town so they can be relocated. But here, he says with an approving smile, “we’re the ones in the cage.”

Polar bears emerging from the sea ice on Hudson Bay. Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. © Neil Ever Osborne

The next afternoon, back out on the tundra, we watch skinny bears pace the shore. Some hunker down in kelp beds, chewing on the seaweed. A big male stomps the snow with both front paws. Another lies encircled in a snowdrift.

When the tide comes in, sunlight escapes the patchy bank of clouds and brightens the mosaic of ice floes on the bay. From the willows, a mother approaches with a cub, their pace slowing as they take in two large bears skulking where the ice meets the water. The mother looks past them, and from the deck of the vehicle we follow her gaze, out to the bay’s churn. York hopes the ice will be solid soon. “If they go too early, and the ice breaks up, they’d have a long swim back to shore.”

This article, written by Neil Ever Osborne and M. A. Jacquemain, was originally published by Smithsonian Magazine.

Why polar bears are walking around with coloured dots on their fur

Nathan Howes 

To find the missing gap in the understanding of hair growth on polar bears, researchers are dyeing parts of their fur with coloured dots so they can track the progress visually.

In a study led by scientists at the University of Washington and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), polar bears such as Blizzard -- a 25-year-old male bear at Poiqnt Defiance Zoo and Aquarium -- are participating in the fur inquiry. The examination is being conducted in collaboration with the San Diego Zoo, Louisville Zoo, Assiniboine Park Zoo in Canada, Detroit Zoo, Oregon Zoo, Old Dominion University, Aarhus University and Centre College.

Jenny Stern, a University of Washington graduate student who is co-leading the fur-dye study, recently spoke to The Weather Network about the ongoing research. The main elements scientists want to address are the quickness of their hair growth and when it occurs, she said.

“It’s pretty shocking that we don’t have this information, but [really] that was the inspiration. We’re missing this really basic question that is foundational to a lot of our wild polar bear research," said Stern. "A bunch of polar bear scientists came together and designed this study to answer it.”

© Provided by The Weather NetworkBlizzard, a 25-year-old male polar bear. (Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium)

After they are dyed with a coloured dot, the bears are given a label tracer (non-toxic biomarker) through their food. Scientists can then analyze where the tracer is in the hair to determine a growth rate and seasonal timing of hair expansion, along with the factors that affect these metrics such as food intake, nutritional condition, size, age, sex and environmental conditions.

"Even if you were to go to a salon and get your own hair dyed, eventually your hair is going to grow out and you’re going to start to see your roots," said Stern. "We’re using the same principle where we just measure the hair every couple of weeks and see how much their roots are showing, how much of the hair is undyed.”
SEVERAL BEARS DOTTED WITH DIFFERENT COLOURS

A total of eight polar bears have been utilized in the study over the past few years, but not all of them had purple spots -- some were dotted in brown or black colours. The bears involved in the examination are located at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium (Blizzard), San Diego Zoo (Tatqiq), Assiniboine Park Zoo (Baffin, York, and Star) and Detroit Zoo (Nuka, Suka and Anana).

"Zoos provide an incredible opportunity to ask questions about polar bears and ask questions we can't answer with their wild counterparts," said Stern.

© Provided by The Weather Network(C. Breiter/Assiniboine Park Zoo)

She then elaborated through email that there is no significance with the dye colour chosen in the study. "It just needs to be dark enough to produce a contrast to allow the tracking of new hair growth. The purple is actually a blue-black hair dye that looks very purple when applied to transparent hair," said Stern.

Understanding fur growth patterns allow scientists to better explain stress levels, contaminant exposure and the nutritional status using hair samples collected from polar bears in the wild.

“Going into this, we didn’t know whether dyeing their hair and using this label tracer would be reliable methods to get hair growth rate. We’re seeing that it is," said Stern. "Hair is an extremely important tissue for learning about polar bears. They’re really hard to access [since] they live in really remote areas that are hard to get to..."
EARLY RESULTS SHOW SOME CHANGES

Even though not all of the zoos have reported back their findings, Stern said they're already seeing some differences in when the hair growth begins.

© Provided by The Weather NetworkDyed-fur polar bear. (San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance)

“Here in Washington at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium we see hair growth as early as late February. But it will be really interesting once we get the information from the other zoos and other bears that are participating," said Stern.

Stern said they're working with the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg, Man., to collect samples until early March at the latest. Once that concludes, then there will be "a lot" of measuring hair and sending it to the lab to get the final results. She is hoping to submit the final results of the study in the late spring or early summer.

“All of that information we get from hair, which ranges from how stressed out the bear is, what has the bear been eating, how many pollutants and contaminants are in the bear’s body...we will be able to put a timeline on that and say when they are eating specific things or when their stress is the highest," said Stern.

"I've just been so grateful to be able to collaborate with scientists, zookeepers and people at all levels to answer those really big questions that a lot of people have been asking for a long time."

Thumbnail courtesy of Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium.

Follow Nathan Howes on Twitter.

Swiss Canadians in B.C. are trying to save century-old chalets in the Canadian Rockies
Sun., February 27, 2022, 

One of six chalets in Edelweiss Village in Golden, B.C. The chalets were built to house mountain guides from Switzerland hired by the Canadian Pacific Railway company, and are now on sale at a listed price of $2.3 million. (Saving Swiss Edelweiss Village - image credit)

Johann Roduit fell in love with the century-old wooden houses in Golden, B.C. in September 2019, when he passed by the small community in the Canadian Rockies on his way home to Abbotsford from Calgary, Alta.

So when Roduit, originally from the town of Martigny at the foot of the Swiss Alps, learned from the Golden Museum and Archives last January that the six chalets were now for sale, he felt they must be preserved.

"It's a moral responsibility to preserve this huge heritage — not only for Swiss people, but also for people from Golden, B.C.," Roduit, a board member of the Swiss Canadian Chamber of Commerce, told host Chris Walker on CBC's Daybreak South.

"It's [part of] the history of Canada."

Saving Swiss Edelweiss Village

The chalets, collectively known as Edelweiss Village, was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway between 1910 and 1912 to provide housing to mountain guides from Switzerland, hired to serve Canadian and international mountaineering tourists in the Canadian Rockies, a region the company nicknamed "50 Switzerlands in One" in promotional materials.

In 1959, Walter Feuz, one of the mountain guides, bought all six chalets and the surrounding 50 acres of land after the other guides had moved out. He lived in the village until his death in 1984.

Feuz's descendants inherited the properties, but decided last year that it was time to let them go. The village is now on the market at a listed price of $2.3 million.

Attempts to save Edelweiss Village

Roduit says in 2013, a group of Golden residents initiated a project to preserve the village as a heritage site, in collaboration with Feuz's descendants. The plan didn't work out, however, due to disagreements over how the project should operate.

Over the past year, Roduit has been working with Swiss Canadian historian Ilona Spaar — who wrote a book with the Swiss consulate in Vancouver in 2010, about Swiss mountain guides and Edelweiss Village — to seek support from the Swiss consulate, the Town of Golden, Tourism Golden Association and Alpine clubs across Canada for the preservation of the village.

After accompanying a Swiss public broadcaster to document the Edelweiss Village in late January, the pair decided to launch the Saving Swiss Edelweiss Village initiative.

They say the initiative will move forward in phases, including setting up a foundation and crowdfunding internationally to buy the village.

Submitted by Johann Roduit

Spaar, originally from the resort village of Engelberg in the Swiss Alps, says the goal of the initiative is to transform the village into a cultural hub in Golden to attract Canadian and international tourists.

"We hope to turn it into a very dynamic place, meaning it could become a vacation rental location for all people," she said on Daybreak South.

Spaar says Feuz's descendants also want to preserve the village and support the initiative, but there's the risk that the village would be bought before the foundation is established — so the initiative needs to move forward as swiftly as possible.

"At the end of the day money might talk, but I think for this type of place and the importance of its history ... I'm hoping [something] that is great speaks greater than just cash," she said.

Roduit says he and Spaar will meet with lawyers next week about setting up the foundation.

Saving Swiss Edelweiss Village