Alberta Health Services awaits advice before rolling out new COVID treatment

Author of the article: Dylan Short
Publishing date: Oct 21, 2022 •

A photo taken on February 8, 2022 shows a box of Evusheld, a drug for antibody therapy developed by pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca for the prevention of COVID-19 in immunocompromised patients at the AstraZeneca facility for biological medicines in Södertälje, south of Stockholm, Sweden.

 PHOTO BY JONATHAN NACKSTRAND /AFP via Getty Images

Alberta Health Services is awaiting further guidance before deciding how to roll out a recently approved Health Canada treatment for COVID-19.

AHS spokesman Kerry Williamson said the provincial health authority is seeking direction from Canada’s Drug and Health Technology Agency before making any decision on the use of AstraZeneca’s Evusheld as a treatment option. He said that guidance is expected to be released before the end of the month,

“The specific details around timing and availability are being considered, and will be shared publicly in the near future,” Williamson said in an email.

Evusheld was approved on Tuesday by Health Canada as a treatment for mild to moderate cases of COVID-19. It had previously received approval to be used as a preventive measure for people unable to build up antibodies against the virus on their own.

Williamson said there is a healthy supply of Evusheld in the province and Alberta Health Services will work with federal counterparts whenever there is a gap to be addressed. He said approximately 1,581 doses of Evusheld have been administered in the province.

Dr. Jia Hu, a public health physician, welcomed the federal approval of Evusheld as a treatment, calling it another “tool in the tool kit” to fight COVID-19. However, he said immunizations through vaccines continue to be the best option to fight serious infections.

Dr. Jia Hu, a public health expert, poses for a photo

 in Prince’s Island Park. Saturday, June 26, 2021. 

PHOTO BY BRENDAN MILLER /Postmedia file

He said it will take time for provinces to find the right way to make the treatment fit into the broader public health response, particularly as fewer people appear to be getting their latest booster shots.

“The more we have, the better, especially as people are less likely to be vaccinated, which remains the best thing for people to do,” said Hu.

Hu said until Evusheld is more widely distributed, the main form of treatment for mild cases is Pfizer’s Paxlovid; however, there are people that are unable to take that drug due to the way it interacts with other medications. He said Evusheld could help fill some of those treatment gaps.

The latest approval comes as the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 in Alberta is on the rise. The latest data from the province, provided earlier this week, shows there are 1,070 hospitalizations, including 33 people in the ICU. The hospitalization number is up from the 1,014 reported a week earlier.

A total of 32 people died during the past reporting week, bringing the total number of fatal cases in Alberta since the start of the pandemic to 4,983.

Meanwhile, wastewater tracking out of the University of Calgary shows that the rolling average levels of COVID-19 have risen slightly since the start of the month as Alberta enters into the fall respiratory illness season.


dshort@postmedia.com

ALBERTA

Fishing rights are broader than waiving of domestic licence requirement

The discussion that needs to take place with Alberta Environment and Parks goes well beyond exempting Indigenous people from having to possess domestic fishing licences to exercise their inherent and treaty rights to fish, says Treaty 8 Grand Chief Arthur Noskey.

“We never used licences. We never needed licences. Our treaty basically was that…hunting, fishing, trapping privileges will remain as if we never entered treaty,” said Noskey.

A news release issued earlier this month announced that the province was exploring “a non-licence alternative to remove this obstacle while still ensuring that fish conservation protections remain in place. As an interim step, Environment and Parks (AEP) has requested enforcement leniency on certain terms and conditions related to domestic fishing licences.”

Currently, First Nations and Métis harvesters in Alberta are required to hold a free-of-charge domestic fishing licence when exercising their right to harvest fish for food.

Recent discussions have taken place mainly with Treaty 8, AEP spokesperson Jason Penner told Windspeaker.com in an email.

“This will be explored in further discussions with Indigenous communities,” Penner said.

Noskey confirmed that talks about domestic fishing licences are happening with the province.

“We were talking to them, but basically when we addressed that issue…they said, ‘We still want you to adhere to the size restrictions (for fish).’ And we said, ‘No,’” said Noskey.

He says he takes exception to treaty rights to fishing, hunting and trapping being addressed as if they are equivalent to recreation.

“When the province tries to regulate that stuff (it’s) for the public, therefore the public’s recreation. This is not recreation for us. It’s a way of life. We don’t adhere to any laws the province does in relation to hunting, fishing, trapping and gathering. It's for their sport. To us it’s a way of life, protected by treaty, protected by the Constitution,” said Noskey.

Way of life also includes bartering, which means exchanging fish for meat, or providing fish and meat for a household other than the harvester’s. These actions are prohibited by provincial regulations.

“It’s always been part of our culture,” said Noskey. “There are some First Nations that are in some good fish-bearing lakes (areas) and some First Nations are in wildlife-abundance land, animals… So we’ve always bartered.”

Sharing of harvested meat is a broader policy topic than the requirement to hold a domestic fishing licence, said Penner.

“To date, there has been no discussion regarding the sharing of harvested meat,” he said.

As far as Noskey is concerned, former Premier Jason Kenney’s “cutting red tape” policy has resulted in First Nations people losing their constitutionally protected rights to fish, hunt and harvest on lands the province wants to develop.

“This process, what the province has been doing, more so under Jason Kenney and his (red tape) rule, is to criminalize treaty rights. That was their intent,” said Noskey.

Changes brought in through various Red Tape Reduction Implementation acts from 2019 to 2022 included removing legislative requirements so certain oil sands schemes would require Cabinet approval only. They made it easier to enter into contracts or agreements for mines and minerals. They implemented a more flexible approach to managing activities on Crown land through locally specific directives and guidelines, and they reduced delays for forest-management agreements and small-scale and low-impact hydroelectric developments. All of these activities impact and diminish Indigenous harvesting rights.

As for the province’s direction under new Premier Danielle Smith, Noskey isn’t any more hopeful. Smith’s push to prioritize Alberta at the cost of all other provinces has him wary. He points out that Treaty 8 comprises territories in Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan.

“And all we’re saying to the government, telling the government, is that this treaty was here and agreed to by the Imperial Crown and that’s what we’re going to push for, that they recognize the treaty territory…and start fulfilling the treaty promises for First Nations people that were promised …” said Noskey.

Penner said AEP has requested enforcement leniency on the requirement to hold a domestic fishing licence and this will continue along with ongoing engagement with Indigenous communities.

Federal legislation also needs to be amended to take into account changes in the domestic fishing licence requirement.

“We don’t have a timeline regarding federal legislation amendments (but) our intention is to move as quickly as possible,” said Penner.

Windspeaker.com

By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com, Windspeaker.com

WHY THEY NEED REGULATION

Facebook threatens to pull news content in Canada over revenue-sharing bill

Anja Karadeglija - National Post

Facebook said it may pull news content from its platform in Canada in response to the Liberal government’s Bill C-18, which would force the company to share revenue with news publishers.


This isn’t the first time Meta has said pulling news content from Canada was a potential response to the Liberals' Bill C-18.

In a blog post published late Friday afternoon, it said “it is important to be transparent about the possibility that we may be forced to consider whether we continue to allow the sharing of news content in Canada.”

The post comes after the House of Commons heritage committee failed to invite Facebook to appear at its study of the legislation. The company confirmed to the National Post earlier in the week it hadn’t been invited.

It said in the blog post that it was “surprised not to receive an invitation to participate, particularly given public comments by lawmakers that this law is targeted at Facebook.”

Bill C-18 is aimed at both Facebook and Google, and would force them to reach commercial deals with publishers, under the threat of mandatory arbitration. The two companies could end up funding 30 per cent of the cost of producing news in Canada, the Parliamentary Budget Officer has estimated.


Google appeared at committee earlier this week, though Colin McKay, Google Canada’s head of public policy and government relations, said in an interview after the meeting the company had specifically asked to appear. It outlined a number of concerns with the legislation and is asking the government to make amendments.

Revenue-sharing bill is 'bad public policy,' Google tells MPs

News compensation bill part of 'global movement' to regulate Big Tech: critic

This isn’t the first time Meta has said pulling news content from Canada was a potential response to the legislation. Rachel Curran, the public policy manager for Canada at Meta, told a parliamentary committee earlier this year doing so wasn’t off the table.

The company did exactly that in Australia last year when that country passed legislation similar to C-18, which Canada’s bill is modeled after.

Meta changed course on its move and restored news content to Facebook a week later.

On Friday, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez accused Meta of continuing “to pull from their playbook used in Australia.”

“At the end of the day, we want to make sure Canada has a free and independent press, it’s fundamental to our democracy. Canadians need to have access to accurate and reliable news. All we’re asking the tech giants like Facebook to do is negotiate fair deals with news outlets when they profit from their work,” he said in an emailed statement.

Meta said in its blog post Friday that it has “repeatedly shared with the government that news content is not a draw for our users and is not a significant source of revenue for our company.”

CALL AN ELECTION

Rishi Sunak passes the 100 endorsement threshold to succeed Liz Truss as head of the UK government

The former British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak has reached this Friday night the required 100 endorsements among Tory MPs in the House of Representatives to run as a candidate to succeed Liz Truss as head of the Conservative Party and the Government of the United Kingdom.


Archive - Rishi Sunak, British Conservative Party leadership contender. - Jacob King/PA Wire/dpa© Provided by News 360

He was also a candidate in the last primaries of the Conservatives has reached that figure after the MP for the district of Bournemouth East, Tobias Ellood, announced his decision in a message on Twitter.

"The free market experiment is over: it has been a low point in our party's great history. The restart begins. Time for a centrist, stable, fiscally responsible government that provides credible national and international leadership. Honored to be the 100th Tory MP to support Rishi Sunak," Ellod announced in his statement.

In this way, Sunak was the first of the potential candidates to obtain the minimum of one hundred endorsements imposed by the 1922 Conservative Party Committee in order to streamline the primary process, as the maximum number of candidates is reduced to just three.

Specifically, the 'Tories' have set themselves the objective of resolving the succession of the now former British Prime Minister in one week, which is why they have increased from 20 to 100 the endorsements required to opt for the post of Chief Executive of the United Kingdom.

However, the chairman of the 1992 Committee, Graham Brady, has confirmed Friday, October 28 as the date to settle the succession of the leader of the Conservative Party. It will thus be an agile change, far from the two months needed by the 'Tories' to complete the succession of Boris Johnson.

"We should have a new leader in charge before the fiscal statement that will take place on October 31," Brady explained Thursday to the media, shortly after Truss appeared to confirm that he could not complete the mandate he received a month and a half ago from his own colleagues

Berry, who suggested that "if there is only one candidate, there is only one candidate", thus putting on the table the possibility of a possible consensus name, later explained that anyone who wants to run as a candidate must have the support of at least a hundred Conservative deputies.

In addition, he pointed out that on Monday at 14.00 hours (one hour more in peninsular Spain) the period for submitting nominations will close. If at that time there were more than one candidacy, a process would begin that would culminate on Friday but, in the event that there was only one candidate, he would be appointed new prime minister on Monday.

THE OTHER CANDIDATES IN THE RACE TO SUCCESS TRUSS

 Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the leader of the Conservative Party in the House of Commons, Penny Mordaunt, have already received the support of dozens of Conservative MPs, although they are still far from the barrier of one hundred required by the 1922 Committee.

So far, Johnson - who has not yet made his candidacy official - has received the support of up to 52 MPs who have expressed their support in messages on social networks, as reported by the newspaper 'The Telegraph'.

"Boris should not have left, I think he was an absolutely outstanding prime minister," said Conservative MP Peter Bone, ensuring that "there is a groundswell" of support for Boris Johnson among Conservative voters and party members to return to Downing Street.

The former parliamentary private secretary of the Conservatives and ally of Johnson, James Duddridge, has also shown his support for the former British prime minister, assuring that he "is ready" to lead the party again, according to the newspaper.

All in all, Mordaunt would have collected so far 22 of the one hundred supports needed to formalize her candidacy to obtain the post of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

This Friday afternoon, the British MP was the first party official to formally declare her intention to succeed Liz Truss at the head of Downing Street.

"I have been encouraged by the support of colleagues who want a new start, a united party and leadership in the national interest," Mordaunt said on her Twitter account.

For all these reasons, Mordaunt is running "to lead the Conservative Party and become prime minister" with the intention of "uniting the country, delivering on promises and winning the next general election."

As far as voter support is concerned, a YouGov poll placed Mordaunt as the fourth most supported candidate to succeed Truss, behind former Prime Minister Boris Johnson (32 percent support); former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak (23 percent) and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace (10 percent), who on Friday declined to run for the head of government.

Murray Mandryk: Racism raised in imperfect toolkit can't be ignored

Opinion by Murray Mandryk - Leader Post

A member of the Chinese community rallying against racism during the pandemic.

The Saskatchewan-based former leader of a Canadian political party was sentenced to one year in jail after being convicted of a hate crime.

Travis Patron — a 29-year-old Redvers resident and former leader of the now-de-registered federal Canadian Nationalist Party — was previously convicted in Estevan Court of King’s Bench for promoting hatred against an identifiable group as a result of 2021 videos ranting against Jewish people.

“What we need to do, perhaps more than anything, is remove these people, once and for all, from our country,” Patron said, according to a transcript read by a Crown prosecutor in which the former political candidate talks about the “parasitic tribe.”

Such Criminal Code convictions are rare. Sadly, racism in this province is not.

Most racism isn’t quite as blatant as someone announcing it on a video. It’s far more subtle, praying on notions ingrained in people from an early age. We need to do everything within our power to fight this.

So now seems an odd time for us to be rejecting any tools at our disposal that help teachers and parents in schools identify issues at an earlier age.

Through a Leader-Post story by Jeremy Simes, we learned the Education Ministry is discouraging the use of the racism awareness kit developed by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.

Officials said the kit wasn’t of “high quality, free from bias as reasonably possible” and identified both a lack of Saskatchewan content and specific examples not put in the proper context.

One example of the latter was the report’s suggestion that the “red ensign” — Canada’s flag before 1965 — has been appropriated by white supremacist groups to message the great value of “old stock” Canadians. The Red Ensign also flies in front of most Royal Canadian Legions in this country.

One gets legitimate concerns raised here. Context is everything in education.

Professional public education administrators don’t have the luxury of ignoring context.

And it would be easy, lazy and unfair to suggest those reviewing the content of the kit were simply taking their marching orders from Education Minister Dustin Duncan and his Saskatchewan Party government that has struggled with race relations issues.

Moreover, any independent perusal of the toolkit might find similar problems with its language and content. (For example, one suspects those seeing the value of pipelines would be troubled with the toolkit’s summary that recent protests in B.C. were simply “Wet’suwet’en solidarity actions and blockades, (where) racist threats against Indigenous land defenders were rampant.”

The anti-hate network, itself, acknowledged it previously had to address loaded language, taking out references to “questionable political parties.”

But it’s about here where we all need to step back a moment, consider what the toolkit is trying to do and why having it at the easy access of teachers is probably better than having it unavailable.

Let us stress that this is just a tool for teachers to identify potential emerging issues — not school curriculum.

We pay and train professional teachers to figure out what’s appropriate and what isn’t. And as NDP education critic Matt Love noted, some resources now being used in government-funded independent private schools l ike the troubled Legacy Christian Academy are far more offensive.

It’s so important not to lose sight of the forest for the trees in the battle against racism.

As also noted by the administrators reviewing the toolkit, it likely doesn’t likely have enough Saskatchewan content delving into our long history that includes residential schools, the Ku Klux Klan and, yes, more recent events with serious racist overtones.

As imperfect as language and context in the Canadian Anti-Hate Network toolkit may be, there’s no denying the racist elements that emerged out of Wet’suwet’en, the Colten Boushie killing, or the “Starlight tours” of the 1980s and ’90s where Saskatoon police were accused of dropping off young Aboriginal men on the outskirts of the city.

Given what we are seeing in court and elsewhere, none of us should lose sight of what this fight is all about.

Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

Alberta NDP holds convention in battleground Calgary

Elise von Scheel - 

Alberta's New Democrats are meeting this weekend in Calgary — a location picked as a nod to where the next provincial election will likely be decided.

The NDP is hosting its annual convention on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to debate policy proposals, hear from leader Rachel Notley and begin gearing up in earnest for a campaign next spring. The UCP is also holding an identical meeting in Edmonton over the same days.

"The NDP knows it has to make significant progress in Calgary ahead of the next election," said Cheryl Oates, a principal with GT & Company Executive Advisors and a campaign strategist for the NDP.

"This, I believe, is going to be the largest convention the NDP has ever held. And the fact that it's taking place in battleground Calgary, where both parties need to fight for those votes, is a real show of force."

The party says well over 1,000 people have registered to attend.

Oates says it's a chance for the party to demonstrate the changes and growth since they were last in government.

The UCP currently holds all but three of Calgary's 26 seats. The NDP hold all in Edmonton except one, and just two ridings outside Alberta's major cities.

'Run like you're the government in waiting'

Oates added the NDP will be "focusing on those things that we know Albertans care about [like] affordability, healthcare and an economy for the future."

Sessions on the agenda include election readiness training, laying out the party's economic and healthcare plans and the speech from Notley.

"Campaign strategists often say that it's really important if you want to form the government, you need to run like you're the government in waiting," Lisa Young, a political science professor at the University of Calgary, said.

"The NDP needs to focus on a clear, well-articulated message of what they will bring in if they're able to form the government rather than on a negative message where they're pointing to the failures of the UCP."



Lisa Young is a professor of political science at the University of Calgary.© CBC

A recent poll has shown the NDP with a sizable lead on the governing UCP — 53 per cent of the current vote intention to 38 per cent, respectively. However, the party has also struggled with a perennial issue in politics: Getting attention in opposition when there's constant activity in the governing party.

"This convention is very much about looking forward. It's about building upon success and preparing for an election… We must make sure our collective focus – that 'big picture' – remains firmly fixed. May 2023 is not that far away," a message from party president Peggy Wright reads in the convention booklet.

Policy resolutions up for debate include measures on promoting clean energy, establishing rail networks in Alberta, eliminating the Kananaskis park fees, workers' rights, increasing social benefits, and exploring lowering the voting age to 16 provincially.

If a resolution is passed by the delegates, it does not mean it is automatically adopted into the party's election strategy. However, input from members at these conventions typically shapes what promises make it into a campaign platform.

The NDP has already nominated the majority of its candidates for May's election, more than any rival party.

NDP=AB / UCP=U$A
Alberta sees simultaneous political conventions in unofficial provincial election kickoff

Breanna Karstens-Smith - 

Both of Alberta’s major political parties will meet over the weekend to set the stage ahead of the provincial election scheduled for the end of May.


UCP leader and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and NDP Leader Rachel Notley.© Jason Franson and Jeff McIntosh, The Canadian Press

The United Conservative Party will meet near Edmonton while Alberta's New Democrat Party will gather in Calgary.

“I know that a lot of the conversation will be on matters of addressing the affordability crisis,” Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley said of her party’s plans for the weekend.

Notley will give a 30-minute speech at what she says will likely be the largest convention her the NDP has held in the province, at the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Calgary.

The party will debate multiple resolutions, including one which would see it support “implementing legal protections for transgender and non-binary athletes to participate in competitive sports leagues of their choice.”

Another, proposed by the New Democratic Youth of Alberta, would support lowering the provincial voting age to 16.

The party’s belief that Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) should be indexed is also being voted on with a resolution that would see it support increasing and indexing the benefit. The program is designed to provide benefits to those with permanent medical issues that prevent them from working.

Meanwhile, the UCP’s convention will be Premier Danielle Smith’s first address to her party members since they elected her leader on Oct. 6.

Video: Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s new cabinet includes familiar faces in prominent roles

She will take the stage Saturday at the River Cree Resort and Casino just west of Edmonton with a dinner that night, slated as an "election 2023 kick-off."

In between, the party will vote on several of its own policies, some of which are proving controversial.

One, proposed by the Edmonton West Henday constituency, would “halt the practice of any student being taught that by reason of their ethnic heritage they are privileged, they are inherently racist or they bear historic guilt due to said ethnic heritage or that all of society is a racist system.”

It goes on to say “any differential treatment practiced by any educator due to said ethnic heritage will be halted. Instruction of these concepts will not take place whether it is advanced under the title of so-called critical race theory, intersectionality, anti-racism, diversity and inclusion or some other name.”

University of Alberta international relations professor Andy Knight says that resolution is extremely concerning.

“Even at the university level, I don't see us teaching systematically critical race theory in the way that they try to frame this is a bit of a red herring, I think,” Knight said.

Knight told Global News the critical race theory referenced in the proposed policy is actually meant to look at history, while acknowledging racism experienced during major events.

He fears teachers could be punished for even discussing current events like the death of George Floyd: a Black man who was pinned to the pavement outside a Minneapolis corner store for more than nine minutes and died, sparking protests worldwide in a reckoning over police brutality and racism.

“We need to educate people about what the history is all about. And not sort of hold on to the sort of very skewed and very limited view of history that was written by Europeans,” Knight added.

He also pointed out the resolution does not reference what kind of schools, ages or programs would be affected, arguing students at certain ages are asking about the subject.

“It's really an attempt to push back against diversity and inclusion.”

When asked about the resolution Friday, Notley urged the UCP to vote against the idea.

“If they fail to, then I think that sends a very clear message to Albertans that this UCP is very interested in the extreme views of a very small group of Albertans,” she added.

A separate proposal brought forward by the Airdrie East constituency would strengthen a parent’s right to deny their child’s gender identity.

“…uphold the rights of parents and caregivers so as not to require them to affirm or socially condition a child in a gender identity that is incongruent with the child's birth sex,” resolution 17 reads.

If the policies do pass, they do not hold any immediate legal authority. But, they do signal a direction the party is going ahead of the spring election and what laws could be enacted going forward.

“I think a lot of people are going to be watching for what kind of vision for the future the parties and the leaders stand for,” Mount Royal University political scientist Lori Williams said Friday.

“There's an opportunity here to start a conversation with Albertans, try to respond to the concerns that that Albertans have. But it's just a beginning.”

She said that it appears many of the UCP policy proposals do not match up to the issues voters are currently interested in.

“Most Albertans are worried about health care, they're worried about affordability, they're worried about education. And that doesn't look like it's showing up as a priority,” Williams said.

Both annual general meetings run Friday through Sunday.

Under The Dome: Alberta premier Danielle Smith stumbles out of the gate


Under The Dome, Oct. 20, 2022.© Provided by Edmonton Journal

It’s been an eventful start to Danielle Smith’s tenure as Alberta premier between walking back comments related to discrimination against the unvaccinated, and the war in Ukraine.
Under The Dome host Dave Breakenridge is joined by Calgary Sun columnist, Rick Bell, and Edmonton Journal political affairs reporter, Lisa Johnson to discuss how Smith has done in her first week of office, what she and the United Conservative Party need to focus on heading into this weekend’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), and ultimately heading into the May 2023 provincial election.

 

Related
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith should apologize and retract unvaccinated comment: Notley

Ban on teaching anti-racism, diversity included in Alberta UCP policy resolutions

You can watch all episodes of Under the Dome at edmontonjournal.com/underthedome or subscribe to our YouTube channel .

First Nations worry feds are flip-flopping on B.C. fish farms transition

First Nations fighting to get salmon farms out of the ocean are dismayed in the wake of federal Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray’s recent engagement tour on a plan to transition open-net pen operations in B.C.

Murray spent much of last week visiting Vancouver Island aquaculture operations and meeting with First Nations, industry operators, wild salmon conservation groups and coastal community leaders in Campbell River and Port Hardy.

The federal Liberals’ 2019 election platform promised “to develop a responsible plan to transition from open-net pen salmon farming in coastal waters to closed containment systems by 2025,” which sent the salmon farming industry into a flap. Murray’s subsequent mandate from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is much the same, minus the reference to closed containment systems.

And after the minister’s visit, First Nations critical of salmon farms are convinced that what's in the works is a watered-down version of Ottawa’s promise.

Rather than removing open-net pens by 2025, the minister is now talking about progressively minimizing interactions between farmed and wild fish, incentivizing innovations in aquaculture technology, tougher regulations for fish farm licences, and ensuring that area-based operations have First Nations partners.

The BC Salmon Farmers Association said the aquaculture sector is “heartened” after its round of meetings with Murray.

Operators are pleased Murray expressed interest in co-developing a transition plan, said Ruth Salmon, BCSFA interim executive director, in a statement.

A suite of tools and options are necessary to meet the needs of diverse marine ecosystems and the priorities of partner First Nations in whose territories they operate, Salmon said.

First Nations that want open-net pens out of the ocean feel the engagement process is flawed, and feel open-net pens aren’t going anywhere inside the next three years, said Bob Chamberlin, chair of the First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance.

“It’s simply a ‘go with the status quo.’ They’re just putting new laces on those old shoes,” said Chamberlin, who met with Murray along with chiefs from the K’omoks and Homalco First Nations, both opposed to open-net fish farms.

The intention of the meetings was to get input from a wide range of people, Murray told Canada’s National Observer after her tour.

It also provided the opportunity to clear up misunderstandings about the open-net pen transition process, she said.

She is aiming to develop “a pathway for existing aquaculture operations to adopt alternative production methods,” Murray said.

“So they can actually accomplish the goal of progressively minimizing or eliminating interaction between farmed salmon and the wild salmon.”

The goal is to have the transition plan in place next year and a new licensing regime devised by June 2024, said Murray. She did not give a final deadline for the process.

“I think there was some misunderstanding that there would be sort of a dramatic change in just a very, very short time,” she said.

Prescribing closed containment production methods aren’t part of her mandate, Murray added, saying devising new farming methods would rely on the industry’s creativity and investment in emerging technology.

Large-scale aquaculture operators in B.C. have dismissed closed containment technology, arguing it isn’t advanced enough, requires a bigger energy footprint and is less profitable.

Instead, the sector is championing emerging semi-closed ocean systems — aimed at reducing sea lice and physical interactions between farmed and wild salmon. Or growing salmon longer in their land-based hatcheries before transferring them to open-net pens in the ocean.

Semi-closed systems, also in the development phase, are still semi-open, and do little to prevent waste, chemicals and diseases from impacting wild salmon, Chamberlin said.

Murray said all First Nations she met with in the region made clear they wanted a greater stewardship role and involvement in decisions around salmon farming in their waters.

“There were some First Nations that were clear about how important the industry has been to them in terms of jobs,” she added.

But Murray also needs to respect the aboriginal rights of the100-plus First Nations in B.C. that rely on wild salmon and Ottawa needs to do what it promised, Chamberlain said.

“What about the value of food fish to all the nations in the Interior of British Columbia?” Chamberlain asked. “Because that has to weigh into the decision.”

Fisheries and Oceans Canada is also asking the public for online feedback on the transition plan until Oct. 27.

Rochelle Baker /Local Journalism Initiative/Canada's National Observer

Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

FAKE PRESIDENT, THIEF, CIA CONDUIT
U.S. plans to withdraw recognition of Guaidó as «interim president» of Venezuela

El maestro abandona a su perro

The recognition as "interim president" of Venezuela of opposition leader Juan Guidó by the United States seems to have its days numbered and he will cease to hold in January 2023 a position that for legal purposes never meant anything, beyond being able to access certain assets in foreign banks.


Archive - Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó - 

CENTRO DE COMUNICACIÓN NACIONAL DE VENEZUELA

This has been made known to CNN by two sources of the Venezuelan opposition close to Guaidó. According to one of them, Washington plans to withdraw his recognition as "interim president" in January, when a new legislative period begins in the U.S. Congress.

On the other hand, another of the sources consulted confirmed the veracity of the article published on Thursday by the British newspaper 'Financial Times' announcing the end of this recognition which was also grabbed by the United Kingdom, the European Union and even some Latin American countries, such as Ivan Duque's Colombia.

Guaidó, who came to be recognized by more than fifty countries as "interim president" in 2019 by self-proclaiming himself with such distinction after not recognizing the results of the 2018 presidential election, has seen how his political weight abroad has been waning every year, as well as his leadership within the internal opposition to the government of the president, Nicolás Maduro.

This political irrelevance became more evident after the 2020 elections, in which Chavismo managed to regain the majority in the National Assembly. Washington's decision comes at a time when the Venezuelan opposition is in the midst of the process of choosing a unitary candidacy for the next presidential elections scheduled for 2024.

There are nearly 200 missing Native Americans from the Navajo Nation.

 A new FBI database is working to tackle unsolved cases

Josh Campbell - 

Sadie Acevedo is living an endless cycle of grief.

Her sister, Anthonette Cayedito, went missing from the family home in Gallup, New Mexico, one evening in 1986 and has not been seen since then. Acevedo believes Cayedito’s disappearance may have been tied to a relative.

“I have a hole inside of my life because we don’t know where she is,” Acevedo told CNN.

Cayedito is among the nearly 200 Native American and Indigenous people listed as missing in New Mexico and the Navajo Nation.

“I believe that number is a lot higher,” Acevedo said. “I believe that a lot of it is overlooked.”

The crisis has spurred the FBI into action enlisting the agency’s intelligence resources best known for fighting crime and terrorism to create a master database of missing Native Americans. The database includes photos of the missing along with their age, gender and date of last contact. Officials say their hope is that it leads to more tips and leads from the public. Police say a number of challenges, including limited evidence in tribal communities and families who won’t talk to police, have prevented them from solving many cases. The FBI database has been praised by advocates who insist that the cases of missing and murdered Native Americans don’t receive the attention they deserve from police.

The issue has garnered the attention of President Joe Biden’s administration, which has rolled out a number of initiatives to address violence against Native Americans including a new unit within the Bureau of Indian Affairs to investigate the cases while coordinating resources among federal agencies and Indian country.

“The missing and murdered Indigenous peoples crisis is centuries in the making, and it will take a focused effort and time to unravel the many threads that contribute to the alarming rates,” Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland said in May.

Ryan Summers, a supervisory intelligence analyst for the FBI, said there have already been names taken off the database after their cases were solved. Others have been added as well, he said.

“I think that is a good indication of what we’re receiving back from the public,” Summers said.

Navajo Nation police are also pleased with the FBI’s work in building the database.

Navajo Police Chief Daryl Noon acknowledged that authorities needed to boost their efforts to solve the cases of missing and murdered Native Americans.

Noon, who has a family member who previously went missing in California, said he understands that waiting for answers and closure can be frustrating for families.

“We recognize that maybe we weren’t doing something the best we should, we could have,” Noon said. “And so this is a result of that. We want the public to understand, we get it.”



There are nearly 200 missing Native Americans from the Navajo Nation. A new FBI database is working to tackle unsolved cases© Provided by CNNIn this May 4, 2016 photo, Klandre Willie, left, and her mother, Jaycelyn Blackie, participate in a candlelight vigil in Lower Fruitland, New Mexico, for Ashlynne Mike, who was abducted and left to die in a remote spot on the Navajo Nation. (Jon Austria/The Daily Times via AP, File) - Jon Austria/The Daily Times/AP

Authorities say they have long faced a number of challenges that have prevented them from solving the cases. Police say in some cases it involves family-on-family crime and relatives refuse to provide information because they don’t want the person responsible to go to jail. In other cases, there is limited evidence. Tribal communities generally don’t have doorbell cameras or exterior security cameras that help police investigate cases in urban or suburban areas.

“That’s why the new FBI database is so important – it allows the public to take an active role in helping law enforcement,” said an FBI special agent who CNN agreed not to name because much of his work involves cases of violent crime.

‘Equality for all people’

Advocates say they don’t believe police have dedicated enough resources to investigating cases of missing and murdered Native Americans.

Darlene Gomez, an attorney in New Mexico who represents the families of 17 missing and murdered Indigenous people, said she was happy to see the FBI database but still believes police agencies in Navajo Nation don’t have adequate staffing for these cases.

For example, Gomez said some Native Americans live up to 200 miles away from the nearest police substation in their tribal community. With only a few officers employed at those stations, there are times when no one is even there to take a report or follow a lead, Gomez said.

Some Native Americans also don’t trust police because there is no representation from their community, Gomez said. Officers, she said, have also been known to blame the victim when they go missing.

Police need to put in more effort to investigate the cases and lack of technology should not be a barrier, Gomez said.

“Police officers have been doing their jobs since the beginning of time,” Gomez said. “You have to go to old fashioned police work. Going to grocery stores and gas stations and interviewing people.”

Gomez said she believes missing people from Native American communities have not been prioritized by police agencies.

“Ultimately it’s the need to have equality for all people,” Gomez said. “And I believe that there is not equality for Native Americans and people of color. And the inequality is brought on by outside agencies, by police departments in general.”

Meanwhile, Acevedo is pleading for the public to go on the FBI’s database and look through all the photos of the missing. Any tips or information could help a family get closure, she said.

“You have so much time to be on Facebook, so much time to sit there and you scroll and scroll,” Acevedo said. “If it was your child, it would be important. It’s somebody else’s child, make it important.”

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A congressman from Bolsonaro’s party talks of «burning alive» students protesting cutbacks

The deputy of the Liberal Party (PL), the formation for which Jair Bolsonaro has run for reelection, Bibo Nunes, has stated that the students of the Federal University of Santa Maria who have protested against cuts in higher education should be "burned alive".


Supporter of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. - Rodney Costa/dpa© Provided by News 360

"In the movie 'Tropa de Elite,' you know what happens there? Look at the movie. They caught these rich people helping the poor, it went bad, and they burned them inside tires. That's what these alienated students daddy's boys deserve," the PL deputy blurted out in video response to the students' protests.

Not content with that, Nunes has gone a little further and accused those who demonstrated days ago on the campus of this university over the cuts of using "daddy's money" to "buy marijuana and cocaine" from those who traffic "to give weapons to criminals".

"Those are students of the Federal University of Santa Maria who went to protest with cheers to Lula are a disgrace, a scum, they should live in the garbage, in the sewers, they are poor and miserable", has been dispatched.

"They produce nothing, they are parasites who want to hide their incompetence through the 'L' of Lula thief", concluded Nunes, who despite all this string of barbarities and disqualifications, has assured that he is not offended the honor and dignity of anyone, according to the newspaper 'O Globo'.

A clarification that does not seem to be shared by the rector of the center, Paulo Burmann, who took to social networks to defend the students and censure the "unjust and cowardly attack" of which these people were the target, as well as the institution, located in the northern state of Rio Grande do Sul.

"He offended and disqualified the students and their families, who were peacefully demonstrating against the cuts being made in education, health and science to feed the secret budget," he has remarked, mentioning a controversial congressional measure criticized for its lack of transparency.

This secret budget, Burmann stressed, "makes it impossible for them to continue with their studies and for science to advance". It is, he said, "an arrogant attack, full of hatred" that "attacks the institution, its workers, managers and students without any knowledge of the cause".