Indigenous cooperative restores forests to form ecological corridor in Bahia

NOT LOCKEAN PRIVATE PROPERTY

Story by Mongabay • By Sibélia Zanon

Indigenous cooperative restores forests to form ecological corridor in Bahia© Mongabay

“Our Atlantic Forest has several very important living beings, species that are already endangered and that we need to bring back,” says the Pataxó Matias Santana, president of the Foresters and Reforesters Work Cooperative of the Pataxó Boca da Mata Indigenous village (Cooplanjé), in the south of Bahia, Brazil. “We created the work cooperative to bring jobs to the community, to the family members.”

From 2018 until this year, Cooplanjé worked on restoring 210 hectares (519 acres) of degraded Atlantic Forest areas to increase forest connectivity between the Monte Pascoal National and Historical Park — the first piece of land sighted by Portuguese colonizers — and the Pau Brasil National Park, also integrating the Barra Velha Monte Pascoal Indigenous Territory of the Pataxó ethnic group.

“It was the first time that BNDES financed an AFS [agroforestry system] project in the Atlantic Forest biome,” says Marcos Lemos from the Natureza Bela Environmental Group, a project partner of the Pataxó. Fifty hectares (123 acres) out of 210 were restored within the Boca da Mata village. “We use this AFS as a restoration strategy for Monte Pascoal.”

In addition to the productive agroforestry system forming a kind of green belt sorrounding the reforested area, avoiding the entry of fire outbreaks, it is a way to strengthen the survival of Indigenous communities. “The conservation unit has an overlap with the communities of the Barra Velha of Monte Pascoal Indigenous Territory, which consists of 16 villages surrounding the park,” explains Lemos.



Indigenous cooperative restores forests to form ecological corridor in Bahia© Mongabay

Maintenance work in the restored area around the Pau Brasil National Park, in southern Bahia. Image courtesy of Natureza Bela Environmental Group.

Before the colonization

“Today I imagine that we have about 2,000 hectares [4,942 acres] or more going through a restoration process in the Monte Pascoal-Pau Brasil Ecological Corridor, most of them concentrated on the edges of the parks,” says researcher Paulo Dimas Rocha de Menezes from the Federal University of Southern Bahia.

Since 2005, restoration projects have collaborated to form the ecological corridor, which aims to connect the forest, contributing to the gene flow of animals and plant species and also to implement economic activities that benefit the people of the region.

“We have a history of deforestation and occupation of this region that was exclusively logging, first removing the Atlantic Forest and then entering with pastures,” says Lemos. “We are coming with a whole set of actions and institutions to maintain what exists and advance in preservation, considering that we are in a region with three national parks and we also have the Abrolhos Marine Park, which is influenced by these recharge areas.”

One of the largest remnants of Brazilwood forests (Paubrasilia echinata) survives in this region of water relevance and rich biodiversity. Near Monte Pascoal National Park, in a settlement of the Landless Workers Movement, the largest specimen of Brazilwood in the country was found in 2020, with an estimated age of 600 years and a circumference of more than 7 meters (23 feet).

The restoration of the region, called Discovery Coast, uses native species, which already covered the Bahian soil before the arrival of Portuguese colonizers. “We work with 132 endemic species and try to restore what used to be our flora. And here I could mention pau-brasil, ipê, conduru, jacaranda — species that we don’t find anymore,” says Lemos.



Indigenous cooperative restores forests to form ecological corridor in Bahia© Mongabay

Delivery of tools for the cultivation of agroforestry systems and firefighting equipment to the Pataxó community around the Monte Pascoal National and Historical Park, in southern Bahia. Image courtesy of Natureza Bela Environmental Group.

History of destruction

Besides conservation units and Indigenous villages, the region, also known as the Mosaic of Protected Areas of the Extreme South of Bahia (Mapes), includes private lands and suffers strong pressure from the use of native Atlantic Forest timber, usually acquired illegally.

“The devastation in the extreme south of Bahia is very recent,” says Dimas. “The first stretch that Europeans occupied on the coast was the last to be settled because colonization was forbidden here when they discovered Minas Gerais.”

To protect the gold discovered in the 17th century in Brazil’s interior, settlers were prohibited from the north of Espírito Santo to the south of Bahia. The Indigenous people there served as a shield, preventing non-Portuguese from entering the mining region.

In the 1880s, the construction of the Bahia-Minas Gerais Railroad exacerbated deforestation, which, followed by the agricultural fronts, intensified with the paving of the BR-101 highway in the 1970s.

“With the incentive of the military dictatorship, more than 200 sawmills were installed here and they destroyed the forest in 20 years,” says Dimas. “By the 1990s there was almost no forest left, except for what was later transformed into national parks.

If some accuse the Indigenous people of deforesting the area, experts say their use of wood for handicrafts is irrelevant compared with the region’s history of devastation.

“Our history proves that it is not them. They are the ones who suffer the most and are exploited even today in this issue of wood extraction,” says Lemos. “It is not so frequent anymore, but there is still an inhumane exploitation for the man who cuts this wood, because it is done in a handmade way and sold at very low prices, which comes to be a degradation of the human condition.”



Indigenous cooperative restores forests to form ecological corridor in Bahia© Mongabay

Nursery for forest restoration of the Cooperative of Foresters and Reforesters of the Pataxó Indigenous village Boca da Mata (Cooplanjé). Image courtesy of Natureza Bela Environmental Group.

Conflicts with farmers

In recent years, Cooplanjé and the productive agroforestry systems have emerged as an alternative to the use of wood in the Pataxó territory.

“Several families have left the extraction and processing of wood for restoration and agroforestry,” says Paulo Dimas. “If we had more resources, the ideal would be to take all the families out of this activity and turn them into forest-living families.”

Despite the advance, the Pataxó people live in a situation of constant conflict with ranchers. “Here in the territory of Barra Velha, near the Monte Pascoal Park, this area that the [Indigenous] community entered is a demarcated area that has already been ratified, but today it is occupied by ranchers,” says Santana. “We have already had a dispute with the government and with Funai to pay for the property that the ranchers have on the land and to liberate our territory, but it was never paid. So the community makes the claim in this way, retaking the area.”

According to Paulo Dimas, the amount of land in possession of the Pataxó in the Barra Velha do Monte Pascoal Indigenous Territory is very restricted. “They have the right here to more than 50,000 hectares (123,553 acres) of land already demarcated and they are in possession of 9,000 hectares (22,240 acres). With this, they cannot maintain traditional activities and have to live on tourism, trade or handicrafts.”

Santana wanted to keep the 80 families who worked on the BNDES-funded restoration project within Cooplanjé, but it was not possible due to a lack of new projects. At the moment, only five families remain working in the cooperative.

“Our plan is to seek partners and funders directly, so we can have an independent Indigenous organization. We are looking for other partners so that we can bring jobs into the community,” says Santana. “Now we are happy because we are building a partnership for seed delivery and we are also partnering with a nursery in São Paulo to produce seedlings.”

Banner image of maintenance work in the restored area around the Pau Brasil National Park, in southern Bahia, Brazil. Image courtesy of Natureza Bela Environmental Group.

This story was reported by Mongabay’s Brazil team and first published here on our Brazil site on Nov. 10, 2022.

This article was originally published on Mongabay

The award-winning conservationist fighting to save a forest | Watch (msn.com)

It Sounds Funny, But Laughing Gas Could Be the Key to Detecting Aliens

Story by Tim Newcomb • POP MECH

The use of biosignatures in the search for space-based life should include nitrous oxide, researchers say.
The presence of laughing gas—or N2O—can signify the presence of living organisms.
Nitrous oxide may be easier to see with current technology than previously thought.

Don’t laugh off the potential value in finding nitrous oxide (N2O) in space atmospheres—scientists say the laughing gas could be a key biosignature in the search for life beyond our own planet.

Add in that our current technology (looking at you, James Webb Space Telescope) is adept at locating N20, and it’s clear why researchers at the University of California, Riverside want us to take laughing gas seriously.

🚀 Science explains the world around us. 

In a paper published earlier this month in The Astrophysical Journal, researchers from UCR’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, including astrobiologist Eddie Schwieterman, say we’ve focused plenty on oxygen and methane as biosignatures, but skipping out on nitrous oxide “may be a mistake.”

As scientists study exoplanets in the search for extraterrestrial life, they strain for a view of biosignatures, typically the same gases found in abundance in Earth’s atmosphere— because, well, they’re what we personally know can support life. But Schwieterman and his team used simulations to show that with different stars from the sun we know and love, the biosignature search could well include N2O. Better yet, the James Webb Space Telescope could easily detect the colorless gas, famously used as a dental anesthetic and in preparing homemade whipped cream.

“In a star system like TRAPPIST-1, the nearest and best system to observe the atmosphere of rocky planets, you could potentially detect nitrous oxide at levels comparable to CO2 or methane,” Schwieterman says in a news release.

Living organisms create N2O in a variety of ways, continually transforming other nitrogen compounds into nitrous oxide via a metabolic process that can yield useful cellular energy. “Life generates nitrogen waste products that are converted by some microorganisms into nitrates,” Schwieterman says. “In a fish tank, these nitrates build up, which is why you have to change the water. However, under the right conditions in the ocean, certain bacteria can convert those nitrates into N2O. The gas then leaks into the atmosphere.”

Sure, the UCR team knows that in some circumstances, an atmosphere containing N2O doesn’t necessarily indicate life—lightning, for example, produces N2O. But the team believes that in these cases, plenty of other gases would exist that show the N2O is a geological process, not something from a living organism.

In the past, researchers have pooh-poohed the idea of looking for nitrous oxide, simply because they said it would be tricky to see. But that idea is based on the fact that Earth’s atmosphere isn’t heavy in N2O.


Nitrous oxide—commonly known as “laughing gas”—is a colorless gas, stored in liquid form, that dentists use to produce anesthetic effects in patients undergoing surgeries like wisdom teeth removal. It’s also sold in bulk in tiny cylinders to help bakers give homemade whipped cream its oomph. Now, scientists say it’s a biomarker that could signal life forms on distant exoplanets.

© annick vanderschelden photography - Getty Images

“This conclusion doesn’t account for periods in Earth’s history where ocean conditions would have allowed for much greater biological release of N20,” Schwieterman says. “Conditions in those periods might mirror where an exoplanet is today.”

Consider that our sun does a fine job of breaking up N2O molecules compared to some other less-impressive celestial bodies, like dwarf stars K and M, that don’t have as powerful a light spectrum to break up the molecules. It’s then possible that nitrous oxide molecules could hang on quite a bit longer on those stars.

This all led the team—which included folks from Purdue University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, American University, and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center—into the belief that now is the time for astrobiologists to consider N2O as an alternative biosignature.

“We wanted to put this idea forward,” Schwieterman says, “to show it’s not out of the question we’d find this biosignature gas if we look for it.”

The World Cup tension the west is not seeing: Israelis told to keep low profile

Story by Michael Safi in Doha • The Guardian

One video shows an Egyptian football fan smiling serenely as an Israeli broadcaster introduces him live on air. Then he leans into the microphone with a message: “Viva Palestine.”

Photograph: Petr Josek/AP

Another clip from the streets of Doha this week shows a group of Lebanese men walking away from a live interview with a reporter they have just learned is Israeli. One shouts over his shoulder: “There is no Israel. It’s Palestine.”

As hundreds of thousands of people from around the world have poured into Qatar this week for the World Cup, these are among the awkward encounters between Arab football fans and Israeli journalists that have gone viral on Middle Eastern social media, one of many sources of political friction at a tournament that has not yet shaken off its myriad controversies.

For the host country, staging the World Cup has involved delicate negotiations over the presence of LGBTQ+ fans, public displays of affection and the availability of beer and wine. Less prominent in the west, but no less fraught, has been the emirate’s accommodation of Israeli football fans and media, a concession to Fifa’s rules for hosting the multibillion-dollar tournament.

Qatar does not have official ties with Israel but has given special permission for direct flights from Tel Aviv and allowed Israeli diplomats to be stationed at a travel agency in the country to give their nationals consular support. Conscious of domestic opinion, however, it has insisted the measures are strictly temporary and not steps towards a normalisation agreement of the kind signed by several other Arab states in recent years.

Though neither Israel nor Palestine are playing in the tournament, the latter has featured prominently at the Middle East’s first World Cup. Before Sunday’s opening match, a phalanx of Qatari men marched into the Al Bayt Stadium chanting, “Everyone is welcome,” carrying with them a large Palestinian flag. “We are taking care of people in Palestine, and all Muslim people and Arab countries are holding up Palestinian flags because we’re for them,” the flag bearer told the Guardian.



Flight screens at Tel Aviv airport. Qatar has given special permission for direct flights. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images© Provided by The Guardian

Fans from Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Algeria have also carried the flag prominently at matches and worn it as capes around their necks. On Thursday, Randa Ahmer, a young Palestinian woman, stood in Doha’s bustling Souq Waqif holding a Palestinian flag above the international crowd. “It’s our country, we’re going to carry our flag everywhere,” she said, as passersby shouted messages of support

Gravitas: Qatar world cup sees ideological conflict


Fifa trumpeted its agreement with Qatar to allow Israelis to fly to Doha by claiming the deal also allowed Palestinians to make the journey from Tel Aviv, but nearly a week into the tournament, it was unclear how many had been able to surmount the extensive Israeli security checks required to make the journey. Some of those who had made it to Qatar had come via Jordan or Egypt.

As of the beginning of the tournament, nearly 4,000 Israeli and 8,000 Palestinian fans had received entry visas to Qatar, though Israel’s foreign minister said it was expected as many as 20,000 Israelis could ultimately end up going.

A kosher kitchen has been set up near Doha’s airport to provide Israeli fans a place to gather and food that conforms with religious requirements.

Preparing to arrive in Doha over the weekend, Duby Nevo, an Israeli national, said he was watching the reports of Palestinian activism at the tournament with some concern. “I hope that Qataris are welcoming and everything will be fine,” he said. “I really hope to meet people from all over the world and especially from Arabic countries – if they want to make friends. I just want to enjoy [the football], no conflicts whatsoever.”

Another Israeli man, who gave only the first name Bahaa, said the organisation of the tournament and atmosphere in the country were excellent, but there was one drawback: “The majority of the masses here do not accept the presence of Israelis.”

Others said they were finding a welcoming environment, but taking precautions. “We’re not afraid to be here in Qatar as Israelis, they are very kind and we don’t feel the politics between the countries,” said Omer Laufer. “Sometimes we say that we are from Cyprus – but just to people from Arab countries.”

As the viral videos have shown, it is Israeli media outlets that have borne the brunt of the lingering antipathy with which their country is regarded by Arab populations, even if many of their governments have now signed agreements acknowledging Israeli sovereignty, started building trade ties and brought their security cooperation out into the open.

Israel’s Channel 13 sports reporter Tal Shorrer told Associated Press that while his interactions with Qatari officials had been pleasant, he had been shoved and insulted by Palestinians and other Arab fans during his live broadcasts from the city.

When a mobile phone seller noticed his friend’s settings in Hebrew, Shorrer said the man exploded with anger, screaming at the Israeli to get out of the country.

“I was so excited to come in with an Israeli passport, thinking it was going to be something positive,” he said. “It’s sad, it’s unpleasant. People were cursing and threatening us.”

Aware of the sensitivities of a tournament that will attract thousands of arrivals from hostile countries such as Iran, and where unlike in previous tournaments, all of the estimated 1.2 million foreign fans will be living cheek-by-jowl in one city, Israeli diplomats have produced videos asking their nationals to keep a low profile.

“Downplay your Israeli presence and Israeli identity for the sake of your personal security,” said Lior Haiat, an Israeli diplomat, addressing fans.

Harjit Sajjan tweets about raising Qatar human rights at World Cup after criticism

OTTAWA — International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan has tweeted about raising human rights concerns during his visit to Qatar for the World Cup after opposition criticism.


Harjit Sajjan tweets about raising Qatar human rights at World Cup after criticism© Provided by The Canadian Press

The NDP and the Bloc took Sajjan to task on Thursday because he had not made any public statement about Qatar's documented mistreatment of migrant workers and the emirate's anti-LGBTQ policies.

Both parties had called on the Liberals to diplomatically boycott the games instead of sending Sajjan.

When asked Thursday whether he raised these issues during the trip, Sajjan's office responded that he was flying home and could not comment.

Hours after The Canadian Press reported on the criticism of Sajjan's visit, he tweeted that he met with local labour organizations and that he had "constructive dialogue" with Qatari officials on migrant and LGBTQ rights.

The tweets did not directly criticize the emirate's policies.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 25, 2022.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press

SOUTHERN ALBERTA

Stoney: A look at preserving language, culture in Stoney Nakoda

A rise in the number of Îethka (Stoney language speakers) disparate to Îyârhe (Stoney) Nakoda First Nation population growth marks a First Nation taking great strides to defy the odds.

According to the latest available census data in 2016, there were more Stoney speakers in Îyârhe Nakoda First Nation than there had been in at least 20 years, but proportionate to the First Nation’s population growth – Stoney, like so many other Indigenous languages, has been on the decline.

Hundreds of years of colonization and displacement, the influence of pop culture and now, social media, have all played a role in language decline, according to experts.

“Everything else in our culture has been reproduced, stolen, borrowed, but the one thing that really still remains that is traditional to us, is our language,” said Duane Mark, language and cultural coordinator at Morley Community School in Mînî Thnî. “That’s why we push it so hard.

“Our elders continually press for the value of retaining and sustaining the language because it also sustains the culture, it enables and empowers a legacy.”

Mark is one of two Stoney language teachers at the school, which is across from Nakoda Elementary School, where a number of young Stoney-speaking teachers are beginning to cut their teeth passing the language to the next generation.

Stoney lessons are mandated in all Stoney Education Authority (SEA) schools, but Mark stresses that about an hour or more of accumulative language lessons every week is not enough for most to become fluent enough in Stoney to continue passing it down. It must also be used at home.

“We do our best as language teachers, but elders and as educators, we know and find that language should be taught at home if it is to be carried on,” he said. “It’s the responsibility of the parents to teach the child.

“Just like any language, it has to be heard consistently, in the home – everywhere. It has to be heard.”

Sister languages of Stoney include Dakota, Lakota and Nakoda/Nakota dialects, the latter of which the language is derived. The three dialects make up the Siouan language family to which Stoney belongs.

In 2016, there was a population of about 4,546 people living in the Îyârhe Nakoda communities of Eden Valley, Big Horn, and Mînî Thnî (Morley), where more than 80 per cent of the population is concentrated. According to the 2016 census, about 56 per cent of all residents identified Stoney as their mother tongue, which is the language that is learned at home in childhood and still understood by the person at the time the data was collected.

Of those, 4,525 people identified English as their first official language spoken. Another 15 people said neither English nor French was their first spoken language; the census does not specify which language they spoke.

There were 3,050 people in Canada who identified Stoney as their mother tongue in 2016 and 2,550 of them lived in an Îyârhe Nakoda First Nation community, 250 more than recorded in the 1996 census. However, the population also increased by about 1,800 people over that time. In comparison, 85 per cent of the total population identified Stoney as their mother tongue in 1996.

Data from the latest 2021 census could not be compared as Stoney Nakoda First Nation chiefs and council did not give Statistics Canada surveying permission, thus no information is available. On its website, the Stoney Nakoda Nation estimates there was a population of 5,397 in 2021.

In 2010, the Stoney language was categorized as ‘vulnerable,’ according to UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. The report included 86 Indigenous languages in Canada and reported 62 of them to be endangered, with the other 24 listed as vulnerable to being endangered.

Mark’s niece, Cherith Mark, is a language and culture coordinator at SEA. She was involved in a joint language initiative between SEA and The Language Conservancy – a U.S.-based non-profit organization that works with Indigenous peoples to protect and revitalize their languages – that began in 2019.

With that project, about 50 Îyârhe Nakoda elders from Chiniki, Goodstoney and Bearspaw First Nations, helped to build a comprehensive Stoney dictionary app, three picture books, a level one language textbook, an alphabet colouring book and a vocabulary app, along with other digital learning resources.

They achieved this through a two-week Rapid Word Collection event at Stoney Nakoda Resort and Casino in the fall of 2019, where linguists and scribes captured 14,002 Stoney words from 1,700 categories.

The group refined the dictionary list over two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, whittling down repetitions and alternate spellings to inform the teaching resources to be used in SEA classrooms, and in the community.

Over time, the education authority hopes to develop level two and three language textbooks to advance learning in schools.

“We are definitely looking at providing more language resources to cater more toward being able to speak Stoney conversationally and using sentences,” said Cherith. “Right now, what we have is mostly catered toward words and small phrases, but eventually it will come to that.”

Stoney, long considered to be an oral language by its speakers, started being transferred into text and to the page in the 1970s through the Stoney Cultural Education Program (SCEP).

“We’re still discussing and trying to figure out the proper way to spell or pronounce some words because there are these variances between different family clans,” said Cherith. “The best way we can work our way through that is by going back to look at the oldest resources we have, which is SCEP.

“That was the era when they actually started writing words in Stoney.”

The oral history program began in 1970. To gather information about Stoney history, philosophy, and moral teachings, program workers used tape recorders to interview Stoney elders, and in 1972 the program was reorganized as SCEP.

Under the direction of Stoney Tribal chiefs and council, the program focused on people development, primarily encouraging Stoney youth to enhance their individual abilities. Materials created from the program were used to assist in passing on the traditions of Stoney culture to the next generation by replacing harmful curricula that did not recognize Indigenous heritage.

Elder Jimmy Kaquitts was the director of a team of over 50 elders, including the late Buddy Wesley and Sykes Powderface, and many others that helped to develop a writing system for the Stoney language still used today.

One challenging feature of the project, in addition to obtaining continued funding, was the nature of the language itself In the Stoney community. Different bands, and even families, vary in their syllabic emphasizes and expressions. In light of this, translators sometimes had to talk out an apparent difference in order to decide which option to use for a certain word or expression to be translated.

As Cherith noted, that is something that remains a continuous point of discussion in the community with various words, including the Stoney word that refers to those that speak the language – Îethka.

“We still discuss the proper way of pronouncing Îethka, versus Iyethka or Îyethka,” said Cherith. “One basically refers to the speakers of the language and the other to basically the Stoney people, and the last one is sort of a variation of the second one.”

Prior to SCEP, in 1965, Stoney Tribal council entered into an agreement with the Summer Institute of Linguistics to develop a writing system for the Stoney language. After several experiments, a standard alphabet was devised following the Roman orthography tradition.

Warren Harbeck, a consultant in linguistics, Bible translation and intercultural communication, was brought in from the institute to help develop the writing system.

Extensive testing of this writing system during its development was conducted under the auspices of elder J.R. Twoyoungmen at all grade levels in the Morley school, as well as with families throughout the community.

According to Harbeck, testing included the workability of a Cree-syllabic style of writing, as well as more English-looking styles.

Consistent with ways of representing the characteristic five oral and three nasalized vowels of the Nakoda, Dakota and Lakota languages, the symbols a, e, i, o, u, â, î, û were agreed on in the Stoney words chaba, meaning beaver in English; pezi, meaning hay; node, meaning throat; mu, meaning thunder; châ, meaning wood; Mînî Thnî, meaning cold water/Morley; and sûga, meaning dog.

Other than the circumflex, it was agreed not to use any other technical linguistic symbols, but only those letters available on a standard typewriter, and later on keyboards.

The structure of a Stoney sentence is much different than English. Instead of a fixed subject; verb; object order, the verb tends to come at the end in Stoney – but it’s not obligated to, according to Harbeck. The subject also usually, but not always, precedes the object.

There are other structural elements to the Stoney language that differ greatly from English. Mark said sometimes Stoney speakers, especially the younger generations, may revert to speaking English in some cases because of the amount of “cerebral energy” it can take to formulate some phrases and sentences, which sometimes can become quite long in pronunciation and in writing.

The act of language preservation has always been an intrinsic part of the Stoney way, according to Mark. It is believed the language itself has a spirit, and the spirits of Îyârhe Nakoda ancestors can only understand Stoney, and therefore will only hear their prayers in Stoney.

“In our society, sometimes that’s all we talk about, is the Creator,” said Mark. “Our everyday life is motivated by spiritual prayer, smudging, singing – chants in the morning to enable us and empower us. But if it’s done in our language, it’s heard by our ancestors.”

Mark said he has noticed a decline in the number of speakers over time, especially as some of the Nation’s well-respected and renowned elder speakers have died, including Sykes Powderface in March of this year and Buddy Wesley in June 2021.

Wesley, who was also a bridge of knowledge to surrounding non-Indigenous communities, established the Stoney Nakoda 101.1 language program and taught students in Mînî Thnî. He and Mark worked together closely prior to his passing.

“He was our mentor and he was also teaching sometimes in Cochrane, at U of C and the Whyte Museum,” said Mark. “We traded notes and supported each other.”

Mark hopes to be part of carrying on Wesley’s legacy, with the goal of teaching the next generations of Stoney language teachers and inspiring as many of them as possible to follow a similar path. One which not only sustains the language, but where it can flourish.

Jessica Lee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Rocky Mountain Outlook

'Without language identity is lost': feds invest $39.4 M into Indigenous language programs in the North

Story by Natalie Pressman • 

Language is fundamental to identity.

That was the message of politicians at a press conference in Dettah, N.W.T. on Friday as the federal government announced $39.4 million in funding to support Indigenous language revitalization in the territories.

The biggest slice of the federal funding, $17.7 million, will go to Nunavut. The Yukon will receive $14.7 million and the Northwest Territories, $6.9 million.

Northwest Territories MP Michael McLeod said preserving and revitalizing language is important because for generations, Indigenous people have lived under systems design to erode their cultures.

It's something he said he knows about first-hand as a residential school survivor.

"Languages are fundamental to our identities, our culture, our spirituality," he said.

The Native Communication Society of the N.W.T., the Tłı̨chǫ government, the Gwich'in Tribal Council, Dene Nation and several band offices will be among the funding recipients in the Northwest Territories.

The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and the Yellowknives Dene First Nation (YKDFN) received the largest investments in the N.W.T. — almost a million dollars each.

Holding on by the thread

Ndilǫ Chief Fred Sangris said the funding would help ensure longevity of language among youth.


"Without language identity is lost — without language, communication between the young and the old could not happen," he said.

Sangris said that First Nations across the country are losing their languages and that YKDFN still has some language speakers, but not many.

"We're still holding on to our language," he said, "at the very thread."



Ndilǫ Chief Fred Sangris said his community is holding on to its language© Travis Burke/CBC

Edward Sangris, chief of Dettah, said he anticipates the funds to be put toward Willideh language programming in the YKDFN community's school.

"Our vision is to have schools talking in our language, all the way from kindergarten to graduation," he said.

Jeannie Martin is a Willideh Yatie instructor at the language and culture history department in Dettah.

"I really love my language," she said.


Jeannie Martin, left, and Stella Martin, right, are Willideh Yatie instructors at the language and culture history department in Dettah.© Natalie Pressman/CBC

Martin said she wasn't yet sure how the new funds will support her work but that it's good news for the students.

"I just want to teach them, the ones that want to learn," she said.

The federal government passed the Indigenous Languages Act in 2019. It's a response to a call to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that emphasizes the importance of preserving, revitalizing and strengthening Indigenous languages.

Since 2019 the federal government has invested more than $77 million — including Friday's announcement of $39.5 million — to support Indigenous languages in the North.

Brace for 'violent' shocks that may reshape the global economy forever, warns top economist Mohamed El-Erian

Story by gglover@insider.com (George Glover) 

Markets should brace for a drawn-out recession, Mohamed El-Erian has warned. Shannon Stapleton/Reuters© REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

The global economy is headed for a severe recession, Mohamed El-Erian has warned.

The economist expects "more uncertainty in the future as shocks grow more frequent and more violent".

The recession will be drawn-out rather than "short and shallow", he added.

Markets should brace for a severe recession that might forever change the world economy, Mohamed El-Erian has warned.

The economist said on Tuesday that a combination of pressures on supply, central bank tightening, and market "fragility" were all likely to weigh on growth.

"Three new trends in particular hint at such a transformation and are likely to play an important role in shaping economic outcomes over the next few years: the shift from insufficient demand to insufficient supply as a major multi-year drag on growth, the end of boundless liquidity from central banks, and the increasing fragility of financial markets," El-Erian wrote in a Foreign Affairs op-ed.

"These shifts help explain many of the unusual economic developments of the last few years, and they are likely to drive even more uncertainty in the future as shocks grow more frequent and more violent," he added. "These changes will affect individuals, companies, and governments – economically, socially, and politically."

El-Erian: Too Early for Fed to 'Downshift' on Rate Hikes

El-Erian's warning comes as institutions including the International Monetary Fund and the Institute of International Finance forecast an economic slowdown next year.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February has led to a tightening of global supply chains, with prices of commodities from crude oil to wheat soaring.

Meanwhile, central banks such as the US Federal Reserve have started to aggressively raise interest rates, which could be starting to tame inflation but will also hit economic growth.

Rate hikes have also exposed vulnerabilities in particular markets, with the S&P 500 falling 15.5% this year and last year's crypto success story turning sour after major exchange FTX suffered a solvency crisis and eventually filed for bankruptcy.

El-Erian said that analysts need to shift away from the mindset that the downturn will be a short, sharp recession – a way of thinking he warned had driven the Fed's characterization of inflation as merely "transitory" even as prices crept up last year.

"From the US Federal Reserve's initial misjudgment that inflation would be 'transitory' to the current consensus that a probable US recession will be 'short and shallow,' there has been a strong tendency to see economic challenges as both temporary and quickly reversible," he said.

But "these changes will affect individuals, companies, and governments – economically, socially, and politically," El-Erian added. "Until analysts wake up to the probability that these trends will outlast the next business cycle, the economic hardship they cause is likely to significantly outweigh the opportunities they create."

Read more: Top economist Mohamed El-Erian says the FTX crypto fiasco will keep regulators up at night as they scramble to catch up

Russia calls European Parliament’s declaration of state sponsorship of terrorism an «unfriendly step»

Russian authorities have called the European Parliament's decision to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism an "unfriendly step" and accused Ukraine of having been a "pioneer" in spreading rhetoric they consider "unfair".


Archive - General view of the Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. - VLAD KARKOV / ZUMA PRESS / CONTACTOPHOTO© Provided by News 360

According to Oleg Siromolotov, Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia, the Ukrainian authorities initiated these accusations "long before" the war that started in February, since in 2014, in the framework of the conflict in the Donbas, Kiev labeled its "punitive" operation in the eastern part of the country as anti-terrorist.

Thus, Simorolotov regretted that the decision adopted by the European Parliament last Wednesday follows the trend of "an information and political campaign" promoted from the West and which "has nothing to do with the real situation in the fight against international terrorism".

"If individual countries or the European Parliament want to look for real terrorists, we suggest to take a closer look and understand more deeply what happened not so long ago in the Baltic and Black Seas, and not to participate in the parade of fake resolutions," Simorolotov said, as reported by the Foreign Ministry itself.

Questioned whether Moscow should follow the example of the European Parliament but with regard to Ukraine, the Russian representative made a compilation of the alleged atrocities committed by Ukraine and theoretical violations of international law against Russian soldiers.

However, he recalled that the Kremlin has always been against "the doctrine" of state terrorism often, he said, instrumentalized by some countries "to justify interference in matters that are the internal competence of other states".

"At the same time, it is Western countries, led by the United States, who use labels such as 'terrorist state,' 'terrorist regime' or 'state sponsor of terrorism' to designate objectionable rivals in order to legitimize the introduced unilateral coercive measures," he has reproached.

Thus, he ruled out that Russia could declare Ukraine or any other of its current international rivals a terrorist state, since it would be following criteria that Moscow considers wrong.

"We believe it would be a mistake to follow the illegal approaches of others. We will not be like the violators of international law", the Russian diplomatic representative concluded.

The European Parliament on Wednesday approved designating Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism in a resolution supported by the majority groups in the European Parliament. The resolution focused on denouncing the more than 40,000 documented war crimes allegedly committed by the Russian army, in particular in places such as Irpin, Bucha or Izium.

Already on that day, the Russian Foreign Affairs spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, ironically proposed on her personal Telegram channel to designate the European Parliament as a "sponsor of idiocy".

Workers in Canadian Tire's supply chain not paid 'living wages,' union complains

United Steelworkers union alleges thousands in Bangladeshi factories who make clothes for the retailer aren't paid enough

Author of the article: Naimul Karim
Publishing date: Nov 22, 2022 

A Canadian Tire sign at a store in Toronto. 

PHOTO BY BRENT LEWIN/BLOOMBERG

One of North America’s largest unions has filed a complaint with the Canadian government against Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. alleging that thousands of workers in Bangladeshi factories who make clothes for the retailer are not paid a living wage.

The United Steelworkers union (USW), which has at least 225,000 members in Canada, filed the complaint to the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE), a government ombudsman that reviews human rights abuses by Canadian companies that work abroad.

“You will have seen some Canadian Tire ads saying ‘We all play for Canada,’ we just think that playing for Canada also means being concerned about workers overseas,” Doug Olthuis, head of global affairs at USW’s Canadian office, said. “The concerns shouldn’t end at Canadian borders; the concerns should spread through the entire supply chain.”

Canadian Tire said it ensures its suppliers comply with all local laws.

“As part of our activities to ensure compliance, Canadian Tire Corp. regularly tracks wage rates and works with reputable third parties to audit factories that manufacture our owned brand products,” the company said in a statement.

But Bangladeshi union representatives said thousands of the country’s workers who make clothes for most of the world’s leading brands have had to cut down on food as the price of essentials rises globally due to inflation.

The South Asian nation, whose economy heavily depends on its garment industry, has made strides to ensure worker safety since the collapse of the Rana Plaza clothing factory in 2013 that killed more than 1,000 workers, unions said. But they said the country’s minimum wage for garment workers — about $104 per month — isn’t enough to support families.

Canadian Tire subsidiary Mark’s manufactures garments in Bangladesh for the Denver Hayes, Dakota, WindRiver and Helly Hansen labels. 

PHOTO BY HANDOUT/MARK'S

“Canadian companies say that they respect human rights. Living wages is one of the pillars of human rights,” said Kalpona Akter, who heads the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity, a workers’ rights organization based in Dhaka, the country’s capital. “If they are not paying a living wage, how are they respecting human rights? We want Canadian Tire to ensure that workers in their supply chain are paid a living wage.”

Bangladeshi garment workers who work eight hours a day, six days a week, should be paid four to five times more than they currently are to earn a “living wage,” he added.

The president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, the country’s largest group of garment factory owners, said clothing workers are better paid than workers in other sectors, and they are trying to find ways to increase that pay.

“The buyers (brands) keep talking about ethical living wages or fair minimum wages, but they keep squeezing the price and giving us much lower prices,” Faruque Hasan said. “I believe they should pay higher prices, which will help us to pay higher salaries.”

If they are not paying a living wage, how are they respecting human rights?

KALPONA AKTER

The USW filed the complaint on Monday evening. CORE will now have to evaluate whether the complaint meets its “admissibility criteria,” Olthuis at the USW said. If it does, the ombudsman will conduct its own investigation.

The union hopes CORE recommends that Canadian Tire — whose subsidiary Mark’s manufactures garments in Bangladesh for the Denver Hayes, Dakota, WindRiver and Helly Hansen labels — pay higher wages. It also hopes Canadian Tire will sit down with workers’ representatives in Bangladesh to figure out a way to make sure more money gets through to the workers.

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CORE wasn’t immediately available for a response.

Bangladesh is the world’s second-largest garment exporter after China, and Olthuis said the USW initially wanted to file complaints against multiple Canadian companies that manufacture clothes there, but would have had to file separate complaints to CORE for each company.

He said the USW decided to file a complaint against Canadian Tire because it believes the retailer has the capacity to make changes.

“We have to start somewhere,” he said. “We believe there are mechanisms where Canadian Tire can make a difference.”

Olthuis said that based on USW’s investigation, Canadian Tire sources its products from at least 30 factories in Bangladesh.

The country, which has about 165 million people, employs about four million workers, mostly women, in the garment sector.

Bangladesh garment exports to Canada grew by $1 billion, a 133 per cent increase, in the last decade, according to government data. The country is the second largest source of garment imports into Canada after China.

• Email: nkarim@postmedia.com | Twitter: naimonthefield

Rio Tinto's topsy-turvy takeover of Turquoise Hill set for shareholder vote on Dec. 9

Story by Naimul Karim • Financial Post

A worker walks through a tunnel towards elevators following a shift in the underground mining project at the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine in Khanbogd, the South Gobi desert, in Mongolia.

Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. ‘s shareholders will vote on Rio Tinto Ltd. ’s attempt to take full control of the Montreal-based miner on Dec. 9 , signalling a potential close to a topsy-turvy saga that includes the postponement of three previous votes, multiple takeover offers from Rio, and side deals with minority owners abruptly terminated.

Rio, one of the world’s dominant miners, already owns about 51 per cent of Turquoise, but hopes to gain full control so it can claim Turquoise’s Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia — one of the world’s largest new copper and gold mines — as its own.

Copper is likely to play a key role in the transition away from fossil fuels, and miners such as Rio are keen to get in on the action.

The vote was initially postponed from Nov. 1 to Nov. 8 by Turquoise in light of new information that Rio was in talks with two of the Turquoise’s minority shareholders, investment firms Pentwater Capital Management LP and SailingStone Capital Partners LLC, which had publicly opposed Rio’s US3.3 billion offer to take over the company.

According to the side deals that Rio struck with the two shareholders, the firms would withhold their votes and exercise their dissent rights instead. Exercising these rights would open a door for a shareholder to sell its shares at a price it believes is fair through arbitration in the event a company makes a decision it does not agree with.

However, the vote was shifted for a second time from Nov. 8 after Quebec’s securities regulator Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) got involved. The vote was then postponed indefinitely on Nov. 9 after the Quebec watchdog said that the side deals raised “public interest concerns.”

On Nov. 17, Rio said that it had terminated the side deals with the two minority shareholders and returned to the original proposal to take over Turquoise, raising doubts about whether the deal will go through.

Rio raised its takeover offer twice to end up at the current $43 per share mark and reach an agreement with Turquoise’s senior executives. Its initial bids of $34 and $40 were rejected.

However, the deal requires approval from two-thirds of Turquoise Hill shareholders, including Rio Tinto. It also requires a simple majority of the votes cast by Turquoise Hill’s minority shareholders, which include Pentwater and SailingStone, which own 15.14 and 2.2 per cent of Turquoise, respectively.

Turquoise’s Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia, which started operating in 2013, has the potential to operate for about 100 years, the company has said. The Canadian miner owns 66 per cent of the mine. The Mongolian government owns the rest.

The mine is expected to produce 110,000 to 150,000 tons of copper and 150,000 to 170,000 ounces of gold in 2022. Production is expected to increase next year since the Oyu Tolgoi board has approved the start of the mine’s underground operations, with first production expected in 2023.

• Email: nkarim@postmedia.com | Twitter: naimonthefield

Rio Tinto terminates deals with dissident Turquoise Hill shareholders a week after Quebec watchdog raises concerns

Rio Tinto's takeover of Turquoise Hill postponed indefinitely after Quebec watchdog raises concerns

Rio Tinto's takeover of Turquoise Hill postponed again as Quebec regulator steps in