It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, September 12, 2023
CLIMATE KRISIS
World leaders offer solidarity after devastating Morocco earthquake Leaders and diplomats the world over expressed condolences and offered their support for Morocco Saturday after a devastating earthquake struck the mountains southwest of Marrakesh. Issued on: 10/09/2023 -
01:12
People gather next to a damaged building on a street in Marrakesh, following a powerful earthquake in Morocco, September 9, 2023.
The 6.8-magnitude earthquake that hit late Friday killed more than 2,000 people and left more than 2,000 injured, many critically, according to Moroccan authorities.
Support has poured in from leaders across the world. Europe
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, of Morocco's cross-strait neighbour Spain, expressed his "solidarity and support to the people of Morocco in the wake of this terrible earthquake... Spain is with the victims of this tragedy".
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said "our thoughts are with the victims of this devastating earthquake. Our sympathy goes out to all those affected".
French President Emmanuel Macron said he was "devastated" and said that "France stands ready to help with first aid".
The pope expressed his "profound solidarity" with Morocco after the quake, according to the Vatican.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni underlined "Italy's willingness to support Morocco in this emergency".
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed sympathy "with the Moroccan people in the face of the terrible earthquake".
And the European Union member countries, through the European Council said in a statement: "We are deeply saddened by the devastating consequences of this tragic event.
"As close friends and partners of Morocco, we are ready to assist in any way You may deem useful," said the statement, addressed to King Mohammed. Russia, Ukraine
The leaders of both Russia and Ukraine also offered their sympathies.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his "deepest condolences to HM King Mohammed VI and all Moroccans for the lives lost in the horrible earthquake".
"Ukraine stands in solidarity with Morocco during this tragic time," he said on social media.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed similar sentiments and said, in a message to Morocco's king, "we share the pain and the mourning of the friendly Moroccan people". India, Turkey
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is hosting the G20 summit this weekend, said he was "extremely pained by the loss of lives due to an earthquake in Morocco".
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered support to "our Moroccan brothers in every way in this difficult hour". Middle East
Algeria, which broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in August 2021 at the height of the crisis between the two countries, offered "its sincere condolences to the brotherly Moroccan people for the victims of the earthquake", said its foreign ministry.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "instructed all government bodies and forces to provide any necessary assistance to the people of Morocco, including the preparations for sending an aid delegation to the area", his office said.
It is the latest show of support in the wake of the 2020 Abraham Accords that saw Israel normalise ties with a number of Arab countries, including Morocco.
The president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, said we "stand with the Kingdom of Morocco during this difficult time and wish a speedy recovery ahead to all those affected".
He also ordered an "air bridge to deliver critical relief" to the country, state news agency WAM reported.
Iran expressed its condolences for the "terrible earthquake".
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said he was "ready to provide any form of assistance to deal with the repercussions of the devastating earthquake". King of Jordan Abdullah II urged his government to provide all possible assistance to Morocco. Africa
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu extended his heartfelt condolences to King Mohammed: "In the face of this adversity, Nigeria will continue to stand in solidarity with Morocco as they recover, rebuild and come out stronger than ever from this unfortunate event."
The head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, expressed his "sincere condolences" to the king, the Moroccan people and the families of the victims. World bodies
A statement from the World Bank said: "Our hearts go out to the people of Morocco.
"Our sole focus at this stage is on the Moroccan people and the authorities who are dealing with this tragedy."
The secretary-general of the Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Hissein Brahim Taha, prayed for "mercy on the victims and a speedy recovery for the injured".
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the quake as "heartbreaking", adding: "We stand ready to support the immediate health needs", a sentiment echoed by UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said the response to the devastating quake could take years.
UNESCO, the UN heritage organisation, said it would help Morocco draw up an inventory of damage to national heritage sites and a repair strategy.
(AFP)
Red Cross raising $100m to aid Morocco facing 'massive destruction unlike anything we have seen'
The Red Cross appealed on Tuesday for more than $100 million to provide desperately needed assistance in Morocco, days after a powerful earthquake killed thousands of people. Friday's 6.8-magnitude quake was the most powerful in Morocco on record. As the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) seeks to provide "health, water, sanitation, hygiene, shelter relief items and basic needs", FRANCE 24's Tom Burges Watson is joined by Hossam Elsharkawi. Regional Director at International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - IFRC, Middle East & North Africa.
In the wake of the quake's devastation, Morocco's 'local civil society is really coming together'
Morocco continues an incredibly challenging search and rescue mission, following the most powerful earthquake to hit Morocco in a century that has killed thousands of people, most of them in remote villages in the High Atlas Mountains. Search-and-rescue teams from the kingdom and abroad continue digging through the rubble of broken mud-brick homes, hoping for signs of life in a race against time following the 6.8-magnitude quake late Friday. In the tourist hub of Marrakesh, whose UNESCO-listed historic centre suffered cracks and other major damage, many families still slept out in the open, huddled in blankets on public squares for fear of aftershocks. As remote and poor mountain villages such as Missirat remain in dire need, awaiting urgent assistance, FRANCE 24's Tom Burges Watson is joined by Sara Almer, Humanitarian Director at ActionAid International.
CLIMATE CRISIS
STORM DANIEL HITS LIBYA,
DAMS BURST
How Libya’s chaos left its people vulnerable to deadly flooding
NATO NATION BUILDING
LONDON (AP) — A storm that has killed thousands of people and left thousands more missing in Libya is the latest blow to a country that has been gutted by years of chaos and division.
The floods are the most fatal environmental disaster in the country’s modern history. Years of war and lack of a central government have left it with crumbling infrastructure that was vulnerable to the intense rains. Libya is currently the only country yet to develop a climate strategy, according to the United Nations.
The north African country has been divided between rival administrations and beset by militia conflict since NATO-backed Arab Spring uprising toppled autocratic ruler Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
The city of Derna in the country’s east saw the most destruction, as large swaths of riverside buildings vanished, washed away after two dams burst.
Videos of the aftermath show water gushing through the port city’s remaining tower blocks and overturned cars, and later, bodies lined up on sidewalks covered with blankets, collected for burial. Residents say the only indication of danger was the loud sound of the dams cracking, with no warning system or evacuation plan.
Here’s a look at why the storm was so destructive and what obstacles stand in the way of getting aid to those who need it most: TWO GOVERNMENTS, TWO PRIME MINISTERS
Since 2014. Libya has been split between two rival governments, each backed by international patrons and numerous armed militias on the ground.
In Tripoli, Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah heads Libya’s internationally recognized government. In Benghazi, the rival prime minister, Ossama Hamad, heads the eastern administration, which is backed by powerful military commander Khalifa Hiftar.
Both governments and the eastern commander have separately pledged to help the rescue efforts in the flood-affected areas, but they have no record of successful cooperation.
Rival parliaments have for years failed to unify despite international pressure, including planned elections in 2021 that were never held.
As recent as 2020, the two sides were in an all-out war. Hifter’s forces besieged Tripoli in a year-long failed military campaign to try to capture the capital, killing thousands. Then in 2022, former eastern leader Fathi Basagah tried to seat his government in Tripoli before clashes between rival militias forced him to withdraw.
The support of regional and world powers has further entrenched the divisions. Hifter's forces are backed by Egypt, Russia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, while the west Libya administration is backed by Turkey, Qatar and Italy.
The UAE, Egypt and Turkey are all helping rescue efforts on the ground. But as of Tuesday, rescue operations were struggling to reach Derna.
Claudia Gazzini, a senior Libya analyst at International Crisis Group, says the problem is partially logistical with many of the roads entering the port city having been severed by the storm. But political strife also plays a role.
“International efforts to send rescue teams have to go through the Tripoli-based government,” said Gazzini. That means permissions to allow aid inside the most affected areas have to be approved by rival authorities.
She was skeptical the Benghazi government could manage the problem alone, she said. GROWING UNREST AND DISCONTENT
The flooding follows a long line of problems born from the country’s lawlessness.
Earlier in August, sporadic fighting broke out between two rival militia forces in the capital, killing at least 45 people, a reminder of the influence rogue armed groups wield across Libya.
Libya has become a major transit point for Middle Eastern and African migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to seek a better life in Europe. Militias and human traffickers have benefited from the instability in Libya, smuggling migrants across borders from six nations, including Egypt, Algeria and Sudan.
Meanwhile, Libya’s rich oil reserves have done little to help its population. The production of crude oil, Libya’s most valued export, has at times slowed to a trickle due to blockades and security threats to companies. Allocation of oil revenues has become a key point of disagreement. TALE OF A NEGLECTED CITY
Much of Derna was constructed when Libya was under Italian occupation in the first half of the 20th century. It became famous for its scenic white beachfront houses and palm gardens. But in the aftermath of Gaddafi’s ouster in 2011, it disintegrated into a hub for Islamist extremist groups, was bombarded by Egyptian airstrikes and later besieged by forces loyal to Hiftar. The city was taken by Hiftar’s forces in 2019.
Like other cities in the east of the country, it has not seen much rebuilding or investment since the revolution. Most of its modern infrastructure was constructed during the Gaddafi era, including the toppled Wadi Derna dam, built by a Yugoslav company in the mid 1970s.
According to Jalel Harchaoui, an associate fellow specializing in Libya at the London-based Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, Hiftar views the city and its population with suspicion, and has been reluctant to allow it too much independence. Last year, for instance, a massive reconstruction plan for the city was led by outsiders from Benghazi and elsewhere, not natives of Derna.
“Tragically, this mistrust might prove calamitous during the upcoming post-disaster period,” Harchaoui said.
___
Associated Press writer Cara Anna contributed to this report from Nairobi, Kenya.
Jack Jeffery, The Associated Press
More than 5,000 presumed dead in Libya after ‘catastrophic’ flooding breaks dams and sweeps away homes
Story by By Hamdi Alkhshali, Mostafa Salem and Kareem El Damanhoury, CNN •4h
CNN Video shows water gushing through port as 8 months worth of rain falls on Libya
More than 5,000 people are presumed dead and 10,000 missing after heavy rains in northeastern Libya caused two dams to collapse, surging more water into already inundated areas.
Tamer Ramadan, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies delegation in Libya, gave the numbers of missing people during a briefing to reporters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday. “The death toll is huge,” she said.
At least 5,300 people are thought dead, said the interior ministry of Libya’s eastern government on Tuesday, state media LANA reported. CNN has not been able to independently verify the number of deaths or those missing.
Of those who were killed, at least 145 were Egyptian, officials in the northeastern city of Tobruk, in Libya, said on Tuesday.
In the eastern city of Derna, which has seen the worst of the devastation, as many as 6,000 people remain missing, Othman Abduljalil, health minister in Libya’s eastern administration, told Libya’s Almasar TV. He called the situation “catastrophic,” when he toured the city on Monday.
Whole neighborhoods are believed to have been washed away in the city, according to authorities.
Hospitals in Derna are no longer operable and the morgues are full, said Osama Aly, an Emergency and Ambulance service spokesperson.
Dead bodies have been left outside the morgues on the sidewalks, he told CNN.
“There are no first-hand emergency services. People are working at the moment to collect the rotting bodies,” said Anas Barghathy, a doctor currently volunteering in Derna.
Relatives of people who lived in the destroyed city of Derna told CNN they were terrified after seeing videos of the flooding, with no word from their family members.
Ayah, a Palestinian woman with cousins in Derna, said she has been unable to reach them since the floods.
“I’m really worried about them. I have two cousins who live in Derna. It seems all communications are down and I don’t know if they are alive at this point. It is very terrifying watching the videos coming out of Derna. We are all terrified,” she said.
Emad Milad, a resident of Tobrok, said eight of his relatives died in the flooding in Derma.
“My wife Areej’s sister and her husband both passed away. His whole family is also dead. A total of eight people are all gone. It’s a disaster. It’s a disaster. We are praying for better things,” he said on Tuesday.
‘Ferocious’ weather conditions
The rain, which has swept across several cities in Libya’s north-east, is the result of a very strong low-pressure system that brought catastrophic flooding to Greece last week and moved into the Mediterranean before developing into a tropical-like cyclone known as a medicane.
Just as ocean temperatures around the world soar off the charts due to planet-warming pollution, the temperature of the Mediterranean is well-above average, which scientists say fueled the storm’s heavy rainfall.
“The warmer water does not only fuel those storms in terms of rainfall intensity, it also makes them more ferocious,” Karsten Haustein, climate scientist and meteorologist at Leipzig University in Germany, told the Science Media Center.
Libya’s vulnerability to extreme weather is increased by its long-running political conflict, which has seen a decade-long power struggle between two rival administrations.
The UN-backed Government of National Unity (GNU), led by Abdulhamid Dbeibeh, sits in Tripoli in northwest Libya, while its eastern rival is controlled by commander Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA), who support the eastern-based parliament led by Osama Hamad.
Derna, which lies some 300 kilometers (190 miles) east of Benghazi, falls under the control of Haftar and his eastern administration.
The country’s complex politics “pose challenges for developing risk communication and hazard assessment strategies, coordinating rescue operations, and also potentially for maintenance of critical infrastructure such as dams,” Leslie Mabon, lecturer in Environmental Systems at The Open University, told the Science Media Center. Dams collapse
The collapse of two dams, which sent water rushing towards Derna, has caused catastrophic damage, authorities said Tuesday.
“Three bridges were destroyed. The flowing water carried away entire neighborhoods, eventually depositing them into the sea,” said Ahmed Mismari, spokesperson for the LNA.
Homes in valleys were washed away by strong muddy currents carrying vehicles and debris, said Aly, the Emergency and Ambulance authority spokesperson.
Phone lines in the city are down, complicating rescue efforts, with workers unable to enter Derna due to the heavy destruction, Aly told CNN.
Aly said authorities didn’t anticipate the scale of the disaster.
“The weather conditions were not studied well, the seawater levels and rainfall [were not studied], the wind speeds, there was no evacuation of families that could be in the path of the storm and in valleys,” he said.
“Libya was not prepared for a catastrophe like that. It has not witnessed that level of catastrophe before. We are admitting there were shortcomings even though this is the first time we face that level of catastrophe,” Aly told Al Hurra channel.
‘Unprecedented flooding’ The storm looks certain to be one of the deadliest on record in North Africa.
Libya is facing an “unprecedented” situation, said Hamad, the head of the eastern administration, according to a report from state news organization Libyan News Agency (LANA).
Mismari, the LNA spokesperson, said the floods have affected several cities, including Al-Bayda, Al-Marj, Tobruk, Takenis, Al-Bayada, and Battah, as well as the eastern coast all the way to Benghazi. At least 37 residential buildings were swept away into the seas.
“We are not prepared for such a scale of devastation,” Mismari said.
Libyan authorities need three types of specialized search groups including teams to recover bodies from rugged valleys after torrents dispersed them, teams to recover bodies from under the rubble, and teams to recover bodies from the sea, he added.
Tens of thousands of military personnel have been deployed, but many of the flood-stricken regions are still inaccessible to emergency workers, according to Mismari.
Several countries and human rights groups have offered aid as rescue teams scramble to find survivors under the debris and rubble.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said the country faces “an unprecedented humanitarian crisis,” in the wake of the disaster.
Ciaran Donelly, IRC’s senior vice president for crisis response, said the challenges in Libya “are immense, with phone lines down and heavy destruction hampering rescue efforts.” He added that climate change has compounded the “steadily deteriorating” situation in the country after years of conflict and instability.
Turkish aircraft delivering humanitarian aid have arrived in Libya, according to Turkey’s Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) on Tuesday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the country would send 168 search and rescue teams and humanitarian aid to Benghazi, according to state run news agency Anadoulu Agency on Tuesday.
Italy is sending a civil defense team to assist with rescue operations, the country’s Civil Protection Department said Tuesday.
The US Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, announced that its special envoy, ambassador Richard Norland, had made an official declaration of humanitarian need.
This “will authorize initial funding that the United States will provide in support of relief efforts in Libya. We are coordinating with UN partners and Libyan authorities to assess how best to target official US assistance,” it posted on X (formally known as Twitter).
United Arab Emirates President, Zayed Al Nahyan, has directed to send aid and search and rescue teams while offering his condolences to those affected by the catastrophe, state news agency reported.
Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi sent a military delegation, led by the Egypt’s Armed Forces’ chief of staff Osama Askar, whom arrived in Libya on Tuesday to coordinate the provision of logistical and humanitarian assistance.
The storm reached a peak in northeastern Libya on Monday, according to a statement from the World Meteorological Organization, citing Libya’s National Meteorological Centre.
Libya’s storm follows deadly flooding in many other parts of the globe including southern Europe and Hong Kong.
More than 2,300 dead, thousands missing as floods devastate eastern Libya
At least 2,300 people were killed in Libya and thousands more were reported missing after catastrophic flash floods broke river dams and tore through an eastern coastal city, devastating entire neighbourhoods.
Issued on: 12/09/2023 -
Libyan Red Crescent rescuers in the flood-hit town of al-Bayda.
As global concern spread, multiple nations offered to urgently send aid and rescue teams to help the war-scarred country that has been overwhelmed by what one UN official labelled "a calamity of epic proportions".
Massive destruction shattered the Mediterranean coastal city of Derna, home to about 100,000 people, where multi-storey buildings on the river banks collapsed and houses and cars vanished in the raging waters.
Libyan emergency services reported an initial death toll of more than 2,300 in Derna alone and said over 5,000 people remained missing while about 7,000 were injured.
"The situation in Derna is shocking and very dramatic," said Osama Ali of the Tripoli-based Rescue and Emergency Service. "We need more support to save lives because there are people still under the rubble and every minute counts."
The floods were caused by torrential rains from Storm Daniel, which made landfall in Libya on Sunday after earlier lashing Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey.
Derna, 250 kilometres (150 miles) east of Benghazi, is ringed by hills and bisected by what is normally a dry riverbed in summer, but which has turned into a raging torrent of mud-brown water that also swept away several major bridges.
'The death toll is huge and might reach thousands,' warned Tamer Ramadan of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The number of dead given by the Libyan emergency service roughly matched the grim estimates provided by the Red Cross and by authorities in the eastern region, who have warned the death toll may yet rise further.
"The death toll is huge and might reach thousands," said Tamer Ramadan of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, three of whose volunteers were also reported dead.
"We confirm from our independent sources of information that the number of missing people is hitting 10,000 persons so far," Ramadan told reporters via video link from neighbouring Tunisia.
Elsewhere in Libya's east, aid group the Norwegian Refugee Council said "entire villages have been overwhelmed by the floods and the death toll continues to rise".
"Communities across Libya have endured years of conflict, poverty and displacement. The latest disaster will exacerbate the situation for these people. Hospitals and shelters will be overstretched." 'Catastrophic' situation
Footage on Libyan TV showed dozens of bodies, wrapped in blankets or sheets, on Derna's main square, awaiting identification and burial, and more bodies in Martouba, a village about 30 kilometres to the southeast.
More than 300 victims were buried Monday, many in mass graves -- but vastly greater numbers of people were feared lost in the waters of the river that empties into the Mediterranean.
Oil-rich Libya is still recovering from the years of war and chaos that followed the 2011 NATO-backed popular uprising which toppled and killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi.
The North African country is divided between two rival governments -- the UN-brokered, internationally recognised administration based in Tripoli in the west, and a separate administration in the disaster-hit east.
Access to the eastern region is limited. Phone and online links have been largely severed, but the administration's prime minister Oussama Hamad has reported "more than 2,000 dead and thousands missing" in Derna alone.
A Derna city council official described the situation as "catastrophic" and asked for a "national and international intervention", speaking to TV channel Libya al-Ahrar.
Rescue teams from Turkey have arrived in eastern Libya, according to authorities, and the UN and several countries offered to send aid, among them Algeria, Egypt, France, Italy, Qatar, Tunisia and the United States. 'Harrowing images'
The storm also hit Benghazi and the hill district of Jabal al-Akhdar. Flooding, mudslides and other major damage were reported from the wider region, with images showing overturned cars and trucks.
Libya's National Oil Corporation, which has its main fields and terminals in eastern Libya, declared "a state of maximum alert" and suspended flights between production sites where it said activity was drastically reduced.
Flood damage in the eastern city of Derna where torrential rains caused a flashflood in a river that destroyed dams, bridges and buildings.
Libya's UN-brokered government under Abdelhamid Dbeibah announced three days of national mourning on Monday and emphasised "the unity of all Libyans".
Aid convoys from Tripoli were heading east and Dbeibah's government announced the dispatch of two ambulance planes and a helicopter, as well as rescue teams, canine search squads and 87 doctors, and technicians to restore power.
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani wrote that Rome was "responding immediately to requests for support" with an assessment team on its way.
The United States embassy said it had "issued an official declaration of humanitarian need in response to the devastating floods in Libya".
European Council president Charles Michel, writing on X, formerly Twitter, noted the "harrowing images from Libya" and vowed the "EU stands ready to help those affected by this calamity".
(AFP)
Warmer seas, political chaos drive Libya flood toll: experts
Issued on: 12/09/2023 -
Paris (AFP) – Warmer seas, political chaos and inadequate infrastructure combined with devastating effect in the flooding that has killed more than 2,300 people in Libya, experts said on Tuesday.
Riverside buildings in the eastern Mediterranean coastal city of Derna collapsed after Storm Daniel brought heavy rainfall
Riverside buildings in the eastern Mediterranean coastal city of Derna collapsed after Storm Daniel brought heavy rainfall that broke river dams and engulfed entire neighbourhoods.
Daniel formed around September 4, bringing death and destruction to Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey last week.
These Mediterranean storms which bear the features of tropical cyclones and hurricanes, known as "medicanes", only occur one to three times a year.
They need fluxes of heat and moisture, which are "enhanced by warm sea surface temperatures", noted Suzanne Gray, a professor at the meteorology department at the University of Reading in Britain.
The surface waters of the eastern Mediterranean and Atlantic are two to three degrees Celsius warmer than usual and are "likely to have caused rainfall to be more intense", said scientists taking part in a UK National Climate Impacts meeting.
But it is unclear if the persistent high-pressure blocking pattern that caused the heavy rainfall and flooding will become more common in the future, they said.
The last assessment report by the UN's scientific advisory panel on climate change, released earlier this year, concluded that a warming world increases the strength of medicanes even if they become less frequent, added Gray.
Most scientists are cautious about making direct links between individual weather events and long-term changes in the climate.
But Storm Daniel "is illustrative of the type of devastating flooding event we may expect increasingly in the future" as the world heats up, said Lizzie Kendon, a climate science professor at the University of Bristol.
The European Union's climate monitoring service Copernicus said rising global sea surface temperatures were driving record levels of heat across the globe, with 2023 likely to be the warmest in human history.
Oceans have absorbed 90 percent of the excess heat produced by human activity since the dawn of the industrial age, according to scientists. A 'natural' disaster?
Some analysts believe the fragmented political scene in Libya -- torn apart by more than a decade of civil conflict following the fall of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011 -- contributed to the devastation.
The North African country is divided between two rival governments: the UN-brokered, internationally recognised administration based in the capital Tripoli in the west, and a separate administration in the eastern region impacted by the flooding.
"There is no such thing as a natural disaster," argued Leslie Mabon, a lecturer in environmental systems at the UK-based Open University.
Although climate change can make extreme weather events more frequent and intense, social, political and economic factors determine who is at greatest risk, he said.
The loss of life was also a consequence of the limited nature of Libya's forecasting ability, warning and evacuation systems, said Kevin Collins, senior lecturer at the Open University.
Weaknesses in the planning and design standards for infrastructure and cities were also exposed, he added.
The UK National Climate Impacts scientists also noted that "infrastructure tipping points", such as extra strain on the dams, make extreme weather events deadlier and more destructive.
The political conditions in Libya "pose challenges for developing risk communication and hazard assessment strategies, coordinating rescue operations, and also potentially for maintenance of critical infrastructure such as dams", Mabon added.
Libya floods wipe out quarter of city, 10,000 feared missing
At least 10,000 people were feared missing in Libya on Tuesday in floods caused by a huge storm, which burst dams, swept away buildings and wiped out as much as a quarter of the eastern city of Derna. More than 1,000 bodies had already been recovered in Derna alone, and officials expected the death toll would be much higher, after Storm Daniel barrelled across the Mediterranean into a country crumbling from more than a decade of conflict. FRANCE 24's Delano D'Souza tells us more.
Libya floods: Global concern spread, multiple nations offer to send aid
Issued on: 12/09/2023 -
01:49
At least 2,300 people were killed in Libya and thousands more were reported missing after catastrophic flash floods broke river dams and tore through an eastern coastal city, devastating entire neighbourhoods. As global concern spread, multiple nations offered to urgently send aid and rescue teams to help the war-scarred country that has been overwhelmed by what one UN official labelled "a calamity of epic proportions".
At least 2,300 dead in Libya floods 'calamity', thousands missing
Issued on: 12/09/2023 -
01:48
At least 2,300 people were killed in Libya and thousands more were reported missing after catastrophic flash floods broke river dams and tore through an eastern coastal city, devastating entire neighbourhoods. As global concern spread, multiple nations offered to urgently send aid and rescue teams to help the war-scarred country that has been overwhelmed by what one UN official labelled "a calamity of epic proportions".
NATO NATION BUILDING
Rival Libya govts 'completely neglected failing infrastructure' that succumbed to treacherous floods
At least 10,000 people were feared missing or dead in Libya in floods caused by a huge storm that burst dams, swept away buildings and wiped out as much as a quarter of the eastern city of Derna. More than 1,000 bodies have already been recovered in Derna alone and officials expected the death toll would steadily rise, after Storm Daniel barrelled across the Mediterranean into a country divided and crumbling following a decade of conflict raging unabated since the fall of Gaddafi. For more analysis and perspective on the catastrophic floods unleashed on the fragile people of a crisis-ridden country engulfed in conflict, FRANCE 24's Nadia Massih is joined by Claudia Gazzini, International Crisis Group's Senior Analyst for Libya.
'Basic needs are huge' in Libya: IFRC is calling for 'long-term support to invest in infrastructure'
Emergency workers uncovered hundreds of bodies in the wreckage of Libya’s eastern city of Derna on Tuesday, and it was feared the toll could spiral with 10,000 people reported still missing after floodwaters smashed through dams and washed away entire neighborhoods of the city. For more on the startling death and devastation wreaked by Mediterranean storm Daniel and further exacerbated by a ruthless decade-old conflict, FRANCE 24's Nadia Massih is joined by Mey Al Sayegh, Head Of Communications at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - (IFRC).
Libya floods: Turkey sending aid aircraft, rescue team
Issued on: 12/09/2023 -
02:26
Turkey is sending three aircraft to transport a rescue team and humanitarian aid to Libya, its foreign ministry said on Tuesday, after a massive flood caused by heavy rain killed at least 2,000 people in the city of Derna. FRANCE 24's Jasper Mortimer reports from Ankara, Turkey.
California lawmakers OK bills banning certain chemicals in foods and drinks
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers are working through hundreds of bills before the legislative session ends on Thursday.
If approved, the bills go to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will have until Oct. 14 to decide whether to sign them into law, veto them or let them become law without his signature.
The state Legislature almost never overrides a veto from the governor, no matter what political party is in charge.
CHEMICALS IN FOOD
Lawmakers on Tuesday voted to become the first state to ban four chemicals from processed food and drinks sold in California by 2027.
The chemicals — red dye no. 3, potassium bromate, brominated vegetable oil and propyl paraben — are still used in popular products like Peeps, the popular marshmallow chicks most associated with Easter.
Democratic Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, the author of the bill, said those chemicals have already been banned by the European Union and other countries because of scientific research linking them to health problems, including cancer.
“It is unacceptable that the U.S. is so far behind the rest of the world when it comes to food safety,” Gabriel said. “This bill will not ban any foods or products — it simply will require food companies to make minor modifications to their recipes.” LOBBYING An earlier version of the bill would also have banned titanium dioxide, which is used in Skittles. But amendments in the state Senate removed that chemical from the ban.
DISCLOSING FINANCIAL RISKS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
The state Assembly approved a bill requiring companies making more than $500 million annually to disclose what financial risks climate change poses to their businesses and how they plan to address those risks.
State Sen. Henry Stern, a Democrat from Los Angeles who introduced the legislation, said the information would be useful for individuals and lawmakers when making public and private investment decisions. The bill was changed recently to require companies to begin reporting the information in 2026, instead of 2024, and mandate that they report every other year, instead of annually.
The changes would help make it more feasible for businesses to follow through with reporting requirements, said Anne DiGrazia, a spokesperson for Stern.
The bill was among the biggest climate proposals in the state Legislature this year, collecting support from major companies including IKEA and Microsoft, as well as former California Air Resources Board Chair Mary D. Nichols.
Opponents of the bill say it would be too burdensome for companies and is premature. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could approve rules requiring public companies to disclose their direct and indirect emissions, as well as how climate risk affects their business.
The proposed California mandate would apply to more than 10,000 companies, according to Ceres, a policy group supporting it. The vote comes after the state Legislature sent another bill to Newsom that would require companies making more than $1 billion annually to report their direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions.
CLIMATE CHANGE SCHOOL CURRICULUM
The Senate passed a bill that would require schools to teach students, from first grade through high school, about the causes and effects of climate change. The bill also would mandate lessons on how to mitigate and adapt to the effects of the changing climate.
Proponents of the bill say lessons about climate change are already a part of school curricula in other countries including Italy and New Zealand. Oregon also introduced legislation this year to mandate climate change lessons, but the bill did not advance.
It would still need final approval in the Assembly before ending up on Newsom’s desk.
CANNABIS CAFES
The Legislature sent a bill to Newsom’s desk that could create more so-called “cannabis cafes,” inspired by establishments in Amsterdam where customers can socialize and purchase cannabis, coffee and other products.
The bill would allow local governments to give licenses to cannabis dispensaries to sell non-cannabis food, beverages and tickets to live music events.
Democratic Assemblymember Matt Haney of San Francisco, who introduced the bill, said it would give a boost to small cannabis businesses. He said many people want to be able to socialize and listen to live music while consuming cannabis.
“There’s absolutely no good reason from an economic, health or safety standpoint that the state should make that illegal,” Haney said in a statement.
___ Sophie Austin is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin @sophieadanna
Adam Beam And Sophie Austin, The Associated Press
Filmmakers, celebs ask TIFF to cut ties with sponsor RBC over environmental concerns
A group of Canadian filmmakers have joined forces with Hollywood A-listers in asking the Toronto International Film Festival to end sponsorship ties with the Royal Bank of Canada because of the bank's funding of the oil and gas industry.
Organizers of the campaign called RBC Off Screen say the financial institution's track record of investing in fossil fuels runs contrary to the socially progressive values the film festival purports to stand for.
Signatories to the group's open letter to TIFF outlining its concerns include screen stars Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Joaquin Phoenix, alongside filmmakers and producers including Avi Lewis, Elza Kephart and Jose Luis Gutierrez.
Kephart and Gutierrez started the campaign they say have the support of more than 200 industry workers. The group's statement says RBC is one of the largest financiers of oil and gas projects in the world and supports projects that have negatively impacted Indigenous lands and BIPOC groups.
TIFF's vice-president of public relations Judy Lung said in a statement the festival appreciates the sustainability concerns being brought forward, and that they talking to RBC about them.
RBC spokesperson Stephanie Bannan said in a statement that more action is needed on climate change and the company welcomes the chance to discuss the issues with Indigenous groups and the film community.
Crisis forces Alberta public health leader out from shadows, even if he doubts 'urgency'
Story by Jason Markusoff • CBC
It took 10 months for the Danielle Smith government's replacement for Dr. Deena Hinshaw to speak publicly for the first time. Nearly a year on the job, and nine days into an E. coli outbreak that's sickened dozens of daycare-going children.
Tuesday was chief medical officer of health Dr. Mark Joffe's crisis-time debut, and what moment might Albertans remember from it? How the public health leader said there was no urgency to talk to them up to this point — not the sort of line you'll find in the crisis communications textbook.
This isn't the COVID public health emergency, and for so many reasons Joffe isn't Hinshaw, fired by Smith shortly after she became premier. But Albertans had come to expect a certain level of timeliness, thorough information-sharing and trust-building when it came time for public health leadership.
It's hard to make arguments that the public appetite for answers and context was satisfied in this first effort.
Joffe and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange had spent a week leaving all communications to those at Alberta Health Services closer to the front lines of the rapidly growing emergency. The outbreak at several daycares which share a common kitchen has infected 264 people (mostly children), hospitalized more than two dozen and required six to go on dialysis, the treatment for kidney failure.
Finally taking to a news conference podium Tuesday, Joffe insisted he'd been engaged up until now getting daily updates from AHS, and had new information to share — a kitchen safety inspection report that found several critical violations, including cockroaches and improper sanitizing.
"At this point we felt it was prudent and appropriate for us to appear here and to speak to Albertans and to answer your questions," said the new CMOH (if he still counts as new after 10 quiet months). "But we didn't feel there was urgency to do that up until this point."
LaGrange quickly took Joffe's place at the microphone after he said this.
"Extremely serious case, I'm a mother myself, grandmother," she said. "Anyone who's had to sit at the bedside of a really sick child knows how devastating this is." Then, she attempted to further blot out Joffe's words.
"I believe what Dr. Joffe meant was that it was urgent from the very very beginning, and it continues to be urgent until every single one of those children are home and safe with their families and progressing well." Hours later, Alberta Health communicators sent reporters a clarification statement in Joffe's name: "The issue has been addressed with urgency from the very start. As the chief medical officer of health, my priority has been on the health and well-being of the children impacted, and the progress of the investigation." Related video: Alberta health minister, CMOH address why they didn’t publicly comment until a week after outbreak (cbc.ca) Duration 3:51 View on Watch
The clarification concluded: "The priority was first and foremost getting people looked after and then to provide the public with a fulsome update on the situation."
It's not clear what "fulsome update" has been provided, with health officials still unable to pinpoint what the source of E. coli bacteria was (investigations into kitchen items and daycare leftovers are ongoing).
It appears the new information Joffe and LaGrange had to share was AHS' problematic food safety report from Sept. 5. The doctor himself stressed that while it's a "flag" for potential problems at the kitchen, it may offer no direct links to whatever sickened the many little lunchers and snackers it served.
Another new input arrived Monday — criticism from André Picard, the veteran health columnist for the Globe and Mail. "Despite the magnitude of this problem, we have yet to hear a peep from Alberta's chief medical officer of health, who is (checks notes) Dr. Mark Joffe," Picard wrote.
"We didn't really need another brutal reminder of the eviscerated state of public health in this country, and politicians' indifference to it, but here we have it."
One day later, Joffe and the politicians emerged. When speaking about the outbreak, Children's Services Minister Searle Turton mispronounced it "E. co-lee" rather than "coal-eye."
We learned plenty about a CMOH's role during the coronavirus pandemic, and so much of it involves regular communication with the public, sharing helpful safety information, and constant monitoring and understanding of emerging problems.
On that last point, Joffe's debut had another bump. In one of his news conference answers about the Fueling Minds kitchen inspection he shared incorrect information. "What I have been advised is that the violations that were found typically were different from one inspection to the next," he said. "And that there were no critical violations during the earlier investigations or inspections, and that only the most recent inspection has had critical violations that were flagged."
A public health official who was more abreast of the situation may have done as reporters were doing in real time — looked at those inspection reports. In the last seven AHS investigations going back to February 2022, Fueling Minds had critical violations. It had been flagged for repeat violations on equipment sanitation, and this April, inspectors found problems with the same ammonia sanitizer as they did after closure this month.
Joffe could have also shared the publicly available information about new inspections at the Fueling Brains daycares at the centre of this situation. Two of its locations were flagged for not taking the temperature of cold food items, and a third was found to be improperly sanitizing common surface areas (a vital thing to do at the petri dishes known as child-care facilities).
While he has a medical background in infectious diseases, Joffe is not trained in the communications-intensive field of public health specifically.
The Smith government plucked him from AHS's executive ranks in November to fill Hinshaw's role, rather than hiring any of the hospital superagency's many public health officers.
And it's not clear what expertise is supporting him at Alberta Health. Hinshaw's two deputy chiefs both resigned in the wake of her firing, and no replacements have been found despite repeated job postings, the most recent one last Wednesday.
One suspects this will not be the last time Albertans hear from Joffe and LaGrange on this front, despite the clarifications needed after this outing. The number of infected children hasn't stopped rising, Alberta Children's Hospital still has 25 patients sick with daycare-borne E. coli, and AHS investigators are still trying to pinpoint which food item the kids were fed caused the severe illness.
And other issues may warrant the top public health official's attention, and public communication. It's unclear if COVID's new variant will surge this fall, and neighbouring British Columbia began treating its opioid and toxic drug crisis as a public health emergency seven years ago, well before the overdose and death rate reached the level of urgency it's now at in Alberta.
There's that word again. Joffe will likely be careful how he wields it in future public appearances, but he might now have a better understanding of how the term figures into his role.
Cockroaches, previous violations at kitchen used by Calgary daycares as E. coli outbreak toll climbs to 264
Story by Jade Markus • CBC
Alberta health inspectors have disclosed they found major health issues, including cockroach infestations and unsafe food handling, at a shared kitchen used by several daycares hit by a widespread E. coli outbreak.
This comes after an outbreak of the shiga toxin-producing E. coli, which can cause serious issues. The outbreak has sent children to hospital and some are on dialysis after developing hemolytic uremic syndrome, a disease which affects the kidneys.
At a press conference Tuesday, Dr. Mark Joffe, the province's chief medical officer of health, said the kitchen inspection came after a noticeable increase in young children coming to the emergency departments over the September long weekend.
"The emergency department physicians were very astute and quickly recognized that something unusual was happening and they reached out to the medical officer of health on call and to the team," Joffe said.
"From there it was quickly determined that the cases that they were seeing were linked to daycare centres and, in turn, those daycare centres were linked to one centralized kitchen."
Since then, there have been 264 lab-confirmed cases of E. coli connected to the outbreak. The cause of the outbreak has not yet been determined and remains under investigation.
In an environmental inspection report of the kitchen at KidsU Centennial - Fueling Minds Inc., AHS detailed "significant evidence of a pest infestation" at the food establishment on Sept. 5, the date of the inspection, which happened the day after the outbreak was declared.
"Two live adult cockroaches were observed on the sides of stainless steel equipment around the dishwashing area. The tin cat traps by the two separate two-compartment sinks had at least 20 cockroaches on the sticky pads each," the report read.
AHS said the inspection also found instances of food not being handled in a manner that makes it safe to eat, and a lack of appropriate equipment for keeping food cold during transportation.
In total, inspectors found three critical violations and two non-critical violations related to an odour and utensil storage.
The report shows other violations cited on a number of dates ahead of the September inspection.
Joffe said the kitchen is closed and will only reopen once AHS has determined that it is safe.
He added that Alberta Health Services conducts more than 40,000 inspections a year — and it is unusual to have a completely clean inspection.
Prior to the closure, he said, the facility had last been inspected in April. Two infractions were found at that time, and they were corrected. By the end of April, there were no violations in the kitchen, he said.
In a statement to CBC News late Tuesday afternoon, Kent Hehr, vice president of Fueling Brains, said their daycares source food from Fueling Minds, a catering company which also provides food to other daycare centres.
Hehr said that Fueling Minds' kitchen is supervised by a Red Seal chef. While Fueling Brains and Fueling Minds share "similar ownership," Hehr said they are independent entities.
"While the kitchen remains closed, all food will be sourced by external providers," the statement reads.
Hehr added that Fueling Brains took immediate action to shut down affected daycares and communicate with parents when they were notified of the outbreak by AHS on Sept. 4.
"Communicating with our families has been our priority and we have been sending out daily parent and staff messages to help keep our community informed and safe. Throughout this process, we have remained transparent, cooperative, and have taken immediate action wherever possible."
There are currently 25 patients receiving care in hospital, the province said in an emailed media release — 22 of whom are confirmed as having hemolytic uremic syndrome, which is a severe illness caused by E. coli infection.
Six patients are receiving peritoneal dialysis at Alberta Children's Hospital. The children with severe illness are all in stable condition and are receiving the care they need in hospital. Other children and families are receiving care and support at three outpatient clinics set up in Calgary hospitals.
When asked why he and Alberta's minister of health didn't comment on the outbreak sooner, Joffe said he had been following the daily communications from AHS closely.
"We didn't feel that there was urgency to do that up until this point," he said.
In an email sent after the press conference, Joffe issued a clarifying statement regarding that comment.
"This issue has been addressed with urgency from the very start. As the chief medical officer of health, my priority has been on the health and well-being of the children impacted, and the progress of the investigation."
"The priority was first and foremost getting people looked after and then to provide the public with a fulsome update on the situation."
Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange said she has received daily updates on the situation, but didn't comment publicly as she's been monitoring AHS and "wanting to really make sure that AHS was focused on what they needed to do."
Katie McLean's daughter, who is almost two years old, attended Fueling Brains McKnight, one of the affected locations, and was recently released from Alberta Children's Hospital after being sick with E. coli. McLean said the report released by AHS was "disgusting" and "hard to imagine."
She said she understands that inspections happen and violations are corrected, but said the lack of appropriate equipment for keeping food cold during transportation was the most egregious part.
"If your entire business is transporting food to children, their entire business is catering, why would you not have the safety pieces in place to make sure that that food is safely delivered?"
"It just makes me absolutely sick. I can hardly talk about it without crying. It's so hard to imagine my little girl eating at the daycare — so innocent and not knowing that she was at risk."
Eleven child-care facilities were closed as part of the outbreak investigation.
AHS has since rescinded the closure orders for four facilities — Little Oak Early Education, Almond Branch, Braineer Academy and Fueling Brains Bridgeland — as no one from those sites has tested positive, and public health inspectors have ensured that the sites have taken appropriate measures such as cleaning and disinfection.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it is providing support as the source is investigated.
On Tuesday, the Alberta NDP called for a full inquiry into the outbreak.
"When we do discover the source of that outbreak, we need to move immediately to a full and public inquiry into how this food handling site was left uninspected for months," Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley said in a statement.
Should international students be capped? Here’s what Canada’s provinces say
As Canada continues to grapple with a housing crisis, the conversation is increasingly turning to international students coming into the country.
But multiple provinces are pushing back on federal suggestions that an international student cap could help solve the problem, and say they haven't been consulted.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller, Housing Minister Sean Fraser and Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc have all indicated that Ottawa is considering a cap on student intake.
Following their comments over the past two weeks, Global News reached out to provincial and territorial governments about how it would impact them and whether they would support any caps.
Three provinces, British Columbia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador, told Global News they had not been consulted on any proposed cap. Only the government of the Northwest Territories said it had been in contact with Ottawa about a proposed student cap.
“The GNWT has been in discussions with the federal government regarding potential changes around international students and, while not the main focus, a proposed cap has been mentioned,” a spokesperson for the N.W.T. government said.
A B.C. government official on background said, “At this time, Provincial officials responsible for international education have not been contacted by IRCC or any other department with a proposal to cap international student enrolment. We will await and review any international student enrolment policy.”
Angela Picco, a spokesperson for the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Education, said international students were a crucial part of the province's strategy to address its demographic challenges.
“We are hopeful that we will have the opportunity for consultation before any cap is implemented to ensure that it does not disadvantage our province, given the demographic challenges facing our province and the role of post-secondary education in attracting newcomers to this province,” she said.
Picco added that the provincial government would support post-secondary institutions increasing their international student numbers.
New Brunswick similarly said international students have been integral to the “province’s economy for a number of years and the attraction and retention of them is critical to our current and future workforce.”
"We have seen the number of international students increase over the past few years and we hope this trend will continue," Judy Désalliers, a spokesperson for the Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Ministry, said.
“The federal government, through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, regularly meets with the provinces and territories but has not consulted with New Brunswick about a proposed cap on international students," the statement added.
The government of Saskatchewan told Global News it thinks the province and its institutions are in the best position to determine the appropriate number of international students since education is an area of provincial jurisdiction.
“As such, we find no justification for implementing such a restriction in our province thanks to the hard work of our institutions ensuring housing and other needs of students are being met," Sam Sasse, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Advanced Education, said.
"Our government has confidence in the ability of Saskatchewan’s designated learning institutions to manage recruitment and support for both domestic and international students.”
Quebec, too, said it is working to attract international students, particularly francophone students and those in “priority sectors."
The Quebec Ministry of Education also indicated it was concerned about the income of higher educational institutions.
Related video: Why a foreign student cap would be ‘disastrous’ for Canada (cbc.ca)
“The ministry will closely follow federal government decisions that could have an impact on the income of higher education establishments in Quebec,” a spokesperson said, writing in French.
Ontario, which is home to nearly half of all international students in Canada, said in a statement that while the federal government was responsible for immigration policy, “all levels of government have a role to play in supporting the welcoming of international students.”
The Ontario government did not clearly state whether it would support any kind of a cap.
A Nova Scotia government spokesperson said while it would be premature to comment right now, “Nova Scotia would want to be given the opportunity to be consulted because international students make a positive impact on our province. We want to help them build a life and career here when they graduate.”
The role of international students in provincial labour markets was also raised by provinces and territories. The N.W.T. was among those, saying the region already caps international students at 30 per cent of an institution’s total population.
“It is important that any federal adjustments to the classes of immigrants which may be allowed into Canada each year, including international students, not negatively impact the NWT’s ability to attract and retain international students and talent, which are important to the territory’s labour market and economic development,” a spokesperson said.
Alberta currently has 90,000 job vacancies across sectors, with many employers looking to international students to fill those labour gaps. A spokesperson for the ministry of advanced education told Global News their labour forecasts show "international students will play a key role in complimenting our efforts in broadening and deepening Alberta’s talent pool."
A spokesperson for P.E.I. said the province was looking forward to hearing the details of any proposed cap on international students, so it can better understand the implications for P.E.I.
A spokesperson for the Yukon said this was an “issue for some of the other jurisdictions in Canada," since the territory only has Yukon University and three registered private training institutions.
Manitoba and Nunavut did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.
The growing focus on federal immigration and whether targets need to be reviewed comes as the country struggles to cope with a housing crisis.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told reporters on Monday that it would be unfair to blame students.
“I want to be really clear on this. International students are not to be blamed for the housing crisis we’re in. Over the past decades, both Liberals and Conservatives have not built enough homes,” Singh said.
Singh said the NDP, if elected in the next federal election, would require colleges and universities that have international student enrolment to prove that they can provide them housing.
“If you’re welcoming students in, you should be able to house them,” he said.
Singh said that while provinces had a “role to play” in easing the housing crisis for students, he was “not interested in playing a blame game.”
The NDP leader said student housing needed to be a part of any national housing strategy.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre last month called Canada’s immigration system “broken” and said, "I'll make sure we have housing and health care so that when people come here they have a roof overhead and care when they need it."
After last month’s cabinet retreat, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canadians should be “very careful” about blaming international students for the housing crisis.
“We have to be very careful. Over the past years, we’ve seen a lot of different people and a lot of different groups blamed for the housing crisis. At one point it was foreign homebuyers. At another point it was developers being super aggressive. Another point, it was under-investments by various orders of government. Now it’s people saying, ‘Oh, it’s international students,’” Trudeau said.
Many of the provinces told Global News they were investing significantly in building student residences. At the same time, Fay Faraday, a law professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and immigration law expert, said Canadian universities depend on international students for a large chunk of their revenue.
She said this is because of declining provincial support for post-secondary education over the last few years.
“The international student population is critical to the functioning of the university because the fees that they pay, which are significantly above domestic fees, fill the gap in the underfunding for the public education system and secondary public education system,” Faraday said.
Last month, Universities Canada also pushed back against a potential cap on international student intake.
“Recent comments conflating international students and the housing crisis are deeply concerning to Universities Canada and our members,” Lisa Wallace, a spokesperson for Universities Canada, said in a statement.
“International students bring important knowledge, diversity and skills to our campuses, communities and workforce. We must continue to welcome them to study at Canadian universities.”
According to a recent survey by the Daily Bread food bank, which was released on Wednesday, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s estimated living expense used during the application process is nearly half of what a student in Toronto typically spends.
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