BANKSY HAPPY SPRING

 

‘It’s spring now, and this tree should be bursting forth with leaves, but Banksy must have cycled past and thought how miserable it looks. So, on St Patrick’s Day, he has taken exactly the same shade of green Islington Council use for their street signs and used a pressure hose or a fire extinguisher to spray the leaves back in, onto the rather dilapidated wall behind,’ he said  

(Picture: Sarah Hooper) Provided by Metro

James Peak, creator of BBC Radio 4 series The Banksy Story, said the message from the latest piece 'is clear'. 'Nature’s struggling and it is up to us to help it grow back,' he said. ‘If you go way back to the beginning of his work, he is always looking for something he can do with minimum effort to make something look really cool' 

Public gather in London to view suspected Banksy art work | Watch (msn.com)

         

Demand is soaring for prefab homes. So why isn’t Canada seeing rapid growth?

Story by Uday Rana

 • Global News

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces 20.7 million dollars in federal funds for new homes to be built at Smart Modular Canada in Thunder Bay, Ont., Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024.

 THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Jackson© Provided by Global News

As Canada grapples with a housing crisis, manufacturers and developers of pre-fabricated (prefab) housing are seeing a surge in demand, but say they don’t have the capacity to meet those demands.

Robert Pierson, the development director at a Vancouver-based prefab home development firm called Eco Homes, told Global News that demand has been soaring for factory-built homes.

“We get a thousand inquiries a month coming in to the website for our modular homes. And that's spread across Canada and a little bit down into northern U.S.A.,” Pierson said.

Pre-fabricated housing or prefab construction is a method of building where the bulk of the construction happens off-site, often in a facility, like a factory. Either a fully constructed modular home or parts of a house are then shipped off to the location, where it is assembled and connected to utilities.

Pierson likened it to buying an entire car in parts and having a mechanic assemble it in your garage.

“There is a growing interest in prefab,” Jesse Page, with the Collingwood, Ont.-based custom home building firm Legendary Group, told Global News.

He said panelled construction is particularly generating a lot of interest.

“The substantial structural work is done in panels to be ready to finish a home just significantly faster, as much as 50 per cent faster.”

According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Canada will need nearly 3.5 million additional new homes by 2030. Many believe that prefab is a quick and efficient way to get there faster. But the path to prefab is full of challenges.

Page said among the factors that make prefab housing hard to do on scale is the need that many feel to have their home stand out. Individual modifications to pre-fabricated designs often add months to the construction process, as opposed to consumers picking from a pre-approved design and sticking to it.

Page said the manufacturing process gets complicated “when you have a client that's coming in saying, 'I like this model, but I want to make all these changes.'”

Making modifications and getting fresh permissions can cause construction time to go up significantly, he said.

Along with the lengthy customization process, indecision can also plays a role, particularly when it comes to breaking away from the traditional home build.

“When, literally, you can choose anything for a home (design), it can intimidate people to the point of not knowing what to choose. And the process turns into a very lengthy and stressful process," Pierson said.

Both Pierson and Page agreed that the federal government’s move to bring back a wartime housing strategy of pre-approved catalogues could help boost the efficiency of the prefab housing construction.

When thousands of veterans returned to Canada after the Second World War, Canada was facing a housing crisis. To cut through the red tape and accelerate the building and approval process, Ottawa released a catalogue of pre-approved home designs that builders could start constructing straight away. Hundreds of thousands of new homes were built in Canada over a short period of time.

These homes were sometimes called ‘Strawberry-box homes,’ named for the shape of strawberry boxes in grocery stores.

“They gave the basics of what is needed and safe for a home for people to buy,” Page said.

While perhaps considered cookie-cutter, the streamlining of options helped development move quickly.

“You have to remove the choice of people because that's what makes things go up.… You just build it and then make it affordable," Page said.

The federal government's first round of plans for the housing catalogue will focus on standardizing designs for low-rise construction, with the potential to "explore" further design catalogues for other construction, including prefab and modular designs.

Traditional housing designs can't directly be used for prefab construction, though one builder noted they could inspire a prefab version -- that would likely then need to go through further approvals.

Global News asked the housing minister's office for comment on the potential for prefab designs to be included in the catalogue but did not hear back by time of publication.

Video: What are ‘Strawberry-Box’ homes?

Having pre-set catalogues allows manufacturers to source materials in bulk and quickly ramp up production. But that’s hard to do without an infusion of capital. Scaling up prefab housing is expensive.

Paul Kealey, CEO of Carp, Ont.-based sustainable homes developer EkoBuilt, said they are transitioning to be “a predominant prefab company,” but they’re finding it expensive to scale up.

“It's still more affordable for us to offer an on-site build to a customer, it’s more affordable instead of a prefabricated offsite build,” Kealy said.

“Prefab at scale is the answer (to the housing crisis). And focusing on affordability is going to be the solution.”

Page said the government could follow the wartime housing model, when housing projects were pre-funded and pre-approved by the government.

“If it’s a pre-funded project with predetermined land that's approved … you could have a (new) home, once the train starts every two days on a site,” he said.

Federal money has started to trickle in. Last month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Thunder Bay, Ont., where he announced $20.7 million for a modular housing project in the city. Trudeau said the money, taken out of the $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund, would help the construction of 600 new units over three years.

Kealey said Canada also struggles with expensive raw materials for climate-friendly prefab home designs, with many parts being exported from Europe.

“Right now, about 50 per cent of the proper materials that are required come from Europe. So North America needs to transition by having the right material supply chain in place.”

Prefab housing comes in many forms.

There are different ways to select the kind of house you want, but Page said among the most common is simply going to a showroom and seeing finished homes. Once a customer picks a home design, they are likely to get a quote on a price.

After you put down a deposit, Pierson said it could take around six months for the entire house to be constructed in a controlled facility. This, he says, is a lot faster than the traditional on-site construction, which he says “is probably a two- to three-year process.”

“In prefab, materials tend to be precut. They know in this particular home they will need 300 pieces of this size. Then, literally, they can go through them in batches, cut them in batches. It's just a much more precise and quicker way of doing things,” Pierson said.

Page said this also reduces waste.

“On an average 2,500-square-foot home, there's over 6,000 pounds of wood waste on site. On a facility, that's reduced to like under 1,500 pounds.”

He added that one of the biggest advantages of prefab housing is the reduced labour requirements. In a country like Canada, where the construction sector is riddled with labour shortages, he said this is invaluable.

“We’re building 25 of those homes a year with just six people,” he said.

Housing policy expert Carolyn Whitzman said this could also translate to better working conditions.

“It's a better job. It is less likely to lead to huge employee health and safety disasters,” she said.

Whitzman said modular housing has been a resounding success in several countries, particularly Sweden. Between 1965 and 1974, Sweden set out to build a million homes in a short span of time. Most of these, Whitzman said, were modular.

“That was all modular. In fact, 42 per cent of homes in Sweden are still modular.”

She said the Million Homes Program also led to the growth of one of Sweden’s best-known brands – IKEA.

“Once you had a standard size of living room and a standard size of kitchen and standard-size bedroom, you could produce furniture super quickly that could fit.”

As for criticism of modular housing that all the houses are too similar looking?

“You can do landscaping, you can do murals, you can do changes to the façades. I mean, there's a whole bunch of things you can do,” Whitzman said.

Pierson said the government’s catalogue of pre-approved designs will help.

“If the catalogue has more than five models, then you're not going to end up living in the same home as everybody else.”

Indigenous nations and world views key to combating climate change: report

Matteo Cimellaro / Canada’s National Observer 

Climate change is a consequence of colonialism and the separation of the natural world, and now, Indigenous Peoples and their world views hold unique strengths in responding to the climate crisis, a new report says.

For our Future: Indigenous Resilience Report emphasizes different forms of knowledge not normally found in other climate reports, like the ones from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

For example, quotes from elders, Indigenous leaders and case studies gave the report a different way of telling a narrative of the climate crisis with the nuance of how it affects particular nations, like Inuit, Métis or different First Nations, Deborah McGregor, one of the report’s authors, told Canada’s National Observer.

“You miss a lot of that in a graph or a bar chart,” she added.

The report is structured around five key messages:

The report, following the framing of others centred on First Nations, Inuit and Métis, places the blame for climate change on a disconnect between humanity and the natural world wrought by colonization.

“Indigenous Peoples, including Indigenous elders and knowledge keepers, have called for a re-evaluation of the framing of climate change towards one focused on how human values are at the root of the climate crisis: a world out of balance,” the report reads. 

Related video: What Will It Take For Us & The World To Take Climate Change Seriously? | News18 Rising Bharat Summit (News18)  Duration 11:27  View on Watch
More videos

Money Talks NewsClimate Change Threatens Global Biodiversity As Endangered Species List Grows

1:27

WHTM Harrisburg'Climate change is very real:' Midstate students concerned about our planet

1:43

Live ScienceWhich Animals Will Survive Climate Change

4:15

The report argues that values like greed, capitalism and consumerism have disrupted the natural balance of life in favour of a system prioritizing technology fixes, markets and western science.

The report addresses climate change through the imbalance of society, which requires a reorientation of the climate agenda towards a deeper understanding of the relationship between the land, water and ice.

In doing so, the authors make a deliberate switch to framing Indigenous Peoples and knowledge as holding strengths and advantages in climate action, rather than being “portrayed as passive victims or harbingers of climate change impacts.”

“We have agency and our own solutions because we were able to survive,” McGregor said, pointing to colonial policies like residential schools and environmental changes like the overhunting of buffalo on the Prairies in the 19th century that took the animal to the brink of extinction.

For Kristine Wray, another report author, both food security and self-governance are essential to Indigenous-led climate action. Wray looks at food security as an example of how Indigenous nations have a deeper understanding of sustainability and connection to the lands and waters, with an eye towards harvesting, not just sales at a grocery store.

Self-governance is also essential because Indigenous leadership needs “all the tools available” to lead climate action. Wray looks at a lack of veto power in decisions over land and resources as hampering Indigenous control of climate-related decisions.

It’s why the report doesn't centre climate as an existential threat, but another crisis emerging from colonialism. The report identifies the interrelated and intersectional crises brought by the disruption of colonization, which climate change magnifies and exacerbates, like the infrastructure crisis.

The rate of global heating in Canada has left Ottawa scrambling to close the infrastructure gap, which sits at hundreds of billions of dollars. Indigenous Services Canada has made promises to close the gap by 2030.

The climate crisis is not viewed as entirely negative in the report, but contains hope through the turning back to Mother Earth to find balance. McGregor, who is Anishinaabe, looks to her people’s disaster stories that always contain hope. In the stories, humanity needs humility and the help of one’s animal relatives, and they always come to humanity’s aid.

“And usually the hope comes out of when the relatives come to our aid. It's born out of love,” she said.

That’s why the report frames climate change as a message and warning, as well as an existential threat.

“We shouldn’t look at climate change as a negative thing,” Elder Dave Courchene is quoted in the report. “It is because of how we have behaved as human beings that we have to feel the impact of what we have done to the Earth.”

The report is part of a series of papers under the broad umbrella of Canada in a Changing Climate, which builds off the work of the IPCC through a Canadian context, Graeme Reed, one of the authors of the new report, told Canada’s National Observer.

Other reports in the series showed that Canada is warming at twice the global average, while the Arctic is warming three times faster. Other reports investigated the health risks of the climate crisis.

However, it is the first report in the series written for Indigenous Nations and led by Indigenous researchers, Reed explained.

The report took care to reflect the nuances of various First Nations, Métis and Inuit, avoiding a pan-Indig approach, Reed added.

Both Reed and McGregor now hope Indigenous Nations can use the report as a foundation for their own climate policies and actions.

Matteo Cimellaro, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

BC First Nations Life Expectancy Has Plummeted. How to Change That

Due to the toxic drug crisis and later the COVID-19 pandemic, life expectancy for First Nations people in British Columbia decreased by 7.1 years between 2015 to 2021.

The largest drop happened between 2019 and 2021 when life expectancy shortened 5.8 years, says Dr. Nel Wieman, chief medical officer at the First Nations Health Authority. Wieman is Anishinaabe from Little Grand Rapids First Nation.

The unregulated toxic drug supply is the leading cause of the decrease, with First Nations people “vastly overrepresented” in toxic drug deaths, Wieman says.

In comparison, life expectancy of non-Indigenous residents of B.C. decreased by 1.1 years between 2019 to 2021.

Some of the biggest factors are inequities and trauma caused by colonialism; Indigenous-specific racism in every part of the health-care system, as reflected in the 2020 “In Plain Sight” report; stigma around drug use; and a lack of services available for First Nations people, experts told The Tyee.

For the last 50 years, First Nations life expectancy had been increasing annually by 0.2 years, says Dr. Danièle Behn Smith, deputy provincial health officer for Indigenous health. Behn Smith is Eh Cho Dene of Fort Nelson First Nation and Franco-Manitoban/Métis from the Red River Valley

In 2011, life expectancy was 75.9 years. Then 2014 hit, when the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl entered the unregulated drug market and drove up toxic drug deaths for First Nations and the general population alike. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated harm by isolating people, keeping them from harm reduction services and driving them to use alone.

Historic and present-day colonial impacts create inequity in almost every part of society for First Nations people, Behn Smith says. There is food insecurity when people are unable to access traditional food systems. There is “manufactured poverty” — where Canada has gotten rich from resource extraction, but the majority of First Nations have not. There are high rates of overcrowding or being unhoused.

For these reasons and others, First Nations have higher rates of underlying health conditions that, for example, affect lung health and increase rates of diabetes.

Then there’s intergenerational trauma from a history of colonialism and system of oppression.

Tania Dick, Indigenous nursing lead at the University of British Columbia’s school of nursing, says residential schools added “hugely traumatic layers to our existence that are still raw and fresh.” Indigenous Peoples are trying to work their way through the trauma and heal but society at large isn’t helping them do that, she adds. Some Indigenous people use drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism, leading to high rates of addiction.

Behn Smith says that when she worked as a family doctor, she would acknowledge drug use as “really powerful medicines that they need right now,” and then see if she could shift a patient to something with less harmful side-effects over time.

The increasing toxicity of illicit drugs has increased the chances these side-effects will be deadly. Behn Smith compares the current unregulated drug supply to “Russian roulette” because the drugs are so potent and likely contaminated with a toxic level of other substances.

Then there’s Indigenous-specific racism, pushing Indigenous people away from health services the same way getting repeatedly burned after touching a hot object teaches you to stay away, Dick says.

Wieman says she’s heard racism called the third undeclared public health emergency because it negatively affects people’s ability to access harm reduction services or prescribed safer supply.

“People choose not to access health services because they fear the treatment or are worried because of a past experience or stories they heard from friends and family,” Wieman says.

Canada has also had “decades and decades of approaching drugs in quite a punitive way that created a lot of stigma,” Behn Smith says. This pushes people to use alone, not access harm reduction services and not ask for help when they need it.

There’s also the issue of access.

Impact from lack of services


Dick, who is a member of Dzawada̱ʼenux̱w First Nation of Kingcome Inlet, says nurses fly into her community to offer health care, but two weeks can go by without a visit.

Health-care providers often must fly into an Indigenous community, or people are expected to drive out to access mainstream services that can be culturally unsafe, she says.

“Our people are unwell and want to deal with their issues but they only see harm and fear, so they generally avoid the health-care industry,” Dick adds. “It has so many layers and complexities to it. Nurses are on the ground and often people’s first and last point of contact. We can do better.”

One improvement Dick would like to see is the regular deployment of registered psychiatric nurses to communities to offer mental health services.

Geography can also prohibit people from accessing services. Prescribed safer supply programs, for example, may require a pharmacist to supervise someone every time they take their medication, which can mean hours of daily driving for some patients, Wieman says.

People who want to access culturally safe mental health services, detox and treatment programs are also often put on waiting lists that can take two to nine weeks, Dick says.

“If someone wants to stop using drugs and wants to access medically supervised detox, we need to respond to them that minute because the odds are they will end up back on the street and using drugs if they can’t get help that day,” Dick adds.

Intergenerational trauma and effects on youth

First Nations communities are seeing a lot of toxic drug deaths in younger generations. “The youth being affected in these numbers is devastating,” Dick says. “This is heartbreaking. We look at these children as our future.”

Dick’s village has lost a couple of people who were in their early 20s and living outside of the community to go to school. The deaths “absolutely rocked our village and turned it upside down,” she says.

“People are grieving and they don’t have time to finish grieving before there’s another death,” Behn Smith says. This can push people back towards medicating emotional, physical and spiritual pain with substances.

The COVID-19 pandemic further disconnected people from their families, community and services.

“It made us sit still in our own skin, which let traumas come up because you can’t keep busy,” Dick says.

Dick says she isolated with aunts, uncles and cousins during the lockdowns. Her parents are both residential school survivors, and she was surprised at how many complex feelings came up during that time. But she was grateful to be surrounded with family where they could all talk about what they were thinking and feeling.

“Imagine what it was like for people disconnected from their community or away from home who weren’t able to unpack everything,” she says. “They just had to sit in it and spiral.”

Because of the likelihood of other underlying health conditions, Indigenous people were more likely to suffer severe infections, be hospitalized and die, Behn Smith says.

“Every time one of our relatives or member of our nation dies, it’s a threat to our cultural community,” she says. “Many people hold teachings in our communities, and if they die suddenly, then that knowledge is gone. Every Elder we lose, especially in communities with few fluent language speakers, is truly an existential threat in many ways.”

Where to go from here

Each expert had their own recommendations for how to improve First Nations’ life expectancy.

The studies showing us where to go have already been done, Behn Smith says. We just need to implement them. She points to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, the “In Plain Sight” report, the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and the Declaration Act Action Plan. All the solutions emerge in simply listening to Indigenous people, “who have been very clear and articulate for what are life-saving solutions for us,” she says.

Behn Smith also echoed Dr. Bonnie Henry’s call for B.C. to explore a medical and non-medical prescribed safer supply program. The existing prescription model has been accessed by only about five per cent of the total estimated people who could benefit from it. A different model could reach more people by reducing barriers.

Wieman says that for First Nations people the recovery journey should offer harm reduction, treatment and healing. This can be participation in traditional activities, ceremonies or other cultural involvement.

“Substance use is in many cases a symptom of trauma and not knowing how to deal with trauma,” she says. “We need to look at short-term and long-term healing so people don’t feel compelled to use substances as coping mechanisms when distressed.”

Dick also highlights the importance of culture.

She says she went home for a potlatch recently and saw youth taking on roles and responsibilities in the ceremonies and engaging with traditions and language. They had such confidence and an aura of intense joy to have this path and purpose, she says.

The legacy of residential schooling means that Dick does not speak her language — her parents were not able to teach her. Through her learning, she says, she’s showing younger generations how to reconnect with culture.

“We’re reclaiming space and culture and knowledge and finding more resources to relearn and reclaim,” Dick says. “It’s happening more and more and having a big impact.”

Michelle Gamage, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Tyee

U.S. ‘Havana Syndrome’ reports raise concerns, Canadian diplomats’ lawyer says

Story by Nathaniel Dove • 1d • Global News 

FILE - The U.S. embassy in Havana, Cuba is seen on Jan. 4, 2023. An array of advanced tests found no brain injuries or degeneration among U.S. diplomats and other government employees who suffer mysterious health problems once dubbed “Havana syndrome,” researchers reported Monday, March 18, 2024. 

(AP Photo/Ismael Francisco, File)© Provided by Global News

A lawyer for Canadian diplomats suing the federal government over what's become known as “Havana syndrome” is criticizing a report about the matter from a major American health institute.

A report from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, a collection of leading American research centres, concluded “there was no significant differences between individuals reporting (Havana syndrome symptoms) and matched control participants” in most measures “except for objective and self-reported symptoms like balance, fatigue and post-traumatic stress,” among other issues.

Paul Miller, who represents diplomats alleging in the lawsuit that they suffered concussion-like symptoms during service at the Canadian Embassy in Havana, Cuba, said the report has a number of failings.

“If a diplomat or a family member is impacted by something that happens, the Canadian government has to stop relying upon a broken worker's compensation system and actually step up and provide the treatment,” Miller told Global News.

He said the study took place too long after diplomatic staff and family members reported the onset of symptoms, that examining patients beyond Cuba did not give accurate findings on those who say they began experiencing symptoms in Havana and that the report did not have data on the affected people's physical baselines before they began experiencing the symptoms.

“(Their symptoms) may not be as severe now,” he said, “but it’s still there.”

Another study, also published on Monday, found no significant differences in MRI brain scans between those who reported being affected with “Anomalous Health Incidents” (or AHIs, the term often used in medical exams and studies related to reports of Havana syndrome) and a group of people also tested who didn’t report any the symptoms.

American and then Canadian embassy staff, as well as their family members stationed there, in Havana reported suffering headaches and cognitive and vision problems in 2017.

The U.S. State Department initially said the reports of strange symptoms appeared to be caused by “targeted actions." The CIA later said it was “very unlikely” a foreign adversary was responsible and that it found no evidence any American adversary has a weapon or device capable of causing such symptoms.

Testing on the American staff showed they had less white matter in their brains, along with other structural differences, than a comparison group of healthy people.

Internal government documents, which Global News obtained under access to information laws, appear to corroborate claims currently in court that officials were working to keep early reports of symptoms quiet.

American and Canadian diplomatic staff later sued their respective governments, alleging a failure to protect them.

Global Affairs Canada previously acknowledged that nine adults and five children from diplomatic families reported developing unusual symptoms.

Global News   Havana Syndrome: New CIA report sheds light on mysterious illness

Duration 2:30   View on Watch

Miller, who represents Canadian diplomats in the $28-million suit, said the embassy staff and their families are still dealing with the symptoms and are trying to get proper care.

“We have clients who have gone into serious debt trying to seek out the best treatment for their kids in the United States,” he said, speaking from Toronto.

“The Canadian government does nothing. And it's absolutely shocking.”

The first NIH study examined 86 government staff and family members with reported symptoms from Cuba as well as Austria, China and other locations between June 2018 and July 2022, along with 30 other U.S. government participants with no reported symptoms to compare them.

It said “the absence of a consistent set of abnormalities” among those reporting symptoms suggests that, “if a directed energy ‘attack’ is truly involved, it seems to create symptoms without persistent or detectable physiological changes.”

It also suggested those with symptoms may be experiencing the results of an injury that is no longer detectable.

Global News   Canadian embassy staff warned to stay silent on ‘Havana Syndrome’

View on Watch   Duration 2:59

Miller said the Canadian government has until early April as part of the lawsuit to provide internal documents in which he says staff discussed the situation and reports of symptoms in Havana and that he is trying to arrange for a government representative to be questioned.

Global News asked the NIH for comment but did not hear back by deadline.

Global Affairs Canada, in a statement, said it is aware of the NIH report.

"Canadian diplomatic staff and their families have Global Affairs Canada's unwavering support," spokesperson John Babcock wrote.

He said the government continues to acknowledge "the very real experiences and veracity of the reports of the symptoms and illness that our colleagues and family have reported" but said he cannot comment on individual cases for privacy and security reasons.

Babcock said the government can't comment on the cause of the reported symptoms because the matter is before the courts.

— with files from Global News' Amanda Connolly, The Canadian Press's Jim Bronskill, Reuters' Deena Beasley and The Associated Press's Lindsey Tanner and Megan Janetsky

New research deepens Havana Syndrome mystery

Agence France-Presse
March 18, 2024 

US embassy in Havana, Cuba (AFP)

The mystery of so-called Havana Syndrome, which struck down dozens of US diplomats, deepened Monday as new research found no tangible evidence of brain injury in those affected.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) acknowledged that ongoing symptoms including migraines, chronic dizziness, and depression are still very much real -- even if they cannot yet be explained.

Havana Syndrome first baffled officials in 2016 when US diplomats in Cuba's capital reported falling ill and hearing piercing sounds at night, sparking speculation of an attack by a foreign enemy using an unspecified sonar weapon.

Similar reports of the illness later emerged from embassy staff in China, Europe and US capital Washington.

Yet despite the "disabling" symptoms, people with Havana Syndrome -- formally referred to as anomalous health incidents (AHIs) -- show no clinical differences, according to two new papers published Monday in peer-reviewed journal JAMA.

Leighton Chan, lead author of one of the papers, said "it's important to acknowledge that these symptoms are very real, cause significant disruption in the lives of those affected and can be quite prolonged, disabling and difficult to treat."

In this study, researchers assessed more than 80 US government officials and their family members using MRI brain scans and other blood, visual and auditory tests. They were compared with a control group of overseas US officials who had similar work assignments but were unaffected by the symptoms.

It found those with AHIs self-reported increased symptoms of fatigue, post-traumatic stress and depression.

- 'Genuine, distressing' -


Forty one percent of those with AHIs met the criteria for "functional neurological disorder" -- problems with the way the brain sends and receives information from the rest of the body, and as a result nearly all with this dysfunction could be diagnosed with a chronic form of dizziness.

"These individuals have symptoms that are genuine, distressing, and can be quite prolonged, disabling, and difficult to treat," said the researchers.

In the second paper, participants underwent MRI scans to examine their brain size, structure, and function. These were carried out on average 80 days after symptom onset and revealed no imaging abnormalities differentiating the group with AHIs.

But this "does not exclude that an adverse event impacting the brain occurred at the time of the AHI," said Carlo Pierpaoli, who led the study.

The US State Department was reviewing the research, a spokesperson said Monday, adding its "top priority remains the health, safety, and security of the Department’s personnel and family members."

US intelligence had said in 2022 that intense directed energy from an external source could have caused some cases of Havana Syndrome, officially known as anomalous health incidents (AHIs).


But in March 2023 intelligence agencies concluded that "there is no credible evidence that a foreign adversary has a weapon or collection device that is causing AHIs."

They reported the symptoms were probably the result of preexisting conditions, conventional illnesses and environmental factors.

David Relman of Stanford University, who has led previous research into Havana, said the new study was flawed as not all brain injuries were detectable with the tests used.

In an editorial also published in JAMA, Relman cited two previous studies he contributed to which found the cases "to be unlike any disorder reported in the neurological or general medical literature, and potentially caused by an external mechanism."

Canada's Senate Approves Free Trade Agreement with Ukraine

Story by Camilla Jessen • 

Photo: Kevin D Jeffrey / Shutterstock.com© Photo: Kevin D Jeffrey / Shutterstock.com

The Senate of Canada has given its final approval to the bill implementing the updated Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA), as announced by the Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada, Yulia Kovaliv.

The modernized agreement was signed on September 22, 2023, during the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi to Ottawa.

Earlier in February, the House of Commons of the Parliament of Canada endorsed the agreement with a majority vote, forwarding it to the Senate for its approval.

The next step requires approval from the Governor General of Canada, which will officially complete the CUFTA ratification process in the country.

"The modernized Free Trade Agreement, which includes sections on digital trade, financial services and investment protection, will be an important tool for assisting Ukrainian companies in entering the Canadian market and for the participation of Canadian companies in reconstruction," the ambassador noted.

This update follows the introduction of the revised free trade agreement to the parliament by Canada's Minister of Foreign Trade, Mary Ing, in October of the previous year.

 Quebec, Ottawa reach health-care funding deal, $900 million per year to province

              \

Quebec has become the last province to reach an agreement in principle with the federal government on health-care funding.

Under the proposed deal, the province would receive an additional $900 million a year over 10 years for health care.

Premier François Legault said the new money comes with no conditions. 

"Quebec is free to invest in the priorities of its choice. Health is an area of Quebec's exclusive jurisdiction and the federal government has no say in the matter," Legault's office said in a written statement.

The office of federal Health Minister Mark Holland also confirmed the existence of the agreement in principle. 

The funding is part of a plan announced by the federal government a little more than a year ago to transfer $196 billion to the provinces and territories for health care over 10 years in exchange for commitments to improve data collection and to measure progress toward specific targets.

Last year, Quebec, which has pushed back against conditions on health-care spending, said it would share its health data with the federal government. 

To receive the money earmarked for 2023-24, Quebec will have to sign the agreement before the end of the month.

Saskatchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Alberta, Nova Scotia, Ontario and the Northwest Territories have all signed agreements with Ottawa.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 19, 2024.

Caroline Plante, The Canadian Press

Mayor Sohi to ‘dig deeper’ to find ways to help Edmonton festivals facing financial struggles

Story by Caley Gibson • 1d • GLOBAL NEWS

Edmontonians gather at the 2019 Edmonton Folk Music Festival in Gallagher Park.© Eric Beck/ Global News

The mayor says he will be looking into what the city can do to help Edmonton festivals stay afloat amid ongoing financial struggles coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. It comes as several local festivals say they are having to make hard decisions about the future of their events.

Amarjeet Sohi's comments came Tuesday, one day after the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival put out a plea for financial help.

“We need to think about this very hard. I am going to be having some conversations with my staff, as well as city administration (about) what do we need to do to ensure that sustainability of arts and culture in Edmonton is supported?" the mayor said.

“It is such a critical component of our economy, our economic growth, a lot of people work in the arts and culture sector and they bring so much vibrancy to our city.

“We are known as a city of festivals. So if our festivals are struggling, that is a big concern, and I am going to dig deeper into this and possibly come up with some solutions that may involve some public money but also how we mobilize the private sector.”

The executive director of Fringe Theatre said Monday that skyrocketing costs coming out of the COVID-pandemic coupled with stagnant government funding may lead to a scaled-back Fringe festival this summer.

"This rapidly evolving challenge is threatening the very fabric of our festival and others like it. Without immediate support, our festival will be very different,” Megan Dart said Monday

Global News  Expenses threaten the future of Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival  Duration 1:45   View on Watch

The Fringe isn't the only Edmonton festival that's struggling.

Terry Wickham, producer of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, said they are going to be increasing ticket prices this year to keep up with rising costs.

“Post-pandemic, it’s a different world for festivals," Wickham said Tuesday. "Twenty per cent of festivals like ours in the U.K. went out of business. That’s simply because expenses got too high.

“Whether that’s food, artist fees, the cost of rental equipment… everything went up. Then, of course, the cost of living has gone up so much you have to try and keep your staff so that they can meet their bills.”

Wickham said Folk Fest is lucky in that while expenses are going up, so too are its revenues, because it's able to increase ticket prices and still have fan support. He said many festivals are dealing with increasing expenses and decreasing revenues.

“It’s the same the world over. It’s the same across Canada. Everybody is dealing with inflation, so higher expenses for all festivals, all arts.”

The Works Art and Design Festival is another popular summer event having to make big changes this year. Typically a 13-day festival, this year's event has been reduced to just five days.

“It was a hard decision to decide how to best use our resources," executive artistic director Amber Rooke said. "But I think given the environmental pressures – inflation the way that is has been, fundraising the way that is has been, sort of continuing to rebuild as we come out of the pandemic – this was the best way for us to meet our mandate, which is really about making sure that people have access to that art and that it is a celebration.”

Video: Addressing all things Edmonton Folk Music Festival

While government funding for the festival has remained consistent, Rooke said it also relies heavily on financial contributions from the business community, which is also struggling post-pandemic.

Rooke said prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the works festival received about $200,000 per year from business partners. Now, it's more like $50,000.

“Festivals, arts and charities are all under threat," Rooke said. “For a little while I think it will be the new reality.”

The festival is looking to raise $50,000 in the next eight to 12 weeks before organizers will have to say no to a few projects planned for this year's event.

"There may be hard decisions yet to come," Rooke said. "The show will go on ... It will happen. It’ll be there. It’ll be impactful. It’ll be a fun thing."

Video: Edmonton festival organizers optimistic for record year despite challenges

The executive director of Arts on the Ave, which produces a number of local festivals, said inflation has really hit the arts community. Christy Morin said fuel costs at this past winter's Deep Freeze: A Byzantine Winter Festival were double what they typically are.

"You're looking at your budget going, 'Wow, I need to make sure I wrap that into my budget next year,'" she said.

"I would say a huge piece of it is inflation and then people are a little bit more careful with their money right now... There’s good energy out there, I just don’t think there’s as much money that’s being given away.

"It seems like everyone is hanging on a little tighter."

Coun. Andrew Knack hopes other solutions can be found, rather than the city having to find money within its current budget.

Knack is calling for changes to the Alberta Traffic Safety Act, explaining that one of the biggest costs for festivals is the policing cost for things like traffic management.

“We can’t change that locally. So what ends up happening is that a lot of the grants we provide to festivals are essentially us paying ourselves. So we pay the festival operator so that they can pay the policing costs. It’s just this weird circle," he explained.

Changes to the Traffic Safety Act, he explained, could see festivals use security or other volunteers fulfill the roles currently done by police.

“One way to help with these rising costs is if we can change that red tape and you could continue to use your existing dollars more effectively. I’d love to see that change," Knack said.

The councillor said he has brought his concerns to the province in the past and plans to raise the issue again.

“This is another reason to re-raise this so we can try to make some change so that they don’t have to scramble to try to find money or come to council because realistically, we truly don’t have additional funding to provide in this situation.”

PUNISHING THE RESISTANCE

Remote workers won't be put up for promotion, Dell declares

© Unsplash / Jason Strull

According to a new report by Business Insider, Dell has announced a significant policy change that will impact its remote workforce.

Starting in May, fully remote Dell employees will no longer be eligible for promotion within the company. Employees are said to have told the publication that their remote setups had enabled them to adjust to other life factors. The flexibility had cut them some slack to perform better.

The company’s change of heart marks a departure from its previous stance on remote work; CEO Michael Dell himself had previously been an advocate.
Dell fights against WFHers

In 2022, the company’s CEO stated: “At Dell, we found no meaningful differences for team members working remotely or office-based even before the pandemic forced everyone home.”

Under the new policy, workers will fall into one of two remote-style categories: purely remote, which means that they will no longer be considered for career advancement opportunities, and hybrid, whereby workers will be required to be in the office at least three days per week.

In a memo obtained by Business Insider, Dell emphasized the importance of in-person connections and hinted at the necessity for remote workers to transition to hybrid roles.

Michael Dell previously told followers on LinkedIn, “If you are counting on forced hours spent in a traditional office to create collaboration and provide a feeling of belonging within your organization, you're doing it wrong.”

Related video: Dell's pulls the plug on work from home: No promotion if you are working from home (WION)  Duration 1:40   View on Watch

Employees speaking anonymously to Business Insider expressed frustration and concern over the new policy, fearing job insecurity and the impact of increased office hours on work-life balance, with many workers living hours away from an office location.

While Dell may not be the only company implementing such drastic measures – Apple, Google, Microsoft, and more have also been pushing office-based working since the pandemic – it does at least highlight an ongoing and seemingly unsettled debate about the future of remote work and the effectiveness of working from an office.

TechRadar Pro has asked Dell to confirm the report.

Invasive species lead to access restrictions in B.C., Alberta national parks

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Parks Canada is closing all bodies of water in British Columbia's Kootenay and Yoho national parks, and restricting watercraft in Alberta's Waterton Lakes National Park in an effort to slow the spread of invasive species.

The lakes, creeks and tributaries in eastern British Columbia will be closed until at least March next year in response to the deadly whirling disease parasite found in fish.

At the same time, non-motorized watercraft from outside park boundaries will not be allowed into Waterton Lakes National Park in southern Alberta starting April 1, to protect against both whirling disease and invasive zebra and quagga mussels.

Jeanette Goulet, with the aquatic invasive species program for mountain national parks, said Tuesday that boats are the main way species are transferred between bodies of water.

"They can pick up things like mud, sand and sediments, plant fragments," she said.

"And if their equipment is not cleaned of all of that, drained of any standing water, and dried for a certain amount of time, then that poses a big risk of transferring aquatic organisms … between water bodies."

British Columbia's first case of whirling disease was detected in Emerald Lake last year and was later found in Kicking Horse River, Wapta Lake, Finn Creek, Monarch Creek and the confluence of Emerald River and the Kicking Horse River.

Related video: Endangered sage grouse could soon vanish from Canada (cbc.ca)

Duration 2:12   View on Watch

Access was first restricted for five months last October, and François Masse, Parks Canada's superintendent for Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay, said extending the restrictions another year will help protect fish species including several types of trout and Kokanee.

Goulet said staff will be monitoring the parks and anyone found breaking the rules could face a fine of up to $25,000.

There's no treatment specifically for whirling disease, Goulet said, and removing the diseased fish from the water system is not feasible.

She said officials are gathering more information before deciding what's next.

"Other jurisdictions have either decided to let the infection play out and see if a natural resistance does build up in the fish, or, in some places where they've seen population decline in the States, they've actually restocked with trout that have a resistance that have been bred in hatcheries," she said.

"I don't know if we would ever go that route in parks."

Locke Marshall, the superintendent for Waterton Lakes National Park, said along with the ban on non-motorized watercraft from outside park boundaries, fishing for all species will no longer be permitted in flowing waters in the park, but will be allowed under current regulations in park lakes.

He said invasive zebra and quagga mussels that are present in other Canadian and U.S. jurisdictions pose a threat to Waterton Lakes and downstream infrastructure across southern Alberta.

He said if infestations start, they can cost millions to control.

Marshall said a mandatory inspection station for non-motorized boats has been operating since 2021 but only 56 per cent of watercraft users participated last year.

"The risk of aquatic invasive species spreading is too high to continue with this previous approach," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 19, 2024.

Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press