Migrant workers prefer to risk getting COVID-19 than die from starvation, says journalist in Mexico
Tahmina Aziz CBC

© Shannon VanRaes/Reuters Migrant workers from Mexico wear masks and practice physical distancing to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 during a mandatory 14-day quarantine after arriving at a Canadian farm.
Andalusia Knoll Soloff, a freelance journalist in Mexico City who has documented migrant farm workers for years, says she wasn't surprised when she heard the news of three migrant workers who died in Ontario after contracting COVID-19.

She said she's seen the poor conditions farm employees have had to work in, adding that she suspects proper health measures are not taking place at these facilities, resulting in the spread of the virus.

"There is very little access to information, I think, for workers both about their labour rights and about their rights concerning health conditions," Soloff said.

"I think many of the people who work in Canada or in the United States are fearful that if they make a fuss about anything, they won't get their visa, they won't get the job, they'll be fired, they'll be sent home."

She said people in Mexico aren't really aware of the migrant worker situation in Canada and that there is very little public discussion around it.

"There's so many other things going on in the news that there is very little mention of it, if any mention at all," she said.

Soloff asked people in her social networks about the three migrant workers who died on Canadian soil. Some people responded by saying, "If here in Mexico we don't even care about what's happening with the farm workers that work within our own country, how are we going to care about what's happening with farm workers in Canada?"

From her experience, Soloff has noticed many of the migrant workers from Mexico speak indigenous languages and have lower access to education. If Spanish is their second language, this further prevents them from learning about COVID-19 and the working conditions on Canadian farms.

And yet, Soloff said farm workers from Mexico would rather risk contracting COVID-19 than starving to death, as they think they have a low probability of contracting the virus or don't believe in it at all.

"They think that you get sick in the hospital or that you're injected with a sickness in the hospital and that's what kills you or you die from another disease," Soloff said.

© Jacob Barker/CBC Antonio Hernandez is a migrant worker in Leamington.

When CBC News spoke with Antonio Hernandez, a migrant worker in Leamington, he said he's not nervous about the virus itself.

"I'm calm. God willing, everything will be fine. As long as we take the necessary precautions, everything will be fine," he said.

Soloff said workers who decide to move to Canada or the U.S. to work in farms likely don't have much of a choice in terms of employment back home.

This is the case for migrant worker Israel. CBC News has agreed not to use Israel's last name.

"I'm here in Canada, because I'm from Guatemala and in our country, there aren't a lot of job opportunities," he said.

"It's very difficult to find a job, so I chose to be here to give my family a better livelihood in Guatemala. It's a bit tough to be here, because I'm away from my family, but it's a sacrifice you make."

A migrant worker from a farm near Simcoe, Ont. died earlier this week from COVID-19, becoming the third Ontario migrant worker to die after contracting the disease.

At the end of May, 31-year-old Bonifacio Eugenio Romero from Mexico was the first death and Rogelio Muñoz Santos, a 24-year-old worker also from Mexico, died about a week later. Both men worked at farms in Windsor-Essex.

THE DANGERS OF PRIVATIZED MEDICINE 

Vitalité accused of silencing doctors, controlling public message amid COVID-19

LOOK TO QUEBEC

CBC/Radio-Canada

© Michel Corriveau/Radio-Canada 

Gilles Lanteigne will retire as president and CEO of Vitalité Health Network at the end of October.
The Vitalité Health Network is being accused of silencing doctors and controlling the public message under the reign of outgoing president and CEO Gilles Lanteigne.

The criticisms by a former health manager and former board member come after the regional health authority issued a retraction statement last week on behalf of a doctor who had voiced concerns about the prevention and control protocols on the COVID-19 unit at the Campbellton Regional Hospital.

"We must admit that for appearances, it is as if we had forced her to retract," said retired Dr. Louis-Marie Simard, the former president and chief executive officer of the former Beauséjour Health Authority, which pre-dated Vitalité.

"If that's what has been done, twisting your arm is certainly not a good management practice," he said.

"As far as I can remember, what I preach is what I did ... I don't think anyone in the organization had fears that the administration was going to slap them on the wrist if he spoke."

Last Thursday, Dr. Vona MacMillan, a family physician based in Charlo, 30 kilometres east of Campbellton, told Radio-Canada she was a "little nervous" starting on the COVID-19 unit at the Campbellton hospital after 10 staff had tested positive for the respiratory disease.

She had called on Vitalité to allow staff to wear N95 masks while treating COVID-positive patients, regardless of the procedure being performed.

By 4:20 p.m. on Friday, Vitalité released a statement saying MacMillan "wishes" to retract her comments and apologize 

.

In Simard's view, such control of the public message is dangerous for democracy and for patient confidence in the health-care system.

"Suppose people know that a doctor can be threatened and [forced] to retract. When I go to the doctor in his office, I have a condition that could have a public impact, and I see that my doctor is telling me a story and does not seem comfortable, can I trust him?" he said.

"Health is a personal system. When I speak to a health-care professional, I have to feel 100 per cent confident that he is trying to do the best he can for my case."
Public health must be transparent

Simard acknowledges certain laws must frame the right to speak. "I have the right to speak, but I don't have the right to lie and I don't have the right to reveal intimate or private information, there is a framework."

But he also noted Vitalité is dependent on the Department of Health, financed with public funds.

"When we talk about a health service, it is a public service, paid for by the public and managed by the public, so it must be transparent."

Lanteigne defended himself, saying there was no muzzling in MacMillan's case. She is the one who decided to retract her statement, he said.

"She decided that after consideration to recognize that the standards and the procedures as established by Canadian Public Health and the New Brunswick Public Health are appropriate, that the patients are secure and that there is enough equipment in the Restigouche, and that she would follow the guidelines and the policies and procedures of Vitalité Health Network," he told reporters during the question period of Vitalité's annual general meeting Tuesday afternoon.

MacMillan "has decided to do that on her own. She's an adult. She had decided to speak."

Lanteigne said Vitalité — like most organizations — does have a policy on who can speak on behalf of the organization.

But it considers its roughly 7,400 physicians and medical staff as "ambassadors."

"Can anybody speak to the media? Of course they can speak. They're doing it … as [a] private citizen," he said.

"When we have someone who works for us, there is an obligation on both sides … that we respect and that we expect everybody to conform to their code of policy and their ethical framework that guides their professions," he added.
'We weren't allowed to speak to the media'

Norma McGraw, who resigned in February as vice-chair of the Vitalité Health Network's board of directors in protest over health reform plans, said she's not surprised to hear about MacMillan's case.

"We weren't allowed to speak to the media, that's for sure ... We weren't allowed to go and ask employees questions to find out how they were, how the services were. These are things we were not supposed to do," she said, adding she believes information control was exercised within senior management to ensure the delivery of a consistent message.© Radio-Canada Norma McGraw resigned as vice-chair of the board last February, publicly denying Vitalité's assertion that a vote had been held behind closed doors on the planned overnight closure of the emergency rooms of six small hospitals.

McGraw said she regrets, however, that a doctor who expressed legitimate fears appears to have been silenced.

"This doctor, if she transgressed the communication channels, it is because she felt preoccupied ... It is a cry of alarm. Has it been listened to? I imagine not, otherwise there would not have been the" retraction."

Three front-line care-givers who have worked on the COVID-19 unit told CBC News last week that they didn't feel safe under current personal protective equipment protocols, especially one that allows the use of N95 masks only for procedures that produce airborne droplets.

Masks, but not N95 masks, are to be worn at all times at the hospital.

The employees said staff have been refused extra protection when treating COVID-19 patients, and lax protocols create a risk of spread throughout the hospital.

The employees said they're fearful of bringing the virus home to vulnerable family members and called on Vitalité for change.

As of last Wednesday, 10 employees of the Campbellton Regional Hospital had tested positive for COVID-19 and 31 others were self-isolating.

One of the positive cases was determined to be a false positive over the weekend, Lanteigne said.

About half of the 40 affected employees are expected to return to work by Friday, he said.

2 tornadoes touched down near London, Ont., Western researchers confirm

Matthew Trevithick
2020-06-13

© Northern Tornadoes Project Damage in the Belmont, Ont. area from a preliminary EF1 tornado that touched down on the night of June 10, 2020.

Local researchers have confirmed that the severe thunderstorms that uprooted trees, snapped branches and cut power across southwestern Ontario Wednesday night also spawned two tornadoes near London, Ont.

Western University's Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) confirmed Friday that damage surveys conducted over the last two days had determined that Glencoe, Ont. and Belmont, Ont., saw preliminary EF0 and EF1 tornadoes touch down, respectively, during Wednesday's storm.

READ MORE: June 10: Parts of Ontario hit by intense storms, approximately 47K Hydro One customers without power


According to Environment Canada, reports of a tornado near Glencoe came in first around 7:50 p.m., with reports of a tornado near Belmont to the east arriving about 40 minutes later.

The two tornadoes are the first to be reported in the province this year, said Dr. David Sills, NTP's executive director.

"To have them kind of occurring almost mid-June is quite late in the season," he said.

While the London-area tornadoes are on the weaker side of the Enhanced Fujita scale — the most severe tornadoes are rated EF5 — the survey team still found plenty of damage to trees and farm buildings along the tornadoes' paths.

Near Glencoe, surveyors found a large, toppled-over maple tree, and damage to nearby farm buildings, including a destroyed, old barn.

Sills said the EF0 tornado touched down near Newbury Station and ended just east of Strathburn — a track length of about 17 kilometres.

"The maximum width of the path is about 300 metres, and we estimate the maximum wind speed is about 130 km/h, which is right at the top end of EF0."

Most damage, Sills says, was inflicted to fields and trees, but there were some structures that did get hit.

"There were a few properties where there were workshops and sheds and that kind of thing turned over or the roof removed, and there was an old barn that was collapsed as well," he said.

Kelly Janssen was among the residents whose properties were damaged.

The Glencoe-area resident recalled to 980 CFPL on Thursday how quickly the sky west of her home turned dark as the storm approached.

"We have a large row of tall evergreens, and I guess the 'aha' moment for me was, in a second, those were laying flat on the ground," she told 980 CFPL's Mike Stubbs.

Janssen said as she and her daughter ran into the basement, her husband and son, along with a family friend and his son, were in the shop across the laneway.

"I think my husband and our friend and the two boys were thinking, stay put, as you typically do," she said.

"But my son told me this morning 'when Dad saw daylight coming through the roof, we then decided to move.'... The roof ripped off when they were in there."

The four managed to get to the house and everyone huddled in the basement, she said.

"They're not joking when they say it happens in a second and it's done, and then it was just kind of looking around at the shrapnel."

No one was hurt she said, but debris from the building could be found strewn across the property and in the crops.

Since the storm, Janssen says friends and neighbours have stepped up to help, with some facing their own problems.

"My best friend is dealing with a horse issue, they have buildings down. It's different for everybody. It had a definite path," she said.

"It took the roof of our building and then it kind of went between a silo and a huge tree and just continued on toward Belmont."

About a half hour later and some 50 kilometres away, a separate tornado would make its presence felt east of Belmont.

The EF1 tornado, reported around 8:30 p.m., tracked 18 kilometres, had a maximum width of 250 metres -- on the narrower side, according to NTP -- and damaged barns, sheds, and a number of trees.

"We estimate that the maximum wind speed from the tornado was about 150 km/h," Sills said.

READ MORE: June 10: Tornado-like phenomenon spotted near Belmont, Ont., moments before tornado warning issued

Some of the damage included a farm building near Shain Road and Harrietsville Drive having its roof partially removed and relocated onto nearby railroad tracks.

A property a kilometre northeast, meanwhile, had the roofs of at least two farm buildings pulled off.

"This was a weak tornado, but you can see even a weak tornado can cause quite a bit of damage."

The Belmont-area tornado was captured on camera by Global News' chief meteorologist, Anthony Farnell, who was in the area chasing the storm.

"I happened to be in the right spot at the right time," he said in a report broadcast Wednesday night on Global Toronto.

Farnell said he had been taking a time lapse video of a shelf cloud coming towards him when he noticed something in the field next to him.

"I started to notice some rotation with that storm and also some debris that was being picked up," he said. "It stayed on the ground for... about a minute and a half and then it moved back up into the clouds."

Southwestern Ontario is one of Canada's tornado hot spots, Sill says, but notes that despite the moniker, the region only sees a handful every summer.

"Sometimes we get some major tornadoes coming through," he added, noting in particular the two devastating EF4 tornadoes and one EF0 tornado that touched down near Woodstock on Aug. 7, 1979.

The three tornadoes together killed two people, injured more than 130, left thousands homeless, and caused an estimated $100 million in damage.

The storm nearly wiped the tiny village of Oxford Centre off the map."We can get the big ones like they do get in the United States. Fortunately, they're few and far between.


READ MORE: May 27: Alberta records 1st tornado of the 2020 severe weather season


Another tornado, rated EF3, devastated Goderich on Aug. 21, 2011, killing a 61-year-old salt mine worker, injuring another 37 people, and causing some $130 million in damage.

The type of supercell storm that spawned the tornado was "rare for Ontario and almost unheard of in Goderich," Anthony Farnell wrote at the time.

It was the most powerful storm Environment Canada had seen in the province in the 15 years prior.

The goal of the Northern Tornadoes Project itself, Sills says, is to detect and document not just those big tornadoes, but every single tornado, no matter how small, that happens across the country.

"A lot of tornadoes occur in Canada in places away from population, and so we never really know too much about them until we start looking for them," he said.

The project, launched in 2016 and expanded in scope late last year, has utilized planes, drones, and high-resolution satellite imagery to find these otherwise overlooked tornadoes.

"We've increased the number of tornadoes [documented] per year in the last three years significantly, just through this extra effort, and also getting information from the public."

READ MORE: Record June snowfall brings power outage to part of northwestern Ontario


According to Environment Canada, damage from Wednesday's storm was reported across southwestern Ontario.

London itself saw snapped tree limbs, while uprooted trees were reported in Blyth, Goderich, St. Thomas, and in Windsor, which also experienced hail that ranged in size from a nickel to a lime, according to reports.

Downed hydro lines and trees across roadways were also reported in Huron County, according to the national weather service.

Sills said the team was also looking into possible tornado activity from Wednesday's storms that occurred near Belfast, Ont. in northern Huron County.

"We haven't had any reports of damage up that way," he said.

"So if any of your viewers have reports of damage that they think might be associated with a tornado, we at NTP would like to hear about it."

Canada’s Jobless Rate Is Now Twice As High As Europe’s. Here’s Why.

Daniel Tencer
2020-06-07

© Provided by HuffPost Canada 

The toll on employment in Canada will be felt for years to come.


MONTREAL ― Since the COVID-19 lockdowns began in March, some 5.5 million Canadians have lost their job or seen hours cut at work. It’s similar south of the border, where an estimated 40 million people had lost work in the crisis as of late May.

Canada’s official unemployment rate has more than doubled, to 13.7 per cent from around 5.5 per cent at the start of the year. In the U.S, the jobless rate quadrupled to 14.7 per cent in April, from 3.4 per cent before the crisis.

It is a stunning toll, one that Canadians and Americans will inevitably feel for years to come, and it’s worse than the unemployment situation in almost all other developed countries.

© Provided by HuffPost Canada Canada has among the developed world's highest unemployment rates amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the eurozone ― the 19 countries that use the euro ― the unemployment rate in April was 7.3 per cent, up just one percentage point from before the pandemic. (May numbers are not yet available in Europe.) In Germany, the jobless rate ticked up to 3.5 per cent, from 3.4 per cent before the COVID-19 lockdowns.

And then there’s Italy, stricken hard and early in the pandemic, where the economy minister declared that “nobody must lose their job because of the coronavirus.” The jobless rate there fell to 6.3 per cent in April ― though mostly because many people who were jobless before the pandemic stopped looking for work, not because the country is adding jobs.

So how did this happen? How can Canada be seeing a much worse job crisis than Italy? After all, our government hasn’t skimped on the stimulus programs.


In a rapidly unfolding crisis like a pandemic, small decisions can have ripple effects that can have outsized consequences. And as it turns out, Canada ― along with the U.S. ― took a different approach from European countries, and they got very different results.

In essence, European governments have a tradition of wage support programs for business to prevent layoffs; in North America, governments always focused on income supports for those already laid off.

In Italy, Germany and elsewhere in Europe, governments announced very quickly that businesses would receive wage subsidies to keep people employed during the shutdown. The result is that even businesses that were forced to close entirely often kept their workforce, on the expectation they would need them again after the lockdown.

In Germany, for instance, the existing Kurzarbeit system allowed companies to slash their employees’ hours, with the government covering 60 per cent of the lost income. Typically companies top that up and employees end up getting 80 per cent of their regular pay.

In Italy, the Cassa Integrazione Guadagni includes a program where a company with 15 or more employees can cut workers’ hours, and the CIG will cover 80 per cent of wages for up to a year.

France has a similar scheme to Italy’s, and there, the program is currently keeping 10 million people in their private-sector jobs.

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The result is that European businesses were able to keep their workforce during the shutdowns. In Canada, as in the U.S., the initial emergency measures didn’t give businesses much hope they could hold on to their staff with help from the government.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a wage subsidy on March 18 of just 10 per cent of wages, an amount that seemed more symbolic than useful to the business groups that panned it as inadequate.

The U.S. announced a program of loans to businesses on March 25, some of which would be forgivable if businesses kept their staff. There has been no direct wage subsidy, though it is (still) being debated in Congress.

No doubt hearing the feedback from business groups, Canada’s Liberal government quickly expanded the wage subsidy to 75 per cent on March 29, nine days after the original announcement. But in those crucial nine days, many businesses made fateful decisions about layoffs on the expectation that meaningful wage support wasn’t coming.

“Nothing was announced for several weeks, (and the program) basically just started to deliver money a few weeks ago,” Dan Kelly, president and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, told HuffPost Canada earlier this week.

“In that time, most employers had to lay off their workers, they didn’t have cash to hang on. … As a result, millions of Canadians became unemployed that might not have.”
There are many scenarios where you would be better off not opening, where you are better off keeping sales low.Dan Kelly, Canadian Federation of Independent Business

One thing that helped employers make that decision was that, by the time the 75-per-cent subsidy ― known as the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, or CEWS ― was rolled out, the government had already announced the $2,000-a-month Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) for the unemployed.

Knowing the CERB was there “made me feel less awful” about laying off staff, the owner of an independent bookstore in Western Canada told HuffPost, asking not to be identified, out of concern for professional repercussions.

The owner would bring staff back to pre-pandemic levels “in a heartbeat” if the wage subsidy was there ― but it isn’t for their store. That’s because to qualify for the CEWS, a business has to have seen at least a 30-per-cent drop in revenue. If you rise above that level, you no longer qualify for the benefit.

The bookstore owner estimates their business has seen a drop of 26 per cent in sales. The store is operating online and through curbside pickup, but staff have been rehired only at reduced hours.

“I don’t want to put my staff at risk or our families, or some of our customers who are quite elderly and frail,” the owner said. But “it would be nice if we had jobs to come back to after. How do you balance that? It’s really challenging.”

Without financial support, there is little they can do; the owner isn’t even drawing a salary, and is living off their laid-off partner’s CERB payments. Thanks to online sales, “it’s been an easier pivot for us, but for others (in the community) … some of them won’t reopen at all,” the owner said.

‘Perverse signals’

And in its current form, the CEWS could actually be slowing down the return to pre-pandemic hiring levels. As it’s designed, the CEWS creates an incentive for businesses to keep their revenue suppressed, CIBC economist Avery Shenfeld wrote in a report last month.

The cutoff for qualifying “could have a business opting to shorten hours of operation if, for example, sales were about to creep above that (30-per-cent) mark,” Shenfeld wrote.

Kelly said he has been hearing from members that this is happening, and worries the CEWS is sending “perverse signals” to business owners on how they should be operating.

“There are many scenarios where you would be better off not opening, where you are better off keeping sales low,” he said.

But he noted that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears aware of the problem and has signalled that “during the reopening phase a different approach is necessary.”

© Provided by HuffPost Canada Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a press conference at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa on June 5, 2020.


Kelly is encouraged by the fact the federal Liberals have extended the CEWS to August, as he figures it will be more useful ― and the uptake will be higher ― now that lockdowns are ending and businesses are opening up again. If so, the CEWS could end up helping to rehire some of the people that it arrived too late to help at the start of the pandemic.

“It’s a credit to the government” that it is staying flexible on policy as the crisis unfolds, he said.

Even those who point out the shortcomings in the program don’t lay much blame at policymakers’ feet.

“These nuances aren’t a sign that the initial decisions were flawed,” Shenfeld wrote. “Simple designs were needed to get them up and running in a hurry. But just as a patient has to be carefully weaned off pain medication, policymakers need to adjust their prescriptions as we take small steps towards economic health.”

With files from Reuters

This article originally appeared on HuffPost Canada.

Coronavirus-stricken U.S. faces another problem: A massive dust cloud from Africa

© Provided by NBC News

A massive plume of dust from the Sahara Desert is drifting across the Atlantic Ocean and is expected to blanket parts of the southeastern United States this week.

The enormous dust cloud — which some experts say could be the biggest and most intense Saharan plume in 50 years — could aggravate health problems, including asthma and other respiratory illnesses, and make visibility difficult on the ground.

“Dust particles are what we call particulate matter, and we know that breathing in fine particles of anything is not good for the respiratory tract — especially people who are sensitive to poor air quality,” said Thomas Gill, a professor of geological sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso.

The added dust pollution may be particularly problematic in light of the ongoing pandemic, because COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, is a respiratory illness.

“There is some emerging information that people who live in places with higher levels of air pollution may be at higher risk” of COVID-19, said Gregory Wellenius, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health, whose research focuses on the impact of climate change on human health. “There may be potential interactions between air pollution and COVID symptoms or progression, but it’s still pretty early data.”

Still, the potential health impacts of the dusty air could add more pressure on the country’s already-overburdened health care system, Wellenius said.

“Things like the wildfire season, hurricane season and extreme weather events, including this dust storm, may be magnified this year because resources are already stretched thin,” Wellenius added. “Just because we’re in a pandemic world doesn’t mean that other hazards that we tend to worry about aren’t happening.”

Part of the dusty veil has already reached the Caribbean, and thick haze was reported Monday in Puerto Rico, Antigua and other islands in the region, according to The Associated Press.

Forecasts project that the dust cloud — which stretches thousands of miles long — could swirl into the Gulf of Mexico and waft over Texas, Louisiana and elsewhere in the Southeast in the coming days.

It’s not unusual for dust plumes that originate in Africa to get carried thousands of miles across the ocean, but Gill said this particular event is especially large and intense. NASA astronaut Doug Hurley, who is currently aboard the International Space Station, snapped a dramatic photo Sunday showing the immensity of the plume over the west-central Atlantic Ocean.

“A dust cloud has to be incredibly large and very thick to be that evident from the space station,” Gill said. “This one literally sticks out like a sore thumb — or maybe like a dirty thumb.”

These types of dust clouds occur every year when a mass of very dry air, known as the Saharan Air Layer, forms over the Sahara Desert. The plumes form when “ripples in the lower to middle atmosphere, called tropical waves, track along the southern edge of the Sahara Desert and loft vast amounts of dust into the atmosphere,” Jason Dunion, an associate scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Hurricane Research Division, said in a statement.

Dusty outbreaks in the Sahara typically peak from late June to mid-August, but Dunion said this week’s event is “impressive for its size and the amount of dry, dusty air that it contains.”

When dust clouds waft across the ocean, they are carried by the same trade winds that blow west off the coast of Africa and can churn up tropical storms and hurricanes, according to Gill.

“It’s all part of the same global circulation of the atmosphere,” he said.

Sahara Air Layer activity coincides with the early part of the Atlantic hurricane season, but these dusty outbreaks typically suppress the formation of tropical storms and hurricanes, which need moisture to develop and thrive.

“That’s the silver lining with these dust clouds,” Gill said. “It has to do with the dryness of the air mass because you need very, very moist air to create things like tropical storms or hurricanes.”

Gill warned that as the dust drifts over cities and towns, the hazy conditions could trigger air pollution alerts and he urged people to heed public health advisories.

“It’s important to pay attention to any alerts or warnings from air quality agencies,” he said, “especially for people directly in the path of the dust cloud.”

NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT

N.B. pension managers net record $5.3M in bonus pay for 2019, despite below average returns

FINANCIAL MANAGERS WIN EITHER WAY 

IF YOU LOSE OR IF YOU GAIN

THEY CHARGE YOU JUST THE SAME

The body in charge of managing New Brunswick government pension plans paid its employees a record $5.3 million in incentive pay in 2019, including $2.1 million in bonuses to its top four executives, despite overseeing investment returns that were near the bottom of major Canadian pension funds.

Vestcor Inc. is the Fredericton-based organization set up to manage what is now $18.5 billion in New Brunswick government pension and other funds. It's jointly owned by the province's two largest public pension funds serving civil servants and teachers but also oversees the retirement plans of hospital workers, nurses, Crown corporation employees, provincial court judges, MLAs and other groups.

Vestcor also manages other investment accounts, including University of New Brunswick endowment funds and nuclear waste and decommissioning funds for NB Power.

According to its latest annual report released earlier this month, Vestcor and had one of its better years in 2019 earning $2.1 billion on its holdings, an investment return of 11.76 per cent.

In a press release, Vestcor called the results "strong," but, according to the Royal Bank of Canada's Investor and Treasury Services office, the result is at the low end of the 119 Canadian defined benefit pension funds it tracks.

 

© Reuters The Royal Bank of Canada said 119 major Canadian pension funds it tracked in 2019 generated average returns of 14 per cent. Vestcor's investment return of 11.76 per cent placed it somewhere in the bottom 30.

The average return among funds in the RBC survey in 2019 was 14 per cent with organizations earning less than 12 per cent, like Vestcor, sitting in the bottom quarter of performers."This was the second highest annual return over the past 10 years, in large part due to an upsurge in Canadian and global equity markets," reported RBC, which noted the top quarter of pension funds earned returns above 15.7 per cent.

Top execs take home almost half of bonus pay

Still, employees at Vestcor earned record bonus pay of $5.3 million in 2019, a $300,000 increase from 2018.

About 40 per cent of those bonuses, and most of the increases, went to four employees at the top of the organization, including $882,721 in bonus pay to long-time president John Sinclair.

© Gary Moore/CBC Vestcor holds $1.2 billion in real estate investments and helped finance the development of Fredericton's 'sexiest building' at 140 Carelton St. It has agreed to occupy two floors in the building when it opens later this year.

That's a slight drop from the $902,438 in incentive pay Sinclair earned in 2018, although an offsetting bump in his 2019 base pay kept his overall compensation at $1.26 million for the second year in a row. That does not include an additional $136,584 in employer contributions made toward his own pension.

Bonus payments to three vice-presidents underneath Sinclair, including Jonathan Spinney, James Scott and Mark Holleran, totalled $1.22 million in 2019, a $304,000 increase from 2018.

Bonus 235% president's base salary

Vestcor is open about its practice of paying bonuses and two years ago issued a statement defending the use of incentives to reward and retain talented employees, especially senior executives.

"Vestcor operates on the general principle that compensation should consist of a base component and a performance-based incentive component," read the statement.

"A pay-for-performance incentive program is typical for our industry. The percentage of compensation that is performance-based is proportional to the level of employee seniority."

Vestcor's board of directors has a published target for bonuses for employees of between 30 per cent and 130 per cent of their individual base salaries, but it regularly exceeds those levels for senior management.

Sinclair's bonus in 2019 was 235 per cent of his $375,047 base salary, while bonuses for the three vice-presidents averaged 170 per cent of their base pay.
President says payments in line with industryIn an email, Sinclair said the board of directors allows bonuses to exceed the upper target of 130 per cent of an individual's base pay for "outperformance." He noted the bonus pools from which payments are made each year each have upper limits and payments made to employees are "rigorously overseen by our board of directors in-line with industry best practices"

The bonus pools are calculated annually from an assessment of how much Vestcor managers have personally added to returns by beating investment targets over a one- and four-year rolling period and by how well they carry out administrative tasks.

© Richard Drew/The Associated Press 

Vestcor has a low-risk investment mandate but did have over $6 billion invested in Canadian, U.S. and international stock markets in 2019 and earned returns of up to 25 per cent on some of those investments as equities rose.

Some of the targets are harder to beat than others and Vestcor claims that in earning $2.1 billion in 2019, $107 million of that was the result of its own "active management performance."

Most of the bonus money is based on beating targets over the four-year period, and Sinclair said it performed much better in relation to other Canadian pension funds prior to 2019.

"(Over) longer term periods Vestcor has solidly outperformed the RBC Canadian Defined Benefit median returns with much lower investment risk while also continuing to add significant value added returns," wrote Sinclair.

New interactive project aims to map the displacement of '60s Scoop survivors


Jessica Deer CBC JUNE 23. 2020

© CBC In our own Words: Mapping the Sixties Scoop Diaspora is an interactive map launched by the Sixties Scoop Network in collaboration with University of Regina Professor Raven Sinclair.

The United Kingdom, Germany, India, the Netherlands and Botswana are just some of the places overseas where Indigenous children from Canada ended up after they were removed from their homes and traditional territories during the Sixties Scoop.

Visualizing the displacement is the idea behind the recently launched interactive map In our own Words: Mapping the Sixties Scoop Diaspora. It's a collaboration between the Sixties Scoop Network (formerly the National Indigenous Survivors of Child Welfare Network), and University of Regina Professor Raven Sinclair, who initiated the Pe-kīwēwin (Coming home) project.

"It's about visualizing our stories and getting our stories out to the world. I want to help those who have been taken away have a voice," said Colleen Hele-Cardinal, co-founder of the Sixties Scoop Network, a grassroots collective of survivors based in Ottawa.

"A lot of people think the Sixties Scoop just happened in Canada. Look at how far they took our children, how far they took us away from our traditional lands. We need to show that visual displacement."

Between the 1950s and early 1990s, over 22,500 Indigenous children in Canada were apprehended by child welfare agencies and placed with non-Indigenous foster or adoptive parents and lost their cultural identities as a result.

© Kate Tenenhouse/CBC 

Colleen Hele-Cardinal is a co-founder of the Sixties Scoop Network.

Canada signed a $875 million class action settlement agreement with First Nations and Inuit Sixties Scoop survivors in 2017 and some began receiving interim compensation from the settlement this month. But unlike the hearings held by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission or the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, Hele-Cardinal said survivors of the Sixties Scoop have not had any formal processes to share their stories.

"I want the world to know what happened to us," she said.

"People think Canada is this awesome country. It's far from it, from what happened to us."

Survivors who choose to participate in the map can add as much or as little information as they want into the system, including photos and videos, and narratives about their birth, adoption journey, and repatriation. Hele-Cardinal said it will be a powerful tool for survivors to find family, connect with one another, and have their voices heard on their own terms.
Amnesty International to help raise awareness

In April, Amnesty International Canada announced it was partnering with the network to raise awareness about the Sixties Scoop.

Ana Collins, Indigenous rights adviser at the non-profit organization, said the Sixties Scoop is a human rights violation, and hopes Amnesty's network of eight million members can help push for change in terms of reconnecting people with their families, community, and nation.

"It's a way to move toward justice," said Collins.

"When you're talking about Indigenous kids who were removed from their territories and sent so far away, and there's language divides, different media, different governments, it's complicated. To engage a network of millions of people who could potentially spread the word and advocate in their own nation-states, that's the strength Amnesty has in this situation."

Edmonton Public Schools will request an independent review of SRO program, investigate placement of officers with disciplinary history in schools


Lauren Boothby

© Darryl Dyck Edmonton Police Service school resource officer Const. Doug Green retrieves a treat for his one-year-old drug-sniffing dog Ebony after she located drugs hidden in a small electronic device during a demonstration of her skills at Harry Ainlay High School in Edmonton, Alta., on Jan. 10, 2005.

Edmonton Public Schools will request an independent review of the school resource officer program and an investigation into placement of officers with disciplinary histories in the program.

The board unanimously passed the motion Tuesday evening to ask a university researcher to do a literature review, environmental scan and qualitative analysis of the experiences of students and families with SROs and policing, “focusing on the experiences of Black, brown and Indigenous students” and students with disabilities. A motion to suspend the program pending review failed after votes tied 4-4.

The district also voted to ask the province to include anti-racism teaching in an updated curriculum and ask the province to include funds for anti-racism professional development for teachers.

Board chairwoman Trisha Estabrooks said at the meeting the SRO program has not been reviewed since it was brought into Edmonton Public Schools in 1979.

“That there are still so many questions about the SRO program, questions that we as a board are not able to answer, and so that is the reason why we need an independent review to happen,” she said.

“I think it is quite frankly shameful that we have not had an independent review of this program since its inception.”

But Estabrooks voted against suspending the program, saying there wasn’t evidence of wrongdoing, and she wanted to see what the review would find.

Other trustees echoed her views, including Cheryl Johner, who said she supported the review but not suspending it right now.

“In a court of law, you’re innocent until proven guilty,” she said. “It might be racist, I know there is racism, but I just feel that program does a lot of benefit and it’s not all bad … there’s probably some (SROs) that are stellar, and maybe some that are not so stellar. We have a process to determine that, I think there’s value in that.”

Ward G trustee Bridget Stirling, who brought forward the motion, said she doesn’t know that the district would continue working with any other partner if it is known they placed problematic workers in schools.

Stirling said they were made aware of problems years ago in a presentation by advocate and writer Bashir Mohamed. The board faced questions about the program in 2017 when Toronto public schools voted to cancel the program.

“I want to call attention to the fact that failure to act in evidence of harm is harm, and we have evidence of harm. Our communities have been bringing that evidence to us for years, we choose to not listen to them,” she said.

When it appeared it would not pass, she said voting against suspending the program is choosing not to listen to concerns from the community.

“I hope as we grapple with systemic racism, we’re also grappling with how systemic racism works among our own community,” Stirling said. “We’re not trying to be bad people, but it does shape our assumptions about whose stories we want to listen to and whose stories we don’t.”

Other trustees highlighted comments from principals and other educators, saying officers were an important part of schools and keeping students safe.

Of 21 speakers signed up to speak ahead of the SRO motion Tuesday, nearly all voiced opposition to the program, many saying it creates a school-to-prison pipeline , where often poor or racialized children are targeted for discipline , then funnelled from schools to the juvenile corrections and criminal justice system.

Many referred to research by Mohamed, and reiterated calls from Black Lives Matter Edmonton to get rid of the program.

Felice Lifshitz said her daughter, who is on the autism spectrum and struggles with mental health, had a “deeply and dramatically counterproductive” experience with an SRO.

She said her daughter had a meltdown and ran away from school, and the SRO put her in handcuffs and brought her back. She said he also threatened to charge her for assault because she was kicking and struggling while she was being handcuffed.

“But this year, she never attended school once, because she was too afraid that she would be charged by the school resource officer,” she said, later clarifying her daughter attended a few days of class. “She had more and more and more anxiety about the possibility of having to be … handcuffed by him, having to be thrown in the back of the van, or having to be charged by him.”

Edmonton Catholic Schools has said they aren’t currently reviewing the SRO program.

Edmonton Catholic board chairwoman Laura Thibert said Monday “our board is very supportive of the school resource officer program.”

2 Edmonton teachers create Black Teachers' Association of Alberta
CBC/Radio-Canada

© Travis McEwan/CBC Andrew Parker is a high school teacher in Edmonton Public School system, and co-founder of the Black Teacher's Association of Alberta.

Overcome with pride and enthusiasm the day after a massive anti-racism rally this month, two Edmonton teachers wanted to find a way to do more for Black teachers and students in the province.

Andrew Parker and Sarah Adomako-Ansah, each having taught seven years, came up with the Black Teachers' Association of Alberta.

"We felt it was necessary in order to get representation, communication, inclusion, of course racism awareness, providing support and of course networking for our teachers," Parker said.

"We want to see more faces in the classrooms in order to provide more opportunity for our youth and we want to get more youth in the faculty of education."

The association is looking for members from across the province. It has already hosted its first online video meeting with just over a dozen teachers.

Adomako-Ansah, who grew up in Edmonton, says she wasn't taught by a Black teacher until she was in university. She wonders how different her elementary and high school experience would have been if she had a teacher she could have identified with.

"In the school and in the district that I teach in, it's very multicultural. There's a lot of different kids from different ethnic backgrounds, but the majority of the teachers in my district are Caucasian," Adomako-Ansah said.

"So we figured why not be a face for those students that maybe don't have someone that looks like them to look up to."

'Little backhanded comments'

Adomako-Ansah says she experiences racism in the school setting, often subtle, on a daily basis.

For example she is occasionally asked by parents visiting her classroom where the teacher is, she said.

"I find it in little backhanded comments where someone truly doesn't realize that what they're saying is offensive or hurtful," she said. "It's just something that you see everyday unfortunately."

The group also wants to look at curriculum such as history and social studies, Adomako-Ansah said.

"So we're not just learning about the World War; maybe we're learning about the Rwandan genocide for example," Adomako-Ansah said. "Just something to bring to light that there are struggles in every nation and every ethnic group and how we as teachers can provide resources to staff to students to parents."

Many school districts in the province have staff who act as liaisons for Indigenous, Inuit and Métis students, helping them academically, culturally and on a personal level.

Parker and Adomako-Ansah would like to see Black liaison members in schools with larger Black student populations.

"Imagine how many issues we could alleviate right there just by having that support in-house, but we can't get those liaisons if we don't have teachers in the positions to get those jobs," Parker said. "We're trying to carve a new niche inside of the education system."

Parker is also hoping Black students will be inspired to become teachers themselves.

"What we can control is what happens in the future and we're going to do everything in our power to make sure that we do everything we can do for the next generation of Black teachers."

The Black Teacher's Association of Alberta has not worked with any school boards yet. They're planning to have a presence at teachers conventions, to work with non-Black teachers who want to assist.

Boards vow commitment to inclusion

Edmonton and Calgary public school boards issued statements in response to the Black Lives Matter protests.

"We are committed to being a place where every student and staff person feels they belong," Edmonton Public Schools said. "Our commitment compels us to do the work of promoting anti-racism and inclusion."

"Education leaders must disrupt practices and structures that tend to serve some students and not all," said the Calgary Board of Education.

"This work requires each person to confront their own biases and to challenge their beliefs and assumptions.

"Addressing inequality is central to our work. It is about teaching and learning. It is about who has a voice. It is about who gets hired and who gets promoted to positions of responsibility. It is about levelling the playing field so that each student and staff member has the opportunity to succeed."

Adomako-Ansah said she plans to one day be a school administrator, something the first meeting of the association made her feel was actually achievable.

"I've never met them before but they were so encouraging, she said.

"So it was an overwhelming first meeting, but we're looking forward to meeting in person when it's when it's safe to do so with a larger group."

Join CBC Alberta for a personal and in-depth discussion about systemic racism, We Need to Talk, on Thursday, June 25, at 6:30 p.m. MT. Join CBC hosts Sandra Batson and Tanara McLean for a free, public forum discussion that shines a light on systemic racism in the province through the stories of people who have experienced it firsthand, with an aim to put forward potential solutions, concrete actions and examples of success.

Panellists will include:
Adora Nwofor, Calgary comedian and activist.
David Este, professor of social work, University of Calgary.
Ryan Holtz, Edmonton podcaster and marketing expert.
Jodi Calahoo-Stonehouse, executive director of Natamoowin, Yellowhead Indigenous Education Foundation.
Spirit River Striped Wolf, president of Mount Royal University students association.

With special performances from:
Alanna Bluebird-Onespot, poet, Tsuut'ina Nation.
Andrew Parker, Edmonton teacher.

You can watch it live on: cbc.ca/weneedtotalk, cbc.ca/calgary or cbc.ca/edmonton, CBC Calgary's Facebook feed, CBC Edmonton's Facebook feed, CBC Gem or CBC Television.

Have a personal story t

New crowdfunded studio being set up to support Toronto’s Black photographers, videographers

© Vonny Lorde / Instagram Vonny Lorde captures a photo of a protest in downtown Toronto.

\With thousands of compelling images shared on various media across the world recently as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, a Toronto artist is embarking on a new initiative to support fellow Black photographers and videographers.

Vonny Lorde, a photographer for almost 10 years and a creative director, said she recently proceeded with working to open a new, affordable studio called Exposure Toronto after attending a protest through the city's downtown earlier in June.

"I have this online platform ... but how can I utilize this to make something bigger, to make a bigger impact, to help the creatives in the city?" Lorde said during an interview with Global News.

"Overall, I feel like us as Black people, we need to be the ones telling and narrating our own stories."

Lorde, who shoots photos in film, had a roll developed to see if she had images she could sell. She narrowed it down to four to sell, noting the bestselling image was of a protester holding a sign saying "There's not a Black woman I can't thank."


Read more: More than 40 Toronto graffiti artists unite to #PaintTheCityBlack, honour Black Lives Matter movement

So she turned to social media and a crowdfunding site in an effort to see what kind of financial support she could get. The initial goal was to reach $1,000 in order to develop a website for Exposure Toronto.

"I'm hoping that Exposure Toronto can offer a safe space to these creatives and help them amplify their own careers," she said.

"One of the most common comments I got back from people is this is something that's needed in the Toronto arts community."

Less than 24 hours later, Lorde said the goal was met and exceeded thanks to dozens of donations.

"We're in the middle of the pandemic. A lot of people aren't working. But it goes to show you how strong community is, and I just think it's really beautiful."


When it comes to accessing professional spaces and equipment to share messages, stories and images, Lorde recalled her own experience of curating for other artists. She said the cost can be prohibitive for many, and for those artists who can pay, it could have a heavy impact on their finances.

"It made me aware of how expensive it is for freelance artists to actually get their work out there," Lorde said.

"As a photographer trying to book studio space, you think it's affordable, but then there's a minimum of how many hours you have to book and then you have to pay extra to use the backdrops and then you have to pay for extra lighting equipment, and before you know it, you can't afford to use the studio anymore."

She also highlighted difficulties facing Black artists who are aspiring to find work and access industries.


"It's hard being a Black person in the industry, just before — it's either you have the talent but you don't get hired for certain gigs just because of things like race ... a lot of us are aware there are a lot of white gatekeepers in the industry, so it's difficult," Lorde said.

"If you don't know certain people, it's like, 'How do I get my foot in the door?' It's like, 'Hey, I have the talent but nobody wants to let me in.'"

Lorde said she's still working on the finer details of the Exposure Toronto studio but is currently visiting and assessing potential studio spaces. She said the goal is to offer a low hourly fee to Black artists with no minimum booking and no additional charges for extra equipment and tools.

Read more: Toronto bookstore sees spike in demand for works by Black authors, anti-racism titles


"I'm not doing this to make a profit," Lorde said.

"I'm not doing any of this for myself. I'm doing this for the community."

Lorde said the crowdfunding campaign will go toward rent and purchasing needed items such as a full-frame DSLR camera, studio lighting, photo backdrops, stands, a tripod, a fridge to store film and an iMac computer for editing. Exposure Toronto is also accepting equipment donations.

She also said she's looking to enhance the studio's website to allow for e-commerce and for local artists to sell their work.

WE HAVE MADE ENOUGH MONEY TO GET OUR WEBSITE MADE!!! 😭❣️ thank you all to everyone who has ordered— will be keeping these up so additional funds can go to website hosting + getting a mailing list done for us & other start up needs!! https://t.co/iB6CT5GETk


— 🤍 (@LASTNAMELORDE) June 12, 2020


Excuse me if I’m silent/not as vocal for the next couple of days.


Currently working on forming a not-for-profit/charity to help fund black photogs in the city.


I may reach out to some of you for help as this is something I cannot do on my own and I acknowledge that.


— 🤍 (@LASTNAMELORDE) June 2, 2020


The kids are the future. We must feed our future.


— 🤍 (@LASTNAMELORDE) June 2, 2020


.@exposuretoronto hit $1K in only a few hours! I know we can get to $5K before the end of the day. This space is CRITICAL for Black creatives in the city. Let’s support photographers who are tuned into the needs of their peers as they make space to create!!! https://t.co/R1OxiBIv72


— Sharine Taylor 🇯🇲 (@shharine) June 22, 2020