Thailand's first transgender MP dismissed from parliament
AFP 

Thailand's parliament lost its first transgender MP Wednesday after the constitutional court revoked her seat in what critics called a political move against supporters of the kingdom's pro-democracy movement.  

© Chalinee Thirasupa 

Tanwarin Sukkhapisit was a pioneer for Thailand's LGBT community when she won a seat at last year's election

Tanwarin Sukkhapisit, a former actor and film-maker, was a pioneer for the LGBT community when she won a seat at last year's election for the Future Forward Party.

But the party was dissolved in February this year, a move that escalated discontent and fuelled pro-democracy activists to demand the government step down.

Dozens of its MPs, including Tanwarin, joined another party -- the Move Forward Party -- but a judge ruled Wednesday that, as a "stockholder of a media company", she had breached electoral law and must leave her parliamentary seat.

"I'm not surprised -- I expected this to happen," Tanwarin told AFP, adding she did not think the decision was related to her gender identity.

"I will continue my work fighting for better outcomes for the LGBT community."

Thailand's transgender community is high profile but faces education and workplace discrimination in the Buddhist nation.

The country's parliament still has three other remaining transgender MPs.

Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat told AFP the ruling was disappointing but hailed her legacy.

"Even if we lose an MP today I think we have a national icon when it comes to freedom and gender equality."

Tanwarin is the latest casualty of a law many claim the government is using as a political weapon.

"They are trying to use a legal mechanism against whoever they assume supports the (pro-democracy) movement," said political scientist Titipol Phakdeewanich.

Near daily protests have rocked Thailand's capital for months as activists demand the government step down and call for reforms to the powerful monarchy.

Earlier on Wednesday, the cabinet approved plans to set up a reconciliation committee it said was a bid to defuse political tensions.

But the largest opposition party, Pheu Thai, dismissed the gesture, accusing the prime minister and former army chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha of trying to "buy time".

"The truth is Prayut has no credibility anymore. He needs to resign," deputy leader Pichai Nariptapan said.

bur-lpm/rs/axn

'Barrett is like Jesus' for evangelical voters: Why confirming a new Supreme Court justice before the election mattered more to Republicans than another coronavirus stimulus

© Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images President Donald Trump stands with newly sworn in U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation to the Supreme Court marks a huge victory for Republicans.
Despite the criticism from Democrats for prioritizing her appointment over passing a new COVID-19 stimulus package, experts say the GOP was following a longstanding plan.

If Republicans lose both the White House and Senate in 2020, they still have control over a critical branch of government: the judiciary. 

"White evangelicals will wait for the stimulus package. It pales in comparison to getting the Supreme Court justice," an expert told Insider.

Even if President Donald Trump doesn't win on November 3, Amy Coney Barrett delivered the GOP a crucial victory.

The federal judge — now a newly-minted Supreme Court Justice — is the first nominee in US history to be confirmed this close to an Election Day. Barrett replaced the late liberal icon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg eight days before the general election, thanks to a Republican-led Senate that was fiercely committed to filling the seat.

In the ensuing weeks, Democrats denounced Republicans for prioritizing a judicial appointment and punting on key legislative duties, key among which was a new coronavirus stimulus bill to help millions of struggling Americans.

The partisan fiasco came to a head on Monday evening when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's plans finally materialized. He adjourned the Senate after Barrett's confirmation vote, shutting down the prospect of additional aid until after the election.

Despite the criticism, experts say Republicans stuck to the surest way they know to preserve their political influence: controlling the courts. With Barrett, the results were twofold: Republicans cemented a conservative majority on the nation's highest bench for decades to come, and they solidified support from some of their core constituents, white evangelical Christians.

McConnell's 'leave no vacancy behind' mindset about the courts

And the timing couldn't have been more ideal for the party, experts told Insider. As Trump trails his Democratic opponent Joe Biden in national polls and Republicans fight to maintain their majority in the Senate, this may have been the last opportunity in the foreseeable future to fulfill their legal agenda — and they pounced on it.

No matter the outcome of the 2020 election, "at least they can hold onto one branch of government," John Fea, a history professor at Messiah University, told Insider. "It's perfectly fitting with the political playbook."

© Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., gives two thumbs up as he leaves the chamber at the Capitol after a vote confirming Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, Monday, Oct. 26, 2020, in Washington. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo

This playbook has been years in the making.

After Republicans won the Senate during then-President Barack Obama's second term, they consistently blocked his judicial nominees. McConnell's tactics were thrust into the spotlight in 2016 when he refused to even consider Obama's pick to succeed the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

"It is a president's constitutional right to nominate a Supreme Court justice, and it is the Senate's constitutional right to act as a check on a president and withhold its consent," McConnell said on the Senate floor after Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland.

By the time Trump took office, Republicans were well-positioned to reshape the judiciary, as the president inherited 105 empty judgeships from his predecessor.

McConnell has since helmed an historic effort to flood the federal courts with conservative judges. In total, the top Republican has made 220 confirmations, including three Supreme Court justices. He reemphasized his mission earlier this year with a declaration to "leave no vacancy behind" — pushing through 26 federal judges even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conservative judgeships are critical to the GOP's white evangelical base

Republicans began to cultivate a strategy on the judiciary decades ago, around the same time that white evangelicals entered the political forefront. After landmark Supreme Court cases, including 1973's Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion, white evangelicals grew increasingly worried with what they viewed as the nation's moral downturn. The GOP, emboldened by the conservative coalition, coalesced under an anti-abortion and pro-religious liberty platform. Then, in the 1980s, white evangelicals started consistently voting red. 

(BARRY GOLDWATER IN A FIT OF LIBERTARIAN LIBERTINE ATHEISM DENOUNCED THE REAGAN REPUBLICAN MORAL MAJORITY AS A VIOLATION OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT)

 

 © SUSAN WALSH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images Amy Coney Barrett looks over to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, as they meet with on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on September 29, 2020. SUSAN WALSH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Many white evangelicals believe that "the United States will not survive if it does not course-correct and get back to these white evangelical Christian values," Lauren Kerby, a religious studies lecturer at Harvard Divinity School, told Insider. The Supreme Court offers them a shortcut "to enforce these kinds of values that they're really concerned about."

The party then moved to build a network of conservative lawyers and judges to resist liberal influence in the courts, Andrew Lewis, a political science professor at the University of Cincinnati, told Insider. They coined a judicial philosophy focused on resolving legal disputes through the Constitution's original text, known as originalism, and empowered groups such as the Federalist Society to promote the interpretation. Critics say the ideology works to limit the federal government's power over social issues like abortion and leaves them up to state legislatures to decide.

Fast forward to Trump, and "all of this led to really strong efficiency of getting conservative judges appointed," Lewis said.

Barrett, a self-identified originalist, was previously a member of the Federalist Society, along with many other Trump-appointees. "Barrett became one of the judicial candidates that the religious right was most interested in," Lewis told Insider. "She represents these cultural and traditional conservative interests more, so I think it really gets many of them excited."

The relationship between Republicans and white evangelicals continues to energize this legal pursuit. Trump gained 80% of their vote in 2016 after he campaigned on the courts.

In 2020, with Barrett, "it's less about trying to win over the evangelicals," Fea, an American evangelicalism scholar, told Insider. "It's a matter of upholding them — not losing them. It's a matter of securing that 80%."

Had Republicans left the Supreme Court seat open, they would've failed to elevate their conservative ideology and disappointed much of their base, Fea added.

"White evangelicals will wait for the stimulus package," he said. "It pales in comparison to getting the Supreme Court justice."

© Samuel Corum/Getty Images People that both support and oppose the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett demonstrate in front of the Supreme Court of the United States on October 26, 2020 in Washington, DC. Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Barrett's confirmation has sparked excitement among Republicans, and concern among Democrats

If Biden wins the presidential election, it's unclear whether he'll attempt to tip the Supreme Court's majority in his favor by adding more justices. The former vice president has remained intentionally vague on the topic, saying only that he is "not a fan" of court packing and will create a bipartisan commission to study court reform, if elected.

Some progressives in the Democratic party have already rallied behind the idea of expanding the court after Barrett's confirmation on Monday night. But McConnell blasted the notion earlier this week and said that the left "won't be able to do much about this for a long time to come."

At the moment, he's not entirely wrong. Barrett is 48 years old and will serve a lifetime appointment on the court, much to the dismay of liberals who decry her record as a threat to women's reproductive rights, health care, and gun control.

In the coming months, the Supreme Court is slated to take on a number of contentious cases, including a challenge to the Affordable Care Act, at which time it will become clear just how far right the ideological balance has shifted.

Despite the trepidation, however, Barrett's upcoming rulings spark excitement for many supporters.

To them, Kerby said, "Barrett is like Jesus. She's going to save the nation somehow."

Read the original article on Business Insider

Ocasio-Cortez: 'Trump is the racist visionary, but McConnell gets the job done'

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) lashed out at President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in a new interview, calling the president a "racist visionary."  

© Getty Images Ocasio-Cortez: 'Trump is the racist visionary, but McConnell gets the job done'

In an interview with Vanity Fair published Wednesday, the New York Democrat alluded to a New York Times report last month that Trump paid no income taxes for 10 of the 15 years before he was elected president and just $750 a year in 2016 and 2017.

"These are the same people saying that we can't have tuition-free public colleges because there's no money," Ocasio-Cortez told the magazine, "when these motherf---ers are only paying $750 a year in taxes."

Ocasio-Cortez alleged that "Trump is the racist visionary, but McConnell gets the job done. He doesn't do anything without Trump's blessing. Trump says, 'Jump.' McConnell says, 'How high?' Trump never does what McConnell says."

The progressive lawmaker also weighed in on the upcoming presidential election between Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. In the past, Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed the more liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) during the 2020 primaries, has argued that Biden would do a better job than Trump at protected marginalized communities.

"This is not about a decision between two candidates," she told Vanity Fair. "It's about a decision between two countries."

She added that the future of the Democratic Party hinges on a Biden administration being able to make real changes in the lives of those who are struggling.

"If these people's lives don't actually feel different" Ocasio-Cortez said, "we're done. You know how many Trumps there are in waiting?"

"I think, honestly, a lot of my dissent within the Democratic Party comes from my lived experience. It's not just that we can be better, it's that we have to be better. We're not good enough right now," she added.

Ocasio-Cortez had recently said that Democrats should focus on winning next week's election before pushing for policies under a possible Biden administration.

"I don't want us to start counting our chickens before they hatch," she told CNN's "State of the Union" earlier this week. "I think we need to focus on winning the White House period."

THE HILL

Co-chair of N.S. Assembly of Mi’kmaw Chiefs steps down amid moderate livelihood fishery dispute

Alexander Quon and Jesse Thomas

The co-chair of the Nova Scotia Assembly of Mi'kmaw Chiefs has stepped down from the organization amid a split over the implementation of the moderate livelihood fishery

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© Ross Lord / Global News Boats from Sipekne’katik First Nation were tied up after lobster traps were cut in a dispute with commercial fishers.

The decision, announced in a press release on Tuesday, comes after the organization had been discussing the definition of moderate livelihood with the federal government, although negotiations broke down last week.

The elder statesman of the Nova Scotia Assembly of Mi'kmaw Chiefs, Terry Paul, has spent decades as co-chair and served 36 years as chief of the Membertou First Nation.

Read more: Sipekne’katik First Nation fishery secures buyer for its lobster

He could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday.

In a statement, Paul said his confidence in the organization has been weakening for some time.

"While I understand, there are many employees who work every day for our communities, I have distrust in some of the issues at hand, primarily with the Fisheries files,” he said.

Paul will now work alongside Chief Mike Sack of the Sipekne'katik First Nation as well as other chiefs who are implementing a moderate livelihood fishery.
Moderate livelihood

Indigenous nations in Eastern Canada have a treaty right to fish or hunt for a “moderate livelihood,” a right that was recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada’s 1999 Marshall decision.

Although the term “moderate livelihood” was not formally defined by the court, a subsequent decision ruled that the government has the authority to impose some regulations for the purposes of conservation, subject to nation-to-nation consultations.

However, with no clear definition in the 21 years since the Marshall decision, the Sipekne’katik First Nation launched its self-regulated moderate livelihood fishery in September.

A second, Indigenous-run moderate livelihood fishery was launched by the Potlotek First Nation in Cape Breton in October, while Paul announced earlier this month that the Membertou First Nation was planning to launch its own moderate livelihood fishery.

Late last week, Paul accused the Department of Fisheries and Oceans of not recognizing the Supreme Court's Marshall decision by seizing lobster traps from band members.
Violence against moderate livelihood fishery

All of this comes on the heels of a violent response to the Sipekne’katik First Nation launching its moderate livelihood fishery.

Traps laid by Mi'kmaw fishers have been repeatedly cut or damaged.

The incidents culminated on Oct. 13, with mobs of as many 200 people swarming two lobster pounds in southwestern Nova Scotia.

At a facility in New Edinburgh, N.S., the crowd removed and damaged video cameras, then ransacked the lobster pound and storage facility where the lobster catch was to be housed.

Read more: Ottawa appoints special mediator in N.S. Indigenous lobster fisheries dispute

A van at the facility was set on fire.

RCMP have charged 31-year-old Michael Burton Nickerson from Yarmouth County with arson causing damage to property in relation to the incident.

Later that night, the same thing occurred at a lobster pound in Middle West Pubnico, N.S., a Mi’kmaw fisher told Global News.

Jason Marr said he and others were forced to take cover inside the lobster pound as the building’s windows were smashed out and his vehicle was damaged.

“They vandalized (my van) and they were peeing on it, pouring things into the fuel tank, cutting electrical wires,” Marr told Global News by phone on Wednesday.

He also said they smashed the windows of the van, and said that he saw them kicking, punching and hitting it with objects.

Video taken that night and posted on Facebook shows a damaged vehicle at the scene.

Marr alleges the non-Indigenous fishers threatened to “burn” his group out of the building if they didn’t leave and allow them to seize the lobster catch.

“I thought they were going to kill me,” he said.

Eventually, the group was forced to leave. Marr claims the non-Indigenous fishermen destroyed his catch, which he estimated was probably worth $40,000.

The facility that Marr took cover in was destroyed by what police called a “suspicious” fire on Oct. 17.

A man was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries that are believed to be related to the fire. The man is considered a person of interest in the case.

Read more: N.S. Mi’kmaq won’t deplete lobster stock, says expert

On Wednesday, Paul did not respond to a request for comment but Sack did.

"I haven't gone into details with him on that so I guess he'd have to shed some light on that one. But I respect his decision and he's been around the table for a long time, so it must be something worth doing so, if that's the case," Sack said on Wednesday.

Membertou is the latest to join Sipekne'katik and Millbrook First Nations in stepping down from the assembly.

The assembly released a statement Wednesday afternoon that it respects the autonomy of Mi’kmaw communities.

“We recognize that we are at a critical point in exercising and implementing our Treaty Rights, which can come with a range of thoughts and opinions.”

The Assembly said it remains committed to the protection of Treaties and is proud of the work it does for Mi’kmaq.

“Because we are stronger together, we will remain open to Membertou and Sipekne’katik coming back to the table, if and when they decide that is what is best for their communities.”

With files from Graeme Benjamin.

Father of 4 identified as worker killed at Trans Mountain pipeline site in west Edmonton


The man killed on the job at a west Edmonton construction site is being remembered by family as a loving husband and father.
© Supplied Samatar Sahal was killed while working at a Trans Mountain pipeline site in west Edmonton on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020.

Samatar Sahal was fatally hit by a piece of equipment while working at a Trans Mountain pipeline site on the northwestern corner of the intersection between Whitemud Drive and Winterburn Road/215 Street.

The 40-year-old leaves behind a wife and four young children: the eldest is eight and the youngest just a two-month-old newborn.

While gathered at the work site to grieve and pray on Wednesday, Sahal's family said he had a special bond with his kids and he was "an amazing father."

"We're not here to point any fingers, we're not here to say anything destructive was done to him on purpose," his niece Hani Abdi said. "Obviously his time and his calling was here.

"We're just here to pray and to ask for God to bless him."

Several dozen people gathered at the work site, where Abdi said they're in shock and disbelief.

"You get to leave every morning and your expecting that same person to come back [home.] For him not to be able to come back — it's something that you don't want to happen to anybody. It's something that you can't fathom."

He had worked in construction for many years, according to a GoFundMe raising money to cover funeral expenses and help support the young family. A service for Sahal will be held on Thursday.

Read more: Worker killed at Trans Mountain pipeline job site in west Edmonton

The workplace incident happened Tuesday afternoon, where a CAT pipelayer machine and a tarp on the ground were taped off.

SA Energy is the contractor leading the pipeline expansion work in the Edmonton region. The company released a statement saying it was deeply saddened to confirm the death of one of its workers.

"Our prayers and sympathies are with our employee's family, friends and colleagues during this difficult time," the SA Energy statement read in part.

Trans Mountain also released a statement saying the company was “deeply saddened” by the death.

“This is a tragic incident and I know that staff and contractors at both SA Energy and Trans Mountain join me in extending our deepest sympathies to the worker’s family,” said Ian Anderson, president and CEO of Trans Mountain.

Both SA Energy and Trans Mountain said work at the construction site was immediately stopped and all appropriate authorities were notified, including Alberta Occupational Health and Safety.

A spokesperson with the government ministry responsible for OHS investigations confirmed it was investigating.

Edmonton police said officers did respond to the scene to make sure the death wasn't suspicious, but deferred to OHS because a workplace was involved.

The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project is designed to triple the capacity of the existing 1950s-era pipeline between Edmonton and a shipping terminal in Burnaby, B.C., to about 890,000 barrels per day of products including diluted bitumen, lighter crudes and refined fuels such as gasoline.

Construction in the Edmonton region has been ongoing for about a year.

Read more: Trans Mountain pipeline: A look at key dates in the history of the project

Nenshi says Alberta needs the federal contact tracing app as province sees 410 new COVID cases

UCP CREATED USELESS ABAPP DUPLICATING FEDAPP
Madeline Smith 

  

© Provided by Calgary Herald Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi urged Calgarians to increase their vigilance as COVID-19 numbers surge in the city. Nenshi spoke on Wednesday, October 28, 2020.



Mayor Naheed Nenshi is calling for the provincial government to bring the federal contact tracing app to Alberta as COVID-19 cases spike.

Calgary’s mayor said Wednesday he has “no idea” what the holdup is in making the COVID Alert app available locally. The app lets people report a COVID diagnosis in eight provinces and, if it’s downloaded on your phone, also notifies you of possible exposure. The app works in Quebec and Ontario, which were both hard hit by COVID, but Alberta is still waiting.

As of Wednesday, 140 people in the Alberta Health Services Calgary zone have died from COVID-19.

“I don’t want any more,” Nenshi said.

“And, yeah, the federal app might not be perfect . . . but it’s something. We know the provincial app doesn’t work properly on most devices. We know people aren’t using it at all. So let’s take what we’ve got and make the job of those contact tracers easier.”

Active COVID cases in Alberta now sit at 4,793 after the province announced 410 new cases Wednesday. Daily case counts recently have regularly been above 400, and occasionally above 500. There are currently more active cases in the province than there were at the height of the first wave in the spring.

There are 1,788 active infections in the Calgary zone, compared to 2,245 in the Edmonton zone. The 410 new positive cases were identified from 10,631 tests — a 3.9 per cent positivity rate.

Alberta Health announced four more deaths Wednesday, including one in Calgary: a woman in her 90s linked to the outbreak at the Revera Mount Royal long term care home.

In Edmonton, a man in his 80s and a woman in her 90s linked to the outbreak at the Edmonton General Care Centre died, as well as another man in his 80s from the AHS Edmonton zone.

On Monday, Alberta announced new mandatory public health measures after 1,440 new cases were identified over three days. In Calgary and Edmonton, there’s now a 15-person limit on all social and family gatherings where people are “mixing and mingling.”

Related
AHS imposes restrictions on Calgary jail staff as COVID-19 outbreak spreads

'These numbers are scary': CEMA chief raises alarm about rising COVID-19 cases

Nenshi and Calgary Emergency Management Agency Chief Tom Sampson said they welcomed the new rules, and stressed it’s critical to follow them amid the “extremely concerning” spike in numbers.

“Social contact is a major contributor to those higher rates of infection,” Sampson said. “We need to tighten up our bubbles and sit together in our smaller cohorts.”

Sampson has also called for the federal contact tracing app to come to Alberta.

The provincial government said in August that Alberta would adopt the federal contact tracing app after months of issues with the provincial app, ABTraceTogether. For that app to work properly, users on Apple devices had to leave it running in the foreground with their phones unlocked at all times, an issue that led to concerns about privacy and practicality .

Nenshi added that he heard reports that United Conservative ministers had mocked the federal app in the legislature Tuesday as “Trudeau’s app.” The Hansard transcript of Tuesday’s Question Period doesn’t have a record of such a comment, but it was reported as part of heckling in the chamber.

Nenshi said he’s concerned about “politicization of public health.”

“Stop it. We don’t need that kind of partisanship here,” Nenshi said. “We’ve got to keep people safe, and I just hope that we go ahead and sign off on it as soon as possible.”

Health Minister Tyler Shandro told reporters Wednesday that the delay comes down to making sure the 247,000 people who already downloaded Alberta’s contact tracing app can be “transitioned” to the federal one.

“It only works if we have a certain amount of people who are going to be downloading it,” he said. “We need, for this to be effective in Alberta, for there to be a good base of downloads. That’s why we’re having that conversation with (the federal government) right now to make sure that transition is smooth.”

© Gavin Young/Postmedia Calgary Emergency Management Agency Chief Tom Sampson urged Calgarians to increase their vigilance as COVID-19 numbers surge in the city. Sampson spoke on Wednesday, October 28, 2020.

Nenshi and Sampson held a joint news conference on COVID at Calgary’s emergency operations centre for the first time in months. They said they would start speaking to the public more regularly again until the situation is more under control.

Sampson said Calgary’s effective reproduction number sits at 1.35, which means COVID numbers are multiplying “faster than we can afford.” For the virus to be under control, the measure needs to be lower than one.

The mayor noted some European countries are now returning to strict measures to contain the virus — in France, President Emmanuel Macron announced a second national lockdown Wednesday.

“We cannot get there. We need to help these businesses succeed,” Nenshi said.

He urged Calgarians to keep following advice that’s been in place for months now — wash or sanitize your hands frequently, wear a face covering in public, keep a two-metre distance from other people and keep your social “bubble” of people you don’t live with very small.

Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard tested positive for COVID-19 last week, and Nenshi said she told him she caught it from a small family gathering for Thanksgiving.

But, he added, she also said that because she’d been so vigilant about taking precautions with anyone she’d been in contact with, no one she’d seen within the two weeks before she started isolating tested positive.

“We have the ability to do that. It actually makes a difference for us to be thoughtful and careful.”

masmith@postmedia.com

Fiasco over pope's cut civil union quote intensifies impact

ROME — The world premiere of a documentary on Pope Francis was supposed to have been a bright spot for a papacy locked down by a pandemic and besieged by a corruption scandal, recalling Francis’ glory days travelling the world to bless the oppressed.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

But the red carpet rollout of “Francesco” has been anything but bright, with evidence that the Vatican censored the pope last year by deleting his endorsement of same-sex civil unions from an interview, only to have the footage resurface in the new film.

Aside from the firestorm the remarks created, the “Francesco" fiasco has highlighted the Vatican’s often self-inflicted communications wounds and Francis’ willingness to push his own agenda, even at the expense of fueling pushback from conservative Catholics.

That pushback was swift and came from predictable corners: Cardinal Raymond Burke, Francis’ frequent nemesis on matters of doctrine, said the pope’s comments were devoid of any “magisterial weight.” But in a statement, Burke expressed concern that such personal opinions coming from the pope “generate great bewilderment and cause confusion and error among Catholic faithful.”

The kerfuffle began Wednesday with the world premiere of “Francesco,” a feature-length film on Francis and the issues he cares most about: climate change, refugees and social inequality. Midway through, Francis delivers the bombshell quote that gays deserve to be part of the family and that he supported civil unions, or a “ley de convivencia civil” as he said in Spanish — to give them legal protections.

Christopher Lamb of Britain’s The Tablet magazine, noted Friday that in some countries, the rights of gays are a life and death matter, and that Francis was merely positioning the church to defend LGBT Catholics from perhaps deadly discrimination.

“The pope is willing to ‘break a few plates’ to ensure he communicates this Gospel-based message of compassion,” he tweeted.

But the contents of the pope’s words were almost lost in the controversy that ensued over their origin.

At first, film director Evgeny Afineevsky claimed Francis made them directly to him. Then one of Francis’ media advisers said they came from a 2019 interview with Mexican broadcaster Televisa, and were old news as a result.

Televisa confirmed the origin of the quotes, but said they never aired. A source in Mexico said the Vatican, which used its own cameras to shoot the interview and provided raw footage to Televisa afterward, had deleted the civil union quote in question. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

The Vatican has refused to comment and imposed something of a media blackout on the matter. None of the Vatican’s in-house media has reported on the cut quote, and on Friday the Il Fatto Quotidiano daily quoted an email from a staffer in the Vatican’s communications ministry to other staff saying there wouldn’t be any comment, but that “talks are underway to deal with the current media crisis.”

It wasn’t the first time that the Vatican’s communications office has gone into crisis over apparently manipulated images. In 2018, Francis fired the first head of the office, Monsignor Dario Vigano, after he mischaracterized a private letter from retired Pope Benedict XVI, then had a photo of it digitally manipulated and sent out to the media.

In both cases, journalists, who must play by Vatican rules in accepting handout footage of events covered exclusively by Vatican cameras, were misled into assuming the Holy See would abide by traditional journalistic ethics and provide them with unaltered images.

Coincidentally, it was Vigano who first entertained a pitch for a documentary on Francis by Afineevsky, who was nominated for an Oscar for his 2015 documentary “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom,” which opened the Venice Film Festival that year.

In an Oct. 14 interview with The Associated Press, Afineevsky said he had asked the head of the Venice festival, Alberto Barbera, to help him make inroads with the Vatican, and that Barbera had provided an email of introduction to Vigano in late 2017.

Afineevsky said Vigano, a known movie buff, was already familiar with his work and was open to the idea.

“But he said, ‘Go. Start. Do it. I’m not promising you anything. We will see,’” Afineevsky said.

After Vigano was ousted, his replacement, Paolo Ruffini, kept the line of communications open, as well as the doors to the Vatican television archives.

Afineevsky had free range, and used them to tell the heart-lifting story of Francis’ seven-year papacy, largely through the eyes of the people he impacted. Coming out in the midst of a Vatican corruption scandal dominating Italian headlines for months, the film provided a nostalgic profile of a once globe-trotting papacy that in some ways ended with COVID-19.

About midway through the film, Afineevsky recounts the story of Andrea Rubera, a married gay Catholic who wrote Francis asking for his advice about bringing into the church his three young children with his husband.

It was an anguished question, given the Catholic Church teaches that gay people must be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.” The church also holds that marriage is an indissoluble union between man and woman, and that as a result, gay marriage is unacceptable.

In the end, Rubera recounts how Francis urged him to approach his parish transparently and bring the children up in the faith, which he did. After the anecdote ends, the film cuts to Francis’ civil union comments in the Televisa interview.

While it wasn’t clear in the documentary, Francis was merely recounting his position when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires: Then, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio endorsed extending legal civil union protections to gay couples as an alternative to moves to approve same-sex marriage, which he firmly opposed.

As Francis’ biographer Austen Ivereigh recounts in “The Great Reformer,” Bergoglio had ministered to many gay Catholics in Argentina. “He knew their stories of rejection by their families,” Ivereigh wrote, and told gay activists that “he favoured gay rights as well as legal recognition for civil unions, which gay couples could also access.”

The hitch for the pope is a 2003 document from the Vatican’s doctrine office, which states the church’s respect for gay people “cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behaviour or to legal recognition of homosexual unions.”

That document was issued after Rome criticized Bergoglio for refusing to speak up strongly when Buenos Aires extended civil union protections to gay couples within the capital region in 2002, Ivereigh wrote.

As pope, Francis had never come out publicly in favour of legal protections for civil unions, and no pontiff before him had, either.

In fact the closest Francis had come before — a 2014 interview with Corriere della Sera in which he spoke in general terms about the need to evaluate such legislation — was followed by a clarification the next day by a Vatican media liaison.

The Rev. James Martin, one of the leading priestly advocates for LGBT Catholics, said the controversy over the pope’s comments would in the end be helpful.

“The intrigue over the video’s origin, and the explosive reaction to the pope’s ongoing support for LGBT people, make the pope’s words look more dangerous, and therefore more powerful,” he said.

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press

Seth Rogen on fighting cannabis stigma and why pot should be as accepted as beer

TORONTO — When actor Seth Rogen was growing up and smoking cannabis in Vancouver, he recalls there was a constant cloud of shame around the substance that still lingers

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

"I smoke weed all day and every day and have for 20 years … For me, it's like glasses or shoes. It's something I need to navigate my life," Rogen, the star of comedic hits like "Superbad" and "Pineapple Express," told The Canadian Press over a video call on Thursday.

"People have tried to make me feel shame about it over the years or have tried to make me seem like I'm weak or stupid for integrating it so completely into my life, but I'm almost 40 now, I'm married, I have a good job and I have just found that none of the stigmas I was told to be true are true."

And yet, despite recreational cannabis being legalized in Canada two years ago, the stigma persists and the country has yet to do all it can to reverse it, he said.

Rogen is determined to change that. He's been pushing for the expungement of criminal records for cannabis crimes and — with childhood friend-turned-business-partner Evan Goldberg — bringing cannabis products to the masses, so using the substance can become as accepted as alcohol.

The duo just added a lemon-flavoured, cannabis-infused beverage to their line of Houseplant cannabis products made in partnership with Canopy Growth Corp.

Their first beverage, released in May, was a grapefruit sparking water with 2.5 mg of sativa-dominant tetrahydrocannabinol, which has an uplifting impact on drinkers.

They went with lemon this time because consumers had been saying they wanted to try Houseplant products, but weren't a fan of grapefruit. (The grapefruit drink still topped Ontario bestseller lists.)

"That's why my proposed slogan for the lemon drink was 'for people who don't like grapefruit,'" Rogen joked.

The Houseplant drinks join a growing number of beverages on cannabis store shelves with the backing of brands as big as Anheuser-Busch InBev, Molson Canada and Tilray Inc.

The beverages have been making their debut since the start of the year when cannabis edibles were OK'd for sale in the country, making a wave of chocolates, teas and gummies available to consumers.

Goldberg doesn't like that Houseplant drinks fall into the same category as those other products because the brand strives to be sugar-free and create items that aren't going to make you feel bad or crash.

Houseplant would only wade into other categories of edibles if it could produce a healthier product than its competitors can, said Goldberg -- a process he admits "will take a long time."

He and Rogen say time will also be needed for Canada to address the illegal market.

Illicit sellers are still thriving and legal pot prices at the Ontario Cannabis Store only inched towards gaining ground in the fight against their illegal counterparts last month.

Rogen believes the Canadian government's ways of dealing with the illegal market are "not incredibly helpful if their actual goal is to destroy the black market" because they've made it expensive and unenticing to go the legal route.

"There's a reason that we don't buy alcohol illegally anymore. It's because no one has any incentive to sell illegally because they made it very easy to sell alcohol," said Rogen.

"The beer industry has been enabled to thrive in a way that the cannabis industry has not right now and until they are the same, the black market will continue to thrive."

He and Goldberg would like to see a day when alcohol and cannabis products are treated equally, but for now they'll celebrate some small wins like when Goldberg's mom purchased a Houseplant drink last week and loved it.

"Coming from the person who used to scream at me for coming home stoned late at night was a real milestone for me," said Goldberg, a director and producer, who has collaborated with Rogen on films like "Knocked Up," "This is the End" and a forthcoming "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" reboot.

He'd also like to see people replace their bar carts stocked with "bottles of poison" with an array of cannabis products, but knows that is unlikely to happen en masse soon.

Meanwhile, Rogen is waiting for the day that Houseplant products are as easy to obtain as beer.

"It'd be nice if they served it in bars. It also be nice if bars were open, so baby steps."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published October 23, 2020.

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Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press

Billy Porter helps examine origins of gay rights movement
2020-10-20

© Provided by The Canadian Press

POST MODERN ZOOT SUIT AND SOMBREO ENSEMBLE 

Billy Porter is busy, pandemic or not.

He’s just appeared in a virtual play about nurses on the front lines. His series “Pose” is returning to production. He's soon to appear in the “Cinderella” remake. He’s writing a memoir — a project he calls the hardest thing he's ever done.

And starting this week, he narrates “EQUAL,” a new docuseries on HBO Max that traces the history of the LGBTQ movement through the Stonewall uprising in 1969.

Porter was born just a few months after Stonewall. He learned about that galvanizing moment for the modern gay rights movement as he grew up. Still. he says, there was a lot about the movement's earlier history that he didn’t know, and was able to learn through the docuseries.

In four episodes, the series, premiering Thursday, looks at the rise of early gay rights organizations like the Mattachine Society and Daughters of Bilitis; the 20th century transgender experience; the role of the Black community in gay rights; and then Stonewall.

Porter sat down recently to speak to The Associated Press about the project, his other work, and how he’s been coping during the pandemic. (The interview has been condensed for length.)

AP: You were born just after the Stonewall uprising; do you remember when you first became aware of it?

Porter: I came out when I was 15, about 1985. The research wasn’t really at our fingertips as it is now, but we found it some way. There were some older survivors who would teach us. It was always nice to know as a baby gay that there was somebody out there who was fighting for our rights. Just as I intersect with the African American community and our civil rights. The two are aligned in many ways for me. It helps remind those of us in the fight on the regular that good is possible. And the work is eternal. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty is what Frederick Douglass says.

AP: Tell us about “EQUAL."

Porter: It was really interesting for me as somebody who knows a lot about LGBTQ history... there’s a lot of stuff in the four-part series I had not heard about before. So it’s always nice to learn something new. (It’s about) everything before the Stonewall riots. I think there’s a lot of information at the fingertips post-Stonewall, (but) there’s not a whole lot of talk about what came before Stonewall, so it’s really interesting.

AP: You recently did a public service announcement during the Emmys, basically saying that Hollywood is making an effort toward more inclusive representation, but there’s a lot farther to go.

Porter: That is the direct message for the entertainment industry. But in the macro, it’s the message for the world at large. Not just America, for the entire world. You know, it’s time. It’s time to make a change and a change for good. And it’s about people rising up and making that so. So that’s what you’re seeing right now. And I think what’s interesting about this series is that it’s about people taking charge of their lives and rising up and making sure that we live up to what our Constitution boasts, which is that all men are created equal.

AP: The pandemic has changed lives. How has yours changed?

Porter: It’s a global reset, that’s what I’ve been calling it. I’ve really been trying to make lemonade out of lemons. I’ve leaned in to my self-care work. I’ve leaned into boundaries and balance in relation to how I engage in the business and how I protect my relationships, my marriage, my family, everything. You know, I really feel like, as horrible as this is, the silver lining is that everybody is awake. And if you’re not awake now and if you don’t see it for what it is now, you never will. All of the issues have been laid bare.

AP: Your roots are in live theatre, a world obviously in crisis now. What do you you see happening with theatre?

Porter: I don’t know. We’ve never been here before. ‘The show must go on’ has always been the motto. But the show is not going on. It is very depressing to walk through New York City and midtown. I have never seen it like this. I do believe that when it’s time to come back and it’s safe to come back, people will come back. But who’s to say when it’s going to be safe?

AP: Do you see yourself performing live theatre again?”

Porter: Of course. I will always do theatre. Theater is the first love, theatre is the reason why I’m sitting here. So I will always, always return to the theatre.

AP: How about fashion. Where do you see that world going?

Porter: Fashion is art. And art always survives. Art is how civilizations heal. That’s what (late author) Toni Morrison says. Art has to reflect the time that it’s in. What that looks like, I don’t know. You know, that’s up to the artist, personal discretion and personal voice. But I know for certain that it will come back. It actually hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s been flourishing. I was just at Christian Siriano's show at his new house in Connecticut last week. And it was was breathtaking to see the political fashion art that has come out of this. It’s a direct response, an antidote to what we’re living through.

AP: You’re writing a memoir. How has that process been?

Porter: It’s a very difficult process. Yes, it is! It’s the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do. Because I’m trying to tell the truth and I’m trying to help somebody. So that means digging deep, and it’s hard.

Jocelyn Noveck, The Associated Press

A look inside the disturbing history of K-pop
Caroline Décoste 
They make young girls and boys swoon the world over, but behind K-pop bands lies a dark and secretive industry

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The world of Korean pop (K-pop) is notorious for the immense pressure its artists are put under. Singer SHINee, real name Kim Jong-hyun, committed suicide in 2017, saying that he felt “broken from inside.” Fellow K-pop star Sulli, real name Choi Jin-ri from the band f(x), also committed suicide in October 2019 after having spoken openly about suffering from cyberbullying.

Weighing in both morning and night, having no romantic attachments (let alone sexual relations), not taking drugs, spending hours in the gym and dancing with weights attached to their feet, undergoing plastic surgery, not eating candy or chips and having no time off: this is the kind of routine Korean pop idols are subjected to. It’s also the reality of apprentice idols, who attend “colleges” that train future pop stars.

As K-pop is an extremely lucrative industry, the contracts that artists enter into are not to be taken lightly. They’ve been called “slave contracts” because of their shocking clauses: if an artist wants to leave their record label, they have to repay the investment two or three times over. The same goes for the training schools: they have to be paid back once an act becomes famous. If an artist struggles to fill a venue, they have to pay the difference! All of this in addition to the threat of being replaced at any moment, and a career that expires the moment you turn 30.

Scandals

In 2019, the Korean pop industry was shaken by a scandal involving Seungri, a member of Big Bang. The singer was reported to have provided prostitution services for foreign investors and embezzled funds, as well as having posted videos of a sexual nature filmed by singer Jung Joon-young without the women’s knowledge on discussion forums. The scandal was nicknamed Burning Sun, after the club owned by Seungri.

Not only did Jung Joon-young film young women without their knowledge, but he was also found guilty of gang raping several drunk young women, along with singer Choi Jong-hoon (formerly a member of FT Island). He then posted the videos of these rapes on private forums.

Rigged charts and rigged votes

In South Korea, the manipulation of pop music charts has a name: sajaegi. By tweaking the algorithm, songs are played on a loop by streaming services to inflate statistics and keep songs at the number one spot. Even members of BTS, the world’s most popular Korean band, have called out this practice.

Winners of the TV show Produce X 101, the South Korean band X1 has disbanded amid allegations of rigged votes. The show’s director and producer have been charged with taking bribes worth tens of millions of Korean won to fix the public vote in favour of certain members.