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Black man's jaywalking ticket in Halifax was racial discrimination: rights board

HALIFAX — A human rights board of inquiry has found that a Black man was discriminated against by Halifax police when he was ticketed for jaywalking.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Board chairman Benjamin Perryman released a decision Wednesday that finds Gyasi Symonds faced discrimination based on his race when he was stopped by two officers and later received a $410 ticket in the lobby of the downtown building where he works.

In his ruling, the board chairman describes two encounters between Symonds and constables Paul Cadieux and Steve Logan that started when the provincial civil servant was observed crossing Gottingen Street on Jan. 24, 2017 to get a coffee.

The decision says the officers first stopped Symonds as he headed for the Nook Espresso Bar across from his office without using a crosswalk at the corner. They warned him about jaywalking and told him he was free to go.

Perryman said that first encounter was "brief and cordial."

The decision says the facts of what happened next were disputed, with Symonds telling the board he crossed at the intersection when he returned to his office and the two police officers saying they observed him again crossing in the middle of the block and that he didn't yield to a bus. The officers followed him into his office building and gave him a ticket.

Under the province's Motor Vehicle Act, it's an offence if someone crosses a road at a place where there's not a regular crossing for pedestrians and doesn't "yield the right of way to vehicles on the roadway."

However, Perryman found in his ruling that it was "more likely than not" that Symonds didn't jaywalk on his return trip and concluded the officers' decision to wait and observe the man was based in part on race.

Perryman has ordered the Halifax Regional Police to pay Symonds $15,232 and give him a written apology. He also suggests all new hires complete training in policing without bias.

The board of inquiry chairman noted inconsistencies in the constables' recollection of what they saw when they testified that Symonds crossed in front of a bus on his return to the office, while finding the complainant’s recollections to be more credible.

“I do not go so far as to find that the Halifax Regional Police officers constructed their evidence .... However, on the evidence before me, I am not satisfied that there was a good basis for issuing such a ticket and there was certainly no basis whatsoever to be targeting the complainant in the first place,” he wrote.

Perryman noted that he was concerned about the decision of the officers to remain and observe Symonds after the first encounter, as the man exited the coffee shop to return to work.

His decision says the officers told the board of inquiry they kept watching Symonds because they had some time available and that it was a so-called “de-escalating tactic,” where they believed police presence would deter law-breaking.

Perryman said he found those explanations inadequate.

“It subjected the complainant to policing that was different from other Nova Scotians going about their day. It was disproportionate to the circumstances of an individual crossing in the middle of the road to get a coffee and receiving informal education about jaywalking” he concluded.

"I find that race was a factor in the police officers' decision to target the complainant for surveillance and investigation."

Perryman said the encounter between the officers and Symonds in the lobby of the office building was "not a cordial interaction." However, he concluded the treatment of Symonds at that point may have been rude, but it wasn't racial discrimination.

He noted the two officers were relatively new on the job, and Cadieux had only been on patrol for a few weeks. The ruling also finds the training provided to Cadieux and Logan was inadequate and contributed to their discriminatory behaviour.

The ruling notes a Halifax police course on "legitimate and bias-free policing" was offered in 2009 but was not offered again until 2018, some time after the incident.

Perryman suggests that all new police hires "successfully complete training in legitimate and bias-free policing before they commence active duty, and all current police officers should be required to retake and successfully complete such training periodically."

The decision dated April 29 also says this training should be well-documented and access to statistics should be publicly available.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2021.

Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press

'I feel like I was meant to do this': Asian American activists reflect on their work in the last year

Jennifer Liu CNBC

Manjusha Kulkarni describes the March 16 Atlanta-area shooting of eight people, including the killing of six Asian women, as "beyond our worst nightmares."

© Provided by CNBC A man holds a sign that reads

Kulkarni, 51, is South Asian American and executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council. In February 2020, she co-founded Stop AAPI Hate, the national coalition working to document and address rising anti-Asian hate incidents during the coronavirus pandemic.

Though she's spent her career advocating on behalf of Asian American and Pacific Islander, AAPI, communities, the mass shooting targeting Asian women and law enforcement's handling of it afterward were a low point for Kulkarni.

"It was very hard that week," she says, adding that being in community with other AAPI justice leaders that week was crucial for her to remain resilient. She remembers being on a call with the Asian American Leaders Table and processing what an Atlanta-area sheriff's office said was the result of one man having a "bad day," instead of what many advocates say was an act fueled by racism and sexism.

"The fact that we could be together right after what happened was really important," Kulkarni says.

Though anti-Asian racism in the U.S. has gained more attention in the last few months, coinciding with the reporting of increasingly violent attacks, advocates say it's crucial to remember that Asians have experienced discrimination from the time they arrived in the country in waves throughout the 1800s — but that also, throughout American history, AAPI activists have been working to fight injustices in the name of advancing the civil rights and humanity of Asians in the U.S.
A lifetime of activism

Many in the community, like Kulkarni, have committed their life's work to the cause.

She was still young when she moved to the U.S. from India with her parents, both physicians, following the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 that encouraged highly skilled professionals to start a new life in America. After spending several years in Montgomery, Alabama, her mom applied to be a doctor at a hospital, but the panel of white male interviewers told her that foreigners like her were "coming here and stealing our jobs."

Kulkarni's parents sued, and with the help of the Southern Policy Law Center, successfully settled a class-action lawsuit that led to redress and policy change against discrimination.

© Provided by CNBC Manjusha Kulkarni, Asian Pacific Planning and Policy Council Executive Director, speaks against the hate and recent violence against Asian Americans at a rally held on the steps of County Hall of Administration on Wednesday, March 17, 2021 in Los Angeles, CA.

That experience led Kulkarni down her path to activism through her chosen career: "I thought, I want to be a lawyer, because that means enabling people to do and be what they are. America has these laws that protect all of us. It was an experience of seeing racial discrimination and knowing there are avenues for redress for our communities."

It's also been an intense year for young activists getting their start in grassroots organizing. Brian Jon, 19, from Tenafly, N.J., began his activism work several years ago. When he was a high school freshman, he learned of an incident in which a teacher from a nearby school allegedly made racist remarks against Koreans. As a second-generation Korean American, Jon felt compelled to speak up and started a petition drive that, along with larger community feedback, led to the teacher being reassigned outside the classroom.

That experience led him to launch the Asian American Youth Council in 2017, through which he hopes to encourage fellow AAPI students to be politically engaged. For several years, that involved efforts to register young AAPIs to vote, and at the start of the pandemic, his focus broadened to include addressing anti-Asian hate incidents.

"I feel like I was meant to do this," Jon says. "We're doing everything to prevent one death of a relative or friend, but every day we're seeing at least two to three hate crimes [reported] in New York City alone, and that's not acceptable. Even when a 61-year-old man was beaten and had his head stepped on, no one did anything to stop it. We're voicing our opinions, but where are the physical actions, bills? What are our politicians doing? Those questions made me realize advocacy is needed."

Through his work, Jon hopes to encourage fellow youth activists to speak up and raise the issue with policymakers to improve incident reporting, community outreach and assistance to victims.

For John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice - AAJC in Washington, D.C., his work is grounded in the mission to advance the civil and human rights of Asian Americans and promote a fair and equitable society for all. Yang is Chinese American, and though he's always considered himself an advocate for AAPI issues and done volunteer or pro bono work for vulnerable communities, he says increasing anti-immigration rhetoric and policies of the last presidential administration fueled the activism work that he does today.

"One rewarding thing is how deeply this resonates with me," Yang, 52, says. "The last four to five years really changed my way of thinking, and I've found a comfort level in my own voice to represent our community."

Working toward systemic change

While many activists say their work to center AAPIs hasn't changed during the pandemic, the demand for their appearances at rallies and fundraisers, in media, and on the frontlines of continued advocacy has been more urgent in the last 14 months.

Sung Yeon Choimorrow, 39, immigrated from South Korea to the Chicago area for college and is currently the executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, or NAPAWF. Following the Atlanta shootings, she made dozens of media appearance to stress that the attack was based in both racial and sexual violence — advocacy that's made her organization's work more visible overall.

 Provided by CNBC Sung Yeon Choimorrow is the executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, or NAPAWF.

Kulkarni has also noticed a shift: Early in the pandemic, white journalists would ask her why people should care about the incidents behind the data. As more people have acknowledged the problem, she doesn't have to answer that question and can focus instead on proposing solutions.

"Caring is about finding a human level of...commonality," Kulkarni says. "If you can't find it within you to care, I can't make you."

Now, more than ever, leaders are pushing for systemic change.

For example, Kulkarni says Stop AAPI Hate has worked closely with the Biden administration, and their data has informed policy changes at the national level. In March, the White House announced several initiatives to address anti-Asian violence, including reinstating and expanding the White House Initiative on AAPIs; improving data-collection efforts to study national hate crimes statistics; and funding training for state and local law enforcement agencies to promote accurate reporting of hate crimes.

Choimorrow wants to make sure awareness and advocacy continues for long-standing issues among marginalized AAPIs.

For example, she says, the health crisis of the pandemic made her work advocating for the HEAL for Immigrant Women and Families Act more urgent, as it would remove the five-year bar for immigrants to be able to access the health-care exchange and public aid, like Medicaid.

"We've been working on this law for the last 10 years," Choimorrow says. "We picked up the most number of sponsors on this bill right at the beginning of the pandemic, because we were able to make the case as to why affordable health care is so important."

 Provided by CNBC Asian Americans Advancing Justice Executive Director John Yang, center, testifies before the House Oversight and Reform Committee about the 2020 census in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill January 09, 2020 in Washington, DC.

Yang agrees that the next steps to discussing the inequities of Asians in America are continued awareness, greater education and inclusive policy: "I do want to make sure we maintain momentum toward positive change."

This includes the ongoing work to debunk the model minority myth, a set of assumptions that AAPIs are all successful and erases many of the structural barriers they continue to face in education, employment, health care, housing, policy and more.
Finding resilience in community

Long-term change for AAPIs must also consider the work of allies in social justice overall, Yang adds, recognizing leaders like Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Marc H. Morial of the National Urban League.

These figures have "made sure our different vulnerable communities continue to work with each other and amplify each others' efforts," Yang says. "It's so important to make the progress we want to see."

This AAPI Heritage Month, celebrated in May, Yang also hopes communities can come together to celebrate the many cultures, successes and resilience of Asians in America in the last year and throughout history.

Kulkarni and Choimorrow also point to being in community with other AAPIs, family members and loved ones as ways they've practiced resilience over the last year. Kulkarni says having colleagues reach out and express support for AAPIs has been big help.

Further, Choimorrow says, her resilience comes from "having the perspective that I don't need to and cannot do all of this on my own, and that I stand on the shoulders of amazing women that have gone ahead of me, including women in my own family who have paved the way. What I'm doing is paving the way for the next generation of folks."

Yang keeps his focus on the progress, no matter how incremental: "As long as I can reflect back and think that our work has moved the needle forward, so there's a little less discrimination and racism, and a little greater access to resources for our vulnerable communities, I feel like progress is being made. Ending racism doesn't happen overnight. It's a battle that needs to be continually fought."

© Provided by CNBC Brian Jon, 19, established the Asian American Youth Council in 2017 to encourage activism among AAPI students.

As for Jon, the high school student, he says the Asian American Youth Council serves as a support group to empower young AAPIs to be vocal and active, and to know that they're not alone in their fight for justice.

He's already done advocacy work with politicians including Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and considers himself politically active, but he's not sure if running for office is part of his future. With that said, he says activism will remain core to whatever he pursues professionally and personally: "Community service is a lifetime commitment. I want to be a bridge so people think it's OK to raise our voices and feel there's always backup."

Additional reporting by Courtney Connley.

Colombia's bloody protests could be a warning to the region

Analysis by Stefano Pozzebon, CNN 

Tensions have hardly dissipated in Colombia after President Ivan Duque withdrew a controversial fiscal reform proposal this weekend. More than a week of violent protests have seen at least 24 people killed, the country's Ombudsman Office reported Wednesday, and the demonstrations have evolved into a broader popular show of anger.

TOPSHOT - Demonstrators clash with riot police during a protest against a tax reform bill launched by Colombian President Ivan Duque, in Bogota, on April 28, 2021. - Workers' unions, teachers, civil organizations, indigenous people and other sectors reject the project that is underway in the Congress, considering that it punishes the middle class and is inappropriate in the midst of the crisis unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Juan BARRETO / AFP) (Photo by JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images)

Thousands of people are still taking to the streets to protest against police brutality and the economic cost of the pandemic amid Colombia's extreme inequality. And with both issues common across South America -- and exacerbated by the pandemic -- many international observers are watching Colombia's cycle of protest closely for signs of deeper regional effects.

An economic cautionary tale

Duque was the first president in the region to launch a tax overhaul to help his country's pandemic-ravaged economy get back in shape. But rigid opposition from Colombia's workers' unions and social movements is a cautionary tale for any other president who plans to follow a similar route.

While both the European Union and the United States have pursued enormous investment plans to rebuild their economies post-pandemic, many countries like Colombia, where the economy is dependent on exports and already burdened by a ballooning foreign debt, do not have the capacity to undertake a similar expansion plan.

Such countries need to increase revenues through taxes in order to be able to spend -- and even to maintain vital social programs like cash support for the unemployed and credit lines to businesses struggling with the pandemic.

Before he withdrew his tax reform plan, Duque stressed it was of pivotal importance for the state to increase its fiscal revenues. "The reform is not a whim, it's a necessity to keep the social programs going," he said.

But critics argued the tax hikes -- like a proposed VAT increase on everyday goods -- would disproportionally impact middle and working classes and escalate inequality even more.

Their concerns took root in an economy already decimated by Covid-19, where frustration has been mounting as record increases in cases and deaths prompt authorities to impose new lockdowns, stifling the country's vast informal labor market. More than 3.6 million Colombians fell back into poverty during the pandemic according to recent figures released by the country's statistics authority, while the number of families that cannot afford to eat three times a day tripled in the same period of time.

But the now-withdrawn tax hike will leave a big hole in the state finances, and Duque's government will have to look for alternatives to try and pass reforms to repair the very inequality that currently fuels much discontent.




Human rights concerns

Colombia's ongoing protests have also prompted fear and outrage at law enforcement's handling of demonstrators -- a concern echoed by rights organizations and foreign observers.

"We're here because it may seem a paradox, but in the middle of a pandemic our government is literally attacking our lives," Joana Ivanazca Salgado, a 43-year-old artist who took part in Bogota's protests last week, told CNN.

Ivanazca was referring to the spiraling death toll that the protests have left behind: according to Colombia's ombudsman on Monday, at least 19 people -- including a policeman -- have been killed since the start of the protests and at least 89 people have disappeared.

Videos of anti-riot policemen using teargas and batons against protesters have gone viral on social media, spreading beyond big cities and across the country. Far from curbing the protests, alleged police brutality has become a focal point for the demonstrators, who, after putting the fiscal reform plan to rest, are now calling for a thorough inquiry into the deaths.

Human rights NGOs say the real death toll could be much higher and have called for the president to restrain police from using any excessive use of force.

But the Colombian government has so far defended the actions of the police and blamed the violence on groups of rioters and organized crime. In particular, the military has been deployed to the city of Cali, which has seen the worst of the violence so far and where a team of the UN Human Rights Committee said they encountered police fire, although they did not believe they were directly targeted. The Cali police department says they are investigating claims of excessive force.

Multilateral organizations, foreign ambassadors and even Colombian pop star Shakira have issued statements of concern over law enforcement's response -- on Tuesday, the US State Department publicly urged "the utmost restraint by public forces to prevent additional loss of life."

In the early hours of Wednesday, Bogota's mayor, Claudia Lopez, made a tearful plea to all sides to abandon violence: "I beg Bogota and Colombia to stop. It's been eight days of frankly, by miracle, that we don't have a death [in Bogota] so far," said Lopez.

At least 30 civilians and 16 policemen were injured late Tuesday, she said, in an ugly escalation of violence on both sides. According to Lopez, rioters set fire to one police station, where 15 policemen managed to escape.

Major General Oscar Antonio Gomez Heredia, the chief of police in Bogota, said during the same briefing that a total of 25 police stations had been attacked.

The political fallout

By late Tuesday, Duque called for a "national dialogue initiative" and while he said police forces are guaranteeing the right to protest, he pledged a thorough investigation into any possible abuse.

Should Duque cede to public pressure and open up an independent inquiry into police practices, it could give momentum to protest movements demanding police accountability across the region. Police brutality is a hot button issue in several Latin American countries: Colombia's own National Police, which answers to the Defense Ministry, have previously come under fire for its response to protests in 2019 and 2020. In Chile in 2019, carabineros were accused of deliberately shooting rubber bullets at the eyes of protesters resulting in hundreds of injuries. And in Peru, at least two men died in a recent wave of protests in November of last year.

Looming over all these political calculations for the Colombian government are next year's presidential elections: While Duque himself is barred from running, the conservative coalition that brought him the presidency is keen to project strength and control, capable of dealing with both the pandemic and the wave of protests. After withdrawing the fiscal reform plan, further concessions to demonstrators could weaken that image.

But Ivan Briscoe, Latin America program director for the International Crisis Group, believes it would be misguided not to learn from protesters' outrage. "The government must look beyond other parties and other political forces with which it has been negotiating its tax reform and take into account the demands of the Colombians in the streets," said Briscoe.

For now, Duque is resisting calls from his own party to impose a state of emergency to curb the protests -- but at the same time, he is standing by the police accused of escalating the violence. All of which has contributed to the image of a president disconnected from many of his citizens.

Top U.S. fund leader wants voluntary climate disclosure rules

© Reuters/Kacper Pempel FILE PHOTO: Smoke and steam billow from Belchatow Power Station, Europe's largest coal-fired power plant, near Belchatow

(Reuters) -A top fund industry leader on Thursday urged U.S. regulators to adopt only voluntary climate-related disclosure standards for public companies rather than the stricter rules sought by some activists and investment firms.


Eric Pan, CEO of the Investment Company Institute, which represents asset managers and other big U.S. investors, said the softer approach would give companies time to adjust to new technologies and scientific evidence, during his speech at the trade group's virtual conference on Thursday.

Pan said companies should "not be hampered by prescriptive, 'hard-wired' disclosure requirements - which would be nearly impossible to set today to successfully govern disclosure between now and 2050," the date set by U.S. President Joe Biden for the nation to reach net-zero emissions.

Leaders of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are taking public input on how they might direct companies to report more about the environmental and social impact of their operations.

Investors have poured money into funds using sustainability criteria, allowing portfolio managers to push companies to take steps like disclosing more about their emissions. Larry Fink, CEO of top fund firm BlackRock Inc, last month called for mandatory disclosures for both public and private companies worldwide.

The head of JPMorgan Chase & Co, Jamie Dimon, who also spoke at the conference, said required disclosures could be onerous, expensive and would not help fight climate change.

"Reporting won't solve the problem," Dimon said, adding he is concerned about multiple agencies proposing different disclosure requirements. "If we just impose rule after rule, we’re going to not accomplish anything (and it will come) at a huge cost."

Currently many large U.S. companies produce "sustainability reports" but using a dizzying array of non-common standards, making them hard to prepare and to compare.

On April 21 the European Union said it plans to raise the number of companies required to report ESG data amid criticism the current rules are ineffective.

Pan noted his trade group's board has previously backed two widely used voluntary disclosure standards, those of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures and from the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board.

The SEC should encourage the use of both standards, Pan said, and work toward getting companies to provide detailed climate risk information rather than "bland, boilerplate disclosure that is geared mainly at minimizing legal liability."

(Reporting by Ross Kerber in BostonAdditional reporting by Elizabeth Dilts Marshall in New YorkEditing by Matthew Lewis)

Woodfibre LNG says contract with BP Gas ties up 70% of proposed facility's capacity


CALGARY — The company proposing the Woodfibre LNG export project near Squamish, B.C., says it has struck a second sales contract with BP Gas Marketing Ltd. that allows it to account for over 70 per cent of future production from the plant.

The 15-year contract to supply 750,000 tonnes of liquefied natural gas per year doubles the initial commitment by BP Gas announced in 2019 and is an important step for the $1.8-billion project as it faces a third-quarter decision by its owner, Pacific Oil & Gas Ltd., on whether to proceed.

Woodfibre spokeswoman Rebecca Scott says the company is trying to sign contracts for the remaining 29 per cent of the 2.1-million-tonne annual capacity of the project but doesn't require those to go ahead with construction, which is expected to take about four years.

She says Woodfibre LNG is currently undergoing final engineering work while attempting to amend its environmental permit to allow floating accommodation for up to 600 workers during construction.

Scott says housing workers on barges is being considered after consultations with the community, as a partial solution to the high prices and low availability of housing on land near the site, a former pulp and paper mill located halfway between Vancouver and Whistler.

At one time, about 20 LNG terminals were proposed for the West Coast but the $40-billion LNG Canada project headed by Shell Canada is the only one to reach the construction stage so far.

“Forward-looking companies like BP are turning to projects like ours for sustainable, stable gas that will supply a clean energy mix,” said Pacific Oil & Gas president Ratnesh Bedi in a release.

“We look forward to working with BPGM to deliver Canadian natural gas from one of the lowest carbon footprint LNG facilities in the world, and help advance the climate goals of growing economies as they phase away from coal, lower their emissions, and meet net-zero targets.”

Work on the LNG project was delayed more than a year ago after the main engineering, procurement and construction contractor, McDermott, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, and because of delays in procuring components in Asia during the pandemic.

McDermott has since emerged from the court process to continue its contract with Woodfibre, Scott said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2021.

'Like a flash fire:' Rabbit owners warned about outbreak of deadly disease in Alberta


CALGARY — Janice Romick could see it coming.

 

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The rabbit breeder for 40 years in Cold Lake, Alta., says she saw the writing on the wall before a deadly rabbit virus appeared last month in the southern part of the province.

"We sort of knew this was coming a few years before it actually hit. So we stopped showing and we bought nothing from anybody, anywhere," said Romick, who works at Beladarus Rabbitry with her daughter.

Alberta's chief provincial veterinarian, Dr. Keith Lehman, sent a communique last month to the Alberta Veterinary Medicine Association warning about an outbreak of rabbit hemorrhagic disease, or RHD, in pet rabbits in one southern Alberta household.

"It does cause a pretty significant level of mortality in animals that do get exposed. It is quite a severe disease for rabbits," Lehman said in an interview Wednesday.

"Fortunately there are no human health risks. It is very confined to rabbits but for rabbits, it is probably one of the worst ones out there."

What is concerning, he said, is it appears to be a variation of the original disease that impacted only domestic rabbits.

"In 2010, we saw it was getting out and affecting the wild rabbit population as well. I'm not talking about the escaped pets that can procreate, but those who are truly native to our wildlife," said Lehman.

There were outbreaks in British Columbia in 2018 and 2019 and in Montana and Oregon earlier this year. The disease runs its course in one to five days and is usually fatal.

Alanna Weeks from Clockwork Rabbitry in Armstrong, B.C., said the news from Alberta is a concern.

"All the rabbit breeders I have spoken to are all really nervous about it especially since this could be a different strain than what we dealt with before," she said.

"The new one that just came up from the United States, we're waiting to get confirmation that it is the strain that was found in Alberta because that one has been wiping out wild populations."

When the B.C. outbreak occurred, she said breeders were able to get a vaccine for their rabbits from the United States on an emergency basis and the crisis was averted.

Romick said all it takes is for one infected animal to make it into a herd, and it's over.

"It spreads like a flash fire."

There's a booming rabbit industry in Canada. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada says there were over 2,800 rabbit farms in 2016. Many of the rabbits go to the meat industry, some are harvested for fur and others become family pets.

Romick said the hemorrhagic disease could decimate the industry.

"In the right instance, if it got into some of these big areas where they're breeding for meat production and they brought in some new stock. It could literally wipe out a business," she said.

"If it went through a 200-to-400-doe barn, it would wipe out every animal, every doe, every buck. And you can't use those carcasses for human production."

She added that the disease is also a terrible way for the animals to die.

Dr. Jamie Rothenburger, a veterinary pathologist and assistant professor at the University of Calgary's faculty of veterinary medicine, said the disease has to be taken seriously. It can be transmitted by something as simple as grooming or purchasing a pre-owned rabbit cage.

"I think we're all getting more familiar with infectious diseases in these days of COVID. So the idea of a virus living on a vector isn't a surprise," Rothenburger said.

"It's one of Canada's immediately notifiable diseases under the Health of Animals regulations. And so, if you suspect the disease as a veterinarian or a laboratory confirms it, the (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) has to be notified immediately."

Rothenburger said it's unclear how widespread the disease could be. She's leading a study in Calgary looking at health and disease in urban hares.

"Those are the jackrabbits we see hopping around our neighbourhoods. And we are going to be testing them for this very disease in the coming months to find out if it is here and hasn't been detected yet."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2021.

— Follow @BillGraveland on Twitter

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press

Study finds Canadians may not take climate change as personally as their peers

WATERLOO REGION — A new study finds Canadians may not take climate change as personally as their peers.

According to a recent international study, 25 per cent of Canadian respondents do not believe their personal travel habits contribute to climate change, compared to an average of 19 per cent in the countries surveyed.

The study, released last month, came from the IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) Institute for Business Value. The survey included 14,000 respondents varying in age from 18 to over 70 years old from nine countries: China, India, United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico, Spain, Brazil, United States and Canada.

Respondents from India and Mexico were most likely to strongly believe their travel habits contribute to climate change.

Additionally, only 20 per cent of Canadian respondents strongly agreed that they were actively looking to travel via more environmentally friendly modes of transportation.

Canadians made up 980 of those surveyed.

The findings that Canadians do not believe their habits contribute to climate change is in contrast to a 2019 study from Focaldata that reported 77 per cent of nearly 1,600 Canadians surveyed agreed the world is facing a climate emergency that could become extremely dangerous unless greenhouse gas emissions fall dramatically in the next few years.

In reality, Canada is the world’s 10th largest emitter of greenhouse gases according to Carbonbrief.org.

According to the federal government, in 2019 Canada emitted 730 megatonnes (Mt) of greenhouse gases overall, with 217 Mt coming from the transport sector.

Meanwhile, climate change is affecting Canada at twice the rate as the rest of the world.

In the Torngat Mountains in Labrador, for example, annual temperatures in the area increased by nearly half a degree each decade, or close to 2C in 40 years.

This is significantly higher than the global average temperatures that have risen by 0.18C per decade since 1981, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“Climate change is not something that exists solely in the future, it exists today,” Andrew Trant, an assistant professor in the school of environment, resources and sustainability at the University of Waterloo, previously told The Record.

“Sometimes it’s hard to see from day to day, because those changes are gradual, but we are experiencing that change now, and the landscape is experiencing that change now.”

Trant found that Waterloo Region’s forest zone is expected to shift northwards because of global warming, with more Carolinian species on the local landscape.

Currently felt effects of climate change in Waterloo Region include flooding, extreme cold, record rainfall, heavy ice and wind storms.

By 2050, Waterloo Region predicts it can expect to see an average temperature increase between two and three degrees Celsius, meaning an average of 32 days per year of extreme heat up from the current 10.

In the same time frame, the region expects to see eight to 12 per cent more precipitation, and 40 per cent more freezing rain events.

“We need to have more people out paying attention. I think once we start to do that then we’re in a good position to make change and to be more supportive of putting more area under protection or finding different ways of conserving if we have a stronger relationship with these natural areas,” said Trant.

Leah Gerber, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Waterloo Region Record

US proposes ending rule that weakened wild bird protections

Thu., May 6, 2021



BILLINGS, Mont. — Longstanding protections for wild birds would be restored under a proposal unveiled Thursday to bring back prosecutions of avian deaths by industry that were ended under former President Donald Trump.

The Interior Department announcement came as President Joe Biden has sought to dismantle a Trump policy that ended criminal enforcement against companies over bird deaths that could have been prevented.

Hundreds of millions of birds die annually in collisions with electrical lines and wind turbines, after landing in oil pits and from other industrial causes, according to government officials and researchers.

The Biden administration in March issued a legal opinion citing court rulings that said the 102-year-old Migratory Bird Treaty Act was “unambiguous” that killing protected birds was unlawful ”at any time or in any manner."

Thursday’s proposal would cancel a rule enacted in Trump’s final days in office that blocked prosecutions of unintentional bird deaths. Interior officials said they will take public comment through June 7 before making a final decision.

Authorities will not be able to enforce the bird treaty in cases of accidental bird deaths until the rule is formally revoked, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson Vanessa Kauffman said.

The prohibition against accidental bird deaths was used most notably in a $100 million settlement by energy company BP, after government investigators concluded the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill killed about 100,000 birds.

The migratory bird policy was among dozens of Trump-era environmental actions Biden ordered reconsidered on his first day in office. Former federal officials, environmental groups and Democrats in Congress said many of the Trump rules were aimed at benefiting private industry at the expense of conservation.

Thursday's action was hailed by environmental groups that warned more birds would die under the Trump rule. Interior

Secretary Deb Haaland said it would help ensure agency decisions are guided by science. “The Migratory Bird Treaty Act is a bedrock environmental law that is critical to protecting migratory birds and restoring declining bird populations,” Haaland said in a statement.

Industry groups that supported the Trump policy had expressed a willingness to work with President Joe Biden on the issue when he first took office.

But the Independent Petroleum Association of America, which represents oil and natural gas producers, condemned the proposed rule cancellation and said it would cause financial harm to companies that kill birds accidentally.

“This is not a case of punishing ‘bad actors,’ but rather a situation where companies are set up for failure,” said Mallori Miller, vice-president for government relations at the association.

More than 1,000 North American bird species are covered by the treaty — from fast-flying peregrine falcon to tiny songbirds and more than 20 owl species. Non-native species and some game birds, like wild turkeys, are not on the list.

Former federal officials and some scientists had said billions more birds could have died in coming decades under Trump’s rule. It came as species across North America already were in steep decline, with about 3 billion fewer birds compared with 1970, according to researchers.

Researchers have said that cats in the U.S. kill the most birds — more than 2 billion a year.

Besides the BP case, hundreds of enforcement cases — targeting utilities, oil companies and wind energy developers — resulted in criminal fines and civil penalties totalling $5.8 million between 2010 and 2018.

Federal wildlife officials say relatively few cases end with prosecutions because most companies are willing to take measures to address hazards that their operations may pose to birds.

Courts have been split on whether companies can be prosecuted for unintentional bird deaths.

Interior officials said in March that they plan to come up with new standards for bird deaths by industry, but they have not released further details.

Under former President Barack Obama, the agency started to develop a permitting system that would have allowed industry to kill limited numbers of birds. That work was left unfinished when the Democrat left office.

“A permitting system is a common sense approach to clarifying these longstanding protections,” said Sarah Greenberger, vice-president for conservation policy at the Audubon Society.

___

This version corrects that that the announcement was made on Thursday, not Monday.

Matthew Brown, The Associated Press

B.C. gives $2M to Japanese Canadian seniors as step toward righting internment wrongs


VICTORIA — British Columbia is offering tangible recognition of the historical wrongs caused by the province when it helped to intern thousands of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The province has announced a $2-million fund for the Nikkei Seniors Health Care and Housing Society to enhance programming for seniors and local communities.

A statement from the Ministry of Attorney General says the fund will be used to develop and deliver health and wellness programs to Japanese Canadian internment survivors.

The society and the National Association of Japanese Canadians will also spread the funding to other organizations supporting survivors.

The ministry statement says the grant is a first step toward fulfilling a provincial promise to honour Japanese Canadians by recognizing the traumatic internment of almost 22,000 people beginning in 1942.

Health Minister Adrian Dix says the funding will allow internment survivors to connect with others in their community, helping them stay healthy and remain independent.

"The terrible loss suffered by thousands of Japanese Canadians in the 1940s is still impacting the community today, with many experiencing lasting health issues and trauma," Dix says in the statement.

The Canadian government detained thousands of Japanese Canadians in early 1942 under the War Measures Act. They were held in crowded internment camps in B.C.'s Interior or were offered the option to work on sugar beet farms in Alberta and Manitoba for the remainder of the Second World War.

Their homes, farms, businesses and other property were sold off by the government and the proceeds were used to pay the cost of their detention.

Ruth Coles, president of the Nikkei Seniors Health Care and Housing Society, says many Japanese Canadian seniors were forced to rebuild their lives outside B.C. and now have "unique needs stemming from internment, forced uprooting, dispossession and displacement."

Many still feel "shame and a lack of resolution" caused by the internment that have led to a lifetime of challenges, she says.

Then-prime minister Brian Mulroney formally apologized in 1988 for Canada's role in the internment of Japanese Canadians and British Columbia recognized the discrimination and tremendous losses they suffered when it issued its own apology in the legislature in 2012.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2021.

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Results tally up billions in profit from Texas freeze for gas and power sellers

By Devika Krishna Kumar, Scott DiSavino and Jessica Resnick-Ault

© Reuters/MIKALA COMPTON FILE PHOTO: 

A neighborhood experiences a power outage after winter weather

 caused electricity blackouts in San Marcos

(Reuters) - Natural gas suppliers, pipeline companies and banks that trade commodities have emerged as the biggest market winners from February's U.S. winter blast that roiled gas and power markets, according to more than two dozen interviews and quarterly earnings reports.

The deep freeze caught Texas's utilities off-guard, killed more than 100 people and left 4.5 million without power. Demand for heat pushed wholesale power costs to 400 times the usual amount and propelled natural gas prices to record highs, forcing utilities and consumers to pay exorbitant bills.

After the storm, few companies wanted to talk about their financial gains, unwilling to be seen as profiting off others' hardships. But a clearer picture is emerging from quarterly earnings and as utility companies smarting from big bills sue to recoup their losses.

The biggest winners were companies with access to supplies, including leading energy trader Vitol, gas suppliers Kinder Morgan, Enterprise Products Partners and Energy Transfer, and banks Goldman Sachs, Bank of America (BofA) and Macquarie Group.

The firms combined stand to reap billions of dollars in profits by selling gas and power during the storm, according to interviews and reviews of public documents. It is possible that some companies may never collect on those sales due to ongoing litigation, however.

Losers include producers that could not deliver oil and gas due to frozen wellheads, gathering systems and processing stations. The week-long output loss cost shale producer Pioneer Natural Resources $80 million, Chevron about $300 million, and Exxon Mobil $800 million.

Utilities are complaining of price gouging and of unwarranted supply cancellations. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is reviewing gas and power markets for potential market manipulation.

Goldman Sachs and Vitol did not comment. BofA did not respond to a request for comment.

'MAXIMUM WITHDRAWAL'

Energy Transfer, which can store about 60% of U.S. daily gas consumption in areas hit hardest by the February freeze, could report a $850 million profit from selling the fuel to utilities and industrial customers during the storm, according to analysts at East Daley Capital. Other people familiar with its operations say that figure could be higher.

Energy Transfer did not comment for this story. The company reports results on Thursday.

Rival Enterprise Products Partners said the storm led to gains of about $250 million in the first quarter.

Kinder Morgan, another gas storage and pipeline operator, earned about $1 billion during the storm, the vast majority from higher gas prices and sales. Anticipating high demand, Kinder Morgan said it dispatched workers and backup generators ahead of the storm to its gas storage and pipeline facilities.

Graphic: Texas gas prices soars during February freeze, https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/jznvnreddvl/Pasted%20image%201620219759793.png

At the beginning of February, gas prices ranged from $2.50 to $3 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) at hubs from Houston to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Prices began climbing on Feb. 11 into the hundreds of dollars, with Tulsa's hub surging to a record $1,192.86 on Feb. 17, according to government data.

"That's what happens when you go from a very well supplied market to a very tight market, and in this case a catastrophically tight market," said one natural gas trader. "That was very localized pain, and it really surprised a lot of people."

Energy traders with three Texas electric cooperatives told Reuters they paid as much as $400 per mmBtu during a four-day stretch that began Valentine's Day weekend. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the crisis. San Antonio's municipal utility CPS Energy said its gas bill for the week was about $700 million.

"I've been tracking natural gas markets for 20 years. I've never seen price increases like we saw," said Tyson Slocum, an energy and environmental advisory committee member at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and a director at Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization.

WINNING AND LOSING

Australia's Macquarie, the second-largest marketer of U.S. natural gas, said its trading around the storm boosted its overall profit outlook for the year by about 10%, which analysts estimated at about A$400 million ($317 million).

Ahead of the storm, Macquarie traders researched how previous cold fronts disrupted infrastructure to prepare a plan, said sources within the firm, who requested anonymity. The company did not comment for this story.

Texas's grid operator ERCOT canceled $1 billion in service charges and state officials are considering securitizing unpaid ERCOT bills from electric companies that defaulted.

Many of the firms that profited from trading, such as Goldman Sachs and BofA, are also facing losses from their exposure to utilities and electric co-operatives that have declared bankruptcy, according to court filings.

BofA made hundreds of millions via its trading arm, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter, but it is owed nearly $480 million by Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, which filed for bankruptcy.

Disputes over price gouging and reneged contracts have also emerged after some suppliers declared the freeze was a force majeure event that allowed them to suspend contracts.

Macquarie was sued by Exxon seeking to void an $11 million gas bill. CPS Energy sued BP, Chevron, Energy Transfer and others for submitting bills that ran into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Texas wind farm operators also have filed lawsuits against trading arms of JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup, maintaining the cold snap was an extreme event that overrode contracts for power generation and delivery.

(Reporting By Devika Krishna Kumar, Scott DiSavino, Jessica Resnick Ault, and Gary McWilliams; additional reporting by Liz Hampton, Stephanie Kelly and Jennifer Hiller; writing by David Gaffen and Gary McWilliams; Editing by Marguerita Choy)