Alberta government knew bighorn sheep contaminated with coal mine selenium: scientist

EDMONTON — Some herds of Alberta's provincial animal are heavily contaminated with selenium from old coal mines, says research from a retired senior government biologist.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Jeff Kneteman said Alberta Environment has known about the problem in bighorn sheep for years. But it has yet to commission any studies about the effects on the three herds and how far the contamination has spread through the local ecosystem.

"There was no interest," said Kneteman, who left government in March 2020. "Why wasn't any of this stuff ever followed up?"

The research comes to light as the United Conservative government attempts to convince Albertans the province's regulatory and monitoring systems are capable of ensuring an expansion of coal mining in the Rocky Mountains can be done safely.

The government did not respond to a request for comment.

Kneteman's work dates from 2015. It was his thesis for a master's degree and not provincially funded.

He was investigating selenium, a naturally occurring element associated with coal mines that is healthy in small doses but toxic in excess. Kneteman's study looked at what levels of selenium were normal for animals such as bighorns, deer, elk and caribou by considering 85 different herds from across North America.

Two herds in northwest Alberta stood out — those on the sites of the Smoky River, Gregg River and Luscar coal mines.

"(Levels in) bighorn that occupied coal mines were miles away from everybody," he said.

Both herds averaged well outside the safe range for selenium. One of them almost doubled that level.

"They're getting it from the coal mines," Kneteman said. "We found no evidence of elevated selenium in Alberta in any of the other populations that we sampled."

The Rockies are naturally low in selenium. As well, when bighorns from one of the coal-affected herds were transferred to Nevada, their selenium levels dropped to normal within a year.

Selenium is known to damage reproduction. That effect was present, said Kneteman.

"The sheep on the mines have the lowest reproductive potential and reproductive output that we've ever measured in Canada."

The province's 2015 draft management plan for bighorns found that the ratio of lambs to ewes was lower on coal mines than native range every year from 2008-2013.

Referring to unpublished government data, that plan says: "High selenium levels in blood samples from bighorns feeding in reclamation areas associated with a coal minesite ... are of concern to sheep managers.

"No examination of possible populations effects attributed exclusively to selenium toxicity has been undertaken to date."

Research suggests selenium is widespread in the local ecosystem.

Kneteman previously found elevated levels in dippers, small birds that feed on aquatic insects. Other studies have found excessive selenium in at least three area waterways.

"(Selenium) is throughout the system," Kneteman said.

Although his data is years old, Kneteman said there's little reason to believe things have improved.

"(Selenium) hasn't declined at all since the first measurements in the late '90s," he said.

"The assumption could be made it's the same today as it was in 2015. Why would we expect it to have changed?"

Meanwhile, the province's 2019 five-year monitoring plan mothballed all the area's water monitoring stations.

Since last spring, Alberta has sold tens of thousands of hectares of exploration leases for new coal mines along the summits and eastern slopes of the Rockies.

In response to public concern, Energy Minister Sonya Savage has paused all work on the most sensitive landscapes, stopped further lease sales and struck a panel to hear concerns from Albertans.

Still, she has asked Albertans to have faith in the province's regulatory agency and monitoring programs, referring to Alberta Environment's "stringent environmental protections."

Kneteman said he tried repeatedly to get his former department to study a toxin from resource development contaminating the animal that is supposed to symbolize the province.

"No one's made any measurements, which is maybe dereliction," he said.

"The only reason we've got any measurements is that I went and got them. There wasn't any effort to find out what was going on."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2021.

— Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

Judge dismisses NRA bankruptcy case in blow to gun group


DALLAS (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed the National Rifle Association’s bankruptcy case, leaving the powerful gun-rights group to face a New York state lawsuit that accuses it of financial abuses and aims to put it out of business.

The case was over whether the NRA should be allowed to incorporate in Texas instead of New York, where the state is suing in an effort to disband the group. Though headquartered in Virginia, the NRA was chartered as a nonprofit in New York in 1871 and is incorporated in the state.

Judge Harlin Hale said in a written order that he was dismissing the case because he found the bankruptcy was not filed in good faith.

“The Court believes the NRA’s purpose in filing bankruptcy is less like a traditional bankruptcy case in which a debtor is faced with financial difficulties or a judgment that it cannot satisfy and more like cases in which courts have found bankruptcy was filed to gain an unfair advantage in litigation or to avoid a regulatory scheme," Hale wrote.

His decision followed 11 days of testimony and arguments. Lawyers for New York and the NRA’s former advertising agency grilled the group’s embattled top executive, Wayne LaPierre, who acknowledged putting the NRA into Chapter 11 bankruptcy without the knowledge or assent of most of its board and other top officers.

“Excluding so many people from the process of deciding to file for bankruptcy, including the vast majority of the board of directors, the chief financial officer, and the general counsel, is nothing less than shocking,” the judge added.

Phillip Journey, an NRA board member and Kansas judge who had sought to have an examiner appointed to investigate the group’s leadership, was concise about Hale's judgment: “1 word, disappointed,” he wrote in a text message.

Lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James argued that the case was an attempt by NRA leadership to escape accountability for using the group’s coffers as their personal piggybank. But the NRA’s attorneys said it was a legitimate effort to avoid a political attack by the Democrat.

LaPierre testified that he kept the bankruptcy largely secret to prevent leaks from the group’s 76-member board, which is divided in its support for him.

The NRA declared bankruptcy in January, five months after James’ office sued seeking its dissolution following allegations that executives illegally diverted tens of millions of dollars for lavish personal trips, no-show contracts and other questionable expenditures.

“The NRA does not get to dictate if and where it will answer for its actions, and our case will continue in New York court,” James tweeted after the ruing was made. “No one is above the law.”

Shannon Watts, who founded Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, said in a serious of tweets that the bankruptcy dismissal “comes at the worst possible time for the NRA: right as background checks are being debated in the Senate.”

“It will be onerous if not impossible for the NRA to effectively oppose gun safety and lobby lawmakers while simultaneously fighting court battles and mounting debt,” said Watts, whose organization is part of the Michael Bloomberg-backed Everytown for Gun Safety.

___

Sisak reported from New York.

Jake Bleiberg And Michael R. Sisak, The Associated Press

B.C. pledges to introduce permanent paid sick leave program in January

VICTORIA — Workers affected by COVID-19 in British Columbia will qualify for up to three days of paid sick leave under proposed legislation that Premier John Horgan says will plug holes in a federal plan and lay the groundwork for a permanent program.

 Provided by The Canadian Press

Horgan said Tuesday that the program would bridge the gap for workers between the time they first feel sick and when they can access the federal benefit, a pledge that some critics say doesn't go far enough.

"No one should have to make the difficult decision between staying home when they're sick and going into work because they have an economic imperative to do so," Horgan said.

"Today we're making that choice a little bit easier."

Labour Minister Harry Bains introduced the legislation Tuesday, saying it would be effective until Dec. 31 and apply to anyone who shows COVID-19 symptoms, self-isolates or gets tested.

Employers will be required to pay workers their full wages and those without an existing sick leave program will be reimbursed by the government $200 per day for each worker.

WorkSafeBC, the provincial injury prevention and safety agency, will begin administering the program next month and employers will be required to cover the difference for those workers who earn more than $200 a day.

Bains also said a permanent entitlement to paid personal injury and illness leave would take effect in January, although the number of entitlement days would be determined through consultation in the coming months.

"Having paid sick leave is good for businesses, good for workers, good for our communities and will help our economy recover faster," Bains said in the legislature on Tuesday.

About half of B.C. employees do not currently have access to paid sick leave, according to government estimates.

British Columbia's proposed legislation closely matches the program introduced in Ontario, which has come under heavy criticism for falling short of what's needed to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Horgan said last month the province was considering its own sick-leave program after the federal government failed to bring in a national plan that would fill in the gaps of the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit.

The federal program covers lost wages of $450 a week after taxes, which is less than B.C.'s minimum wage.

Critics have said workers who qualify for the federal benefit have faced delays getting the money and often get a pay cut, obstacles that push people to go to work even when they're not feeling well.

Horgan said he's been disappointed that the federal government has allocated $2.6 billion to the program but only managed to get $400 million out the door.

"That doesn't speak to the lack of need for the program, that speaks to the inadequacy of construction," he said.

Neither he nor Bains could say how quickly the provincial funds would reach employees, but they said WorkSafeBC's existing relationship with employers will make it flow more quickly than programs created from scratch, such as some of the province's lagging pandemic relief for businesses.

Two major unions welcomed the news of a permanent paid sick leave program on the horizon, while saying the temporary COVID-19 measure is lacking.

"Although three days per calendar year is inadequate, today's announcement opens the door for future expansion," Jerry Dias, national president of Unifor, said in a statement.

The B.C. Federation of Labour said it will advocate for up to 10 days of paid leave per year, as a basic public health protection and employment right for all. At the same time, it expressed concern with the limited temporary COVID-19 measure.

"Workers struggling with a COVID-19 illness face far greater than three days of lost pay, they face potential economic devastation,” president Laird Cronk said in a statement.

“Ensuring workers don’t have to make the untenable decision between staying home with symptoms or working sick to put food on the table and pay the rent is critical during this deadly race between variants and vaccines.”

Horgan defended three days as enough time for workers to access other programs.

"I do believe it's going to be sufficient to get that test done and get the result from that test and then to access the other programs available," he said, pointing to both the federal benefit and workers' compensation for those people who catch COVID-19 at work.

The Surrey Board of Trade issued a statement saying it was pleased with the proposed legislation.

"Businesses in the hardest hit industries will finally get the support that they need," president Anita Huberman said in the statement. "Paid sick leave is about reducing transmission and getting on the other side of this pandemic."

— By Amy Smart in Vancouver.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2021.

RIP

Young whale trapped in London's River Thames euthanized

By Rob Picheta, Mitchell McCluskey and Amanda Jackson, CNN 

A young whale trapped in London's River Thames was euthanized after becoming stranded for a second time on a river embankment Monday evening.

© DAVID KORSAKS @dkfitldn/REUTERS Rescue attempts are made as a small whale stranded in the River Thames is seen in this picture obtained from social media in London, Britain, May 9, 2021. 

The minke whale's condition had deteriorated throughout the day as it struggled in the unfamiliar environment, and it was "humanely put to sleep" by veterinary experts, the British Divers Marine Life Rescue said in a statement.

"Medics used inflatable pontoons to prevent the animal from slipping back into the river, which allowed the veterinary team from the Zoological Society of London to further assess the animal and end its suffering," the statement read.

The whale had likely swum hundreds of miles before it was spotted around 7 p.m. on Sunday, stuck near Richmond Lock. Once freed, the whale slipped away under cover of darkness before rescuers could take further action, a spokesperson for the Port of London Authority told CNN.

The rescue team "managed to get a special inflatable pontoon around (the whale), and then floated it out onto the main river," Port of London Authority spokesperson Martin Garside told CNN. "At that point, the whale made its own decision and swam from the pontoon into the main river."

The whale was found again on Monday morning against the river wall, raising concerns it would become beached again.

The whale, estimated to be about 10 to 13 feet long, ended up far from its natural habitat. A postmortem examination will be carried out to try to establish how the whale came to be in "poor condition and lost in the river."

"This species lives in the northern North Sea, so it's very lost," Garside said. "It's a very young whale and it's in a very dicey situation and its life is hanging in the balance."

Minke whales can grow to weigh around 20,000 pounds and typically live for about 50 years, according to the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Garside said his organization tends to whales in the Thames around once a year, but no whale had ever swum so far west up the Thames.

The rescue team included officers from the Port of London Authority, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the London Fire Brigade.

Spectator Daniel Magee, who recorded several videos of the whale, said he initially assumed it was a seal.

"As we got closer I saw a fin and realized it was a whale," Magee told CNN on Sunday. "Some lock keepers hosing him down and it looked like the tide was going up so he could turn around. I realized that the whale might be injured as it started rolling on its side and thrashing about."

Another spectator, David Korsaks, told CNN he was surprised to see anything other than birds in the area.

"It was almost disbelief and shock to see a whale where you would normally only see ducks and swans," Korsaks said. "My next thoughts were I hope it's ok and manages to swim free."

Sophie Milner told CNN she took video of the whale after seeing people gathered at the scene.

"We just saw a crowd of people looking at the whale. It was being looked after by some specialists by the time we got there," she said.

It is unusual, but not unprecedented, for whales to enter the Thames and require rescuing.

In 2018, a Beluga whale was found in the river.

And in 2006, a bottlenose whale was spotted in central London, sparking a massive operation to return her to safety. Rescuers used a crane to lift her out of the river and onto a barge. But the whale died on the barge hours later, before it could be returned to deeper water.

Internal emails reveal WHO knew of sex abuse claims in Congo

BENI, Congo (AP) — When Shekinah was working as a nurse’s aide in northeastern Congo in January 2019, she said, she was offered a job from a World Health Organization doctor at double her salary — in exchange for sex.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

“Given the financial difficulties of my family … I accepted,” said Shekinah, 25, who asked that only her first name be used for fear of repercussions. She said the Canadian doctor, Boubacar Diallo, who often bragged about his connections to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, made the same proposition to several of her friends.

When a staffer and three Ebola experts working in Congo informed WHO management about sex abuse concerns regarding Diallo, they were told not to take the matter further, The Associated Press has found.

WHO has been facing widespread public allegations of systemic abuse of women by unnamed staffers, to which Tedros declared outrage and emergencies director Dr. Michael Ryan said, “We have no more information than you have.” However, an AP investigation has now found that despite its public denial of knowledge, senior WHO management wasn't only informed of alleged sexual misconduct in 2019 but was asked how to handle it.

The AP has also for the first time tracked down the names of two doctors accused of sexual misconduct, Diallo and Dr. Jean-Paul Ngandu, both of whom were reported to WHO.

Ngandu was accused by a young woman of impregnating her. In a notarized contract obtained by the AP, two WHO staffers, including a manager, signed as witnesses to an agreement for Ngandu to pay the young woman, cover her health costs and buy her land. The deal was made “to protect the integrity and reputation” of WHO, Ngandu said.

When reached by the AP, both Diallo and Ngandu denied wrongdoing. The investigation was based on interviews with dozens of WHO staffers, Ebola officials in Congo, private emails, legal documents and recordings of internal meetings obtained by the AP.

Eight top officials privately acknowledged WHO failed to effectively tackle sex abuse during the Ebola outbreak, emails, recordings of internal meetings, legal documents and interviews with dozens of aid workers and WHO staffers show. WHO declined to comment on any specific sex abuse allegations or how they were managed and said it had taken steps to address the problem.

“We are aware that more work is needed to achieve our vision of emergency operations that serve the vulnerable while protecting them from all forms of abuse,” WHO spokeswoman Marcia Poole said in an email.

WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan acknowledged in internal meetings that sexual abuse problems during the agency’s outbreak responses were unlikely to be exceptional.

“You can’t just pin this and say you have one field operation that went badly wrong,” he said. “This is in some sense the tip of an iceberg.”

As WHO struggled to control spiraling Ebola cases in Congo in early 2019, emergency operations manager Dr. Michel Yao received an email with the subject line: “Private. Chat.”

“We cannot afford to have people tarnishing the sweat and effort of individuals sacrificing themselves thru (sic) inappropriate sexual harassment and bullying,” the staffer wrote, saying he was concerned about Diallo.

Yao responded that the matter would be handled, but the staffer said his concerns were dismissed. An internal WHO investigation failed to corroborate the charges, but those who complained about Diallo were not interviewed.

Diallo was described as a charismatic manager with connections to WHO’s senior leaders, including director-general Tedros. On WHO’s website, Tedros, Yao and Diallo are pictured smiling and bumping elbows during one of Tedros’ 14 trips to Congo during the outbreak.

Diallo rejected claims of sexual misconduct.

“I have never offered a woman a job in exchange for sex and I have never sexually harassed a woman in my life,” he told the AP.

In April 2019, Yao received another email detailing more alleged sexual misconduct, this time about the other doctor the AP tracked down, Ngandu.

“I hereby inform you that we have a colleague who has impregnated a girl from Beni,” outbreak manager Mory Keita wrote to Yao. Keita told Yao a young woman and her aunt had come to Beni’s Hotel Okapi looking for WHO managers, with two armed police officers. The woman’s aunt said the young woman had been having an affair with Ngandu and was now pregnant.

They asked WHO to cover the cost of the woman’s medical costs and for money to buy land, “given that Dr. Jean-Paul will abandon the girl and she will be obliged to raise her child alone.”

Keita said he felt that Yao should be informed “so that you would give us your directions for how to better manage this problem.”

One week after the email was sent, Ngandu signed a notarized contract confirming he would pay the young woman $100 a month until her baby was born, cover her pregnancy costs and buy her a plot of land. Keita and Achile Mboko, a WHO human resources staffer, signed as witnesses.

Ngandu said he wasn't the father of the baby and the deal was a “private matter.” He said he agreed to it after his WHO colleagues, including Keita, “advised me to settle out of court to avoid sullying the reputation of the organization and myself.” The young woman declined to talk to the AP.

It is unclear if Yao reported the abuse allegations to his superiors, as required by WHO protocol. He has since been promoted to be director of WHO Geneva’s Strategic Health Operations Department.

On Oct. 15, Tedros appointed an independent panel to investigate sex abuse during the Ebola outbreak in Congo; no findings are expected until the end of August. At a town hall meeting in November, Ryan acknowledged sex abuse issues had been “neglected” for years.

Back in Congo, Shekinah said she “couldn’t count how many times” she had slept with WHO’s Diallo after accepting a job for which she was not qualified.

“I wanted to quit. But because of my financial problems, I endured it,” she said. Even after they separated, Shekinah said he continued to message her, asking her to send him nude pictures.

Diallo should be punished “for his sexual abuse of all those girls in Beni as a lesson to these international organizations that this should not happen again,” she said. “I would like justice to be done.”

___

Maria Cheng reported from London. Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.

Maria Cheng And Al-hadji Kudra Maliro, The Associated Press

N.B. redistributes $163 million in carbon tax revenue, cuts personal income tax

FREDERICTON — New Brunswick's finance minister is returning $28 million to New Brunswickers through a personal income tax cut.

 Provided by The Canadian Press

Ernie Steeves says the benefit is part of the government's commitment to recycle $163 million in revenue generated from the carbon tax.

Steeves says the change would reduce the income tax rate on the first tax bracket from 9.68 per cent to 9.4 per cent for the 2021 taxation year, benefiting more than 420,000 taxpayers.

The proposed savings would begin on July 1 and be reflected when New Brunswickers file their 2021 tax return next spring.

The government says $78 million will be returned to taxpayers through a reduction in gasoline and diesel taxes, and $36 million will be allotted to the Climate Change Fund.

Steeves says $12 million will go toward subsidizing natural gas distributor Liberty Utilities to offset the cost of the carbon tax, and $9 million will be given to First Nations.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2021.

Canada's Paper Excellence announces deal to buy Domtar Corp. in US$3B deal

Paper Excellence is expanding into the U.S. with a deal to buy Domtar Corp. in an agreement with an enterprise value of about US$3 billion.

©

 Provided by The Canadian Press

The Richmond, B.C.-based company will pay US$55 per Domtar share in cash, a 37 per cent premium from May 3 when a media report disclosed a possible transaction.

"This marks a major step in our global strategy of identifying well-positioned assets and positioning them for growth," said Joe Ragan, Paper Excellence's global chief financial officer.

"We are enthusiastic about entering the American market as we continually improve Paper Excellence’s ability to serve its expanding blue-chip customer base.”

Paper Excellence, a global diversified manufacturer of pulp and specialty, printing, writing, and packaging papers, operates seven mills in Canada producing and shipping over 2.8 million tonnes of product annually with a workforce of more than 2,800.

Montreal and South Carolina-based Domtar is an integrated manufacturer and marketer of uncoated freesheet paper in North America and one of the largest manufacturers of pulp in the world. It has 13 pulp and paper mills and 10 manufacturing and converting facilities in Canada and the United States.

Ragan said Paper Excellence, which acquired Catalyst Paper Corp. in 2019, said it will invest in Domtar's assets for long-term growth.

The companies say Paper Excellence intends to continue the operations of Domtar as a stand-alone entity. They say it will be led by its management team and Paper Excellence plans to keep its corporate and production locations.

Domtar CEO John Williams said the Paper Excellence transaction allows its shareholders to realize cash value at a significant premium.

“This transaction validates our long-term strategic plan for our leading paper and pulp businesses, and for our continued expansion into packaging,” he said in the news release.

Domtar's board unanimously approved the agreement which is expected to close in the second half of the year, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.

Shares in Domtar climbed to a two-year high by increasing C$8.80 or 15.4 per cent at C$66.08 on the Toronto Stock Exchange in Tuesday afternoon trading.

The transaction follows West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd.'s $4-billion purchase of Norbord Inc, which closed in February.

Analyst Paul Quinn of RBC Capital Markets said the deal is not surprising given recent reports.

"While the valuation is a bit below comparable transactions, we expect there to be fewer synergies in this deal given that Domtar will continue to operate on a stand-alone basis and therefore view the price as fair," he wrote in a report.

A key question for Quinn is what does the new owner do about Domtar's plans to convert up to four paper machines to containerboard.

"While we think that it is likely too late to turn back on the Kingsport conversion, the conversions at Ashdown, Marlboro, and Hawesville have not been started."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2021.

Companies in this story: (TSX:UFS)

Ross Marowits, The Canadian Press

Occidental Petroleum says federal leasing ban would hurt U.S. oil growth

(Reuters) - U.S. oil and gas producer Occidental Petroleum Corp said federal drilling permits are moving forward in the Permian Basin shale field following a federal pause this year, but a longer-term ban could hurt U.S. oil output

.

© Reuters/Mario Anzuoni FILE PHOTO: Occidental Petroleum Corp

Producers are likely to continue to be able to secure permits on existing federal leases, but Chief Executive Vicki Hollub said on Tuesday she was concerned about the possibility of a federal moratorium on new oil and gas leases going forward. The Biden administration is reviewing the federal oil and gas leasing program.

"That would be bad for our industry. It would be bad for the United States," Hollub said on an earnings call with analysts. "It would put our country in a position where we would likely have an even tougher time increasing production above where the United States is today."

Occidental is one of the biggest U.S. shale producers but is setting ambitious climate targets and trying to turn its low-carbon unit into a profitable business.

Though shareholders want to know more, it is "not yet able" to detail the potential financial returns from its low-carbon unit, Hollub said.

Occidental reported a first-quarter loss after market close on Monday that beat Wall Street expectations. But shares traded down 7.4% to $24.67 on Tuesday afternoon.

Despite a better outlook for chemicals and midstream, shares fell due to "the slower pace of reduction in the company's net debt position," said Peter McNally, analyst with Third Bridge Group, who added, "The balance sheet has been the critical issue since the acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum in 2019."

Occidental has struggled to pay down debt amassed in the $38 billion deal. It cut debt by about $3 billion last year but in the first quarter reduced net debt by about $279 million, according to regulatory filings.

(Reporting by Jennifer Hiller; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Marguerita Choy)

'Massive and potentially permanent disruption': Canada's bleak view of Line 5 closure

WASHINGTON — Shutting down the Line 5 pipeline in Michigan would deal a "massive and potentially permanent" blow to Canada's economy and energy security and risk lasting damage to relations with the United States, the federal government argues in court documents released Tuesday.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The documents mark Canada's formal entry into the legal dispute between Michigan and the pipeline's owner and operator, Calgary-based Enbridge Inc., which comes on the eve of the deadline imposed last November by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

They make largely the same argument Canada has been making for months: that Line 5 comprises a vital artery of North America's energy infrastructure, and cutting it would be calamitous for both countries.

But they also raise the ante significantly by warning of the potential risk to the relationship between Canada and the U.S. if the pipeline ceases to operate.

"The proposed shutdown would cause a massive and potentially permanent disruption to Canada's economy and energy security," say the documents, known in legal parlance as an amicus brief.

If allowed to stand, Michigan's "unilateral action" would foster doubt about any foreign-policy commitments the U.S. might choose to make if any one state can so easily undermine them, the brief says.

"A hastily and unduly imposed shutdown would undermine the confidence in reciprocal, enforceable commitments and cross-border co-operation that lies at the heart of the United States-Canada relationship."

Whitmer originally gave Enbridge until Wednesday to shut down the pipeline, a demand the company says it has no plans to meet. But with a court-appointed mediator scheduled to meet with the two sides again on May 18, it's not clear whether anything will happen before then.

Enbridge officials pointed to a statement from Monday when asked whether the pipeline would continue to operate past Wednesday.

"We will not stop operating the pipeline unless we are ordered by a court or our regulator to do so, which we view as highly unlikely," the statement read.

"Line 5 is operating safely, reliably and is in compliance with the law."

The dispute first erupted in November when Whitmer — citing the risk of an environmental catastrophe in the Straits of Mackinac, the waterway where Line 5 traverses the Great Lakes — revoked the easement that had allowed the line to operate since 1953.

Enbridge insists the pipeline is safe, and has already received the state's approval for a $500-million effort to dig a tunnel beneath the straits that would house the line's twin pipes and protect them from anchor strikes.

"Line 5 does not just affect one province or one region — it supports our entire country," Natural Resources Minister Seamus O'Regan said in a statement.

It also delivers more than half the propane and home heating oil consumed in Michigan, and is a vital source of energy for Ohio and Pennsylvania as well, to say nothing of Ontario and Quebec, O'Regan added.

"This pipeline is as important to Canada as it is to the U.S. It heats both Canadian and American homes. It supports both Canadian and American jobs."

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, herself a former Michigan governor, refused to take a position on the dispute Tuesday, citing the fact that it remains before the courts.

"We don't wade in on that," Granholm said. "It will be decided in court."

Instead, Granholm was preoccupied with the fallout from a different pipeline problem: the massive Colonial line, a delivery system for nearly half the fuel consumed on the U.S. East Coast, which has been shut down since Thursday following a devastating cyberattack from overseas.

As a result, Tuesday's White House briefing was dominated by talk of rising gasoline prices, fuel hoarding and the environmental impact of having to use trucks and trains — all likely consequences of a Line 5 shutdown as well.

Proponents of Line 5 say closure would mean immediate gasoline shortages and price spikes, as well as an estimated 800 more oil-laden rail cars and 2,000 tanker trucks per day on railways and highways throughout Central Canada and the U.S. Midwest.

Canada's brief leans extensively on the close ties between the two countries, noting that they have successfully negotiated a bilateral agreement for protecting the Great Lakes, the original NAFTA and its recent successor, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

There's also Norad, the shared continental defence network, "under which a Canadian general gave the order to scramble jets to protect the United States on Sept. 11, 2001," the brief notes.

The documents urge the court to prevent a "unilateral compelled shutdown" on the grounds that the pipeline is specifically covered by a 1977 treaty that deals specifically with cross-border pipelines.

It is for the two national governments, under the terms of that treaty, to sort out the dispute, the documents argue.

Line 5 "is a tangible symbol of a traditionally strong relationship between Canada and the U.S. and pivotal to North American energy security," said Saskatchewan Energy Minister Bronwyn Eyre, whose province depends on the line for some 70 per cent of its energy exports.

Sonya Savage, Eyre's Alberta counterpart, warned of the potential for a lingering chill if Whitmer is successful.

"What is the most concerning to us in Alberta — as it should be for everyone — is the dangerous precedent that a shutdown of a safely operating pipeline would set for future oil and gas infrastructure projects."

Not everyone in Canada, however, opposes Whitmer's efforts. A number of Indigenous groups in Ontario support a shutdown, as does Green party Leader Annamie Paul.

Michiganders remember well an Enbridge spill in 2010 that dumped more than 3.3 million litres of diluted bitumen into the Kalamazoo River, fouling more than 40 kilometres of shoreline, Paul said.

"It is understandable that the people of Michigan are extremely sensitive to the dangerous consequences of a potential spill from Line 5, and chose to elect a governor who explicitly campaigned on the promise to shut down the line."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2021.

James McCarten, The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version said the Department of Natural Resources filed the court documents.

UCP FAILS BLAMES FEDS, NDP, MEDIA

Trudeau rejects Alberta cabinet minister accusation PM wants COVID-19 health disaster

EDMONTON — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is rejecting an accusation from Alberta’s justice minister that the federal government is part of a trio wanting the province’s health system to collapse under the pressure of COVID-19.

  

© Provided by The Canadian Press

“It’s a shame to see people pointing fingers and laying blame and suggesting that anyone in Canada wants anything else than to get through this pandemic as safely as possible everywhere,” Trudeau, responding to remarks by Kaycee Madu, said in Ottawa on Tuesday.

“Playing politics at this point is just not what Canadians want to see.”

Alberta has recently had COVID-19 case rates that are the highest in North America.

Trudeau noted he reached out to Premier Jason Kenney and Alberta's big city mayors last week to offer further support if called upon.

“Every step of the way the federal government has been there to support Canadians, with $8 out of every $10 in pandemic support coming from the federal government,” said Trudeau.

“We will continue to work with all governments across this county to make sure we’re getting through this.”

Last week, Kenney introduced tighter public health restrictions. He warned that hospitals were otherwise on course to be overwhelmed in a matter of weeks.

Madu, in a Facebook post last Friday, wrote that the province can't risk giving the COVID-19 virus a chance to "overwhelm our health-care system.

"That's what the NDP, the media and the federal Liberals were looking for and want," he wrote.

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/05/ucp-fails-blames-others-opposition.html

Madu was not made available for an interview, but his spokesman, Blaise Boehmer, has said Madu stands by the remark.

Opposition NDP Leader Rachel Notley said her caucus has pushed for Kenney’s government to enact rules and messaging to reduce the spread of the virus, while giving businesses financial aid to survive and workers support to allow them to isolate but still provide for their families.

“A minister of the Crown would be best served to listen to the proposals that are put forward by the Opposition as well as, heaven forbid, the critiques, because that is actually the way our system works,” said Notley.

She said Madu’s comments in the justice post are Kenney’s responsibility.

“You don’t tend to see that sort of incendiary, thoughtless messaging or tone from someone who takes on the role of justice minister,” she said.

Alberta has well over 25,000 active COVID-19 cases. There were 690 people in hospital on Monday and 158 of them were in intensive care -- the highest since the pandemic began.

Kenney, after resisting calls for more health restrictions, acted last Tuesday. He closed schools and brought in sharper limits on businesses and worship services.

He had been facing criticism that his government waited too long to react to the pandemic's third wave, but replied that no one should point fingers and politicize the fight against COVID-19.

Kenney and his minsters have repeatedly accused Trudeau’s government of hamstringing the relief effort and, as late as April 29, Kenney blamed Alberta's third wave on Ottawa for a slow vaccine rollout.

Also Tuesday, Alberta Health confirmed it won't give out more first doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for the time being.

Spokesman Tom McMillan said the decision was made because there aren't any confirmed shipments of AstraZeneca coming and the province only has 8,400 doses left. Those are to be used as second doses.

“Unlike with AstraZeneca, Alberta is receiving the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in large and consistent shipments,” said McMillan, who noted that more than 236,000 doses are arriving this week alone.

Alberta has administered 255,000 first doses of AstraZeneca.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2021.

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press