Doctor apologizes for letting a registered sex offender into a retreat for sex assault survivors

Ashley Burke, Kristen Everson 

© Laura Osman, CBC News Dr. Manuela Joannou has posted a public apology to participants in one of her therapy retreats.

The doctor running Project Trauma Support now says she regrets her decision to allow a registered sex offender to peer mentor a group of sexual assault survivors with post traumatic stress disorder under her care.

Seven female first responders and Canadian Forces veterans shared their story publicly with CBC News yesterday. They said their trust was violated by Dr. Manuela Joannou because she failed to tell them their peer mentor recently had been convicted in two separate cases of sexual assault before attending the six-day trauma retreat in July 2018.

CBC News obtained an image of a statement posted by Joannou to Facebook on Wednesday apologizing to participants in her program.


"I am deeply saddened by the compounded hurt and pain that having a registered sex offender as a mentor on our program in 2018 has caused for so many people," Joannou wrote in the Facebook post.

"If I had a chance to do it all over again, this would not have happened. Did we make some errors in our early efforts? Undoubtedly, but it has shaped our awareness and our methods going forward."

The post comes a day after Joannou, in an exchange with CBC News, defended her actions and did not apologize for using retired Canadian Forces major Jonathan Hamilton as a peer mentor at the retreat.

Retreat participants said they were upset that Joannou's public apology came after several major donors to the program — including the Mood Disorder Society of Canada and the Royal Canadian Legion — severed ties with her charity in the wake of CBC's report and said they would not be funding it in future.

Joannou said she started Project Trauma in 2015 as a suicide prevention program. CBC News spoke to a Canadian Forces member who said she became suicidal after taking part in the program.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) investigated the case and advised Joannou in 2019 to be more careful in her hiring practices.

In her Facebook apology, Joannou wrote she now has code-of-conduct agreements for peer mentors to sign and is conducting police background checks on them.

"We fully intend to continue to offer our programming as we feel it is unethical to cease our mission that has resonated with so many," wrote Joannou. "We are committed to doing better …"

The Centre of Excellence on PTSD said Joannou's actions contravened its member agreement and it will no longer affiliate with her or Project Trauma Support.

"We stand shoulder to shoulder with those women impacted by this egregious act and recognize the deep hurt associated with this situation," said the Centre's CEO and president Dr. Patrick Smith in a media statement.

Military doctor stepping away from Project Trauma

The Canadian Armed Forces confirms its chief of rehabilitation medication has now left his volunteer role with Project Trauma Support in the wake of the story.

Lt.-Col. Markus Besemann, who has spent his career rehabilitating injured soldiers, had been volunteering with Project Trauma Support and is featured in uniform on the program's website. Some of the participants said they took part in 2018 because of Besemann's reputation in this field.

The Office of the Veterans Ombudsman said retired Brig.-Gen.Paul Rutherford has resigned from his role on the veteran's ombudsman advisory council and his name has been removed from its website in light of the CBC story.

Rutherford is the chair of Project Trauma Support's board of directors and also was an adviser to the veterans ombudsman. He and Joannou signed a letter in response to CBC's report, saying that "the truth cannot be realized by listening to one side of the story."

Veterans ombudsman Nishika Jardine said she was "deeply disturbed" by participants' accounts.

"No one who has experienced sexual trauma should be placed in a position where a peer support mentor is a sex offender," said Jardine in a statement to CBC News. "Individuals who have experienced this type of trauma need the safest space possible to promote their healing."

© Hallie Cotnam/CBC Female participants of Project Trauma Support take part in a group hug at the centre of a labyrinth in Perth, Ont.

Crown attorney did not grant approval

Some of the women who participated in the retreat only learned the full extent of the mentor's criminal past this month after CBC News published a story about the military's handling of one of his court cases.

In 2017, a justice found Hamilton guilty of unlawfully entering a Kingston home and sexually assaulting retired Capt. Annalise Schamuhn on two different occasions. Hamilton also was convicted of twice physically assaulting Schamuhn's husband, retired major Kevin Schamuhn.

Hamilton was sentenced to three years parole as a result, according to the attorney general's office.

In a second, unrelated case, Hamilton was sentenced to three years in custody on April 20, 2018 after a jury found him guilty of two counts of sexual assault.

Joannou had told the CPSO she had permission from the Crown attorney and the court for Hamilton to participate in Project Trauma Support, according to a report from the college obtained by CBC News.

But the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General said Wednesday that while it did consent to Hamilton staying there as part of his community service, the Crown did not grant permission for him to be a peer mentor.

"I can confirm that the Crown did not authorize Mr. Hamilton's participation in any peer mentoring groups," ministry spokesperson Brian Gray said in a statement to CBC News.

The Canadian Military’s Sexual Misconduct Crisis Explained
Zi-Ann Lum 

Provided by Chatelaine The Canadian flag waving in front of the The facade of the headquarters of the Department of National Defence in Ottawa.

The Canadian military is embroiled in another moment of reckoning. Separate allegations of sexual misconduct against former chief of defence staff General Jonathan Vance and his successor, Admiral Art McDonald, have spurred a controversy that is testing the armed forces’ commitment to eradicating sexual harassment and violence—and the federal government’s “feminist approach” to policy. (Vance has denied the allegations and McDonald has not commented publicly, citing an ongoing investigation.)

It’s déjà vu for survivors of sexual assault and harassment in the military. The issue has been repeatedly raised in recent decades, and it’s clear that sexual harassment and assault of military employees is a systemic problem. Now, a new review—the second in six years—has been launched to draft recommendations for the creation of an external agency to have oversight of the armed forces. Here’s what you need to know:
How did this controversy start?

The latest controversy involves Vance and McDonald, but Canada’s military culture has long been criticized for failing to protect victims of sexual harassment and assault.

In 1998, Maclean’s wrote about “a pattern of sexual harassment and assault” in the Canadian military, interviewing 13 women who said they were sexually assaulted in the armed forces. The survivors experienced nervous breakdowns and depression as well as at least one attempted suicide, reporters wrote. “All have left the Forces, heartbroken that their careers were shattered and angry that the military response worsened their conditions.” When the magazine revisited the issue in 2014, they found little evidence of a culture shift. The military “sometimes still closes its eyes to victims of sexual assault, and even punishes the women who denounce their rapists, rejecting them the very moment they start heading down the spiral of trauma.” The 2014 Maclean’s investigation also stated that an estimated five people are sexually assaulted every day in the military community.

The latest allegations came to light in February, when Global News first reported that Vance—who had retired in January—was facing accusations of inappropriate behaviour. Weeks later, McDonald, his successor, temporarily stepped aside as chief of defence staff after a separate misconduct allegation was made against him related to an incident in 2010 involving a female junior officer. (Global News has also reported on a separate allegation against Vance that involves a second female subordinate and a 2012 email invitation to “a trip to a clothing optional vacation destination.”) These revelations put pressure on the defence minister and prime minister’s office to explain who knew what—when. For the armed forces, it has exposed hypocrisy in the chain of command and undermined the work of high-profile campaigns to end sexual misconduct in the military.

Who are the people involved—and what have politicians said?

Maj. Kellie Brennan came forward publicly with allegations against Vance. She told a House of Commons committee in April that they had a 20-year sexual relationship which started when he was her boss and continued when he was chief of the defence staff. He fathered two of her children, she said, and provided no financial support.

Lieut. Heather Macdonald came forward after details of her case involving allegations against McDonald, then the chief of defence staff, were leaked without her consent. She told Global News she wanted to draw attention to the double standard within Operation Honour, the military’s mission to change its culture to track and prevent sexual misconduct. There’s no independent process to hold senior troops accountable for their actions, she said.

Former military ombudsman Gary Walbourne told a Commons committee that he raised allegations of misconduct against Vance with Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan in a meeting in March 2018. Walbourne said Sajjan refused to review the evidence. Sajjan later told the committee Walbourne was wrong to come to him on the matter, suggesting his involvement in a potential investigation would risk politicizing it. Walbourne should have known this, Sajjan said. “In our society, the last thing we want is for elected politicians to make decisions that investigators need to make independently.” Despite having the authority to ask for an investigation, Sajjan referred the case to the Privy Council Office, a branch of government that supports the prime minister’s office and cabinet. The military ombudsman office, however, is not permitted to share details about a case to anyone without written consent from the complainant, which Walbourne did not have.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he personally did not have any knowledge about the allegation against Vance in 2018 and that “no one knew it was a Me Too complaint.” When members of a parliamentary committee asked why Trudeau was not informed of the allegation, his chief of staff, Katie Telford, told MPs during the May 7 hearing that they didn’t know any details of the complaint at the time. The Liberal government committed to making the military a workplace free from harassment and discrimination in 2015, Telford said, but acknowledged they have yet to achieve that goal.
How is misconduct and harassment reported in the military?

The military’s investigative arm is the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service (CFNIS). It’s the branch that is also responsible for investigating “serious or sensitive offences” including allegations of sexual misconduct. But concerns have long been raised about the efficacy of the military investigating itself using its own justice system. The CFNIS launched investigations into the allegations against Vance and McDonald earlier this year. Systemic issues, including inadequate training and the fact that an overwhelming majority of its investigators are male, as reported by Global News, are considered factors why some women are reluctant to report incidents in the first place.

Complaints can also be filed with the military ombudsman office. But the office is hamstrung with how a probe can proceed: it can share information related to a case or investigation with police or public servants only with the written consent of the complainant for privacy reasons.

How has the military responded?

Vance has denied all the allegations of inappropriate behaviour against him. McDonald has declined to respond to the allegation against him. The two investigations exploring the allegations against both Vance and McDonald remain ongoing.

The Canadian military has a problem with how it handles sexual misconduct and harassment within its ranks: That was the conclusion from former supreme court justice Marie Deschamps’ 2015 report that described an endemic “hostile, sexual environment” that has become normalized to create a culture “where no one speaks up and which functions to deter victims from reporting sexual misconduct.” The Canadian Armed Forces had hired Deschamps to write the external report in response to Maclean’s 2014 investigation.

One recommendation was to follow in the footsteps of the United States, Australia, and France and create offices independent from the military responsible for receiving and investigating complaints. These agencies would also provide support to victims and training to members. There was “very little accountability in the chain of command or the military police as to the outcome of any particular incident,” Deschamps found. The lack of statistics also stymied efforts to address sexual misconduct. The military launched Operation Honour later that year, led by Vance. In the five years since Operation Honour launched, the military has recorded 581 reports of sexual assault.

The Canadian military has yet to set up an independent centre for accountability to handle allegations of sexual assault and misconduct, as reccomended by Deschamp’s 2015 report.

What did the prime minister’s office know about the allegations against top military brass?

It’s unclear who in the prime minister’s office was the first to learn about the allegation against Vance. Elder Marques, a former senior advisor in Trudeau’s office, said he first heard about the allegation through either Telford or a member of her staff in early March 2018. Telford, on the other hand, has said that she learned about the allegation from Marques.

Marques told a parliamentary committee in April that a request from the former military ombudsman for an independent review into the allegation against Vance was approved by the Privy Council Office. “I received their confirmation that they would be taking further steps, I had no further involvement in this matter,” Marques said. Though there was little information available, Marques told MPs on the committee that he presumed the allegation against Vance “could be of a sexual nature.”

Why has this topic become a source of debate and discussion now?

The new allegations have renewed attention over the military’s failure to change a culture that is, as described by Deschamps, “hostile to women and LGTBQ members, and conducive to more serious incidents of sexual harassment and assault.” Though some witnesses have told MPs that some improvements have been made in the military in terms of efforts to change a sexualized military culture that either, as Deschamps wrote, “[condoned] inappropriate sexual conduct” or turned “a blind-eye” to it, new testimonies give evidence of a problem that continues to exist.

Leah West was a former armoured officer and served in the military for 10 years. She told CBC’s The Current that when she was sexually assaulted by a superior officer from her unit, despite the military police’s involvement, there was no investigation. Her story shows a double standard: when she breached the military’s fraternization rule with a consensual relationship while she was deployed in Afghanistan, West was charged and returned to Canada for disobeying an order. “Women in the military are held to such a different standard. In every way,” West told CBC host Matt Galloway.

Emily Tulloch, an aviation technician, joined the military in July 2018. She told a parliamentary committee in April that she was raped in her first month of basic training and has experienced a “lifetime’s worth of sexual assault and misconduct” in her service since. Tulloch said she believes in the importance of the armed forces, but the military police handling her case made her feel like a criminal. Operation Honour got the conversation going, but its credibility has matured into a joke, she said, it’s time to end it and start something new.

“For many of us, Op Honour has aged like rotten milk. It just leaves a sour taste in your mouth,” Tulloch said. “To make matters worse, in a cruel irony, it’s apparent that the man who created the whole operation is now being investigated under the same pretenses that he swore to fix.”

Florida takes step toward the catching of goliath grouper

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) —

© Provided by The Canadian Press

A divided board of Florida game regulators took a tentative step Wednesday that might eventually allow fishermen to catch and kill goliath groupers, a fish that was almost driven to extinction 30 years ago by overfishing and pollution.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told its staff to craft a regulation it has proposed that would allow 100 goliaths to be caught and kept annually during a four-year period. Supported by fishing groups, the proposed limited harvest calls for a lottery to issue $300-per-week licenses that allow each recipient to catch and kill one goliath, with proceeds funding research of the species.

But board members said that did not mean the regulation would ultimately be approved even over the next few years, saying the science may not support its quick adoption.

There were questions about whether the fish, which typically weigh 400 pounds (180 kilograms) but can exceed 800 pounds (360 kilograms), has seen its population sufficiently recover. The commissioners did, however, seem to oppose a permanent ban, saying a harvest should be allowed eventually. Goliath grouper is not allowed to be caught in any other state or federal waters.

Commissioner Robert Spottswood believes the population is getting near a point where a limited harvest can be allowed. He said many of the arguments against a harvest are based on emotion. While the species’ population is unknown, the commission's staff believes it has grown enough to allow the limited catch.

“We can't just be stuck because there is a philosophy out there that says this big lovable creature can never be taken again,” Spottswood said during the Tallahassee meeting.

But Commissioner Gary Nicklaus said the reports that the goliaths' population is nearing recovery is based upon where it was when it was close to extinction, not when it was abundant in the 1950s. He said the biggest economic benefit the goliath provides to the state is drawing scuba divers who want to swim with it and photograph it.

“I think we should protect it until its population comes back to whatever baseline we want that to be,” said Nicklaus, the son of retired pro golfer Jack Nicklaus.

The goliath once ranged over a wide swath of ocean territory, from the Carolinas to the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil. But its numbers dropped sharply starting in the 1960s. By 1990, when Florida banned its catch, it was almost gone because of overfishing.

Today, the goliath is found mainly off South Florida. Adults live in reefs and shipwrecks, digging holes that provide hiding spaces for other fish.

Public comment to the board was about equally divided Wednesday. A prime example was scuba divers — some called it a nuisance and told commissioners they want to hunt it on spearfishing trips, while others saw the fish as photogenic and said it should be protected. The goliath is popular with both spearfishers and photographers as it does not flee when divers approach.

Dick Kempton, a member of the St. Pete Underwater Club, spoke in support of the harvest plan, saying the fish is becoming too plentiful in the waters around Tampa Bay and that is impacting other species.

“There are goliath grouper everywhere,” Kempton said, especially at shipwrecks and other underwater structures. “They eat everything that comes by ... There is plenty of stock out there. A limited harvest is not going to affect that at all."

But Tom Ingram, president of the Diving Equipment & Marketing Association, said the goliath draws divers to the state who simply want to see and photograph them. He said it will take at least another 10 years for the goliath to recover.

“Goliath grouper are still considered vulnerable by the International Union of Conservation of Nature," Ingram said. He asked the commission to implement a permanent ban on the catching of goliaths, saying they are as important to the economy at manatees, which are protected.

The proposal as currently envisioned would limit the size of goliaths that could be killed to a range of 4 to 6.5 feet (1.2 to 2 meters) and 70 to 200 pounds (32 to 90 kilograms) — that’s a young adult of 7 to 10 years. Older fish are high in the neurotoxin methylmercury, which is especially dangerous to children and pregnant women.

Outside that range they would be released, just like all goliaths caught now are supposed to be, though poaching is a problem. Goliaths have a lifespan of 35 years or more. Fishing would also remain banned during their spawning season of July to September and at their spawning spots.

Terry Spencer, The Associated Press

Vulture invasion besets residents of Florida neighborhood

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Residents of a Florida neighborhood say they are beset by an invasion of turkey vultures that are damaging homes and causing major messes.

Resident Judy Oliveri told WFLA-TV that her neighborhood in the Tampa suburb of Westchase is overrun with the large black birds, and they've been multiplying since they showed up three years ago.

“We could have 20 to 25 vultures on our roofs. They land on our screens, their under-feathers are all over the roof, their droppings are all over the place,” Oliveri said.

Other homeowners say it's possible the vultures were dislocated from their previous habitat by ongoing development in the area.

Residents say the U.S. Department of Agriculture has promised to remove the vultures, but no timetable has been set.

“They are destroying our neighborhood and our property values. I would like them gone,” Oliveri said.

Vultures are state and federally protected as a migratory bird. That means it is illegal to harm or kill them without a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Associated Press

Scientists offer look into life as Caribbean volcano erupted

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The three scientists credited with helping save lives ahead of a recent explosive volcano eruption in the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent are known to locals simply as Richie, Rod and TC.

 Provided by The Canadian Press

The team huddled indoors for weeks on little sleep to study and alert the government about activity at La Soufrière, whose eruptions last month displaced nearly 20% of the population and prompted the United Nations to seek $29 million to help the island recover from the devastation.

More than 16,000 people fled the ash-covered hills and homes in northern St. Vincent while the scientists stayed behind. They filed two reports a day and worked in shifts to keep a constant eye on the temperamental volcano as ash kept falling from the sky, blanketing the island’s lush green environment in monotone gray.

“You get kind of used to having ash in your food, in your hair, in your nose. You sleep in a fine layer of ash. It gets very uncomfortable,” said Richard Robertson, a geologist and volcanologist with the University of the West Indies’ Seismic Research Center who oversaw the team in St. Vincent.

The observatory, built about 6 miles from La Soufrière, was located close enough to the volcano to give scientists a full view of it but far enough so that they remained out of danger. It is divided in two: the air-conditioned office where all data including recordings from a seismometer were analyzed and compiled and a room also sealed off from ash that lacked air conditioning and served as the bedroom for all three.

Like many of those affected by the eruptions, the scientists ate a lot of dried and canned goods, although people would drop off donations including fresh fruit, homemade smoothies and even a lasagna from the wife of Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, while local residents came by with buckets of water when the team lacked running water for about a week.

“There were two days in which we were a bit smelly,” Robertson said with a laugh. “It was an intense period. We were focused on what we were doing, so we didn’t notice as much.”

A minor eruption in December allowed scientists to set up monitoring stations that helped them collect enough data to recommend evacuations less than a day before the April 9 explosive eruption that shot a plume of ash 32,000 feet (10 kilometers) into the sky as lightning crackled through it.

No deaths or injuries were reported as eruptions continued on St. Vincent and the Grenadines, an island chain of more than 100,000 people, thanks partly to the life-saving evacuation order based on data collected by Roderick Stewart, a volcanologist and seismologist who goes by “Rock Star” since he shares names with British singer Rod Stewart, although not his vocal ability.

He said recommending the government evacuate the area was an easy decision given the rapid changes in seismic activity.

“I’ve seen wrong warnings and hesitancy,” Stewart said. “In this situation, it was actually the other way around. ... We came to this sort of feeling that we would not be happy going into the night if there wasn’t an evacuation, and that things could change quickly.”

On the afternoon of April 8, the government ordered all those living close to the volcano to evacuate. Thousands of people grabbed whatever belongings they could fit into suitcases, backpacks or plastic bags and headed to government shelters or the homes of friends or family.

Some people, however, refused to leave their homes, worrying Robertson, Stewart and their colleague, Thomas Christopher. They knew people could die for insisting on staying or returning to their homes like they did in nearby Montserrat, where the Soufrière Hills volcano has erupted continuously since 1995, destroying the capital of Plymouth and killing at least 19 people in 1997.

Both Robertson and Stewart said they force themselves to not think about what impact their decisions might have on people.

“You try to focus on what the volcano is doing and less on what the implication is for people,” Robertson said. “If you don’t do that, you’re not going to be doing as good a job as you could.”

A native Vincentian, Robertson recalled the previous eruption of La Soufrière in 1979. He was around 18 years old and helped evacuate people, managed a shelter for two weeks and even provided entertainment to those displaced, playing tenor pan in a steel band at shelters. At the time, he was considering studying physical planning and geography, but the eruption led him to become a geologist and volcanologist.

The team he led during the most recent eruption has since disbanded and gone back to their home base, but not before the scientists praised the director of the seismic research center, Erouscilla Joseph, in a blog: “No man is an island, so it makes sense that our director, Dr. Joseph, is a woman adept at rallying the troops.”

The scientists are still in touch online as they continue to monitor La Soufriere.

“We are currently discussing, ‘Is the eruption finished?’” said Stewart, adding that while scientists expect it to go quiet in upcoming months, it’s not guaranteed. “Volcanoes in their nature are unpredictable.”

Dánica Coto, The Associated Press

Activists ask MacKenzie Scott to help fund their efforts to stop Amazon from building its Africa headquarters on sacred native land

tsonnemaker@insider.com (Tyler Sonnemaker)

  MacKenzie Scott and Jeff Bezos divorced in 2019. Jörg Carstensen/picture alliance via Getty Images

Activists in South Africa asked MacKenzie Scott to help them block Amazon from building on sacred lands.

Indigenous Khoi leaders say Amazon's planned Africa headquarters would have harmful environmental and cultural impacts.

The group also wrote to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, but said he hasn't responded.

Barely two years after Amazon faced backlash over its elaborate public search for a "second" headquarters, the company's plans to build its Africa headquarters in Cape Town, South Africa, are coming under fire.

This time, indigenous activists and other local community groups have criticized Amazon's plans to set up its new campus on land that is environmentally and culturally sacred to the first nation Khoi people.

One of those groups, the Observatory Civic Association, is turning to a high-profile source for help in their fight to block the Amazon-led development: MacKenzie Scott, who divorced Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in 2019.

"We appeal to you to intervene to bring Amazon to its senses," OCA chairperson Leslie London wrote in an open letter to Scott, adding: "If you wish to assist our struggle for justice in the courts, we will welcome your financial assistance."

London said the group, which has partnered with more than 60 Khoi and other NGOs and civic groups, also wrote to Bezos, but that he didn't respond.

Scott and Bezos could not be reached, and Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.

The backlash concerns a planned mixed-use development in Cape Town called The River Club, which would span roughly 37 acres, with Amazon set to be the main tenant, according to South African news site IOL. While Cape Town city officials approved an initial concept for the project, it has faced fierce criticism from many native Khoi groups, according to the OCA's letter and various media reports.

London wrote in her letter the proposed development disregards the history of the land, where the Khoi fought against colonial expeditions and land grabs by the Portuguese and Dutch.

"We think [Scott] can influence Bezos and Amazon to avoid making the biggest business mistake of their lives. Amazon will forever and irrevocably be associated with modern-day colonial dispossession," London told IOL.

Other tech billionaires, such as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, have faced criticism for attempts to acquire land originally occupied by indigenous people, with critics calling such moves examples of "neocolonialism."

But the OCA said Amazon's proposed headquarters also poses serious environmental concerns and would violate Cape Town's established climate resilience policies, since it would involve pouring 150,000 square metres of concrete into a flood plain. (Concrete infilling can exacerbate the flood damage caused by heavy storms, for example, like what happened in Houston, Texas, during Hurricane Harvey).

The proposal as it currently stands, London wrote, "must surely be of deep concern to anyone who believes in a world where environmental protection, justice and heritage, particularly for First Nation groups, should be adequately considered in development decisions."

Natural gas straddle plant designed to reduce oilsands emissions with cleaner fuel

Wolf Midstream is a private Calgary company created in 2016 and backed by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

CALGARY — In the latest project designed to green the oilsands industry, Wolf Midstream says it will build a facility to strip petroleum liquids from natural gas used in operations near Fort McMurray, Alta., leaving a purer fuel that will burn with fewer carbon emissions.

 Provided by The Canadian Press

The company says its NGL North project is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from oilsands projects in the Christina Lake area by over 200,000 tonnes per year by removing liquids such as ethane, propane, butane and condensate from natural gas, leaving primarily methane.

The liquids would then be shipped on an unused third line in Wolf's three-pipe Access Pipeline to the Edmonton area to be separated and sold to petrochemical industry buyers, with the capacity to produce up to 70,000 barrels per day.

According to the Canada Energy Regulator, about 30 per cent of the natural gas produced in Canada in 2018 was consumed in oilsands production to generate steam needed for thermal bitumen production from wells and in separating sand from oil and upgrading bitumen at oilsands mines.

Bob Lock, president of Wolf's pipelines unit, says the project has become more financially attractive over the past 10 years as the amount of natural gas consumed in the oilsands rose by about a quarter to about 2.5 billion cubic feet per day.

The company declined to provide a cost for the project which is expected to be in service in 2023.

"The NGL North system will recover higher carbon product otherwise used for combustion with higher associated emissions and separate the recovered NGL into essential building blocks for products that enable modern living," Wolf CEO Gordon Salahor said.

"Once operational, NGL North will contribute to reducing CO2 emissions for the oilsands industry, which is consistent with Wolf's investment strategy to develop assets that are positioned for energy transition."

Wolf Midstream is a private Calgary company created in 2016 and backed by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. It operates the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line, which captures CO2 from industrial sites in central Alberta and uses them to enhance oil recovery.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2021.

The Canadian Press

Dissatisfied retail workers are leaving the industry because of abusive customers and low pay, and that's making the labor crunch worse

mmeisenzahl@businessinsider.com (Mary Meisenzahl) 

© Provided by Business Insider Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters

Retail workers are leaving the industry as job openings give them greater leverage

.
Some workers say demanding customers aren't worth the low pay of the service industry.

Some former retail employees are turning to warehouse and other kinds of jobs.

Some workers are leaving retail and restaurant jobs to get away from low pay and difficult customers, and a growing number of openings in the labor market is making it easier to transition to new careers.

Restaurants and stores are looking to staff up and return to normal as COVID-19 restrictions lift and the country slowly reopens. Hiring has been difficult for many companies, which have reported a lack of candidates for open positions. But retail and restuarants are are also struggling to retain workers who want to leave for new opportunities. That's making the sector's labor crunch even worse.

Nearly a dozen Starbucks workers across the US told Insider about issues keeping locations staffed amid a shortage of applicants and as many current employees look for other jobs.

For those who are left, benefits keep them tied to the job as they look for something better. A shift supervisor at an Atlanta Starbucks told Insider that after two years in the position she felt "tied to the job with golden handcuffs," because she relied on the company-provided insurance. "I hate it here, but I'm stuck because I need doctors," she said.

The labor shortage in many sectors of the economy is a boon to some dissatisfied retail workers who are suddenly able to shop around for new jobs. Now, the Starbucks manager says she is about to start a job in healthcare sales making double her current wage. She will also get better benefits.

"It took me a literal day to find a better job," she said.

The final straw for leaving the job, she said, was realizing how her pay compared to the increasingly pricey drinks Starbucks sells. "The thing that really radicalized me was that our starting wage ($9) is less than one average customer's ticket," she told Insider.

"Our 200,000 partners across the U.S. are the best people in the business, and their experiences are key to helping us make Starbucks a meaningful and inspiring place to work" a Starbucks spokesperson told Insider. The chain confirmed that 30% of US partner make $15 or more per hour, with plans to extend that to all US partners in three years.

Another Starbucks employee said after a dangerous and difficult year because of the pandemic, fatigue and treatment are top concerns. "Employees have been fired or people are quitting because we're so overworked and stressed and abused," an employee at a Midwest Starbucks told Insider.

A Louisiana barista echoed the same complaints. The "handful [of customers] that you get each day who will berate or abuse you can take a drastic toll on your mental well being," he told Insider.

Some workers who were furloughed or laid off early in the pandemic may never return to fast food and customer service work. In April, food services and drinking places added 187,000 jobs, and the industry is still 13.5% below its pre-pandemic employment level from February 2020.

The past year has exposed the massive demands put on retail workers, often for relatively low pay and few benefits, even as they were called heroes and essential workers. Tasked with enforcing mask mandates and interacting with customers during the height of a pandemic, abuse, harassment, and assault was not uncommon. A Service Employees International Union survey of 4,187 McDonald's workers in the summer of 2020 found that nearly half of respondents said that they had been physically or verbally assaulted.

Retail workers interacting with hundreds of customers per day were more likely to be exposed to the coronavirus and often lacked paid leave time. Researchers said that workers who faced the greatest risk of contracting the disease were those who spent "the most direct contact" with other people, like cashiers.

"You couldn't pay me $20 an hour to work in food for the conditions we had to endure there," said Chris Drown, a former Chipotle manager. New hires quickly quit over low pay that wasn't worth the stress, Kate Taylor reported for Insider.

In place of customer-facing retail jobs, some workers are turning to warehouse employment with companies like Amazon, even as those jobs make headlines for poor conditions. The e-commerce giant has hired about 2,800 people a day since July, mostly in warehouse roles.

"We are tired, we are worn out, and people are not nice to us," Erika, a Starbucks shift supervisor in Ohio, told Insider.

NDP's Singh calls for halt on Canadian arms sales to Israel as violence escalates in region

OTTAWA — NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is calling on the federal government to halt arms sales to Israel amid escalating violence in the region

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

At a news conference Wednesday, Singh said Canada must apply pressure to ratchet down the spiralling conflict in East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank and prevent more guns from deployment in clashes he says breach international law.

"By arming one side of the conflict it is undermining the peace process and it is supporting illegal occupation," he said during question period later that day.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded by asking all sides to protect civilians and end the violence, saying rocket attacks against Israel as well as violence at an iconic mosque are "unacceptable."

"Canada supports Israel’s right to assure its own security," he said. "Places of worship are for people to gather peacefully and should never be sites of violence."

On Tuesday, Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole put out a statement condemning rocket attacks by Hamas militants as "indiscriminately targeting civilians."

Government data shows Canada sent $13.7 million in military goods and technology to Israel in 2019, or 0.4 per cent of total arms exports, suggesting an embargo would have limited leverage.

Dozens have died after Palestinian militants launched rockets from Gaza and Israel unleashed new air strikes against them this week, an escalation triggered by soaring tensions in Jerusalem and days of clashes at the Al-Aqsa Mosque — a site sacred to Jews and Muslims in the holy city. AND CHRISTIANS

Singh's call adds weight to a resolution passed by delegates at the NDP policy convention last month that demanded Canada suspend arms dealing with Israel and freeze trade with Israeli settlements, drawing condemnation from Jewish advocacy groups.

Internal party tensions over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have nagged New Democrats over the past few months, but MP Matthew Green says NDP members stand united.

"I think it's been pretty unanimous," he said Wednesday in an interview.

"The tension comes from external conflation between what is happening by the (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu government ... and anti-Semitism."

Green said dealing arms to countries that abuse human rights is a violation of international law.

"And what we've seen in Sheikh Jarrah, the flash bombs in the Al-Aqsa Mosque — I can't fathom a scenario where a group of people would throw flash bombs into the Vatican."

He also highlighted concerns around the continued expansion of settlements and evictions — an issue raised by Trudeau on Wednesday as well.

Ahead of the NDP convention, more than 40 NDP riding associations endorsed a particularly contentious resolution that opposed a working definition of anti-Semitism set out by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), arguing it is used to chill criticism of Israeli policy.

In response to the would-be resolutions, party members from 17 ridings — including some of those whose electoral district associations are against the IHRA definition — signed a letter sent to NDP riding presidents and obtained by The Canadian Press.

"The NDP policy convention, where at least 99 per cent of attendees will not be Jewish, is neither the time nor the place to debate a resolution that condemns the definition of this pervasive hatred for the Jewish people," the March 26 letter stated.

The resolution never made it to the virtual floor for a vote.

Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 65 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Monday, including 16 children, in the most severe outbreak of violence between Israel and the Gaza Strip since a 2014 war.

This round of violence, like previous ones, was fuelled by conflicting claims over Jerusalem, home to major holy sites of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. The rival national and religious narratives of Israelis and Palestinians are rooted in the city, making it the emotional core of their long conflict.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2021.

— With a file from The Associated Press

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

ISRAEL WAR ON GAZA 2.0

Hell has been unleashed in Gaza

Analysis by Ben Wedeman, CNN 

Yet again, hell has been unleashed in the Gaza Strip, a small, crowded piece of land on the Mediterranean.

© Ahmed Zakot /SOPA Images/Sipa USA/AP Smoke rises from a tower building destroyed by Israeli air strikes in Gaza City.

Overnight Tuesday, Israel launched multiple airstrikes hitting, among other things, the Hanadi Tower, a 13-floor tower on the seafront, which is home to 40 apartments.


The Israeli military claims the tower also contained offices affiliated with the ruling Hamas movement.

The strike, just after sunset Tuesday, brought down the entire building. It was preceded by what Israel calls a "knock on the roof," whereby drones fired small bombs at the tower as a warning of an impending attack. It was the first of three high-rise buildings in Gaza to be targeted by Israeli airstrikes in the last 24 hours.

Abdel Aziz Abu Shari'a lives in a building across the street, which has been left inhabitable by the nearby rocket attack. When they heard an attack was coming, he says he ran downstairs with his wife, his daughter and their cat.

"We waited in the street for four hours, and then in the evening went back and found everything destroyed," he told CNN. "There's nothing left."

Since Monday evening, Israel's aerial operation has left more than 60 Gazans dead, militants among them, but more civilians, according to figures from the Gaza-based Palestinian health ministry. More than a dozen of were children. Additionally, more than 365 others have been injured in the fighting, the ministry said.

The Israeli military said at least 15 of the deaths were Hamas militants.

"We heard an explosion, two rockets, one after another," resident Rifa'at ar-Rifi told CNN. "I didn't know where to hide."

When he reached his home in Gaza City, horror awaited him. "I found my 18-year-old grand-daughter dead, my son injured in the head, and his daughter with a broken leg."

The Palestinian health ministry spokesman in Gaza, Ashraf al-Qidra, said Wednesday that residents in Gaza were in a "state of panic" and accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilian homes and crowded residential neighborhoods. Forty-three percent of the victims in Gaza were women and children, Al-Qidra also said.

The Israeli military has said it does everything it can to minimize civilian casualties when it is carrying out attacks

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© Mohammed Talatene/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images People inspect the site of the collapsed Al-Shorouk Tower building after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike, amid the escalating flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Hamas retaliated for the strike on the Hanadi Tower, firing more than a hundred rockets toward Tel Aviv. One struck a bus in the town of Holon, south of the city. The barrage prompted authorities to briefly shut nearby Ben Gurion International Airport.

Militants in Gaza have fired more than 1,000 rockets into Israel since the latest flareup began Monday afternoon, killing at least seven Israelis and injuring more than 200 others, the Israeli military said Wednesday.

Gaza covers around 140 square miles, roughly the size of Detroit -- but with almost two million people, it has nearly three times the population of the US city. Eighty percent of the population traces their roots back to what is today Israel. And as a result of the airstrikes, some have been made homeless yet again.

The territory is governed by Hamas, a fundamentalist Islamic group, considered a terror organization by the US, Britain, the European Union and others.

Cut off from the rest of the world by an Israeli blockade of Gaza's land, air and sea dating back to 2007, many of Gaza's inhabitants are dependent on foreign aid to survive. Israel has placed heavy restrictions on the freedom of civilian movement and controls the importation of basic goods into the narrow coastal strip. The result is that the economy here is in dire shape: Unemployment is high. The water non-potable. Life is hard. Hope in short supply.

The United Nations has repeatedly criticized the blockade of Gaza over the years. On Wednesday, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland called on leaders of both sides to curb the violence, adding that the "cost of war in Gaza is devastating and is being paid by ordinary people."

This is by far the most serious outbreak of fighting between Israel and Gaza since 2014, when the fighting killed more than 2,200 Gazans, approximately half of them civilians, according to a 2015 UN report.

Both Israel and the militant factions in Gaza show little inclination to de-escalate. Israel has mobilized reserves and is sending heavy armor to the Gaza area. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have put out videos showing their rocket teams at work.

Each is determined to gouge out an eye for an eye.

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© Haitham IMad/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Rockets fired from Gaza fly towards Israel, as seen from Gaza City, on Wednesday.

Israeli strike brings down most of Gaza high-rise building

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes toppled most of a massive high-rise building in central Gaza City on Wednesday, in the latest escalation in Israel-Hamas fighting.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The collapse was broadcast on Israeli TV channels, with commentators predicting Gaza militants would respond with a rocket barrage.


Hamas militants fired scores of rockets at the Tel Aviv metro area on Tuesday, after airstrikes toppled another Gaza high-rise.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.


GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Rockets streamed out of Gaza and Israel pounded the territory with airstrikes Wednesday as the most severe outbreak of violence since a 2014 war took on many hallmarks of that devastating 50-day conflict, with dozens killed and no resolution in sight.

Palls of gray smoke rose in Gaza, as Israeli airstrikes levelled two apartment towers and hammered the militant group’s multiple security installations, destroying the central police compound.

In Israel, barrages of hundreds of rockets fired by Gaza’s Hamas rulers and other militants at times overwhelmed missile defenses and brought air raid sirens and explosions echoing across Tel Aviv, Israel’s biggest metropolitan area, and other cities.

The death toll in Gaza rose to 48 Palestinians, including 14 children and three women, according to the Health Ministry. More than 300 people have been wounded, including 86 children and 39 women. Six Israelis, including a soldier, three women and a child, were killed, and dozens of people were wounded.

While the rapidly escalating conflict has brought images familiar from 2014 Israel-Hamas war, the past day has also seen a startling new factor: A burst of fury from Israel’s Palestinian citizens in support of those living in the territories and against Israel’s recent response to unrest in Jerusalem and its current operations in Gaza.

Amid those protests, communal violence erupted in several mixed Jewish-Arab Israeli cities, including the burning of a Jewish-owned restaurant and a synagogue, the fatal shooting of an Arab man and attacks on Arab-owned cars. In a rare move that highlighted the tensions, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Wednesday ordered units of border guards deployed to help police keep order.

There was no sign that either side is willing to back down. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to expand the offensive, saying “this will take time.” Hamas has called for a full-scale intifada, or uprising. The last such uprising began in 2000 and lasted more than five years.

The latest eruption of violence began a month ago in Jerusalem, where heavy-handed police tactics during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers ignited protests and clashes with police. A focal point was the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a site sacred to Jews and Muslims.

Late Monday, Hamas, claiming to be “defending Jerusalem,” launched a barrage of rockets at the city in a major escalation.

The Israeli military said militants have fired more 1,050 rockets since the conflict began, with 200 of them falling short and landing inside Gaza. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said two infantry brigades were sent to the area, indicating preparations for a possible ground invasion.

The army also confirmed that a soldier — Staff Sgt. Omer Tabib, 21 — was killed in an anti-tank missile attack near the Gaza Strip, the first Israeli military death in the fighting.

Israel has struck hundreds of targets in the Gaza Strip, where 2 million Palestinians have lived under a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade since Hamas took power in 2007.

The fiercest attack was a set of airstrikes that brought down an entire 12-story building. The building housed important Hamas offices, as well as some businesses. Israel fired a series of warning shots before demolishing the building, allowing people to flee and there were no casualties.

Israeli aircraft heavily damaged another Gaza City building early Wednesday. Israel said the nine-story building housed Hamas intelligence offices and the group’s command responsible for planning attacks in the occupied West Bank; it also had residential apartments, medical companies and a dental clinic. A drone fired five warning rockets before the bombing.

Fighter jets struck the building again after journalists and rescuers had gathered around. There was no immediate word on casualties. The high-rise stood 200 meters (650 feet) away from the AP bureau in Gaza City, and smoke and debris reached the office.

In another strike, Hamas' Gaza City commander was killed Wednesday, the group confirmed, making him the highest-ranking military figure in the group to be killed by Israel since the 2014 war. Israel’s internal security agency said that a series of airstrikes had killed Bassem Issa and several other senior militants.

At one point Wednesday, Hamas fired 100 rockets at the Israeli desert town of Beersheba in what it said was retaliation for some of the strikes.

Samah Haboub, a mother of four in Gaza, said she was thrown across her bedroom in a “moment of horror” by an airstrike on an apartment tower next door. She and her children, aged 3 to 14, ran down the stairway of their apartment block along with other residents, many of them screaming and crying.

“There is almost no safe place in Gaza,” she said.

One strike hit a taxi in Gaza City, killing a man, woman and driver insider, and a second strike killed two men nearby on the street, witnesses who brought the bodies told the AP at the hospital. Several other bystanders, including a woman, were wounded.

In the Israeli city of Lod, a 52-year-old man and his 16-year-old daughter, reportedly Arab citizens of Israel, were killed early Wednesday when a rocket from Gaza hit the courtyard of their home.

The Jerusalem turmoil and the ensuing battle come at a time when the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process is virtually non-existent.

It has been seven years since the two sides held formal negotiations. Israel’s political scene pays little attention, and the peace process was hardly an issue in the country’s string of recent elections. Arab nations, including several that recently reached normalization deals with Israel, rarely push for any resolution.

The result has left the nearly 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem living in a limbo — caught among Israeli occupation, accelerated Israeli settlement building in the West Bank, a weak Palestinian Authority that recently canceled elections, and Hamas rule and the blockade that are impoverishing Gaza.

With the protests in Arab communities, the unrest in Jerusalem has also spread across Israel.

“An intifada erupted in Lod, you have to bring in the army,” the central Israeli city’s mayor, Yair Revivo, said. Lod saw heavy clashes after thousands of mourners joined a funeral for an Arab man killed the previous night, the suspect a Jewish gunman.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since the Islamic militant group seized power in Gaza from rival Palestinian forces. The conflicts ended after regional and international powers convinced both sides to accept an informal truce.

Once again, diplomats are seeking to intervene, with Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations working to deliver a cease-fire.

The U.N. Security Council also planned to hold its second closed emergency meeting in three days Wednesday on the escalating violence.

Israel faced heavy criticism over the bombing of residential buildings in Gaza during the 2014 war, one of several tactics that are now the subject of an investigation by the International Criminal Court into possible war crimes. Israel is not a member of the court and has rejected the probe.

In a brief statement, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she had noted “with great concern” the escalation of violence and “the possible commission of crimes under the Rome Statute” that established the court.

Conricus, the military spokesman, said Israeli forces have strict rules of engagement, follow international laws on armed conflict and are trying to minimize civilian casualties.

But Israel has said it has no choice because Hamas fires rockets from residential areas. Hamas has also come under international criticism over its indiscriminate rocket fire at Israeli population centers.

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Krauss reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem and Karin Laub in the West Bank contributed.

Fares Akram And Joseph Krauss, The Associated Press

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