RHETORICAL QUESTION

The House: Is it past time Canada had an Indigenous governor general?

Chris Hall - CBC- JUNE 5,2021

© Nick Perry/Associated Press

Cindy Kiro, left, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, right, walk together through the Parliament Building Monday, May 24, 2021, in Wellington, New Zealand. Kiro was named as New Zealand's next governor-general — the first Indigenous Maori woman appointed to the role.

The federal cabinet minister leading the search for a new governor general says background checks on the short list of candidates are nearly finished.

But Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc isn't saying how many names will be sent to the prime minister, or whether the search committee has been instructed to include a nominee with an Indigenous background.

"I think it's fair to say that in the terms of reference that we made public around the advisory group ... the prime minister asked the group to consider the diversity of the country and to look at potential candidates who represent that diversity," LeBlanc said in an interview airing Saturday on CBC's The House.

The minister made a point of saying that Natan Obed, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, is a member of the advisory panel.


© CBC Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Natan Obed.

"And I think it's fair to say that we were not insensitive to the importance of considering Indigenous candidacies as well," he said.

The largely ceremonial vice-regal position has been vacant now for more than four months. Former astronaut Julie Payette resigned the post in January after an independent report said she had presided over a toxic workplace at Rideau Hall.

The third-party review was triggered by a CBC News story quoting a dozen confidential sources who claimed Payette and her former chief of staff, Assunta Di Lorenzo, mistreated staff.

Anxious to avoid another appointment that ends badly, the government made background checks into potential candidates more extensive than usual this time.

Video: Indigenous Services officials comment on AG report reviewing response to COVID-19 (cbc.ca)

LeBlanc acknowledged in the interview that he got ahead of himself back in January when he told CBC the search for Payette's successor would only take a matter of weeks.

"The good news — and we've considered dozens and dozens of potential names — the good news is our work is largely finished, we're concluding what I hope would be the final week or so of the normal background security checks, vetting that will take place by senior officials of the government," he said.

"So we're very confident that when we do give the prime minister the short list that he asked us to prepare, all of those important and necessary checks and vetting processes will be done."

When asked how many names are on the short list, LeBlanc refused to be pinned down and joked that the number is somewhere between one and ten.

Canada has never had an Indigenous governor general. Some observers have suggested in the past that such an appointment would be an important symbolic gesture.

Others, including First Nations author Robert Jago, argued back when Payette was appointed in 2017 that an Indigenous appointment would be little more than window-dressing at a time when so many Indigenous issues remain unresolved.

Last month, New Zealand appointed the first Indigenous woman to serve as governor general. Dame Cindy Kiro, a well-known children's advocate, is the third Māori to hold the post. The first, Sir Paul Reeves, was appointed in 1985.

The federal government is under enormous pressure right now to show some progress on Crown-Indigenous reconciliation — in the wake of this week's reports on undocumented deaths at the Kamloops Indian Residential School and fresh calls for Ottawa to move faster on implementing the recommendations of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.


© Brian Morris/CBCA memorial for children who died at a Kamloops residential school on Parliament Hill.

"It's long past time for a indigenous governor-general," said the inquiry's chief commissioner Marion Buller, who added she believes the public would support such an appointment.

"I think it would make a difference because that person would have the opportunity to cast a light on Indigenous issues in Canada and serve as a bridge-builder to a new relationship."

Trudeau has promised to rebuild the relationship with Indigenous communities since taking office, and to take steps toward meaningful reconciliation.

LeBlanc told The House the events of the past week are among many troubling and difficult moments on that journey.

"So obviously there is a heightened awareness," he said. "The time is long overdue for governments, plural, to look at the diversity of the country, including obviously the contribution of exceptional Canadians from Indigenous communities that can serve across the board in positions of leadership in the public and private sector."

N.L. premier vows change: coat of arms description calls Indigenous people 'savages'

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — The Newfoundland and Labrador government has decided to change the official description of the province's 400-year-old coat of arms, which includes a reference to Indigenous people as "savages."

Premier Andrew Furey said a formal notice was submitted to the legislature on Thursday following a discussion earlier in the week with Indigenous leaders.

The Liberal premier said his weekly discussion with Indigenous leaders initially focused on the terrible news from Kamloops, B.C., where last week an Indigenous band reported finding what are believed to be the remains of 215 children at a former residential school.

"The Indigenous leaders are going to reflect on what it means in their communities, and where we want to go in terms of investigating residential schools," Furey said Thursday, referring to the fact that the province once supported five church-run residential schools — four in Labrador and one at the northern tip of the island.

Furey said the discussion then turned to the province's coat of arms.

"The description of the coat of arms in our legislation still refers to savages," Furey said. "We don't think that is at all appropriate. We gave notice today in the house to change that."

The premier said the next step is public consultations. "We'll see where the conversations go," he said.

In June 2018, the governing Liberals said they would drop the archaic description and redesign the coat of arms after Indigenous leaders and the party's own Indigenous Peoples Commission called for changes.

The coat of arms features two Indigenous figures in traditional garb, standing on either side of a red shield. In the official description, the Beothuk warriors are described as "savages."

Qalipu First Nation Chief Brendan Mitchell said everyone who attended the virtual meeting on Wednesday agreed that the insulting term had to be dropped.

"They're all in favour of changing the description," the Mi'kmaq leader said in an interview Friday from Corner Brook. "For me, taking the name 'savage' out of there has to done. That's an unfair statement to make .... We didn't get into a lengthy discussion on the actual text."

The meeting included representatives from other Mi'kmaq communities, the Innu Nation and Labrador's Inuit.

When the issue first surfaced in 2018, Labrador politician Randy Edmunds said the Beothuk must be represented on the coat of arms to honour an Indigenous group that was wiped out after European settlers encroached on their land, resulting in deadly conflicts and the introduction of new diseases.

Shawnadithit, the last known surviving Beothuk, died of tuberculosis in St. John's in June 1829.

Edmunds, an Inuk who was defeated in the 2019 provincial election, said other Indigenous groups should also be recognized.

The original coat of arms was granted by royal warrant from King Charles I of England in 1637. At the time, the island of Newfoundland was known as Terra Nova, and it wasn't yet joined with Labrador. The heraldic symbol was actually given to a business syndicate known as the Company of Adventurers to Newfoundland, which seemed to have little knowledge of the area.

Aside from the coarse description of the Beothuk, the coat of arms includes a depiction of a prancing elk, hovering between the two warriors. The animals are not native to Newfoundland and Labrador.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 4, 2021.

— By Michael MacDonald in Halifax.

The Canadian Press

SACRED BURIAL GROUND

Old indigenous bones dug up beside Harry and Meghan's California home


© Provided by National Pos

tBritain's Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, speak with Oprah Winfrey in an interview that was broadcast in North America on March 7, 2021.

What are being described as “very old” human remains of a young adult — dating back more than 10,000 years — were found just metres away from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s US$15-million, 18,000-square-foot mansion in Montecito, Calif.

Santa Barbara sheriff’s officials said the discovery was made at a metre’s depth while landscapers were doing construction last week on a road next to the couple’s estate.

Early findings by a forensic anthropologist indicate the bones could be those of the Chumash people, who lived in the area for nearly 11,000 years.

In 1901, a 127-acre reserve was established for the Chumash, which now houses 5,000 people.

Authorities are believed to be talking with the local Native American commission about the find.

The exclusive neighbourhood 145 kilometres north of Los Angeles is home to many celebrities, including including Oprah and Ellen DeGeneres.

UNANIMOUS
Supreme Court of Canada sides with mother seeking unpaid child support

© Provided by The Canadian Press Supreme Court of Canada 

OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada stressed the importance of full financial disclosure by those responsible for paying child support in dismissing the appeal of a man who fell seriously behind in his obligations.

In its unanimous ruling Friday, the high court said Felice Colucci is on the hook for $170,000 in support payments despite his contention the amount should be much lower.

Colucci and wife Lina divorced in 1996 after 13 years of marriage, and the mother assumed custody of two daughters, who were eight and six at the time.

The father was required to pay $115 a week per child in support but two years later he requested a reduction on the basis his income had dropped. However, he provided no financial disclosure to document the circumstances and the parties did not come to a new agreement.

The father's support obligations ended in 2012 when the daughters completed their post-secondary education and found employment.

But from 1998 onward he made few if any voluntary support payments and only limited monies were collected through enforcement. Further, the father's whereabouts were unknown as the amount owing grew.

By 2016, the man's child-support arrears with interest totalled about $170,000.

At this point, he applied to retroactively reduce child support, saying he had moved to the United States from 2000 to 2005, earning about US$25,000 annually, before heading to Italy to care for his mother.

However, he provided little financial documentation to support his case.

Even so, a judge reduced the arrears owing to $41,642 in keeping with the father's lower income as well as new federal child-support guidelines introduced shortly after the divorce.

The Ontario Court of Appeal overturned the decision and ordered the father to pay the full amount owing, prompting his appeal to the Supreme Court.

In its decision, the top court said the child-support system depends upon adequate, accurate and timely financial disclosure by those obliged to make payments.

"Simply stated, disclosure is the linchpin on which fair child support depends and the relevant legal tests must encourage the timely provision of necessary information," Justice Sheilah Martin wrote on behalf of the court.

It is the payer who knows and controls the information needed to calculate the appropriate amount of support, she wrote. It would therefore be "illogical, unfair and contrary to the child’s best interests" to make the recipient solely responsible for policing the payer’s ongoing compliance with their support obligation.

"Full and frank disclosure is also a precondition to good faith negotiation," Martin wrote. "Without it, the parties cannot stand on the equal footing required to make informed decisions and resolve child support disputes outside of court."

Citing these principles, Martin set out a framework for determining a payer's application for a retroactive decrease in support based on a significant change in circumstances.

With regard to the Colucci case, she concluded the revised federal guidelines did amount to a noteworthy change, but the father's lack of communication and insufficient disclosure doomed his application.

The father "showed no willingness to support the children, who suffered hardship as a result of his failure to fulfil his obligations," Martin wrote.

She found Lina Colucci was left to shoulder the financial burden of raising and supporting the children on her own, and the daughters incurred considerable debt in pursuing their education due to the lack of support from their father.

"His conduct shows bad faith efforts to evade the enforcement of a court order."

The high court also found the father had not demonstrated he will be unable to pay now or in the future even with a flexible payment plan.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 4, 2021.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press

‘The world is watching us’: Pressure mounts for Canada to share surplus COVID-19 vaccines

Hickox and ONE Canada are among several calling for Canada and other rich countries with ample supply to vaccines to start thinking of a way to share doses with populations that don't have nearly enough access to them.

As Canada’s rate of administered COVID-19 vaccine doses continues to climb, several experts and advocates are pointing to a glaring gap of vaccine inequity worldwide — and are urging Canada to consider sharing its supply.

WELL THIS IS EMBARASSING
Duration 2:01 U.S. to allocate 75% of unused COVID-19 vaccine to developing nations, Canada

"Among rich countries, Canada has bought more vaccines than anyone else in the world — enough to vaccinate Canadians five times," ONE Canada director Stuart Hickox told Global News on Thursday.

"They've [the federal government] done a good job of securing doses ... but the problem is now that we have a surplus, there will be millions and millions of surplus doses in this country."

Read more: U.S. unveils COVID-19 vaccine sharing plan, Canada is a priority

Hickox and ONE Canada are among several calling for Canada and other rich countries with ample supply to vaccines to start thinking of a way to share doses with populations that don't have nearly enough access to them.

Canada has already ordered more than 400 million vaccines according to Public Services and Procurement, of which over 28.1 million have since been delivered, and nearly 25 million administered.

Though nearly three out of five Canadians have received their first dose and just over 6.3 per cent are now fully vaccinated, several analysts are pointing to an inevitable slump in demand once certain vaccine targets are reached.

Video: U.S. to share 25 million surplus COVID-19 vaccine doses with the world

"Vaccine uptake will inevitably wane within the next couple months," said Dionne M. Aleman, an associate professor of industrial engineering at the University of Toronto in an email Thursday.

While there have been no plans yet from the federal government as to whether Canada will be sharing their vaccines, Aleman said that her guess at when Canada could start sharing its surplus would be by the fall.

Aleman said that Canadians who wanted their two shots will "in all likelihood" have received them by late September, and that the country would probably have enough supply to support any remaining second doses.

The calls for vaccine sharing come on the heels of an announcement from the U.S. on Thursday which designated several countries — including Canada — to be among a priority for sharing their surplus of vaccines.

Read more: Canada and U.S. are running different COVID-19 reopening races — what are the risks?

The U.S. also designated 75 per cent of its surplus vaccines to go towards the WHO and GAVI-run COVAX vaccine program.

Canada has since faced blistering criticism over being the only G7 country to have accessed vaccine doses through COVAX, which many have pointed to as being a vaccine reserve for poorer countries.

Hickox said that while Canada was still entitled to receiving the vaccines from the program, the time has now come for Canada and the international community to start giving doses back to COVAX after having bought up most of the supply around the world.

Video: WHO warns of failure in beating COVID-19 unless rich countries speed up vaccine sharing

Last week, the head of the World Health Organization pinned the enduring prevalence of COVID-19 in hotspots around the world as being perpetuated by a "scandalous inequity" in vaccine distribution.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said then that over 75 per cent of all vaccines had been administered in just 10 countries, pointing to a small group of nations that make and buy the majority of the world's supply.

"The point is, it's not about deciding who gets them first, it's the most vulnerable in every country and every community that needs these doses — the front-line workers, the health workers," said Hickox.

"So it's just not equal right now. We need to level the playing field by deciding how we can share these doses back."

Video: UNICEF Canada joins fight to combat COVID-19 vaccine inequality

Both Hickox and Aleman also pointed to how equitable vaccine access could benefit Canada from a public health perspective.

Focusing on aiding countries with a lot of travellers to Canada could better stem the country's COVID-19 case counts said Aleman, who pointed to loosening travel restrictions.

Hickox, on the other hand, warned of the possibility of new variants having been created in other, under-vaccinated countries and potentially triggering another surge in cases.

UCLA epidemiologist and professor Dr. Anne Rimoin shared the same concerns as well, pointing to the virus' opportunity for "mutation" every time it finds a new host.

Duration 2:30 Canada criticized for taking coronavirus vaccine doses from COVAX

"If we want to be able to preserve the effectiveness of the vaccines that we have currently now, we want to reduce the amount of time that this virus is circulating globally," Rimoin said.

"We need to focus on getting vaccines out to every country that needs it — not just the wealthy countries."

Hickox said that while it was a great signal that the Biden administration announced their plans to share surplus vaccines, he doubled down on the need for Canada to do the same very soon.

"Frankly, the international community is waiting for that kind of signal from Canada," he said, noting how the country has secured more doses per person than any other in the world.

"The world is watching us, you know. Our reputation is at stake."

— With files from Jackson Proskow and Twinkle Ghosh

Study outlines 'natural climate solutions' to help Canada meet emissions target

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Study outlines 'natural climate solutions' to help Canada meet emissions targets

Canada could reach one-third of its greenhouse gas reduction targets by making better use of its vast forests, prairies and wetlands, says a report by more than three dozen scientists.

The researchers from universities, governments and environmental groups say a good portion of those emissions cuts could be made for under $50 a tonne, less than next year's carbon tax.

"Natural climate solutions are relatively cost-effective ways to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions," said Amanda Reed, who co-ordinated the research for Nature United, the Canadian affiliate of The Nature Conservancy.

Grassland soils, peat-rich wetlands and old-growth forests store large amounts of carbon, said Reed. But they could store even more if Canadians farmed, logged and developed differently.

The report says agriculture offers the biggest chance for carbon savings.

At current rates, about 2.5 million hectares of native grassland are expected to be converted to crops by 2030. Cultivation releases carbon from the soil into the air.

Preventing that would keep almost 13 million tonnes of carbon in the ground, the report says. About 13 per cent of those savings could be accomplished for less than $50 a tonne.

Halting the conversion of wetlands, which store vast amounts of carbon in peat and other plant material, could cut emissions by another 15 million tonnes — one-fifth of which could be done for less than $50.

Planting cover crops could sequester another 10 megatonnes without reducing cash crop cultivation, the report suggests.

Video: Questions continue to swirl around Alberta inquiry into funding of environmental groups (Global News)

Forestry would offer another eight megatonnes in annual savings through conservation of old-growth forests, improving regrowth and ensuring wood waste was turned into usable products such as biochar, a high-carbon wood residue that can be used to improve soil.

Those savings could be made while still producing 90 per cent of Canada's current forest cut, says the report, and almost half would come under the $50 threshold.

In all, the report lists 24 nature-based ways for Canada to cut carbon emissions by 78 million tonnes a year by 2030 — more than one-third of the federal government's goal of 219 million tonnes.

"Natural climate solutions are available now," said Reed. "We don't have to wait for new technology to come along."

She emphasized that nature can't do all the work. Other approaches to cutting greenhouse gases, from carbon taxes to clean fuel standards, will still be needed.

"We have a really big crisis. We need to do all of those things. We need to have a broad policy that decreases fossil fuel use."

But using nature to reduce emissions also has other benefits, she said. It can boost biodiversity, reduce flood risk and ensure clean water supplies.

"Natural climate solutions not only mitigate greenhouse gases, but they also advance all of these other things."

The most recent federal budget included $4 billion for nature-based climate measures. The Forest Products Association of Canada has pledged to cut its emissions by 30 million tonnes by 2030.

Reed said interest has grown since a 2017 global report concluded that such measures could help reach about one-third of the carbon cuts the world needs to meet its reduction targets. The current report is modelled on that research, she said.

Researchers from nine universities, the Canadian government and environmental groups including the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in the United States all contributed to the report.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 4, 2021.

— Follow @row1960 on Twitter.

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

Protests as Austria grapples with violence against women

VIENNA (AP) — The 35-year-old woman was working at a tobacco shop in Vienna when authorities say her ex-boyfriend doused her in gasoline and set her ablaze in March. In April, another woman of the same age was found shot to death in her home in the Austrian capital, also reportedly by her ex-partner.

They were the sixth and ninth women to be killed in Austria this year, and five more have followed in the weeks since. That has brought this year’s total so far to 14 slain women, making the Alpine nation one of the few European Union countries where the number of women killed is higher than the number of men.

The recent high-profile cases have led to widespread protests, demands for government intervention, and condemnations from Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and President Alexander van der Bellen.

“Too little is being done to protect women from violence,” van der Bellen said recently after meeting with representatives of women’s shelters and violence prevention organizations.

Experts say a variety of factors have caused the long-standing problem. Those include a view of women as subservient by some in Austria’s conservative Catholic — and more recently Muslim — populations. They also blame the normalization of sexist language by the far-right Freedom Party, which is now in opposition but has been part of two national coalition governments in Austria.

“We’ve seen that the language about and toward women has become more radical,” said Maria Roesslhumer, who heads Austria’s biggest network of women’s shelters and has been sounding the alarm for years. “And when this kind of verbal violence is possible in a country, then the path to physical violence isn’t far.”

The financial crisis of 2008 magnified the problem, as financial insecurity stoked domestic violence. Women's advocates say the coronavirus pandemic is having a similar effect, with many people out of work and stay-at-home orders leaving many victims trapped with their abusers.

Roesslhumer hopes leading politicians have finally gotten the message and will commit to more funding for organizations like hers as well as better enforcement of existing laws on domestic violence.

“We have good laws, but they’re not being enforced,” Roesslhumer said. “If you truly want to guarantee the safety of women, or to improve the safety of women, you need to invest in it.”

In the case of the 35-year-old woman killed at home in April in the capital's Brigittenau neighborhood, the main suspect had previously sent threatening, sexually explicit messages to a female politician from the Greens party in 2018. And in the weeks before the killing, he reportedly verbally threatened the victim and her family.

“He took out a pistol and said, ‘You know what this is,’” the victim’s father told Austrian television.

Austria’s homicide rate is low, at fewer than 1 per 100,000 people, but its proportion of women killed versus men is high. Last year, 31 of the country's 43 total murder victims — 72% — were women, according to Roesslhumer's Autonomous Austrian Women’s Shelters, a non-governmental organization that tracks the issue.

There are a handful of countries where the rate of femicides is slightly higher, including tiny Luxembourg, but Europe-wide about 75% of slayings are of men, according to the European Union's Eurostat statistical office.

In Austria, femicides almost doubled from 2014 to 2018, going from 23 cases to 44, according to Eurostat.

The victims in Austria came from all ages and backgrounds, but nearly all were killed by their current or former partners, the vast majority in their own homes.

These recent cases, and the rise in domestic violence since the start of the pandemic, “are no surprise to people working in this field,” Laura Wiesboeck, a Vienna-based sociologist who focuses on the issue, told The Associated Press.

“Many experts ... predicted that there would be a rise in male violence against women, especially in the context of intimate partner relationships,” she said. “But politically this hasn’t been heard or prioritized.”

Activists have organized a series of protests in Vienna in the wake of the recent murders and are exploring other ways to highlight the problem.

“This is a societal issue. It affects all of us,” Vienna-based writer and musician Gerhard Ruiss, who organized writers and artists to call for more decisive action from the government, told the AP.

After a virtual roundtable on the issue in May, the Austrian government pledged an additional 24.6 million euros ($30 million) for violence prevention — a significant increase over existing funding, but a small fraction of the 228 million euros requested by organizations in the field.

Kurz suggested, however, that more funding could be made available if needed for measures to protect women and children from violence.

“It will not fail because of money,” he said.

Roesslhumer and other advocates say an additional 3,000 jobs in violence prevention are necessary, and more training is needed for those who work in law enforcement, justice and education to ensure that violence-prevention laws are better enforced. They're also urging police to keep closer tabs on men under restraining orders.

Roesslhumer said the current discussion could be a turning point for more decisive action.

“We hope that it’s a lasting shift, not just a short flare-up that simply fades away,” Roesslhumer said. “I have the impression that there’s a change underway, and that many people understand we can’t go on like this.”

But, she cautioned, “it’s too early to tell.”

_____

Kirsten Grieshaber contributed to this report from Berlin.

Emily Schultheis, The Associated Press

Researcher describes how Amazon turns its employees into 'automated machinery'

Devika Desai - POSTMEDIA - JUNE 2,2021

© Provided by National Post

Employees are seen on duty at work stations part of mobile robotic fulfilment systems also known as 'Amazon robotics' during the inauguration of a new Amazon warehouse in Bretigny-sur-Orge, some 30kms south of Paris, on October 22, 2019.

In the long-running annual series Oh, The Humanities! National Post reporters survey academic scholarship at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, which has gone entirely virtual this year, hosted at the University of Alberta from May 27 to June 4.

For years, Amazon has come under a harsh spotlight for its treatment of its employees.

Workers at the retail giant’s fulfilment centre warehouses have become especially critical of their work conditions in the past couple of years. In protests in 2018 and 2019, they sent a rallying cry to top management: “We are not robots!”

Yet, that is precisely what Amazon wants them to be, Brendan Smith, a PhD student at the University of Toronto, posits in his research, to be presented this week at the Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences,

Titled, “Thanks Amazon for Ruining My Life’: Worker Breakdown and the Disruption of Care at Amazon,” Smith’s paper suggests that Amazon’s “technoscientific regime of labour management and control” purposefully supports disintegration of the individual to coerce them to function as “automated machinery.”

“Worker breakdown is not just a byproduct of the exploitative labour process,” reads a working draft of Smith’s research, “but is also an embodied experience of Amazon’s attempts and ambitions to transform workers into automatic subjects through the technologically mediated conditions of labour in Amazon warehouses.”

Smith, who has long been interested in the relationship between humans and machines, said it was the employees’ rallying cry that prompted his research.

“What is it from (the workers’) perspective in terms of how they come to understand how they’re being treated?” he said in an interview. “And in this case they see themselves as being treated as a kind of machinery.”

Drawing on YouTube confessionals posted by former and current Amazon warehouse workers, Smith explored workers’ narratives of what it was like to work in the warehouses, their perception of being monitored remotely via low-tech devices and their experiences of mediation if or when they resisted working at Amazon.

“It doesn’t take too much reading on Amazon, I guess to understand there’s been a problem with how workers are expected to meet a certain rate output,” he said, referring to how Amazon measures productivity.

He had already heard of, for example, the “bathroom breaks fiasco,” wherein if workers leave their station to visit the bathroom or get a drink of water, their productivity rate meter, which constantly measures their hourly output, immediately drops.

However “it was interesting to hear how significant the rate metering function was,” he said, as a form of remote surveillance over workers and their daily productivity.

“It’s not that managers even have to see you going to the warehouse bathroom, or going out for a smoke break or taking too long,” he said. “They can tell if you’ve been doing something else for any given period of time when you shouldn’t be.”

The lower a worker’s productivity, the higher the likelihood that he or she will get written up by managers. “Multiple write-ups can and most likely will lead to their termination,” Smith says in his paper.

It becomes a form of “temporal labour,” his research says, in which the workers’ are forced to pit their wellness against their performance, often compromising their bodies just to keep up with their target rate.

By forcing workers to account for their own well being, the meter takes on a disciplinary role, filtering out those who “learn to take on more injury and pain” from others, who ultimately quit.

“The metrics of the rate meter, and the subsequent write-up, both function as signifiers of debt, more specifically of the worker’s time-wastefulness and irresponsibility,” his research reads.

Then comes the scanner, a low-tech device carried by every Amazon warehouse employee.

But the device carries a double-edged sword, several people warn in their videos. “The scanner technology isn’t just a device of work, it’s a device of management,” Smith said.

Through the scanners, employees receive blaring notifications from management. The messages are often connected to their measured productivity. If the rate of productivity is low, then the worker risks being notified of their termination. If it’s high, then they might be shifted to a “more physically straining job … to maximize productivity,” Smith’s research notes.

“The Amazon scanner’s notification system brings workers closer to breakdown, either through imposing heavier workloads on them or through leaving them unemployed and discarded,” Smith says in his research. “It is a system that threatens each worker at every moment with commands, without the necessary presence of any managerial staff.”

Even the strongest and fittest of workers, despite being the most desired by Amazon, are not exempt. “Their work will likely be made more difficult over time as they are made to learn how to work through ever increasing levels of pain and injury,” Smith says in his paper.

By minimizing interactions between employees and managers, the scanner also keeps “workers as invisible as possible,” making it harder for them to say no to overtime and forcing them to operate as the employer needs.

“This cultural and behavioural software at Amazon is one of automaticity; it incorporates the body as something that can be automatically activated and deactivated at the will of the employer, and in accordance with the worker’s performance metrics,” the paper says.

As a result, workers come to identify themselves as “automatic subjects” who react to stimuli, such as their scanners, without much thought.

One ex-packer was quoted describing their colleagues behaving like “zombies.”

“And they’re young people and it’s like, damn, we gotta put ourselves through this?” the ex-packer said, according to Smith.

Those who experience depression as a result of their workdays come closer to being subsumed by the Amazon culture.

“It affords Amazon to transform its workers into automatic subjects by normalizing the conditions of their pain through an interiorization of one’s conception of their ‘wellness’,” Smith says in his research.

Others who attempt to resist, perhaps by suing the retailer for health or physical injuries, are subjected to “more explicitly coercive or even hostile techniques.”

A former employee described how her health insurance claims with Amazon led to her being monitored by private investigators with video cameras. Footage showed her holding her smartphone in her hand and was allegedly used to suggest that she faked her hand injuries.

“That’s one example of me trying to understand how workers’ surveillance and control isn’t just something on the warehouse floor,” Smith said.

Ironically, by attempting to squash worker individuality and emotion, the system’s weakest link is exposed — “it is the worker’s own thoughts and feelings,” Smith wrote in his paper.

And it is this weak link that could expand post-COVID, as Amazon, which repeatedly came under public fire after multiple outbreaks were reported at sites in the U.S. and Canada, becomes susceptible to more workers voicing their discontent with conditions.

“The more discontent we see on the warehouse floor, the more workers are going to want to reach out and collectivize in certain ways, or talk about their experiences with one another,” Smith said. “I think we’re going to see more and more of that.”

Energy regulator orders Trans Mountain to stop tree clearing work on project


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Energy regulator orders Trans Mountain to stop tree clearing work on project

KAMLOOPS, B.C. — An order stopping tree cutting and grass mowing across the entire Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project was issued Thursday by the Canada Energy Regulator, the agency that enforces safety and environmental guidelines for pipeline projects across Canada.

A statement released by the CER said it issued the order to immediately stop all clearing activity "to prevent harm to nesting birds in the pipeline project’s right of way and to ensure Trans Mountain is correcting any issues it has in relation to contractor oversight and management."

The release added that Trans Mountain must comply with the conditions of the Expansion Project certificate and its relevant obligations under the Canadian Energy Regulator Act and associated regulations.

A statement from Trans Mountain said the regulator's order was issued after a subcontractor started tree cutting and mowing activities without completing the necessary environmental compliance work.

It said no birds or bird nests were impacted by the clearing work.


Video: The troubled history of the Trans Mountain pipeline extension (Vancouver Sun)

It also said all other construction activity will continue across the project.

"Trans Mountain takes its regulatory and environmental obligations very seriously,'" says the statement. "We are working with the regulator to ensure and to demonstrate that we have the appropriate communication protocols in place for contractors at all levels."

The statement did not say how many workers are affected by the stop-work order or how long the shutdown will last for the pipeline project, which spans from just north of Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C.

Environment and Climate Change Canada issued a stop-work order in April to halt Trans Mountain construction through a Burnaby, B.C., forest to protect hummingbirds and other migratory birds during nesting season.

That order was expected to be in place until mid-August.

The $12.6-billion expansion project will triple the existing pipeline capacity to about 890,000 barrels per day of oil products, including diluted bitumen, lighter crude and refined fuel.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 3, 2021.

Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press

Canadian Finance Minister Freeland lauds G7 deal to tax multinationals, says corporations must pay ‘fair share’

By Hannah Jackson Global News
Posted June 5, 2021 

WATCH: G7 finance ministers reach historic corporate tax deal on tech giants.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on Saturday lauded a deal reached by the finance ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) nations to tax big multinational and back a minimum global corporate taxation rate.


In a tweet earlier on Saturday, Freeland said multinational corporations “need to pay their fair share of taxes,” adding that the G7 has now “outlined a path to make this possible.”

“This is good news for Canadians and Canadian businesses, and will ensure a fair and level playing field for them in the global economy,” she wrote.

Freeland, who also serves as Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister, has spent the last two days in London, England, meeting with her G7 counterparts.

On Saturday morning, the finance ministers of the wealthy G7 nations reached a deal to pursue higher global taxation on multinational businesses such as Facebook, Apple, Amazon and Google.

The countries agreed to back a minimum global corporate rate of at least 15 per cent and for companies to pay more tax in the markets where they sell goods and services.

READ MORE: Freeland attends two-day G7 finance ministers meeting in London

Freeland told a teleconference Saturday afternoon that the G7 has shown it is possible to end the race to the bottom on taxation.

“We’ve shown today that it is possible to end the global race to the bottom on taxation,” Freeland told reporters. “Multinational companies need to pay their fair share of taxes. Jurisdiction shopping allowed them to avoid doing that.”

However, Freeland said it is too early to say which Canadian companies might be impacted by the minimum global tax

Freeland maintained that Ottawa will still unilaterally impose its own digital services tax starting Jan. 1, 2022. Similar measures are already in place in Britain, France and Italy.

READ MORE: G7 countries reach deal to tax big multinationals during meeting in London

In an interview with Global News, Patrick Gill, senior director of tax and financial policy at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said establishing a global minimum tax is “not a new topic,” adding that it has “been discussed for many years at the international level.”

Gill said while the “devil will be in the details,” the deal “won’t necessarily harm Canada’s competitiveness from a corporate tax rate, which currently stands at a weighted average around 26 per cent.”

But, Gill said the “biggest winner in this” is “certainly” going to be the United States.

“The U.S. is now trying to collect and benefit from new revenues and profits of U.S.-based companies in order to pay for historic new levels of debt and infrastructure spending,” he said.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen tweeted after the announcement, saying the G7 ministers made a “significant, unprecedented commitment today” that she said “provides tremendous momentum towards achieving a robust global minimum tax at a rate of at least 15 per cent.”

She echoed Freeland’s remarks, saying the global minimum tax would “end the race-to-the-bottom in corporate taxation,” adding that it would “ensure fairness for the middle class and working people in the U.S. and around the world.”

3:35 Germany, France confident in G7 tax agreement aimed at digital giants

Germany, France confident in G7 tax agreement aimed at digital giants

Gill said after years of “onshoring and pulling an investment through aggressive tax measures,” the United States is now “trying to have its cake and eat it too, by locking in that investment and making sure it looks more competitive on a global landscape.”

He said the agreement to work towards a minimum 15 per cent global tax rate “will affect other jurisdictions that have a much lower or nonexistent rate and could potentially help Canada play off its other strategic benefits.”

“And so this could be helpful, but the devil will be in the details,” he said.

Gill said Canada has to be “careful as we’re adding a layer of complexity onto existing complexity.”

“Really in my mind, there’s no better time to strike sort of an overall comprehensive review of Canada’s tax regime where Canada’s tax competitiveness lies, vis-a-vis it’s other economic peers,” he said.

In a tweet Saturday, International Lawyer Lawrence L. Herman called the move a “huge deal, not just on the tax side by on trade (relations) as well.”

“It will take pressure off threatened (American) retaliation vs countries applying digital service taxes, including (Canada),” he wrote. “A boost for (international) cooperation.”

But not everyone is in favour of the deal.

In a letter on Friday, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole called on Trudeau to reject the deal.

1:38 G7 meeting a ‘good opportunity’ to engage with India: U.K.’s Raab – May 4, 2021

“I implore you to reject this new tax proposal during your G7 Leaders meeting and unequivocally state to G7 Leaders that Canadians, and Canadians alone, determine our nation’s domestic tax policy and rates,” the letter read.

-With files from Global News’ David Akin, Reuters and The Canadian Press