Friday, June 11, 2021

Hackers steal 780gb of data from major game publisher Electronic Art


Major video game publisher Electronic Arts said Thursday that hackers stole vital data including source code and other internal tools. Photo by Elliot Lash/Wikimedia Commons

June 10 (UPI) -- Hackers breached the systems of Electronic Arts, one of the world's largest video game publishers, and stole important data including source code and other internal tools, the company said Thursday.

The hack was first reported by Vice, which reviewed posts on underground hacking forums where hackers said they had 780gb of EA's data and were advertising it for sale.

"You have full capability of exploiting on all EA services," the hackers said.

In the forum posts, the hackers said they had taken the source code for EA's soccer game FIFA 21 and the code for its online matchmaking server, the source code and tools for the company's proprietary Frostbite engine, and proprietary frameworks and software development kits, Vice reported.

RELATEDU.S. seizes domains used in USAID hack

An EA representative said the company was aware of the hack and that player data was not affected.

"We are investigating a recent incident of intrusion into our network where a limited amount of game source code and related tools were stolen," the representative said. "No player data was accessed and we have no reason to believe there is any risk to player privacy. Following the incident, we've already made security improvements and do not expect an impact on our games or our business. We are actively working with law enforcement officials and other experts as part of this ongoing criminal investigation."

The representative also said it was not a ransomware attack, in which hackers encrypt a company's data and attempt to force them to pay a ransom to unlock it.

RELATEDPentagon expands program inviting hackers to report problems

The EA hack comes after a pair of high-profile ransomware attacks on meat producer JBS and the Colonial Pipeline which provides 45% of the East Coast's fuel supply in which they paid $11 million and $4.4 million in ransoms respectively.

'Laughing gas' shows promise against tough-to-treat depression

By
Alan Mozes, HealthDay News

When antidepressants fail to rein in hard-to-treat depression, the common anesthetic most know as "laughing gas" might be a safe and effective alternative, new research suggests.

The finding follows work with 28 patients struggling with "treatment-resistant major depression," a severe condition that investigators say affects about one-third of all patients -- an estimated 17 million American adults -- who develop major depressive disorder.

For such patients, antidepressants often fail to provide relief. But following three one-hour laughing gas inhalation sessions spread across three months, 85% of patients had significant depression relief that endured weeks post-treatment.

"Laughing gas is nitrous oxide, one of the oldest and most commonly used anesthetics," explained study author Peter Nagele, chair of anesthesia and critical care at the University of Chicago.

RELATEDMajor gene study pinpoints DNA linked to increased bipolar disorder risk

"And we found that laughing gas, at a much lower concentration than is used, for instance, during dental procedures, can help patients with difficult-to-treat depression," Nagele said.

Between 2016 and 2019, Nagele's team tried out two laughing gas formulations: one at a level of 50% nitrous oxide and one at a level of 25%.

Previous investigations had already demonstrated an antidepressant benefit at the higher level. But those efforts only assessed a post-treatment benefit of 24 hours.

RELATEDMore kids, teens, young adults visited ERs for mental health during pandemic

And patients exposed to the higher dose commonly experienced side effects, including nausea, sedation and or "mild dissociation," a kind of daydreaming experience.

In the latest study, patients were between the ages of 18 and 75. All were told to continue their usual depression care and maintain their existing antidepressant regimen.

About one-third were exposed to three sessions of 50% nitrous oxide inhalation treatment, one-third were given a 25% nitrous oxide inhalation treatment and one-third were given an oxygen inhalation treatment that contained no laughing gas.

RELATEDStudy finds 'magic mushroom' hallucinogen as good as antidepressants

Treatment was delivered via a standard anesthesia face mask, and all were monitored for up to one hour post-treatment.

After four patients withdrew from the study, results were drawn from 20 patients who completed all three inhalation sessions and four patients who completed at least one treatment.

The investigators found that both formulations offered significant depression control. In fact, just a single session -- at either dosage -- provided "rapid" depression control among patients, the team noted.

Depression control also appeared to grow in effect over time, enduring up to a month post-treatment among some of the patients.

At the three-month mark, the team found that 85% of patients had symptom improvement and 40% were found to be in depression remission.

Perhaps just as importantly, the team also found that "using a lower concentration of nitrous oxide also reduced the risk of side effects fourfold."

So, how exactly does laughing gas tamp down depression?

"The mechanism of how nitrous oxide exerts antidepressant effects is unknown, and is likely different from how it induces sedation and unconsciousness and also pain relief," Nagele said. "Having said this, the most widely accepted theory is that nitrous oxide blocks a specific receptor in the brain called NMDA-receptor, which is also considered the main mechanism for [the medication] ketamine."

Ketamine is a class III scheduled drug. While hospitals traditionally deploy the drug as an anesthetic, it's also been explored for its potential as an "off-label" treatment for depression.

According to Steven Hollon, a professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University in Brentwood, Tenn., "Ketamine is the hottest thing going" in the world of alternative depression treatment research.

Hollon was not involved in the new study, and acknowledged that he is not well-versed in the specifics of nitrous oxide depression treatment research.

Still, he stressed that the finding "suggests a common mechanism" with ketamine. And he characterized Nagele's work as "a most impressive 'proof-of-concept' study that would make me want to see the matter pursued."

The depression control seen among those patients exposed to low-dose laughing gas was "as good or better than you would hope to get in a placebo-controlled trial with antidepressant medications, and these are treatment-resistant patients. [It's] quite impressive," Hollon noted.

"If they came forward with this as pilot data, I would fund them for a major trial," he added. "These are very promising findings."

The report by Nagele and his colleagues was published in the this week issue of Science Translational Medicine.

More information

There's more on treatment-resistant depression at the Mayo Clinic.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved. 

Analysis-Frequent run-ins with India gov't cloud U.S. tech expansion plans

By Sankalp Phartiyal and Aditya Kalra 
JUNE 11, 2021

© Reuters/Dado Ruvic FILE PHOTO: Illustration of 3D printed Facebook and Twitter logos on a computer motherboard

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Another spat between India's government and U.S. big tech has exacerbated disillusion among firms which have spent billions to build hubs in their largest growth market, to the extent some are rethinking expansion plans, people close to the matter said.

The government on Saturday said Twitter Inc had not indicated compliance with new rules aimed at making social media firms more accountable to legal requests, and therefore risked losing liability exemptions for content posted on its platform.

Twitter joins compatriots Amazon.com Inc, Facebook Inc and Facebook-owned WhatsApp in long being at loggerheads with the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over data privacy bills and policies some executives have called protectionist, but tension has escalated in recent weeks.


Police visited Twitter last month to notify it of a probe into the tagging of a political tweet as "manipulated media", and in February interrogated an Amazon official about the potentially adverse social impact of a political drama. Meanwhile, WhatsApp is challenging the government in court over rules it said would force it to access encrypted data.


"The fear is there," said a senior tech industry executive in India. "It weighs both strategically and operationally."

There are no indications the increasing run-ins have led to the delay or cancellation of planned investment.

Still, three senior executives familiar with the thinking of major U.S. tech firms said perceptions of India being an alternative, more accessible growth market to China are changing, and that longstanding plans for India's role in their operations are being reviewed.

"There always used to be these discussions to make India a hub, but that is being thought through now," said one of the executives, who works at a U.S. tech firm. "This feeling is across the board."

Four other executives and advisors also expressed concern about rising tension. All declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter and because discussions were private.

Twitter, Amazon, Facebook, WhatsApp and India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology did not respond to requests for comment.

MISINFORMATION

The government has argued that its rules are needed to stem the spread of misinformation that can spark violence - such as in 2017 when kidnapping rumours shared on message apps including WhatsApp led to lynching. It also said the rules are necessary to hold large technology companies accountable for practices that hurt domestic businesses or compromise customer privacy.

India is a massive market for U.S. tech giants. It is the biggest market for both Facebook and WhatsApp by user numbers, showed data from Statista, and third for Twitter. Amazon has committed as much as $6.5 billion to invest in the country.

To attract small businesses through WhatsApp, Facebook last year invested $5.7 billion in Reliance Industries Ltd's media and telecommunications arm, Jio Platforms.

Alphabet Inc's Google also pumped $4.5 billion into Jio last year from a newly created $10 billion fund earmarked for investment in India over five to seven years.

COMPLIANCE


The government has tried to balance attracting high-tech investment with nationalist policies aimed at protecting local businesses and, critics say, advancing its political agenda.

A border confrontation with China prompted it to effectively ban Chinese social media apps, including TikTok and WeChat.

The government has also forced foreign firms to store data locally against fierce lobbying, and its promotion of a domestic payment card network prompted Mastercard Inc to complain https://www.reuters.com/article/india-mastercard-idINKCN1N65IS to the U.S. government about the use of nationalism.

In 2019, compliance issues with new regulations saw Amazon remove thousands of products from its e-commerce platform. The e-tailer is separately facing scrutiny by the Competition Commission of India for its retailing practices.

Twitter publicly refused to comply with some government demands to remove content, a stance which some industry executives said may have aggravated its current situation.

WhatsApp has gone to court rather than comply with a new law requiring social media firms to trace the origin of dangerous or criminal posts on their platforms. The message app operator said it cannot comply without breaking encryption, while observers said yielding could prompt similar demands in other countries.

At the same time, WhatsApp has faced regulatory delays that have limited its payment service to just 4% of its 500 million customers. Nevertheless, it is pressing ahead with hiring for a service it has called a "globally significant" opportunity.

Government officials have shown little patience for objections. IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said any robust democracy must have accountability mechanisms, such as the ability to identify the originator of messages.

"A private company sitting in America should refrain from lecturing us on democracy when you are denying your users the right to effective redressal forum," Prasad said in an interview with the Hindu newspaper published on Sunday.

Still, continued antagonism could imperil Modi's ambition of making India a go-to investment destination.

"It's a question of what you would develop in a three-to-five-year horizon," said another executive familiar with the thinking of U.S. firms. "Do you do that in India or do you do that in another country. That's where the conversation is."

(Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal and Aditya Kalra; Edting by Jonathan Weber and Christopher Cushing)
Catholic bishops to send Indigenous delegation to meet Pope Francis on residential schools

Sean Boynton 
GLOBAL NEWS
JUNE 11,2021

The national assembly of Catholic bishops in Canada is preparing to send a delegation of Indigenous people to the Vatican for a visit with Pope Francis to discuss Canada's residential school system and the role the Catholic church played
.
© VINCENZO PINTO/AFP via Getty Images Pope Francis arrives to lead his weekly general audience in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican on October 21, 2020.

In a statement Thursday, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) said it has been preparing a delegation for the past two years, but plans for the trip were delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The group said it now plans to send the delegation before the end of the year.

"This pastoral visit will include the participation of a diverse group of Elders/Knowledge Keepers, residential school survivors and youth from across the country," the CCCB said.

"The event will likewise provide Pope Francis with a unique opportunity to hear directly from Indigenous Peoples, express his heartfelt closeness, address the impact of colonization and the implication of the Church in the residential schools, so as to respond to the suffering of Indigenous Peoples and the ongoing effects of intergenerational trauma."

Bennett says Pope’s statement over residential schools ‘doesn’t go far enough’


Read more: Majority of Canadians say church to blame for residential school tragedies: poll


The Catholic church has faced renewed scrutiny over its participation in Canada's residential school system since the discovery of the bodies of 215 children in unmarked graves on the site of a former school in Kamloops, B.C.

On Sunday, Pope Francis said he is following news of the findings "with pain" and that he joined with Canada's bishops in "expressing my closeness to the Canadian people traumatized by the shocking news."

Yet he stopped short of apologizing for the church's role in running more than 60 per cent of Canada's residential schools from 1890 until 1969. The Catholic church as a whole has never issued a formal apology.

Some 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit children were forcibly sent to residential schools, where many suffered abuse. Ongoing research by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation shows at least 4,100 died in the schools amid neglect.

Pope expresses sorrow over residential school deaths, but no apology


Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and First Nations across Canada have urged the church to apologize and to release records from the schools -- a call that has so far been met with what Trudeau on Friday called "resistance."

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett on Monday said the Pope's statement "doesn't go far enough."

The CCCB said Thursday that it has "pledged true and deep commitment to renewing and strengthening relationships with Indigenous Peoples across the land," with the "strong encouragement" of Pope Francis.

The group said the delegation will represent "an important step on the journey of reconciliation and shared healing for Indigenous Peoples and the Church in Canada."

"It is our hope that these forthcoming encounters – and the important collaboration and partnership that has supported the planning – will lead to a shared future of peace and harmony between Indigenous Peoples and the Catholic Church in Canada," they said.

Read more: Catholic Church needs to ‘take responsibility’ for residential schools, Trudeau says


Church leaders have said the church did not have a unified role in the residential school system as it has a decentralized structure, meaning decisions are made by individual dioceses or orders.

Throughout the years, individual bishops have apologized for the role that different dioceses played in the residential school system. Vancouver's archbishop apologized following the discovery in Kamloops.

Richard Gagnon, president of the CCCB, expressed his ``sorrow for the heartrending loss of the children'' but offered no formal apology.

In 2018, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops announced the Pope could not personally apologize for residential schools, even though he has not shied away from recognizing injustices faced by Indigenous people around the world.

--With files from the Canadian Press

ARCHITECTURE OF REPRESSION
‘Monuments of oppression’ must be torn down to make room for healing, says OKIB chief


This article contains content about residential “school” that may be triggering. IndigiNews is committed to trauma-informed ethical reporting, which involves taking time and care, self-location, transparency and creating safety plans for those who come forward with stories to share.

As the community continues to grieve the loss of 215 children whose remains were recently uncovered on the former grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential “School,” Okanagan Indian Band (OKIB) Chief Byron Louis says it’s time to tear down colonial structures to make way for healing.

OKIB elected leadership is calling on the federal and provincial governments to remove and replace residential and day “school” buildings that continue to traumatize First Nations community members.

“Across Canada, due to lack of capital funding, residential schools, Indian day schools, churches and other monuments of oppression remain in Indigenous communities to serve as constant reminders of the colonial genocide committed by Canada,” says the statement released June 8.

Louis says these institutions and other “monuments of oppression” should be demolished and replaced with healing centres as a way to “decolonize community infrastructure.”

On OKIB’s land, two former “day schools” — where students experienced “poor treatment and abuse,” according to Louis’s statement — still stand. One now operates as the band office, and the other as an Elders’ gathering space, meaning many members must revisit painful memories in order to gain access to basic services.

“How can you actually ask our Elders who went there as students, to ask them to go into those places and to not be reminded of what had happened to them as children?” Louis says in a phone interview.

“What we’re looking for isn’t just to tear these buildings down but to actually replace them with buildings that are conducive to healing, as well as the intergenerational healing that will need to take place.”

The n’kmaplqs (top of the Okanagan Lake) people of OKIB belong to the Syilx Nation and they care for the lands in their ceremonial way as they have done since time immemorial.

Louis says after the discovery of 215 unmarked graves in Kamloops, he is especially focused on healing, and the people of n’kmaplqs deserve to live without these structural reminders in the community.

“Canadians of Japanese descent are not expected to travel to the New Denver Internment Camp to receive government services,” Louis says in a statement.

“Jewish descendants of the victims of the Holocaust aren’t expected to visit the internment and extermination camps to apply for a business loan. For Indigenous people, we’ve been left with these scars on our land in the form of unhealthy and traumatizing buildings.”

“Indian day schools” were used by Canada to assimilate Indigenous children alongside residential schools and other church- and state-run institutions.

On OKIB land, the first “day school” — operated by the Catholic Church and funded by the federal government — opened in 1923, and was known as the Okanagan Day School. It operated until 1945 and was later turned into the OKIB Band Office.

The second “day school” to open in the community was the Six Mile Creek Day School, which operated from 1947 to 1968 and is now used as an Elders’ gathering place called New Horizons.

According to OKIB, so-called “students” at these institutions endured abuse and cruel treatment.

“Students at the Six Mile School were forced … to kneel on their knuckles to learn mathematics and prayers for example,” the band’s news release says.

“Look at what we had to go through in the name of so-called western civilization, wiping out who we are, what we are, and how we think,” says Louis.

He says the children who were forced to attend these assimilation institutions are not to be looked at as “survivors” or “victims” — but rather as warriors.

There has been a “war against children,” he says. And this war has had many casualties and has been fought on different battlegrounds including residential and day “schools” and the foster care system.

An “estimated 150,000 First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children were removed from their families, homes, languages, and lands” and placed in residential “schools,” according to the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (IRSHDC) at the University of British Columbia. Today, Indigenous children are grossly overrepresented in the child-welfare system due to racist, colonial policies and practices.

He hopes to hold up the warriors in the “war on children,” those who went to residential schools — to remember them for allowing Syilx people to stand tall in who they are today.

He reminds the Syilx people that despite these atrocities they are still here and now is the time to reclaim at full force what’s been taken.

“These children that went to residential schools came back — to still be Syilx, to still be Okanagan,” he says.

Canadians are the “beneficiaries of what was done,” says Louis, and they need to take accountability.

“It’s not just these buildings, it’s the continuing residue of what’s left,” Louis says.

“We don’t need a saviour,” Louis says. “You have no right to feed me, no matter how good the food is.”

Healing won’t be attained with a simple cheque, he says. What’s needed is meaningful action — support to tear down these former assimilation centres and replace them with something that will give life back to the people.

“They want to say sorry, but not make reparations. If you look at true reparation, you look at what was done in Germany: they were all given the opportunity to come back and rebuild their societies, their governments, everything, and they were given opportunities through the Marshall Plan,” he says. “Now ask yourself, “Where is our Marshall Plan?


“We need to stand up — our own people. We have everything we need,” Louis says, with passion in his voice. “The answer is not found in hate. We need to heal ourselves, and we need to heal ourselves for the right reasons.”


Louis shares that Syilx people have always been hard workers and they carry laws and stories that will help to guide them to their healing.

He then shares a small part of a Captikwl (oral storytelling law) teaching that he says he’s drawing upon in his plan to replace the colonial structures with healing centres:

We’re still the same people we always have been. Like our captikwl, when Coyote is … killed, Fox can step over him four times and bring him back to life, and if you find a single bone, a single hair of Coyote then Fox can bring him back to life. And that’s us. If you can find a single hair, and a piece of bone or anything of what we were we can bring ourselves back to life. And this is how it all fits in. We have everything we need to bring ourselves back.

Louis says Syilx people have all the teachings they need to move through these hard times and that reintegrating those stories and teachings back into the Syilx way of life is one way to reclaim the collective strength of the people.

“That’s why we need these places of healing where we can share these stories and give people back that identity of what they are and who they are — Syilx people,” he says.




Support for survivors and their families is available. Call the Indian Residential School Survivors Society at 1-800-721-0066, 1-866-925-4419 for the 24-7 crisis line. The KUU-US Crisis Line Society also offers 24-7 support at 250-723-4050 for adults, 250-723-2040 for youth, or toll-free at 1-800-588-8717.

Kelsie Kilawna, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Discourse

Palestinian resistance and international solidarity:

the BDS campaign

ABIGAIL B. BAKAN and YASMEEN ABU-LABAN

 Abstract

Israel’s recent war in Gaza (‘Operation Cast Lead’) has both exposed Israel’s defiance of international law and provided the occasion for increasing support for an organised transnational boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS)movement. The BDS movement is aimed at challenging the Israeli state’s illegal military occupation and a host of corresponding repressive policies directed at Palestinians. However, the BDS campaign, and in particular the call for an academic boycott, has been controversial. It has generated a counter-response emphasising, variously, the goals of the movement as ineffective, counter- productive to peace and/or security, contrary to norms of academic freedom and even tied to anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism. Utilising a Gramscian approach, and drawing from Charles Mills’ concept of ‘racial contract’, we examine the history of the divestment campaign and the debates it has engendered. We argue that the effectiveness of BDS as a strategy of resistance and cross-border solidarity is intimately connected with a challenge to the hegemonic place of Zionism in western ideology. This campaign has challenged an international racial contract which, from 1948, has assigned a common interest between the state of Israel and international political allies, while absenting Palestinians as simultaneously non-white, the subjects of extreme repression and stateless. The BDS campaign also points to an alternative – the promise of a real and lasting peace in the Middle East.

 Race & Class

Copyright © 2009 Institute of Race Relations, Vol. 51(1): 29-5410.1177/0306396809106162 http://rac.sagepub.com  SAGE Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC

 Abigail Bakan

is Professor of Political Studies at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Her publications include Negotiating Citizenship: migrant women in Canada and the global system (with Daiva K. Stasiulis), winner of the 2007 Canadian Women’s Studies Association annual book award, and Critical Political Studies: debates and dialogues from the Left (co-editor with Eleanor MacDonald).

Yasmeen Abu-Laban

is Professor and Associate Chair (Research) in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. She is co-author of Selling Diversity: immigration, multiculturalism, employment equity and globalization (2002), co-editor of Politics in North America: redefining continental relations (2008) and editor of Gendering the Nation-State: Canadian and comparative perspectives (2008).

https://www.academia.edu/3063092/Palestinian_resistance_and_international_solidarity_the_BDS_campaign


Dangerous Dissent?

Critical Pedagogy and the Case of

Israeli Apartheid Week

Evelyn Hamdon University of Alberta ehamdon@ualberta.ca 

Scott Harris Independent researcher, Organizer; IAW Edmonton  scottgharris@gmail.com 

Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry, 2010, 2 (2), Special Issue,

pp.62-76  ISSN 1916-3460 © 2011 University of Alberta  http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/cpi/index

Abstract

This paper constitutes an examination of what is perceived to be a backlash with respect to Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) and similar educational campaigns. In it we review recent writings which relate to the importance of critical pedagogical spaces, and which problematize the emerging pushback against popular and political educational efforts to critique the occupation of Palestine. We also examine the history of IAW and chronicle attempts (within the Canadian context) to silence organizers and teachers associated with IAW. Finally we discuss the implications of this for further organizing and teaching about Palestine. Some of the questions at the heart of this paper are, “Why is this form of social justice education perceived to be so dangerous?”, “Where is the impetus coming from to silence this form of popular education” and “What are the implications of these types of surveillance and silencing.”

https://www.academia.edu/563301/Dangerous_Dissent_Critical_Pedagogy_and_the_Case_of_Israeli_Apartheid_Week?pls=RWLSxnqyad

Boycotts and Backlash: Canadian Opposition to Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movements from South Africa to Israel

Published 2020
382 Pages
PHD DISSERTATION 

This dissertation explores the struggle in Canada over international boycott campaigns, providing a comparative analysis of Canadian solidarity movements which deploy economic practices of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (known collectively as “BDS”) to target the policies of foreign country, specifically focusing on campaigns against apartheid South Africa and contemporary Israel. In particular, this study looks closely at the organized backlash to these campaigns, including the role of domestic lobbies and state-led propaganda campaigns, in an attempt to explain why the boycott campaign against South Africa appeared to be so successful, while the campaign against Israel has struggled to become popular. This analysis relies on original archival research, as well as interviews with both supporters and opponents of these boycott movements. It also provides a new theorization of BDS in terms of its political economic character, exploring the limits and possibilities of these forms of activism, both in terms of material economic impact (as per Marx) and their role in ideological struggle (as per Gramsci and Hall). This study identifies a number of factors which distinguish the pro-South Africa and pro-Israel lobbies, which have affected the ability of each lobby to articulate to common sense and build popular and state support. While the pro-South Africa lobby ultimately failed to counter the anti-apartheid movement, Israel’s support within Canadian society has allowed its defenders to go further and deploy coercive measures against boycott supporters, narrowing the space for pro-Palestinian solidarity activism.
ABOUT AUTHOR

Carleton University

Alumnus

​Michael Bueckert is Vice President at Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME). He has a PhD in Sociology with a specialization in Political Economy from Carleton University in Ottawa. His dissertation explored the Canadian opposit ... more ▾



NATIONAL FARMERS UNION
NFU Bulletin
Wednesday, June 9, 2021

In this Issue:

Summer Webinar Series: Food Justice
Gene Editing & Agroecology – Reframing the Debate on Food System Transition
Help Your Workers Stay Safe During COVID-19
Assurez la sécurité de vos travailleurs durant la pandémie de COVID-19
Les agriculteurs jouent un rôle de premier plan dans l’élaboration de politiques de réduction des émissions
The climate benefits of Canada’s dairy supply management program
Mourning the 215 Children Found in Unmarked Graves at Residential School Site, We Commit to Decolonization
NFU Submission on Bill C-216 Supply Management
NFU urges MPs to safeguard supply management by passing Bill C-216
Solidarity With Palestine, Now!
Canary Seed will soon become an official grain
La graine à canaris deviendra bientôt un grain officiel


UPCOMING SESSIONS




Summer Webinar Series: Food Justice


On Wednesday, June 16, 2021, from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM EST, join Dr. Sarah Wakefield and the University of Toronto School of the Environment in the second installment of its annual Summer Webinar Series! Considering the isolating nature of the pandemic, the School of the Environment is collaborating with the Environmental Students' Union to give students and the broader environmental community the opportunity to learn, connect, and share with one another.

In this webinar, Dr. Sarah Wakefield, a Professor in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto, will draw upon her twenty years of research on food systems to discuss the evolution of food activism in Canada. In the first half of the webinar, Dr. Wakefield will examine the role of activist organizations in challenging the exploitative relationships that remain prevalent in our food system, and the shift towards food justice and food sovereignty activism. In the second half of the webinar, Dr. Wakefield and the audience will explore food activism in Canada and highlight various actions that may support the creation of sustainable and just food systems while challenging existing power structures.

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Gene Editing & Agroecology – Reframing the Debate on Food System Transition


Mon, June 14, 2021 | 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM BST

Looked at through the lens of the current industrial farming paradigm, gene editing makes sense as a ‘tool in the toolbox’. But farming urgently needs to change and it is widely agreed that agroecology is the paradigm we need to adopt. So what does gene editing – and other high tech options – look like when assessed within an agroecological framework?

This session examines how genome editing looks when viewed through the lens of 10 principles of agroecology. An expert panel will explore the pace of development in genome editing – and related technologies, the force of the “tool in the toolbox ‘ narrative, whether it is a help or a hindrance to an agroecological transition, and how it affects farmers, policy and the perception of where farming goes next.

Panel
Maywa Montenegro, Assistant professor in Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Jim Thomas, Co-Executive Director and Researcher with the ETC Group.
Chantal Clement, Deputy Director of IPES-Food.
Francesco Ajena, Independent consultant on sustainable and resilient food systems.
Chris Smaje, British farmer and author of Small Farm Future.
Nettie Wiebe, Organic farmer and professor of ethics at St. Andrew’s College, University of Saskatchewan.

Chair
Pat Thomas, Director, Beyond GM/A Bigger Conversation

Conversational format will include an audience Q&A session.

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Help Your Workers Stay Safe During COVID-19


Free Online Course for Temporary Foreign Workers

To keep your agricultural operation safe and productive, you need to protect your workers from COVID-19. This free online course helps temporary foreign workers learn about how COVID-19 spreads, how to protect themselves, and what to do if they become sick. Assign this course to multiple people and track its completion. Available in English, French, and Spanish.

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Access videos, infographics, and other resources to help protect your workers from COVID-19.

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Assurez la sécurité de vos travailleurs durant la pandémie de COVID-19

Cours en ligne gratuit pour les travailleurs étrangers temporaires

Pour que votre exploitation agricole demeure sûre et productive, vous devez protéger vos travailleurs contre la COVID 19. Ce cours en ligne gratuit montre aux travailleurs étrangers temporaires comment la COVID-19 se propage, quels moyens prendre pour se protéger et quoi faire s’ils tombent malades. Inscrivez plusieurs personnes à ce cours et suivez les taux d’achèvement. Disponible en anglais, en français et en espagnol.

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Inscription au cours



Ressources supplémentaires sur la COVID-19 pour les travailleurs étrangers temporaires


Accédez des vidéos, des infographies et d’autres ressources pour aider à protéger vos travailleurs contre la COVID-19.

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Les agriculteurs jouent un rôle de premier plan dans l’élaboration de politiques de réduction des émissions

Le Canada s’est engagé à réduire ses émissions de gaz à effet de serre de 40% d’ici 2030 et à atteindre la carboneutralité d’ici 2050. De grands changements sont à venir, pour tous les secteurs, et les organisations et coalitions agricoles proposent des solutions.

Les émissions agricoles proviennent de trois sources principales : les engrais azotés, les carburants et le bétail. De nombreux agriculteurs veulent réduire les émissions découlant de ces trois sources, mais nous avons besoin que les gouvernements s’associent à nous pour soutenir et accélérer nos transitions, et ce, de manière à améliorer les revenus agricoles nets. Lors de réunions avec le ministre de l’Agriculture du Canada et autres décideurs, l’Union nationale des fermiers (UNF) a mis en exergue plusieurs programmes nécessaires.

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The climate benefits of Canada’s dairy supply management program

Darrin Qualman at the Canadian National Farmers Union noted that the smaller dairy herds can be grazed on grasslands, helping to sequester carbon and minimize emissions. Destroying or displacing smaller, dispersed grazing herds of dairy cattle and replacing them with production from huge, centralized, non-grazing herds is a net loss for soil health, carbon sequestration, sustainability and the climate.

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Mourning the 215 Children Found in Unmarked Graves at Residential School Site, We Commit to Decolonization


In particular, we strongly support the calls for an Indigenous-led, government funded inquiry into the undocumented deaths and burials on sites of residential schools, in line with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action 71-76. We also support calls for the federal government to fund care centres and other forms of support for residential school survivors and their families.

We recognize that this is an especially important time for us to listen and centre the voices of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples. This is a time for us to deepen our understanding of Indigenous dispossession, and reflect on the paradigms of land ownership and commodification that undermine Indigenous food sovereignty, governance, and kinship systems. The actions we take on a daily basis can make a difference, and we need to hold governments, those around us, and ourselves to account for perpetuating systemic racism and injustice.

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NFU Submission on Bill C-216 Supply Management

This week the NFU asked House of Commons Committee on International Trade to support Bill C-216. This Private Members Bill would make it illegal for any future trade deals to provide more foreign access to Canada's supply-managed markets.

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NFU urges MPs to safeguard supply management 
by passing Bill C-216

The National Farmers Union (NFU) is urging Members of Parliament to support Bill C-216, which would make it illegal for any future trade agreement to provide more foreign access to Canada’s supply-managed markets.

The supply management system stands upon three pillars: production discipline, which ensures farmers produce no more or less than the market needs; cost-of-production pricing, which ensures that farmers receive a fair income; and import control, which prevents over-supply. Bill C-216 ensures that the third pillar will remain in place.

“The Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement with Europe (CETA), the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), and the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUMSA), show us why we need Bill C-216,” said Katie Ward, NFU President. “Each took a significant portion of Canada’s supply managed market away from Canadian family farmers.”

Now, Canada is negotiating trade agreements with the United Kingdom and with the Mercosur countries — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela – in South America.
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Solidarity With Palestine, Now!

In April 2021, Human Rights Watch (HRW) confirmed what the people of the world have been denouncing for years: “The Israeli authorities are committing the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.” According to the new HRW Report, “The severity of the repression in the occupied territory, including the imposition of a draconian military regime on the Palestinians while Jewish Israelis living in a segregated way in the same territory enjoy all their rights, which Israeli Civil Law respects as rights, amounts to a systematic oppression necessary for the existence of apartheid”.

This May 15th was the 73rd anniversary of the Nakba or “catastrophe” that occurred in 1948 with the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and lands to create the State of Israel. Although the agreement sanctioned by the United Nations was that they would only occupy 55 percent of the Palestinian territory, in violation of international law they occupied most of Palestine through violence and repression. In the context of Nakba 2021, known as “the day of pain” by the Palestinian people, the Criminal State of Israel intensified its occupationist plans and displacement of the Palestinians with a series of violent attacks that have resulted in the vile murder of more than 250 Palestinians – the majority being children, women and seniors. In response, La Via Campesina issued a new Declaration of Solidarity telling the world, once again: Palestinian Rights are Human Rights too! 

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Canary Seed will soon become an official grain

News release

June 9, 2021 Winnipeg Canadian Grain Commission

The Canadian Grain Commission has released a new online tool to help producers quickly and accurately determine the volume and test weight of their grain.

The test weight calculators for Canadian grains , which are available for free on the Canadian Grain Commission's website, will make it easier for producers to calculate the test weight of their grain in 3 commonly used units of measurement:
kilogram per hectolitre (kg / hL)
pounds per Avery bushel (lb / bu-A)
pounds per Winchester bushel (lb / bu-W)

The tool also includes calculators to help producers convert tons to bushels and determine the volume of grain in bins, piles, and containers.

With this information, producers will be better equipped to make business decisions for their farm. For example, accurate volume estimates are critical for producers, especially when reporting for crop insurance. The tool will also help producers determine Winchester bushel weights when they are delivering against a US contract. Test weights are also important when calculating how many trips can be made hauling grain to elevators and storage facilities.

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"As a producer, I understand how important it is to have accurate data about my crop. These calculators are an easy way to get accurate conversion results and give farmers another tool to use in managing their operation."

Doug chorney

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