Sustained anti-Kenney protests mark new political culture for Alberta


AUGUST 14, 2021


Joe Wipond left the McDougall Center in downtown Calgary on Wednesday around 1 p.m., after leading a rally against Alberta’s plans to close COVID-19 testing centers, contact tracing and isolation requirements. He headed east, away from the dull crowd, to be set up in a quiet spot for the TV interview. The police chased.

Dr. Wipond, an emergency room physician, has emerged as one of the most prominent critics of Premier Jason Kenny. In late July, the physician became the de facto leader of daily rallies against the United Conservative Party’s handling of the pandemic. In Calgary, protesters have gathered outside McDougall, a provincial government building; In Edmonton, he has generally rallied in the legislature.

UCP activists portray Dr. Vipond as a shill for the NDP. Anti-maskers and vaccine conspiracy theorists call him a snake oil salesman, a fascist, and a fraud. Protesters show up every day, trying to drive out Dr. Vipond and his supporters. When they get too close, a beefy friend casually steps in between him and the doctor.

Continuous demonstrations are not part of Alberta’s political culture. The daily rallies mark a new level of frustration with Mr Kenny’s government, with newcomers chanting alongside union veterans with political activism. And Alberta’s growing distaste for the UCP could extend beyond provincial politics if disgruntled voters take out their grievances on Canada’s Conservative Party candidates in the next federal election, which is expected in September.

As Dr. Wipond left McDougall with his unofficial bodyguard and TV reporter, a Calgary Police Service officer jumped on a bike to track him down. The officer followed from afar, as all three prepared for the interview.

When a counter-protester passed by, the officer spoke on his radio and another CPS member showed up. The pair moved to a place close to Dr. Wipond, where they could quickly meet between the doctor and his critic, who was talking on a megaphone a few feet away. He let the respondent do his job.

On Friday, Dr. Vipond and others like him declared a partial victory. The province’s chief medical officer of health, Dina Hinshaw, delayed the closure of testing centres, and said those who test positive for COVID-19 should continue to isolate. Contact tracing, however, will still be wound up.

Dr Hinshaw said the latest decision was based on examining data from the United States, where states with low vaccination rates have seen an increase in children’s hospital admissions. Asked whether Friday’s turnaround was an acknowledgment that people like Dr. Wipond are right, Ms. Hinshaw addressed political tensions in the province.

“One of the most important things that has happened during the pandemic is the polarization and the difficulty of having a respectful dialogue between differences,” he told reporters. “And I believe that, with very complex and even wicked problems like COVID-19, we do well to hold onto positions rather than recognize that we have common interests. Service is not available.”

He said he was not perfect. But neither, Dr. Hinshaw said, are those who have different views on what the province should do

“It’s important that we open up space for respectful dialogue, and to share perspectives, to be able to have that discussion,” she said.

With the backing of the government, the organizers of the rally have canceled plans to hold demonstrations this weekend. However, the political fallout will continue. Mr Kenny was a top lieutenant under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and voters associate him closely with the federal Conservative Party.

Morgan Turrigan was a regular at McDougall rallies, and has said that she is new to this type of activism. She comes from a family of devoted conservatives and belongs to the Conservative Party of Canada. That membership fee, she said, was the only political donation she had ever made.

Ms Turrigan said she votes based on policy rather than ideological allegiance, but her anger at the UCP will determine how she votes in federal elections.

“I will not vote for the opposition in this election because of what Alberta is doing,” she said.

Before Alberta’s reversal, she contacted federal Conservative lawmakers to inform them she would not vote for Conservatives unless they tried to persuade their provincial counterparts to reconsider their COVID-19 strategy.

“It’s affecting my vote, because I can’t believe they don’t stand to say: ‘Hey provincial guys, stop doing this,'” she said.

It will take years for conservative parties to win him back, and others in his social circle feel the same way, she said.

Mark Lehman is another newcomer to the activist scene. He is a retired businessman. That said, performing makes them uncomfortable. But he attended McDougall rallies because he thought UCP was putting lives at risk.

“I thought it was time for people like me – who are probably not uncommon – to be there. To offer support,” Mr. Lehmann said. He is a longtime conservative, and supported the UCP in the last election. But, he added: “Never again.”

Dan Furst, a corporate attorney in Calgary, attended McDougall rallies when he could fit them into his schedule. He said he had previously worked in political activism, but he is more comfortable writing letters.

About attending rallies, he said, “I don’t like doing that.” “It always seems that the ghost of violence is never far away.”

Kenney needs to own decision after Alberta

 slows lifting of COVID-19 measures: MRU

 professor

By Kirby Bourne 630CHED
Posted August 13, 2021 


WATCH: While it’s Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, who makes the recommendations about COVID-19 protocols, the final decisions are made by the premier and his cabinet. Tom Vernon takes a look at that process and reaction to recent decisions

After Premier Jason Kenney was nowhere to be found at a news conference announcing Alberta will not be moving forward yet with the lifting of some COVID-19 measures, one political commentator is calling on him to step up and own his decisions.

“If he wants to look like he’s a leader, which seems to be his desire, then he should be taking responsibility for his good decisions as well as the ones that need to be modified or changed,” Lori Williams, an associate professor at Mount Royal University’s faculty of policy studies, said.

READ MORE: Alberta keeping COVID-19 measures for another six weeks

Alberta puts pause on further lifting COVID-19 restrictions until Sept. 27, says province’s top doctor

On Friday morning, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health announced the province would be delaying the lifting of remaining COVID-19 measures, including testing, tracing and isolation requirements.

“We are not going backwards. We are pausing to monitor and assess before taking a step forward,” Dr. Deena Hinshaw said in a news conference.

“If monitoring confirms our original expectations that a rise in cases will not lead to high levels of (hospitalizations) and we do not see evidence of increased risk for severe disease for children, we will proceed with implementing the next set of changes after Sept. 27.”

While Education Minister Adriana LaGrange was on hand to outline the steps the province will be taking to protect students when they go back to school in September, the premier was not at the news conference. Nor was he at the news conference announcing the government would be lifting those measures.

“He’s trying to put some distance from it because he doesn’t want the political blowback,” Williams said. “In essence, it looks like he wants to get the credit for being a leader and ahead of everybody else, but he doesn’t want any of the criticism that has gone with that.”

When the province announced Alberta would stop testing, contact tracing and isolation requirements, feedback was swift from within the province, the country and even around the world, Williams said.

In Alberta, daily protests at the legislature in Edmonton and MacDougall Centre in Calgary began and grew larger day by day.

READ MORE: Albertans protest ending mandatory COVID-19 isolation, masking and testing changes

The government rolling back those decisions was likely directly linked to those protests as well as the other blowback, Williams said.

“There’s been a whole lot of momentum built to criticize the government now and I don’t think it would be very difficult to get those protests going again if there’s another measure taken by the government that’s unpopular.”

The decision to pause the lifting of those measures was made Thursday night at an emergency cabinet meeting and at the advice of Hinshaw.

Alberta may put plans to lift COVID-19 protocols on hold: sources

NDP health critic David Shepherd spoke to reporters after Hinshaw’s announcement Friday morning. He also said Kenney is trying to distance himself from the conversation, hoping that “Albertans memories are going to be short.”

Shepherd called on Kenney to step up and own the decision, while also continuing to ensure Albertans, businesses and schools get the support they need to continue to deal with COVID-19.

“Instead we see them ducking and hiding and bobbing and weaving because they don’t want to deal with potential political fallout with potentially some of their far-right base, potentially with some of their own caucus, as we saw this spring.”


READ MORE: Kenney says UCP needs to be ‘on the same team’ after vote to oust dissenters

Former UCP caucus members and current independent MLAs Drew Barnes and Todd Loewen released a joint statement Friday morning, saying this announcement is “at least the third time the premier has broken his word to Albertans when it comes to pandemic management.”

“At this point there is no reason for any Albertan to trust this premier when it comes to pandemic policy,” they said.

During the news conference Friday, LaGrange and Hinshaw were asked about the political ramifications of the changes.

“(Hinshaw) brought forward further recommendations, again we’re following the science and the advice of our chief medical officer of health. She has served us really, really well and we thank her for her dedicated service to Albertans,” LaGrange said.

 Edmonton

Alberta return-to-school plan says public health, schools don't need to share COVID case info

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Alberta Health Services will not inform school authorities of individual cases of COVID-19 at school

Janet French · CBC News · Posted: Aug 13, 2021 8:39 PM MT | Last Updated: August 14

Alberta's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, left, and Education Minister Adriana LaGrange outlined new school guidance on Friday that is a marked change from how schools managed COVID-19 cases during the last school year. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press, Scott Neufeld/CBC)

New guidelines for Alberta schools will greatly reduce the flow of information between educators and public health authorities about COVID-19 cases.

The five-page guidance document released Friday says that Alberta Health Services (AHS) won't tell schools when a student or staff member has tested positive for the illness, and that schools aware of positive cases don't have to tell AHS.

No one who works in or attends a school needs to share a positive test result with school administrators, though they are still advised to isolate.

The recommendations follow Alberta's decision to phase out contact tracing in most settings and are a marked change from how schools managed COVID-19 cases during the last school year.

Cases will not scuttle classes, Hinshaw says

At a news conference Friday morning, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, also said classes will no longer have to be sent home to isolate, even if the school is aware of a COVID-19 case.

"We recognize that intervention, which I believe was necessary last year prior to widespread vaccine availability, is highly disruptive and causes significant harm," Hinshaw said.

The plan was unveiled as daily COVID-19 cases increase in the province, with 582 new diagnoses reported on Friday.

With no provincial school mask mandate included, except on school buses until Sept. 27, Education Minister Adriana LaGrange told school boards it's up to them to take any additional measures they think are necessary in their communities.

Hours later, Edmonton Public Schools revealed all students from kindergarten to Grade 12 and staff will be expected to keep masking this school year.

With children under 12 ineligible for a vaccine and just slightly more than half of 12- to 19-year-olds vaccinated in the province, board chair Trisha Estabrooks said it is the safe and prudent choice.

"Ideally, we want kids in classes learning with their peers, learning face to face with their teachers," she said. "If we have this measure that will lessen the disruption in our classrooms and keep kids and staff as safe as possible, why wouldn't we do this?"

At a special public school board meeting Friday afternoon, superintendent Darrel Robertson said he hopes the mandatory masking will encourage more families to choose in-person learning this fall.

Both Edmonton public and Catholic schools extended their deadline for families to make that choice until Aug. 19 at 4 p.m. MT.

Edmonton Catholic Schools said it plans to release its back-to-school plan on Monday.

Critics say return anything but normal

At the news conference, LaGrange heralded the return to classrooms as "normal," saying students can look forward to field trips, team sports, school clubs and celebrations such as graduation ceremonies.

"It was hard for me to hear that everything is going to be going back to normal," said Roxanne Weyermann, an Edmonton teacher who has three young children. Her oldest child will start kindergarten next month.

Roxanne Weyermann, far right, and her husband, Jonathan, are concerned about the province's public health guidance for schools during the pandemic as classes approach this September. Their son Nathanael, front centre, will start kindergarten this year. (Travis McEwan/CBC)

She wanted to see mandatory masking and distancing rules stay in place across the province — at least until children can be vaccinated. She worries children who voluntarily wear masks could be stigmatized.

The Alberta Teachers' Association was pleased to see an in-school vaccination program beginning in junior and senior high schools on Sept. 7.

But president Jason Schilling said waiting until more than 10 per cent of the school population is absent with an illness before calling AHS, as the guidance recommends, is a "recipe for disaster." In a large urban high school, it could mean waiting until more than 200 people are sick.

The Opposition NDP slammed the United Conservative Party government's plans. Health critic David Shepherd said with the end to contact tracing, and paring back of testing after Sept. 27, the government is withholding information parents and school administrators need to make informed decisions about their children's health.

How his plan to open the Canadian Rockies to coal mining set Alberta’s Jason Kenney against country music stars

By Alex BoydCalgary Bureau
Sun., Aug. 15, 2021


Corb Lund is not enjoying this interview.

The lanky Juno-winning musician, known for his playful lyrical takes on rural life on the Prairies, is calling while on his way home to southern Alberta after a stint in studio in Edmonton working on some new music. But he hasn’t phoned to talk about his latest project, or even the one before it, an album released to critical acclaim in the middle of a pandemic.

Instead, he’s stolen time from his primary gig to talk about a side project that has recently rebranded him as an emerging, albeit reluctant, advocate: stopping a controversial plan to open up the Rocky Mountains to coal mining.

“I would rather be playing music, frankly,” says Lund, sounding exasperated.

“I blame the government. I don’t even blame the coal companies, because coal companies are going to coal-company, right? That’s what they do. It’s the government allowing them to do it.”




Last spring, the Alberta government set off a firestorm with the quiet removal of a 44-year-old policy preventing most open pit coal mining in the iconic mountain range. At a time when pandemic polarization seems to have split Albertans into warring camps on just about everything, coal mining might be one of the few areas of common ground.

In short, most people are mad.


The provincial government maintains that a new plan is required because the old coal policy was “largely made obsolete through more modern oversight,” Jennifer Henshaw, press secretary to Energy Minister Sonya Savage, said in an email. The old one doesn’t even mention climate change, she points out.

The mines would also bring in revenue at a time when the province is struggling to recover from the double whammy of the pandemic and plummeting oil revenue — in 2017, the Alberta government collected $15.7 million from coal production on publicly owned land.

But the anger is such that the current government, which flaunts big trucks and cowboy hats with an enthusiasm that’s notable, even for Albertan politicians — Premier Jason Kenney is preparing for a tour of the province in his signature blue pickup truck — is facing pushback from what might seem like an unexpected source: country music stars.

Alberta’s conservative history can tempt outsiders to paint the whole province with the same political brush, an impression reinforced by the current government, which has embraced the rural parts of the province as its base.

But its coal plans have united environmentalists, many conservatives and several First Nations as well as big country names, exposing the many shades of grey in terms of how Albertans think of political allegiance, resource development and even the future of their province.

“I know that some of the current politicians tried to frame this as a bunch of urban busybodies but honestly, I know more rural people against it,” Lund says.

“It’s a very wide coalition of people.”

A rising chorus

Over the past six months, a movement of sorts has coalesced around Lund, who, in addition to speaking out in interviews and online, has hosted a horse ride and a protest concert in the sprawling ranch country located in the mountain foothills south of Banff National Park. He’s even publicly mused about attempting a referendum under new government legislation that allows private citizens to put issues to the ballot.

One by one, other members of Canadian country royalty have joined the chorus.

Paul Brandt, whose hit songs include “Alberta Bound,” once used as a soundtrack for Ford commercials, tweeted that “Corb Lund is right,” alongside photos of him fishing in a gleaming stream. Terri Clark tweeted that the Canadian Rockies are “part of my soul” and linked to Lund’s Facebook page.

In a video posted online, Terry Grant, otherwise known as “Mantracker,” from the show of the same name in which he used tracking skills and a horse to hunt down contestants, came out strongly against the mine. “I grew up down there, chasing cows and cowboying, guiding and hunting. It’s amazing country.”

Of course, there will always be critics who argue that entertainers should stay out of politics.

Corb Lund is usually one of those critics.

“I don’t normally speak about stuff like this,” he says. “A lot of times when people in positions of notoriety or celebrity or whatever speak out about stuff, they don’t really know what they’re talking about. They’re kind of stupid, and I didn’t want to be that guy.”

To that end, in the past few months, he’s taken on a crash course in coal, speaking to politicians, coal lobbies, scientists and conservationists.

The Rockies are iconic to Albertans, and the opposition is built on concerns that mines will open up vast pits to extract the coal beneath, and at the same time pollute the water, harm wildlife and knit access roads and rail lines across land that is in many ways undisturbed.

Before a long weekend in May

The furor began over a year ago, with an email sent to media on the Friday afternoon before the May long weekend. In it, the government announced it was replacing the “outdated” 44-year-old coal policy that had prohibited much mining in the Rockies.

Instead, the government was bringing in what it called “modern regulatory processes, integrated planning and land use policies.” While the government said sensitive land in the eastern slopes, for example, would continue to be protected, coal companies would be able to apply to develop new projects.

“Government is placing a strong focus on creating the necessary conditions for the growth of export coal production,” the release read.

The reaction was swift.

The Alberta Wilderness Association pointed out the move had the potential to open up more than 4.7 million hectares of environmentally sensitive lands to coal exploration. A group of ranchers whose grazing leases were suddenly eligible for mining, and the Ermineskin and Whitefish Lake First Nations moved ahead with legal action, arguing the changes had been made without required consultation.

In January, the government said it had “listened carefully” and announced it was cancelling 11 coal leases and would pause any future lease sales. The old policy was eventually reinstated while a five-member panel was tasked with consulting with Albertans about a new way forward. Suggesting how widely the issue resonated, a preliminary survey done by the panel found the majority of Albertans felt the development of coal affected them.

Meanwhile, the federal government has waded into the fray, armed with the argument that issues of climate change and pollution are national matters.

Federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson announced in June that Ottawa would conduct an environmental review of any new coal project that could potentially release selenium, a mineral found in Alberta’s coal beds that is toxic to fish.

Last week, Ottawa rejected the Grassy Mountain proposal, one of the most high-profile projects, after a joint review panel concluded it would have major environmental effects.

But the real litmus test will come this fall, when the Alberta government goes back to the drawing board on a new coal policy.

Alberta premiers — then and now



Most of the coal currently being eyed by commercial interests in Alberta lies within a 20-kilometre-wide band of rolling foothills that runs along the eastern edge of the Rockies south of Banff National Park.

Falling roughly between a winding secondary highway known as the Cowboy Trail — a nod to decades of local ranching history — and the Rockies proper, the eastern slopes are considered one of the last patches of the true Prairie ecosystem that once blanketed much of the continent.

It’s important habitat for grizzly bears and threatened species such as westslope cutthroat trout; and the water that flows through here feeds much of the southern half of the province — including the city of Calgary.

Coal mining is not unheard of in this part of the world. To the south, the Crowsnest Pass, one of the few passable routes between Alberta and British Columbia, is still shot through with old mine shafts. But the use of coal for energy waned in the 1960s and then, in 1976, Alberta brought in a coal policy that put management of water first and restricted much new coal development.

At the time, David Luff was a brand new government employee who had been hired the year before to help implement the coal policy and develop a plan for the eastern slopes.

The premier of the day, Peter Lougheed, still casts a long shadow in Alberta politics. Luff says he believes Lougheed, through the coal policy, was implementing a long-term vision of stability and prosperity for the province that Luff argues was ahead of its time.

“In 1976, people didn’t talk about climate change, they weren’t worried about drought. They weren’t worried about the forest fires that we now see on a yearly basis,” he says. “None of that was really on anyone’s radar.”

The policy protected much of the land and encouraged coal companies, which had to get special permission for most open-pit mines in Alberta, to move to B.C., where mines have released so much selenium it’s now ending up in Montana.

Since the removal of the Lougheed-era policy, Luff says companies have already begun to explore future mine sites, building roads and sinking core holes into the rock to probe for coal.

“With the rescinding of the policy, the government was stating water is no longer important. Water is not the highest priority; coal development is the highest priority. And Albertans found that to be fundamentally wrong,” Luff says.

A different kind of coal

Coal is one of the emerging villains of the fight against climate change, and Canada has committed to phasing out coal-fired electricity by 2030. Alberta is currently on track to accomplish that even earlier and hopes to transition off by 2023, officials say.

But a complicating factor here is there are different types of coal. Much of what the Alberta government is looking to produce is what’s called metallurgical coal. With more carbon and less ash and moisture than regular coal, also known as thermal coal, metallurgical coal is used to make steel and even Canada says it can’t be phased out just yet.

According to the provincial website, Alberta still produces about 25 million to 30 million tonnes of coal every year from its remaining nine mines — two of which produce metallurgical coal, and the remaining seven of which are devoted to thermal, much of which is sold to other countries.

But the federal environment minister says that while the first priority is eliminating thermal coal, eventually the same thing will happen to metallurgical.

“There are a number of different processes and technologies that people are looking to deploy that will help us to reduce those emissions and move us away from metallurgical coal,” Wilkinson said, pointing to a couple of Canadian companies that are trying out electric furnaces to make steel.

Luff, for his part, is not anti-industry. He would go on to become an assistant deputy minister in the energy department, then become a vice-president for the Canadian Association for Petroleum Producers before creating his own consultancy company, but he worries that government is putting profit ahead of the long-term interests of Albertans.

He worries Alberta’s politicians aren’t playing the long game here, which he argues shows industry switching away from coal, even for steel production. The potential risk to the province’s drinking water and an iconic part of the province won’t be done away with so easily.

“Maybe it’s just a lack of understanding that, yes, Alberta is a province that benefits from the development of its resources, whether it’s oil and gas, or timber development and so on. But Albertans also recreate, and spend a great deal of time in the mountains, in northern Alberta in the boreal forest — hiking, canoeing, fishing, hunting — and many Canadians, I don’t think, are aware of that,” he says.

“Albertans do look to find a balance between the development of resources, but also ensuring that the environment and social values will be maintained in perpetuity.”

‘I don’t know what he’s thinking’

Two and a half years into its maiden term — a significant chunk of which involved navigating a global pandemic — Jason Kenney’s United Conservative government is no stranger to controversy.

There was the time at least seven MLAs and senior government officials were caught travelling for the holidays despite official advice, or the time Kenney himself was photographed having drinks on the balcony of the so-called Sky Palace — a government office that a former premier tried to turn into a luxury apartment that is now Albertan shorthand for government arrogance — with a group of ministers, including the health minister, while flouting pandemic rules.

There is growing evidence Albertans are getting fed up. While many leaders have enjoyed pandemic bumps to their approval ratings, Kenney has the lowest level of support of a premier in the country.

According to an Angus Reid poll from June, his approval was sitting around 31 per cent, or about half of where it was when he swept to victory two years ago.

But while much of the pushback against Kenney’s government has tended to splinter along political lines — his rule-resistant COVID-19 response seemed designed to appease a rural base, experts say — the fury of coal stands out for its cross-partisan appeal.

When he was running to be leader of the newly minted United Conservative party four years ago, Kenney stood in front of a green and white sign emblazoned with his signature and what he called the Grassroots Guarantee — a promise that policy would be developed by membership and not by leadership alone.


It was an attempt to throw off the shackles of conservative arrogance in the province, and yet it’s been a challenging promise to deliver on, says Lori Williams, a political scientist at Calgary’s Mount Royal University.

A small poll in February found that almost seven in 10 Albertans surveyed were against development of formerly protected areas and half strongly opposed getting rid of the coal policy specifically and yet the government has plunged ahead with changes. Some government MLAs have spoken of an inability to get Kenney’s ear.

“The inability to respond to the concerns that are being raised by his base is a bit surprising,” Williams says.

Kenney came to power by combining the province’s two Conservative parties, and as his popularity drops, it’s a partnership that risks unravelling. He’s struggled to keep the right wing of the party intact, which some have speculated explains why he’s pushed ahead with the development often favoured by the right.

“I don’t know what he’s thinking,” Williams says. “I often wonder if he knows the Alberta that he is now governing; it’s not the Alberta that he left in the 1990s. But sometimes he governs as if it is that Alberta.”

‘This is just about me not wanting the Rockies ruined’

Lund, who says he agrees with some ideas on the right and some on the left, says this isn’t about politics.

“I don’t like any political parties. I don’t like groups of people in general. I don’t trust them. I only trust individuals. So this is just about me not wanting the Rockies ruined for everyone,” he says. “And turns out that’s resonated across political lines.”

Fellow musician Brett Kissel was raised on a ranch north of Edmonton but grew up on country music stages — he recorded his first album at age 12 and has since had four singles hit No. 1 on Canadian country music charts. After watching one of Lund’s videos about coal this spring, he immediately called him to ask how he could help, he says.

He agrees this is not about politics. He’s made public appearances with Kenney and says there are a number of things the current government has done well since the pandemic began.



Personal relationships aside, he says, he’s decided to speak out because of what he considers a “bad deal” for Alberta. As he sees it, the government has backed itself into a corner — if it backs down now, it will invite environmentalists to fight back on other causes. But he argues that the time has come for the province to heed the voices of the province.

Speaking a few hours before stepping onto the stage in Quebec for one of his first post-pandemic appearances this month, he said it’s a comment on Alberta politics when even the “true blue Albertans” are starting to push back.

“We’re pro oil. We’re pro industry. We’re pro money. We’re pro generational wealth. So even us, we’re the ones who are like, ‘Yeah, no, this is too far,’” Kissel says.

He says he feels for the people who work in coal who were looking forward to new opportunities — only to have those new mines threated by the pushback. The musicians who have spoken out have all received significant heat for that reason, he says.

Still, he calls the mine proposals a “bad deal” for the province, with the promise of a few hundred local jobs and “miniscule” royalties.

“It’s very difficult when we are talking about other people’s livelihoods,” he says. “But you know what, the pros for this situation do not outweigh the cons that are going to be for the rest of the province.”

Right now, the government is awaiting the coal policy committee’s report, which is due by Nov. 15. Although “we cannot speculate on the content or details of a modernized provincial coal policy,” the report will “inform” the new plan, the Alberta energy minister’s press secretary said in an email.

A clearer timeline for a new policy is expected this fall.

Lund and others will be watching.

“I feel like the wind is in our sails, but I think we need to keep pushing until we have a new policy in place that clearly sorts this out so that we don’t have to deal with it again, five years from now,” he says.

“In this divided time, it’s been refreshing to see that we can all agree on clean water at least, right?”

Alex Boyd is a Calgary-based reporter for the Star.

 

Rare Checkmate Makes Commentator Freak Out

How a simple crystal could help pave the way to full-scale quantum computing

August 13, 2021 

Vaccine and drug development, artificial intelligence, transport and logistics, climate science — these are all areas that stand to be transformed by the development of a full-scale quantum computer. And there has been explosive growth in quantum computing investment over the past decade.

Yet current quantum processors are relatively small in scale, with fewer than 100 qubits — the basic building blocks of a quantum computer. Bits are the smallest unit of information in computing, and the term qubits stems from “quantum bits”.

While early quantum processors have been crucial for demonstrating the potential of quantum computing, realising globally significant applications will likely require processors with upwards of a million qubits.

Our new research tackles a core problem at the heart of scaling up quantum computers: how do we go from controlling just a few qubits, to controlling millions? In research published today in Science Advances, we reveal a new technology that may offer a solution.

What exactly is a quantum computer?

Quantum computers use qubits to hold and process quantum information. Unlike the bits of information in classical computers, qubits make use of the quantum properties of nature, known as “superposition” and “entanglement”, to perform some calculations much faster than their classical counterparts.

Unlike a classical bit, which is represented by either 0 or 1, a qubit can exist in two states (that is, 0 and 1) at the same time. This is what we refer to as a superposition state.

Demonstrations by Google and others have shown even current, early-stage quantum computers can outperform the most powerful supercomputers on the planet for a highly specialised (albeit not particularly useful) task — reaching a milestone we call quantum supremacy.

Google’s quantum computer, built from superconducting electrical circuits, had just 53 qubits and was cooled to a temperature below -273℃ in a high-tech refrigerator. This extreme temperature is needed to remove heat, which can introduce errors to the fragile qubits. While such demonstrations are important, the challenge now is to build quantum processors with many more qubits.

Major efforts are underway at UNSW Sydney to make quantum computers from the same material used in everyday computer chips: silicon. A conventional silicon chip is thumbnail-sized and packs in several billion bits, so the prospect of using this technology to build a quantum computer is compelling.

Read more: Quantum computers could arrive sooner if we build them with traditional silicon technology

The control problem

In silicon quantum processors, information is stored in individual electrons, which are trapped beneath small electrodes at the chip’s surface. Specifically, the qubit is coded into the electron’s spin. It can be pictured as a small compass inside the electron. The needle of the compass can point north or south, which represents the 0 and 1 states.

To set a qubit in a superposition state (both 0 and 1), an operation that occurs in all quantum computations, a control signal must be directed to the desired qubit. For qubits in silicon, this control signal is in the form of a microwave field, much like the ones used to carry phone calls over a 5G network. The microwaves interact with the electron and cause its spin (compass needle) to rotate.

Currently, each qubit requires its own microwave control field. It is delivered to the quantum chip through a cable running from room temperature down to the bottom of the refrigerator at close to -273℃. Each cable brings heat with it, which must be removed before it reaches the quantum processor.

At around 50 qubits, which is state-of-the-art today, this is difficult but manageable. Current refrigerator technology can cope with the cable heat load. However, it represents a huge hurdle if we’re to use systems with a million qubits or more.

The solution is ‘global’ control

An elegant solution to the challenge of how to deliver control signals to millions of spin qubits was proposed in the late 1990s. The idea of “global control” was simple: broadcast a single microwave control field across the entire quantum processor.

Voltage pulses can be applied locally to qubit electrodes to make the individual qubits interact with the global field (and produce superposition states).

It’s much easier to generate such voltage pulses on-chip than it is to generate multiple microwave fields. The solution requires only a single control cable and removes obtrusive on-chip microwave control circuitry.

For more than two decades global control in quantum computers remained an idea. Researchers could not devise a suitable technology that could be integrated with a quantum chip and generate microwave fields at suitably low powers.

In our work we show that a component known as a dielectric resonator could finally allow this. The dielectric resonator is a small, transparent crystal which traps microwaves for a short period of time.

The trapping of microwaves, a phenomenon known as resonance, allows them to interact with the spin qubits longer and greatly reduces the power of microwaves needed to generate the control field. This was vital to operating the technology inside the refrigerator.

In our experiment, we used the dielectric resonator to generate a control field over an area that could contain up to four million qubits. The quantum chip used in this demonstration was a device with two qubits. We were able to show the microwaves produced by the crystal could flip the spin state of each one.

Illustration of a crystal dielectric resonator producing a global control field in a spin quantum processor. Tony Melov

The path to a full-scale quantum computer

There is still work to be done before this technology is up to the task of controlling a million qubits. For our study, we managed to flip the state of the qubits, but not yet produce arbitrary superposition states.

Experiments are ongoing to demonstrate this critical capability. We’ll also need to further study the impact of the dielectric resonator on other aspects of the quantum processor.

That said, we believe these engineering challenges will ultimately be surmountable — clearing one of the greatest hurdles to realising a large-scale spin-based quantum computer.

Authors

Jarryd Pla
Senior Lecturer in Quantum Engineering, UNSW

Andrew Dzurak
Scientia Professor in Quantum Engineering, UNSW

Disclosure statement

Jarryd Pla receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is also an inventor on patents related to quantum computing.

Andrew Dzurak receives research funding from the Australian Research Council and the US Army Research Office. He is a member of the Executive Board of the Sydney Quantum Academy and a member of the Executive of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology. He is also an inventor on a number of patents related to quantum computing.
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UNSW provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

 

The Nation Proving That Oil And Renewables Aren’t Opposed

By Felicity Bradstock - Aug 14, 2021, 10:00 AM CDT

After decades of world-leading oil and gas production, Norway is looking to stake its claim on a piece of the renewables market. But can the oil giant become a role model for green energy while still earning off its oil legacy? Just two years ago, Norway ranked 15th worldwide for oil production, and eighth for gas. Its longstanding relationship with oil and gas has allowed it to create its $1.4 trillion sovereign wealth fund to ensure that the country does not come to rely on oil and gas alone, by diversifying investments to the non-oil sector. 

In April this year, Norway announced the first investment from the sovereign wealth fund into a renewable energy project. The Norges Bank Investment Management which manages the fund acquired a 50 percent stake in the Borssele offshore wind farm in the Netherlands from Denmark’s Ørsted A/S for $1.63 billion. The project is the second-largest operating wind farm in the world with a capacity of 752 megawatts, providing energy for around 1 million Dutch households every year.

At the local level, Raymond Johansen, Oslo’s governing mayor, has big plans for the Oslo Varme plant, a waste incinerator, which he intends to retrofit with €700m of carbon capture technology. If successful, the plant could be a model for other European cities and support the aim of a 95 percent reduction in Oslo’s carbon emissions by 2030.

As well as investing in renewable energy development, the government is also encouraging the public to make the switch from oil and gas use to alternatives. For example, Norway has waived high taxes charged for traditional cars for electric vehicles (EV), allowing owners to drive Teslas and other EVs in bus lanes, on toll roads for free, to access free parking and charging stations across the country. This is in the hope that only EVs will be sold in the country by as early as 2025.

Related: Why An Oil Deal Between Kurdistan And Baghdad Is Unlikely

But as Norway looks to renewable energy for domestic use, planning to make the shift away from gas and oil entirely, its oil production is far from over. The country is, in fact, increasing its oil production for export over the next decade ahead of an inevitable dip in demand as renewable energy becomes more readily available. 

As Norway’s state-owned oil giant Equinor continues its significant exploration and production projects around the world, the country’s oil and gas activities are still going strong. And yet, at the national level, Norway runs almost entirely on renewable power. 

At present, around 200,0000 people are employed in Norway’s oil and gas industry, meaning as the country makes the shift to renewable energy development it must consider the needs and expectations of a Norwegian population that continues to rely heavily on fossil fuels for employment. 

Politicians argue that it is an asset for Norway to have its hands both in oil and gas as well as renewables as it has a longstanding history in the industry and can provide cleaner fossil fuel production, by adopting carbon capture and storage technologies to lower emissions, than its competitors. 

Petroleum and Energy Minister Tina Bru explained, “I do not have a bad conscience for Norway being an ambitious climate nation at the same time as we have oil and gas production,” suggesting that her party would not be following the IEA road map because “if we were to decide tomorrow that we’ll stop producing oil and gas on the Norwegian shelf, other countries will say: ‘Okay, we will supply this’.”

As many criticize Norway for apparent hypocrisy, being both an oil and gas as well as a renewable energy leader may actually play to the country’s advantage. By developing a world-leading renewables sector while working to adapt its oil and gas production to become cleaner, Norway could continue to lead the way in both industries, ultimately encouraging others to adopt better practices.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

Central Alberta anti-lockdown activist suing province, health officials over COVID orders

Challenge alleges Christopher Scott’s freedom of expression and peaceful gathering rights violated




Chris Scott, owner of the Whistle Stop Cafe, speaks during a rally against measures taken by government and health authorities to curb the spread of COVID-19 at his cafe in Mirror on Saturday. The Whistle Stop was shut down by AHS for not complying with COVID-19 rules. (Photo by The Canadian Press)

PAUL COWLEY
Aug. 12, 2021

Anti-lockdown activist and Mirror café owner Chris Scott is suing the province, arguing his constitutional rights were violated.

The legal action filed last month by Scott’s Calgary lawyer, Chad Williamson, names the province, chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw and Alberta Health Services.

It claims health orders that were issued by the province during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic prevented people from gathering for a political purpose and “is unacceptable in a free and democratic liberal society.”

The lawsuit also claims the order violated sections of the Alberta Bill of Rights.

Whistle Stop cafe owner Scott was arrested at an anti-lockdown rally he helped organize on May 8. In June, he was found guilty of violating an injunction prohibiting the protest. Sentencing is expected to take place on Sept. 13.

Williamson said the constitutional challenge seeks a declaration that any orders issued that prevent political gatherings under the guise of public health are unlawful or invalid.

It’s alleged that since March 2020, Scott has been charged with at least eight regulatory infractions under the Public Health Act or other legislation.

An Aug. 26 court date has been scheduled, but the case will almost certainly be adjourned to a later date.

 

500 million measurements on the impact of climate change

by University of Bonn

The trunk diameter of both plants -- is subject to seasonal rhythms. In 2015, 

the winter was very long; as a result, the dwarf birch showed little growth in late summer.

 Credit: Ecosphere (2021). DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.3688

It is the most comprehensive study of its kind to date. Researchers at the University of Bonn and the University of South-Eastern Norway have studied how two characteristic arctic-alpine plant species respond to global warming. They did this by analyzing almost 500 million of their own readings from the mountainous region of Norway. The analyses show that potential consequences of climate change are extremely dependent on the specific location of the plants and that deciduous species in particular will benefit from warming. The result would be a further increase in the trend toward greening of the arctic-alpine regions. The study is published in the journal Ecosphere.

The Norwegian mountains can be quite inhospitable during the colder months. Nevertheless, there are plants that cope splendidly with the biting temperatures. They include the dwarf birch Betula nana and the black crowberry Empetrum hermaphroditum. Both thrive in arctic-alpine conditions, which makes them typical representatives of tundra vegetation.

Up until now, it has been unclear how the growth of dwarf birch and crowberry is influenced by specific environmental conditions. In the alpine regions of Norway, a project has been underway for 30 years that aims to change that. "We wired up some of the plants here and fitted them with so-called data loggers that record the measurements," explains Prof. Dr. Jörg Löffler from the Department of Geography at the University of Bonn. A pin-like sensor records the diameter of the trunk—minute by minute, 365 days a year, to an accuracy of less than a thousandth of a millimeter. At the same time, the researchers measure solar radiation, temperature in the root zone and just above the soil surface, and soil moisture.

Shrinkage against frost damage

In the current study, researchers analyzed nearly 500 million measurements from 40 plants between 2015 and 2019. "We mainly studied how the microclimate, that is, the conditions encountered by the individual plant, affects its growth," says Svenja Dobbert, who is doing her doctorate in Prof. Löffler's research group. This revealed a striking rhythm in both dwarf birch and crowberry. During the colder months, their trunk diameter shrank significantly in each case—a process that was reversed in the spring. However, it was not until late summer that the deficits were made up to such an extent that actual growth began.

"Due to low temperatures in the colder months, there is hardly any liquid water available for the plants," Dobbert says, explaining the finding. "They also reduce their trunk diameter by actively reducing the water content of their cells to avoid frost damage." Just how important this strategy is for both species to thrive is demonstrated by another observation—plants that shrank very little during the winter often showed little or no growth the following summer.

A second important finding is that he deciduous dwarf birches usually grew better after a mild winter. They therefore seem to generally benefit from warmer winters. With the evergreen crowberries it was the other way around. "In cold winters, there is usually less snowfall," Löffler says. "This could be an advantage for evergreen species because they can then keep up photosynthetic activity for longer and hence enter the growth phase earlier in the spring." It is therefore possible that climate change is causing an increasing spread of deciduous species and a concomitant displacement of evergreen species. Since the leaves of deciduous plants have a comparatively large surface area (in contrast, those of evergreen species are usually needle-like), this effect could contribute to the further greening of arctic-alpine regions.

The microclimate is crucial

"However, our results also show that microclimatic conditions can be extremely different depending on the location," explains Löffler. For instance, at exposed, windy locations, snow cover tends to be very thin. The deciduous dwarf birch however requires a sufficiently thick insulating layer of snow in winter. It then has to use fewer resources to protect itself from frost. Without this warming blanket, the dwarf birch has a difficult time. The evergreen crowberry, in contrast, benefits from the extra sunlight during such snow-free periods. "Overall, our measurements prove that global climate data provide little valid evidence for local vegetation effects," emphasizes the geographer. "Studies like ours can potentially help us better model such complex effects and in turn better predict the effects of climate change on plant life."

Shrubs and soils: A hot topic in the cool tundra

More information: Svenja Dobbert et al, Contrasting growth response of evergreen and deciduous arctic‐alpine shrub species to climate variability, Ecosphere (2021). DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.3688

Journal information: Ecosphere 

Provided by University of Bonn 

 

As cargo shipments boom, ship strikes imperil whales in California and worldwide

by Susanne Rust

Gray whale breaching. Credit: Merrill Gosho, NOAA, Public Domain

The 100-foot-long whale dived and circled in the murky, dark waters of the Santa Barbara Channel, looking for a cloud of krill to scoop and catch inside her 20-foot-long jaws.

As the blue whale began to resurface, whale scientist Brandon Southall was in a boat nearby, and he could feel his throat go dry. The whale was coming up right beneath a 200,000-ton transoceanic cargo ship, named the Maladarko, that was heading east from Hong Kong to its destination in Long Beach Harbor.

"We were plotting the two paths," said Southall, a researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the president of an Aptos-based marine biology research firm. "It was a straight collision course."

With the increase of cargo and cruise boat traffic the last several decades, ships have become one of the deadliest threats whales face in open oceans and coastal waters. Ship strikes are not thought to be a predominant cause of the West Coast die-off of gray whales since 2019, but they are a factor, and an increasing concern.

Between 2016 and 2020, at least 1,001 beached or dead whales were identified by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as having "injuries consistent with ship strikes," said Michael Milstein, a NOAA spokesman, describing an informal death-by-ship database the agency keeps.

Earlier this year, horrific photos of two fin whales pinned to the hull of an Australian naval ship gained worldwide attention. The vessel had been conducting exercises in the waters near San Diego. The two bodies—one 65 feet long, the other just 25 feet—were draped over the hull.

"Anywhere you have major shipping routes and whales in the same place, you are going to see collisions," said Russell Leaper, an expert with the International Whaling Commission. "Unfortunately, that's the situation in many places."

While gray whales and humpbacks make up 70% of the reported strikes in the government's database, it's the endangered and threatened populations—such as North Atlantic right whales and the gargantuan Pacific blues—that concern scientists the most. For those whales, each death comes with a risk of population or species extinction.

Southall and colleagues, including John Calambokidis at Cascadia Research Collective, examined behavioral differences in whales during day and night.

They discovered that whales tend to hang out closer to the surface at night and for longer periods of time. This was especially true for blue whales, making them particularly vulnerable.

Scientists are unsure if the whales are resting during the night or feeding on food sources that move closer to the surface during nighttime hours—when krill-eating seabirds and other marine animals are sidelined. But these behaviors add to the complexities of avoiding collisions through mitigation measures—such as keeping an eye out for whales while on a moving vessel.

"Having a lookout isn't going to help," said Southall, president of Southall Environmental Associates.

What can make a difference, experts agree, is slowing down boat traffic—allowing whales not only the chance to flee, but possibly reducing the potential injury—and altering shipping lanes when whales are present.

Along the U.S. Atlantic Coast, mandatory speed restrictions during certain seasons have helped reduce right whale mortality. Conservation groups are asking the government to extend the regulations to boats smaller than 65 feet, as well as to expand the areas and times for these maximum speed limits.

Others are hoping to create protocols and communications systems that will allow boat captains, mariners and harbor masters to voluntarily reduce speeds and alter routes where whales are present—in real time.

Elliott Hazen, a researcher with NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in Monterey, has developed an app that works like Google Maps—except instead of navigating cars and harried drivers around Los Angeles, it helps boats avoid concentrations of whales.

Using data collected from satellites on ocean temperature, food distribution and currents, WhaleWatch can predict "whale hot spots" and warn vessels approaching such critical areas—giving boat captains a tool and an extra incentive to slow down, and possibly alter their route.

"It's predictive," said Hazen. "Here's where you are most likely to have concentration of whales."

Voluntary limits can only go so far. All researchers interviewed for this story said mandatory speed restrictions and route alterations are the best way to reduce whale mortality.

"One of the difficulties is that these cargo vessels, they have a small window of time to unload cargo," Hazen added. "If slow speeds are not mandatory, there may be little incentive for them to slow down."

Slower speeds also reduce the amount of fuel needed—making a voyage cheaper—and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. "Slow speeds are a win for all," said Leaper.

In the case of the leviathan observed in the Santa Barbara Channel, Southall and his colleagues had previously attached temporary trackers, via suction cup, to the female blue whale. The monitors were part of a study they were conducting in 2014 on the behavioral responses of whales to military sonar.

After their experiment was over, they waited around for the trackers to drop off.

"They're expensive devices," said Southall, noting their $20,000 price tag and the need to retrieve them.

They kept a safe distance from this whale, whom they had known since 1987. She had been involved in capsizing a 23-foot private vessel off the coast of Shelter Island near San Diego in 2014.

Suddenly, as they waited, they saw her shoot from the depths straight toward the cargo vessel's trajectory.

"We watched, with our hands over our mouths, thinking, 'Oh, my God, are we gonna see a strike? Or a pool of blood?'" Southall said.

But then she stopped, mid-swim, and rolled to her side, just a few meters below the hull—presumably to eyeball the behemoth cruising over her.

For the next three minutes, she remained suspended below, only resurfacing after the cargo ship passed.

Speeding ships killing endangered N. Atlantic right whales: study

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