CANADA

Respiratory professionals' group seeks mandatory COVID vaccination for health-care workers

Sun., September 26, 2021, 

Registered nurse Debbie Frier, left, injects Leah Sawatsky, an emergency room nurse, with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in Regina last December. (Michael Bell/The Canadian Press - image credit)

A group representing respirologists, respiratory health-care professionals and respiratory scientists is calling for legislation to make it mandatory for people working in health care to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

The Canadian Thoracic Society issued a position statement on mandatory vaccinations for health-care workers on Sept. 22.

Dr. Paul Hernandez, the society's president and head of respirology at Dalhousie University, said the vaccines have proven to be the most effective way to reduce death, severe illness and hospitalization from the virus.

"We've debated this over the summer at our executive and board level and have unanimously supported this call for mandatory vaccination," he said.

Mike Dembeck

Hernandez said the Canadian Nurses Association and the Canadian Medical Association have already recommended mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for all health-care workers.

In the case of the few individuals with a reasonable exemption from vaccination, Hernandez said governments and health authorities need to ensure that they don't increase the risk to patients of their co-workers.

Describing vaccination as just "one part of a total package of tools" in the fight, he said mandatory vaccination does not remove the need for masking and personal protective equipment, handwashing and physical distancing where appropriate.

Responding to concerns expressed about the effectiveness of the vaccine, Hernandez said fully vaccinated patients are a "very small minority" of patients who require hospitalization or die from COVID-19.

"It's in the order of two per cent," Hernandez said. "So 98 per cent of the patients that we see in hospital, or who unfortunately die from COVID 19, have either not been vaccinated at all or have only had a single dose of a two-dose vaccine."

Hernandez said he is hoping other health-care organizations join the call for mandatory vaccinations for health workers.

He said he knows from speaking to nurses in Nova Scotia and from the releases issued by the Nova Scotia Nurses Union that they have been strongly encouraging their members to get vaccinated.

The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions and its member organizations like the NSNU issued a position statement in August that strongly encouraged members to get vaccinated but stopped short of calling for mandatory vaccinations.

The national federation said the benefits provided by the vaccines far outweighed any risks, but that it would leave any mandates to public health officials.

The statement said nurses' unions would support a vaccination or testing policy requirement for high‐risk settings when it is supported by science.

Dave Laughlin/CBC

Janet Hazelton, NSNU president, said if Public Health decides that vaccination is a requirement to work in health care, the union would support the recommendation.

"We are increasingly concerned as we look across the country about the amount of patients being admitted with COVID in the next wave," Hazelton said. "The ICU can only hold so many people."

Hazelton said should public health introduce a vaccination mandate it must also accommodate nurses who can't be vaccinated.

She said in those situations the employer should "respect and take appropriate action" by providing more personal protective equipment and increased testing.

In response to an emailed inquiry about mandatory vaccinations for health-care workers, Pattie Lacroix, a spokesperson for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia, said the college "follows the direction and guidance as provided by the province's Chief Medical Officer."

Businesses, schools and cities to observe National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

WHILE AB & SASK GVMNT'S DON'T

For the first time ever, this year Sept. 30 will mark National Truth and Reconciliation Day as a federal holiday. Jill Macyshon reports.

Brittany Hobson
The Canadian Press Staff
Monday, September 27, 2021

A ceremonial cloth with the names of 2,800 children who died in residential schools and were identified in the National Student Memorial Register, is carried to the stage during the Honouring National Day for Truth and Reconciliation ceremony in Gatineau, Quebec on Monday, Sept. 30, 2019. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang)

As the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation approaches, Alana Hogstead has decided as a small-business owner to close up her shop in honour of the day.

Hogstead co-owns Martha's Music in Camrose, Alta., with her husband. The store will be closed on Thursday.

"We're just a small business and a small voice in the grand scheme of things, but we're going to make our opinion known," Hogstead said in a phone interview.

"We think there needs to be more reconciliation and honesty."

Hogstead is not alone in her decision. Businesses, cities and schools across Canada are preparing to follow the federal government's decision to observe the day, in some cases stepping up because provinces won't.

The House of Commons unanimously supported legislation in June to make Sept. 30, also known as Orange Shirt Day, a federally recognized holiday to mark the history of and intergenerational trauma caused by residential schools. The statutory holiday applies to all federal employees and workers in federally regulated workplaces.

The day is a direct response to one of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action.

Only a handful of provincial and territorial governments are having public servants and schools observe the day.

The Alberta government said it would not make Sept. 30 a statutory holiday for its employees. That drew harsh criticism from union groups.

Hogstead doesn't agree with the decision and hopes "down the road (the province) will see the light."

In Edmonton, city employees and the Edmonton Police Service will be observing the day.

City manager Andre Corbould said planning came together quickly. The city consulted with employees, unions and Indigenous groups and elders, he said. "We listened, learned andled."

The city will mark the day with community events and workplace activities.

Corbould said the city arranged to have employees who are interested attend an Indigenous Peoples exhibit at Fort Edmonton Park. Due to the pandemic, employees had to sign up and, within 48 hours, spots were fully booked, he said.

"I do not see this as a holiday. I see it as a paid day of leave with focus on truth and reconciliation. We've asked employees to think about that."

Future plans will have to wait until after the municipal election next month, said Courbould, but he expects a request to observe the day every year will be made to the new city council.

The City of Calgary has also advised its employees to observe the day and is encouraging staff to learn more about Canada's assimilation policies including residential schools and the resulting intergenerational trauma to Indigenous Peoples, city manager David Duckworth said in a statement.

Saskatchewan has said it is not making the day a statutory holiday, but Prince Albert city council recently approved Sept. 30 as a paid day for civic employees.

The Prince Albert Urban Indigenous Coalition plans to hold a one-hour education session on residential schools. The pre-recorded session will be available through the coalition's website.

Some schools in Saskatchewan will also be closed to students on Sept. 30.

The Saskatoon Public Schools division said in a statement they have made the day a planning day for teachers at its schools.

The school division will be recognizing Orange Shirt Day on Sept. 29 and is planning learning opportunities and activities during the week leading up to the Nation Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2021.

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook-Canadian Press News Fellowship.

MORON

UCP MLA criticizes Alberta Health Services salaries in light of ICU shortages

Sun., September 26, 2021,

Lac St. Anne Parkland UCP MLA Shane Getson. 

(Shane Getson/Facebook - image credit)

A UCP MLA is under fire after he suggested Alberta's public health authority is to blame for "unacceptably low" ICU bed levels as COVID-19 hospitalizations soar in the province.

"ICU bed levels that were available for the public dropped unacceptably low coming into cold and flu season and a prediction of the 4th wave," Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland MLA Shane Getson said in a Facebook post Saturday. "Hence the 'crunch and strain' on the system.

"The wave hit, but AHS didn't staff the beds adequately to meet their own predictions?"

Getson took aim at the salaries of those who run Alberta Health Services, singling out Dr. Verna Yiu, with a link to a 2016 article about the AHS president and CEO's salary.

In a follow-up post, Getson suggested that vaccine passport systems are a distraction to prevent the public from keeping AHS accountable for maintaining sufficient ICU bed capacity in the province.

In a statement, AHS defended its efforts to add capacity, noting the health authority has added 195 additional ICU surge spaces during the fourth wave — more than double the provincial baseline of 173 ICU beds, for a total of 368 beds.

"Adding ICU capacity is not simple," spokesperson Gregory Harris said in an email. "ICU patients require highly skilled, specialized physicians and nurses, and the level of care is extremely complex.

"Our biggest challenge now in this fourth wave is finding health-care professionals to appropriately and safely staff those additional beds. Our ability to do this is extremely limited compared to previous waves."

Edmonton-City Centre MLA David Shepherd, the NDP critic for health, called Getson's comments "ignorant and tone deaf."

He said he was especially "astounded" at the timing of the criticism.

CBC News

"That he would make these comments now, at a time when our hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID patients, including people from his community who are in hospitals in Edmonton because his government failed to take seriously the threat of the fourth wave," Shepherd said.

"MLA Getson talks about how AHS should have seen this coming, they should have been prepared. Where was he?

"Dr. Verna Yiu has shown more leadership in the midst of this crisis than Jason Kenney ever has, certainly than MLA Getson has and any member of the UCP caucus in terms of protecting the health of Albertans."

Shepherd called on Alberta's new health minister Jason Copping to publicly denounce Getson's comments.

CBC requests for comment from Getson's office and Copping through a UCP caucus spokesperson were not returned Saturday.

On social media, health-care workers and members of the public also threw their support behind AHS and Yiu, including several tweets with the hashtag #thankYiu.

Alberta's fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic hit 20,040 active cases on Friday — more than twice as many as any other province or territory.

As of Friday's report, there were 1,061 people in hospital with COVID-19, including 243 in intensive care beds.

ALBERTA 

Private vaccine verification app Portpass sparks privacy, security concerns



Sun., September 26, 2021




A screengrab from the Portpass website. The Calgary-based COVID-19 vaccine verification app is being criticized over concerns it may not protect user information or accurately verify vaccination status. (Portpass.ca - image credit)More

Private proof-of-vaccination app Portpass may be easy to manipulate with fake vaccine records and may not securely protect users' personal information, experts say.

The Calgary-based company has said it has more than 500,000 users across Canada registered for its app, which is touted as a way to store and share vaccine records and COVID-19 test results.

The Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (CSEC) has recommended the app for getting into NHL and CFL games in the city. Alberta currently does not have a proof-of-vaccination app, but the government has said it plans to create a QR code.

Conrad Yeung, a local web developer, said he was curious about the Portpass app after reading an article about it. But shortly after downloading the app, he noticed an issue when it asked him to upload his photo ID.

Yeung said he uploaded a random photo of a mayoral candidate in Calgary "just to see if the app would let me."

"It let me upload a random photo for my driver's licence," he said. "And then I was like, you know what? There's probably something sketchy here so I'm just going to upload fake stuff and see what happens."

Yeung made a fake vaccination record with an actor's name and the app verified it as legitimate.

There's a lot of questions when it comes to these types of apps … who has access to it? Can it be manipulated? Is it secure?" - Ritesh Kotak, cybersecurity analyst

That prompted the web developer to take a closer look. He noticed the website does not appear to validate security certificates and has a backend that can easily be accessed by members of the public — making its data potentially vulnerable to hackers.

He also noticed some details that seem to refute statements on the app's website.

Portpass says its data is housed in Canada, but Yeung pointed out it actually appears to be hosted out of an Amazon data centre in Ohio.

The app claims to use AI and blockchain to verify records and keep data secure, but Yeung didn't find evidence of that at a quick glance at the site's backend — and he questions the claim based on the app's speedy verification of his false information.

The app also names a purported network of labs, pharmacies and health clinics called the Canadian Digital Health Network as a collaborator. However, the CDHN's main webpage links back to the Portpass website and other links on the CDHN website led to "404 page not found" messages on Sunday.

CBC News called Portpass founder and CEO Zakir Hussein on Sunday afternoon.

Hussein initially agreed to talk and said he had seen Yeung's Twitter posts expressing concerns about the app. But shortly into the recorded interview he ended the call mid-sentence, and then said in a followup call that he would speak with CBC before 6:30 p.m. MT that day to give his team time to look into the issues. Followup calls were not returned.

Portpass recommended by Calgary Flames

Portpass is recommended by the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation as the preferred way to provide proof of vaccination for attendees at Calgary Flames hockey games at the Scotiabank Saddledome or Calgary Stampeders football games at McMahon Stadium.

CBC reached out to CSEC for comment but has yet to receive a response.

Those planning to attend Sunday's Flames game were told in advance that, "for the most efficient entry possible, all ticket holders should sign up and download Portpass and complete their COVID-19 proof of vaccination online or through the app."

But after Yeung publicly raised concerns and CBC called Portpass's CEO, multiple people reported that the app no longer appeared to be fully functioning — simply showing a grey screen and the words "undefined undefined" instead of a name on the vaccine verification screen.

At 5:17 p.m. MT, less than two hours before the hockey game's scheduled start, the company tweeted it was having "technical difficulties" and asked users to bring a printed vaccine record to the game instead.

Flames fan Mckenna Baird said he downloaded the app on the NHL team's recommendation, and when it wouldn't load he initially assumed it was an issue specific to his phone.

"Because the Portpass app is not working we're not able to get into the arena," Baird said as he waited outside the Saddledome on Sunday. "It's definitely upsetting.… Hopefully they'll get it sorted out."

Terri Trembath/CBC

Yeung is also worried about a call he received after he posted publicly about his concerns with the app and spoke with CBC.

He said later on Sunday evening he received a call from someone who identified themselves as a police officer and asked him about his "spam tweets."

Yeung asked the caller for their badge number, then called Calgary Police Service's non-emergency line to ask about the call. He said police told him that badge number doesn't exist. CBC has reached out to Calgary police for comment.

He said he'd like to know what due diligence was done by companies like CSEC, which have promoted the app.

"That's the most concerning part … you have somebody in a place of authority promoting something that is potentially unsafe and has privacy issues," Yeung said.

Cybersecurity tech analyst Ritesh Kotak said he agrees with those concerns.

"There's a lot of questions when it comes to these types of apps … who has access to it? Can it be manipulated? Is it secure?" Kotak said. "You're literally giving away so much personal information about yourself that can be used against you.… That's my word of caution when we just decide to arbitrarily give up our data to private corporations. What will they do with it? Who is accountable?"

Portpass.ca

Sharon Polsky, president of the Privacy and Access Council of Canada, said the app's privacy policy raises questions.

"Whether it's Portpass or any of these other apps, the privacy policies, and I say 'so-called privacy policies' … you look at them closely, there's some inconsistencies," she said.

"Portpass says the information is held in Canada … and that's great, except the very next sentence is 'we take appropriate steps to protect your personal data when it's transferred across borders.' Well, if it's scrubbed and it's held in Canada, what is there to transfer across borders?" Polsky said.

Polsky said that paper vaccine passports are more secure than apps, while Kotak suggested people only download apps approved or recommended by government agencies.

Alberta's current paper vaccine record has been criticized for being easy to edit, though falsifying a provincial health record is against the law.

Done waiting on B.C., Gitanyow declare new protected area: ‘this is all our land’

Sun., September 26, 2021

On a late August afternoon, under cloudy skies that threatened rain, Gitanyow hereditary chiefs gathered at the Lax An Zok fish camp on the banks of the Meziadin River in northwest B.C. to sign a unilateral declaration.

Provincial representatives were notably absent in the attentive crowd of 200 who gathered to witness Simogyet (Chief) Malii Glen Williams, Simogyet Wii Litswx Gregory Rush Sr. and others declare the immediate protection of 54,000 hectares of land and water in Gitanyow territory, which includes large portions of the Kitwanga and Nass River watersheds and significant sections of the upper Kispiox River, a tributary of the Skeena River.

“Today we hear lots about the United Nations Declaration [on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples] … that Indigenous people have a right to preserve their lands, use their culture, their systems — and lots of talk about reconciliation,” Williams said. “How do we correct the wrong that was done to us?”

Williams spoke slowly and carefully, leaving long pauses that made space for the weight of his words to sink in, gaps punctuated by the sounds of kids playing in puddles, the wind in the birch trees and the white noise of the falls on T’aam Mats’iiaadin (Meziadin River).

As The Narwhal recently reported, the Gitanyow have been working with the province to protect the Meziadin watershed for more than four years. The nation has made significant inroads in convincing provincial and federal governments to recognize the authority of Gitanyow governance, reflected in the recent signing of the Gitanyow Governance Accord which charts a five-year path towards legal recognition of the hereditary governance system.

But the speed at which ecosystems in Gitanyow territory are changing due to a warming climate, coupled with the threat of mineral exploration impacts to struggling wild salmon populations, spurred the hereditary chiefs to declare the creation of the Wilp Wii Litsxw Meziadin Indigenous Protected Area in advance of any provincial decision.

Williams told the audience that provincial representatives did not accept an invitation to attend the event.

“It is unfortunate that one part of the government chose not to be here today. They were instructed not to attend, not to come here because we were exercising our li’ligit (feast system) to use our traditional law to protect where wild salmon spawn and to ensure that our future generation, our youth, our young people continue to have food security.”

He paused and added, “Enjoy the salmon.”

The Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development declined an interview request and did not clarify why provincial representatives decided not to attend.

“Yes, B.C. received an invitation to the event,” the ministry wrote in a statement provided to The Narwhal. “This declaration is a Gitanyow-led initiative and we are in early discussions with Gitanyow to understand their proposal; we have additional work with other First Nations and stakeholders prior to formally acknowledging the proposal.”

Williams gestured towards the river.

“Just last night, over 3,000 sockeye passed just a few feet down the road. Now we’re at 221,000 that have passed and they’re into the spawning beds: into the Hanna, Tintina, Strohn and the lakeshore. And yet we hear from B.C., ‘We will protect wild salmon and habitat,’ and they didn’t want to come, to stand with us.”

“I think they should just continue to stay home and give our land back. That would be justice.”

Further into Wilp Wii Litsxw territory, grizzly tracks mark the banks of Strohn Creek at the northwest end of Meziadin Lake, a sign the sockeye are returning to spawn after their long journey up the Nass and Meziadin rivers. The runs are only just starting but already flashes of red contrast with the turquoise water as fish jump and show their fins at the creek’s mouth.

The decision to protect the watershed as an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area had its genesis when Gitanyow fisheries researchers discovered a sharp decline in stocks spawning in Hanna and Tintina creeks — an area already protected as a provincial conservancy — and an increase in the populations returning to Strohn and Surprise creeks further to the north, which lack protection.

The Hanna-Tintina Conservancy was established in 2012 after the signing of the Gitanyow Huwilp Recognition and Reconciliation Agreement and the development of an associated land-use plan. The main purpose of the land-use plan was to protect sockeye — about 75 per cent of all Nass River sockeye, the third largest run in the province, spawn in the Meziadin watershed.

Armed with data on the natural redistribution of sockeye populations, the Gitanyow asked the province to expand the conservancy.

“If you’ve got the third largest run of salmon and you’ve already acknowledged the value of Hanna and Tintina, why would you not acknowledge the same value here when it’s even higher in productivity now?” Naxginkw Tara Marsden asks, as we watch the salmon at the mouth of the creek. Marsden is from Wilp (house group) Gamlakyeltxw and works as Wilp sustainability director for the Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs’ office.

The glacial-fed creek systems that provide ideal habitat for the fish have their headwaters in the northern Coast Mountains, where mineral exploration companies are staking claims and looking for new opportunities as glaciers recede, revealing potential deposits of valuable minerals. There are six companies with active claims above the salmon habitat, according to an email provided to The Narwhal by the Gitanyow.

“One of the challenges in expanding the conservancy has been that [mineral exploration] is not enough of a threat,” explains Marsden, who believes the province is reluctant to embrace a new Indigenous Protected Area because it wants to capitalize on economic gains from mining activity. While mineral exploration has less of an impact than developing and operating a working mine, companies are allowed to divert water from the creeks to facilitate test drilling. Marsden says it’s unlikely a mine will ever be built in these mountains. “They’re just staking claims trying to generate some buzz and generate some money.”

Mining claims in B.C. can be staked without Indigenous consent. The province’s Mineral Tenure Act, which governs the claim process, dates from the mid-1800s and has not been updated to reflect Indigenous Rights. Critics of the act point out that B.C. doesn’t even require companies or individuals talk to First Nations before staking a claim or entering their territories to take a look at the land, let alone obtain their consent.

The Gitanyow are not against mining, Marsden notes, but they’re not willing to risk losing one of the few viable salmon populations left in the watershed.

“Brucejack mine, that’s a good mine for most people,” she says, referring to a gold mine near Stewart, B.C., just outside of Gitanyow territory. “It’s in a good location, the waste treatment is good and it provides a ton of jobs for people.”

Expertly piloting the Lax Yip Protector, a new research boat, off the beach at Strohn Creek and down the lake, Mark Cleveland, head fisheries biologist with the Gitanyow Fisheries Authority, suddenly stops the engine and points to a dark shape in the water — a bear, swimming across the lake.

“I thought it was a moose,” he says with a grin.

Spotting a bear in the middle of the lake is rare, even though the region is home to one of the highest concentrations of grizzlies in the province.

“About five years ago on Hanna, in one flight over a 10-kilometre section, [we saw] 12 grizzly bears,” Cleveland says. The fisheries team conducts regular helicopter surveys to assess the health of spawning populations. “And that’s just the ones we saw because most of the time they’re pretty smart, they run off before you get there with the helicopter.”

Those bears thrive because of an abundance of food sources. But as the ecosystem evolves as climate change warms the creeks and lake, rendering habitat less suitable for the bears’ preferred food sources, grizzlies have to adapt and move around the territory. The salmon that return to Strohn to spawn arrive about one month later than the populations that congregate at Hanna and Tintina, Cleveland explains. As fish populations decline, the bears will have to find alternative food sources.

“There’s all these spin-off effects that come to light,” he says.

Protecting the watershed as an Indigenous Protected Area allows the Gitanyow to adapt more nimbly to changes and control activities within the area boundaries.

“The Indigenous Protected Area is not a park,” the declaration states plainly. “It is a new way of being with the land and water, in respect, but also ensuring our people and our neighbours can sustain themselves with employment opportunities.”

Leaving the bear to its long swim, Cleveland turns the boat back towards the south end of the lake. Marsden points towards a forested hillside.

“You can look down there and you can see logging, right? This is clearly not an anti-development situation. This isn’t Fairy Creek,” she says, referring to the ongoing Vancouver Island conflict about old-growth logging that has seen more than 1,000 people arrested in Canada’s largest act of civil disobedience.

“This is a more moderate proposal, I would say, and something that we’re doing for ourselves and for future generations with fish, but it’s not a ‘protect everything’ [scenario]. We have a lot of balance that has to happen within our own nation — a lot of people who are in forestry and who want to continue to be.”

Complementing the Gitanyow fisheries research is the Gitanyow Guardian program, which started six years ago with seed funding through the Environmental Stewardship Initiative, a collaboration with the province and other First Nations.

Lead guardian Jimmy Morgan has an infectious smile and clearly loves his job.

“I just feel really blessed,” he says, standing on an artificial bank he helped create to restore a tributary of the Hanna that had been damaged by long-term impacts of legacy forestry operations. “Not very many people even get to go out on their territory, and I get paid to help take care of it.”

In the 1960s and 1970s, forestry companies logged most of the area. Deciduous species, which sucked up water from streams and creeks, primarily grew back. When a series of wooden bridges, built to access the timber, caved in, they clogged all the tributaries. The downstream impacts ruined important fish habitat, flooding some areas and drying up others.

The guardians cleaned everything up and diverted streams that had broken their banks as a result of the industrial impacts. Young salmon need wetlands to survive the long winters, Morgan explains.

“That’s where the little cohos and sockeyes go and overwinter,” he says. “The wetlands down there were never really full. They didn’t have big ponds as much as they do now.”

Morgan is from a bordering community but his wife is Gitanyow.

“I’m an eagle from Kitwanga and I have no idea about the ins and outs of my territory but I know everything about my wife’s,” he says with a laugh. The matrilineal system of hereditary governance means Morgan’s kids have the potential to become high-ranking Gitanyow chiefs. “I have the opportunity to teach them all of this and how to respect it,” he adds, gesturing around at the landscape. “I’m just really honoured to be able to do this.”

Morgan also works with organizations like Nature United to support other Indigenous communities across the country, sharing his knowledge and experiences at events such as a recent national gathering hosted by the Indigenous Leadership Initiative.

“It’s fun sometimes and other times it’s pretty tough work,” Gitanyow Guardian Dustin Gray says, one of his fingers bandaged from a recent fracture. “Scary too, ‘cause we’re working pretty close with the grizzlies out here.”

Gray grabs his phone and pulls up photos and videos of bears and wolves the guardians have encountered while looking after the territory, recalling the pack of wolves that sauntered right past him while he was planting grass seed to stabilize the banks of a stream.

“I really like this job because we’re out here in the territories,” he says. “I learned a lot of stuff off of Jimmy, while I was working with him, and I jumped on with the fisheries for a little while, learned quite a bit off of them. It’s just been really awesome.”

Part of the job is being the “eyes and ears” of the hereditary chiefs. When the guardians spot someone on the land engaged in a prohibited activity, whether it’s hunting in an off-limits area or conducting unauthorized mineral exploration work, they take a non-confrontational approach.

“We don’t go in and say, ‘You guys got to get the bleep out of here,’ ” Morgan explains. “We go in there and say, ‘This is who we are, we have a land-use plan, you’re welcome to come and talk to our directors and here’s our card.’ And then we’ve done our job. And then it’s up to them to do what’s right after. I love our process.”

Morgan attributes many of the successes the Gitanyow have achieved to the nation’s progressive approach to conservation projects.

“One of the main things Gitanyow does that I love is that they work with professionals — they find the best of the best.”

Those collaborations include working with people like aquatic ecologist Allison Oliver, glaciologist Matthew Beedle and wildlife biologist and trapper Dave Hatler. Hatler helped the nation tackle a beaver population problem wreaking havoc on the ecosystem.

“We could have just gone and got one of the best trappers in our village but because we value scientific methodologies and traditional knowledge, we always try to combine the two together,” Morgan says. “We found a guy in Telkwa, a professional trapper. He literally wrote the book on the regulations in B.C.”

“He came out and it was amazing. He looked at the whole area [and said] ‘Once we trap out seven beavers we’ll be able to get the big mama and once you get the lady out, it’s done.”

For Morgan, the new protected area is a natural extension of that collaborative approach.

“To me the [Indigenous Protected Area] is a perfect playground to showcase how industry and Indigenous governments can coexist and work together,” he says. “This is going to be a huge example. Our leaders are our chiefs, and this is their area. If they give us permission, then we go and do it. That’s just Gitanyow’s mentality; it’s going to happen anyway and you can either come along for the ride and join us or just watch it happen.”

In tandem with signing the declaration, the Gitanyow chiefs released a draft management plan for the new protected area, outlining a vision for the area and detailing permitted and prohibited activities. Underpinning every aspect is a simple concept: gwelx ye’enst, which is the “right and responsibility to pass on the territory in a sustainable manner from one generation to the next.”

Sustainable use includes allowing recreational users and visitors to continue exploring the area, partnerships with Gitanyow-led businesses and building culturally significant buildings and infrastructure, according to the plan.

Wilp Wii Litsxw will also create a science and climate change study centre and a cultural camp and will commence Elders and youth programming within the protected area, the plan notes.

“We have affirmed in our Ayookxw (laws) that the entire Meziadin watershed is protected from mining and mineral exploration, railway and other major industrial development,” Simogyet Wii Litsxw Gregory Rush Sr. said in a statement. “We take this important step to let government, industry and the general public know that this area must be cared for by the original stewards of this land — Wilp Wii Litsxw and the Gitanyow.”

Many Elders and matriarchs gave their speeches in Simalgyax, a language that, like many Indigenous languages, was nearly lost to the impacts of colonialism.

Williams concluded his speech by speaking directly to the younger generation.

“It’s now for the young people — our young Gitxsan, Gitanyow people — to stand up and be firm and be bold and transition our lax’yip (territory) back to the rightful owners.”

“The former Delgamuukw, the late Albert Tait, used to always say when things were tough …‘Who are we scared of?,’ ” Williams said, referring to the Gitxsan hereditary chief who fought for recognition of Indigenous Rights and Title in a landmark Supreme Court case.

“This is all our land.”

Matt Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Narwhal

 

Many Republicans are rallying around Trump's false claim 

that infrastructure deal is 'fake'

Ben Werschkul

·Senior Producer and Writer

Mon., September 27, 2021

As the House of Representatives prepares to vote Thursday on the bipartisan infrastructure deal, many House Republicans who have lined up against it argue that the bill is not about infrastructure at all.

“I've got serious reservations about the fact that, depending on whose numbers you believe, only 10% to 20% of that $1.1 trillion truly goes to infrastructure,” Rep. Buddy Carter (R., Ga.) told Yahoo Finance last week.

The language echoes an argument from former President Donald Trump. It's a “fake infrastructure deal” composed of “11% infrastructure and even that's not real infrastructure,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Business on Aug. 31.

But by any measure, the numbers from Trump and Carter, a Trump ally who voted to overturn the 2016 election even after a pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol, don’t add up.

Nevertheless, it has been repeated often, especially by Trump-aligned House Republicans. Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said Friday that “House Republicans remain unified in opposition to this fake infrastructure bill.” Banks had been selected by House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) to be the top Republican on the committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, but was rejected by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) for his actions on that day, including his vote to overturn the election after the violence.

What's in the bill

The 2,702-page infrastructure bill contains about $550 billion in new spending. It was summarized by the White House and backed up by multiple independent analyses and is largely clear as to its major provisions.

• About 20% of the new money goes to fund roads, bridges, and other surface transportation programs ($110 billion)

• Just under 20% is allocated for public transit and passenger and freight rail ($105 billion)

• Just under 8% is for seaports and airports ($42 billion)

• About 12% is for improving broadband access ($65 billion)

• Another 10% goes to improve the water system and replace lead pipes ($55 billion)

• 28% goes toward an array of provisions related to energy, the environment, and climate change, from upgrading the electric grid to a new fleet of electric vehicle charging stations to cleaning up Superfund sites.

The legislation agreed to in the Senate authorizes $550 billion in new spending. Some lawmakers like to refer to the bill as a $1.1 trillion or $1.2 trillion package because it also includes funding for highways and other projects that are allotted every year.

In the end, 19 Republican senators voted in favor of the package, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), along with all 50 Democrats. 

In his conversation with Yahoo Finance, Carter listed the areas where “I think all of us would agree" are infrastructure: roads, bridges, airports, seaports, broadband, high-speed internet.

Those provisions alone account for almost 60% of the new spending in the bill.

Repeated requests to Rep. Carter asking how he arrived at his calculation yielded no answer beyond “Mr. Carter is sad that only a small portion of the bill is devoted to traditional types of infrastructure.”

Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) appeared with Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), left, and Mary Miller (R-Ill.) in June. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

"Carter believes the issues should be debated and not thrown on a bill that should be about true infrastructure," a spokesperson said, declining to define the issue further.

'I don’t view it as a vote for infrastructure'

Trump has likewise avoided explaining why he views the current infrastructure bill as "fake," but he supported infrastructure efforts throughout his time in office. In 2019, before the talks dissolved in acrimony, Trump agreed to spend $2 trillion on infrastructure – roads, bridges, airports, rail lines, waterways and broadband internet access. He called for a $2 trillion infrastructure spending plan again in 2020.

Then in a series of statements this August, Trump claimed "[t]here is very little on infrastructure in all of those pages," but cited only a small provision to fund a national test program that would allow the government to collect drivers’ data to charge them per-mile travel fees to back up his criticism.

Trump also attacked McConnell for his yes vote: "If it can’t be killed in the Senate, maybe it dies in the House!" he said.

The claims this month are related to similar ones levied against President Biden’s early infrastructure plans. In March, Biden unveiled a $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan that was met with disapproval because some said it didn’t have enough infrastructure in it.

A criticism then, which was described by fact checkers as pushed to “misleading extremes,” was that only 5% to 7% of the plan is for "real infrastructure."

Since then, bipartisan negotiators have cut down the plan significantly and removed provisions – like $400 billion to expand home-care services, which many lawmakers had questioned.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) arrives for a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on September 23. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In a recent press conference, McCarthy said he would be encouraging all his fellow Republicans in the House to oppose the bill, adding that he didn’t view the bill as bipartisan “any longer.”

McCarthy didn't call the infrastructure bill "fake," but reasoned that a vote for the bipartisan package is essentially a vote for the larger multitrillion-dollar budget reconciliation package being backed by Democrats only. “I don’t view it as a vote for infrastructure,” McCarthy said.

Over the weekend, Pelosi announced the House would debate the infrastructure framework all week with a final vote – which is expected to be close – set for Sept. 30.

Ben Werschkul is a writer and producer for Yahoo Finance in Washington, DC.

Alberta Real Canadian Superstore union members serve Loblaws strike notice

Real Canadian Superstore

CTV News Edmonton
Updated Sept. 26, 2021 

EDMONTON -

The union representing Real Canadian Superstore employees served the Canadian company strike notice after members voted 97 per cent in favour of job action.

In a statement released Friday, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) Local 401 said it hopes Loblaws – the parent company of Superstore – is ready to listen to their employees.

Workers from across the province cast their ballots from Sept. 21 to Sept. 23.

The union plans to continue bargaining this week in “good faith” to push the grocery chain to improve its offer.

“Ironically, the point of taking a strike vote is to attempt to avoid a strike,” said Richelle Stewart, secretary treasurer. “A strike vote is a tool to tell the Company that unless they bargain fairly, employees could withdraw their labour.”

Before an actual strike occurs, the union said every Superstore union member will have the chance to vote on the company’s final offer before deciding whether to take job action.

In a statement to CTV News Edmonton, Loblaws public relations said it does not comment during bargaining.

Rio Tinto and Canadian union reach labour deal for British Columbia ops

KITIMAT STRIKE BEGAN IN JULY

Sun., September 26, 2021, 

FILE PHOTO: A sign adorns the building where mining company Rio Tinto has their office in Perth, Western Australia

(Reuters)  Rio Tinto and Canadian union Unifor have reached a labour agreement in principle for the global miner's operations in the western Canadian province of British Columbia, the company said on Sunday.

The agreement comes after weeks of second-round talks between the two parties after the first round of negotiations over proposed changes to workers' retirement benefits and unresolved grievances had failed to go through in July.

Unifor, which represents about 900 workers at the miner's aluminium smelting plant in Kitimat and power generating facility in Kemano, had started a strike action at BC Works in July after the failed first round of talks.

"Both parties are satisfied that the proposed agreement will provide a foundation for respect in the workplace and underpin a competitive and sustainable future for BC Works," Rio Tinto said in a statement on its website on Sunday.

Both parties, however, refrained from revealing the details of the agreement until Unifor presented the proposed deal to its members and sought a ratification vote, which is expected to be conducted in the coming days, Rio added.

(Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

EXPLAINER: Why coffee could cost more at groceries, cafes

Mon., September 27, 2021, 

SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — As if a cup of coffee wasn’t expensive enough, a confluence of factors is driving up farmers' costs to grow the beans and it could begin filtering down to your local cafe before the end of the year.

After hovering for years near $1 per pound, coffee futures — the price large-volume buyers agree to pay for coffee upon delivery months down the road — doubled in late July, reaching heights not seen since 2014. Though prices have eased a bit, they remain elevated at about $1.90 per pound.

Coffee lovers already paying $8 or more for a bag in the supermarket or up to $5 for a cup may despair over even-higher prices, but a spike in coffee prices on the international futures market doesn't always trickle down to the consumer.

Here’s a look at some factors that could determine whether Americans will be paying more for their morning jolt in the near future.

WHAT HAPPENED?

A sustained drought followed by two July frosts blew a hole in Brazil’s coffee output, immediately sending wholesale prices for the popular Arabica bean to more than $2 per pound. The frost will significantly affect the 2022-23 harvest, said Carlos Mera, who analyzes the coffee markets at Rabobank.

The Brazil frosts followed COVID-related supply chain snarls, a dearth of shipping containers, labor shortages and other production hiccups. Add in rising costs for virtually everything and you have a bitter cup brewing for coffee drinkers.

“This is unprecedented,” said Alexis Rubinstein, the managing editor of Coffee & Cocoa for commodities brokerage StoneX Group. “It’s never been this perfect storm before. It’s usually just been a supply-and-demand scenario.

“We’ve never been dealing with a supply and demand issue on top of a logistics issue, on top of labor issues, on top of a global pandemic.”

WHY MIGHT RETAIL PRICES RISE?

While it’s difficult to determine the size of the crop loss in Brazil, Mera said estimates vary between 2 million and 6 million fewer bags of coffee. That's about 12% of the output from the world’s largest producer of Arabica, the bean used for most coffee sold around the world. Lower supplies almost always mean higher prices.

Grace Wood, an industry analyst for market research firm IBISWorld, said if consumers don’t see coffee prices rise by the end of this year, they almost certainly will in 2022, as per capita demand is expected to increase.

“That is just going to contribute to more demand that is going to further disrupt operations and make it more difficult for operators who are already experiencing supply issues,” Wood said.

Mera said people who buy coffee beans in the grocery store will likely see a more noticeable increase in prices because about half the cost of that bag on the shelf comes solely from the bean itself. However, in large coffee shops, he added, the cost of the bean only represents about 5% of your cup of hot coffee, so roasters “may not need to carry over the increases right away.”

IS IT A CERTAINTY THAT RETAIL PRICES WILL RISE?

It seems likely, although higher coffee prices on the international future market is not a guarantee that prices at your favorite roaster will go up. The damaged crop in Brazil is still more than a year from harvest, plenty of time for many factors to reverse course.

Rubinstein said higher prices on the international market can often stimulate production — farmers will have more money to invest in their crop — and if there’s more coffee on the market, prices will retreat. But that will also depend on whether the big roasters have enough beans hoarded to get them through however long prices remain elevated.

Starbucks, the world’s biggest coffee retailer, suggested that it won’t need to raise its prices because of Brazil’s lower output. On a call with investors at the height of the Arabica price spike, the Seattle-based coffee chain’s President and CEO Kevin Johnson said his company has 14 months of supply, which he says will get it through 2021 and most of fiscal 2022.

WHAT ABOUT MY LOCAL ROASTER?

Even smaller, independent specialty roasters sign contracts to buy their beans well in advance, enough so that when shortages like the ones in Brazil happen, it doesn’t paralyze them. They also source from countries all around the world, so gaps from one place can often be filled by another.

Chris Vigilante, co-owner of Vigilante Coffee with stores in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., said most specialty roasters don’t buy beans on the same international commodities market with the big players like Nestle and Keurig Dr. Pepper. “So we’re not as impacted by (Brazil), but we will feel the pressure of it," Vigilante said.

Vigilante said he pays between $3.50 and $5.50 per pound for most of his beans, which are higher quality and produced by smaller farms. He has no plans to raise prices, but if other small shops raise theirs, he said it's likely because the cost for other essentials have risen.

“I’ve seen other specialty coffee roasters talking about raising their prices, but I think that’s more not because of the cost of coffee, but maybe because the cost of some of our other supplies, like cups and equipment,” Vigilante said.

——-

Marcelo Silva de Sousa contributed to this report from Brazil.

Matt Ott, The Associated Press

Former long-time NDP MLA Belanger won't return after federal campaign bid

Sun., September 26, 2021,

Former Opposition NDP MLA Buckley Belanger won't return to the provincial legislature after placing second in his bid for a federal riding in northern Saskatchewan. 

(Matt Duguid/CBC - image credit)

After resigning from the Saskatchewan NDP Caucus in early August, Buckley Belanger fell short in his federal campaign bid seeking a seat in Ottawa for the Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River riding.

Despite that, the former long-time MLA says he doesn't plan on returning to the provincial legislature.

Belanger resigned from the NDP Caucus' electoral district of Athabasca in northern Saskatchewan in August 2021 after a 26-year stint with the party.

"I've moved on from the provincial perspective of politics," Belanger told CBC News' Olivier Daoust.

"To use a hockey analogy … I played on one team and now I got traded to the other team," he said.

Belanger said when he departed from the provincial party, there was a "mutual respect," and said he'll be working closely with the successful candidate filling his role.

"We're sorry to see Mr. Belanger leave our caucus and are grateful for his service as Saskatchewan's longest-serving Indigenous MLA," the Saskatchewan NDP said in a statement on Aug. 10.

"Our focus now will be making sure there is a strong voice for Northwest Saskatchewan in the legislature."

'We should not have a Conservative MP'

Belanger said he was disappointed by his federal loss, but is trying to take it in stride "like a champion" as he says his northern constituents would want.

He does strongly believe that northern Saskatchewan doesn't want a Conservative MP, and insisted that he wasn't making excuses when he pointed to the voter turnout in the nation's 44th election.

DESPITE THESE FINAL NUMBERS THE RACE WAS TOO CLOSE TO CALL FOR MOST OF THE ELECTION NIGHT AS IT WENT BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN THE TWO CANDIDATES

There were 20,654 votes cast in the riding, according to CBC's interactive vote tracker. The riding makes up the northern half of the province as the geographically third-largest federal riding in the provinces (more than 340,000 square kilometres).

Belanger received 27 per cent of the vote, topped by Conservative incumbent Gary Vidal who received 49 per cent.

There were 27,257 votes cast in the region in the 2019 election, according to statistics from Elections Canada.

"We should not have a Conservative MP … Indigenous people do not vote for Conservative," Belanger said, noting the region's population is two-thirds Indigenous. "Just because more Conservatives showed up to vote for a variety of reasons doesn't make it so," he said.

Belanger also argued that the northern riding should be split into two ridings to better serve the northern communities' unique needs.

HE IS GOING TO RUN AGAIN