Class action certified alleging harm from extended solitary confinement in N.L. jails

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — A Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court judge has certified a class action lawsuit alleging harm from prolonged periods of solitary confinement in the province's jails.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The lawsuit claims negligence by the provincial government in ensuring the safety and well-being of inmates, and alleges the use of periods of solitary confinement over 15 days is unconstitutional and violates basic human rights guaranteed under the charter.

St. John's law firm Morris Martin Moore announced its bid to certify the suit in September 2020, and Justice Valerie Marshall granted consent on Thursday.

Lawyer James Locke says since the announcement of the lawsuit, about 70 former inmates have contacted the firm with stories of being kept in solitary confinement or segregation for extended periods of time.

The lawsuit spans three decades, going back to 1990, and will also include inmates who spent time in segregation while they had a serious mental illness.

The provincial government did not immediately respond to request for comment on the suit.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2021.

The Canadian Press

A flying car could allow us to get from point A to B, exploring the skies while never sitting in traffic.

© Opener Marcus Leng flying BlackFly

This technology is no longer the stuff of fantasy. Numerous companies around the world are racing to make theirs available.

Canada’s Marcus Leng leads one of them.

“I think we've all had dreams of complete three-dimensional freedom," said Leng, who is the CEO of Opener, a company developing a personal aerial vehicle.

As a young boy walking to school, he would wonder if there would ever be an aircraft that you could just jump in "and be able to take off vertically and fly wherever you wanted."

He started designing and building prototypes in his basement in the small community of Warkworth, Ont.

Read more: Ground-breaking flying taxi cruises through Paris

“I think our house became a factory," he recalls.

"The basement was used for basically doing all the structure work … and the kitchen was basically used for manufacturing motors,” he told Global's current affairs show, The New Reality. “We used to bake the motors in the oven. Boy, would that stink.”

It took over a year for him to fly his first proof-of-concept vehicle in his front yard.

“I found myself eventually at the end of our driveway and my friends and neighbours … were behind a barrier of cars that we had set up,” Leng said.

“And I figure, just like in skiing, I'll do a skidding turn in front of them. All went very well, except during the skidding turn, the edge of the wing made contact with the lawn … but the propulsion systems reacted so fast that it basically created this long divot as it scraped through grass without the aircraft losing any control.”

Using eVTOL, which stands for electric-powered vertical takeoff and landing, Leng said he was able to produce a vehicle that doesn’t need a runway to get off the ground.

It’s called BlackFly. Some people often refer to it as a flying car. Leng calls it a personal aerial vehicle designed to fit one person.

Read more: Flying car completes intercity test flight in Slovakia

Anyone up to six feet six inches and weighing 200 pounds or less can use it.

It has a joystick, can fly in -20 Celsius weather, and operate in about 32 km/h winds.

“In the United States, which is our primary market, we have very serious weight restrictions. So, the American vehicles have a 20-plus mile (32 km) range for an operator that's 200 pounds,” Leng said.

Video: Driving to new heights: Canadian team designs flying car set to take off soon (Global News)

“In Canada, we don't have those weight constraints and also we don't have speed constraints,” said Leng, who in 2014 relocated the majority of his operations to Palo Alto, Calif.

One of the key features about BlackFly is you don’t need a pilot’s licence to fly it.

According to Leng, a potential owner would have to complete a training course and be at least 18 years old.

“The nice thing about our vehicle is (that in) both the United States and Canada (it's) classified as an ultralight aircraft,” he said. “In Canada, you require an ultralight licence, which is relatively easy and straightforward to obtain.”

In order to fly it, you need to take a short training course.

“I think the most unique thing is that I can be an operator, you can be an operator … in the course of about two days and a few hours of simulation how to safely fly this aircraft,” said Kristina Menton, who is the director of operations, flight testing and propulsion lead at Opener.

“That is something that is exceptionally novel and really incredible — to be able to give that type of experience of three-dimensional flight to regular people.”

She said the aircraft is almost exclusively made from carbon fibre, including the wings, fuselage and propellers. It’s electric, and therefore emissions-free.

“We have autoland features. So basically, when you get close to the ground, the aircraft will take over,” Menton said.
Canadians who help make BlackFly ... fly

Menton has been working on BlackFly for years. When she first signed on with the company, she had no idea what product she’d be working on.

“I first met Marcus on a phone call the day before my last exam of university. He was looking to hire two mechanical engineers. At the time, the company was completely in stealth mode and he wasn't able to say what the product was, who the investors were, really any of the technical details,” Menton told Global News.

“But I could get from the phone call that it was a pretty exciting and innovative opportunity and decided to take the leap to jump on board.”

She wasn’t the only one who took the leap. Eleanor Li, Menton’s classmate at the University of Toronto in mechanical engineering, did too. She joined Opener and moved to Silicon Valley without knowing the project she was hired to work on.

“Marcus basically came along and said, ‘Oh, we're making this huge carbon epoxy part. Do you want to be part of our team?’ And I just said, 'Yes, yes, here I am,'” said Li, who is now the plant manager at Opener.

For years, Leng had been secretly working on his invention while recruiting.

It wasn’t until 2018 that he started letting the world get a glimpse of BlackFly.

In July 2021, Li, Menton and Leng flew Blackfly at the Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture show in Oshkosh, Wisc. The annual event can bring in hundreds of thousands of spectators.

“The flight is incredible. You have a panoramic view of anywhere,” said Li. “I told this to a few people at Oshkosh: when you're in the aircraft, you feel like you are the aircraft and the aircraft is you.”

The team is working hard to make the aircraft available to consumers soon.

But first adopters will only be able to fly in rural areas. BlackFly is not allowed to go over built-up areas.

Leng is keeping the price tag to himself, but he believes as the industry advances, BlackFly will become more accessible to people.

“Our objective for next year is to produce 260 vehicles. But the ultimate goal is to be producing tens of thousands of these at a price that would be in line with an SUV,” he said.

--

See this and other original stories about our world on The New Reality airing Saturday nights on Global TV, and online.

#ABOLISHTHESENATE INCREASE SEATS IN PARLIAMENT

COMMENTARY: Bloc leader’s threat to unleash ‘fires of hell’ over Quebec seat proposal might just 

A proposed rejigging of Canada’s electoral map could see Quebec lose one of its seats in the House of Commons by 2024 while Alberta gains three and Ontario and B.C. each gain one.

© Provided by Global News Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet speaks to supporters election night Tuesday, September 21, 2021 in Montreal.

Randy Boswell is a Carleton University journalism professor and former Postmedia News national writer.

The changes would increase the total number of federal ridings to 342 from 338.

Read more: Quebec to lose 1 electoral seat, Alberta to get 3 more after new riding distribution

There are reasonable arguments for and against implementing the exact changes recommended by Elections Canada. But Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet’s opening salvo in the debate — that the BQ would “unleash the fires of hell” if his province’s seat count is dropped to 77 from 78 — is the wrong way to begin what needs to be a calm, cool conversation about updating the country’s political geography.

How are we supposed to respond to Blanchet’s Trumpian explosion of outrage? Can thoughtful discussion follow a toddler’s tantrum?

Injecting apocalyptic rhetoric into a decision-making process that must be driven by the fundamental democratic principle of representation by population — and basic math — is precisely how to inflame prejudices, fuel interprovincial pettiness and polarize the nation.

Blanchet, of course, knows this. Driving wedges wherever possible between Quebec and the rest of Canada is crucial, by definition, to the political project of any diehard separatist.

So we shouldn’t be too surprised that Blanchet has zeroed in histrionically on the planned removal of a single Quebec seat from the Commons as if it were a sign of the End Times. Although Elections Canada proposed the change for the benign reason that Quebec’s population is not growing at the same pace as the populations in Alberta, Ontario or B.C. — and because Quebec is (relative to those other big provinces) already more fairly represented in the current parliamentary seat count — Blanchet is invoking biblical imagery of the final battle between Good and Evil.

Sonia LeBel, Quebec’s minister responsible for relations with the rest of Canada, has employed more moderate language — and advanced a more compelling rationale — in urging special considerations for the province in the latest redistribution of federal ridings.

“We are part of the founding peoples of Canada,” she said this week. “We have three seats guaranteed at the Supreme Court for judges. We have seats guaranteed in the Senate, a weight that is important and represents much more than just a simple calculation of population.”

All of this is why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other political leaders interested in preserving the peace in our mostly peaceable kingdom need to rise above Blanchet’s blatant bullying while finding a sensible solution to the seat-count conundrum — one that delicately balances numerical fairness with other considerations endemic in a land of complexity and compromise.

Remember: there’s no purely mathematical justification for granting a federal seat to each of Canada’s three territories — none of which has a population above 50,000 — when the average number of Canadians represented by each MP is more than 110,000. There’s no logical reason, either, for Prince Edward Island — with a mere 0.43 per cent of the national population of about 38 million — to have four seats representing 1.19 per cent of the elected positions in Parliament.

So there may well be legitimate reasons to avoid reducing Quebec’s seat count at this time.

In 2011, the Conservative government of Stephen Harper implemented legislation that increased the number of seats to 338 from 308 to reflect population changes. At the time, the Harper government — with much prodding from Quebec, the BQ and other opposition parties — chose to inflate the overall size of the House of the Commons so that the number of Quebec seats would increase (by three, to 78) instead of remaining static at 75 — as an earlier, hotly rejected, purely mathematical proposal had called for.

The government’s thinking at the time was that tweaking the formula for allocating seats in a way that would better recognize Quebec’s special status as a nation within the nation was politically prudent.

It also happened to keep the province’s seat total roughly proportional to its percentage of Canada’s population, even as those two numbers remained unfairly out of whack for faster-growing provinces.

The Quebec-friendly adjustment wasn’t immediately embraced by Harper’s own caucus. The additional Quebec seats, according to a Globe and Mail report at the time, “caused consternation among Conservative backbenchers, who were concerned that Canada's French-speaking province was benefiting from a bill meant to address under-representation in the three large and fast-growing anglophone provinces” — Alberta, Ontario and B.C.

Sound familiar?

The Conservative caucus was ultimately convinced by Harper to accept the plan for the sake of national unity. But despite the Quebec-friendly compromise, the pre-Blanchet Bloc Québécois still slammed the 2011 reconfiguration of the House as falling short of true recognition of the province’s “unique status with regard to its political weight.”

You can’t please everyone. As then-B.C. premier Christy Clark, who supported the 2011 changes, said at the time: “Perfection in these things is impossible because it's a big and complicated country.”

A decade later, the scenario confronting Elections Canada, the federal government and the provinces is much the same. And maybe a little massaging of the numbers to mollify Quebec is warranted yet again.

Would it be so bad if Quebec kept its 78 seats and we had 343 federal ridings instead of 342? That would represent about 22.7 per cent of the seats in the House for a province with about 22.6 per cent of Canada’s population. (Meanwhile, Ontario’s proposed 122 seats would then account for 35.6 per cent of 343 seats for a province with almost 39 per cent of the country’s population.)

But Blanchet’s bluster about unleashing the “fires of hell” risks torching the good will required for the rest of Canada to grant Quebec some latitude in its allotment of seats in the national legislature. It’s the kind of talk that’s more likely to unleash cynicism and stinginess.

And eventually, if population trends continue in the current direction, maintaining Quebec’s present share of federal seats as its population drifts towards one-fifth of Canada’s total will become untenable from a democratic point of view — Blanchet’s fires of hell notwithstanding.

THE QUEBEC NATION SHOULD NOT CARE ABOUT SEATS IN OTTAWA 

Quebec premier says Trudeau must ensure the Quebec nation does not lose a seat

The Quebec premier has challenged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to ensure that the province does not lose a seat in the planned redistribution of parliamentary ridings in Canada.

  

© Provided by The Canadian Press

François Legault said that, following the recognition of Quebec as a nation by Parliament, ensuring it does not lose political representation in Ottawa is a "test" for Trudeau.

His challenge to the prime minister to protect Quebec's political influence in Parliament follows Elections Canada's plans to strip the province of an MP in the House of Commons.

Quebec is the only province set to lose a seat in the proposed redistribution of seats, based on population.

Speaking at a news conference in L'Assomption, Que. on Friday, Legault said: "It’s a test for Justin Trudeau, because it’s nice to recognize that Quebec is a nation, but now there has to be an effect."

"I think the nation of Quebec deserves a certain level of representation in the House of Commons, regardless of the evolution of the number of inhabitants in each province.”

Elections Canada said the chief electoral officer of Canada calculated the redistribution of seats in an independent and non-partisan manner, applying a formula set out in the Constitution.

It said, in a statement, that the calculation was "mathematical" and the chief electoral officer "exercises no discretionary authority" over how many Commons seats would be allocated to each province.

Overall, the number of seats in the House of Commons will increase by four, to account for population changes, under plans published this month by Elections Canada.

The review, which follows the census, will increase the number of MPs from 338 to 342.

But Quebec’s 78 MPs will be reduced to 77 — the first time since 1966 that a province has lost a seat during redistribution.

Alberta is gaining three more seats, Ontario one and B.C. one, while other provinces and territories will keep the same number of MPs.

The next step will be for three-member commissions in each province — which don't include elected officials — to draw up proposed boundaries. MPs can provide input on the proposed boundaries, but the commissions are not obliged to make changes based on their comments, Elections Canada says.

Legault's comments came as Yves-François Blanchet, the Bloc Québécois leader, insisted that Quebec gain an extra seat in Ottawa.

Blanchet said Elections Canada's plan to strip Quebec of an MP fails to acknowledge Quebec's official status as a nation and would reduce the power of Quebecers.

Blanchet said Quebec should have 79 MPs, not 77.

"On June 16, 2021, the House of Commons massively recognized the status of the French nation of Quebec. So it makes sense that not only should Quebecers not have to lose a seat in the next redistribution, but instead gain more, if the total number is increased, in order to maintain and give lasting protection to their political power," Blanchet said in a statement.

At his news conference, Legault said: “What’s important is the percentage of seats, whether it’s more for everyone or fewer for everyone, what’s important is the percentage, that we keep the percentage of seats that we currently have."

He said that changing populations may matter in other provinces “but from the moment when we say the Quebec nation is one of the two founding people, it has to have consequences. The consequence, among others, is preserving the influence of the Quebec nation in the House of Commons.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2021.

Marie Woolf and Jacob Serebrin, The Canadian Press

Alberta's prosthetic funding model is outdated and unfair, amputees say

Madeleine Cummings 

© Nathan Gross/CBC 

Angela Oakley walks her dog, Gretchen, in Edmonton while using her new microprocessor knee.

After months in a wheelchair, Angela Oakley is walking again, slowly descending the front steps of her parents' house in Edmonton's Highlands neighbourhood as she makes her way to a physiotherapy appointment at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital.

Oakley, a veterinarian who lives in Grande Prairie, Alta., started battling a bone infection in her left leg when she was in vet school in 2010. After scores of surgeries and having part of her leg amputated a few years ago, she became an above-knee amputee in March.

Last week, after months of complications and pandemic-related delays, she finally received a new prosthetic knee that should allow her to walk, cross-country ski and ride horses again. A longtime multi-sport athlete, she also has dreams of representing Canada at the Paralympic Games.

Her mobility, however, comes at a high price. Her new knee costs about $57,000 and Alberta Aids to Daily Living, the provincial program that funds medical equipment for long-term disabilities, will pay no more than $6,000.

If she lived in England, her prosthetic limb would be fully covered. But in Alberta and other Canadian provinces, amputees are responsible for paying most of the cost.

"How many Albertans can turn around and drop $50,000 on a knee?" Oakley said during an interview with CBC News last week.

Oakley, who launched a petition advocating for prosthetic funding changes and contacted Alberta's health minister, believes the current funding structure is outdated and unfair, preventing amputees who cannot afford limbs they need from doing activities they love and fully contributing to their communities.

In a country known for its universal health care system, "we're letting all of these people down," she said.

Why are some knees so expensive?

There are generally two types of prosthetic knees: mechanical and microprocessor.

A mechanical knee replaces the knee joint with a mechanical hinge, but a microprocessor — also known as "computerized" — knee is much more sophisticated — and expensive.

With a computer and sensors, a microprocessor knee automatically adapts to real-time information about the user's gait and walking speed.

For some amputees, a cheaper mechanical knee is sufficient, but not for Oakley, who is highly active with a physically demanding job. She also felt unsafe using a mechanical knee because of the nerve damage and lack of muscle strength in her left leg.

"I didn't have the quadriceps strength to swing it through and lock it," she said. "When I would step, the knee wouldn't be locked, so it would just collapse out from under me."

Oakley was shocked to learn that microprocessor knees cost from $35,000 to $95,000, and that the most she would receive from Alberta Health is a $6,000 grant covering about 10 per cent of the cost.

As a below-knee amputee, she only paid a $500 deductible for prosthetic components.

Friends, family and colleagues helped her raise money through a crowdfunding campaign and other online fundraisers, but she was only able to pay for the microprocessor knee thanks to her employer contributing the rest.

Her new knee won't last forever either. Oakley, 32, expects she will need five to eight replacements over her lifetime, as prosthetic knees usually last six to 10 years.

Oakley managed to pay for her knee, but amputees who cannot afford them often end up using prosthetics that are less suited to their bodies, she said.

© Nathan Gross/CBC Ben Proulx's microprocessor knee allows him to play sports like tennis and go hiking with his family. He has advocated for more prosthetic funding for years.
Years of advocacy, no results

Ben Proulx, who lost one of his legs to cancer when he was four years old, received his first microprocessor knee when he was a teenager.

Like Oakley, he struggled to use a mechanical knee, experiencing back problems and hip pain.

His current knee, which he paid for with crowdfunding proceeds and funds from the War Amps, has allowed him to coach youth sports and hike with his family without pain.

"It allows me to have a more normal lifestyle and it takes less of a toll on my body," Proulx said.

He has advocated for more prosthetic funding from the last three provincial governments without success.

Proulx's prosthetist has accompanied him to meetings with policymakers, armed with studies and data showing long-term cost savings associated with funding microprocessor knees, but he said the conversations still "go nowhere."

"It would actually be a minimal spend for the government to up their game and take care of Albertans who have a prosthetic leg and fund it properly up front. But they're not likely to gain any votes from it because there are not that many of us."

His current knee, which cost $40,000, will likely need to be replaced in four or five years and Proulx worries about how he will pay for a new one.

"It gets very demoralizing over time wondering, 'Hey, where's my next body part going to come from?' when that's really not something that you should have to worry about," he said.

Alberta Health spokesperson Carolyn Gregson said the Alberta Aids to Daily Living program "is intended to meet basic needs to help Albertans remain independent."

Gregson said the program provided grants for microprocessors to eight Albertans in the 2020–21 fiscal year

.

© Madeleine Cummings/CBC

 According to Calvin Howard's research, provincial funding for microprocessor knees is minimal in Canada.

'We need to increase coverage'

In an article for the Canadian Prosthetics & Orthotics Journal, Calvin Howard and his colleagues reviewed prosthetic coverage in all 10 provinces, finding variable funding levels.

They discovered amputees could receive up to $15,000 for microprocessor knees in Saskatchewan and up to $20,000 in New Brunswick. Nova Scotia's coverage was similar to Alberta's. No provinces fully funded them.

Howard, who is now a doctor in Manitoba, said the cost of prosthetics has exploded in recent years but provincial policies have not caught up.

"We need to increase coverage if we're really going to be able to provide for amputees," he said.

Though advanced prosthetics are expensive up-front, he said, research has shown that high-quality prosthetics can lead to societal cost-savings over time.

Someone using a microprocessor knee for a decade, for example, will put less strain on their hip, reducing their likelihood of needing a total hip replacement than if they had used a "minimally functional prosthetic device," he said.

150 mph without a driver: Indy autonomous cars gear up for race

Issued on: 23/10/2021 - 

An autonomous car competing at the Indy Autonomous Challenge 

Ed JONES AFP

Indianapolis (AFP)

Nine single-seaters will take part in the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC), a competition with a $1 million prize that aims to prove "autonomous technology can work at extreme conditions," said Paul Mitchell, CEO of co-organizer Energy Systems Network (ESN).

Cars will not race on the "Brickyard" track at the same time but will start one after the other -- with the winner being the fastest over two full-speed laps.

Teams are made up of students from around the world. Each group was given the same Dallara IL-15 car, which looks like a small Formula One vehicle, and the same equipment, which includes sensors, cameras, GPS and radars.

On race day, it is not drivers that will make the difference -- but about 40,000 lines of code programmed by each team.

There will be cars racing Saturday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 

but not a driver in sight 

Ed JONES AFP

The software kickstarts the engine and a powerful computer wedged in the bucket where the driver usually sits.

The MIT-PITT-RW team, the only one made up entirely of students without supervision, got their car only six weeks ago.

Engineering student Nayana Suvarna, 22, does not yet have a driving license but was nonetheless reluctantly designated as team manager.

"I didn't know anything about car racing," she said with a smile, "but I'm becoming a fan."

The MIT-PITT-RW's car hit 130 km/h (81 mph) in testing, but Suvarna believes it capable of overtaking 160 on Saturday (100 mph).

'Generation of talent'

Other teams have gone much faster.

The car belonging to the PoliMOVE team, a partnership between the universities of Alabama and Politecnico in Milan, drove past the pits at around 250 km/h (155 mph) on Thursday.

But the car skidded at the next turn, spinning 360 degrees before coming to a stop on the inside lawn.

"It was a miracle we didn't crash," said Sergio Matteo Savaresi, professor at Politecnico.

There was no glitch to blame: only cold tires and a slight oversteer.

"We actually reached the very limit of the car," said Savaresi, who overseas the PoliMOVE team.

"A professional driver at that speed with tires like these would have done exactly the same."

The Robocar, made by manufacturer Roborace, has held the speed record for an autonomous car since 2019, clocking in at 282 km/h (175 mph) -- but on a straight course, not a circuit.

The concept of self-driving cars has captured imaginations since the 1950s, but the tech needed to make them a reality has been boosted over the past five years.

In the Indy Autonomous Challenge, it is not the drivers that make a difference on race day, but 40,000 lines of code programmed by each team

 Ed JONES AFP

Most big car manufacturers are working on autonomous driving projects, often in collaboration with tech giants such as Amazon, Microsoft or Cisco.

IAC participants do not see speed as the primary goal.

"If people get used to seeing cars like these going 300 kilometers per hour... and they don't crash," said Savaresi, they may eventually think that such cars are safe "at 50 kilometers per hour."

According to a Morning Consult survey published in September, 47 percent of Americans considered autonomous vehicles less safe than those driven by humans.

The race's other goal is to enable tech sharing.

Mitchell said several teams plan to make their code publicly available and open source after the competition.

"So you're going to take some of the most advanced AI algorithms ever developed for autonomous vehicles, and put it out there for industry, for startups, for other universities to build on."

The project also aims to "develop a generation of talent," Savaresi said.

"The people who are competing in this challenge are going to go and start companies, they're going to go work for companies. And so I think the innovations from this competition will live on for many years."

© 2021 AFP

#OUTLAWHOMEWORK

China passes law to reduce pressure on children from homework

Issued on: 23/10/2021 - 

China has passed a new law to limit the pressure on children from homework and after-school tutoring Hector RETAMAL AFP

Beijing (AFP)

The government has imposed several rules in recent months aimed at combating activities it considers harmful to the development of China's youth.

Beijing has already banned minors from playing online games for more than three hours a week in an effort to tackle addiction. It has also launched a crackdown on private tutoring companies, ordering them to go non-profit.

Local authorities will be told to "strengthen their supervision in order to reduce the burden on students in terms of homework and extra-curricular lessons", said news agency Xinhua, citing a law passed by the Chinese legislature.

"Parents... must allocate in a reasonable way for minors the time devoted to studies, rest, entertainment and physical activity in order not to increase their learning load and to avoid any internet addiction."

The law will come into force on January 1 next year.

China's exam-oriented education system requires students to take exams from an early age and culminates in the feared university entrance exam at age 18 known as the "gaokao", where a single score can determine a child's life trajectory.

Many parents spend a fortune to enrol their children in the best schools or private lessons, which takes a toll on both their finances and the health of the youngsters.

Reducing the pressure on parents is also seen as a way to encourage Chinese people to have more children as the country's population ages.

© 2021 AFP

#BANBLASPHEMYLAWS
Deadly clashes as banned Pakistan party continues protest

Issued on: 23/10/2021 - 

TLP supporters use mobile phone flashlights during their protest march towards Islamabad on Friday Arif ALI AFP


Lahore (Pakistan) (AFP)

On Friday more than 1,000 people from Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) gathered after prayers to demand the release of their detained leader, blocking roads and firing projectiles.

The protests continued on Saturday.

The TLP has previously been behind major anti-France protests that earlier this year led to the embassy issuing a warning for all French citizens to leave the country.

"Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan lost two people Friday night and three more today to police firing," the party tweeted on Saturday.

Police in Lahore would not comment on the claim, but on Friday night said two of its officers had died.

"The clashes are still ongoing," Rana Arif, a spokesman for Lahore police, told AFP.

"This is a defensive operation by police against the mob... We are only doing shelling to control the crowd."

TLP leader Saad Rizvi was arrested in April when Pakistan's government outlawed the party in response to violent anti-France protests.

Supporters have threatened to move in convoys towards the capital Islamabad, where police have closed off roads using shipping containers.

The party has vowed not to end the protests or enter talks with the government until their leader is released.

Interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, who had been in Dubai to watch Pakistan compete in the T20 cricket World Cup, returned home on Prime Minister Imran Khan's directive to monitor the situation.

The TLP has waged an anti-France campaign since President Emmanuel Macron defended the right of a satirical magazine to republish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed -- an act deemed blasphemous by many Muslims.

Six police officers were killed in April when the TLP staged days of rallies which paralysed roads.

Few issues are as galvanising in Pakistan as blasphemy, and even the slightest suggestion of an insult to Islam can supercharge protests, incite lynchings, and unite most of the country's warring political parties.

© 2021 AFP

French football star Patrice Evra says he was sexually abused as a teen

Issued on: 23/10/2021

Former France defender Patrice Evra has said he was sexually abused as a teenager. 

© Yann Buxeda

Text by :NEWS WIRES

Former Manchester United and France defender Patrice Evra has said he was sexually abused as a teenager. In an interview to publicise his new autobiography, Evra told The Times on Friday the abuse took place when he was a 13-year-old schoolboy.

The now 40-year-old Evra said that far more difficult than detailing the abuse in his autobiography or speaking about it in an interview, was telling his mother for the first time.

"Of course, she was devastated," he told The Times. "It was a tough moment for me. I have still to tell a few of my brothers and sisters and close friends."

Evra said he had decided to make a public revelation in order to help children who may be in a similar situation.

"I don't want people to feel pity," he explained. "It's a difficult situation.

"A mother does not expect to hear this from their own child...

"Only now when I am 40 years old do I tell her. It was a big shock for her. A lot of anger. She said she was sorry.

"She said: 'You must not put it in your book, it's private Patrice,' but that's when I say, mum, it's not about me, it's about other kids then she says OK, she understands."

Evra added he did not plan to take legal action against his alleged assailant.

"The first thing my mum says is, 'if you don't sue him, I'll sue him. If he's still alive, I'm going to kill him'...But I buried this thing so deep I didn't think about (prosecution)."

Evra also told The Times that when he was 24 and playing for Monaco, he received a call from police regarding accusations against his alleged abuser but that he felt unable to tell them what had happened to him.

"Living with that was one of my biggest regrets because I could have helped so many people," he added.

(AFP)

Trapped in 'cruel' forest, migrant 

 REFUGEE regrets Belarus-EU crossing

"I refuse to die at the border. I just want to see my mum."

Issued on: 23/10/2021 - 

Lebanese barber Ali Abd Alwareth is stuck in a border forest after Belarus told him: "You have only two choices: either you die here or you die in Poland

" Wojtek RADWANSKI AFP

Kleszczele (Poland) (AFP)

"It's miserable. Something that you don't wish for your worst enemy... A nightmare," the soft-spoken 24-year-old with Crohn's disease told AFP.

Sitting cross-legged on a bed of pine needles and dead leaves near the border town of Kleszczele in eastern Poland, Abd Alwareth described being a ping-pong ball for the guards.

"I tried crossing like five, six times, and every time I got caught and deported back to the border" by Poland, he said in English.

The Belarusian side meanwhile refused to let him return to Minsk to fly home.

Abd Alwareth said security forces told him: "You have only two choices: either you die here or you die in Poland. That's it."

One of thousands of migrants -- mostly from the Middle East -- who have tried to penetrate the 400-kilometre (250-mile) border since August, Abd Alwareth said he left the financial crisis in Lebanon in search of a better life.

The whole journey from his home region of Bekaa cost $4,000 and involved help from a Minsk-based company he found on social media.

The EU suspects Belarus is masterminding the unprecedented influx of migrants into Poland as a form of retaliation against EU sanctions, but the regime has put the blame on the West.

'I feel like a puppet'

Poland has sent thousands of troops, built a razor-wire fence and implemented a three-month state of emergency that bans journalists and charity workers along the immediate border area.

Though "exhausted" and "devastated," Abd Alwareth said he understood that the border guards "are doing their job" 

Wojtek RADWANSKI AFP

During his gruelling time in the woods, Abd Alwareth said he drank water off of leaves, was too cold to sleep, and was once hit on the head by either the Polish army or police.

Though "exhausted" and "devastated," he said he understood that the border guards "are doing their job. They are protecting their country. We are illegal."

On Friday, Abd Alwareth and his Syrian walking companions managed to get in touch with Polish activists, who met them in the forest with warm clothes and food as well as offering support when the guards arrived.

His fate up in the air, Abd Alwareth hopes to receive asylum in Poland -- or at the very least, to return to Lebanon.

"Okay, you don't want me here, you don't want me in Belarus. Just deport me back home. That's all I'm asking for," he said.

"What is happening in the forest is cruel... I feel like a puppet. It was my decision, I came this way -- but not to be treated like this," he added.

"I refuse to die at the border. I just want to see my mum."

© 2021 AFP

ISLAMIST FASCIST DICTATOR ERDOGAN
Turkey's Erdogan orders expulsion of 10 ambassadors

Issued on: 23/10/2021 -

Osman Kavala has become a symbol for Erdogan's intolerance of dissent 

OZAN KOSE AFP/File

Ankara (AFP)

The envoys issued a highly unusual joint statement on Monday saying the continued detention of Parisian-born philanthropist and activist Osman Kavala "cast a shadow" over Turkey.

The escalating row with the Western countries -- most of which are also NATO allies -- caps a torrid week for Turkey in which it was added to a global money-laundering and terrorism-financing blacklist and its currency plunged over fears of economic mismanagement and the risk of hyperinflation.

"I have ordered our foreign minister to declare these 10 ambassadors as persona non grata as soon as possible," Erdogan said, using a diplomatic term meaning the first step before expulsion.

"They must leave here the day they no longer know Turkey," he said, accusing them of "indecency".

The Western ambassadors had called for a "just and speedy resolution" to Kavala's case.
'President-made crisis'

Kavala, 64, has been in jail without a conviction since 2017, and faces a string of charges linked to 2013 anti-government protests and a failed military coup in 2016.

In comments about the ambassadors published in local media on Thursday, Erdogan said "we cannot have the luxury of hosting them in our country".

The Turkish lira extended its fall into record-low territory against the dollar within moments of Erdogan's comments on fears of a new wave of Turkish tensions with the West.

The lira has lost one-fifth of its value against the dollar since the start of the year and the annual inflation rate has reached nearly 20 percent -- quadruple the government target.

Erdogan is in danger of "dragging the Turkish economy into a president-made crisis", Eurasia Group said.

The diplomatic friction was compounded when the global financial misconduct watchdog FATF followed through on threats to place Turkey under surveillance for failing to properly combat money laundering and terrorism financing.

Turkey joins a "grey list" of countries that includes Syria, South Sudan and Yemen.

Erdogan had fought hard against the designation, introducing new legislation that was ostensibly aimed to fight terror networks -- but which critics said ended up mostly targeted Turkish NGOs that promote pro-Kurdish causes and human rights.

Although not well known internationally, Kavala has become a symbol to his supporters of the sweeping crackdown Erdogan unleashed after surviving the 2016 coup attempt.

Speaking to AFP from his jail cell last week, Kavala said he felt like a tool in Erdogan's attempts to blame a foreign plot for domestic opposition to his nearly two-decade rule.

"The real reason behind my continued detention is that it addresses the need of the government to keep alive the fiction that the (2013) Gezi protests were the result of a foreign conspiracy," Kavala said.

"Since I am accused of being a part of this conspiracy allegedly organised by foreign powers, my release would weaken the fiction in question and this is not something that the government would like."

Kavala was acquitted of the Gezi charges in February 2020, only to be re-arrested before he could return home and thrown back in jail over alleged links to the 2016 coup plot.

The Council of Europe, the continent's top human rights watchdog, has issued a final warning to Turkey to comply with a 2019 European Court of Human Rights order to release Kavala pending trial.

If Turkey fails to do so by its next meeting on November 30-December 2, the Strasbourg-based council could vote to launch its first disciplinary proceedings against Ankara.

The proceedings could result in the suspension of Turkey's voting rights and even its membership.

© 2021 AFP