This faraway galaxy may be completely devoid of dark matter


By Mara Johnson-Groh

published 1 day ago

A galaxy without dark matter would upend fundamental theories about galaxy formation.

The galaxy AGC 114905 seems to be devoid of dark matter. In this image, the stellar emission is shown in blue; and green clouds show the neutral hydrogen gas. (Image credit: Javier Román & Pavel Mancera Piña, CC BY 4.0)

On the surface, a galaxy 250 million light-years from Earth seems like any other, but a deeper look reveals a puzzling quirk: It seems to have no dark matter.

If these galaxies are ultimately confirmed to be devoid of dark matter, it could upend fundamental theories about the making of galaxies (dark matter is considered essential to this process). And that, in turn, could rule out a leading candidate for the mysterious substance, called cold dark matter.

"In principle, galaxies like this shouldn't exist," said Pavel Mancera Piña, a doctoral candidate in astronomy at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and an astronomer at ASTRON (the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy), referring to the fact that dark matter is thought to be the glue that holds a galaxy's stars, gas and dust together. "We cannot effectively explain them with any existing theory," said Mancera Piña, who is the lead author of a new paper describing the findings.

The galaxy, called AGC 114905, is an ultradiffuse galaxy (UDG). These galaxies are faint; AGC 114905 is about the same size as the Milky Way but has 1,000 times fewer stars.

When Mancera Piña and his colleagues first looked at AGC 114905 in 2019 , they suspected it might not have dark matter because of how fast it was rotating. The speed at which a galaxy rotates reveals how much stuff it contains; the more massive a galaxy, the stronger its gravity and the faster it spins. By comparing the speed with how much stuff can be seen — the amount of stars, gas and dust — astronomers can work backward to figure out how much extra invisible stuff — dark matter — must be present to account for the speed of the galaxy.

But because the galaxy in question is so faint, they didn't have enough data initially to fully resolve the rotation speed to tell if it was totally devoid of dark matter. So they went back for a second look, compiling 40 hours of observations with the Very Large Array, a radio observatory in New Mexico.

Through their observations, which mapped the gas in the galaxy, the astronomers figured out how fast the gas was moving. This allowed them to figure out the galaxy's rotation speed and thus how much dark matter is present in the galaxy. But ultimately the researchers concluded that there doesn't seem to be any room for dark matter.

"That's what we were expecting, of course, but you never know," Mancera Piña said. "It was still a bit of a surprise."

Missing dark matter

In the past, astronomers have discovered some UDGs that are rich in dark matter and others lacking it, Live Science previously reported. Some of the latter type are found near more massive galaxies; this finding suggests they may have lost their dark matter through interactions with their larger nearby galaxies, whose gravity may have whisked the smaller galaxies' dark matter away. But considering AGC 114905 doesn't have any massive galaxies nearby, that explanation is unlikely, Mancera Piña said.

This poses a challenge to theories of galaxy formation, because dark matter is thought to be essential for their formation, as its gravity helps pull the relatively rarer normal material together. If there are galaxies with no dark matter, that implies dark matter may not be needed to form galaxies.

Studying AGC 114905 also gives astronomers a new way to test the nature of dark matter. Current theories of galaxy formation rely on a special type of dark matter called cold dark matter, but if those theories don't explain weird galaxies like AGC 114905, then maybe cold dark matter isn't workable either.

"We have been trying to understand what dark matter is for the last 50 years, but we seem to have reached some kind of dead end," Mancera Piña said. By carefully studying this galaxy and others like it, the astronomers might be able to provide constraints on what dark matter might be like, if it's not cold dark matter. In the study, the researchers also applied models of an alternative theory to dark matter called Modified Newtonian dynamics, or MOND, to see if that could explain the galaxy's unique characteristics. However, this theory wasn't able to reconcile the speed of the galaxy either.

Pieter van Dokkum, an astronomer atYale University who has studied dark matter-deficient UDGs but was not involved with the new work, said he thinks the new findings are promising and significant, but that more research will be required for astronomers to be sure the galaxy is truly devoid of dark matter.

"There will be a lot of discussion," van Dokkum said. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

The study authors plan to study AGC 114905 further and are gathering observations of other UDGs that might be free of dark matter.

The findings were published on Nov. 30 to the preprint server arXiv and have been accepted for publication in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Originally published on Live Science.

SEE 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for AETHYR 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for ETHER 

THIS PHOTO OF THE SUN IS SO ABSURDLY DETAILED THAT IT LOOKS LIKE A LIVING ORGANISM

"ORDINARILY, TAKING A TELESCOPE AND POINTING AT THE SUN WOULD BE INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS."


Black Hole Sun

Famed astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy has truly outdone himself with his latest picture of the Sun.

McCarthy, who calls himself “just a normal guy with a telescope” on his Instagram account, stitched a whopping 150,000 images of the Sun together to form a massive 300 megapixel image he titled “Fire and Fusion.”

The result is a glorious swirling mess of hot gases that almost appear almost organism-like — an angry ball of energy that gave life to everything around us billions of years ago.

What makes it all the more impressive was the fact that it was taken from a backyard, rather than by an orbital telescope or space probe that had to travel almost 100 million miles to get up close.

OPINION

As reigning world chess champion Magnus Carlsen marches toward a fifth straight title, the question is: Is he so good that it’s bad?

CATHAL KELLY

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

SPORT


If you like your sports narratives with some Biblical flavour, this year’s world chess championships is for you.

It’s no longer nearly good enough to call the defending (x4) champion Magnus Carlsen the favourite in any tournament. He is the highest rated player in history. He’s been world No. 1 for nearly a decade. He’s been world champion for that whole stretch.

This time around, the poor sap lined up against him against him is a Russian, Ian Nepomniachtchi, commonly referred to as Nepo.

Like a lot of top chess players, Nepo doesn’t exactly leap from your screen via his irresistible physical charisma. The only visually interesting thing about him is that he wears a top knot. You get the feeling this guy may be a little too into Kurosawa.

For the first bit, things were progressing alright for Nepo against the peerless Norwegian. After seven of the planned 14 games, they’d drawn a half-dozen times.

According to the computers that measure such things, a couple of those games ranked 1-2 as the most tactically precise encounters in world chess championship history. We were watching two masters at work.

Carlsen was still winning, but Nepo was in there with a shot. Then we got to the eighth game.

It was played after a rest day. Nepo showed up having shorn off the top knot. Apparently, he is the first ever professional athlete who thinks that when things are bumping along just fine, that’s the time to make a major change to your routine.

In chess, there are three categories of error - inaccuracies, mistakes and blunders.

Midway through the game, Nepo blundered. In notation, the move was 27 C5. He dangled a pawn and left a bishop exposed.

The mistake was so enormous that it left Carlsen shaking his head slowly in wonderment. Either he couldn’t believe his luck, or he resented an opponent beating himself before he had a chance to do so. Once he realized what he’d done (almost instantaneously), Nepo leapt from his chair and fled the playing hall.

“You work your whole lifetime for one shot and this is what happens on the biggest scene,” British chess champion David Howell said, according to the Guardian. “He’s probably never blundered like this in his whole career. It’s just so sad.”

Nepo lost the ninth game as well, and then drew the tenth. Needing four straight wins over a guy who’s never lost more than one at a world championships, he was asked if his “strategy” remained “trying to win this match.”

“That is an absurd question,” Nepo said.

I’ll give chess this much - it’s populated by realists. Carlsen’s triumphal march toward a fifth straight title resumes on Friday.

That will leave us with an unusual question about Carlsen at his most imperious - is he so good that it is bad?

He is still young (31). He presents well in public, and has never done anything to toxify his brand. He’s good looking enough to work as a model.

Yet despite all these ancillary advantages to go along with his growing best-ever credentials, it feels like Carlsen is doing a slow fade on the global stage. He is not talked about nearly as much as he once was. The last time he made headlines unconnected to a specific chess match was when he briefly held first place in a British fantasy football league.

Carlsen is so excellent and wins so reliably, that it has the curious effect of deflecting interest, both from him and from chess.

Because who wants to watch a guy cruise to victory every single time? The David v. Goliath narrative is the most reliable crowd-pleaser in sports, but it works the opposite way around if Goliath wins.

For a while, Carlsen was presented as David - because he was young and looked younger in a sport we associate with fossilized beardos. But the No. 2 ranked player in the world, Alireza Firouzja, is only 18 years old. Carlsen is a fossil v now.

‘Teenage genius comes out of nowhere to stun chess world’ - that’s sexy.

‘Guy you already heard about a bunch of times is still here’ - that’s not.

The last crossover chess star was Gary Kasparov (If we define ‘crossover’ as ‘playing chess with David Letterman on live TV over the phone’). Kasparov won his sixth and final world title when he was 32 years old.

By that point, he’d also worn out his welcome in the chess world. A series of administrative roadblocks were thrown up to make it more difficult for him to find his way back into the centre. Kasparov retired in frustration ten years later.

Someone somewhere must have understood that people don’t want great. They want great, but with complications. They want it to burst onto the scene and dominate for a little bit and then disappear. Or they want it to toil for years and then finally get over the hump. Or they want a rise and a fall and a rise again.

What they don’t want is uninterrupted dominance. It offends the audience’s mediocrity. It prompts envy. Most dangerously, it bores people.

This is why people love Roger Federer so much. He was the greatest of all time, and then around the time that would have started to get annoying, he wasn’t. By his own standard, he became embarrassingly bad. Then he got good again. Now he’s back to being bad.

That’s an arc that sings. It’s exaggeratedly human, but not super-human. The rubes love that.

Maybe that’s Carlsen had such a dark look when Nepo hung that bishop out in no man’s land in Game 8. He knew in that instant that he was going to win again, as well as knowing that it wasn’t going to be the right sort of win.

RIP 

Life and Times: Tom Doran was much more than Edmonton's Godfather of Drums

Author of the article:Roger Levesque
Publishing date:Dec 09, 2021 •

Tom Doran, Edmonton's Godfather of drums, died Nov.30, 2021. 

PHOTO BY SUPPLIED
Article content

Edmonton’s musical community skipped a few beats following the recent death of groove master Tom Doran at the age of 78.

The Edmonton-born drummer, who enjoyed a side career as an entrepreneur, was best known as the man who kept time for late bandleader Tommy Banks through several decades but that only begins to sum up his multifaceted career.

As a first-call drummer to Banks and others, Doran tackled jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, R&B, country and other genres with grace, palpable enthusiasm and superior technique, going on to influence, encourage and occasionally teach younger generations of musicians. Lending his talents to several collectives, he also backed up the likes of David Foster, Paul Horn, Big Miller, George Blondheim, Lenny Breau, Cheryl Fisher, Kennedy Jensen and many more.

Doran was one of the last surviving members of Banks’ early variety band, The Banknotes, and the original Tommy Banks Big Band. The Big Band’s recorded appearance at the 1978 Montreux Jazz Festival won a Juno Award the following year.

Backing rock-pop units like The Original Caste, he joined Privilege for an extended U.S. tour performing Jesus Christ Superstar. Doran shared musical direction in projects like Wizard (later Blizzard) with other Edmonton music greats like Earl Seymour, The Jury with Mo Marshall and the Vancouver-based Django with Gaye Delorme and Hans Stammer.

During the 1970s and early 1980s when Banks’ groups figured in the hit television series Celebrity Review (later The Tommy Banks Show) and the ITV In Concert series with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Doran’s drumming helped anchor appearances with international celebrities like Aretha Franklin, Tom Jones and Tina Turner. Banks nicknamed him “Drum” and many considered him Edmonton’s Godfather of drums.

Doran’s business ventures reflected his spiritual and artistic interests. Based in and around Old Strathcona for the better part of 40 years, he and his wife Denyse founded the metaphysical Ananda Books in the mid-’70s, Jupiter Crystal in 1982, and Remedy Cafe (now under different owners) later that decade.

Jupiter gradually morphed into Jupiter Glass, a successful outlet for Doran’s handcrafted glass art, jewellery creations and later, glass pipes. Since closing the Whyte Avenue store in September this year, their kids Sara and Tom Doran Jr. continue to market through the Winnipeg-based online venture Jupiter Cannabis.

Everyone who knew him insists Doran had an especially friendly, gentle personality. His wife Denyse credits that agreeable demeanour to “the profound influence” of his daily five-decade practice of meditation.

In an interview for the Journal in 1999, Doran said he felt his real talent grew from “hands-on trial and error”. His first drum was actually the pot of an old banjo he played with tree twigs. Seeing Louis Armstrong at age 10 steered him in the right direction and the three Doran brothers made an amateur trio. He started lessons at Heinzmen’s Music at age 12, with private lessons from Art Darch, but working with Bernie Senensky and Winston Mays taught him the fundamentals of jazz.

After starting out in a teenage rock band with pal Mo Marshall, his first official gig came in 1957 with accordion-polka king Gaby Haas. The original Yardbird Suite jazz club had recently opened and within a year Doran was a regular patron, listening to the likes of Banks, Phil Shragge and Terry Hawkeye. Finally, one Saturday night he got to jam and, as he was earlier quoted, “I was hooked on jazz after that.”

Early stints in local bands like James and the Bondsman, and with Hank DeMarco led to work at The Jazz Door with Lenny Breau and P.J. Perry. Banks asked Doran to join his quartet in 1967 and the band played Expo ’67 in Montreal.

A late ’60s sojourn to Vancouver found Doran drumming in an experimental jazz fusion sextet Django, which played a club owned by the family of Tommy Chong, who became one of his best friends.

Django member and former Edmonton guitarist-singer Hans Stammer recalls Doran, saying, “I was always amazed by what a beautiful sound he had and his style of playing. He was a fantastic drummer, so easy to play with, adjusting when the band stretched out whatever the music involved. He always sounded great and he was such a nice person to be with.”

Long before the internet, Edmonton’s live music scene offered an abundance of venues. Doran put in regular work with Banks at clubs like The Embers and accompanied by vocalists like Judy Singh, and guests like David Foster, or with Bob Stroup at the Palms Cafe. Banks’ later television projects kept Doran busy with session work at multiple television studios here and in Vancouver.

On the beat

Doran was a consummate professional whose versatility put him in high demand and he appeared on dozens of recordings.

It was Paul Horn who turned Doran on to the benefits of meditation in the early 1970s and it’s no surprise the late American-born flautist hired him for extended tours of the U.S. and Canada in 1972. Horn had a thing for hiring great jazz drummers but at the time his career was shifting from jazz to pioneering meditative sounds in new age and world music. Doran fit that musical equation perfectly.

The drummer made room to work with countless younger players and briefly taught drums in the original MacEwan College jazz program. When Banks agreed to produce the debut recording of singer and radio (CKUA, CJSR, NPR) broadcaster Dianne Donovan in 1997, Doran signed on to fashion the grooves.

“I had heard so much about him,” Donovan recalls. “I was a little nervous or shy around him. However, he was the uber-pro, exacting, tasty and never overblown. It was an honour to have him on the album.”

Tom and Denyse Doran were both early advocates for the legalization of cannabis. He wasn’t one to shy away from saying so and aware enough to know the benefits of using everything in moderation. His wife observed that, “Tom had a tremendous interest in cannabis. He was really stoned a lot in the 1960s but he straightened himself out.”

She considered her husband to be, “an uncanny magnet for good fortune.”

Doran restored old automobiles as a hobby and his mechanical talents also put him in demand with Banks. As Denyse tells it, “When they went on road trips Tom Banks always made Tom (Doran) ride with him, because (Doran) was mechanical, and if something went wrong with the car, Banks knew that Tom could fix it.”

It’s difficult to sum up Doran’s life and work. His contribution to the city’s music scene will live like a subtle, stylish whisper of brushes on the snares, for years to come.

I interviewed Doran in 1999 when he announced one of several retirements from Banks’ band (it speaks volumes that Banks kept pushing him to come back). At the time, Doran pondered what a good musical situation was, saying, “Any band where the music (is) played with sincerity and a true sense of exploration in finding and going to new musical places. That’s my favourite thing, a musical adventure.”

Doran died Nov. 30 following a long struggle with renal failure. He’s survived by his wife of 50 years, Denyse, their children Leila, Thomas Jr. and Sara, and his brother Brian.

yegarts@postmedia.com

Quebec teacher removed from classroom for wearing hijab under law banning religious symbols

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Under Bill 21, some civil servants in positions of authority

 cannot wear religious symbols at work

Kimberley Molina · CBC News · Posted: Dec 09, 2021 

A hand-drawn poster in support of teacher Fatemeh Anvari is surrounded by green ribbons on a chain-link fence outside Chelsea Elementary School in Chelsea, Que. Recently, the school principal told the Grade 3 teacher she had to move to a position outside the classroom because she wears a hijab. Under Quebec's Bill 21, some civil servants — including teachers — can't wear religious symbols at work. (Jean Delisle/CBC)

An elementary school teacher in Chelsea, Que., says she was told she could no longer teach in class because she wears a hijab, which is Quebec law under Bill 21.

After working several months as a substitute teacher with the Western Quebec School Board, Fatemeh Anvari says she was asked to apply for a more permanent position teaching a Grade 3 class at Chelsea Elementary School.

Anvari began that job earlier this fall, but after just one month she says the school principal told her she had to move to a position outside the classroom because she wears a hijab.

• Read school letter on teacher's departure

The principal told her the decision was made after a discussion with the school board's human resources department.

"Honestly, at that second, it was just shock. It was very hard to process," Anvari told CBC.

WATCH | Teacher removed from classroom over hijab says law sends a troubling message to kids

Fatemeh Anvari, who was removed from her teaching position at Chelsea Elementary School because she wears a hijab, says she is concerned about the message being sent to students, though the support she’s received gives her hope. 1:02

Province appealed exemption

Under a fairly new Quebec law, also known as Bill 21, some civil servants in positions of authority — including teachers — can't wear religious symbols while at work.

A recent decision by the Quebec Court of Appeal, the province's highest court, denied a request by the English Montreal School Board to uphold an exemption of English school boards from the law.

• Quebec's English school boards will have to apply secularism law until court hears challenge

• ANALYSIS
  As Canadians seek to confront anti-Muslim bias, Quebec's Bill 21 is under scrutiny once again

A Quebec Superior Court judge had ruled that English school boards should be exempt from the law, saying the boards' desire to foster diversity by choosing who they hire is protected by the minority-language education rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But the Quebec government soon appealed that exemption, meaning it can't be applied until the appeals court hears the case.

Meanwhile, there are several court challenges against the law, which could last years and eventually make their way to the Supreme Court.

Anvari says the hijab is now part of her identity.

"Yes, I am Muslim, but for me, [the hijab] holds other meanings of just my identity and how I've chosen to represent myself as a strong person in a world that may not want me to be myself," she said.

"But it's still a religious symbol at the end of the day, so that's why it has a conflict with the law."

WATCH | 'It's discrimination:' Parents upset as Quebec teacher reassigned over Bill 21:

‘It’s discrimination:’ Parents upset after teacher removed from post due to Quebec’s Bill 21

10 hours ago

Duration1:48

Kirsten Taylor-Bosman and Amanda Degrace, who both have children at Chelsea Elementary School, say they were upset to learn that a Grade 3 teacher had been forced out of her teaching position because she wears a hijab. 1:48

Teacher, parents blame law, not school

Neither Anvari nor the parents who spoke with CBC blame the school, which they all said fosters a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere. Instead, the parents say the law, Bill 21, should never have been passed.

"I'd like [the government] to see what it's like for an eight-year-old to lose their teacher because of something like this," said Kirsten Taylor-Bosman, whose daughter attended class with "Ms. Fatemeh," as students call her.

• Quebec's religious symbols ban dashed dreams and sparked hate, witnesses testify on 1st day of Bill 21 trial

• Protesters gather to oppose religious symbols ban, one year after Bill 21 became law

Taylor-Bosman said she was initially surprised when she received a letter from the school principal indicating Anvari would leave after just one month, but that quickly evolved into shock and anger once she learned why.

"It was just awful, really upsetting," she said. "These are not the values that we teach our children. So it's really hard to explain this to our kids."

Kirsten Taylor-Bosman's daughter drew this card for Anvari after students and parents found out the teacher had been reassigned. (Submitted by Kirsten Taylor-Bosman)

Due to privacy reasons, the Western Quebec School Board would not confirm why the teacher had been reassigned. The board said, like all Quebec school boards, it must comply with the province's laws, including Bill 21.

"In the English community, we're not in favour of this bill. We find it discriminatory, but as citizens of the province of Quebec, we are expected to follow the law and will do so," said interim board chairman Wayne Daly.

We're not in favour of this bill. We find it discriminatory.- Wayne Daly, Western Quebec School Board

Heidi Yetman, president of the teachers union that represents Anvari, said her union has always been against the bill, especially since it unfairly targets women.

"It's really sad because it puts like a grey cloud over this province," she said. "It's very sad to hear that there are students who enjoyed this teacher since the fall and now have found themselves without a teacher."

Taylor-Bosman wants the Quebec government to explain its opposition to diversity and this case of "discrimination."

WATCH | Western Quebec School Board on reassigning teacher who wears hijab:

Wayne Daly, interim chair for the West Quebec School Board, says the board has opposed Bill 21 but must follow the law regardless, leading to the reassignment of a Chelsea, Que., homeroom teacher because she wears a hijab. 0:30

In an ironic twist, Anvari continues to work at the school on a literacy project for students targeting inclusion and awareness of diversity, although she acknowledges it is still a teaching opportunity.

"[It's important] to educate and to raise awareness on these topics so that the kids are well aware of what's going on around them," she said.

"I think that it was a great way to navigate the situation by the school and the school board."

'Not a story just about me'

A growing assortment of green ribbons — green is Anvari's favourite colour — were seen tied to the chain-link fence outside the school this week where a sign sits asking people to tie a ribbon to oppose Bill 21.

The school community has rallied around the teacher and organized a letter-writing campaign to the school board, Quebec Premier François Legault and CAQ MNA Robert Bussière, who represents the area.

I think [the support] just shows that kids think beyond all of these labels. They just think of love.- Fatemeh Anvari, Teacher

A protest was also planned for this Sunday.

Anvari said she's seen the cards, drawings and ribbons and knows the local community is behind her, and she hopes the government takes notice about what children could inadvertently learn from Bill 21.

"This is not a story just about me. I think it's a story about humans and how we live amongst each other and just to be accepting of any difference, whatever that may be: race, religion, gender identity, cultural background," she said.

"I think [the support] just shows that kids think beyond all of these labels. They just think of love and they think of compassion and and that makes me so hopeful."

WATCH | How Quebec's religious symbols law has changed the lives of three teachers: 

Three women discuss the impact Quebec's secularism law has had on their lives. 2:56With files from Steve Rukavina and Christian MillettTory Leader Erin O’Toole says Bill 21 is a Quebec issue while some of his MPs take tougher stand

STEPHANIE TAYLOR
OTTAWA
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole says he believes Bill 21 is 'an issue that is best left for Quebecers to decide.

'ADRIAN WYLD/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole says a Quebec law prohibiting some public servants from wearing religious symbols on the job is an issue to be dealt with by that province alone.

Some of his MPs, however, appear to be taking a tougher stand.

O’Toole discussed the Quebec secularism law, known as Bill 21, on Thursday, in response to a report that a teacher in western Quebec was reassigned from the classroom because she wore a hijab.

Quebec elementary school teacher reassigned from class over hijab due to Bill 21

Quebec religious symbols ban will apply to English schools until appeal decided

Bill 21 was passed in June 2019 and bans the wearing of religious symbols such as hijabs, kippas and turbans by teachers and other government employees deemed to be in positions of authority.

The Conservative leader says while he personally opposes the law and has raised it with Quebec Premier Francois Legault, he respects provincial jurisdiction and believes it to be “an issue that is best left for Quebecers to decide.”

While the Tory leader said the matters involving Bill 21 falls squarely within provincial borders, some of his MPs weren’t shy about expressing a different opinion.

“I cannot in good conscience keep silent on this anymore. This is an absolute disgrace,” tweeted Ontario MP Kyle Seeback, linking to a news story about what happened to the teacher wearing the hijab.

“It’s time politicians stood up for what’s right. Bill 21 has to be opposed. In court, in the House of Commons and in the streets.”

“100 per cent,” Jamie Schmale, the Conservative critic for Indigenous Services, tweeted in response.

Also on the social media platform, B.C. Conservative MP Mark Strahl said “Thank you for your leadership, Kyle. My views on this are the same as yours.”

Alberta Conservative Chris Warkentin added that, “If government is free to limit religious freedom it will take liberties to restrict other freedoms.”

“I support freedom for every Canadian!”

O’Toole characterized his position as being the “exact same” as that of NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh as well as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who hasn’t ruled out the idea of federal intervention.

Unlike Trudeau, O’Toole said during the September federal election he would “never challenge” a provincial law.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Thursday that Trudeau has been clear about where the government stands on the issue.

Other Liberal MPs went online to expressly condemn the Quebec law, including a representative from that province.

Alexandra Mendes called it “outrageously discriminatory and absurdly counterproductive, at a time when we need all willing adults to join the work force.”

Ontario Liberal Salma Zahid, who herself wears a hijab, tweeted she was “saddened and disappointed” by what she read about the Quebec teacher, saying “This should not be happening in Canada.”

“Nobody in Canada should ever lose their job because of what they wear or their religious beliefs.”

      

Union Workers Strike at Pennsylvania Coca-Cola Distribution Center

Delivery truck drivers, loaders and warehouse workers began picketing Sunday at the ABARTA Coca-Cola Beverages plant in Bethlehem, PA.

Dec 8th, 2021
Mike Hockett

Teamsters Local 773 union members picketing outside the ABARTA Coca-Cola Beverages distribution center in Bethlehem, PA. Teamsters Local 773

Amid an ongoing strike at Kellogg's cereal plants that has stretched beyond two months and a weekslong strike at Nabisco factories in September, workers at a Coca-Cola distribution center in far eastern Pennsylvania have followed suit with a strike that began Dec. 6.

Local news reports say that 77 Teamsters union members— comprised of delivery truck drivers, loaders and warehouse workers — began picketing at the ABARTA Coca-Cola Beverages distribution facility in Bethlehem, PA at midnight Sunday, which, according to the company, is when those workers' contract expired. They have been picketing outside the facility since.

The facility is about 15 miles from the New Jersey border and 60 miles north of downtown Philadelphia.

Dennis Hower, president of Teamsters Local 773 (Whitehall, PA) told Lehigh Valley Live that the strike centers on the company’s desire to switch healthcare plans and move employees from a pension to a 401(k) retirement-planning account, while the union's social media posts also note wage issues.

“We told the company we’re ready to sit down and talk whenever they are. Hopefully we’ll get to an agreement,” Hower said. “We’ll be out as long as we need to. Everyone is strong. No one’s going to break. People worked here for decades, they count on that pension. The union members are picketing almost around the clock during their usual work shifts and are receiving strike benefits."

ABARTA Coca-Cola is the exclusive distributor of Coca-Cola beverages in the Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia region, carrying products that include sodas, Dasani water, Monster Energy Drinks, VitaminWater and Powerade. The company has 15 distribution centers, with 12 of them in Pennsylvania.

ABARTA said union members rejected the company's 4-year contract offer, which followed about 10 negotiation meetings over the past two months.

“Unfortunately, despite our lengthy negotiations, the union rejected our last, best and final offer,” ABARTA's human resources manager told local media. “We hope to reach a resolution in the near future and will continue to negotiate in good faith with union leadership.”

Meanwhile, ABARTA said it has a contingency plan to continue production and delivery.

The Bethlehem plant was a longtime soda production facility until it was purchased by ABARTA in 2017.

Canadian small businesses face labour shortage despite wage hike, report finds

By David Lao Global News
Posted December 9, 2021 

'We need to grow immigration,' Manitoba premier says in state of the province address – Dec 2, 2021

More than half of Canada’s small businesses are currently unable to hire enough staff to continue operations or meet new demand — a new report says — despite an almost economy-wide raise in wages.

It’s a dilemma small business owner Jason Schnurr experienced since the beginning of September.

Schnurr, who owns and manages a handful of surf and sportswear stores in Sauble Beach and Port Hope in Ontario, said that his businesses, although seasonal, have been running on a “skeleton crew” for the last three months — and will be expected to stay that way until April of next year.

Schnurr’s businesses, Beachin’ and Jack n Jill’s surf shop, have seen extremely high rates of turnover since the onset of the pandemic, and cannot hire or keep employees despite an increase in wages.

READ MORE: Ghosting at work: As labour shortage persists, employers lament increasing no-shows

“We have a manager job that has been open since March that we cannot fill, we just don’t get applications for,” said Schnurr in a phone interview with Global News.

“If we weren’t having the labour shortage, we would have filled this position.”

The report, released on Thursday by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), found that 55 per cent of small businesses would not have the staff required to run their stores, though another 16 per cent would be able to continue their operations but at a significant additional cost.

“Small businesses were already experiencing a very significant shortage of labour at the beginning of 2020, and the pandemic has made the situation only more complex,” said CFIB vice-president of national research Simon Gaudreault in a press release

“Industries that were locked down for long periods of time, like hospitality, have seen a mass exodus as workers upskilled or switched to other jobs, and virtually all sectors are facing major demographic upheavals with not enough new workers coming in to replace those who are retiring.”

According to the report, such widespread labour shortage comes despite the “majority” of affected businesses having already raised employee wages. The problem has led many brick-and-mortar stores to try to hire temporary foreign workers (TFWs). Some are also trying to automate their businesses as an alternative.

The COVID-19 pandemic has driven large parts of the economy to the brink over the last two years, and has especially hammered small businesses.

READ MORE: Ontario government seeking to double skilled immigrants to address labour shortage

Business owners have attributed both the labour shortages — a majority of which are in food services, health care and retail — to workers choosing to avoid work in a public setting during the pandemic, as well as the previous federal COVID-19 income supports.

According to a report from RBC, the number of job vacancies n Canada jumped by about 22 per cent in the summer as the economy reopened. In June, there were over 800,000 job vacancies in Canada, though the country’s unemployment rate in October dropped to a pandemic low of 6.7 per cent.

Despite the recent uptick in employment numbers over the fall, the CFIB warns that the labour shortages are now “back with a vengeance,” and that more and more small businesses will see the issue persist.

Wage hikes not the 'expected silver bullet'

According to the report, small businesses with labour shortages had expected to increase their wages by 3.7 per cent over the next year.

Over 80 per cent of affected businesses have already raised their wages, but the CFIB found that their success rate was a “mere” 31 per cent, and that three out five of those businesses that raised wages did not find it helpful in attracting workers or qualified applicants.

Other businesses have turned to other alternatives in order to fill that labour gap, according to the CFIB, with the most successful ones being automation or hiring temporary foreign workers.

Schnurr hopes that he’ll be able to fill his shortages in the coming months, or he would have to otherwise take further measures like “reducing hours, reducing days or reducing stores.”

The report found that a third of affected businesses have invested in automation with a success rate of 81 per cent, while over 15 per cent have hired TFWs and have a success rate of 52 per cent.

READ MORE: Labour shortage causing business owners to delay or cancel orders: survey

“The low utilization to high success rate ratio suggests that TFWs could be a promising solution for Canada’s labour shortages, especially if the program were expanded to other sectors,” read the report.
Candidates and qualifications

The report also found that the shortage was being driven by several factors, namely a lack of candidates, qualification mismatches and market disruptions.

About two thirds of affected businesses said they couldn’t find applicants with the right skillsets, while just over half said they had a lack of any candidates at all.

“One reason for this is that the distribution of job seekers to jobs in different education categories is imbalanced: in Q1 2021, 22 per cent of the unemployed had a level of education equal to or higher than a bachelor’s degree, while only 15 per cent of the market requires this level of education,” read the report.
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The pandemic’s disruption in relationships between employers and employees also “pushed” workers out of certain sectors according to the report, with nearly one in four of small businesses stating that their workers switched industries due to the pandemic.

#FIGHTFOR15

“Small businesses have a long and steep climb to recovery, and having the right workers in place or other tools to address labour shortages is a big part of that,” said Corinne Pohlmann, senior vice-president of national affairs at CFIB in a statement.

“They are already doing all they can to attract workers, but they need governments to do their part by adopting policies that increase productivity, connect job seekers with employers and don’t put the cost of hiring out of reach.”

© 2021 Global News,

Why the resurgence of organized labor hasn’t helped gig workers

FASTCOMPANY

12-06-21

Drivers for DoorDash, Instacart, and Gopuff have all staged work stoppages recently. But most workers won’t strike—and some actively love their gigs.

[Source Image: Boris Zhitkov/Getty]

On October 16, an unknown number of drivers for grocery-delivery service Instacart went on strike. These shoppers, as Instacart calls its independent contractors, vowed to forgo logging on to the app that provides their dispatches. Other drivers who couldn’t afford to go without work still promised to reject the lowest-paying grocery orders, which pay $7 to the driver. The protestors demanded that Instacart meet a number of demands around higher fees, commissions, and tips, plus a reformed rating system.

You might have known about the strike if you read the technology business press or followed it on Twitter. But if you are an Instacart customer, you probably didn’t notice it. Organizers couldn’t provide a figure of how many people took part, but they concede it’s a small number compared to Instacart’s more than half a million shoppers.

In a Facebook group, Instacart workers vent frustration at colleagues who settle 

for low-paying assignments.

The striking Instacart drivers aren’t the only gig workers who have found it difficult to improve their working conditions by banding together. Many sectors of the service economy are facing dire labor shortages, as part of the “Great Resignation.” In theory, that should give the remaining workers plenty of leverage to demand better pay. But many gig-economy companies, especially delivery services, have an overabundance of workers with little or no power to negotiate.

“The operational level of Instacart is one that’s reached a level that’s beyond what we can reach as workers,” says Willy Solis, a lead organizer with the Gig Workers Collective (GWC), which coordinated the strike. In fact, Instacart workers have been organizing protests against the company for years, including in late September, with little to no effect.

Labor organizing has made inroads lately in traditional industries, as varied as food factories, hospitals, and newsrooms. But the diffuse nature of gig work, in which everyone is on their own, makes it hard for workers to join together. What’s more, labor organizing seems to go against the ethos of being an independent contractor for many workers.

Striking drivers for food-delivery service DoorDash ran into the same issues last summer. On July 31, some of them logged off the app to demand a higher base pay, which can be as little as $2 per order. They also sought clarity on how much tip to expect, which can make the difference between earning and losing money. They recommended that drivers instead log on to DoorDash’s rival Uber Eats, which has not faced such worker strikes in the United States (although it has abroad, including in South Africa and the U.K).

But like Instacart, DoorDash has no shortage of labor in the U.S., boasting more than 1 million active “dashers,” as its contractors are called. Even fellow dashers haven’t noticed the effects. “I’ve been doing this for five years now,” says Anna Witte, a dasher in Fremont, California. “And I have not seen anybody take any strike on DoorDash or anything else. So it hasn’t affected anybody getting orders.”

Drivers for rapid-delivery service Gopuff are the latest to go on strike, staging a one-day walkout on November 23 to demand better base pay and other changes. A far smaller company than Instacart or DoorDash, Gopuff has only about 10,000 contractors. And strike organizers estimate that about 200 to 300 people took part.

A Gopuff warehouse in Athens, GA temporarily shut down, possibly due to the strike.

Gopuff strike organizers reported to Fast Company that drivers didn’t show up for, or left early from, scheduled shifts in at least five warehouse locations—including at least one that temporarily shut down. They noted pay boosts, meant to attract more workers, offered at six locations on strike day. For perspective, the company has more than 550 facilities across the U.S.

“Gopuff tells Fast Company that delivery times were normal across markets for a Tuesday. Further, Gopuff says that it often issues pay boosts when demand spikes. In a statement, the company said, “In the case that we are not able to respond quickly to uptick in orders in some of our smaller volume markets, we may choose to briefly pause customer orders until we are able to effectively address the current demand.”

Even if they’ve scored a few small victories, strikers’ actions have fallen well short of affecting any gig company’s business on a scale that causes real pain. For various reasons, very few workers feel motivated to skip work in protest, even for just a day.

DISAGREEMENT OVER PAY

Pay is the main factor driving the workers who do strike. In September, for instance, Gopuff workers on scheduled shifts in the company’s hometown of Philadelphia saw their minimum guaranteed hourly pay cut from about $12 to about $7.75 (pay rates vary by location). Workers are now demanding $20 per hour, plus expenses. Once tips are factored in, Gopuff says that workers average $18 to $25 per hour; but Candace Hinson, a driver and strike organizer in Philadelphia, estimates that she’s now making as little as $10 per hour.

As shown in Instacart’s driver app, its lowest-paying assignments start at $7.

Instacart workers point to changes in the pay formula made in 2018. Once, workers were paid on a per-order, per-item basis. Now pay is determined by an algorithm that they believe ends up paying less. Shopper assignments, called batches, can contain up to three grocery orders and offer $7 to $10 minimum payments (before tips). Postings of $7 batches, some of which can take an hour to fulfill, are common in the Facebook group Instacart and Shipt: Gig Workers’ Collective.

Why don’t drivers simply pass over the low-paying offers? That’s what Anna Witte does. “I make really good money doing DoorDash,” says Witte, who says she averages about $40 per hour. “So I wouldn’t see a reason to do a strike.” Her earnings beat DoorDash’s estimated national average of $25 per hour, including tips. Witte attributes some of her good fortune to being in a busy, affluent market.

Perhaps the most successful gig worker organization is the group #DeclineNow, which encourages members to reject any DoorDash gig that advertises a fee under $7. Founded in late 2019, it’s based on gaming the algorithm. If no one takes a low-paying assignment, the system has to offer progressively higher fees until someone bites.

Boasting over 35,000 members, the #DeclineNow Facebook group is massive compared to its Instacart and Shipt counterpart (with 1,800) and Gopuff workers’ current organizing efforts. But only a tiny fraction of DoorDash’s million-plus dashers participate.

The founders claim that their movement is big enough to affect wages, and there’s some anecdotal evidence of that in the Seattle area, based on data from gig-pay tracking service Solo. Hourly earnings on DoorDash increased from about $24 per hour in March to about $30 per hour in May, as #DeclineNow started gaining traction. “You can’t prove causation, but we did see quite a dramatic increase in average hourly earnings during that time,” says Bryce Bennett, the CEO of Solo and a former regional manager for Uber. “And we also saw a slight uptick in tips from about $5 to $6 per order.”

If #DeclineNow is succeeding, it’s not through workers resorting to traditional strike tactics. Rather, the group is driving a hard bargain with its business partner, DoorDash. (We tried to learn more about #DeclineNow by interviewing its cofounders, but they declined to speak with us unless we paid a consultation fee.)

THE VALUE OF FREEDOM

Regardless of pay, some workers are attracted to gig work for the freedom and flexibility it provides. “The pandemic and everything that’s happened has made clear how difficult it is for low-wage workers to balance work and anything else in their lives,” says Shelly Steward, director of the Aspen Institute’s Future of Work Initiative. Most retail workers have no influence over—and little notice about—their schedules, she says.

But in the gig economy, workers make their own hours. “Lots of [shoppers] have kids,” says Steve Labinski, an Instacart shopper in Dallas and author of the book Shop Like a Pro. “So they’ll send the kids to school, and during the day, they can deliver groceries.” Anna Witte delivers for DoorDash after she drops her son at school.

FLEXIBILITY AND FAST CASH ARE BRINGING A LOT OF NEW RECRUITS INTO GIG WORK.

Part-time Gopuff driver and strike organizer Ronald Moody concedes that he doesn’t work the most lucrative times. During early morning shifts, he can sit idle for hours. “I have no problem getting up that early,” he says. “And it gives me the flexibility to do other stuff the rest of my day.” For Moody, that other stuff includes his main work as a financial services compliance consultant.

He’s far from the only person doing gig work as a side hustle.

“Maybe they’re in between jobs, or they’re truly just doing it as supplemental income,” says Lindsey Cameron, an assistant professor of management at the Wharton School of Business. “[Those] people are going to be less vested into the platform and less vested into getting rights for workers.” DoorDash estimates that 90% of dashers spend less than 10 hours per week delivering. Gopuff says that 70% of drivers work less than 20 hours.

Flexibility and fast cash are bringing a lot of new recruits into gig work, especially delivery services such as Cornershop and Postmates (both of which are owned by Uber), DoorDash, Gopuff, Grubhub, Instacart, Shipt, and Uber Eats. In the spring of 2020, as the pandemic prompted more people to order delivery, Instacart expanded its pool of shoppers from about 200,000 to about 500,000 in a matter of weeks. As the economy opened up in 2021, demand for grocery delivery tapered off, but the pool of drivers remains the same.

Workers aren’t just coming in from traditional job sectors but also from ride-hailing services such as Lyft and Uber, says Harry Campbell, who covers the gig economy through his media company the Rideshare Guy. (Uber won’t say how many drivers work for it in rideshare or food delivery, but reports that it’s taken on 640,000 new drivers since January.)

DIVIDED POLITICS

Views on economics—and associated politics—divide gig workers. While pro-strike activists demand reforms, other workers have a free-market philosophy, rooted in the nature of freelance work.

“You strike when you want to protest your boss,” says Labinski. “When you’re a self-employed gig worker, you are your own boss. So you’re only punishing yourself.”

Striking gig workers “want to have their cake and eat it too,” says Chad Polenz, a Florida-based delivery driver who covers the industry on his YouTube channel GigTube. “They want all the benefits and protections of being a W-2 [on-staff] employee, but they want all the freedom of being a 1099 independent contractor. And you can’t have it both ways.”

Working mainly DoorDash and Instacart, Polenz reckons that he makes from about $20 to over $30 per hour, depending on the day. And he agrees with gig-worker activists that Instacart pay has declined over the years. (An Instacart representative told Fast Company that the earnings formula has stayed the same since February 2019.) Yet Polenz is not joining the strikes and protests.

For Polenz, it’s partly about politics. “The spokespeople for the Gig Workers Collective, they’re all like Bernie Sanders-type people, antifa-type people, BLM-type people,” he says. Gig Workers Collective founder Vanessa Bain has the terms “BLM,” “Antifa,” and “Capitalism Ruins Everything Around Me,” in her Twitter bio. Willy Solis’s Twitter page features a photo of Bernie Sanders. As a libertarian, Polenz doesn’t feel welcome. He doesn’t agree with the typical slant of press coverage either.

“The media have a more critical perspective on gig work,” says Wharton professor Cameron. “And when I started actually interviewing drivers, a lot of them have very different experiences,” she says, describing the research for her 2021 study “‘Making Out’ While Driving.”

For some, gig work has been a step up from low-skilled and dangerous jobs that often paid less. One immigrant Cameron spoke to described himself as “living the American dream,” as a gig worker. Far from anti-capitalist, some workers see themselves in partnership with the gig companies. Cameron spoke to a rideshare driver who told her, “It’s a pleasure to work with them. To work with them, because we’re partners, so I don’t say work for them.”

THE PR BENEFITS OF STRIKING

While strikes and protests may not substantially slow the gig companies’ business, they do generate publicity that affects politicians. “Some of the strikes have really functioned to bring attention to the issues facing gig workers,” says Ken Jacobs, chair of the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. “And the work and organization of gig workers had an effect on California passing AB5.”

He’s referring to a 2019 California law that classified gig workers as employees. It entitled them to protections and benefits, such as workers comp, unemployment insurance, paid sick and family leave, and health insurance. The law was spearheaded by Lorena Gonzalez, the former head of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, who was elected to the California State Assembly in 2013.

Jacobs also cites the influence of strikes in Seattle and New York City. In 2020, Seattle passed ordinances that guaranteed premium pay for food-delivery workers and paid sick leave for all gig workers. In September, New York City passed six laws to protect food-delivery workers, including providing better information about assignments and tips. It also launched a study to determine the minimum pay for couriers.

But politics and public opinion are fickle. In 2020, voters in famously progressive California overwhelmingly approved Proposition 22, which undid the AB5 protections. (They may have been swayed by a $206 million campaign funded by Uber, DoorDash, Lyft, Instacart, and Postmates.) A recent court ruling held that Prop 22 is unconstitutional, but nonemployee status of gig workers persists.

Gopuff drivers stage a protest at company headquarters on November 23, 2021.

 [Photo: courtesy of Working Washington]

A strike is “definitely bad publicity for Instacart or whatever company,” says Polenz. “But the public has a very short memory. So after like a week or two, people just forget about it.”

The tech industry is full of companies that can weather negative publicity. (Think Amazon, Facebook, Google, Uber, and so many more.) Consumers may sympathize with downtrodden workers. But the utility and convenience of these services make it hard for them to break up with the companies, and hard for governments to exert much control.

Organized labor has been the most effective means to truly turn the direction of a company. But it requires overwhelming numbers. With a huge surplus of labor and scant appetite for activism among their ranks, gig workers are mightily challenged to change their predicament.

This article has been updated to reflect additional input from Gopuff.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sean Captain is a business, technology, and science journalist based in North Carolina. Follow him on Twitter @seancaptain.