Indigenous author’s book pulled from Durham school board library shelves without explanation

By Morganne Campbell Global News
Posted April 18, 2022

 An award-winning Indigenous author is questioning the Durham District School Board's decision to pull one of his books from library shelves. The board claims it contains content that could be harmful to Indigenous students and their families the very same groups the author wrote the book for. Morganne Campbell has more on "The Great Bear" and the controversy around it.


A book that focusses on anti-bullying and other contemporary issues has been pulled from libraries within the Durham District School Board and the award-winning Indigenous author who penned The Great Bear says he doesn’t understand why.

“I’ve been doing this work now for 13 years. I have written books for Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth to empower Indigenous youth and to educate non-Indigenous youth about culture history and contemporary issues,” explains Winnipeg-based author David Robertson.

“I started writing books because I wanted kids to have access to resources that I didn’t have and so it’s really confusing to me.”

The Durham District School Board DDSB says the book has been pulled because it includes content that could be harmful to Indigenous students and families. In a statement posted to the board’s website on Saturday, the DDSB suggested the book was flagged by “local Indigenous community members”

“We will be providing an update on this topic next week.”

​Robertson maintains that neither he or his publisher, Penguin Random House, received any information about why the book was pulled. The DDSB took to its website to explain that following an investigation by the DDSB IT department, it found the emails from the publisher were filtered out therefore not received by any of the individuals they were written to.

“The DDSB has previously engaged with Forest of Reading on this topic and would have with Penguin Random House if the e-mails were received. We look forward to responding to Penguin Random House once the appropriate staff have had a chance to review their e-mails,” the statement read.

“We are not aware of Penguin Random House using any other methods, such as phone to contact the DDSB, which would have solved this communication problem.”

But there’s still one think lacking — an explanation.

The author says he’s received support from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, groups and educators and support continues to mount for the author who has reputation of putting “great care” into all of his books.

“It’s just really devastating to know that kids in a school board in southern Ontario are being denied his (Robertson’s) gifts,” explains Sudbury, Ont., Indigenous author and journalist Waubgeshig Rice.

“We are building bigger communities, the circle is widening, and for my kids, they’re growing up in a more empowered era.”

Indigenous MPP Sol Mamakwa is calling on the DDSB to rethink its decision.

“It’s a shame that this book was pulled and I hope the Durham School Board and whoever makes these decisions is open to reopening the dialogue.”

Roberston says he’s not necessarily looking for an apology from the board. Instead, he feels the board should apologize to students. He’d also like to see the board review their policies to make sure they’re being understood and carried out appropriately.

“When you take those books out of the hands of kids effectively what you were doing is you were taking truth from their hands and you were hindering the process of reconciliation rather than supporting it in anyway.”

Magnus Carlsen Will Really, Really Give Up His Championship Title, Maybe

In an interview with VG, a Norwegian news site, Magnus Carlsen, the undefeated World Chess Champion, gave the strongest indication to date that he will not defend his title, come the World Chess Championship match next year. But he can still change his mind.

Magnus Carlsen in London in 2018. He won his match against Fabiano Caruana.

Our Norwegian is a bit rusty, but it’s clear from the interview that Carlsen, citing lack of motivation, informed his team that the Championship in Dubai was his last. Carlsen still thinks this way and clearly wants to break away from the title which defines him yet yields very little returns every time he needs to defend it, so why not step down undefeated and continue being the best in the sport for years without the stress of having to defend the title.

What does this mean for chess? For one, it will dramatically debase the Championship title: what’s the point in fighting for it while the strongest player is not in the fight at all? The Match will also lose a lot of media attention: Carlsen is the sport’s only real superstar. Without him, the Championship match will turn into a fairly mundane three weeks.

Carlsen will inevitably leave the Championship cycle. If not next year, then the year after that. Maybe, this pill needs to be swallowed by the chess world sooner rather than later because it gives Carlsen ample time to decide to come back if he feels like it in a few years. Sure, he will need to win the Candidates again, but this simply means more chess drama, something the fans would appreciate.

The Match is currently expected to take place in the early 2023. The winner of the Candidates Tournament will play against the incumbent Champion. In case the Champion refuses to play, the Match will be between the winner and the runner-up of the Candidates Tournament.

Hong Kong zero-COVID policies create mountains of plastic waste

By Aleksander Solum - Monday
© Reuters/TYRONE SIU

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong arrivals meet plastic everywhere in quarantine hotels: Remote controls are wrapped in cellophane, pillows are encased in plastic bags, food comes with plastic cutlery.

Hong Kong’s strict quarantine policies - intended to halt COVID-19 at the border and in the community - have been criticised for damaging the economy and mental health. Environmentalists say the policies are also hurting the environment by generating excess waste.


© Reuters/TYRONE SIUCOVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

“Every single one of the staff members here wears full PPE ... the gowns, the gloves, the booties, the hats, and that's every staff member and on every floor," said Hong Kong-based skincare entrepreneur Clementine Vaughan, who flew into the city on April 4.


© Reuters/TYRONE SIUCOVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

"The phones, you know, the remote controllers, everything's been cellophane-wrapped," she said, speaking to Reuters from her quarantine hotel.

Hong Kong disposes of over 2,300 tonnes of plastic waste a day, and with a recycling rate of just 11%, according to government figures, most of it goes into landfills.


© Reuters/TYRONE SIUCOVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong
A government spokesperson said officials were aware of a surge in disposable waste since COVID began, urging people to adopt a green lifestyle as far as possible.


© Reuters/TYRONE SIUCOVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

Edwin Lau, with local environmental group The Green Earth, said Hong Kong’s approach to COVID reflected its lack of environmental awareness.

"People living in quarantine hotels, they are not confirmed cases,” Lau said, urging the government to allow the recycling or reuse of plastics from quarantine facilities.

Hong Kong, one of the few places that holds to a zero-COVID policy, has quarantined tens of thousands of people this year in facilities for the COVID-positive and near contacts.

The facilities add to the waste problem, with residents confirming to Reuters all meals came in plastic bags.

Paul Zimmerman, an elected district councillor, said the facilities are also wasteful because they can't be used long-term, such as for public housing.

“They've been built very quickly ... (and don't) comply with any particular building standards we have in Hong Kong.”

(Reporting by Aleksander Solum; Editing By Tom Hogue)

Last leg of Ring of Fire road enters the environmental assessment process

Naimul Karim | April 18, 2022 

Aerial view of lake in Ring of Fire, Ontario. Stock image.

The First Nations of Marten Falls and Webequie have submitted the terms of reference for the proposed Northern Road Link, a piece of infrastructure that Ontario describes as the “final piece” needed to build an all-season road into the Ring of Fire.


The road would link two other roads that are being advanced separately by each community – the Marten Falls access road and the Webequie supply road – to provide access to the mineral rich region in northern Ontario’s James Bay lowlands.

The announcement comes a week after Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest’s Wyloo Metals completed the acquisition of the Eagle’s Nest nickel-copper-PGE deposit in the Ring of Fire.

“It’s a start of a journey for us into an economic reconciliation for Martin Falls First Nation and our neighbouring communities,” Marten Falls Chief Bruce Achneepineskum said at the announcement event.

“There’s a lot of work still to do. We are going to be moving on to the actual work of the environmental assessment, moving forward with the actual studies that are going to be happening,” added Achneepineskum. “We want to move forward in a good way… alleviating the conditions of the community, the poverty levels that we have faced in the decade’s past… there’s a lot of work to do.”

Located about 500 km away from Thunder Bay, the Ring of Fire has “multi-generational potential” for the production of critical minerals such as chromite, nickel, copper and platinum, according to the Ontario government.

But access to the region is a challenge as paved roads are at least 300 km away. In 2017, Ontario committed to spend $1 billion for strategic transportation infrastructure development in the region, including a year-round access road into the mining camp.

However, in 2019, after Doug Ford was elected as Premier in 2018, the new Progressive Conservative government scrapped the previous government’s approach, based on a regional framework agreement, in favour of agreements with individual communities.

Marten Falls First Nation’s 200-km community access road and the Webequie Nation’s 107-km supply road have both advanced to the environmental assessment stage under that approach. Together, with the Northern Link, the three roads are expected to connect the region to Ontario’s highway.

But not all Indigenous groups have supported the way Ontario has approached infrastructure development. First Nations including Neskantaga, Attawapiskat and Fort Albany declared a moratorium, which is still in place, on Ring of Fire development in 2021 to protect the region from environmental damage and “catastrophic climate change.”

Kate Kempton, a lawyer who represents the Attawapiskat First Nation, told The Northern Miner that the community won’t support any mining-related development in the region until there’s “informed consent” of all the affected first nations in the area. “Nobody is in a position to consent today… that full-scale investigation isn’t being done,” she said.

Kempton added that the mining claims comprising the Ring of Fire are not just located in the traditional territories of Marten Falls and Webequie, but also of Attawapiskat.

“This doesn’t mean that only those two First Nations have the right to consent or veto,” said Kempton. “It’s like if my neighbour wants to build a bomb factory next door, he is not the only one that gets to say over that… Those who are going to feel the impacts to this need to be at the front of the decision making and I see nothing in this announcement to see that Ontario is going to proceed that way.”

The lawyer expects the matter to end up in the Canadian courts if Ontario doesn’t address the concerns.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said that the government is working “side by side” with Indigenous partners to ensure that communities around the Ring of Fire get improved access to every-day essentials like fuel, groceries and health care. Natural Resources minister Greg Rickford expects the project to become a “corridor to prosperity” for communities living in the area.

After completing the acquisition of the Eagle’s Nest project in early April, Wyloo Metals said it aims to develop the project as a net zero emissions mine, spend C$100 million on Indigenous-led businesses and establish a training centre that can help provides jobs for indigenous and regional communities.

It also aims to “investigate” the use of electric vehicles, wind power and ultramafic waste rock to capture and sequester carbon at site.

CPP Investments invests in Hydrostor to support the global expansion of long-duration energy storage


TORONTO, April 19, 2022 /CNW/ - Hydrostor Inc. ("Hydrostor"), a leading long-duration energy storage solution provider, today announced an investment commitment of US$25 million from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board ("CPP Investments").

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Logo (CNW Group/Canada Pension Plan Investment Board)

Proceeds from the financing will support Hydrostor's strategy of developing, constructing, and operating Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage ("A-CAES") facilities globally. CPP Investments' commitment is alongside Goldman Sachs Asset Management's recently announced US$250 million investment into Hydrostor.

Curtis VanWalleghem, Chief Executive Officer, Hydrostor, said: "We are very pleased to have an investment manager of CPP Investments' caliber participate as a co-investor into Hydrostor alongside Goldman Sachs Asset Management. CPP Investments joins a list of existing Canadian investors in Hydrostor, including ArcTern Ventures, Lorem Partners, Canoe Financial, and Business Development Bank of Canada."

Bruce Hogg, Managing Director, Head of Sustainable Energies, CPP Investments, said: "Long-duration energy storage is a critical component in the decarbonization of electrical grids. Hydrostor's solutions are well-placed to address this growing need and provide a unique investment opportunity aligned with our focus on the energy evolution."

About Hydrostor

Hydrostor is a long-duration energy storage solutions provider that provides reliable and affordable utility integration of long-duration energy storage, enabling grid operators to scale renewable energy and secure grid capacity. Hydrostor supports the green economic transition, employing the people, suppliers, and technologies from the traditional energy sector to design, build, and operate emissions-free energy storage facilities. Hydrostor has developed, deployed, tested, and demonstrated that its patented Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage ("A-CAES") technology can provide long-duration energy storage and enable the renewable energy transition. A-CAES uses proven components from mining and gas operations to create a scalable energy storage system that is low-impact, cost-effective, 50+ year lifetime, and can store energy from 5 hours up to multi-day storage where needed. Hydrostor has projects worldwide in various development stages for providing capacity of over 200 MW each. For more information, please visit www.hydrostor.ca and follow us on LinkedIn.

Hydrostor Logo (CNW Group/Canada Pension Plan Investment Board)

About CPP Investments

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments™) is a professional investment management organization that manages the Fund in the best interest of the more than 21 million contributors and beneficiaries of the Canada Pension Plan. In order to build diversified portfolios of assets, investments are made around the world in public equities, private equities, real estate, infrastructure and fixed income. Headquartered in Toronto, with offices in Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, New York City, San Francisco, São Paulo and Sydney, CPP Investments is governed and managed independently of the Canada Pension Plan and at arm's length from governments. At December 31, 2021, the Fund totalled C$550.4 billion. For more information, please visit www.cppinvestments.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

SOURCE Canada Pension Plan Investment Board

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2022/19/c5125.html

WE NEED PROVINCIAL GVT INSURANCE CO.

Alberta auto insurers brought in 1.3 billion more than they paid out in 2020: report

Alberta auto insurance providers collected over a billion dollars more than they paid out in 2020, shows a new report released by the province Thursday.

Author of the article: Dylan Short, Calgary Herald, Driving
Publishing date: Apr 18, 2022 • 

Traffic on Calgarys Deerfoot Trail 

Alberta auto insurance providers collected over a billion dollars more than they paid out in 2020, shows a new report released last week by the province.

The Superintendent of Insurance 2020 annual report shows providers collected $5.81 billion in premiums and paid out $4.489 billion in claims, resulting in an overall collection of $1.321 billion. That margin is an increase from 2019 of $1.152 billion and 2018 of $974 million. Both premiums and claims have gone up each year over the past three years.

NDP energy critic Kathleen Ganley said Friday that insurance companies are making hundreds of millions more off the backs of Alberta drivers with the help of UCP policies. Premier Jason Kenney scrapped a rate increase cap on auto insurers in 2019 after it was imposed by the previous NDP government.

“They were able to do this because the UCP removed the cap we put in place to limit increases to premiums,” said Ganley. “That’s $385 million more out of the pockets of Alberta drivers in a single year. No wonder the UCP tried to hide the report before we called them out on it. No wonder they tried to bury it ahead of a long weekend.”

The NDP has accused the government of attempting to suppress the superintendent’s report for 2020 and 2021, which have been produced for more than 100 years.

Ganley said the increases came during a year when many people parked their vehicles due to the pandemic and hardly drove. Despite that, they still saw rate increases, she said.

“Alberta drivers, when you look at your car insurance bill, remember that you are getting worked over by an extremely profitable corporation with the help of the UCP,” said Ganley.

WTF
Kassandra Kitz, press secretary to Finance Minister Travis Toews, said that since much of the information in the report is publicly available elsewhere, the office of the superintendent had paused the release of the annual document while assessing if the report was still necessary.

“They have since taken action to continue the annual report publication,” said Kitz in an email.

Kitz said Albertans deserve an automobile insurance system that is fair, accessible and affordable and that is why the government is committed to examining ways to improve that system. She noted the government introduced Bill 41, the Insurance Amendment Act, which changed regulations around how premiums are calculated.

“We introduced Bill 41 last session that made legislative and regulatory changes to stabilize auto insurance rates, enhance medical care benefits and ensure more options and flexibility for drivers,” said Kitz.

She said seven insurers have filed for rate reductions in 2021 and that across the board, premium rates for private vehicles are down by just under one per cent over the past 12 months.

An analysis using industry and regulator data before the report was released Thursday suggested insurance companies had raked in nearly $2.1 billion in profits during the COVID-19 pandemic

An analysis done by actuary Craig Allen that he says is based on figures provided by the Alberta Automobile Insurance Rate Board shows auto insurers in 2020 pocketed $928 million in pre-tax profits and another $1.153 billion the following year.

The 2021 figure, said Allen, is based on available numbers for the first half of that year and projections for the remainder.

“My estimate of what the profit’s going to be is fairly conservative, cautious,” he said. “The COVID-19 pandemic and reduction in traffic certainly through the first half of 2021 that reduced the volume of accidents and claims is the real main driver.”

The analysis was conducted for the group Fair Alberta, which includes lawyers, medical professionals and injured Albertans.

An insurance industry spokesman echoed the nearly one per cent rate decrease cited by Kitz, adding Allen’s numbers are incomplete and skewed.

He said it doesn’t include more than $100 million in vehicle damage claims from the June 2020 hail storm that ravaged northeast Calgary and more vehicular traffic and probably more eventual payouts in the second half of last year.

“It’s inappropriate to take a point in time and extrapolate it for an entire year … it’s not necessarily accurate,” said Aaron Sutherland, vice-president of the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

He said it’s illegal for insurance company profits to exceed seven per cent so “the notion we’re making any kind of windfall is fanciful.”

With inflation running at nearly six per cent and price increases of car parts and used vehicles far exceeding that, “we’re seeing a lot of pressure on pocketbooks but auto insurance isn’t one of them.”

He agreed many insurers’ financial picture has improved recently but that some companies are doing considerably better than others.

Alberta insurance companies pack in more than a billion in profits in 2020

According to an annual report, drivers in Alberta paid more premiums in 

2020 despite some statistics showing that many left their vehicles parked

 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Michael Franklin

CTVNewsCalgary.ca Senior Digital Producer
Monday, April 18, 2022

While many Albertans were out and about enjoying the Easter long weekend, the Kenney government released new insurance data that reported more than a billion dollars in profit for the industry.

The Alberta NDP says the announcement was made during the holiday period in an attempt to suppress the data that said profits for insurance companies were $1.3 billion in 2020, more than $150 million higher than 2019's statistics.

Kathleen Ganley, the NDP's energy critic, says the UCP government's removal of the cap on premiums is why there was such an increase, even when Albertans were stuck at home and not driving anywhere due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Related Stories
Alberta's auto insurance changes set to impact premium calculations and claims process in 2022
New report shows auto insurance rates slowly declining in Alberta
Alberta government tables auto insurance bill, committee recommends adopting no-fault insurance

"These are highly profitable companies," she said at a weekend news conference. "They are fleecing Alberta drivers with the help of the UCP. Many Albertans parked their cars and barely drove in 2020, but they still watched their bills get bigger, thanks to the UCP."

The new data, announced in the Superintendent of Insurance 2020 Annual report, suggests an increase of $385 million in premiums for Albertans in 2020, the NDP says.

In 2019, the UCP government removed the cap on increases to insurance premiums in Alberta, a measure that the previous NDP government had brought in to save drivers from higher fees.

The strategy limited rate hikes to 0.5 per cent each year, but the UCP government claimed it was doing more harm than good.

"Ultimately, we were seeing Albertans running out of affordable options and options that could meet their needs," said Finance Minister Travis Toews in December 2019.

"There were some Albertans who were struggling to find collision coverage or comprehensive coverage. They were being limited in terms of their rate plans. All of that was pointing to a model that simply wasn't sustainable in the long term."


Some insurance experts say it even forced some drivers to run the risk of operating their vehicle without coverage.

According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, Alberta has the third-highest auto insurance rates in Canada, behind Ontario and B.C.

The Alberta government, in request for a reponse for comment on the annual report, said Bill 41 helped to stabilize auto insurance rates and provide added benefits to ratepayers.

It added that while profits were up, a number of providers have also applied for rate reductions, with seven of them being approved since the new measures:
Intact has decreased its rates by 2.04 per cent effective July 8, 2021;
Belair has decreased its rates by two per cent effective July 11, 2021;
Zurich has decreased its rates by 2.71 per cent effective Dec. 31, 2021;
Alberta Motor Association has decreased its rates by 7.13 per cent effective Jan. 1;
Peace Hills has decreased its rates by 2.63 per cent effective Jan. 1;
Co-operators has decreased its rates by 2.11 per cent effective Mar. 16; and
One other insurer has been approved for a decrease of 2.07 per cent effective April 1.

Officials say they also took into account the fact that Albertans were driving less because of the pandemic.

"When you visit the Auto Insurance Rate Board’s website that details the quarterly rate filings, you can see which have filed for reductions, and also the weighted average of approved rate changes," said Kassandra Kitz, press secretary for Minster Toews in an email to CTV News.

"This shows that across the board, auto insurance for private passenger vehicles is down 0.83 per cent over the past 12 months."

Bell: Kenney under fire slams 'kind of Soviet-style' auto insurance

Author of the article: Rick Bell
Publishing date: Apr 20, 2022 

Premier Jason Kenney. 

You have to admit Premier Jason Kenney has had some explaining to do.

And if there is one group you’d rather not have to defend, it’s insurance companies.

If there is one group not getting a lot of love from a lot of people, it’s insurance companies.

I know. I scored an award 17 years ago for holding the insurance crowd’s feet to the fire.

So the premier deflects.

He goes after provinces such as Saskatchewan and Manitoba, which have government-run auto insurance, schemes staying in place even when politicians of conservative stripe run the show.

“We Albertans believe in markets,” says Kenney.

“We don’t believe in socialism.”

He waits for the dreaded S-word to work its magic.

“Many other provinces have had the government take over the insurance market and that hasn’t worked out for consumers.”

It hasn’t?

Just a question.

Do you readers hailing from Saskatchewan and Manitoba and now living here think insurance is a better deal in Alberta?

Kenney lines up another S-word. Even scarier than the last S-word.

“It means you only have one choice, kind of Soviet-style, to go to.”

Are you listening to this, conservative-minded premiers of Saskatchewan and Manitoba peddling your kind of Soviet-style insurance?

“In many other provinces, you don’t get to shop around and find the right policy for you.”

An election is a year away …

“So that’s the alternative. I’m sure that’s where the NDP wants to take the province. I think that would be a disaster.”

Around the same time Kenney speaks these words, his budget boss Travis Toews is in the legislature talking about the NDP wanting “the nationalization of the automobile insurance industry.”

A quick catch-up on the story du jour.

The NDP opposition in the legislature has been on Kenney to cough up numbers on how much auto insurance companies have been pocketing in the recent past.

Where was the report from the paper shufflers eyeballing the bottom line of these insurance companies in 2020?

After all, the NDP had capped insurance premium hikes at five percentage points when they were in charge.

The cap was kaput in August of 2019, mere months after Kenney took over.

After the United Conservative victory, Kenney’s former campaign chief Nick Koolsbergen and his consulting outfit lobbied the premier’s office, the premier’s inner circle and the Kenney government’s finance department on behalf of the insurance industry.

One topic. Advocating against the insurance rate cap.

We’ll get to that later.

Anyway, the report on the insurance biz rolled out last Thursday. In the afternoon. Just before the start of the Easter long weekend.

It was the classic Take Out The Trash Day where you dump the stuff you don’t want folks to see.

Do they think we’re idiots? Don’t answer. It hurts too much.

The news stories on the report came out when most people weren’t paying attention.

Mission accomplished.

Auto insurers scooped up more in premiums and paid out less in claims in 2020 than in 2019

Those same insurers saw almost $400 million more in premiums in 2020.

For the 12 months before the end of this March, the weighted average of approved premium rate changes has gone down a little less than one percentage point.

The government says seven insurers are now reducing rates. In most cases, the amount is peanuts.

We’ll see how this all shakes out.



Back to Koolsbergen.

What does Kenney have to say about his old political comrade in arms lobbying the powers that be in the UCP government?

“I think every industry has government relations people that represent their interest,” says the premier.

“I don’t recall ever speaking to a lobbyist about this issue.”

Kenney insists he only spoke to the insurance big boys about coverage for oilpatch projects.

And, on a day when the premier was catching more grief about his leadership from those once on his side, he paints his own grim picture, a kind of insurance Armageddon two or three years ago.

Kenney speaks of more and more Albertans unable to get an insurance policy.

Very few insurance companies willing to play in the Alberta market.

Higher and higher court awards going out for personal injuries but the premiums not going up.

Insurers losing money.

“The market was getting totally turned upside down and if that had continued, we wouldn’t have had companies operate insurance here.”

And so, for Kenney, he and his crew kind of saved us from a kind of Soviet-style insurance.

One question remains, one you must answer.


Are you buying what the premier is selling?


rbell@postmedia.com

CRYPTOZOOLOGY CRYPTID'S

Opinion: Another Species of Hominin May Still Be Alive

Do members of Homo floresiensis still inhabit the Indonesian island where their fossils helped identify a new human species fewer than 20 years ago?



In 2004, the scientific world was shaken by the discovery of fossils from a tiny species of hominin on the Indonesian island of Flores. Labeled Homo floresiensis and dating to the late Pleistocene, the species was apparently a contemporary of early modern humans in this part of Southeast Asia. Yet in certain respects the diminutive hominin resembled australopithecines and even chimpanzees. Twenty years previously, when I began ethnographic fieldwork on Flores, I heard tales of humanlike creatures, some still reputedly alive although very rarely seen. In the words of the H. floresiensis discovery team’s leader, the late Mike Morwood, last at the University of Wollongong in Australia, descriptions of these hominoids “fitted floresiensis to a T.” Not least because the newly described fossil species was assumed to be extinct, I began looking for ways this remarkable resemblance might be explained. The result is a book, Between Ape and Human, available in May 2022.

This story is featured in
TS Digest
April 2022, Issue 2Read Interactive Article

Coming from a professional anthropologist and ethnobiologist, my conclusions will probably surprise many. They might even be more startling than the discovery of H. floresiensis—once described by paleoanthropologist Peter Brown of the University of New England in New South Wales as tantamount to the discovery of a space alien. Unlike other books concerned with hominin evolution, the focus of my book is not on fossils but on a local human population called the Lio and what these people say about an animal (as they describe it) that is remarkably like a human but is not human—something I can only call an ape-man. My aim in writing the book was to find the best explanation—that is, the most rational and empirically best supported—of Lio accounts of the creatures. These include reports of sightings by more than 30 eyewitnesses, all of whom I spoke with directly. And I conclude that the best way to explain what they told me is that a non-sapiens hominin has survived on Flores to the present or very recent times.

Between Ape and Human also considers general questions, including how natural scientists construct knowledge about living things. One issue is the relative value of various sources of information about creatures, including animals undocumented or yet to be documented in the scientific literature, and especially information provided by traditionally non-literate and technologically simple communities such as the Lio—a people who, 40 or 50 years ago, anthropologists would have called primitive. To be sure, the Lio don’t have anything akin to modern evolutionary theory, with speciation driven by mutation and natural selection. But if evolutionism is fundamentally concerned with how different species arose and how differences are maintained, then Lio people and other Flores islanders have for a long time been asking the same questions.


PEGASUS BOOKS, MAY 2022

Lio folk zoology and cosmology also include stories of natural beings, specifically humans, transforming permanently into animals of other kinds. And they do this, in part, by moving into new environments and adopting new ways of life, thus suggesting a qualified Lamarckism. As my fieldwork revealed, such posited changes reflect local observations of similarities and differences between a supposed ancestral species and its differentiated descendants. Like the majority of named categories in Lio animal classification, these derivatives coincide with the species or genera of modern systematics. At the same time, Lio distinguish humans from nonhuman animals in much the same way as do modern Westerners, that is, not just on morphological grounds but by attributing complex expressions of culture, language, and technology exclusively to humans.

Like other folk zoologists, the Lio put humans first, most notably as the origin of nonhuman animals, a sort of Darwinism in reverse. In contrast, evolutionary theory puts humans (or hominins) last, just as does the biblical story of Genesis. Yet in all instances, the position confers on Homo sapiens a unique status, thereby separating us from the rest of the animal kingdom.

For the Lio, the ape-man’s appearance as something incompletely human makes the creature anomalous and hence problematic and disturbing. For academic scientists, H. floresiensis is similarly problematic, but not so much for its resemblance to H. sapiens; rather, it’s because the species appears very late in the geological record, surviving to a time well after the appearance of modern humans. Whether H. floresiensis would have been any harder (or easier) to accept had it been interpreted as a bipedal ape rather than a species of human is difficult to say. Nevertheless, it’s interesting that Morwood, taking an implicitly unilinear view of hominin evolution and arguing for the species’ inclusion in Homo, spoke of the evidence that the diminutive hominin walked the Earth relatively recently as one “good reason” to classify H. floresiensis in our genus. For this can only mean that, in the view of this author, what survives until recent times has to somehow belong with us.

As for ape-men, the Lio identify them as animals. In fact, they are one of several animals that Lio people claim descended from humans. But this classification has nothing to do with geological dating or any paleoanthropological evidence. Instead, Lio people, who distinguish natural from supernatural (or spiritual) beings in essentially the same way religious Westerners do, interpret ape-men as non-human animals with reference to observable features that clearly separate them from invisible spirits; from other, more familiar animals; and, of course, from people. Some features of the ape-men might suggest a scientifically undiscovered species or population of modern apes. But Lio statements mostly count against this hypothesis, as does all we know about the biogeography of eastern Indonesia.

Our initial instinct, I suspect, is to regard the extant ape-men of Flores as completely imaginary. But, taking seriously what Lio people say, I’ve found no good reason to think so. What they say about the creatures, supplemented by other sorts of evidence, is fully consistent with a surviving hominin species, or one that only went extinct within the last 100 years. Paleontologists and other life scientists would do well to incorporate such Indigenous knowledge into continuing investigations of hominin evolution in Indonesia and elsewhere. For reasons I discuss in the book, no field zoologist is yet looking for living specimens of H. floresiensis or related hominin species. But this does not mean that they cannot be found.



Gregory Forth, now retired, was a professor of anthropology at the University of Alberta for more than three decades.

Read an excerpt of Between Ape and Human.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for HOBBIT 

PARENTS RIGHT
Parents ask court to overturn Alabama law denying their transgender kids healthcare


Parents in Alabama are fighting a state law set to go into effect next month that they say will physically and mentally harm their transgender children. 

File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

April 20 (UPI) -- Parents of four transgendered children in Alabama have asked a federal judge to overturn a controversial state law criminalizing doctors for providing minors with gender transition-related healthcare before it goes into effect next month.

Senate Bill 184 is considered one of the most restrictive bills in the nation affecting transgender people as it aims to prohibit medical procedures or prescriptions of medication to minors intended to alter their gender or delay puberty by penalizing their doctors with up to 10 years' imprisonment.

The law was signed by the state's Republican governor, Kay Ivey, early this month and is to become enforceable May 8.

In the lawsuit announced Wednesday, the parents were joined by two doctors and a reverend in seeking to have the law barred from going into effect on the grounds it unconstitutionally denies parents the right to make medical decisions for their children as well as discriminates against their children for being transgender.

"The parents challenging this law, like all parents, want what's best for their children, but S.B. 184 punishes them for that," Jennifer Levi, GLAD Transgender Rights Project director, said in a statement. "This is a dangerous law that undermines the ability of Alabama parents to make the best healthcare decisions for their families."

Aside from Rev. Eknes-Tucker of Pilgrim UCC Church in Birmingham, the plaintiffs are all anonymous due to the risk of criminal prosecution under the law with the children ranging in age from 12-17.

The lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, states each of the children and the two medical professional will be harmed by S.B. 184.

The children, it states, will either have their medical treatment disrupted, causing their health to deteriorate while preventing their parents from following the advice of their medical providers.

The document further states that the law forces doctors to choose between either violating the act and serving their transgender patients or not only violating their professional and ethical obligations but the Affordable Care Act that prevents individuals from being excluded from any federally assisted healthcare program.

One of the fathers involved in the lawsuit was identified by the false name James Zoe. In a statement, he said his family had the option to move out of state but they decided to stay and fight not only for Zachery, their 13-year-old transgender son, but for all transgender children in Alabama.

"Our family is challenging this cruel law because it infringes on our ability as parents to ensure our child receives appropriate medical care and targets transgender youth simply for being transgendered," Zoe said. "In the end, we believe this unfair law will be overturned and we will be able to continue providing our child with the medical care he needs."

The lawsuit was filed as Republican-controlled states seek to pass legislation that affects the rights of the LGBT community.

According to Human Rights Campaign, the United States' largest LGBTQ advocacy group, more than 300 bills affecting LGBTQ people have been submitted to state legislatures this year with about half concerning transgender youth.

After Ivey signed S.B. 184 into law on April 8, Carmarion Anderson-Harvey, director of Human Rights Campaign Alabama State, accused her of courting far-right voters over protecting the health of transgender youth.

"The governor and her fellow anti-equality legislators in the state capital have recklessly passed a bill that goes directly against the best advice of the medical community and intrudes on the rights of parents and families to make their own medical decisions," Anderson-Harvey said in a statement. "They have successfully criminalized critically important care that transgender youth need desperately, and the incredible doctors and care providers who help transgender youth each and every day."

PRIVATE SCHOOLS ARE WHITE
Michelle Obama's brother and his wife sue sons' school alleging racial bias

President Barack Obama (L) speaks with his brother-in-law Craig Robinson while attending Green Bay versus Princeton women's college basketball game on March 21, 2015. Robinson and his wife are suing University School Milwaukee alleging racial bias in the curriculum. 

Pool Photo by Michael Reynolds/UPI | License Photo


April 20 (UPI) -- Michelle Obama's brother and his wife filed a lawsuit alleging racial bias at a Milwaukee private school, saying that when they raised concerns, the school retaliated by expelling their sons.

Craig and Kelly Robinson said on Good Morning America Tuesday that their two sons were expelled from University School Milwaukee after the parents conveyed their concerns about alleged bias and mistreatment of students of color.

In a public letter to the USM community, the Robinsons said they noticed the problems when they helped their sons during pandemic virtual schooling.

"We were surprised and troubled by the repeated use of racial and ethnic stereotypes in certain assignments. We also witnessed a disregard for children who were not physically present in class and an apparent insensitivity to socio-economic status -- an issue that was put in stark relief during the pandemic," the Robinsons wrote.

In their letter, the Robinsons said they raised their issues "through the appropriate channels" and were "stunned and deeply disappointed when the school reacted with "sharp resistance and hostility."

They said their sons were summarily dismissed from the school with no notice, no chance to appeal and no credible explanation for why USM would take "such Draconian action."

USM Head of School Steve Hancock said in a letter to families with students in the school that the students were expelled not because racial bias issues were raised, but because the Robinsons violated school policies in the way they communicated their concerns.

In their open letter, the Robinsons described some examples of what they describe as bias and insensitivity.

"We are aware of instances in which white students have regularly used racial epithets, such as the N-word; when brought to USM's attention, administrators dismissed the seriousness of the behavior, noting that those using such abhorrent language on campus were 'good kids,'" the Robinsons wrote in their letter.

They also said students of color have been subjected to "harsher disciplinary actions than their white counterparts who engaged in similar conduct."

Hancock told Kelly Robinson in an email that she had engaged in "disrespectful and deflating" communications.

The Robinsons are suing for financial compensation but said in their letter any money they receive as a result of the lawsuit would be put toward initiatives designed to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in schools.

Pets get into owners' edibles, some overdose, survey says

By Amy Norton, HealthDay News

Some veterinarians are seeing more cases of cannabis poisoning in dogs and other pets, according to a new survey. Photo by Realmilk/Wikimedia Commons

With marijuana now legal in many U.S. states, some veterinarians are seeing more cases of cannabis poisoning in dogs and other pets, according to a new survey.

The poll, of 251 vets in Canada and the United States, found that those incidents usually end well: Most animals recover quickly, without needing a hospital stay.

But in some cases, more intense treatment is needed. And a small number of pets die after ingesting marijuana.

Veterinarians who were not involved in the study said it all sounds familiar.

"We have seen an increase [in cannabis poisoning] in the past five years or so," said Dr. Tasia Ludwik, a critical care specialist at the University of Minnesota's Veterinary Medical Center in St. Paul. "I'd say we average about five or six cases a week."

Dogs, not surprisingly, account for most marijuana poisonings, though cats, ferrets and horses sometimes fall victim, too. The typical incident involves a curious pup who finds brownies, butter or other tempting treats that have marijuana as a secret ingredient.

In general, vets can readily spot the signs and symptoms of a "pot puppy," according to Dr. Elizabeth Rozanski, a critical care veterinarian at Tufts University's Foster Hospital for Small Animals, in Massachusetts.

"They usually come in stumbling, disoriented and dribbling urine," Rozanski said.

It's a scary situation for owners, the vets said, since they often think their pup is suffering a life-threatening condition. But after some questioning - namely, whether the animal could've gotten hold of marijuana - the cause becomes clear.

In the new study, published online April 20 in the journal PLOS ONE, most vets did not report any changes in the number of marijuana poisonings they'd seen in recent years. But about 40% did report a shift - almost always an increase.

That's in line with studies from the past few years that have found rising rates of cannabis poisoning among pets in the United States and Canada. Canada legalized recreational marijuana in 2018 in the United States, medical marijuana is legal in most states, while 18 states and Washington, D.C., have also legalized recreational use.

A couple of things could be behind the increases in pet marijuana poisonings, according to Jibran Khokhar, the senior researcher on the current study.

For one, he said, the actual incidence could be rising because more people are using the drug, particularly in edible forms. Alternatively, people may be more willing to admit Fido got into the pot brownies because the drug is legal.

"I don't think we really have a good handle on the 'why' yet," said Khokhar, of Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph, in Canada.

Rozanski thinks pet owners are now more forthright about having pot in the home.

"When it was illegal, it was harder to get them to admit," she said. "They thought we would report it to the police - which we wouldn't."

In Khokhar's study, most vets described scenarios where pets accidentally got hold of edibles, or sometimes dried cannabis, when no one was looking.

Of course, that was based on owners' admissions. Khokhar said it's unclear how often people might have given a pet cannabis for "medicinal" purposes.

Both Ludwik and Rozanski cautioned against that, saying people should only give their pets medicines that have been prescribed by their vet. Instead, they said, think of marijuana as any other substance you'd want to keep out of pets' reach.

Vets in the survey said they were usually able to manage marijuana poisoning with outpatient monitoring. But a short hospital stay is needed in some cases -- when an animal has a particularly low heart rate, for example.

Vets sometimes use IV lipid therapy to speed up excretion of the drug, Ludwik said. (Lipids are fats, and the active ingredient in marijuana is fat-soluble.)

Ten veterinarians in the survey reported a total of 16 deaths they attributed to marijuana poisoning.

However, Khokhar said, it's hard to know whether marijuana, per se, was to blame. Chocolate, for example, contains an ingredient that is toxic to dogs, so it could be the brownies, rather than the added pot, that proved lethal.

Regardless, all three experts stressed the importance of protecting your beloved pet from the misery of pot poisoning, and avoiding the expense of an emergency medical visit.

"Most dogs will recover," Rozanski said, "but you'd rather not see them go through this."

More information

The American Kennel Club has more on marijuana poisoning.

Copyright © 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.