Troops rescue outgoing Sri Lanka PM as houses torched in deadly night of unrest


Mahinda Rajapaksa rescued in a pre-dawn military operation after day of protests in which five people were killed

Hannah Ellis-Petersen with agencies

THE GUARDIAN

Tue 10 May 2022

Sri Lankan troops have conducted a dramatic pre-dawn operation to rescue the prime minister, firing warning shots in the air to disperse thousands of anti-government protesters who had stormed his official residence in Colombo.

Five people were killed and nearly 200 were wounded on Monday in the worst violence in weeks of protests over an unprecedented economic crisis, and demonstrations continued on Tuesday.

In an attempt to placate the protesters, the prime minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, resigned on Monday, but that did little to calm public anger.

Protesters who forced their way into the capital’s “Temple Trees” residence attempted to storm the main two-storey building where Rajapaksa was holed up with his family.
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“After a pre-dawn operation, the former PM and his family were evacuated to safety by the army,” a top security official told AFP. “At least 10 petrol bombs were thrown into the compound.”


Sri Lanka’s PM resigns after weeks of protests over economic crisis

Rajapaksa’s evacuation to an undisclosed location followed a day of violent protests in which five people, including a lawmaker, were killed and nearly 200 wounded.

The security official said police kept up a barrage of teargas and fired warning shots in the air to hold back protesters at all three entrances to the colonial-era building, a key symbol of state power.

Dozens of homes of top Rajapaksa loyalists were torched elsewhere in the curfew-bound country, which has been under a state of emergency since Friday.

The emergency order from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the outgoing premier’s younger brother, gave sweeping powers to the military as protests demanding the duo’s resignation escalated over the country’s worst-ever economic crisis.

Protesters and Sri Lankan religious leaders blamed the former prime minister for instigating the family’s supporters to attack unarmed protesters on Monday, sparking retaliatory attacks.

Rajapaksa’s resignation follows months of protests over the country’s deepening economic crisis, as once-peaceful demonstrations turned violent. Turmoil began to engulf the country on Monday after violence at a major protest site in Colombo, where pro-government supporters attacked demonstrators and police responded with teargas and water cannon.

In one incident just outside Colombo, a politician from the ruling party opened fire on anti-government protesters blocking his car, killing a 27-year-old, and then later took his own life. According to police, another ruling party politician opened fire on protesters in the southern town of Weeraketiya, killing two and wounding five.

Mahinda Rajapaksa had been asked to resign by his brother at a special meeting on Friday, in an attempt to appease demonstrators who have been taking to the streets in their thousands since March.

Protesters have been calling for both members of Sri Lanka’s powerful Rajapaksa political dynasty to be removed from office for mishandling the economy and plunging the country into the worst financial crisis since independence.

Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was president for a decade between 2005 and 2015, had reportedly been resistant to stepping down, but on Monday submitted his letter of resignation to the president.

“Multiple stakeholders have indicated the best solution to the present crisis is the formation of an interim all-party government. Therefore, I have tendered my resignation so the next steps can be taken in accordance with the constitution,” he wrote.

The resignation is the latest concession made by the Rajapaksas in the face of protracted anger and protests. The president recently agreed to repeal an amendment to the constitution that had concentrated power in his hands and hand power back to the parliament. Other members of the Rajapaksa family who had previously held seats in the cabinet have also stepped down, with the president the only remaining member of the political family still in power.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, known widely as Gota, has repeatedly said he will not resign as president, despite the clarion call of the protests being “Gota go home”.

The Rajapaksas have largely controlled Sri Lankan politics for two decades, but the economic crisis has rattled their grip on power in the face of mass unrest from those who had previously been supporters of their brand of chauvinist nationalist politics, which pandered to the country’s Sinhalese Buddhist majority.

Pro-government supporters hold outgoing prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s portrait while demonstrating outside his residence in Colombo.

 Photograph: Ishara S Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images

Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves have dropped so low that the country cannot afford to import basic essentials, leading to shortages of fuel, food and medicines. People have been forced to endure daily power cuts of up to 10 hours, fuelling mass protests across the country since March.

Over the weekend, the president declared a state of emergency in the country, the second in recent weeks, in a bid to regain control over the streets.

However, Monday marked a violent shift in the demonstrations when hundreds of pro-government supporters gathered outside the prime minister’s residence in Colombo and urged Mahinda Rajapaksa not to resign. The group, some armed with sticks and wooden bars, then launched an attack on an anti-government protest camp nearby, with police reportedly looking on as the clashes began.

Sri Lanka deploys troops to enforce curfew after day of deadly unrest

FRANCE 24 4 hrs ago

Sri Lanka deployed thousands of troops and police Tuesday to enforce a curfew after five people were killed in the worst violence in weeks of protests over an unprecedented economic crisis.

Nearly 200 were also wounded Monday as prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned, but that did little to calm public anger.

He had to be rescued in a pre-dawn operation by the military Tuesday after thousands of anti-government protesters stormed his official residence in Colombo overnight, with police firing tear gas and warning shots to keep back the crowd.

"After a pre-dawn operation, the former PM and his family were evacuated to safety by the army," a top security official told AFP. "At least 10 petrol bombs were thrown into the compound."

The Rajapaksa clan's hold on power has been shaken by months of blackouts and shortages in Sri Lanka, the worst economic crisis since it became independent in 1948.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa remains in office, however, with widespread powers and command over the security forces.

After weeks of overwhelmingly peaceful anti-government demonstrations, violence broke out Monday when Mahinda Rajapaksa's supporters -- bussed into the capital from the countryside -- attacked protestors with sticks and clubs.

"We were hit, the media were hit, women and children were hit," one witness told AFP, asking not to be named.

Police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse crowds and declared an immediate curfew in Colombo, a measure later widened to include the entire South Asian nation of 22 million people.

Authorities said the curfew will be lifted Wednesday morning, with government and private offices, as well as shops and schools, ordered to remain shut on Tuesday.

US Ambassador Julie Chung tweeted that Washington condemned "the violence against peaceful protestors" and called on the Sri Lankan "government to conduct a full investigation, including the arrest & prosecution of anyone who incited violence".

Shot dead

Despite the curfew, anti-government protesters defied police to retaliate against government supporters for the attacks late into Monday night.

Outside Colombo, ruling party lawmaker Amarakeerthi Athukorala shot two people -- killing a 27-year-old man -- after being surrounded by a mob of anti-government protestors, police said.

"He then took his own life with his revolver," a police official told AFP by telephone.

Athukorala's bodyguard was also found dead at the scene, police said.

Another ruling party politician who was not named opened fire on protesters, killing two and wounding five in the deep south of the island, police added.

Angry crowds set alight the homes of more than a dozen pro-Rajapaksa politicians, along with some vehicles, while buses and trucks used by the government loyalists in and around Colombo were also targeted.

Several Rajapaksa homes were torched in different parts of the country, while a family museum in their ancestral village was trashed.

Doctors at the main Colombo National Hospital intervened to rescue wounded government supporters, with soldiers breaking open locked gates to ferry in the wounded.

"They may be murderers, but for us they are patients who must be treated first," a doctor shouted at a mob blocking the entrance to the emergency unit.

Unity government

Mahinda Rajapaksa, 76, said he was resigning to pave the way for a unity government.

But it was unclear if the opposition would join any unity administration, having before refused to govern with any members of the Rajapaksa family.

Under Sri Lanka's political system, even with a new unity government, the president will have the power to appoint and fire ministers as well as judges, and enjoy immunity from prosecution.

"Unless President Rajapaksa steps down, no one -- whether the masses in the streets or key political stakeholders -- will be appeased," analyst Michael Kugelman from the Wilson Center told AFP.

The protests came after the coronavirus pandemic hammered the island's vital income from tourism and remittances, which starved the country of foreign currency needed to pay off its debt.

This forced the government to ban many imports, leading to severe shortages, inflation and lengthy power blackouts.

In April, Sri Lanka announced it was defaulting on its $51 billion foreign debt.

It is unclear what President Rajapaksa's next move will be in the face of the protests, according to Akhil Bery of the Asia Society Policy Institute.

Aside from following his brother in resigning, he could appoint a caretaker government -- before then quitting -- deploy the military and police to suppress the protests, or try to wait for them to "die down naturally", Bery told AFP.

But whatever happens, the next government will have to take "unpopular decisions" to repair the devastated economy, he said.

Any bailout from the International Monetary Fund -- currently under negotiation -- would mean "higher taxes and less government spending, which is a politically toxic combination", he added.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

 

Sri Lanka's ex-PM will not flee country after deadly clashes: son


At least three people were killed and more than 150 wounded in a wave of violence between government supporters and demonstrators 

(AFP/ISHARA S. KODIKARA)More


Amal JAYASINGHE

AFP
Tue, May 10, 2022,

Sri Lanka's Mahinda Rajapaksa -- who resigned as prime minister after his supporters attacked anti-government protesters and sparked a day of violence -- will not flee the country, his son told AFP on Tuesday.

The 76-year-old heads a political clan whose hold on power has been shaken by months of blackouts and shortages in the island nation, which is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948.

Mahinda had to be evacuated by the military from his official residence on Monday night after it was besieged by an angry crowd.

But his son Namal, himself once touted as a future national leader, said the Rajapaksa family had no plans to leave Sri Lanka despite weeks of protests demanding they relinquish power.

"There are a lot of rumours that we are going to leave. We will not leave the country," he said, describing the surge of national anger against his family as a "bad patch".

He added that Mahinda would not step down as a lawmaker and wanted to play an active role in choosing his successor.

Mahinda was taken to an undisclosed location after protesters on Monday night breached the compound fence at Temple Trees, his official residence in the capital Colombo.

"My father is safe, he is at a safe location and he is communicating with the family," said Namal, who served as the country's sports minister until a cabinet shake-up last month.

The Rajapaksa clan has dominated Sri Lanka's politics for much of the past two decades.

Mahinda's younger brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa remains in office as president, with extensive executive powers and command over the security forces.

Weeks of overwhelmingly peaceful protests against the government's mismanagement of the crisis turned violent on Monday when supporters of Mahinda were bussed into the capital from the countryside and attacked demonstrators.

Anti-government crowds defied a nationwide curfew to retaliate against government supporters for the attacks late into the night.

They set alight the homes of dozens of pro-Rajapaksa politicians, while a controversial museum dedicated to the family was razed to the ground in the country's south.

Namal said his family believed that Sri Lankans had a right to protest.

"We will always stand by our people," he added.

aj/gle/ssy

With Marcos Jr. tipped to win, Philippines at tenuous moment



Sunday, May 8,2022
The Canadian Press


MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Filipinos stood in long lines to choose a new president Monday, with the son of an ousted dictator and a champion of human rights the top contenders in a tenuous moment in a deeply divided Asian democracy.

Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son and namesake of the strongman ousted in a 1986 army-backed “People Power” uprising, held a seemingly insurmountable lead in pre-election surveys. But his closest challenger, Vice President Leni Robredo, has tapped into shock and outrage over the prospect of a Marcos recapturing the seat of power and harnessed a network of campaign volunteers to underpin her candidacy.

Eight others are in the presidential race, including former boxing star Manny Pacquiao, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno and former national police chief Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

Long lines of voters turned up early across most of the country, with the start of voting delayed by a few hours in a few areas due to malfunctioning vote machines, power outages, bad weather and other problems.

Thousands of police and military personnel were deployed to secure election precincts, especially in rural regions with a history of violent political rivalries and where communist and Muslim rebels are active. In Maguindanao province, a security hotspot in the south, three village guards were killed by gunmen outside an elections center in Buluan town, briefly disrupting voting. Nine would-be voters and their companions were wounded separately Sunday night when unidentified men fired five rifle grenades in the Datu Unsay town hall, police said.

The election winner will take office on June 30 for a single, six-year term as leader of a Southeast Asian nation hit hard by two years of COVID-19 outbreaks and lockdowns.

Still more challenging problems include a pandemic-battered economy, deeper poverty and unemployment and decades-long Muslim and communist insurgencies. The next president is also likely to hear demands to prosecute outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte for thousands of killings during his anti-drug crackdown — deaths already under investigation by the International Criminal Court.

Duterte's daughter, southern Davao city Mayor Sara Duterte, has topped surveys as Marcos Jr.’s vice-presidential running mate in an alliance of the scions of two authoritarian leaders who concern human rights groups. The tie-up has combined the voting power of their separate northern and southern political strongholds, boosting their chances but compounding worries of human rights activists.

“History may repeat itself if they win,” said Myles Sanchez, a 42-year-old human rights worker. “There may be a repeat of martial law and the drug killings that happened under their parents.”

Sanchez said the violence and abuses that marked the martial-law era under Marcos and Duterte’s drug war more than three decades later victimized loved ones from two generations of her family. Her grandmother was sexually abused and her grandfather tortured by counterinsurgency troops under Marcos in the early 1980s in their impoverished farming village in Southern Leyte province.

Under Duterte’s crackdown, Sanchez’s brother, a sister and a sister-in-law were wrongfully linked to illegal drugs and separately killed, she told The Associated Press in an interview. She described the killings of her siblings as “a nightmare that has caused unspeakable pain.”

She begged Filipinos not to vote for politicians who either openly defended the widespread killings or conveniently looked away.

Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte have avoided such volatile issues in the campaign and steadfastly stuck instead to a battle cry of national unity, even though their fathers' presidencies opened some of the Philippines' most turbulent divisions.

“I have learned in our campaign not to retaliate,” Sara Duterte told followers Saturday night on the final day of campaigning, where she and Marcos Jr. thanked a huge crowd in a night of rap music, dance shows and fireworks near Manila Bay.

At her own rally, Robredo thanked her supporters who jammed her star-studded sorties and waged a house-to-house battle to endorse her brand of clean and hands-on politics. She asked them to fight for patriotic ideals beyond the elections.

“We’ve learned that those who have awoken will never close their eyes again,” Robredo told a crowd that filled the main avenue in the capital's Makati financial district. “It’s our right to have a future with dignity and it’s our responsibility to fight for it.”

Aside from the presidency, more than 18,000 government posts are being contested, including half of the 24-member Senate, more than 300 seats in the House of Representatives, as well as provincial and local offices across the archipelago of more than 109 million Filipinos.

More than 67 million people have registered, including about 1.6 million Filipinos overseas, to cast their ballot. When voting centers close after the 13-hour day, thousands of counting machines will immediately transmit the results to be tallied. In the 2016 contest, Duterte emerged as the clear winner within a few hours and his key challengers quickly conceded. The vice presidential race that year was won narrowly by Robredo over Marcos Jr., and the outcome was slower to become known.

___

Associated Press journalists Joeal Calupitan, Aaron Favila and Cecilia Forbes in Manila, Philippines, and Kiko Rosario in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Jim Gomez, The Associated Press

Shh! Don’t Ask Canadian Conservatives about Abortion

Right-wing politicians aren’t great at hiding their views against reproductive rights.

David Climenhaga 

5 May 2022

Alberta Politics

People take part in the anti-abortion March For Life rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, May 9, 2019. 

Photo by Sean Kilpatrick, the Canadian Press.

Canada’s conservative political parties are desperately trying to declare discussion of the leaked United States Supreme Court draft ruling on abortion a political no-fly zone.

‘We can’t just plug everything up and act like there’s not going to be ramifications.’

The powerful and extensive influence of radical social conservative opponents of women’s reproductive rights on the Conservative Party of Canada and the United Conservative Party of Alberta is the dirty little open secret of this country’s conservative movement.

With the leak of the shocking/not shocking plan by the Republican-packed majority on the now thoroughly politicized U.S. Supreme Court to allow American states to ban abortions outright and speed the republic toward theocracy, Canadian conservatives who drink from the same ideological well would very much like to shut down any inconvenient discussion of that topic here.

Albertans and Canadians who support women’s right to bodily autonomy are already being offered anodyne assurances that Canada’s Conservatives have no plans to change anything and the law in Canada is a settled matter. Let’s just talk about something else, we’re told, presumably something more to their own political advantage.

Of course, this assurance will only hold true until it doesn’t hold true — just like the nearly identical promises by all those American Supreme Court justices at their Senate confirmation hearings — at which point it will be too late to stop them.

It would be naive to imagine the so-called right-to-lifers who pack the ranks of Canadian conservative parties are any less determined to achieve their political and cultural goals than their ideological fellow travellers south of the world’s longest undefended border.

Count on conservatives to get nastier about this in the next hours and days if other Canadians refuse to knuckle under to their demands to talk about something else.

At the same time, legislative caucuses of elected conservatives have been instructed to keep their lips zipped — especially those of them who want to destroy reproductive rights.

When the orders to zip it went out from acting federal Conservative leader Candice Bergen, they were justified on the ludicrous grounds the question was before the court — never mind that the court in question is thoroughly politicized and located in another country.

Still, the challenge was too much for some.

“I am proud to be one of the MPs who believes in the immutable dignity of the human person, regardless of gender, age, level of development, sexual orientation, disability, or any other characteristic,” dog-whistled Sherwood Park-Fort Saskatchewan MP Garnett Genuis Tuesday evening.

Like Bergen, Genuis is on the list of the 39 MPs who have received a “green light” stamp of approval from the anti-abortion organization Campaign Life.

In addition to Genuis, the other 12 Alberta MPs on the list of the most committed parliamentary opponents of Canadians’ reproductive rights: Blaine Calkins, Red Deer-Lacombe; Michael Cooper, St. Albert; Tom Kmiec, Calgary Shepherd; Damien Kurek, Battle River-Crowfoot; Mike Lake, Edmonton-Wetaskiwin; Dane Lloyd, Sturgeon River-Parkland; Glen Motz, Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner; Jeremy Patzer, Cypress Hills-Grasslands; Shannon Stubbs, Lakeland; Rachael Thomas, Lethbridge; Arnold Viersen, Peace River-Westlock and Chris Warkentin, Grande Prairie-Mackenzie.

That’s 43 per cent of the Conservative Party’s Alberta caucus in the House of Commons!

As for the UCP, it’s no secret that anti-abortion MLAs are found in considerable numbers in its caucus, although the party and its backers play the actual number of such MLAs close to their vests. Certainly Premier Jason Kenny is among them, notwithstanding his past promises not to reopen the debate on the topic. Education Minister Adriana LaGrange and Peace River MLA Dan Williams share their views.

But even before the UCP was elected in 2019, Cameron Wilson, political director of the misleadingly named anti-abortion group, the Wilberforce Project, proclaimed: “If the UCP wins the upcoming election we will have the most pro-life legislature in decades, maybe ever.”

He would know. His group was busy in the lead-up to the 2019 election recruiting anti-abortion candidates, covert and overt, to seek UCP nominations.

Meanwhile, the former Alberta Social Credit party, seemingly taken over by anti-abortion activists, changed its name to the Pro-life Alberta Political Association, rather patriarchally abbreviated to PAPA.

In recent Elections Alberta political contributions reports, the party has come third after the NDP and UCP.

Challenged in the legislature by Opposition leader Rachel Notley to condemn the attack on reproductive rights in the U.S. courts, Kenney adopted a rope-a-dope defence, saying the questions are for the American legal system, nothing to do with us, under federal jurisdiction in Canada, yadda yadda.

He refused to be pinned down.

But the unavoidable conclusion — desperate Conservative diversion tactics notwithstanding — is that who gets elected matters, and it’s important to pay attention to what the candidates in your electoral district believe.

Canadian voters have a right — no, a duty — to ask every candidate for elected office, including those contesting party leadership races, to clearly state their position on this fundamental issue. Fudging and evasion should be taken as confirmation of opposition to Canadians’ reproductive rights.

David J. Climenhaga is an award-winning journalist, author, post-secondary teacher, poet and trade union communicator. He blogs at AlbertaPolitics.ca. Follow him on Twitter at @djclimenhaga.

 

No room for cynicism in Alberta's abortion discourse

posted by Jim Storrie | 13RTs
May 06, 2022

The top story in Alberta politics this week wasn’t in Alberta at all: in the United States, a leak revealed that the Supreme Court is about to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that had prevented bans on abortion in the U.S. (and from which a number of policies to protect privacy and bodily autonomy derive, too.)

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has avoided commenting on the news and it’s easy to guess why. Kenney has been an anti-choice soldier since his salad days—you may have seen the old screenshot floating around of his CNN appearance back in the nineties as an anti-abortion activist. It was a busy time for a young Mr. Kenney, who was also vigorously working to take away hospital visitation rights from gay people.

But taking the path of evil on women’s rights is a canny career move for a Tory. Anti-choice activism is a powerful strain in North American conservatism, and that includes the Canadian bits. If you want to secure a nomination as the conservative candidate for an MP or MLA race, a friendly relationship with an anti-choice group like RightNow is a good way to get it—and a good share of the UCP back bench, like Michaela Frey (formerly Glasgo) and Dan Williams, can attest to that. The UCP are so cozy with these folks that RightNow were recruiting interns for them in the days after they formed government.

When the topic of abortion comes up in Canada, a lot of folks’ instinct is to be cynical. After all, we wouldn’t make it illegal up here, would we? And isn’t it a bit cheeky for the Democrats to keep promising to codify Roe v. Wade into law—as Presidents Obama and Biden both swore they’d do—but then delay eternally and hold people hostage for votes, like Lucy with the football?

That’s a frame of mind the Canadian anti-choice politicians would really like you to stay in, right until they get the opportunity to pull the rug out from under you. Here in Canada, the game isn’t so much legality as access, and conservative governments have been ruthless about putting the squeeze on access wherever they can. You can’t just go to your family doctor, get a referral, and go to a hospital; elective abortion surgery in this province is only available in Edmonton or Calgary. An Action Canada report in 2019 found that Alberta has some of the worst abortion access in the country, including by far the worst ratio of clinics to population. 

Your Premier is a former anti-choice activist. Your Education Minister is a former anti-choice activist. The political director of the Wilberforce Project boasted in 2019 that the UCP slate was going to be “the most pro-life legislature in decades.” UCP backbenchers are already trying to chip away at bodily autonomy. And we’ve already got ample evidence from the sham panels on safe supply and supervised consumption sites that these guys are happy to inflict medical misery on thousands if it fits their culture-war playbook. So no, it’s not naive to think they’re up to something.

And—and this is something I don’t get to say all that often—it doesn’t seem overly naive to believe that the Alberta NDP are genuine about fighting back, unlike their American counterparts. During their one term in government, and in the face of organized opposition, the ANDP did in fact enact policies to improve access, including public funding for Myfegismo and legislation to keep harassers away from abortion clinics.

That’s not to say the ANDP comms people aren’t giddy for the opportunity to pick up the issue and beat Jason Kenney’s ass with it. Jason Kenney’s leadership review results are due on the 18th, and you can be sure he’s tense as a coiled spring as he feels the squeeze from his anti-choice allies on one side, and broad public opinion on the other.

ALBERTA

Inside the Kenney Government’s System of Secrecy

Staff is told to delete emails, use apps and personal phones to avoid scrutiny, insiders reveal. A Tyee investigation.

‘“Records management” was code for deleting emails,’ a former UCP government senior staffer told The Tyee. Efforts to hide daily operations, ordered by the premier’s office, far exceed previous Alberta governments, say sources.

From the moment it assumed power in Alberta, the United Conservative government of Premier Jason Kenney has been criticized for secretive, anti-democratic practices that limit access to information about how the government operates.

‘We can’t just plug everything up and act like there’s not going to be ramifications.’

The most high-profile example is the so-called Energy War Room, created as a private corporation to evade public scrutiny through freedom of information and protection of privacy. The Progress Report recently revealed Invest Alberta, with its multimillion-dollar budget, is also not subject to FOIP.

Now three former and current senior UCP political staffers have told The Tyee that the Kenney government’s attempts to stymie transparency and accountability extend to everyday operations — and are unlike anything they have seen in their many combined years working for other governments.

In interviews, the staffers described an enforced system designed to evade FOIP requests and limit the potential for leaks by deleting emails, communicating through Slack and WhatsApp channels that are regularly wiped, and using personal phones to conduct government business.

“The directive would come from the premier’s office staff during regular weekly and daily meetings, reminding everyone to ensure that they’re up to date on their ‘records management,’” one former senior staffer said.

“‘Records management’ was code for deleting emails.”

Another senior staffer described their understanding of the premier’s office directive.

“To delete everything, to have no records,” they said. “So that nobody could get any of our information.”

“There was no rationale given. It was, ‘Manage your records, delete your stuff, make sure you have nothing. Use Slack for communication. Don’t use your work phones.’”

Another current senior staffer said the premier’s office generally encourages staff not to create records so that they can’t be obtained through FOIP.

“There is always encouragement from the premier’s office to pick up the phone, because there are no records,” the staffer said.

Another staffer said the unwritten directive applies to all UCP political staff, which includes ministers, press secretaries, chiefs of staff, issues managers and advisors.

They said WhatsApp is used by chiefs of staff while press secretaries and other staffers communicate with Slack, which is deleted at least once a week by a staffer in the premier’s office.

A former staffer said ministers and MLAs also often use their personal phones for government business.

Kenney’s press secretary, Justin Brattinga, declined an interview request and instead provided an emailed statement that did not address the specific allegations.

“Staff are given training by the FOIP office in management and records keeping. Staff are expected to manage their records in accordance with the Government of Alberta Records and Information Management policies.

“There is no legal obligation or requirement to maintain transitory records once they are no longer required. Transitory records contain information in any format that is of temporary or limited usefulness — for example, a response to media.”

But Sean Holman, a University of Victoria journalism professor and freedom-of-information expert, said, “It appears that at the very least those people operating at that level are stretching the definition of what constitutes a transitory record in a way that is politically advantageous in terms of keeping government information secret from the public.”

FOIP requests trigger orders to delete says former insider

The staffers spoke on condition of anonymity because it could affect their current and future employment.

All three independently said it was clear the deletions were specifically to thwart FOIP and to ensure politically damaging or embarrassing information could never be released. Two former staffers said they had seen FOIP requests, including from the media, that did not yield responsive records because they had been deleted under this unwritten policy.

One former staffer described how ministers, and chiefs of staff, would manipulate the release of information through FOIP to appear as if they were complying with the legislation while purposely excluding information that didn’t fit a predetermined government narrative.

“When it is an issue where there obviously should be some sort of record, the ministers’ chiefs of staff will orchestrate having certain emails to demonstrate that there is an actual paper trail. But it is orchestrated in a way that it is not embarrassing for the minister’s office or the minister.”

This same staffer said ministers’ offices are often given 24 hours’ notice that a FOIP request has been filed.

“So everyone has 24 hours to delete all their emails, as well, and it is because not everyone does it all the time.”

Holman said the deletion, and selective release, of documents is contrary to the very purpose of FOIP.

“The entire point of freedom of information is so government doesn’t have discretionary power to choose what information the public has and what information the public doesn’t have about its operations,” he said.

Holman said he was not shocked by the Kenney government’s attitude toward freedom of information because governments always have sought to circumvent the laws.

“We have seen a steady erosion of the spirit of those laws ever since those laws were passed,” he said. “So this is part and parcel of an overall trend, both in Alberta and across Canada, as governments have become more secretive, less open — and by extension, less democratic.”

Holman said Alberta’s information commissioner should conduct a thorough review of how political staffers manage records.

A spokesperson for commissioner Jill Clayton said her office was unaware of the allegations.

‘These are the public’s records’

In British Columbia, a 2015 investigation by that province’s information commissioner found the BC Liberal government of former premier Christy Clark had behaved in ways very similar to the Kenney government of 2022.

Former commissioner Elizabeth Denham found Clark’s deputy chief of staff, Michele Cadario, had deleted all her emails every day. Cadario had claimed the legislation allows “transitory” emails to be deleted and she maintained every email was transitory.

But commission investigators recovered emails that should have been disclosed.

Two of the former Alberta staffers told The Tyee there is often no distinction between transitory emails and emails that should be retained: all are deleted.

Alberta has a long history of freedom-of-information scandals, especially under the long-governing Progressive Conservatives.

Documents released in 2013 showed that then-deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk directed press secretaries to gather information about FOIP requests that had the potential to embarrass the government. During a subsequent investigation by Alberta’s information commissioner, many ministries simply refused to hand over responsive records, citing solicitor-client privilege.


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Internal emails also showed former Executive Council deputy minister Peter Watson, the government’s most senior civil servant at the time, personally directed several ministries to submit FOIP requests to his office so it could dictate what information could be released.

And, as Clayton has repeatedly said publicly, successive provincial governments have chronically underfunded FOIP, pushing the system — and her office, which handles request appeals — to the breaking point.

The Alberta staffers, however, said the Kenney government directive is essentially a policy of wholesale exclusion and suppression of public information.

All three Alberta staffers said they decided to speak out because they consider the directive to be anti-democratic.

“This is a democracy and people should know what the hell their government is doing and how they arrive at these decisions,” one said.

“These are the public’s records. They are not the government’s records; they belong to the people.”

Charles Rusnell and Jennie Russell 

Yesterday, May 9, 2022

TheTyee.ca
Charles Rusnell and Jennie Russell are independent investigative reporters based in Edmonton. They specialize in political accountability reporting and their award-winning journalism has forced transparency and democratic change in Alberta.

London Free Press wins National Newspaper Award for 'in-depth' coverage of attack on Muslim family

National Post Staff - Friday, May 6,2022


Postmedia Network’s The London Free Press has won a prestigious National Newspaper Award for its breaking news coverage of a devastating attack on an immigrant Muslim family in June 2021.


The Afzaal-Salman family, who police say were deliberately run over while out for a walk in London, Ont., on June 6, 2021

The reporting on the hit-and-run that left four dead and a child injured across three generations of a single family was recognized for its “in-depth reporting and hard-hitting commentary,” the judges said.

The award was announced Friday in a webcast recognizing the best in Canadian journalism in 2021. Postmedia had four nominations.

The Free Press package of stories defeated The Globe and Mail’s coverage of a deadly heatwave in British Columbia and the Winnipeg Free Press coverage of a nurse who was stabbed in a hospital.

“It is the most affecting but troubling story many of us in the newsroom have ever had to work on,” Free Press editor Joe Ruscitti said earlier this year, when the nominations were announced.

Talat Afzaal, 74, her son, Salman Afzaal, 46, his wife Madiha Salman, 44, and their daughter Yumnah, 15, were killed on June 6, 2021 when a truck jumped the curb and struck them. The couple’s nine-year-old son, Fayez, survived serious injuries.

Gerry Nott, Postmedia’s acting senior vice president, editorial content, said he was “so proud” of the Free Press, a title that “always delivers.”

“The recognition of our journalists by the NNAs reinforces the level of quality reporting and expertise at all of our titles,” Nott said in a statement.

The paper covered the immediate breaking news, as well as explored other allegedly hate-motivated attacks in Canada, and how the Muslim community in Ontario was affected.

The newspaper’s awards submissions included commentary that asked whether Islamophobia could be stopped via a national summit and reflected on a city grappling with the tragedy.

Postmedia newspapers garnered three other NNA nominations.

Sharon Kirkey, the National Post’s long-time health reporter, was nominated in the beat reporting category for her coverage of COVID-19. Améli Pineda and Magdaline Boutros of the Quebec newspaper Le Devoir won the award for their work on conjugal violence in Quebec.

A team from the Saskatoon StarPhoenix was nominated in the local reporting category for a series exploring the overdose crisis; the winner in that category was a trio of reporters at RMO Today, for reporting on accidental deaths of skiers and climbers in avalanches.

John Mackie, at the Vancouver Sun/Province, was nominated for a feature on a collegial relationship between political adversaries who are both quadriplegics. Marcus Gee at the Globe and Mail won the Bob Levin Award for Short Feature for a story on a handmade memorial for those who died of overdoses.

ONTARIO

Probe of Brampton City Hall finds 

anti-Black racism & ‘culture of fear’

LONG READ

In 2019, an audit showed that while nearly 75 percent of the city’s population was racialized, that only translated into 37 percent of Brampton’s municipal staff. In the City’s corporate leadership team, that dropped even lower to 15 percent.

On September 22, 2020, Williams HR Consulting Inc. was hired by the City of Brampton to conduct an independent review into the experiences of Black employees at the City, including an assessment of processes, policies and procedures, to determine the existence and/or scope of discriminatory experiences or practices.

The review included employee experiences and observations related to anti-Black racism in the workplace using interviews with a selected sample of City employees to hear their experiences and observations of the treatment of Black employees within the workplace. It also involved considering their impressions, perspectives and opinions as a critical source of information to inform the review’s findings.

Additionally, it involved assessing the City’s policies, procedures and practices against a proprietary “Gold Standard” of requirements and best practices for investigating and addressing complaints and incidents of discrimination, and related processes, in light of the applicable legal requirements the municipal corporation is obligated to meet.

The City did not fare well.

Submitted to then-Chief Administrative Officer David Barrick on December 17, 2021, the executive summary would eventually make its way onto a public council agenda in late April with few details, garnering no discussion, and then land quietly on the City’s website under its Equity Office’s documents.

The review found that many Black participants who spoke with the external firm did not feel the City has fostered a workplace environment and culture supportive of Black staff.

Perceptions of Black employees markedly differ from those of senior members in leadership and management regarding the supportiveness of the workplace environment.

Black and racialized participants noted recent improvements in their workplace culture and environment, though a “culture of fear” remained, with white employees being reluctant to engage in dialogue or action about issues of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

The full review by Williams HR Consulting has not been made publicly available by the City at this time. It’s unclear why it was only placed onto an obscure page of the City website now, after being submitted to the CAO’s office almost five months ago.

Councillor Gurpreet Dhillon said he was not told about the anti-Black racism review when it was submitted to the CAO and only found out about it five months later, in what he referred to as “part of a continued lack of transparency from the administration.”

“We recently saw three senior Sikh and one senior Black staff let go, while an influx of hirings from Niagara occurred immediately after who did not reflect Brampton’s diversity,” Dhillon said.

“It appears that diversity is being politicized. Black residents and others from communities that continue to be taken for granted are becoming more and more frustrated. I am hopeful we can see real action where women, LGBTQ+ individuals, visible minorities, especially Black residents, are in the top jobs across the city.”

Councillor Martin Medeiros said he became aware of the review when it was raised in council a couple weeks before Barrick was let go on February 11 (following his brief, controversial tenure as CAO) and only because Councillor Charmaine Williams asked about it in chambers.

“We often don’t get involved in administration as per the Municipal Act, but with that said, collectively it’s a wakeup call for everybody at the City of Brampton, including myself,” Medeiros said.

“The easy thing for me to say, and some of my colleagues would say, is that we can’t get involved in HR matters, we can’t get involved in that stuff—and certainly we can’t. What we can do is ensure the people who make up the leadership of the organization are properly vetoed and vetted, are properly hired so that we have the best people to address these issues and build a culture not of fear, but of inclusion. A culture where people feel courageous coming forward and there’s proper processes and people believe in the processes at the City of Brampton.”

Employee hiring practices were also noted in the executive summary of the review to have anti-Black discriminatory aspects.

The practices were found to be inconsistent among departments with respect to their consideration of EDI. Nepotism is viewed as a significant issue in hiring practices across multiple departments, and hiring efforts targeted at racialized and Black staff were not perceived to be genuine. They did not lead to more diverse hires.

Diversity throughout the City’s departments and divisions was noted to be widely varied, with Black and racialized employees concentrated at lower levels of the organizational hierarchy.

Within certain departments, Black and racialized employees are most often employed in precarious employment roles.

In other words, Black employees are excluded from positions with higher authority and pay, while they do not have the same job security.

Within the review, Black participants were wary of diversification efforts, which they perceived to be flawed, disingenuous, and ultimately ineffective at yielding more Black hires. In addition, the review found concerns about hiring did “not appear to be held by senior leaders in certain departments,” who remain unaware or unconcerned about the ongoing problems.

The City’s Black employees were found to be particularly disadvantaged in career advancement, which was attributed to the lack of continuous learning and mentorship opportunities accessible to them.

The review noted internal development and education programs have not been sufficiently socialized to Black employees, and they have struggled to leverage their experience and credentials for the benefit of their careers.

These findings reinforce what others have said in the past. In 2021 equity advocate David Bosveld raised the issue of discriminatory hiring practices at City Hall, and Councillor Charmaine Williams shared correspondences from residents who described the discrimination they faced when applying for City Hall jobs.

“They’re constantly trying, or claiming to try to do this research, when we all sort of indicated underlying the hiring practices and the make up of staff is the problem of nepotism and anti-Blackness,” Bosveld said in an interview with The Pointer Wednesday.

“It’s been unpleasant. As I’ve been engaged with trying to move the ball forward with other community members, it’s been a tough process. It’s hard to have confidence in the current leadership.”

Bosveld has also been involved in efforts to confront systemic discrimination in the Peel District School Board and Peel’s police system, which dovetailed into the advocacy around anti-Black racism at City Hall.

He said immediate action is needed at City Hall including specific targeted hiring and more accountability.

He would also like to see a full census of City Hall staff as it is comprised today as well as an application process that allows candidates to self-identify.

“As of today we’re still sitting here, where folks can escape accountability by saying, ‘We don’t have this data’.”

Much of what Bosveld and other racialized community members pushing for change have requested can be found in Williams HR Consulting’s recommendations, although the City hasn’t made any strategy public regarding how it plans to implement the changes—if they will attempt at all.

Sitting on the report for five months, until stakeholders started asking about the review paid for by local taxpayers, does not inspire confidence.

“It requires commitment and understanding and training, an entire philosophical change in how the City does business,” Bosveld said. “We’re going to have an election in October, we’ve got a mayor who's absent from council because he’s campaigning for Conservative leadership— when do we see any results even from the recommendations? I’m not sure.”

In December 2020, as frustration around the lack of opportunity for visible minorities in Brampton, who make up close to 80 percent of the city, council directed staff to create an Equity Office, which was established in September, 2021. Its vision was to create an environment of equity, inclusion, diversity and anti-racism within the corporation of the City of Brampton and in the community, hold respectful dialogue around bias, racism and the removal of discriminatory barriers, while ensuring compliance with human rights legislation, employment standards, equity principles, other related legislation and best practices.

The office became host to the Black African and Caribbean Social, Cultural, and Economic Empowerment and Anti-Black Racism Unit, also known as the “Unit,” which was founded earlier in June of 2020.

The Williams HR Consulting review was critical of what could be described as performative initiatives, noting these EDI undertakings are not effectively communicated within the City. There was also a lack of understanding of the purpose, intentions, objectives, integration or interrelation among the various EDI initiatives, and a perception that they are ad hoc, disconnected from any larger, effective strategy.

The EDI training is not mandatory, and there are currently no accountability or follow-up mechanisms in place to ensure that trainees and learners carry out relevant actions to develop and apply what they learned.

The review noted that onboarding processes do not appear to involve a strong EDI component, are inconsistently provided to new employees, and may lead to a patchwork understanding of EDI-related policies and processes.

Most participants spoke positively about EDI training sessions that were provided, though some questioned the choice of organizations retained to conduct the training.

Part-time staff in some departments are not provided paid time to take EDI training, and the existence of such training opportunities is not regularly communicated to them.

Participants in different departments emphasized the need to focus EDI training efforts on different groups.

Black employees and members of the Brampton Black community have formed their own networks and resource groups, including their push for the Mayor’s Black, African, and Caribbean Advisory Council and the Black Employees Engagement Network (BEEN).

The report noted that “members of these networks and resource groups have come to form their expectations for the city’s EDI initiatives” and “expectations related to the emergence of employee resourced [groups] have not been communicated or managed.”

Idris Orughu has been a member of the Mayor’s Black, African, and Caribbean Advisory Council since its inception in 2019.

For Orughu, the findings are nothing new, whether it’s in the school board, policing or City Hall.

He said that if City Hall wants input from the Black community, municipal leaders need to take initiative to consult with them—something which City Hall hasn’t done.

“The group was more for the mayor to listen, have an insight to what community members are saying, however for something like this to succeed it would have to be connected to not only the political folks, but the CAO and bureaucrats,” Orughu said. “If they want to take this to another level, we should create an actual advisory group for the city to utilize, and they would be able to hear.”

Orughu criticized the Equity Office taking over the African and Caribbean Social, Cultural, and Economic Empowerment and Anti-Black Racism Unit, which he believes needs to be given unique authority to inform strategies to tackle a large-scale systemic problem.

“What often happens is the issues of anti-Black racism are sometimes neglected, put on the wayside because now the needs of the Equity Office, which addresses diversity issues in all the immigrant communities, is seen as equally weighted, but it’s not equally weighted. Special attention must be placed on the Unit.”

He said EDI initiatives can’t be something where the City is just “checking boxes”—action and implementation need to be the next step.

“We’re no longer into performative action. This report, along with other reports that are known, serve as a template for the City to build upon. Now it becomes important if they have the intention to address the concerns. The report is one thing, implementing it is another. I’m more concerned about implementation.”

Danielle Dowdy, who was a member of the Mayor’s Black, African, and Caribbean Advisory Council since its inception in 2019 but stepped away last October, said she’s encouraged by Councillors like Charmaine Williams and Medeiros who have been vocal in trying to address the issues that have been brought forward to them from Black residents.

“While initiatives like the Economic Empowerment & Anti-Black Racism Unit were valiant attempts to address long standing concerns, lack of structure, resources, and accountability did this office in,” Dowdy said. “The same can be said for many of the motions to address anti-Black racism which were passed over this council term that haven't been actioned or completed. This work cannot be left to one or two politicians to drive, but must be embedded throughout the entire system, with the appropriate resourcing and leadership to implement changes.”

She said it was “disheartening but not surprising” to hear the concerns that were raised by Black employees in the report, echoing the same sentiments that “many of us have been hearing for years.”

“Black communities have been over-studied and underserved for decades and the findings in this executive summary do not point to anything different in this case.”

The Gold Standard Assessment was conducted by examining compliance, process clarity, conflict mitigation, procedural fairness, accountability, competence, capacity, consistency and restoration in City Hall.

While policies, processes and procedures adhere to the legal requirements that regulate practices in the City’s jurisdiction, parties were found to not always act in accordance with the policy requirements.

Human Resource compliance around the handling of sensitive matters, sometimes involving delicate reviews of staff conduct and performance, was another issue red-flagged in the report.

Conflicts of interest were noted to not be consistently considered, and investigators as well as decision makers involved in relevant issues were not confirmed to be impartial. Respondents may not be provided with allegations in advance of investigation interviews.

To ensure accountability, process ownership and responsibility for outcomes was found to not be clear and leaders are not held accountable for process flaws.

In addition, employees who address and investigate complaints are not adequately trained, and the workplace was found to not have sufficient resources to ensure that complaints are assessed and investigated in a timely manner.

There is significant variation in how complaints are assessed and investigated with “many investigations” not being “appropriate in the circumstances.”

The report determined workplace restoration to ensure support to employees is not contemplated or conducte

Williams HR Consulting Inc. recommended that the City should consider developing a Code of Conduct in consultation with Black employees that clearly communicates its commitment to combating anti-Black racism in all of its forms, implement accountability mechanisms, improve the recruitment, retention and advancement of Black employees through data-driven efforts, repair ruptures and foster a sense of transparency and trust, and formulate clear strategies while allocating sufficient resources to EDI initiatives.

At minimum, the firm recommends the Code of Conduct should describe types of anti-Black conduct, including more subtle forms of harassment and discrimination like microinequities; provide information on City initiatives related to Black empowerment and anti-Black racism, including but not limited to the Unit and the Equity Office; and be linked to related organizational policies, the handling of complaints and investigation procedures.

The firm noted that through the work of the Equity Office, the Code of Conduct could be expanded over time to include similar content to address discrimination experienced by other marginalized groups.

“The city should ensure that it is providing effective, mandatory training to all staff, and that training is periodically refreshed,” Williams HR wrote. “The (Occupational Health and Safety Act) specifically requires employers to provide workers with information and instruction that is appropriate for the worker on the contents of the harassment policy and program.”

The City was advised to ensure that staff are trained to report discrimination and anti-Black racism, similar to how employers are obligated to ensure their employees know how to report incidents of workplace harrassment.

It notes that policy revisions should seek to clarify the process with respect to harassment and discrimination complaints and investigations among the City’s existing policies and procedures, including requirements, escalation mechanisms and options for issue resolution.

It should also to set out certain key expectations that are fundamental to ensuring procedural fairness, such as providing respondents with allegations in advance of their interviews and conducting processes in a timely manner; as well as setting out the roles and responsibilities of various relevant parties in the workplace; to communicate workplace restoration (which provides specific staff support) as a possibility and likely expectation of any workplace investigation process.

“The Equity Office, as a newer initiative that is expected to host the Unit and other EDI initiatives, should ensure that it develops a clear mandate, identifies key priorities and City of Brampton functions, and obtains the resources required to fulfill those functions,” the review reads.

“Information about its role and responsibilities, including how it relates to the existing work of the Unit and is independent of HR, should be thoroughly socialized throughout the organization to set expectations.”

The review also recommends continued collaboration between networks and resource groups formed by Black employees and members of the Black community within Brampton. Two groups explicitly mentioned include the Mayor’s Advisory Council and BEEN.

Other recommendations include:

On Thursday, the City of Brampton sent out a press release after Mayor Patrick Brown was asked to comment on the results of the review.

The release states that the Equity Office and Human Resources divisions will collaborate with City staff and internal stakeholders to move forward with the development of an action plan. It provided no timetable or detail of what the action plan will actually look like, beyond stating that it would “address equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism in the city.”

Brown did not answer The Pointer’s request for an interview. City Hall communications stated that he is in eastern Canada. He is currently campaigning to become the federal Conservative Party leader.

Bosveld said people’s takeaway from the report is that there needs to be accountability.

“You can do this report and it is very disappointing to see what’s laid out there,” he said. “Can we say that the same people in charge now can fix those problems? I would argue no, and I would argue that both need to be held accountable. Folks need to be replaced if they’re obstructing the progress that this community needs.”

Dowdy said that without seeing the full report, it’s difficult to comment on the recommendations, but she looks forward to the City releasing it as soon as possible.

“Council and the Mayor should seek to ensure that the many motions and initiatives they have passed produce outcomes that truly address and eliminate anti-Black racism at the City of Brampton. Over this Council term, we've seen the creation of an Equity Unit, the creation of an Economic Empowerment, Social Inclusion, and Anti-Black Racism Unit, an HR motion that was brought forward by Councillor Williams in June 2021 to address recruiting, hiring, promotion and retention of Black and racialized staff, a recruiting drive by Brampton Fire Services focused on Black candidates, and a Black North Initiative Corporate Pledge that was unanimously passed by Council, but we have yet to see how any of this has had a substantial or meaningful impact on outcomes, Black employees of the City or Black residents in Brampton,” Dowdy said.

“It's not enough to throw resources at the problem, because as we've seen, that alone does not solve the issue. What's needed are leaders with lived-experience, a deep understanding of equity, and a track record in systems change, coupled with strong and committed leadership to eliminate the discrimination felt by Black staff and residents.”

Email: jessica.durling@thepointer.com
Twitter: @JessicaRDurling
Jessica Durling, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Pointer

Amazon tribes turn the tables on intruders with social media


RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — It was dusk on April 14 when Francisco Kuruaya heard a boat approaching along the river near his village in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. He assumed it was the regular delivery boat bringing gasoline for generators and outboard motors to remote settlements like his. Instead, what Kuruaya found was a barge dredging his people's pristine river in search of gold.



Kuruaya had never seen a dredge operating in this area of the Xipaia people's territory, let alone one this massive; it resembled a floating factory.

Kuruaya, 47, motored out to the barge, boarded it and confronted the gold miners. They responded in harsh voices and he retreated for fear they were armed. But so was he — with a phone — the first he'd ever had. Back in his village Karimaa, his son Thaylewa Xipaia forwarded the photos of the mining boat to the tribe's WhatsApp chat groups.

“Guys, this is urgent!" he said to fellow members of his tribe in an audio message The Associated Press has reviewed. “There's a barge he
Several days' voyage away, in the nearest city of Altamira, Kuruaya's daugher Juma Xipaia received the frantic messages. She recorded her own video with choked voice and watery eyes, warning that armed conflict was imminent -- then uploaded it to social media.

In a matter of hours, word was out to the world.

The episode illustrates the advance of the internet into vast, remote rainforest areas that, until recently, had no means of quickly sharing visual evidence of environmental crime. A fast-expanding network of antennae is empowering Indigenous groups to use phones, video cameras and social media to galvanize the public and pressure authorities to respond swiftly to threats from gold miners, landgrabbers and loggers.

Until now Indigenous communities have relied on radio to transmit their distress calls. Environmental and Indigenous rights groups then relayed these to the media and the public. But the non-profits have been maligned by Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who advocates legalizing mining and land leasing in protected Indigenous territories. He has castigated the organizations as unreliable actors, out of touch with Indigenous people’s true desires and on the payroll of global environmental do-gooders.

Video and photos coming directly from Indigenous people are harder to dismiss and this is forcing authorities as well as the public to reckon with the reality on the ground.

“When used properly, technology helps a lot in real-time monitoring and denouncing,” said Nara Baré, head of the group Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon, in a telephone interview. “The external pressure to make the federal government act in the Xipaia territory was very important. Technology has been the main tool for that.”

Connectivity is not only enabling whistle-blowing on social media. Brazil's Federal Prosecutor's Office has set up a website to register reported crimes and receive uploaded visual material. Previously people in remote communities have had to make the long and expensive trip to the nearest city that has a federal prosecutor's office.

Xipaia territory is part of a pristine rainforest area known as Terra do Meio (Middle Earth) that is dotted with dozens of Indigenous and traditional river communities. Internet connection there was rare until mid-2020, when a group of non-profits, including Health in Harmony and the Socio-Environmental Institute, financed installation of 17 antennae throughout the vast region.

Priority was given to communities with either health centers or market hubs for the production and sale of forest products, such as Brazil nuts. Signal can be painfully slow, especially on rainy days, yet it has connected people who were previously off the grid, and is enough for photos and videos to trickle out of the forest.

“The strategy was to improve communication and avoid unnecessary trips to the city,” said Marcelo Salazar, Health in Harmony's Brazil program coordinator. “The internet makes it easier for health, education, and forest economy issues." Fighting environmental crime was an added benefit, he added.

Four out of five Xipaia communities are now connected. Karimaa, the village where the barge was first spotted, has had internet since July 2020. Just three days after installation, when a teenager injured his head, a city doctor was able to assess his condition using photos sent over WhatsApp. That avoided a costly, complicated medevac during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the case of the mining dredge marked the first time the Xipaia used the internet to protect their territory. In addition to sounding the alarm, four villages used WhatsApp to quickly organize a party of warriors to confront the miners. Painted with urucum, a local fruit that produces a red ink, and armed with bows, arrows and hunting rifles, they crammed into a small boat, according to Juma Xipaia. By the time they reached the location where the barge had been, however, it was gone.

Some 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) to the west, in the Amazonian state of Rondonia, internet access enabled the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people to take classes in photography and video online so they could chronicle deforestation by landgrabbers. The three-day training in 2020 was held via Zoom.

That effort produced the documentary “The Territory,” which won awards at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival and others. Throughout its production, American director Alex Pritz relied on WhatsApp to communicate with his newly trained camera operators.

Tangaãi Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau is a teacher-turned-cameraman who traveled to the Danish festival and later spoke with the AP via WhatsApp from his remote village. He said the film is changing people's perception of Brazil's indigenous people. "In Copenhagen... I received many questions. They knew about Brazil’s natural wonders, but didn’t know about Indigenous peoples who fight for their territories.”

Elsewhere in the Amazon, the internet has yet to arrive. So when illegal gold miners killed two Yanomami tribe members in June 2020, news of the crime took two weeks to arrive due to the area's remoteness. To avoid a repeat of that, Yanomami organizations have been seeking better connectivity. After Palimiu village along the Uraricoera River suffered a series of attacks committed by miners in May 2021, the Yanomami managed to install an antenna there. Since then, the violence has eased.

Bolsonaro's repeated promises to legalize mining and other activities on Indigenous lands have fueled invasions of territories, which are often islands of forest amid sprawling ranches. Indigenous and environmental groups estimate there are some 20,000 illegal miners in Yanomami territory, which is roughly the size of Portugal. Bolsonaro’s government claims that there are 3,500.

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon surged 76% in 2021 compared to 2018, the year before Bolsonaro took office, according to official data from Brazil’s space agency, which uses satellites to monitor forest loss.

Most internet connections in the Amazon remain slow, even in mid-sized cities. That may soon change. Last November, Brazil's Communications Minister Fábio Faria held a meeting with billionaire Elon Musk to discuss a partnership to improve connectivity in rural areas of the world's largest tropical rainforest.

The communications ministry, however, says the talks have not evolved and no progress has been made. Musk's company SpaceX did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

Some worry that Indigenous groups like the Xipaia won't be the only beneficiaries of greater internet penetration in the Amazon region. Illegal miners often co-opt local Indigenous leaders, communicating surreptitiously on messaging apps. The conversations, sometimes aided by clandestine networks, can enable miners to hide heavy machinery, or tip them off to impending raids by authorities, allowing them to flee.

In Roraima state, which is where most of the Yanomami territory lies, the AP contacted one internet provider that offers wifi to an illegal gold mine for $2,600, plus $690 per month. Clandestine small craft fly the equipment in for installation.

“It's a double-edged sword,” said Salazar, of Health in Harmony, speaking of increased connectivity.

But for Juma Xipaia, the new connection means added protection and visibility for her people. After she posted her tearful video, it racked up views and was picked up by local and international media. Within two days, an airborne operation involving the Federal Police, the national guard and environmental agencies swooped in. They located the dredge hidden behind vegetation on the banks of the Iriri River with seven miners aboard.

In a country where environmental crime in the Amazon usually goes unchecked, the speedy, successful response underscored the power of Indigenous networks.

“After making a lot of calls for help, I decided to do the video. Then it worked. The telephone didn’t stop ringing," Juma Xipaia said by phone. "It was very fast after the video.”

—-

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Fabiano Maisonnave, The Associated Press

Migrant workers are flipping the script and using Photovoice to tell their own stories

Reena Kukreja, Assistant Professor, Global Development Studies, Queen's University, Ontario 
The Conversation
MAY 8,2022

What happens when undocumented Bangladeshi and Pakistani men in Greece pick up their cell phones to record their lives as migrant agricultural workers?

“This will let the people learn how we live our lives here,” said one of the men, referring to the photos and videos they were taking. For the workers, these serve as evidence of their migrant existence.

COVID-19 and worries about food security have resulted in increased media coverage about migrant agricultural workers, with stories usually told on their behalf. Four sets of South Asian migrant men in Greece wanted to flip the script and tell their own stories.

They used Photovoice, an arts-based social justice tool, to present themselves and their concerns directly to people. This eventually transformed into a travelling multi-media exhibition and a digital archive, This is Evidence.

Long hours, low wages

Each year, thousands of young South Asian men arrive in Greece, Europe’s frontier, often driven by poverty, climate change, political unrest, or ethnic or religioius violence in their home countries. Undocumented and hence “illegal,” they end up in Greece’s agrarian and urban informal economy as flexible workers. Despite 90 per cent of Greek agriculture being dependent on migrant labour, they are paid low wages, face wage theft and are forced to work long hours without breaks.

Since 2017, I have been conducting research with many of these men to study how their “illegality” and restrictive immigration policies shape labour outcomes and the men’s masculine aspirations.

The process behind the exhibition emerged organically as the men used WhatsApp to send me images of their lives. I suggested the use of Photovoice so they could share their lives with a wider audience.

Photovoice is a participant-oriented visual research strategy used to collaborate with socio-economically and politically marginalized populations.

Participants take images of what they consider important and not what researchers wish to highlight. The photos are accompanied by texts that emerge through conversations among Photovoice participants. These narratives are often used to advocate for policy changes.

The unique insider perspective provided by Photovoice makes it highly valuable for cultural mediation and self-representation.

Sharing their thoughts

Three groups of Bangladeshi men employed in the strawberry agribusiness, and one group of Pakistani men engaged in the informal economy in Athens, formed separate WhatsApp groups, including me in each. The groups were active from mid-2018 to late-2021.

They used their phones to take photos, to record video and voice messages about the precarity of life as migrant workers. They also spoke of workplace injuries, sub-standard housing and worker activism for free access to COVID-19 vaccines. The ubiquity of cell phones made it easy to do without drawing attention to themselves.

Through this project, the men were able to communicate with each other and myself using WhatsApp groups as forums for discussion. So their worries about being detained from gathering in one place, combined with unpredictable work hours, did not stop them from being able to document their experiences. This resulted in greater dialogue and collective decision-making.

The rules were simple: permission had to be granted from those photographed and all shared images implied fair use for exhibitions and other methods of awareness-generation.

This is Evidence

Their work resulted in a multi-media exhibition I helped curate. We worked together to select images, videos, soundscapes and plan a replica of migrant shacks from Manolada.

The exhibition, This is Evidence, was thematic, addressing border crossings, backbreaking labour, COVID-19 and activism. Quotes were selected from their voice messages and interviews.

The exhibition premiered in early April 2022 at Technopolis City of Athens. It will move on to Canada to venues such as Kingston, Ont., Toronto and Waterloo, Ont.

While this project engages with a small set of migrant South Asian men in Greece, the visual articulation of their migrant experience resonates with other migrant workers across the world — including those employed under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program in agrarian communities across Canada.

This project challenges the stereotypes of migrant men, often vilified because of their gender identity, race and religion. It also serves to empower by allowing the experiences of “disposable” migrant agricultural workers in Greece to reach a wider audience through multi-city exhibitions and the digital archive.

The men recognize that when it comes to being heard by ordinary people, policy and changemakers, many avenues are closed to them. This is Evidence serves as an accessible mode of communication. By disrupting their “othering,” the men seek to give voice and power back to racialized migrant workers.

 For them, this project is a political act of resistance.

“We participate to get our voice heard. We want change in the way people view us and our plight.”

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

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How we treat migrant workers who put food on our tables: Don’t Call Me Resilient EP 4 transcript

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Reena Kukreja receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada - Connection Grant for this work.

Forced to relocate to a flood plain: Manitoba First Nation says protection is overdue

Winnipeg Sun

The marshy delta of Manitoba’s Fisher River was not the original home of Peguis First Nation. But having been relocated there more than a century ago after an illegal land transfer, and facing increased flooding in recent decades, the community is hoping to get some permanent infrastructure for protection.

“We have asked for a diversion (channel). We have asked for ring diking. We have asked for elevated roads … but nothing has occurred,” Chief Glenn Hudson said in an interview from the community that has been swamped again this year.

A reservoir upstream that might hold back water during flooding would be another option, he said

More than 1,400 of 3,500 residents have left the reserve since the Fisher River spilled its banks last week. Most have gone to Winnipeg, 60 kilometres to the south.

Hundreds of homes have been surrounded by water or have been flooded. Residents who have stayed are trying to keep homes protected with sandbags and are ferrying food and people by boats.

Manitoba faces the threat of flooding almost every year. Many communities are protected by dikes, diversion channels or reservoirs. The town of Morris in the Red River Valley, with a much smaller population than Peguis, is one of many with a ring dike that can keep the community dry even when surrounding farmland and roads are submerged.


© David Lipnowski

Rebecca Sutherland, of Pequis First Nation, and Shaine Paul from Red Rose volunteer to sandbag a home at risk of flooding in Peguis First Nation, Man., Wednesday, May 4, 2022.

Hudson, who has been chief for all but two of the last 15 years, said the federal and provincial governments have been in talks about possible permanent flood protection.

It would be less expensive than frequent evacuations and cause much less stress in the community, he said.

Ottawa pays for evacuations and temporary emergency measures, including sandbagging. It also provides compensation after flooding.

The federal government indicated Friday it is willing to look at permanent protection.

“There is a history of flooding in this community and we have some important work to do once we get through this crisis period to talk about the future of supporting Peguis in resiliency efforts,” Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu said in Ottawa.

Peguis was originally the St. Peter’s reserve and was situated on good agricultural land closer to Winnipeg. The federal government did a land transfer in 1907 that resulted in the First Nation being moved to its current location.

Peguis has other smaller reserves as well.

The federal government conceded in 1998 that the transfer was illegal. The two sides reached a settlement 11 years later.

While this year’s flooding is the worst in a long time, the First Nation has faced high water and evacuations frequently over the last few decades, most notably in 2009 and 2011. In 2017, when flooding was a non-issue in most of Manitoba, Peguis was still affected and more than 100 people left.

Hudson said drainage improvements upstream since the 1970s have made things worse by allowing water to flow to Peguis more quickly.

“That improvement stops at the south end of our First Nation … and therefore (water) bottlenecks when it comes through.”

The federal government has provided help to flood-proof some of the most vulnerable homes and has cost-shared a study with Manitoba.

“The … study concluded mitigation measures were possible, but would likely cost several hundred million dollars and would likely not prevent all types of flooding,” Matthew Gutsch, a spokesman for Indigenous Services Canada, wrote in an email.

Jay Doering, a flood expert and professor of civil engineering at the University of Manitoba, said a community ring dike for the sprawling area the reserve covers would be costly.

“What probably makes more economic sense is what was done in the Red River Valley following the 1997 flood,” Doering said. “The majority of those homes were put up on pads.”

The 1997 flood — often called the flood of the century — prompted a new requirement that homes and flood defences be elevated to withstand water at least 60 centimetres above the 1997 level.

A dam or other project that could hold back water upstream could also be feasible for Peguis, Doering said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 7, 2022.