MLA says N.W.T. should do more to prepare communities for climate disasters


Mon, May 9, 2022

Katrina Nokleby, left, MLA for Great Slave, speaking with interim Dehcho Grand Chief Stanley Sanguez. Nokleby recently visited both Fort Simpson and Jean Marie River First Nation to see the recovery from last year's flooding. 

(Submitted by Katrina Nokleby - image credit)

Katrina Nokleby, MLA for Great Slave, said the N.W.T. should be establishing long-term plans for dealing with climate change, and not putting the onus on individual communities.

Speaking with CBC News after she visited both Fort Simpson and Jean Marie River First Nation last week, she said the trip was informative, but also showed her where the territory had fallen short.

"There's a lot of things that don't really look like they've been thought out," she said.

As Hay River deals with flooding during spring breakup, other communities are preparing for the worst. With summer approaching there is fear of what forest fire season will bring.

Nokleby said the territory needs to be proactive and not put things like flood preparation solely on the community governments.

"We are always, constantly, not giving the municipalities any power or the ability to do anything," she said.

"And now when it comes to this critical climate change driven, unknown scenario where they say it's only on them to do it when they're already being underfunded, with no increase for how many years?"

Submitted by Katrina Nokleby

Flood preparation was something Fort Simpson Mayor Sean Whelly said he felt the territorial government should be offering more assistance on.

"The territorial government still doesn't fund flood mitigation," he told CBC News in an interview in late April.

"Any of the preparation falls on the community and it's tough for a small community like Fort Simpson."

In an interview with CBC News last week, Shane Thompson, minister of municipal and community affairs, said the department has made a few changes for emergency management preparedness.

The majority of work falls on the superintendent role and MACA has established five positions for staff who will help manage the response and stay in close contact with community leaders.

Thompson said the severity of last years flooding caught many people off guard.

"This was the worst flood, when I talked to Elders about it, like, they have never, ever seen it this bad before," he said.

Northern premiers call on feds for more support

On Monday, the premiers of Yukon, N.W.T. and Nunavut issued a joint statement calling on the federal government to provide more support to the North in dealing with climate change.

"Canada's North is warming up three to four times faster than the global average and northern communities are seeing these impacts first-hand," the statement reads.

The premiers called for support and investment in climate-resilient infrastructure, renewable energy systems, emergency preparedness, northern research, health and wellness, preservation of cultural identity and economic opportunities.

In November 2021, Nokleby attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly known as COP26.

She said some of what she learned was how important it is to involve Indigenous people and governments in the discussions around preparing for climate change.

"The only way we're going to solve things is to empower the Indigenous people to do so and get them into positions of government because they care about this land and they're invested," she said.

Short-term fixes

While visiting both communities Nokleby said another issue she recognized was how short-term some of the recovery is. Many homes that were damaged, especially in Jean Marie River, remained in the same place, just raised higher off the ground.

Luke Carroll/ CBC

"Kind of the idea is hoping that flood waters aren't going to come up that high," she said.

Nokleby said many flood victims were happy to be getting any sort of replacement, but it took a long time — one year later, many still haven't moved in.

She said many homes only have one exit which could be a fire hazard, and a lot of homes are built on dirt pad slopes which can risk erosion after a good rainfall or if flood waters reach.

"Just a lot of really like half done things," Nokleby said.

Northern premiers call for more federal funding in fight against climate change
Mon, May 9, 2022


WHITEHORSE — Canada's territorial premiers are calling on the federal government to increase funding for clean energy projects and to adapt to climate change.

Yukon Premier Sandy Silver, Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok and Northwest Territories Premier Caroline Cochrane are meeting in Whitehorse this week for their annual Northern Premiers’ Forum.

They say in a joint statement that Canada’s territories are warming up three to four times faster than the global average and it is already affecting communities.

The statement says climate change is causing growing concerns about food security, health, public safety, the resilience of infrastructure and preservation of cultural identity.

It says the territories are doing their part, but more federal collaboration and investment is needed to meet climate action targets.

The Yukon government says in a separate news release that all the decisions reached at the forum will be raised later this summer at the Western Premiers’ Conference and at the Council of the Federation, when all Canada's premiers gather.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 9, 2022.

Climate change tops agenda as northern premiers meet face-to-face again

CBC
Mon, May 9, 2022, 

N.W.T. Premier Caroline Cochrane, left, with Yukon Premier Sandy Silver and Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok in Whitehorse on Monday. The premiers met for the first in-person Northern Premier's Forum since 2019.

 (Vincent Bonnay/Radio-Canada - image credit)

After two days of talks, Canada's three territorial premiers agreed to call on the federal government to provide more support and funding in seven key areas.

As a first step, the premiers said they want to see more funding in the North for climate change mitigation and adaptation, clean energy and monitoring.

Speaking to media on Monday afternoon after their meeting in Whitehorse, Yukon Premier Sandy Silver said they didn't have a specific number in mind.

"It's not necessarily a dollar value. It's based on what the premiers recognized across Canada, the unique needs and concerns and considerations of being a territory," said Silver. "Per capita spending is not enough."

Issues connected to climate change

The seven areas the premiers agreed on, which are detailed in the pan-northern leaders' statement on climate change, are climate-resilient infrastructure, renewable and alternative secure energy systems, emergency preparedness, northern research, knowledge and capacity building, supporting health and wellness, preservation of cultural identity and economic opportunities.

In the statement, which was also signed by many Indigenous governments, the premiers state the North is warming up three to four times more than the global average.

Silver added there aren't many issues in the North that aren't connected to climate change.

He said it affects infrastructure, food security, health, energy systems, emergency preparedness and public safety and that more investments by the federal government are needed.

Silver also singled out housing as an issue.

He said the premiers acknowledged that the lack of housing affects individuals and the resilience of communities.

"We understand that access to affordable, adequate and suitable housing is linked with all aspects," he said.

Taltson hydro expansion project

N.W.T. Premier Caroline Cochrane added the whole world is recognizing the effects of climate change and governments are talking about it more and more, but warned they also need to act.

"We can change a lot of things with money but if we don't start working on [climate change] seriously, we're going to be impacted. Climate change will be here for decades. And money can't fix things if it's too late. So it's time to start working on it now," she said.

She said the best example she can give to support climate in the N.W.T. is for the federal government to support the expansion of the Taltson hydro project.

"That is the way that we will get more communities off diesel, but it's not going to be the answer for all communities," said Cochrane, adding governments will have to keep looking for more solutions to reduce emissions.

Carl Bernstein Rips 'Rogue' Justice Clarence Thomas On Call For Respect Of Institutions

Mary Papenfuss

Mon, May 9, 2022,

Famed journalist Carl Bernstein slammed “rogue” Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday for demanding respect for U.S. government institutions after Thomas’ own wife worked to topple the results of the 2020 election.

After protests erupted over the news that the high court is poised to gut the landmark abortion rights decision Roe v. Wade, Thomas chided Americans for being incapable of “living with” rulings they don’t like and complained that a lack of faith in U.S. institutions “bodes ill for a free society.” He added that the court would not be “bullied” by the public.

On CNN’s “New Day” on Monday, Bernstein derided Thomas’ comments as “disingenuous” and “a little misguided — given particularly the role of his wife in the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement” and her efforts to overthrow an election.

“The wife of a Supreme Court justice doing what Ginni Thomas did is utterly unheard of in the history of the United States,” Bernstein told hosts Brianna Keilar and John Avlon.

“Justice Thomas, talking about [the] legitimacy of institutions — either the White House or the court itself — he should recuse himself, which he refuses to do, from any case involving the president of the United States and the election” because of the role his wife played, said Bernstein.

“There is a real failure of institutions, especially on the Supreme Court, by a rogue justice who would not say, ‘I’m going to step aside,’” Bernstein added. “Let’s look at what Ginni Thomas did ... and we have texts of what she was saying. It is crazy stuff ... encouraging the president of the United States, really, to stage a coup.”

In an even more chilling observation, Bernstein called former President Donald Trump the nation’s “first seditious president ... who staged a coup to stay in office and not allow the transfer of power to a duly elected president.”

Watch the full interview below.

 

If the Supreme Court’s legitimacy is threatened, Justice Thomas, whose fault is that? | Opinion


Leonard Pitts

MIAMI HERALD
Tue, May 10, 2022


To the Honorable Clarence Thomas, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States:

Dear Sir:

Have you ever met your wife?

Yes, it’s an impudent question, but it seems justified by the speech you gave Friday at a judicial conference in Atlanta and a question-and-answer session that followed. In an obvious reference to the bombshell leak of a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, you bemoaned that institutions are being “bullied” and said the judiciary is threatened if people are unwilling to “live with outcomes we don’t agree with.”

You said this despite the fact that your bride of 35 years, conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, made headlines earlier this year when it was revealed she schemed with the Trump White House to keep him in power despite his election defeat. She echoed his baseless claims of fraud and even joined the Jan. 6 mob that rallied to overturn the election, though she claims she broke off from them before they stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Mrs. Thomas, then, it might fairly be said, is a poster child for those who would bully institutions or refuse to live with outcomes they dislike. For you to raise those concerns with a straight face and no mention of her name suggests that either the two of you have not been properly introduced or that you are a man of staggering hypocrisy and deep intellectual dishonesty. One would hate to find those qualities in a man overseeing traffic court, much less in one sitting on the Supreme Court.

Here’s the thing, sir: There are rules. The adherence to them, the ability to trust them, is what allows a society to function. Some of the rules are written, others are not, but the fact that they aren’t makes them no less critical. One such unwritten rule is that the collegial confidentiality of the high court is sacrosanct. So yes, it’s unfortunate some leaker leaked.

But he or she is hardly the first person to violate the court’s unwritten norms. One of your colleagues occupies a seat stolen for him from President Obama. Another occupies a seat she was crammed into eight days before the 2020 election by the same Republicans who had said that nine months out was too close to Election Day 2016 to consider Obama’s nominee. Some transparently lied when they testified in confirmation hearings that they respected Roe as settled law. And really, sir, isn’t it a bit unseemly for the wife of a Supreme Court justice to be part of a conspiracy to overturn an election? Or for him to fail to recuse himself from any cases arising therefrom?

As Americans, we have traditionally respected Supreme Court rulings even when they were godawful, even when they set the nation back, because however dumb or dreadful they were, we considered the court itself an apolitical and duly constituted tribunal. In a word, it was legitimate. But in their bare knuckles, end-justifies-the-means approach to the court, conservatives have devastated that bit of civic faith.

Small wonder a September Gallup poll found approval of the court at 40%, the lowest Gallup has ever recorded, and down sharply from 58% the year before. One cringes to think where it stands right now. And one wonders: If the Court loses its legitimacy, can its authority be far behind?

In the face of that question, your issue is that an anonymous leaker violated confidentiality? Sir, maybe that person just wonders why he or she should be required to respect the rules.

It doesn’t seem like anyone else is.

Pitts

I wrote a handbook for navigating post-Roe America. Here's how to protect yourself and your abortion access.

Fortesa Latifi

INSIDER
Mon, May 9, 2022

Robin Marty (left) and her book (right).Courtesy of Robin Marty

• The US Supreme Court may overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that enshrined the right to abortion.

• Robin Marty is the communications director for the West Alabama Women's Center and author of "Handbook for a Post-Roe America."

• These are Marty's tips for proceeding in a post-Roe America, as told to writer Fortesa Latifi.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Robin Marty, the communications director for the West Alabama Women's Center and author of the 2019 book "Handbook for a Post-Roe America." It has been edited for length and clarity.

After news broke that the Supreme Court may overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that enshrined the right to abortion, people across the country began to consider the true reality of a post-Roe America.

How will pregnant people access abortion if Roe v. Wade truly is overturned, and how can they keep themselves safe in the increasingly surveilled world we live in? I can help.

The pandemic gave abortion advocates the chance to test-run a post-Roe situation

With the pandemic, many states decided that abortion wasn't a "mandatory and necessary medical procedure" and closed clinics in the spring of 2020. This simulated a post-Roe world, and advocates jumped into action and helped spread the word about Aid Access, an initiative started by Dutch physician Rebecca Gomperts that delivers abortion pills through the mail.

But these packages of abortion pills were sometimes held up at customs and border checkpoints for too long — some people got their packages weeks after they ordered, when it was sometimes too late for them to be effective.

Through that experience, I've come to suggest that anyone who thinks they have the possibility of becoming pregnant to get abortion pills ahead of time, before they're needed. That way, if you find yourself in the position of needing them, you're not stuck waiting for a package to make its way through customs.

Even with abortion pills, there are concerns

It's a worry that a person could order abortion pills while their data isn't protected, and authorities be able to access that information. I also want people to know that while abortion pills are safe, accessing them can be illegal in some states. Some states have criminal penalties like fines and prison time. (Abortion pills also expire, so check the packaging.)

With that in mind, I urge people to protect their data ahead of time. If you're using a period-tracking app, you should delete it and use Euki, which doesn't upload your data and is completely private. You can even guard access to the app with a password pin.

Periods have been tracked before under the guise of public health, specifically within the context of abortion. Protecting your period data is an unfortunate reality, but in a post-Roe world where surveillance is king and phones are tracking your every move, people need to protect themselves.

It's also important to lock down your online privacy as much as possible

If you're looking for information on abortion on Reddit, for example, make sure you make a throwaway account to search and post. Make your Facebook profile private, and if you're looking for help on Facebook, use a fake profile.

Abortion support groups have been infiltrated by anti-abortion activists, and there's the worry the information could be used against the people looking for support.

Even if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, activists are still ready to help

If a person ever has a pregnancy complication like miscarriage or self-performed abortion and police or medical professionals are asking questions, there's help out there. One organization, If When How, has a reproductive health legal help that you can contact for advice or a lawyer.

The biggest fear we have going into a post-Roe country is for the people who are going to be targeted the most: Black people, brown people, trans people, people in rural areas, people of lower socioeconomic status, and members of other marginalized communities.

Marginalized communities are already at more risk in our country, and in a post-Roe America, that risk will be even greater (like in Texas, where there's a bounty for information on people who allegedly aid and abet abortion).

We need to make sure we protect the people who are most harmed by these restrictions

We know who is most at risk, and if we have any privilege, we need to be willing to protect those people.

Moving forward, my advice would be, even outside of legal risks when it comes to abortion access, to only use Signal to communicate. Unlike text messages, Signal is private, deletes messages, and protects anonymity. It's the easiest way to wipe your footprint and make sure it stays out of the hands of big corporations.

Sadly, I also suggest being very careful about whom you share reproductive and pregnancy news with

If someone knows you're pregnant and then they know you're not anymore, whether through miscarriage or abortion, you could be at risk if other states choose to adopt bounties like Texas.

The entire point of this political movement against abortion is to increase stigma and put it back into the shadows. I won't let that happen, and I know so many other advocates who are working their hardest not to let it either.

Nearly 65 per cent of Americans do not want to overturn Roe v Wade, new poll finds

Graig Graziosi
Mon, May 9, 2022


A new CBS poll has found that more than half of the US public opposes the overturning of Roe v Wade, suggesting the leaked Supreme Court draft decision aiming to strike down the landmark ruling would undermine the desires of most Americans.

According to the CBS poll, 64 per cent of Americans want the Supreme Court to keep Roe v Wade in tact. Only 36 per cent said they wanted to see the law overturned.

Last week, Politico reported on a leaked draft decision suggesting the Supreme Court was aiming to overturn the law later this year. Five of the nine Supreme Court justices agreed with the decision authoried by Justice Samuel Alito.

Three of the justices who agreed — Justices Bret Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, and Neil Gorsuch — told Congress that they would uphold Roe v Wade as a precedent during their confirmation hearings, leading to calls from the public and some lawmakers that the justices lied under oath.

The news of the likely overturning of Roe v Wade set off protests across the country, including still-continuing protests outside the home of Mr Kavanaugh.

Joe Biden said he would fight to ensure that Roe v Wade is not overturned, but there may be little ha can do at this point. Democratic Senators Krysten Sinema and Joe Manchin have already indicated their refusal to support the elimination of the filibuster, which would be necessary for Democrats to force the ruling to be codified into law.

Nearly half of the US states have trigger laws in place to ban most if not all abortions as soon as Roe v Wade is overturned. Further frustrating pro-choice advocates and women across the country are plans by Republican lawmakers to use the ruling as a springboard to push for a federal abortion ban.

Several states already have restrictive abortion laws, and others have moved recently to enact their own. Last month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. That law is modeled off of a similar law in Mississippi, which is the basis of the Supreme Court case that appears likely to spell the end of Roe v Wade.

Oklahoma's legislature also approved a bill prohibiting abortions after six weeks of pregnancy based on a similar law in Texas. The Texas law also allows individuals to report anyone who performs, seeks, or "aids and abets" an abortion, offering a $10,000 bounty for successful prosecution.

Some states, like Missouri, are attempting to find ways to penalise people who leave the state to seek abortions in liberal areas where abortion rights are upheld.

Though not yet signed into law, several current and prospective Republican lawmakers are also attempting to push even more draconian laws to further force women into parenthood. Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennesee called Griswod v Connecticut – which guarantees legal access to birth control – "legally unsound," suggesting it should be challenged and sent to the Supreme Court.

Blake Masters, who is running for a Senate seat in Arizona, also said recently he supported banning contraception, including condoms. Some Republicans in Idaho have similarly stated their interest in banning IUDs and Plan B pills.

Other states, like California and Colorado, have pledged to ensure that abortion rights will always be in-tact within their borders, though it is unclear what that would mean if Republicans successfully pass a national ban on abortion following the 2022 midterm elections.

Ashley Judd speaks out against reversal of Roe v Wade in Mother’s Day tribute to late Naomi Judd
Meredith Clark
Mon, May 9, 2022

(Getty Images)

Ashley Judd has reflected on her first Mother’s Day without her own mom, Naomi Judd, just one week after the country music star’s death on 30 April. While paying tribute to her mother, Judd spoke up on the important topics of motherhood, mental health, and a woman’s right to choose.

In an essay for USA Today published on 6 May, Judd questioned how society values mothers after a leaked draft opinion showed the Supreme Court’s intention to overturn Roe v Wade, a decision that enshrined the legal right to an abortion nationwide almost 50 years ago.

“This Sunday is abruptly, shockingly, my first Mother’s Day without my mama,” the Divergent actress began the essay. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way. We were supposed to have sweet delight in each others’ easy presence. Instead, I am unmoored. But my heart is not empty. It is replete with gratitude for what she left behind. Her nurture and tenderness, her music and memory.”

She explained that her heart is also filled with “incandescent rage” over the mental health issues her mother had “carried from a lifetime of injustices that started when she was a girl”.

In 2020, Naomi Judd revealed to Country Music Success Stories that she gave birth to her first daughter, Wynonna Judd, after she had been “date-raped” 1964, the summer before her senior year of high school.

“But motherhood happened to her without her consent,” Ashley Judd wrote. “She experienced an unintended pregnancy at age 17, and that led her down a road familiar to so many adolescent mothers, including poverty and gender-based violence.”

The Golden Globe nominee used her mother’s unintended pregnancy to create awareness for the issues faced by mothers around the world, including gender-based violence and childbirth mortality rates.


“Our country, the richest in the world, has one of the highest maternal death rates in the developed world – with Black and indigenous women two to three times more likely to die,” she said, citing a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“So often, motherhood happens because of violence, because of neglect, because schools and health systems fail to provide reproductive health information, because they fail to teach the right of individuals to make their own choices about sex and contraception,” Judd said.


Ashley Judd’s essay comes after a leaked opinion draft indicated that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority will uphold a Mississippi law criminalising abortion care at 15 weeks of pregnancy. Politico published the leaked draft opinion on 2 May, which appeared to be authored by Justice Samuel Alito.

The draft opinion stated that Justice Alito, along with Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, voted to overturn key rulings Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey after hearing oral arguments in the case of Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” he wrote in the draft. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives”.

The impact of such a decision would outlaw abortion throughout the US and would allow states to create their own laws surrounding abortion.

Naomi Judd died at the age of 76 on Saturday, 30 April after a long battle with mental illness. The country music star was represented by her daughters Wynonna and Ashley at her induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame on 1 May, just one day after they announced her death. Judd was also married to her husband, Larry Strickland, since 1989.

If you are experiencing feelings of distress and isolation, or are struggling to cope, The Samaritans offers support; you can speak to someone for free over the phone, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.

If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The Helpline is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.

The people getting abortions at Planned Parenthood aren’t who you, or lawmakers, think | Opinion


Juhi Varshney

MIAMI HERALD
Mon, May 9, 2022

States all over the country have chipped away at abortion access this legislative season and I’ve seen up close how the new restrictions have hurt our patients at Planned Parenthood of South, East, and North Florida. With the recent leak of a U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion suggesting that Roe v. Wade may be overturned this summer, protecting abortion access has become more important than ever before.

There’s not one “type” of person who gets an abortion. We see new mothers, still breastfeeding their infants, whose fertility sneaked up on them. Single moms who light up when they talk about their kids. We see women with demanding jobs and women who are in school pursuing a degree.

Some of our patients wanted to keep their pregnancies but couldn’t afford it. We’ve cared for women who are on birth control pills, who have an IUD in place, whose husbands had vasectomies. We have patients who developed life-threatening blood clots during their last pregnancy, and other patients who needed a stitch in their cervix and four months of bed rest. Some were afraid to tell their families, only to learn that their mother or their cousin or their aunt quietly had an abortion years ago. One in four women will have an abortion in their lifetime, after all.

Despite how tricky it can be to talk about abortion, caring for my patients actually feels so simple. Abortion can be divisive and explosive and controversial in the political arena but when I sit across from someone in an exam room, when I ask if they feel sure and ready, all of that fades away.
The weight of restrictions

In the wake of these new state policies, abortion providers have spent precious time talking through consent forms, conferring with legal experts and re-orienting the clinic workflow.

These restrictions don’t make abortions go away, they just make abortions less safe. They aren’t based on medical evidence. The delays caused by closing clinics and mandatory waiting periods can turn into weeks, and the longer the pregnancy goes, the fewer options we can offer to our patients.

Women who are denied an abortion are more likely to live in poverty or stay tethered to abusive partners, neither of which are safe for the kids they already have, according to a study by Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health at the University of California San Francisco.

Children need access to healthcare, paid parental leave, subsidized childcare and better public education — not laws that force people to give birth. The majority of Americans and Floridians believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

With every new patient we meet, abortion providers create an individualized plan that best fits their medical, social, and emotional needs — unlike state legislatures that dole out one-size-fits-all bills.

Trust the patient

What would it look like to trust women? To trust that our patients are doing the best they can to take care of themselves and their families?

Brene Brown once said, “People are hard to hate up close” — and if you get close to the reality of abortion, you’ll see the gray areas and difficult choices and the love that so many people approach abortion with.

Abortion care opens up space for our patients to pursue new dreams, care for a family that already exists, or build a life for a family yet to come. So many people have shared their abortion stories recently, and it’s powerful, but they don’t owe us an explanation for their choices.

Abortion is still legal, and if you or a loved one has an appointment, you should still go in. We have to call on our representatives in Congress now to codify Roe v. Wade into law. We need to let our state legislators know how Florida’s new restrictions have affected us. A broad coalition of people are rising up to protect abortion access for our patients. And abortion providers aren’t going anywhere.

Juhi Varshney is an emergency medicine resident in Miami. She has rotated at Planned Parenthood of South, East and North Florida.

Varshney

The complications of getting an abortion in Canada if Roe v. Wade is overturned

May 9, 2022

 

Concerns about abortion access if Roe v. Wade overturned

 

Impact of changing U.S. abortion laws could ripple into Canada

 

People in Canada need to be on guard: Abortion activist on Roe v. Wade draft opinion leak

 

Democracy on Trial: The Morgentaler Affair

Paul Cowan's film captures the spirit of the legal battle over abortion waged by Dr. Henry Morgentaler in Quebec and in federal courts between 1970 and 1976. Using a combination of newsreel footage, interviews and re-enactments, this docudrama unravels the complexities of the case that began as a challenge to Canada's abortion laws and turned into a precedent-setting civil rights case. Directed by Paul Cowan - 1984 | 58 min

 #Abortion #RoevWade #Canada 

SCHADENFREUDE

Coinbase Tumbles to Record Lows as Crypto Meltdown Deepens

Yueqi Yang
Wed, May 11, 2022

Coinbase Tumbles to Record Lows as Crypto Meltdown Deepens

(Bloomberg) -- Coinbase Global Inc. shares and bonds plunged to new lows, signaling investor skepticism about the prospects of the crypto exchange in a worsening bear-market.

Shares plunged as much as 31% to $50.15 on Wednesday, a far cry from its first-day closing price of $328.28 when it went public last April. Its bonds also plunged, trading in line with some of the highest-risk junk-rated notes.

Coinbase is “unlikely to return to recent levels of profitability in the near term absent a significant increase in crypto prices or volatility,” Will Nance, an analyst at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. wrote in a note. “We believe COIN’s stock will struggle to outperform in the near term.”

Adding to the concern, cryptocurrencies underpinning some of the most popular decentralized finance protocols tumbled Wednesday as the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin triggered a stampede out of many of the digital-asset market’s most popular tokens.

The company reported lower-than-expected revenues yesterday, and warned trading volume and monthly transacting users in the second quarter is expected to be lower than in the first. A new risk disclosure in its filing triggered concerns among some users about the safety of their crypto assets held in custody by the company in the event of a bankruptcy.

Brian Armstrong, Coinbase’s chief executive officer, took to Twitter to clarify that there is “no risk of bankruptcy” and users’ funds are safe, while apologizing for not communicating proactively about the disclosure.

Bitcoin fell below $30,000 and touched its lowest level since June, while the TerraUSD stablecoin continued its downward spiral. Coinbase Chief Financial Officer Alesia Haas said yesterday that the company sees “bear-market conditions” but can still afford to make 2022 “an investment year.”

Ottawa approves new $10B loan guarantee for the Trans Mountain pipeline project


Wed, May 11, 2022



CALGARY — The federal government has approved a new, approximately $10-billion loan guarantee for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, a move it says is common practice and does not reflect any additional public funding for the high-profile, over-budget oil pipeline.

The Trans Mountain pipeline is Canada's only oil pipeline system from Alberta to the West Coast. It was bought by the federal government in 2018 for $4.5 billion after previous owner Kinder Morgan Canada Inc. threatened to scrap the pipeline's planned expansion project in the face of environmentalist opposition.

The construction project — which will essentially twin the existing pipeline, raising daily output to 890,000 barrels — is now 50 per cent complete. However, in February, Trans Mountain Corp. revealed that the project's price tag has ballooned to $21.4 billion, up from an earlier estimate of $12.6 billion.

At that time, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said that there would be no additional public funding for the pipeline. She said Trans Mountain, a Crown corporation, would need to secure third-party funding to complete the project, either through banks or public debt markets.

News of the $10-billion loan guarantee, which was approved by cabinet on April 29 through the Canada Account at Crown corporation Export Development Canada, has been criticized by environmental groups and opposition politicians who see it as Freeland going back on her word.

"This is a huge new subsidy from a government that promised voters last fall that it would eliminate fossil fuel subsidies," said Julia Levin of Environmental Defence, adding critics have suggested that Trans Mountain's skyrocketing price tag means the project is no longer economical. "It also comes just a few months after Minister Freeland told Canadians that there would be no more public spending on TMX."

"It was clear from the get-go they're going to pay whatever it costs to get TMX through," said NDP Charlie Angus.

But on Wednesday, the Department of Finance issued a statement saying that the federal government has not spent any money to put the new loan guarantee in place.

The statement said Trans Mountain has secured up to $10 billion in third-party financing for construction costs from a group of Canadian financial institutions, and the government is providing a loan guarantee on behalf of the corporation as part of that process.

"This is a common practice which puts in place an insurance policy for the institutions that have invested in the project — it does not reflect any new public spending," the statement said.

The government said there have been no changes to the cost estimate outlined in February and the estimated 2023 completion date for the pipeline project remains in place.

- With files from Mia Rabson in Ottawa

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2022.

Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press

CNN Reporter Defies Media Ban at GOP Rally by Renting Adjacent Hotel Room

Josh Dickey
Tue, May 10, 2022,

CNN Senior National Correspondent Kyung Lah and her cameraman Ronnie McCray, Jr. are more clever than Pennsylvania GOP rally organizers took them for.

Told “no press allowed” at the weekend rally for Republican gubernatorial primary candidate Doug Matriano at a Uniontown, Pennsylvania hotel pool, the defiant duo went to higher ground. Rather than pack up and call it a day, they checked into a balcony suite for $85 and got the job done with a bird’s-eye-view.


“Mastriano’s campaign threatened to kick us out, saying they controlled all the space in the hotel,” Lah tweeted in a thread from the rally. “Not so. They were unhappy we stayed. Why do this? Bc independent press needs to see what your future government reps want to do.”

Their presence did not go unnoticed.


In this case, Lah was the pool reporter, and also the pool reporter.

It’s a great lesson for young journalists everywhere: There is no failure, only giving up.