Healthy young adults on P.E.I. lived as if they had chronic illness during pandemic, researchers say


Wed, May 11, 2022

UPEI Canada Research Chair Caroline Ritter and Gemma Postill, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, looked at why healthy, young adults living in a relatively low-risk province like P.E.I. were lining up in droves to get tested for COVID-19 around December 2020. (Steve Bruce/CBC - image credit)

Young people on P.E.I. were so severely impacted by the social circumstances and policy regulations around managing the COVID-19 pandemic that they lived life as if they were ill even if they weren't, according to new research.

The research project — led by UPEI Canada Research Chair Caroline Ritter and Gemma Postill, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto — examined why healthy, young adults in a relatively low-risk province like P.E.I. were lining up in droves to get tested for COVID-19 around December 2020.

The researchers examined the motivation to get tested, and found young Islanders felt profound negative effects from the virus regardless of whether they contracted it or not.

"With the real virus, you might have a fever or you might have a cough, those kind of symptoms. But what we found is kind of like when you're diagnosed with a chronic disease," said Postill.

"Living in the pandemic really shaped the day-to-day activities."

Evan Mitsui/CBC

Altered behaviours

Postill said young people were shaping their dreams and career goals around the pandemic as if they were ill.

"They changed their career because they wanted more stability in a way that one might if they were diagnosed with a chronic condition," said Postill.

The researchers found young people were prioritizing getting tested over going to work and were rearranging their days due to pandemic considerations.

"Living in the pandemic really shaped the day-to-day activities." - Gemma Postill, lead author and PhD candidate at the University of Toronto

The severe downturn of mental health proved to be another shared experience for many young adults on P.E.I.

Postill quoted one participant who said his mental state during the pandemic was the worst it's ever been.

"When you're so young and you maybe haven't had all these other lived experiences ... this really is kind of the mentally worst or the most difficulty that a lot of them had experienced," she said.

Risk factors

The research saw young people complied with public health restrictions because they were motivated by the moral obligation to support and be part of the community, on top of the stigma against a non-compliance to the rules.

"A couple of people compared non-compliance to drunk driving, which is quite a severe comparison. But I think it really speaks to how they viewed spreading COVID and those impacts," said Postill.

CBC

And while transmission among family and friends has been a general concern for most throughout the pandemic, the research showed young people were particularly concerned for everyone in the community — which Ritter and Postill said had something to do with the size of P.E.I. and its close-knit communities.

"Some participants reported they felt observed ... that the neighbours might see, or the neighbours might recognize them in the store if they didn't wear a mask, things like that," said Ritter.

She said public health measures also affected young people's social lives by forcing them to limit their social circles and increasing concern around how they would find life partners in their twenties with such restrictions in place.

Main takeaways

Ritter said the emotions revealed in the interviews were a mix of pride and guilt.

Young adults are motivated when things are going well, she said, and their pride in being part of a community comes with keeping it as a low-risk environment.

But when it came to comparing themselves to people in other provinces, the research found young people shied away from posting on social media to reduce the spotlight on what they were still allowed to do on P.E.I.

"These public health measures should really be treated as limited natural resources because it has these massive impacts ... on the mental well-being of young adults," said Ritter.

"A lot can be learned from our research, not just for P.E.I. but also for Canada internationally as a whole," Ritter said.

Both researchers will be sharing their work at the upcoming Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences — Canada's largest academic gathering, taking place virtually this year from May 12-20.

Ritter said they plan on getting in touch with the provincial government and health officials to provide them with information that might be useful in navigating the ongoing pandemic.

GREEN COAL

Crowsnest coal supporters host Danielle Smith

Wed, May 11, 2022

Citizens Supportive of Crowsnest Coal has been busy recently, with chairman Mike Dobie presenting its position on the benefits of local coal mines to the councils of the MD of Pincher Creek, Town of Pincher Creek and Municipality of Crowsnest Pass.

Another way CSCC has been advocating for local mine development is by hosting public information meetings, the most recent of which was held April 28 at the Isabelle Sellon School gymnasium in Blairmore.

Danielle Smith, former leader of the Wildrose party and host of the Danielle Smith Show on 770 CHQR Radio, attended as the keynote speaker. Smith rose to political prominence as leader of the Opposition in the provincial legislature in 2012, and she is seeking the UCP nomination for Livingstone-Macleod in the next provincial election.

Smith spoke about the need for the mining industry to improve its public engagement on the issue of developing mines in the area. One specific way she suggested companies approach their advocacy is to focus on net-zero carbon projects.

Since green energy initiatives like wind and solar power projects require steel, Smith argued “green energy” will not fully be environmentally friendly until metallurgical coal mining and steel production achieve net zero.

An important way net-zero emissions could be achieved is in supporting domestic industry. Rather than transporting coal to the coast by rail and then shipping it overseas for steel production and then having the product shipped to consumers around the world, Smith said a home-grown production industry would decrease the overall carbon footprint of solar and wind infrastructure.

Improved carbon-capture technology, Smith added, is also important in the industry reaching net zero, with technology using carbon dioxide to improve oil and gas flow, create carbon nanofibres, strengthen cement, and produce products like soap, plastic, ethyl alcohol and even vodka.

“Net zero, I believe, is achievable and here in Alberta we can get there faster than everyone else,” Smith said.

Net-zero projects, she continued, would not require approval from a federal government that is hostile to traditional resource extraction and energy production.

“If we developed net-zero industry here, we would not run afoul of the federal government,” she said.

CSCC organizers said developing local industry would ultimately be healthier for the environment than denying local mining projects.

In particular, the group supports metallurgical coal development in the Crowsnest Pass because steel demand is expected to increase 20 per cent by 2050. CSCC says that if this demand is not filled by a jurisdiction like Alberta, with some of the best environmental regulations and policies in the world, countries with less stringent pollution rules like Russia and China will fill that need, securing for themselves an estimated $6-billion annual economic increase.

“In Canada we have better environmental regulations and policies than in those foreign lands, and the use of our high-quality coal will reduce the coal burnt per tonne of steel to the betterment of the global environment,” says Tim Juhlin, one of CSCC’s directors.

Dobie says he is happy with how the April 28 meeting turned out and that the CSCC will continue providing the public with information about the benefits of coal development in the Crowsnest Pass.

“Overall it was a success with a good turnout — just over 100 — and good questions. I was pretty pleased with it,” he says. “One of the things [MLA] Roger Reid has told us is to make noise, so that’s what we’ll do.”

More information on CSCC can be found online at citizenssupportivecrowsnestcoal.ca.

Sean Oliver, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Shootin' the Breeze

Report finds that BC mining laws contradict commitment to UNDRIP

Wed, May 11, 2022,

(ANNews) – British Columbia’s mining laws are out of step with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which the provincial government adopted in late-2019, according to the First Nations Energy and Mining Council.

The council is calling for Indigenous peoples to take back sovereignty over their lands through their own laws and traditions while the government revamps its laws, The Tyee reports.

The council’s most recent report, “Indigenous Sovereignty: Implementing Consent for Mining on Indigenous Lands,” provides 25 recommendations for how Indigenous communities can take their power back, which are broken down into five stages — claim-staking, planning and environmental assessment, leasing and permitting, compliance and enforcement, and mine closure and reclamation.

“At the time of its passing, we welcomed the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act and praised the provincial government for its bold leadership,” said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs president.

“We thought the recognition of the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous nations was finally being actioned and that First Nations’ consent would be the basis of all prospecting and mining on our lands, and we could ensure the protection of our lands and water,” he continued. “But, more than two years on, no action has been taken to align provincial laws.”

The First Nations Energy and Mining Council is a non-profit under the aegis of the First Nations Leadership Council of BC, which is composed of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, the BC Assembly of First Nations and the First Nations Summit.

Allen Edzerza, an Elder who was the project lead for the report and has worked in mining since the ‘70s, was recently tasked by the Tahltan Central Government, of which he is a band member, with handling all negotiations concerning salmon.

Salmon is intimately connected to mining due to the impact of mining on the health of waterways.

“The report was intended to say to First Nations, we have never surrendered or ceded or released our title and rights,” Edzerza told The Tyee. “We are sovereign nations, and the idea of free, prior and informed consent is merely a tool for us to exercise our jurisdiction and authority as a sovereign nation.”

Seeking out free, prior and informed consent — a key requirement for extraction projects under UNDRIP — can also benefit mining companies, since they would no longer have to worry about costly legal challenges to their projects, he added.

The report identified two B.C. laws that are out of step with the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, the legislation the B.C. government put forward to bring its laws into line with UNDRIP — the Mineral Tenure Act and the Mines Act.

These laws are a relic of the colonial-era “free entry system” that has been the status quo for 150 years based on the doctrine that the land didn’t belong to anyone until settlers arrived.

“This legal framework is outdated, colonial and not aligned with Indigenous human rights,” the report noted.

A spokesperson for the B.C. Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation told The Tyee that the government’s recently-released Declaration Action Plan will address the gaps in the Mineral Tenure Act.

“Any steps to modernize the MTA will be undertaken with Nations and First Nations leadership organizations and industry as well as engagement with other stakeholders and the public,” the spokesperson said.

The Gitxaala Nation has a challenge underway in the B.C. Supreme Court against the province’s free entry system, challenging seven mineral claims made on their traditional lands between 2018 and 2020.

“Gitxaała’s system of governance and ayaawx (Gitxaała law) has enabled us to care for healthy territories for thousands of years. Yet, under the Mineral Tenure Act, the B.C. government gives away rights to our lands through an automatic online system, as if Gitxaała does not exist at all,” Gitxaala Elected Chief Coun. Linda Innes told The Tyee.

Environmental concerns are a focal point in traditional Indigenous law, Edzerza said.

“In our language we say that we are interconnected,” he said. “You can’t separate us from our lands. We are part of the environment there. It’s based on the belief that all things have a spirit and are interconnected.

“It’s a sacred responsibility that’s been handed down to our people to protect those lands and waters for all living things.”

Jeremy Appel, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News

Newfoundland

Environmental groups sue feds to overturn Bay du Nord approval

Wed, May 11, 2022,

A group of protesters stood outside Equinor headquarters in St. John's Wednesday to denounce the approval of the Bay du Nord oil project. (Ted Dillon/CBC - image credit)

Ted Dillon/CBC

Enivronmental law group Ecojustice has launched a lawsuit against the federal government that aims to overturn the massive Bay du Nord oil project off Newfoundland's east coast.

Ecojustice, which filed the lawsuit in federal court, is working with Équiterre, a non-profit environmental organization based in Quebec, and the Sierra Club Canada Foundation, which has spoken out against the offshore oil megaproject.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault announced approval of Bay du Nord — a project led by Norwegian oil giant Equinor, which hopes to start producing oil as early as 2028 — in April.

The suit names Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) and Equinor.

While announcing approval, Guilbeault said the project would not have significant adverse environmental effects because of mitigation measures that will be in place. Guilbeault, who based his decision on the work of the IAAC, put the project under 137 conditions.

But Ecojustice lawyer Ian Miron said Guilbeault failed to account for key factors during the decision-making process.

"The minister had a legal obligation to evaluate the downstream greenhouse gas emissions that the project will generate when he conducted the environmental assessment. And that he failed to do that," Miron told CBC News Wednesday.

Miron said Ecojustice also plans to argue other factors should have been considered in the decision, including the impact that added shipping traffic could have on biodiversity in the region.

He hopes the lawsuit can be heard in court by the end of the year.

Bay du Nord could produce up to 200,000 barrels of oil daily, with current estimates of more than a billion barrels being pumped over the project's lifetime.

Both Equinor and the provincial government have insisted the project will limit harm to the environment, produce lower-carbon oil and be net zero in emissions by 2050.

In a statement to CBC News, Equinor said it appreciates that there are differing views on the project but see the upside of developing in Newfoundland and Labrador.

"Our focus is on the collaborative effort with partners and local authorities to mature the project towards an investment decision. We strongly believe that this can be an important project with high value creation, a low carbon footprint and strong economic value for the region," the company's statement said.

The IAAC told CBC News it is aware of the lawsuit and is preparing to oppose the application.

Protesters hit the ground Wednesday

Meanwhile, opponents of the project demonstrated Wednesday outside Equinor's St. John's headquarters. The parent company was at the time holding its annual general meeting in Norway.

Protesters held signs and rallied in downtown St. John's, chanting phrases like "Oil and gas is in the past" and "From Stavanger, Norway to Stavanger Drive, gas and oil has got to die."

Equinor

Yvonne Earle, representing the Avalon chapter of the Council of Canadians, said governments at all levels need to be held accountable in a transition away from oil and gas.

"Analyze the moral and economic madness, and reject moving ahead with Bay du Nord," Earle said. "And plan for a just transition, and I mean a just transition, for all workers from a fossil fuel economy."

Miron said the project is incompatible with Ottawa's plan for a "climate-safe future."

"Simply put, our position is that this project is just not compatible with what the science is telling us," he said. "Climate change doesn't respect political boundaries, and the emissions produced from consuming this oil are the same emissions, regardless of where the oil comes from."

UN committee criticizes Canada over handling of Indigenous pipeline opposition


Wed, May 11, 2022



A United Nations human rights committee focused on combating racism has reiterated its call for Canada to stop construction of two pipelines until it obtains consent from affected Indigenous communities in British Columbia.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination says it has received information about the policing of Wet'suwet'en and Secwepemc people opposed to the Coastal GasLink pipeline being built in northern B.C. and the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion from Alberta to B.C.'s coast.

A letter from committee chair Verene Shepherd says the information alleges that surveillance and use of force have escalated against those opposed to the pipelines in order to intimidate and push them off their traditional lands.

The April 29 letter addressed to Leslie Norton, Canada's representative to the UN in Geneva, points to a 2019 decision by the committee calling on Canada to "immediately cease forced evictions" of Wet'suwet'en and Secwepemc protesters by police and halt construction on the two pipelines.

The B.C. and federal governments and the RCMP had yet to respond to requests for comment on the concerns outlined by the UN committee.

Indigenous leaders responded to the committee's letter at an online news conference on Wednesday, saying their nations have never signed treaties and their territories have never been ceded to the Canadian government.

First Nation band councils are responsible for reserve lands, but they don't have authority to make decisions over broader Wet'suwet'en territory, says Sleydo', a spokesperson for a Wet'suwet'en group behind blockades that have been set up along a road used by Coastal GasLink pipeline workers.

Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs have opposed the natural gas pipeline for years, while 20 First Nation band councils have signed off on the project.

Police have made numerous arrests while enforcing a court injunction prohibiting blockades that was granted to the pipeline's owner, TC Energy.

Sleydo' told the news conference that she is "harassed and surveilled daily" by company-hired private security and the RCMP, particularly members of the Mounties' Community-Industry Response Group.

Kanahus Manual with the Tiny House Warriors, a group opposed to the Trans Mountain pipeline, told the news conference that the federal government created the system of First Nation reserves and band councils don't hold the rights to 180,000 square kilometres of unceded Secwepemc territory.

Trans Mountain, a federal Crown corporation, says its 1,150-kilometre pipeline expansion project crosses "numerous traditional territories" and 15 First Nation reserves in B.C., and it only crosses reserve lands with consent.

The UN committee consists of 18 independent human rights experts elected to four-year terms by countries, including Canada, that have signed on to the convention to end racial discrimination they're tasked with monitoring.

Its decision in December 2019 called on the Canadian government to stop construction on the pipeline projects until it obtains free, prior and informed consent outlined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

A followup letter in 2020 says the committee regretted that Canada was interpreting the principle as "a duty to engage in a meaningful and good faith dialogue with Indigenous peoples and to guarantee a process, but not a particular result," meaning the pipelines could go ahead after consultation.

The UN declaration, which both the federal and B.C. governments have in recent years pledged to implement, stipulates that governments must not make decisions relating to Indigenous rights or territories without consent.

The UN committee's most recent letter says Canada was due to report last November on any measures taken to address the concerns outlined in 2019, but it hasn't yet provided its report. The committee requested that the federal government provide a response to its previous communications by July 15.

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

The Canadian Press

OF COURSE THEY DID

RCMP commissioner denies claim Mounties used 'kid gloves' with Freedom Convoy protesters


Wed, May 11, 2022

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki says she doesn't believe there was a double standard in the way Mounties policed the Freedom Convoy protests and blockades earlier this year and the tactics used with Indigenous protesters. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press - image credit)

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki says she sees no double standard in the way Mounties policed the Freedom Convoy protests and blockades earlier this year compared to the tactics they have used with Indigenous protesters.

During a heated exchange in a committee meeting Tuesday night, NDP MP Matthew Green asked about the scenes that played out during border blockades over COVID-19 health mandates and compared them to blockades during protests against a pipeline drill site on Wet'suwet'en territory in northern British Columbia.

Green referred to the cases as a "juxtaposition of policing — what I'll call a failure of policing."

The RCMP has come under fire after a U.K. newspaper reported that police were prepared to use snipers on Wet'suwet'en Nation protesters and argued for "lethal overwatch" in 2019.

Last year, video footage provided to the media showed RCMP tactical officers breaking down a door with an axe and chainsaw to arrest pipeline opponents at Coyote Camp during another protest on the territory. The RCMP is also investigating reports of violence at a pipeline construction site on Coastal GasLink property earlier this year.

Green contrasted those incidents with reports that Alberta RCMP officers shook hands with and hugged some of the protesters who had halted traffic at the United States border crossing near Coutts, Alta., to demonstrate against pandemic health mandates.

RCMP said they seized more than a dozen long guns, hand guns, ammunition and body armour from that site.

Lucki says police are 'part of the community'

 SHE IS IMPLYING RCMP ARE NOT PART OF INDIGENOUSE CANADIAN COMMUNITIES

"How is it that you reconcile the double standard in policing?" Green asked Lucki Tuesday night as a special joint committee continued its study of the invocation of the Emergencies Act in February to disperse Freedom Convoy protesters.

"And what would you say to Canadians who have questions about the conduct of RCMP officers giving handshakes and high-fives and hugs shortly after these weapon stashes were found in what was admittedly a high-risk investigation and arrest?"

"What I can say was there were many legal protesters at the Coutts protest," Lucki responded

THERE ARE MANY PEACEFUL PROTESTERS AT INDIGENOUS PROTESTS WHO ARE JUST AS LEGAL AS WHITE PEOPLE IN TRUCKS

Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

"And our members, who police there, are part of the community, they shop in those stores. They're neighbours to those people."

Green interrupted, asking if the difference in approach was due to the fact that the protesters at Coutts looked like the police officers themselves.

"No," said Lucki. "They live in those communities."

SO YES THEY DO LOOK LIKE OTHER WHITE PEOPLE IN THOSE TOWNS

"Can we acknowledge at least a double standard there?" asked Green.

"No, not at all, no," the head Mountie responded.

Green ended his allotted time by asking if Lucki would "at least admit that there were kid gloves for the protesters in Coutts directly after the discovery of the weapons cache."

"No," said Lucki. She said that in Coutts, it was protesters and supporters who approached police at the scene.

Allegations of police failure

MPs and senators tried to press Lucki during the three-hour committee hearing over how the RCMP and Ottawa Police responded to the hundreds of demonstrators who blocked streets in Ottawa with big rigs and other trucks to protest COVID-19 restrictions.

Beyond Coutts, protesters also blocked border crossings at Windsor, Ont., and Emerson, Man., and the pacific highway crossing in B.C.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau argued it was necessary to invoke the Emergencies Act to address "serious challenges to law enforcement's ability to effectively enforce the law."

The Emergencies Act authorized a ban on travel to protest zones, allowed banks to freeze the accounts of some of those involved in the protests and allowed officials to commandeer tow trucks. It also enabled the RCMP to enforce municipal bylaws and provincial offences as required.

Lucki said she didn't think the convoy protests suggested a failure in policing, despite several senators and MPs on the committee suggesting the opposite.

Sen. Peter Harder said he thought the actions of police prior to the invocation of the act "demonstrated a series of police failures."

"Not willful failures," he said. "But the inability of police to contain and act appropriately in reducing the occupation here in Ottawa."

Conservatives say threshold wasn't met

Lucki said the temporary powers bestowed by the Emergencies Act served as a deterrent in Ottawa, but they weren't used to clear protest blockades at border crossings.

"In RCMP jurisdiction, we successfully used a measured approach and existing legislation to resolve border blockades," she told the committee.

Lucki also testified that she was involved in conversations about triggering the act a week before it was invoked on Feb. 14, but that she never requested it.

On Wednesday, the Conservatives said that shows Liberal government did not have the evidence to meet the threshold for invoking the Emergencies Act.

"From the beginning, Conservatives have said that the threshold to invoke the unprecedented use of the Emergencies Act was never met and we have repeatedly called on the Liberal government to justify its actions — but they have failed to do so," reads the statement.

Give voice to the marginalized, Archibald says in address to NAN chiefs


Wed, May 11, 2022

It’s a new time, National Chief RoseAnne Archibald of the Assembly of First Nations told Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) chiefs gathered May 10.

“There is much work to be done as leaders on this healing path forward. That’s what my commitment is as national chief. We owe it to our future generations to express our sacred gifts, to be active in decision-making, and for all of us to push back against the colonial system,” she said.

The Healing Path Forward is a document produced by the AFN to “influence and shift” the work undertaken by the federal government. It was introduced prior to the 2021 federal election.

Archibald said the document was about building a better future for First Nations, which includes equality and equity that would lead to the “same things every municipality has,” such as clean drinking water, adequate housing and proper services.

“Ever since I was elected … 10 months ago, I’ve been working alongside regional chiefs as well as our federal partners to ensure that First Nations’ priorities are top of mind and that commitments that are made are followed through,” she said.

Meeting those goals would require the federal government to change its budget process, she said. Despite the AFN doing a pre-budget submission with an investment request of approximately $104 billion, financial allocations fell woefully short in the April budget.

“The federal government continues to purposefully underfund First Nations and restrict our communities from accessing our true wealth from our lands and resources,” she said.

First Nations need a new economic deal that allows them to have autonomy, self-government, self-sufficiency and self-determination, all of which are guaranteed in the Constitution, said Archibald.

She pointed to the Ring of Fire, a significant mineral development region in northern Ontario. She said minimal impact benefit agreements with First Nations and promises of jobs weren’t enough.

“We have to move to being owners of those developments, to have a piece of the wealth. This is something that I’ve started to talk about and I will continue to talk about as I move through my term: The new economic deal that we need,” she said.

But changes aren’t only needed at the federal level. First Nations need to conduct business in a different way as well, she said.

Archibald, who was elected July 2021, stressed that efforts had to be made to ensure all marginalized voices were heard, including women, youth and two spirited, lesbian-plus.

To that end, she said, the AFN is establishing a national caucus of elected women leaders, who will meet for the first time in Vancouver at the AFN’s annual general assembly in July.

“As we move forward, all of the brothers that are around this table have to stand beside women in leadership, have to stand beside women, period, and say, ‘We’re going to stand with you and make sure you’re treated with dignity and respect always,’” said Archibald, who acknowledged NAN’s women leaders.

She said the only way the number of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls can be decreased was for men and women to work together.

The AFN also has its first two spirited, lesbian-plus council.

Archibald said she and her office were in dialogue with the youth council to see how they could assist in meeting its goals nationally.

“I stand before you as the first woman national chief. And how long did it take for that moment to happen? And how long will it take for us to listen to these other voices and to continue to lift up women, and youth, and 2SL (plus) people and other people as well who are marginalized… (that) we need sitting at this table,” said Archibald.

“I do want future generations to look at this moment and see this turning point that we are on. That we have turned a corner and that this momentum that(we are) building is going to continue, that’s it’s unstoppable. That these changes have arrived and that we need to embrace one another,” she said.

Archibald stressed that she would continue to call for accountability when it comes to the lives of children lost at Indian residential schools. Archibald was recently at the United Nations where she called for the special rapporteur to come to Canada to investigate the deaths and burials of children at Indian residential schools. She said she wanted to see that work happen alongside the special interlocuter the federal government is considering appointing.

Archibald also stressed the need for Pope Francis to apologize to residential school survivors on Canadian soil for the role of the Catholic church. In March, at the Vatican, the Pope apologized to delegates from the First Nations, Métis and Inuit for the behaviour of some Catholics. It is anticipated that the Pope will visit Canada in July.

Archibald committed AFN to standing with organizations like NAN for systemic change in addressing “overt, covert, and systemic racism in this country. It affects all of us in every sector, particularly in Canada’s policing and justice system.”

She acknowledged NAN’s leadership role in the recent re-investigation of First Nations deaths in Thunder Bay and NAN’s push to dismantle the Thunder Bay Police Service. The police service has come under strict criticism for its systemic racism in the handling of investigations into First Nations deaths.

She noted that of the 94 calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the legacy of Indian residential schools, 21 of those calls relate to justice or the legal system.

“I’ll continue to support your communities and stand with you and advocate with you on the issues that matter to you,” said Archibald.

May 10 marked the first of a three-day Chiefs Spring Assembly for NAN. Discussions will include health transformation, child welfare, reclamation and healing, emergency management, education, policing, the opioid crisis, and the NAN housing strategy.

Windspeaker.com

By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com, Windspeaker.com

MY MP

Edmonton NDP MP wants to know if oil and gas companies will shell out $253 million in outstanding taxes


Wed, May 11, 2022

Earlier this week, Edmonton-Griesbach’s MP demanded answers from an oil and gas industry representative on whether companies intend to cough up an estimated $253 million owed to rural communities in Alberta.

The NDP MP, Blake Desjarlais, went on the offensive during a natural resources committee study on creating a fair and equitable energy transition for Canadians.

At the end of 2021, oil and gas companies owed small municipalities approximately $253 million in unpaid property taxes according to a member survey done by the Rural Municipalities of Alberta.

The affected communities are predominantly Indigenous and need the money to pay for roads, water and other basic services, Desjarlais told the committee. The Fishing Lake Métis Settlement in Alberta is one of the many communities still asking oil and gas companies to pay their taxes, said Desjarlais, who is originally from there.

“But these companies are putting that debt, that unpaid tax burden, on regular everyday people,” he said. “It's killing communities.”

Both Desjarlais and his father were energy workers, he told the committee.

“My father died on an energy site and you know what [the company] said? ‘Take a hike,’” said Desjarlais, adding that is still the situation for workers today.

“And they're asking for partnership with the government? Since when do we partner with criminals?”

Property taxes are “a matter of survival” for many rural municipalities because critical infrastructure like roads relies almost entirely on that revenue, according to Rural Municipalities of Alberta. It says a lack of enforcement by the Alberta government is to blame. A popular argument made by government and industry alike is that paying property taxes would lead to insolvency for companies and result in lost jobs, it noted.

“It's absolutely unfair to the men and the women who work in these communities and their families to be shackled to companies that don't want to pay their fair share, pay for their communities, pay for the basic programs and benefits that every worker deserves,” Desjarlais declared.

His question for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers’ (CAPP) witness, Shannon Joseph, was simple: Will CAPP’s members pay the taxes owed to rural communities?

“Our members pay taxes and there have been issues,” Joseph began in response before Desjarlais interjected “to correct the record” to reflect that “they are not paying their taxes.”

When pressed further, Joseph responded that the provinces, companies and municipalities are in discussion about what constitutes a “fair share” but would not be clear on whether the $253 million would ever be paid, declining to comment further.

In her opening remarks, Joseph had indicated CAPP is ready to partner with the federal government to create “a fair and equitable energy transformation.”

“They're asking for partnership when they can't even pay the measly $253 million,” said Desjarlais.

“We can't even get a clear answer if they're going to pay their taxes. How is that equitable?”

Natasha Bulowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

GOP SEZ CUBOARD IS BARE
US funding doubts overshadow Biden's latest global Covid summit


US President Joe Biden will attend a global Covid-19 summit that aims to increase international cooperation on combating the pandemic 

(AFP/Nicholas Kamm)

Thu, May 12, 2022, 5:31 AM·3 min read

President Joe Biden will address a global summit on Covid-19 Thursday, but Congress' refusal to authorize billions of dollars in funding has thrown into doubt his role as leader of ambitious plans to vaccinate the world and finally stop the pandemic.

The US crossed a grim milestone ahead of the summit, with the White House announcing that more than one million Americans had died due to Covid-19, the highest recorded death toll from the pandemic in the world.

A senior US official said the summit would aim to "redouble" international cooperation on combating Covid, which has killed more than six million people worldwide and triggered profound economic disruption.

"We want to prevent complacency. The pandemic is not over," the official said, adding that the summit will also discuss preparing the world "for the next one -- the next pandemic."

The virtual gathering will be co-chaired by the United States, along with current G7 president Germany, G20 president Indonesia, African Union chair Senegal, and Belize, the current chair of the CARICOM Caribbean grouping.

Biden is expected to open the summit, which follows a first global huddle last September.

Unlike then, when Biden challenged partners to surge vaccines around the world and get 70 percent of every country vaccinated by September of this year, the US government will come to Thursday's session hobbled by inability to secure even its own funding.

Biden has requested another $22.5 billion in emergency Covid funding, including $5 billion for the administration's signature international program, which has already seen some 500 million vaccine doses shipped to more than 100 countries.

After debate, preliminary agreement was reached in the legislature on spending just $10 billion, with nothing for the foreign vaccines.

"You will hear a loud call" to Congress, the US official said. "We know the virus is not waiting for Congress. So we need urgent, urgent action."

In his statement announcing the US death toll on Thursday, Biden said it was "critical" for Congress to continue to fund anti-pandemic efforts.

According to the official, a properly funded and coordinated international approach is the only way that the world can rid itself of a virus which -- while now far less deadly than before vaccines were available -- continues to mutate and spread, slowing down the return to full economic activity.

Opponents in Congress have been especially concerned by the money requested for foreign vaccinations, but the official argued that when a new virus variant strikes it is likely to start abroad before hitting the United States.

"Without additional emergency Covid-19 funding, the United States will be unable to purchase additional life-saving treatments to the American people. The United States will be less able to stop the spread of dangerous new variants from around the world and the United States will be unable to keep vaccinating the world against Covid-19."

The summit will hear appeals for countries to invest in a World Bank pandemic preparedness fund, with the United States set to pledge another $200 million, raising its contribution to $450 million, the official said.

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Morocco desertification: Oases threatened by encroaching sands

 

Climate change is taking its toll on Morocco's oases. Sandstorms are becoming more frequent, groundwater levels are sinking and vegetation is shrivelling up and dying.