Tokyo med school ordered to pay over gender discrimination


Juntendo University said in 2018 it had raised the bar for women in entrance exams (AFP/Behrouz MEHRI) (Behrouz MEHRI)

Thu, May 19, 2022, 2:18 AM·1 min read

A medical school in Tokyo that made it harder for female students to pass entrance exams was on Thursday ordered to pay compensation to 13 women for gender discrimination.

Juntendo University said in 2018 that it had raised the bar for women in the exams in order to "narrow the gap with male students", as a scandal over medical school admissions uncovered improper practices at several institutions.

The university argued at the time that women had better communication skills, and were therefore at an advantage in the interview part of their applications.

A Tokyo district court spokesman told AFP that Juntendo had been ordered to pay the plaintiffs, with local media reporting the total compensation came to around eight million yen ($62,000). The university declined to comment.

A government investigation was launched four years ago after another school, Tokyo Medical University, admitted it had systematically lowered the scores of female applicants to keep women in the student body at around 30 percent.

The government report said female applicants were discriminated against at four of the 81 schools it studied, with media at the time saying admissions staff believed women would leave the medical profession or work fewer hours when they married and had children.

Tokyo Medical School, Juntendo University and Kitasato University admitted the issue and apologised, while St. Marianna University of Medicine denied the claims.

Several lawsuits have been filed against the universities since the report's publication in 2018.

nf/kaf/smw/je

Nearly 60 million people displaced in 2021 by conflict and natural disaster

Conflicts and natural disasters forced tens of millions to flee within their own country last year, pushing the number of internally displaced people to a record high, monitors said Thursday.

© Attila Kisbenedek, AFP

Some 59.1 million people were registered as internally displaced worldwide in 2021 -- an all-time record expected to be broken again this year amid mass displacement inside war-torn Ukraine.

Around 38 million new internal displacements were reported in 2021, with some people forced to flee multiple times during the year, according to a joint report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

That marks the second-highest annual number of new internal displacements in a decade after 2020, which saw record-breaking movement due to a string of natural disasters.

Last year, new internal displacements from conflict surged to 14.4 million -- marking a 50-percent jump from 2020 and more than doubling since 2012, the report showed.
'World is falling apart'

And global internal displacement figures are only expected to grow this year, driven in particular by the war in Ukraine.

More than eight million people have already been displaced within the war-ravaged country since Russia's full-scale invasion began on February 24, in addition to the more than six million who have fled Ukraine as refugees.

"2022 is looking bleak," IDMC director Alexandra Bilak told reporters.

The record numbers seen in 2021, she said, marked "a tragic indictment really on the state of the world and on peace-building efforts in particular".

NRC chief Jan Egeland agreed, warning: "It has never been as bad as this."

"The world is falling apart," he told reporters.

"The situation today is phenomenally worse than even our record figure suggests."

In 2021, sub-Saharan Africa counted the most internal movements, with more than five million displacements reported in Ethiopia alone, as the country grappled with the raging and expanding Tigray conflict and a devastating drought.

That marks the highest figure ever registered for a single country.
'Titanic shift' needed

Unprecedented displacement numbers were also recorded last year in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan, where the Taliban's return to power, along with drought, saw many flee their homes.

In Myanmar, where the military junta seized power in a February coup last year, displacement numbers also reached a record high, the report found.

The Middle East and North Africa region recorded its lowest number of new displacements in a decade, as the conflicts in Syria, Libya and Iraq de-escalated somewhat, but the overall number of displaced people in the region remained high.

Syria, where civil war has been raging for more than 11 years, still accounted for the world's highest number of people living in internal displacement due to conflict -- 6.7 million -- at the end of 2021.

That was followed by the DR Congo at 5.3 million, Colombia at 5.2 million, and Afghanistan and Yemen at 4.3 million.

Despite the hike in conflict-related displacement, natural disasters continued to account for most new internal displacement, spurring 23.7 million such movements in 2021.

A full 94 percent of those were attributed to weather and climate-related disasters, like cyclones, monsoon rains, floods and droughts.

Experts say that climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of such extreme weather events.

China, the Philippines and India were hardest hit, together accounting for around 70 percent of all disaster-related displacements last year.

Increasingly, conflict and disasters collide, creating a "complex quagmire of problems", Egeland said, worsening risks and often forcing people to flee several times.

In places like Mozambique, Myanmar, Somalia and South Sudan, overlapping crises impact food security and heighten the vulnerabilities of millions.

"We need a titanic shift in thinking from world leaders on how to prevent and resolve conflicts to end this soaring human suffering," Egeland said.

Israel arrests pallbearer beaten at journalist's funeral

Nuha Sharaf
Wed, May 18, 2022, 

FILE PHOTO: Family and friends carry the coffin of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh during her funeral in Jerusalem

By Nuha Sharaf

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel police have arrested one of the Palestinian pallbearers beaten by officers at the funeral of slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, the detained man's lawyer said on Wednesday.

A police spokesperson confirmed the arrest of Amro Abu Khdair but said it was not connected to Friday's funeral. He declined to give the reason for the man's arrest.

Images of baton-wielding Israeli officers beating the pallbearers, who at one point nearly dropped Abu Akleh's coffin, drew widespread international condemnation and stoked anger over the killing of the reporter during an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank on May 11.

Abu Khdair's lawyer, Khaldoon Nijm, said his client was arrested on Monday but that the charges were not revealed to him and were based on information from Israel's domestic security service. He said Abu Khdair later told him he was questioned about the funeral.

A police spokesperson said any connection made to the funeral would amount to a "cheap conspiracy". Abu Khdair's custody had been extended until Sunday, police and the lawyer said.

A second pallbearer, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters he had been questioned by police though not arrested.

Israel's Internal Security Minister Omer Barlev said on Saturday he and the police commissioner had appointed a panel to carry out a "comprehensive investigation of what happened during the funeral in order to learn lessons from the event".

Separately Israel is conducting a probe into Abu Akleh's death. The Palestinians are also investigating her killing.

The Palestinians accuse Israel forces of assassinating her. Israel has denied targeting her, saying she may have been shot accidentally by a soldier or by a Palestinian gunman as they exchanged fire in the West Bank city of Jenin.

(Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Tomasz Janowski)

Israel Arrests Al Jazeera Reporter Pallbearer, Denies Link With Funeral

In a raid that has sparked international outrage, baton-wielding Israeli police beat several pallbearers as they carried the journalist's coffin out of a hospital in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

Agence France-Presse

Updated: May 19, 2022 

Amro Abu Khudeir covers his head as he carries the casket of the Al-Jazeera journalist.

Jerusalem:

Israel has arrested one of the pallbearers of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, police said Thursday, but rejected his lawyer's claim that the detention was linked to his role at the funeral.

In a raid that has sparked international outrage, baton-wielding Israeli police beat several pallbearers as they carried the journalist's coffin out of a hospital in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

Abu Akleh was shot dead during an Israeli army raid in the West Bank last week.

Palestinians and the TV network said Israeli troops killed her, while Israel said she may have been killed by Palestinian gunfire or a stray shot from an Israeli sniper.

A lawyer for pallbearer Amro Abu Khudeir told AFP that his client had been arrested and questioned over his role at the funeral.

According to the lawyer, Khaldoun Najm, Israel also claimed to have "a secret file on (Khudeir's) membership of a terrorist organisation".

"I think they will arrest more young men who participated in the funeral," Najm said. "For them, the subject of the funeral and the coffin was scandalous."

Police dismissed any link between the funeral and Khudeir's arrest.

"We are witnessing an attempt to produce a conspiracy that is fundamentally incorrect," a statement said. "The suspect was arrested as part of an ongoing investigation which contrary to allegations, had nothing to do with his participation in the funeral procession."

Police justifications for the raid at St. Joseph's hospital have varied.

They have cited the need to stamp out "nationalistic" chants and also said that "rioters" among the mourners hurled projectiles at officers.

Israeli forces frequently crack down on displays of Palestinian identity, including the national flag, one of which was draped over Abu Akleh's coffin.

Police have vowed to investigate the controversial incident.

Amnesty says FIFA should pay $440 million to 'abused' migrant workers in Qatar

Rights group Amnesty International on Thursday urged football's governing body FIFA pay compensation equal to the total 2022 World Cup prize money for migrant workers "abused" in host nation Qatar.

© EFE / Noushad Thekkayil

The call, backed by other rights organisations and fan groups, follows allegations that FIFA was slow to safeguard against the exploitation of workers who flooded into the tiny Gulf state to build infrastructure in the years leading up to the tournament that starts November 21.

"FIFA should earmark at least $440 million to provide remedy for the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who have suffered human rights abuses in Qatar during preparations for the 2022 World Cup," Amnesty said in a statement accompanying a report.

The London-based group urged FIFA president Gianni Infantino "to work with Qatar to establish a comprehensive remediation programme".

It alleged that a "litany of abuses" had taken place since 2010, the year FIFA awarded the 2022 tournament to Qatar "without requiring any improvement in labour protections".

"Given the history of human rights abuses in the country, FIFA knew -- or should have known -- the obvious risks to workers when it awarded the tournament to Qatar," said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty's secretary general.

Amnesty said some abuses persist and described $440 million as the "minimum necessary" to cover compensation claims and to ensure remedial initiatives are expanded for the future.

The sum is roughly the total prize money for this year's World Cup. Amnesty's call was backed in an open letter to Infantino also signed by nine other organisations, including Migrant Rights and Football Supporters Europe.

FIFA 'assessing' report

When asked for comment, FIFA said it was "assessing the programme proposed by Amnesty" for Qatar, highlighting that it "involves a wide range of non-FIFA World Cup-specific public infrastructure built since 2010".

Qatar's World Cup organisers said they have "worked tirelessly" with international groups for the rights of workers on stadiums and other tournament projects. Much of the criticism has however been directed at construction outside the official tournament where hundreds of workers are said to have died in the past decade.

"Significant improvements have been made across accommodation standards, health and safety regulations, grievance mechanisms, healthcare provision, and reimbursements of illegal recruitment fees to workers," said a spokesperson for the organisers, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy.

"This tournament is, and will continue to be a powerful catalyst for delivering a sustainable human and social legacy ahead of, during, and beyond the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022."

Workers' claims range from unpaid salaries, "illegal" and "extortionate" recruitment fees averaging $1,300 to secure jobs, and compensation for injuries and deaths.

Amnesty welcomed initiatives by FIFA and Qatar, including improvements made on World Cup construction sites and labour legislation reforms introduced since 2014.

Qatar in 2017 introduced a minimum wage, cut the hours that can be worked in extreme heat, and ended part of a system which forced migrant workers to seek employers' permission to change jobs or even leave the country.

Workers can go to labour tribunals and more government inspectors have been appointed.

Foreign workers, mainly from South Asia, make up more than two million of Qatar's 2.8 million population.

But Amnesty said only about 48,000 workers have so far been green-lighted to claw back recruitment fees.

It said the requested $440 million represents only a "small fraction" of the $6 billion in revenues FIFA is expected to make over the next four years, much of it from the World Cup.

(AFP)

With a few dozen men, guerrilla group sows fear in Paraguay

Author: AFP|Update: 19.05.2022

Obdulia Florenciano's son Edelio Morinigo was kidnapped by the Paraguayan People's Army (EPP) eight years ago / © AFP

With a few dozen fighters, the Paraguayan People's Army (EPP) guerrilla group has held residents of a central province in a grip of fear for the past 14 years.

It has long been dismissed by the government as a trifling group -- a kind of family affair -- but for the residents of Concepcion, a cattle-raising province, the EPP is no joke.

"They say they want to help the poor, that they are pro-poor. But they hurt the poor," said Obdulia Florenciano, 52, whose policeman son Edelio Morinigo has been held by the EPP since 2014.

"We are not rich, we are poor. We are workers, we are humble. They took away the son of a poor family," she said through her tears, showing AFP a photo of her son -- dubbed a "prisoner of war" by the EPP -- in uniform.

The guerrilla group, created with the stated goal of fighting the oligarchy and promoting much-needed agrarian reform in the country's poorest regions, rules with fear in the Concepcion region some 400 kilometers (249 miles) north of the capital Asuncion.

The department holds some 300,000 of Paraguay's 7.4 million people.

There are few paved roads in this sparsely-populated tropical region, but plenty of cows. And drug traffickers.

- Who is a hitman? -

On the main road leading to the porous border with Brazil, soldiers man checkpoints with large billboards nearby offering a reward for information about the whereabouts of EPP leaders.

Armored vehicles and helicopters provide backup.

Posters with the photos of wanted Paraguayan People's Army (EPP) members are dotted around Concepcion / © AFP

"We practically live together (with drug dealers and guerrillas) and we don't realize it," said Domingo Savio Ovelar, the parish priest for the town of Yby-Yua.

"Here we cannot distinguish who is a drug trafficker, who is a hitman," he said.

"There is permanent anxiety. We never know what we will wake up to."

In its 14 years of existence, 74 killings of soldiers, police and civilians in Concepcion have been laid at the EPP's door.

It has kidnapped 13 people over the same period, and still holds three.

Yet security sources says the group's manpower is modest: a few dozen armed men.

A "generous" estimate, said Juan Martens, a criminologist at the National University of Asuncion who argued the group posed no "real threat" on a national scale.

- 'We bury comrades' -

They may be few, but they are deadly, said Colonel Luis Apezteguia, who commands a force of a thousand men in the area.

"They say that we do nothing, that the EPP is an invention. But in the meantime, we bury comrades, we take wounded people to hospital," he lamented.

Last month, three soldiers were wounded by an explosive device, and last year, three others died.

The Paraguayan People's Army (EPP) operates in a region of Paraguay near the border with Brazil, with cattle ranches, few paved roads, and many drug traffickers / © AFP

Other than Morinigo, the EPP holds 73-year-old Felix Urbieta, taken from his farm in 2016, and former Paraguayan vice-president Oscar Denis, captive since September 2020.

Denis's daughter, Beatriz, told AFP: "I would accept anything to have Dad back. I will negotiate anything."

A few months ago, the family collected the equivalent of $2 million in food -- at the EPP's request, she said -- to be distributed among poor villagers.

But to no avail. No word from her father.

"Every time a hostage has been able to return home, it was not because the government found them. It was because a ransom was paid," Denis said.

The EPP has proposed an exchange of the hostages for its top two leaders Alcides Oviedo, 52, and Carmen Villalba, 50, both prisoners in Asuncion.

Villalba's brother Osvaldo leads the EPP in her absence.

Beatriz Denis's father, former vice president Oscar Denis is among the Paraguayan People's Army (EPP)'s hostages / © AFP

In 2010, documents uncovered by the Paraguayan authorities revealed links between the EPP and the since-disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

The Paraguayan government recently sought support from Colombia in intelligence and military training to combat the EPP.

In an unforeseen way, this could mean the beginning of the end for the guerrilla group.

"The Concepcion region has become a strategic place for drug traffickers, and the EPP disturbs them, because it attracts the presence of the state," said Martens.

"If the government does not eliminate them, the narcos will take care of them, and have already started. And they are much more powerful."

Landlocked Paraguay -- nestled between Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina -- has become an important launchpad for drugs headed for Europe.

Earlier this month, the country's anti-drug prosecutor Marcelo Pecci was shot dead execution-style Tuesday while honeymooning on a Colombian Caribbean island.

‘Transmitting violence’: Livestream video’s dark side

By AFP
May 18, 2022

FBI agents look at bullet impacts in the Buffalo, New York grocery store where a gunman livestreamed himself shooting 13 people -- 10 of whom died - 

Copyright AFP/File Sam PANTHAKY

Glenn Chapman with Joshua Melvin in Washington

A gunman’s livestream of a mass killing in New York state was taken down in a matter of minutes — but even that was not fast enough to prevent those images from becoming effectively impossible to erase from the internet.

Posting horrific clips like those is not barred by US speech laws, experts told AFP, so the decision on whether to keep them online is largely left up to individual tech companies.

But even the sites that want them taken down say they struggle to do so, since once unleashed onto the internet, the videos can be edited and shared again and again.

In the case of the Buffalo shooting that killed 10 African Americans at a grocery store on Saturday, it’s particularly chilling because writings attributed to the suspect noted he was in part inspired by another mass shooter’s livestream.

“If (companies) are going to commit to live streaming, you are committed to transmitting a certain number of rapes, murders, suicides and other types of crimes,” said Mary Anne Franks, a professor at University of Miami school of law.

“That’s just what comes with that territory,” she added.

The live feed of the killing on Amazon’s Twitch platform was pulled down within two minutes, the company said –- far quicker than the 17 minutes New Zealand mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant’s attack was streamed on Facebook in 2019.

Social media firms say they fight hard to keep these types of images off their platforms, with automated and manual efforts by workers to squelch video of the Buffalo attack and similar horrors.

But the images can be edited, titles or names changed and then re-posted on sites that are happy to have the traffic that others have decided is beyond their limit.

One tweet on Wednesday cited the Buffalo suspect’s name, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, and included a link to a video about the attack, but did not show the killing.

However, once on the site viewers were offered additional videos, including one showing over 90 seconds of the attack and which said it had nearly 1,800 views since Sunday.

Websites don’t have to allow this type of video but American law is mostly silent on prohibiting them.

“There is nothing illegal in the US about posting a video of the (Buffalo) livestream. It doesn’t really fall into a category of speech that is unprotected,” said Ari Cohn, who is free speech counsel at think tank TechFreedom.

– ‘Life and death consequences’ –

Once a crime like a mass shooting is broadcast on a major platform it can take various routes to perpetual life online, including being recorded by people watching it live.

A spokesperson for Facebook parent Meta said new versions of videos, which are created to dodge being removed, then become part of a whack-a-mole effort to hunt down the clips.

The same problem is seen at other platforms like Twitter, which has a policy of removing the accounts of mass attackers “and may also remove tweets disseminating manifestos or other content produced by perpetrators,” it says.

Meta’s vice president of integrity Guy Rosen told journalists in a briefing Tuesday the firm has to tread a fine line because too broad of a filter could end up unintentionally taking down the wrong kind of content.

Live broadcasts are one of the areas where social media platforms face accusations of fanning violence and hatred, and law professor Franks said it’s not likely wise to offer that capability to the general public.

“The bigger problem here is when tech companies make these decisions for the public… that this is a tool that is useful in ways that will outweigh its disadvantages,” she added.

New York’s Attorney General Letitia James announced Wednesday a probe of various tech companies over the attack, including Twitch.

The general lack of up-to-date social media policies on the national level in the United States has also contributed to the problems associated with live videos online.

US states have crafted their own policies, which can reflect the heavy partisan divides along what should be allowed online.

Texas, for example, has enacted a controversial social media law that bars larger sites from “discriminating against expression,” which has been heavily criticized for being so broad that it interferes with content moderation.

“The recent tragedy (in Buffalo) underscores that this is not just about partisan point scoring,” Matt Schruers, president of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, told a panel discussion about the law this week.

“There are life and death consequences to tying the industry’s hands to respond to bad actors on the internet,” he added.

Forbidden love: Taiwan's gay couples seek foreign marriage equality



Taiwan was the first in Asia to legalise same-sex marriages, but certain transnational couples are still unable to wed 

(AFP/Sam YEH)

Amber WANG
Wed, May 18, 2022,

Taiwan's LGBTQ community celebrated the third year of gay marriage being legal this week, but for Vincent Chuang it was a bittersweet reminder that he still cannot wed because he fell in love with a foreigner.

Socially progressive Taiwan is at the vanguard of Asia's gay rights movement, and became the first in the region to legalise same-sex unions on May 17, 2019.

But the law still contains restrictions that heterosexual couples do not face, including limits on which foreigners same-sex couples can wed.

Under the current rules, Taiwanese nationals can only marry those from the roughly 30 countries and territories where same-sex marriage is also legal.

Activists say that discriminates against most transnational couples and keeps them apart, especially during the pandemic, which has seen partners unable to cross borders and enter Taiwan as dependants or spouses.

For Chuang, a 36-year-old teacher, the enforced split from his Filipino partner Andrew Espera has been painful.

"We are just two persons who love each other and who want to be with each other. We are not asking for anything extravagant, only this small right," he told AFP.

Chuang met Espera, a cook, six years ago during a trip to the Philippines.

"He was a chef at the bed and breakfast place I was staying. It was love at first sight," he recalled.

The pandemic forced the couple into a video call relationship, with Espera teaching his partner Tagalog and cooking as they tried various ways to be reunited.

They almost gave up until Espera eventually secured a student visa and they were finally reunited this week. But both feel they have been denied a basic right given to heterosexuals.

"We are hoping and praying for this, (that) Taiwan can accept us, accept our relationship and allow us to be legalised partners even though my country is yet to legalise same-sex marriage," Espera, 31, told AFP.

- 'Missing piece' -

The Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights says some 470 transnational same-sex couples currently wish to get married but are unable.

The advocacy group has launched multiple legal battles to push for full marital recognition involving foreigners.

So far they have won three cases. But the rulings only apply to the couples in question, meaning anyone who wants to follow in their footsteps would need to launch the same time-consuming legal battle.

Alliance secretary general Chien Chih-chieh said Taiwan's government often "basks in the fame of being Asia's first" to legalise gay marriage.

"But there is still an obvious missing piece that needs to be mended."

Government employee Lee Wei-cheng last saw his partner, a 33-year-old from Myanmar, when they joined a huge 2019 Pride march in Taiwan that drew a record crowd of 200,000 to celebrate gay marriage legalisation.

Since then, they have been kept separated by both the pandemic and last year's coup in Myanmar.

Every day Lee, 31, worries for the safety of his partner, who is ethnic Karen, amid ongoing fighting between a Karen armed group and junta troops.

"We hope to live together in Taiwan and we thought getting married would be the easiest way, but we are still unable to do it," he told AFP.

"We've been separated for three years and we feel so helpless. As Taiwanese, I should have the right to marry whom I want to marry, but I've been deprived of that right -- the freedom of marriage".

Malaysian Tan Bee Guat has been living in Taipei on a student visa for six years in order to be with her partner Lai Kai-li, but the couple laments that their future is forever in limbo without a legal marriage.

"I was happy and feeling hopeful when Taiwan legalised gay marriage because it's unthinkable in Malaysia, not even after 50 years," Tan said in an interview in their rented apartment.

The couple is struggling financially, having to mostly rely on 39-year-old Lai's income as an independent publisher, because Tan as a foreign student is only allowed to work a maximum of 20 hours a week.

"I am losing faith and I am tired. I am already in my 40s but I don't have a career, I don't have money," Tan said.

But the campaign to secure full equal rights must continue, they argued.

"We are treated differently because of our sexual orientation," said Lai. "This is discrimination".

aw/jta/smw/je

Inflation could put more Canadians at risk of going hungry, say experts

© Provided by The Canadian Press


TORONTO — Experts and advocates anticipate that more Canadians could be at risk of going hungry as inflation continues to outpace many consumers' grocery budgets.

Valerie Tarasuk, a professor of nutritional sciences at University of Toronto, says steepening inflation rates are likely to increase the prevalence and severity of food insecurity in Canada.

Statistics Canada says consumers paid 9.7 per cent more for food at stores in April compared with a year ago, the largest increase since September 1981.

The 2020 Canadian Income Survey found that 11.2 per cent of Canadians lived in households that had experienced moderate and severe food insecurity, and Tarasuk says only a fraction of that population uses food charities.

Canadians feeling the pinch as inflation rate soars to new 31-year high

But a couple of food banks say that soaring food prices has accelerated surging demand for their services during the COVID-19 crisis.

The CEO of Daily Bread Food Bank says the charity saw 160,000 client visits in March, up from 60,000 visits in 2019. Neil Hetherington projects that number will increase to 225,000 visits per month by this time next year.

In the first three months of 2022, the Calgary Food Bank logged a 29 per cent year-over-year increase in demand for its food hampers, said communications co-ordinator Betty Jo Kaiser.

Last month, the organization distributed food support to nearly 9,500 people, 75 per cent of whom were first-time clients, said Kaiser.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 19, 2022.

The Canadian Press

Pacific Western Transit, union restart negotiations to end to Sea-to-Sky strike

Pacific Western Transit has agreed to meet with a mediator again in an attempt to negotiate an end to the 15-week job action at its Whistler, Squamish and Pemberton locations.

© Global NewsPassengers board a BC Transit bus in Whistler in this undated file photo.

Representatives from Whistler Transit and Diversified Transportation met with Minister of Labour Harry Bains, and agreed to the arrangement.

"We are optimistic that this meeting will result in a fair and reasonable deal, returning our employees to work and restoring essential transit services to the Sea-to-Sky communities," said PW in an emailed statement.

Read more:
Mediation fails in bitter 103-day Sea-to-Sky transit strike

The mediation will resume next Friday with representatives from the company and the employee's union.

“Mediation in the context of free collective bargaining is how this dispute is going to be solved,” said Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor Western Regional Director.

“We’re eager to get back to the bargaining table and find a resolution as soon as possible.”

Three biggest federal public sector unions challenge Liberal government's 'punitive' vaccine mandate for bureaucrats

Christopher Nardi - 

POSTMEDIA

As of March 29, 1,828 federal employees were on unpaid leave due to the vaccination policy, according to numbers shared by Treasury Board Secretariat with unions in April.

OTTAWA – The three biggest federal public sector unions are challenging the Liberal’s vaccine mandate for bureaucrats in court, arguing suspending unvaccinated workers without pay instead of letting them work from home is “punitive” and “unjustified.”

“We continue to support vaccination. But given … the loosening of the COVID restrictions and the shifting landscape, we’re of the opinion that employer’s policy right now is unreasonable. These members can work from home,” Jennifer Carr, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), said in an interview.

“Effectively, we think it is punitive and an abuse of management authority.”

Within the last week, the National Post has learned that both PIPSC and the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE), which represent nearly 60,000 and 21,000 public servants respectively, have filed policy grievances against the federal government’s vaccine mandate for bureaucrats.

Their challenges are in addition to the first grievances filed in late March by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the biggest federal government union.

At issue: the Trudeau government’s federal COVID-19 vaccine policy put in place on Oct. 6, 2021, which forced all bureaucrats to either get vaccinated with two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine or be suspended without pay (except those who obtained exemptions to the policy).

The unions say that working from home has become readily available for so many public servants that it’s time to let the unvaccinated employees who can work outside the office effectively do so.

Thousands on unpaid leave as Liberals late updating public service vaccine mandate

As of March 29, 1,828 employees were on unpaid leave due to the vaccination policy, according to numbers shared by Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) with unions in April.

“As the pandemic has evolved and the science has developed, we believe continuing to put unvaccinated employees on leave without pay is a harsh administrative measure that can be considered disciplinary and without just cause,” PSAC said when it announced its grievances.

They’re also frustrated that the government has yet to complete a review of the policy once since it was implemented, despite its own requirements.

A copy of TBS’ vaccine policy online says the government’s chief human resources officer is responsible for reviewing both the need of the policy and its contents “at a minimum every 6 months” and reporting those results to the minister.

Since the policy kicked in on Oct. 6, 2021, that means the first review was due by April 6.

But union heads say that date came and went without a peep from TBS, and the latest update meeting between them and government officials on Tuesday didn’t provide any new insight into when the review will be made public.

“Not only have they failed not to give us a position, they failed to let us know when they’re going to come up with a position,” Carr said. “We had a call (Tuesday), and they still can’t give us a tentative date.”

“At this point, it seems like it’s in a black hole,” she added. “That leaves a lot of public servants in limbo.”

TBS spokesperson Alain Belle-Isle said in a statement that the review is currently underway “in line with the requirement” and the results will be presented “in due course.”

“There is no obligation to update the policy every 6 months,” he said, adding that roughly 99 per cent of employees attested to being fully vaccinated.

“We are taking the time required to conduct a detailed review, which considers the evolving public health context, the latest science, and the advice of public health official,” his statement continues.

But now, the unions are asking the federal labour relations tribunal via their policy grievances to force the government to allow unvaccinated employees currently suspended without pay to be accommodated by allowing them to work from home.

They’re also asking that the government be compelled to reimburse all the bureaucrats still affected by the vaccine mandate for lost wages since April 6 (the date they say the policy needed to be reviewed).

For CAPE President Greg Phillips, working from home has become such an established practice amongst his members that the government’s vaccine policy is akin to asking someone who works in construction to wear a hard hat even if they’re working from home.

“My members are basically all office workers. For the past two years, only a statistically insignificant number of people have actually had to go into the office,” he said, adding that barely 100 of his 21,000 federal public service members are currently suspended due to the vaccine

“What we’re saying is that if you have to go into the office, you should be vaccinated, as much as if you’re going into a construction zone, you have to wear steel toed shoes.”

Carr says that the situation today is very different from two years ago, and vaccines are not the only tool the public service has to keep its employees safe from COVID-19 going forward.

“They have to look at other health and safety measures that are appropriate. Again, working from home is one of those, as well as keeping people out of contact, but also ventilation rates and spacing and masking if applicable,” she said.