ASSASSINATION 

Ripudaman Singh Malik, acquitted in Air India bombings, shot dead in Surrey, B.C.

Karin Larsen - 

Ripudaman Singh Malik, one of two men acquitted in the 1985 Air India terrorist bombings, has been shot to death in Surrey, B.C.

A witness told CBC he heard three shots and pulled Malik from his red Tesla bleeding from a neck wound.

The witness, who asked not to be named, said police were first to arrive at the scene.

A second witness from a nearby business in the 8200-block of 128 Street also identified Malik as the victim.

Surrey RCMP said a man shot at that location at around 9:30 a.m. PT succumbed to his injuries at the scene. They say it appears to be a targeted shooting and are not releasing the victim's name.

A suspect vehicle was located in the 12200-block of 82 Avenue engulfed in fire, according to police.


© Ben Nelms/CBCSurrey Police and RCMP officers are pictured at the scene of a fatal shooting in Surrey, British Columbia on Thursday, July 14, 2022.

Malik, who was in his mid-70s, owned a business near where he was killed.

Malik and co-accused Ajaib Singh Bagri were acquitted in 2005 of mass murder and conspiracy charges related to a pair of bombings in 1985 that killed 331 people, mostly from the Toronto and Vancouver areas.

Of those who died, 329 were aboard Air India Flight 182 when it exploded in mid-air over the Atlantic Ocean on June 23, 1985. Another bomb destined for a separate flight exploded at a Tokyo airport, killing two baggage handlers.

The killings amounted to the worst mass murder in Canadian history. Among the dead were 280 Canadians and 86 children.

Ripudaman Singh Malik killed in Surrey shooting

Reaction to Malik's death has been mixed.

"We lost a hero of the Sikh community" said longtime friend Ragibtir Bhinder speaking at the scene of the shooting. "We'd like this man to live a hundred years. It's hurting us."

Former British Columbia premier Ujjal Dosanjh, a former acquaintance of Malik's, said he was a controversial figure.

"One of the other complicating factors is he made a recent visit to India where he wrote a letter in support of [Prime Minister] Modi and his policies and I think that may have reverberated and had implications within the community," said Dosanjh.

Malik, a successful businessman with significant influence among Canadian Sikhs, sued after his acquittal in an effort to get back $9.2 million in legal fees. He claimed the Crown knew the case fell short of standards, but pursued the case regardless because of pressure from the public.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge rejected Malik's financial claim in July 2012.

In recent years, Malik served as chairman with Khalsa School and managed two of the private schools' campuses in Surrey and Vancouver. He was also president of the Vancouver-based Khalsa Credit Union (KCU), which has more than 16,000 members.

Only one man was convicted in relation to the 1985 bombings. Inderjit Singh Reyat served 30 years for lying during two trials, including Malik's, and for helping to make the bombs at his home in Duncan, B.C.

Crown lawyers alleged the bombing was a terrorist attack against state-owned Air India, an act of revenge by B.C.-based Sikh extremists against the Indian government for ordering the army to raid Sikhism's holiest shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar, in June 1984.

Malik, then 58, and Bagri, then 55, were acquitted after a highly publicized trial that stretched on for two years.

In the end, Justice Ian Josephson found the Crown's key witnesses, who testified that they heard the two defendants confess, were biased and unreliable.


© Lyle Stafford/REUTERS

Ripudaman Singh Malik, in grey, smiles as he leaves B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver in 2005 after being acquitted in the 1985 Air India bombing. Malik and his co-accused were both freed after a judge ruled testimony against them was not credible.

"These hundreds of men, women and children were entirely innocent victims of a diabolical act of terrorism unparalleled until recently in aviation history," reads the March 16, 2005 ruling. "Justice is not achieved, however, if persons are convicted on anything less than the requisite standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt."

The national Air India inquiry later concluded Talwinder Singh Parmar was the mastermind behind the deadly mid-air bombing. Parmar, 48, was shot and killed by police in India in 1992.

Another suspect, Hardial Singh Johal, died in November 2002.

THIS WAS A SCREW UP BY CSIS AND THE RCMP WHO SET UP SEPARATE STINGS AT CROSS PURPOSES AND IN THE CASE OF CSIS ABETTED THE BOMBING BY TRAINING SUSPECTS IN BOMB MAKING. 

SEE THE AIR CANADA BOMBING INVESTIGATION BY BOB RAE

Air India bomb-maker gets out 30 years later
Jan 27, 2016

Inderjit Singh Reyat the only man convicted at all in Canada's worst-ever mass murder. To read more
http://www.cbc.ca/news/1.3421505

Celsius Files for Bankruptcy as Users Worry Their Money is Gone Forever

Matt Novak - 

Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late Wednesday, leaving users wondering if they’ll ever again see the money they put into the crypto platform. Unfortunately for the average user, they’ll have to wait in line with the company’s other creditors, something that was made explicit in the platform’s incredibly shady terms of service.


© Screenshot: YouTube

Celsius CEO and co-founder Alex Mashinsky in a since-deleted YouTube video from April 2022 titled “Why Choose Celsius?”

Celsius, which allowed people to buy and sell cryptocurrencies like its native token, also called Celsius, gained attention for offering as much as 18% interest on crypto—an absurdly large return for any asset. The company first paused withdrawals for its 1.7 million users on June 12 but assured people they could still “accrue rewards” during the pause.

But whatever “rewards” were accrued in the past month is imaginary money at this point, as Celsius customers will likely have a hard time seeing any of their regular money coming back, let alone the supposed “interest” earned on that crypto. Celsius, for its part, is still trying to put on a happy face about all of this even through bankruptcy.




“These Chapter 11 cases provide the Company with the best opportunity to stabilize the business, consummate a comprehensive restructuring transaction that maximizes value for all stakeholders, and emerge from Chapter 11 positioned for success in the cryptocurrency industry,” Celsius said in an email to users overnight.

“We apologize that communication with our teams and community has been very limited over the past few weeks, and we look forward to being able to offer greater transparency with everyone through our reorganization, which encourages dialogue with all stakeholders,” Celsius continued.

The Celsius token has lost 79% of its value in the past six months, though desperate users have spent the past month trying a “short squeeze” by buying up as much Celsius crypto as they can in the hopes of inflating the price. That effort has been little more than doubling down on failure, essentially handing more money to the people who started the problem in the first place.

Celsius bought a large amount of its own token since July 2019—roughly $350 million, according to the Financial Times—but the founders of the company were selling like crazy in the past few years. Celsius co-founder and CEO Alex Mashinsky allegedly made some particularly large sales, despite swearing publicly that Celsius execs didn’t sell the token.

Based on public blockchain data, it’s estimated Mashinsky sold roughly $44 million worth of Celsius crypto over the years, according to the Financial Times. Mashinsky did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Thursday.

Celsius published a YouTube video explaining what it’s doing by seeking bankruptcy protection and even gave a rather rosy outlook by noting all the other companies that have filed for bankruptcy and emerged just fine. And, yes, companies like General Motors and Marvel have filed for bankruptcy and bounced back, but those companies actually produce something. As a crypto trading platform, Celsius didn’t create a product. It took money from customers and kept hold of their digital Monopoly money for them. Then the market for crypto tanked and that digital Monopoly money was worth a lot less. In some cases, coins became totally worthless.

Chapter 11 Explained

Curiously, Celsius seems to have deleted a video that was previously available on YouTube and published in April of this year, titled, “Why Choose Celsius?” That video included influencers who were pledging up and down that the benefit of Celsius was its wonderful transparency.

Messages on social media from users of the platform are heartbreaking, with people explaining they really need the money that’s tied up in Celsius’s bank accounts. But at this point it’s not clear how much money there is left.

“I’m a single father, I need my BTC,” one user wrote, using the symbol for bitcoin.

“To fellow depositors: Do i understand correctly that there is literally NOTHING/NO ACTION we as depositors can take now? Just have to wait and see if they give us money back? If so, anywhere we should be keeping eyes on?” another user wrote.

“I’m a single mother. This will change the path of my life. I feel sick,” yet another user wrote.

Celsius is just one of several crypto companies that have collapsed in the past few months, with cryptocurrency prices in the toilet. Luna, once the fourth largest coin in the world, plunged to nothing in the span of just a few days back in May. What did the people behind Luna do? They just started a new coin called Luna 2.0. Gizmodo does not recommend investing in Luna 2.0.

JOHN STEINBECK

 COVID-19 in Alberta: Rising case counts, test positivity show seventh wave has arrived

Matthew Black - 

Alberta has entered the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic’s seventh wave, according to the latest data published by the province on Wednesday, but it’s too soon to say how severe, or not, it will be.


© Provided by Edmonton JournalCoronavirus mutation is continuously taking place as populations' immunity grows.

The data indicates the province’s test positivity has grown steadily since the end of June after it had been declining since mid-April. As well, the nearly 20 per cent positivity rate recorded July 7 was the highest since the end of May.

“It’s been climbing even though the testing numbers are small, that trend has always been pretty useful,” said Dr. Lynora Saxinger, a University of Alberta infectious-disease specialist of the test positivity rate, adding “I don’t like the way that it’s heading.”


The seven-day rolling average of new cases has also risen consistently over the past two weeks.

Those new cases haven’t resulted in an increase in severe outcomes, with the rate of deaths and hospitalizations remaining relatively unchanged.

“I think the bigger question is whether we’ll also have a severe case surge,” said Saxinger.

In prior waves, severe outcomes were lagging indicators, meaning they rose a few weeks after a spike in cases and test positivity.

Saxinger says that may not necessarily be the case in Alberta’s seventh wave.

“In Omicron, it kind of all happened at the same time,” she said, referencing the dominant COVID-19 variant.

Vaccination remains an effective protection against those severe outcomes, with those who are unvaccinated at many times more risk of death or hosptialization than those with three or more doses.

Over the past four months, unvaccinated Albertans in their 70s died at 10 times the rate of those in the same age group who had three doses.

A spokeswoman for Alberta Health said the province is reviewing the latest guidance on rolling out fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccines and an update will be provided in the near future.

Last week, Ontario and Quebec announced they were considering expanding booster shots to all adults amid seventh waves in those provinces.

But Saxinger cautions against comparing Alberta’s situation too closely to other provinces and countries.

“The shape of the last waves, even between places, has been wildly different compared to earlier on. And so the kind of community immunity situation really does start to play a bigger role,” she said.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be the same everywhere, but on the other hand, it’s not reassuring.”

– With files from Dylan Short
mblack@postmedia.com

Big banks raise prime rates after Bank of Canada's surprise supersized hike

Alicja Siekierska -

Canada's biggest banks increased their prime lending rates on Thursday following the Bank of Canada's surprise 100 basis point hike of its benchmark interest rate.

The country's Big Five banks – Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO), TD Bank (TD.TO), Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO), Scotiabank (BNS.TO), and CIBC (CM.TO) – all announced increases to their prime rates that go into effect on Thursday. Each bank says it will raise its prime rate by 100 basis points, from 3.70 per cent to 4.70 per cent.

The prime rate is the annual interest rate that banks and financial institutions use to set interest rates for loans and lines of credit. Increases to the Bank of Canada's overnight rate will affect variable-rate mortgages, but not fixed mortgages.

Those with variable-rate mortgages or a home equity line of credit will see an increase to monthly payments as a result of the central bank's latest hike.

According to Ratehub.ca's mortgage calculator, the monthly mortgage payment for an average priced home of $711,000 (with 10 per cent down amortized over 25 years) based on a typical five-year variable rate of 2.5 per cent would be $2,955.

With the Bank of Canada's full percentage point increase, that variable mortgage rate would increase to 3.5 per cent and the monthly payment would jump by $339 a month to $3,294.

The Bank of Canada raised its benchmark rate by 100 basis points on Wednesday, a surprise move that exceeded economist expectations, as the central bank attempts to set a firehose against scorching inflation.

Related video: Bank of Canada surprises with 1% rate hike  View on Watch

The unexpected and supersized increase is the fourth consecutive hike and brings the Bank's policy interest rate to 2.5 per cent, the highest level since 2008.

What that means for the housing market

The hike is expected to put further pressure on the Canadian housing market, which continued to cool in May amid rising interest rates, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). Housing market data for June is expected to be released by CREA on Friday.

Bank of Canada Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers said at a press conference on Wednesday that while homeowners with variable rate mortgages will see interest rates go up, it is a small segment of the population. Rogers says that 65 per cent of Canadians are homeowners, with 35 per cent having a mortgage and the "vast majority" of those are fixed-rate mortgages.

"Right now and for the last year we know that housing activity and housing prices have been unsustainably high. We've seen a spike in demand, low interest rates combined with chronically low supply and we've had very elevated prices," Rogers said.

"Our goal is to get that demand down and part of restoring the balance of supply and demand in the Canadian economy is restoring that balance in the housing market. That's what we're aiming to do."

Judge rejects $28-million class-action settlement in Catholic church sex abuse case


MONTREAL — A Quebec Superior Court judge has rejected a $28-million settlement in a sex abuse lawsuit against a Catholic religious order because of the high legal fees associated with the agreement.

The agreement would have awarded the Montreal law firm Arsenault, Dufresne and Wee, which represented the plaintiffs, more than $8 million in fees.

Justice Thomas M. Davis wrote in a July 4 decision that those fees were "excessive" and not in the interest of the more than 375 sexual abuse victims who were part of the class action.

Davis says the firm did "remarkable work" and that he expects a new agreement with reasonable fees can be reached and resubmitted to the court.

The suit against the Quebec-based Catholic religious order the Clerics of St-Viateur, involved acts committed between 1935 and the present at more than 20 establishments run by the group, including boarding schools.

In July 2021, one priest from the order, Rev. Jean Pilon, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for criminal acts of a sexual nature against a dozen victims who were minors at the time of the crimes between 1961 and 1989.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 14, 2022.

The Canadian Press

CANADA
Senate report calls for law criminalizing forced or coerced sterilization

Peter Zimonjic - The Canadian Press/

The Senate human rights committee is calling on the federal government to outlaw forced or coerced sterilization and to issue a formal apology to women who have been subjected to the practice.

Sen. Yvonne Boyer, a member of the Senate committee on human rights, introduced Bill S-250 in the Senate this June. If passed, the bill would make coercing or forcing a person to be sterilized a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in jail.

Those recommendations are among 13 in the second part of a new Senate report — The Scars that We Carry: Forced and Coerced Sterilization of Persons in Canada — released Thursday.

"Forced and coerced sterilization has a long history in Canada, including as a strategy to subjugate and eliminate First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples," the report says.

The Senate human rights committee began studying the issue back in 2019 and found that — far from being a problem of the distant past — forced and coerced sterilization was still taking place in Canada and Indigenous women were not the only people affected.

"The committee heard that other vulnerable groups have also been disproportionately subjected to these procedures, including Black and racialized women, persons with disabilities, intersex children and institutionalized persons," the report says.

While forced or coerced sterilization could fall under the category of assault in the Criminal Code, the committee said it wants it codified as a crime in law through the passage of Bill S-250, which would make it an offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

"What we've seen so far hasn't worked, because I believe there's sterilization happening today, as we speak," Sen. Yvonne Boyer, the committee member who introduced S-250, said Wednesday.

"We need to have some extra teeth and I think that passing this bill might make them stop and think a little bit more before they actually do something like that again."
The recommendations

The report says that women and girls, some as young as 14, have been "coerced through confinement, manipulation or threats" into sterilization, while "others were simply not consulted before the procedure."

The report also recommends:

Requiring that medical associations, professional governing and licensing bodies denounce forced and coerced sterilization.

Having the federal government, led by survivors, develop a compensation framework for survivors.

Ensuring data on the practice is collected nationally and mechanisms are in place to investigate and respond to complaints.

Requiring that all medical and nursing school students study Indigenous health issues.

Launching a federal education campaign about patients' rights tailored to the groups most affected by sterilization.

Increasing investments in community-based midwifery in northern and remote communities.

Increasing the number of Indigenous health care providers while providing cultural competency training for health care professionals of all backgrounds.

The report also says a parliamentary committee should continue to study the issue and monitor efforts by the federal government to address the recommendations in the report.

"Forced and coerced sterilization is unfortunately an inhumane practice rooted in racism and conscious or unconscious biases. It demonstrates, once again, the perception of a superior colonial view according to a preconceived way of life, which continues to devalue the life of Indigenous peoples," said Sen. Michèle Audette, a former member of the committee.

The office of Minister of Indigenous Services Marc Miller issued a statement after the report was published that did not mention the legislation proposed by Sen. Boyer. It pledged to review the report's recommendations and work to address discrimination in the health system.

"This is a serious matter that requires the collaboration of all orders of government, and health and social system professionals, to ensure health services are safe for all Indigenous women," the statement says.

A ‘revolt’ against the court may be why B.C. is prosecuting 19 arrested on Wet’suwet’en territory

This article contains a reference to residential schools that may be triggering. Support for survivors and their families is available. Call the Indian Residential School Survivors Society at 1-800-721-0066 or 1-866-925-4419 for the 24-7 crisis line.

The government of British Columbia will pursue criminal contempt charges against Indigenous land defenders and supporters arrested last November in northwest B.C. In a now-infamous RCMP raid on Wet’suwet’en territory — the third such operation in three years — heavily armed police enforced TC Energy’s court-ordered injunction issued against anyone impeding construction of their Coastal GasLink pipeline, arresting more than 30 individuals over two days.

On July 7, the province’s legal team told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Marguerite Church it would prosecute Sleydo’ Molly Wickham, Shaylynn Sampson (Gitxsan Lax Gibuu Wilp Spookxw), Teka’tsihasere Corey ‘Jayohcee’ Jocko and Hannah Hall. The decision brings the total to 19 individuals arrested during the raid that B.C. Public Prosecution Service will pursue criminal charges against in the coming months. The court invited the province to do so after arrests in 2019 and 2020. This is the first time B.C. has agreed to proceed with prosecution — and so the first time land defenders could face prison sentences for their actions.

Those arrested say they were protecting Wet’suwet’en lands and waters and upholding sovereign Indigenous Rights and Title as per a 1997 Supreme Court of Canada ruling. The province and Mounties say they were participating in unlawful protest, breaching the terms of the B.C. Supreme Court injunction order.

“I’m really disappointed with the outcome, especially because three out of the four people that are now facing criminal charges are Indigenous people with a voice, the ones that have had a really strong voice,” Wickham told The Narwhal outside the Smithers, B.C., courthouse after the hearing.

The province declined to prosecute eight others, including Jocelyn Alec, daughter of Dinï ze’ (Hereditary Chief) Woos, on whose house territory the arrests were made. Among those facing criminal charges is her fiancée, Jocko, who was with her when both were arrested.

When making its assessment, provincial lawyers had to consider two things: the likelihood of securing a conviction and whether it’s in the public interest. The decision not to pursue charges against Alec and others hinges on the fact that the RCMP didn’t do enough to inform individuals about the nature and scope of the injunction order.

“They didn’t have a copy of it with them and they did not even make an effort to really tell people what it was about,” Frances Mahon, legal counsel for a majority of the land defenders, told The Narwhal.

Sworn affidavits the Mounties filed with the court affirmed that on Nov. 18, 2021, “Inspector Ken Floyd read the injunction at the 44 kilometer [sic] marker of the Morice West” Forest Service Road and “reread the injunction a second time at the same location.” The affidavits also affirmed that on the following day, deeper on the territory and at a location where land defenders were inside a cabin and tiny house, Floyd “read the injunction to the protestors barricaded” inside the two wooden structures at 11:30 a.m. and 11:46 a.m.

According to The Narwhal’s review of audio and video recordings, Floyd simply noted the existence of an injunction order and failed to provide details of the terms. Speaking about the charges that aren’t being pursued, B.C.’s prosecutor Tyler Bauman came to the same conclusion and told the court, “The script read by the RCMP was limited to road blocking and did not include the broader language of the injunction.”

The RCMP declined to speak with The Narwhal, noting: “Our actions and those of the individuals arrested are subject to a judicial process that we must respect.” The B.C. Public Prosecution Service declined to answer questions for the same reason.

Provincial lawyers will argue that the individuals now facing criminal contempt charges had either been previously arrested, and therefore could not claim ignorance of the contents of the injunction, or were active on social media in defiance of the court order.

As for the issue of whether prosecution is in the public interest or not, Mahon called it a “nebulous concept” but suggested a driving factor is “the integrity of the court is being called into question.”

Breach of the injunction is a civil matter, which means it’s between private parties, in this case between Coastal GasLink and the individuals alleged to have impeded construction. For civil contempt, the company’s legal team can choose whether or not to pursue charges. Now that the province is intervening on grounds of criminal contempt, the company is no longer involved and it becomes a public matter.

The company’s legal counsel, Kevin O’Callaghan, declined an interview request and referred The Narwhal to TC Energy, Coastal GasLink’s parent company. TC Energy did not directly answer The Narwhal’s questions and referred to a statement published on its website.

“Since December 2018, Coastal GasLink has dealt with numerous violations of enforceable B.C. Supreme Court injunctions from individuals who have engaged in escalating disruptive and dangerous actions,” the statement said.

“We are committed to delivering this critical energy infrastructure project and any risk to the safety of our workforce or others in the vicinity of the project route is of the greatest importance. Our work is fully authorized and permitted and has the unprecedented support of local and Indigenous communities across the project route.” (On Wet’suwet’en territory, the company has signed agreements with five of six elected band councils but the nation’s Hereditary Chiefs never consented to the project.)

Criminal contempt isn’t the same as a criminal charge for, say, theft or assault. Instead, it means the province believes “the accused knew … their conduct constituted a public defiance of a court order,” according to a B.C. Civil Liberties Association report. As the report notes, that public defiance can include breaching the terms of an injunction “in front of television cameras or on social media platforms, such as Facebook or Twitter.”

Neil Chantler, a defence attorney who represented numerous clients arrested at protests of the Trans Mountain pipeline, said the term “criminal contempt” is confusing.

“As soon as you’re encouraging, perhaps by your actions, other people to commit contempt of court, to disobey court orders, which the court of course relies on … you’re committing criminal contempt,” he explained.

“In these cases where there are so many people involved and the court’s integrity and authority is perhaps at greatest risk of being undermined because there’s almost a mass revolt against the authority of the court, the court invites the Crown to prosecute, as opposed to leaving it to the private party to prosecute.

If convicted, the individuals could serve up to 30 days of jail time, 150 hours of community service under the supervision of a probation officer or pay $3,000 in fines, according to sentencing positions filed with the courts.

“We are prepared to fully defend against the allegations,” Mahon said.

For Wickham, the escalation of charges from civil to criminal is in line with the history of colonization.

“All of the laws that have existed since contact with Indigenous people have been absolutely horrific and used for genocide,” she said. “It actually blows me away that people uphold colonial law in the way that they do — colonial laws put our kids in residential schools. They literally forced mass sterilizations and murder of children and babies. And those are the laws that are being upheld in this country.”

Murray Rankin, B.C.’s Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, declined an interview request and the ministry referred The Narwhal to the prosecution service in response to questions.

Chantler said it’s important to remember that the province approved these projects that sit at the centre of conflicts.

“These environmental disputes, these resource extraction cases that have been before the courts so often in the last 10 years, are a failure of government, and the failure of government is a result of people voting for these governments.”

He added that he believes civil disobedience has its place, particularly when Indigenous Rights are in play.

“It does continue to raise awareness and it does shine a very bright spotlight on an issue,” he said. “People are willing to put their own liberty at risk and get arrested over these things. I think it’s a tremendous call and a real sacrifice to get arrested and potentially get a record and to potentially do time for a cause you believe in. But it’s a losing battle. I mean, at that point, all you’re doing is public relations, you’re not actually going to stop the project.”

Prior to the enactment of laws that now dictate what happens to those facing contempt charges, the Wet’suwet’en and other nations lived under complex governance systems for thousands of years.

“Our laws don’t mean anything to [Coastal GasLink], or to the courts or to, you know, most of mainstream society. It’s infuriating and frustrating,” Wickham said.

While visibly shaken, she wasn’t swayed by the decision.

“The whole criminalization process is meant to deter us from doing what’s right but I’m not going to be deterred from upholding our laws and protecting our land.”

Despite a steady stream of industry traffic and construction activity, coupled with the continual presence of police and private security, Wet’suwet’en community members and their allies continue to reconnect with the land, water and wildlife on the territory.

“Recently we had a young Indigenous person get his first kill out there,” Wickham said. “We tanned the hide with all the kids and processed all the meat and we’re going to have a ceremony for him to celebrate.”

She added Wet’suwet’en youth are helping build a balhats, or feast hall, at the confluence of Ts’elkay Kwe (Lamprey Creek) and the Wedzin Kwa (Morice River), which will provide a space for Elders and young families to connect with each other and the land.

“There’s all these beautiful moments and times and experiences, those little snippets of what it actually feels like to be who you are,” she said. “Those are the moments that keep Indigenous people’s spirits alive. I’d go to jail for that, for that one moment.”

Matt Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Narwhal

32 Alberta law professors sign letter calling for government to make oath to Queen optional

Katarina Szulc - CBC

A group of Alberta law professors have sent an open letter to the Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro urging for a legislative amendment to the mandatory Queen's Oath students must make when called to the bar.


Prabjot Singh Wirring is suing the province and Law Society of Alberta because he says swearing a mandatory oath to the Queen would contradict his religious beliefs.

After Edmonton articling student Prabjot Singh Wirring decided to sue the province on the basis that swearing the specific oath would contradict his religious beliefs, law professors from Calgary and Edmonton decided to push for a change.

Anna Lund, an associate professor at the University of Alberta, is one of the signatories on the letter and said the goal is to make the oath optional.

"I was called to the bar in 2008 and I gave the oath and I didn't have a second thought about it," said Lund. "But other people are coming from other backgrounds that makes the oath difficult for them. I think that it's really important to us, in the legal profession, to listen to those voices, and to change.

"The argument that we've always done it this way and it worked for me, therefore, we're always going to continue doing it this way, just doesn't it doesn't carry a lot of weight."

In Alberta, provincial legislation requires lawyers swear an oath to "be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs and successors."



Wirring is a devout Amritdhari Sikh, and says he made an absolute oath and submitted himself to Akal Purakh, the divine being in the Sikh faith, and cannot make a similar allegiance to another entity or sovereign.
THIS OPTION WOULD APPLY TO JEHOVAH WITNESSES AS WELL

"I'm really deeply appreciative of the professors who took the initiative in coordinating writing the letter and signing on to give their public support. I think it's reflective of the general sentiment within the legal community in Alberta," Wirring told CBC.

"For a while now the profession and the community at large is starting to recognize a lot of the systemic barriers that are excluding racialized groups, and Indigenous lawyers from joining the board. There have been some really good efforts to combat and rectify it. I think everybody's recognizing that this is really low hanging fruit. I'm not asking for the world."

Other jurisdictions such as Ontario and B.C. have made the oath optional.

The province has not yet responded to a request for comment on the letter, though last week a spokesperson for the province declined to comment on Wirring's legal challenge because the matter is before the courts.

Lund said changing the legislation would help make the legal profession more diverse.

"A real strength in Alberta is the diversity of people here. We've got a chance here to ensure that diversity is reflected in the legal profession. The legal profession will also be strengthened by diversity and it'd be unfortunate if we don't do what we can to foster that," Lund said.

The government's statements of defence are set to be filed by July 15, with the court hearing after Oct. 7.

The Dutch are aiming to make work-from-home legal. Can Canada do it too?

Aya Al-Hakim -

The Netherlands is on its way to becoming the first country in the world to make work-from-home a legal right, according to a report by Bloomberg published July 5.


Image of an employee working from home. An employment and disability lawyer says establishing work-from-home as a legal right in Canada wouldn't be an easy or quick process.

According to the report, the legislation was approved by the lower house of the bicameral parliament July 5, but would still need to go through the Dutch senate before its final adoption.

"The law forces employers to consider employee requests to work from home as long as their professions allow it," the report said.

In Canada, several companies adopted a work-from-home policy at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 -- some then moved to a hybrid model as public health restrictions eased. But establishing the right to work from home as a law, might not be an easy or quick process in this country, according to an employment and disability lawyer.

Read more:
The end of work from home? Most Canadians return to office as 1 in 10 stay home: poll

"It's certainly possible. But the challenge with doing it in Canada is that we would need to deal with that at both the federal and provincial levels," said Jenson Leung, a lawyer at the Vancouver-based law firm Samfiru Tumarkin.

"So for example, the federal government could implement some type of remote work policy for industries that are federally regulated, but the vast majority of workplaces are provincially regulated, which means that it's going to be on a province-by-province basis," he added.

Leung said the best way people can try to create change is by bringing it to the attention of politicians and policymakers.

Leung said the "big thing to keep in mind for Canada" is that currently, if an employee who has always worked from home refuses a sudden requirement to go into the office, then that could lead to "constructive dismissal."

As explained on the Government of Canada website, the phrase "constructive dismissal" describes situations where the employer has not directly fired the employee. Rather the employer has failed to follow through with the contract of employment in a major way and has changed the terms of employment thus forcing the employee to quit

Leung said the key idea here is whether or not working from home has always been a condition of their work or whether there's a human rights basis that requires them to stay at home and work.

READ MORE: 1 in 3 Canadians are willing to change jobs to keep working from home: Ipsos poll

"Some people, for example, have a compromised immune system and that's why they weren't able to work from the office. We still have COVID, so that may not change for those people at the moment," he said.

Leung explained that offering the option to work from home is going to be more on a case-by-case basis unless legislation were to come in.

Video: Transforming workspaces post-pandemic

"The main thing that I always tell both employers and employees is that it's best that they talk about it – figure out what the concerns are on both sides – and see whether or not they can make remote work possible," said Leung.

"And if an employer is trying to force an employee to go to work, then that might be a time to contact a lawyer and see whether or not they have a situation that requires them to be at home," he added.

READ MORE: Does the option to work from home make for a better work-life balance?

In Nova Scotia, Zyanya Thorne, who works in customer service remotely for a company in Calgary, Alta., said that going back to the office would not suit her.

"I'm basically out in the country here, and so in order to get any in-person jobs, I would have to commute. And my husband does do that commute, but his hours are very unpredictable," Thorne said, "and so trying to find something where we can drive together would be impossible.

"It doesn't make sense for us to have a separate vehicle. And so for me, working from home has been a huge blessing because otherwise, I wouldn't be able to have work right now," she added.

Thorne said some of her co-workers have gone back to the office and she hears the stories behind why they didn't want to go back.

"I definitely appreciate that it's not an issue for me at this time. But I definitely think everybody has a valid reason for not wanting to be in the office," she said.

Video: Increased pay, flex hours and perks: Employers have to get creative to compete for talent

Thorne also said working from home has made a positive impact on her and her husband financially.

"(We don't have) to worry about the transportation costs and the logistics of it," she said.

For all these reasons, Thorne said she would like to see Canada legalize working from home.

Read more:
1 in 3 Canadians are willing to change jobs to keep working from home: Ipsos poll

An Ipsos poll released on May 6, showed that many Canadians want to continue working from home and were even willing to change jobs to find an employer that would let them.

The survey, conducted exclusively for Global News, found one in three Canadians (32 per cent) say that they’d look for another job if their employer forced them to work exclusively at an office.Fifteen per cent were found to have already changed jobs in the past year so that they could continue to work from home. And, almost 44 per cent acknowledged that their employer has now adopted flexible working arrangements where they didn’t exist prior to the pandemic.

Not everyone in Canada currently has the choice of working from home and some are fighting to make it happen.

With announcements from public health officials in federal, Ontario and Quebec jurisdictions confirming that the provinces are entering a seventh wave of COVID-19 infection, the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE) -- the third-largest federal public service union in Canada -- has made a request to the Treasury Board Secretariat that all return-to-office plans be immediately suspended until the situation improves.

"CAPE is concerned with the serious and unnecessary risk to the health and safety of our members being required to return to the workplace amidst this seventh wave. Hospitals simply cannot handle any unnecessary increases in infection rates," said the union in a press release on July 12.

Read more:
Ontario 7th COVID wave expected to peak in 2 weeks, no mask mandate at this time, says Moore

CAPE said that allowing its members to work remotely is the best approach right now to eliminate the risk of contracting COVID-19 in the workplace.

As of Thursday, a spokesperson for CAPE said the union hasn't heard back from the board regarding the request.

A workplace culture expert says employers can offer flexible work and make it part of the workplace "without needing to change a single law."

"This seems like a story about flexible work, but it's a story about culture ... we can value people without needing to change a single law or even many of our policies internally," said Sarah McVanel, chief recognition officer and founder of Greatness Magnified, a company that helps organizations retain top talent and combat burnout.

"Flexibility is not necessarily working from home or working from home part of the time. Flexibility is a much bigger conversation," she added.

Read more:
Canada shed 43K jobs in June, marking 1st employment drop since January

McVanel said she's not sure if Canada can make working from home a legal right, but she sees many companies embracing the spirit.

"Many employers have decided to (offer flexible work arrangements) post-COVID-19 for a variety of reasons," she said. "It's because they saw benefits."

Video: Young employees searching for better benefits: RBC Insurance

According to McVanel, some of these benefits include the financial perks of closing down some of their offices. They found new ways to have people work and collaborate together and have seen innovations and technological advances by having to find ways to communicate and do work.

Read more:
Unemployment in Canada has dropped, yet some firms are struggling to hire. Here’s why

"They found productivity gains. Not all employers feel that ... and not everybody feels as comfortable having a remote, hybrid and in-person work environment too, so that's part of the challenge. And I feel for employers. They're trying to find a way through this," said McVanel.

She acknowledged that there are industries and careers where working from home is not an option, such as the airline industry, but that doesn't mean flexibility doesn't exist there too.

"Employers still need to identify some other way, a cultural glue, like recognizing and valuing people for coming in," McVanel said.

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Court documents detail RCMP investigation into Edmonton MLA's hacking of Alberta vaccine system

Newly unsealed court documents related to the RCMP’s months-long investigation into Edmonton-South MLA Thomas Dang’s hacking of Alberta’s vaccine passport system show officers were pursuing potential criminal charges up until at least the end of March.

Edmonton-South NDP MLA Thomas Dang calls for mandatory vaccinations for MLAs during a press conference at the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton, on Friday, Oct. 1, 2021. The Alberta NDP Deputy House Leader and Member Services Committee member demanded that Jason Kenney immediately eject unvaccinated MLAs from the United Conservative Party caucus. Photo by Ian Kucerak

Ashley Joannou - Edmonton Journal

The documents, including applications for search warrants and production orders, were unsealed by the court on Wednesday and released that evening by the UCP caucus.

Dang publicly admitted earlier this year, in interviews and a document that has since been pulled offline , that he used Premier Jason Kenney’s birthday and vaccine information to successfully access another citizen’s health care number and vaccine details. He claims he did it to highlight flaws in the system.

The court documents show officers thought they had grounds to believe a criminal offence — unauthorized use of a computer — had been committed. A person convicted of that offence can be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

Instead, Dang was charged in June under the province’s Health Information Act for allegedly illegally attempting to access private information. The maximum penalty for that, if convicted, is a fine of as much as $200,000. It’s unclear when or why the decision was made to not go ahead with criminal charges.

A spokesperson for Alberta Justice declined to comment Thursday because the case is before the court.

The court documents allege that when the vaccine passport website was launched in September 2021 it was “flooded with abnormal traffic.”

Many of those requests came through what’s known as a TOR network — a system designed to provide anonymity to a user by hiding their IP address using a relay system.

The court documents offer estimates of either 1.75 million or 1.78 million attempts being made using Kenney’s birthday, calling that a “brute force attack.”

Dang was not available for an interview Thursday. He has been sitting as an independant since December when he stepped down from the NDP caucus following the RCMP search warrant being issued.

In a statement, UCP government whip Brad Rutherford called the number of attempts “shocking” and suggested the NDP has been misleading Albertans in terms of what they knew.

According to the court documents, Dang told police that after his computer hit on a health-care number, he notified the NDP chief of staff, Jeremy Nolais, and NDP director of communications Benjamin Alldritt, provided Alldritt with “the basics of the flaw” and how it could be fixed.

In an email to Alberta Health communications director Steve Buick that day, Alldritt doesn’t name Dang, saying only that “a party” reached out, explaining the issue and adding “it’s possible that this is a prank, but their tone seems genuinely concerned. Hopefully the dept can look into this ASAP.”

When asked about that email in March, Alldritt told Postmedia that he brought the information to the health minister’s office within an hour of learning it.

“I presented it to him in a way that I hoped would spur action and I felt that, given the partisan nature of our relationship, that if I came on too strong he would not take the matter seriously,” he said at the time.

Rutherford believes “It is next to impossible” NDP Leader Rachel Notley’s didn’t know about “this sophisticated hacking scandal.”

Notley has said that when Dang raised the issue of problems with the website with NDP staff, a staffer informed the health ministry, but she was never aware of personal information being accessed, nor did she or her staff receive personal information.

“(Dang) didn’t alert us that he had hacked the website. What he said was that there had been an online conversation about the vulnerability of the website and he said, ‘I’ve confirmed this is true,’ ” Notley said, noting she was not privy to the conversation.

Dang has said he wants to both rejoin the caucus and run again for his seat.

Dang is scheduled to appear in court on the Health Information Act charge on July 27.

— With files from the Canadian Press