Justice Dept’s crypto chief: Crypto thefts are 'serious national security concerns'

David Hollerith

·Senior Reporter

Mon, October 17, 2022

The amount of crypto stolen by hackers has risen by more than a quarter this year, even as the value of cryptocurrencies has plunged.

Blockchain thieves have nabbed as much as $3 billion of investor funds through 141 various crypto exploits since January, according to data from DeFi Yield, a 31% increase over the same period last year. That means 2022 likely will surpass 2021 as the biggest year for crypto hacks on record,

Of the nearly weekly occurrence's of crypto exploits this year, those involving “cross-chain” crypto bridges have accounted for as much as $600 million in October and $2 billion worth of stolen funds year to date, with at least $1 billion in exploits attributed to North Korean-linked hackers, according to Chainalysis estimates.

“These are serious national security concerns that really stretch beyond the fact that there are millions of dollars being stolen in single episodes that we see with the DeFi hacks and exploits,” Eun Young Choi, director of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), said at Yahoo Finance's All Markets Summit.

Effectively, Choi’s team - NCET - provides one possible link in the chain for how companies and investors might recover stolen funds.

Formed little more than a year ago, NCET is intended to act as a “one-stop shop” of the federal agency’s investigators specializing in crypto, according to Choi.

Working at times with other government agencies both in the U.S. and abroad, NCET has helped seize over $3.8 billion worth of stolen crypto this year with the bulk of that sum coming from a February indictment involving alleged money launderers of proceeds stolen in 2016.

Those billions won’t be returned to victims any time soon or at least not until the trial for the case reaches some conclusion.

HONG KONG - 2018/11/22: In this photo illustration, the Cryptocurrency electronic cash Bitcoin logo is seen displayed on an Android mobile device with a figure of hacker in the background. (Photo Illustration by Miguel Candela/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

On the flip side, during a record year for crypto exploits, illicit crypto earned by scams (-65%) and darknet markets (-43%) declined notably between January and July, according to a report from blockchain analytics firm, Chainalysis.

In April, an investigation by the Justice Department also led to the shutdown of the world’s largest darknet marketplace, Hydra market.

While also in part attributed the crypto market’s performance, rising exploits and dropping darknet flows illustrates how illicit use of crypto has changed in recent years.

“Early days, it was darknet markets and it was people buying and selling all sorts of contraband,” Choi explained. “These days, we're seeing [crypto] pop up in any every single type of criminal activity the department looks into.”

Although Choi admitted cases involving crypto can be different in nature, NCET prosecutes cases involving digital assets virtually the same way the Justice Department pursues criminal activity dealing in stocks, commodities, and other assets.

“These transactions can oftentimes be relatively frictionless and quick, but it also means that if we identify a particular transaction as being criminal, we can't go to some centralized, you know, financial institution and ask for that money to come back,” Choi said.

Nevertheless, Choi admitted her team has a role to play in reducing the high degree of crypto exploits plaguing the industry.

“We have to work with the private sector and ensure that they understand the ways in which we've identified particular tactics that bad actors might be using in order to exploit these types of platforms,” she said.

“The industry is still, in our view, in a maturation phase and in a lot of respects we're looking at companies and hoping that they will understand that doing things such as basic risk reduction, having robust compliance programs and ensuring that they are decreasing the opportunities for these types of exploits on their own platform is the first, best line of defense.”

—

David Hollerith is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance covering the cryptocurrency and stock markets. Follow him on Twitter at @DsHollers

Chipotle CEO: We don't need unions 'to get between our restaurant teams and our company' ITS YOUR TEAMS UNIONIZING

Brooke DiPalma

·Reporter, Booking Producer

Mon, October 17, 2022 

Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol told Yahoo Finance that he's "disappointed” that a Michigan location choose to unionize earlier this year.

On August 25, a Lansing store unionized via a 11-3 vote with 2 contested ballots — the first union at the fast food chain. “I was disappointed to see that happen,” Niccol said at Yahoo Finance’s All Market Summit.

“I really don't think we need a third party to get between our restaurant teams and our company. We do a better job of communicating directly with our employees on what it takes to be successful at our company, what it takes to have a great work environment, and what it takes to provide a great customer experience," Niccol said.

Despite his disappointment, Niccol said he will sit down to bargain in good faith with the new members of the Teamsters Local 243. “Obviously, we'll go through the process that we need to," he added.

Credit: International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 243

That being said, he hopes going to maintain a direct relationship with all employees.

“Hopefully going forward, you know, we'll continue to be able to communicate directly with our employees and grow our employees with that direct communication," Niccol said.

In early May 2021, Chipotle announced plans to increase its wage to an average of $15 per an hour by June 2021. This resulted in its employees wages ranging from $11-$18 per hour.

The company hopes to attract new talent as it ramps up expansion plans with other benefits like health care, a mental health assistance program, and debt-free college degrees.

“I’m 100% confident we will get these restaurants staffed,” adding “what we stand for will attract the right employees.”

As of June 30th, 2022, the end of Chipotle’s second quarter, there were more than 3,000 total locations and over 100,000 employees. By the end of this year, the fast casual chain forecasted 235 to 250 new restaurant openings.

As the company looks to build the staff for the new spots, he added that career growth for its crew members is top of mind too.

“Ninety percent of our promotions come from within,” Niccol said, adding that a “key piece for us is developing them (employees), training them, so that then they become future leaders as we grow this company.”

Terrified fish by the thousands throw themselves onto Outer Banks beach, videos show


Facebook screengrab Mark Price
Mon, October 17, 2022 

Mystified Outer Banks tourists witnessed a bizarre act of nature Friday, Oct. 14, as fish began flinging themselves onto the beach at Ocracoke Island.

Multiple videos shared on social media show the ocean appeared to boil with fish as they tumbled over each other in the surf.

The so-called “bluefish blitz” concluded with thousands of dying fish piled on the sand, flopping up and down as tourists watched from a distance.

“Bluefish have been blitzing the Ocracoke beach off and on the past couple of weeks,” according to the Tradewinds Tackle fishing store on the Outer Banks.

“Amazingly beautiful and tragic at the same time. Smaller fish (mostly spot in these photos) are literally throwing themselves onshore to escape the teeth in the water. ... Bluefish have lots of teeth and will kill anything they catch.”

Some videos also showed the much-larger bluefish, racing through the water to catch and eat the smaller fish.

Marybeth Druzbick of Sylva, North Carolina, saw it happening Friday as she visited South Point on Ocracoke Island. Her videos show spot fish coming ashore in waves.

“This is one of the strangest things I’ve seen at the beach!” she wrote.

“Bluefish blitzes” coincide with the seasonal southern migration of bluefish, which are cannibalistic and will snap at people, according to Fishingstatus.com.

“Bluefish are extremely aggressive, and will often chase bait through the surf zone, and literally onto dry beach,” the site reports.

“Thousands of big bluefish will attack schools of hapless baitfish in mere inches of water, churning the water like a washing machine. ... Bait fish, such as bunker, will willingly run themselves high and dry on the sand, where they will suffocate, rather than be shredded by the marauding bluefish schools.”

News of the blitz has gotten hundreds of reactions and comments on social media, including reports of people who walked the beach filling up baskets with fish.

“Fish on shore and gulls in the air as far as the eye could see. Awesome!” posted Joel Gossett, who was among the witnesses.

“Just pick them up. No hook needed. Crazy!” Duane Shreeves wrote.

“Enough spot (fish) to feed 1,000’s of folks,” John Koster Jr. said.

K-ULTURE GOES TO WAR

The future of K-pop superstars BTS takes center stage in South Korea’s conscription debate

  

Julia Malleck

On Saturday (Oct. 15), the K-pop septet and global sensation BTS will perform their “Yet to Come” concert at Asiad Main Stadium in Busan, South Korea, and are expected to draw as many as 100,000 fans to the stands. The event, in support of Busan’s bid to host the World City Expo in 2030, will be free and live streamed but has also reignited questions about whether this could mark the group’s final on-stage bow, and what their future holds.

Earlier this year, BTS announced that they would be going on hiatus to focus on individual projects. Since then, lead rapper J-Hope has performed at the Lollapalooza music festival and dropped a solo album, while other members reportedly have their own music ventures in the works.

But some members may soon have to enlist in South Korea’s mandatory military service. It’s a commitment that has already been pushed back for the group, thanks to a law the National Assembly passed in 2020 allowing exceptional K-pop performers to defer conscription to age 30. As the oldest member of the group, Kim Seok-jin a.k.a “Jin,” is poised to turn 30 in December, many are wondering if the K-pop idols, like some of the country’s top athletes and musicians, could also be exempted from the draft.

Brief history of South Korea’s draft exemptions

South Korea has a decades-long precedent for exempting certain athletes, actors, dancers, and musical performers from conscription upon demonstrating exceptional skill in their field.

The basis for the current exemption law was introduced in 1988, allowing athletes who medal in competitions like the Olympics or Asian Games, as well as award-winning classical musicians, to avoid military conscription. Since then, over 170 athletes and 280 performers have qualified for exemption.

Famously, two Major League Baseball players, Texas Rangers right fielder Choo Shin-soo and LA Dodgers pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin, have both received exemptions. More recently, South Korean national soccer players were exempted after their team beat Japan for gold in the 2018 Asian Games.

Quotable

“The current controversy reminds me that it is time to fix the exemption rules for military service. We’re planning a comprehensive re-examination of the system in the areas of sports and the arts.” –Ki Chan-soo, commissioner of South Korea’s Military Manpower Administration, in an interview from 2018 on the topic of BTS’s conscription

By the digits: The BTS economy

$3.6 billion: What BTS are worth to the South Korean economy each year, according to the Hyundai Research Institute.

800,000: Tourists who visited South Korea in 2018 because of BTS, or over 7% of foreign visitors that year.

$1.1 billion: Estimated value of South Korean consumer goods exports related to BTS, including clothes and cosmetics, in 2018.

$29.1 trillion: BTS’s expected contribution to the South Korean economy over a decade, beginning in 2018.

What next for BTS?

A bill introduced earlier this year would allow outstanding idols to carry out an alternative service. As recipients of an Order of Cultural Merit in 2018, “Hallyu” standard-bearers BTS would qualify under the bill, but some have raised questions about the fairness of expanding military exemptions.

The government was also weighing the possibility of holding a public survey to decide BTS’s fate, though that idea has since been dropped. However, one opinion poll held earlier this year found that about 60% of respondents favor giving the colorfully coiffed crooners a military service exemption, compared to a 2020 poll that found the pro-and-against sides more evenly split.

Whatever the outcome, the deadline for a decision is drawing near. Until then, the estimated 40 million members of ARMY, BTS’s fanbase, are eagerly anticipating what promises to be a dynamite performance in Busan.

Related stories

🪖 If athletes can dodge military service in South Korea, why can’t pop stars?

🇨🇳 K-pop’s rise in China is fueling fears of a masculinity crisis

🎤 The UN is just another stop on the BTS path to world domination

Climate Changed: Communities on edge of catastrophe face choice of fight or flight


VANCOUVER — The idea of relocating his community isn't one that Arnie Lampreau of the Shackan Indian Band in British Columbia's Nicola Valley thought he'd be considering when he was elected chief early last year.



After wildfires torched the forests surrounding the band's reserves and flooding swept away homes and the only highway access just months later, however, he said he now wants to see members living in a safer place.

Lampreau was among the evacuees of both extreme weather events and said he knows it won't be easy.

"Even myself, I look at starting over, you know. I took a better part of my lifetime to build where I'm at, and now, I'm basically going to be uprooted and leaving my home," he said in an interview.

The Shackan First Nation isn't alone in being confronted with a fight-or-flight decision in the face of climate change and increasingly extreme weather. Communities across Canada are weighing whether to invest in costly infrastructure upgrades to protect against the threats or spend on property buyouts and land acquisition.

A 2020 report on so-called planned retreat commissioned by Natural Resources Canada found the strategy is typically a reaction to a natural disaster like flooding where the cost of rebuilding homes is more than double the cost of relocation, health and emergency services.

However, it's not a standardized practice, with neighbouring communities opting for different approaches, the report found. In the Ottawa-Gatineau region, homeowners in Quebec received buyouts following two record flood years in 2017 and 2019, while those in Ottawa did not.

"Inequity based on socioeconomic status and systemic marginalization is a persisting problem," the report adds, pointing to the United States, where it says affluent, mostly white communities were able to garner more support for upgraded protections.

Recently, Indigenous Services Canada worked with First Nations to examine flood insurance and the unique context of reserves. The steering committee's report, released last month, found 66 per cent of survey respondents felt that relocation should be considered in areas of repeat flooding.

"Yet, several participants expressed frustration at the need to have this relocation discussion, noting that the location of their reserves and the associated flood risks had been imposed on the community," the report says.

One comment noted residents had previously been displaced and lost culturally sacred sites to developments like dams, while another said the government that created the reserves should be responsible for protecting them.

Planned retreat was never seriously considered as an option in Abbotsford, B.C., after devastating flooding last year.

Record rainfall pushed the Nooksack River in Washington over its banks in November, spilling across the border into Abbotsford's Sumas Prairie. The flooded area is a former lake that was drained about a century ago to create some of Canada's most productive farmland.

Mayor Henry Braun said buying out the whole area and allowing the land to return to its natural form isn't an option.

"That has never been on the table," he said. "It's 22,000 acres of the best, prime farmland that there is in the country, if not the world."

Reflooding the lake would also mean putting underwater a freeway, gas lines, electrical systems and other major infrastructure, he added.

Related video: Communities need to adapt to evolving climate, expert says
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The proposed $2.8-billion flood mitigation plan, which will depend on funding from other levels of government, would instead focus on the construction of a new pump station, improvements to an older one and replacements of temporary fixes to a dike with permanent ones.

While there would be some property buyouts, it's too early to say how many or exactly where, he said.

"A key focus for the city is to ensure that agricultural land is preserved and to minimize impacts on properties by restricting water flow in the event of a flood," a public bulletin for the plan says.

In other communities, a flight strategy ended with hybrid results. In the 1950s, the federal government recommended the relocation of Aklavik in the Northwest Territories due to flooding and land erosion and chose the present site of Inuvik for the new community.

Hundreds moved but others refused. The hamlet of Aklavik has survived and maintains the town motto of "Never Say Die."

The City of Grand Forks, B.C., has pursued a joint strategy — buying out about 90 properties in a high-risk neighbourhood, while also investing in new flood protection for the downtown core.

Two days of torrential rainfall in 2018 ravaged the city, with the worst impacts felt in North Ruckle, a low-lying area with modest rents and affordable housing.

The future of the neighbourhood is green space — possibly a small pond or dog park — and other "non-people stuff," Mayor Brian Taylor said.

As for residents forced to abandon their homes, outcomes have varied. There was initial turmoil after it looked like buyouts would be made at post-flood values, but Taylor said those figures eventually reached close to market rates.

Some former residents left the city, some stayed. Some were able to use the buyout cash to land on their feet, while others lost footing as property prices across the province climbed in the ensuing years. Others ended up in government-subsidized housing, Taylor said.

"Some of them had been (in North Ruckle) for 20, 30, 40 years," Taylor said. "It was a mixture of success and failure for the people coping with what was happening there."

Taylor estimated the city is about 70 per cent through the $53-million recovery project, including buyouts and flood protection for downtown.

Taylor wasn't on council at the time of the plan's approval, but said he believes it's the right direction. After the disasters, the downtown's future was threatened because businesses couldn't get insurance. With most of the flood protection in place, insurance companies are extending coverage again and there has been an influx of companies, he said.

"I think in the long run, we're going to see this as a cornerstone of the city coming back, making a transition back to being the kind of vibrant community that we're used to," he said.

Explaining how the calculations are made in determining what is protected and what is turned into green space is more complicated than money, he said. Had the city built dikes around North Ruckle, rising river water would have been redirected to the downtown core, he said. And had the city not prioritized the cleanup and protection of downtown, businesses likely would have folded and the downtown itself would have moved.

"That's a really sticky point, when you're trying to explain to people that there was an analysis," Taylor said.

Back on Shackan territory, Lampreau said the community is only in the early stages of exploring possible new land but is working with federal and provincial governments to identify potential parcels.

He said he hopes the land will not only be safer but more appropriate for agriculture and other production to sustain the community. Like many First Nations, he said the reserves were drawn on some of the least usable land, even without considering the effects of extreme weather.

"Our people were placed on these little postage stamp-sized reserves, that was the land that was given to us by the government in the Doctrine of Discovery," he said.

While moving may be disruptive, it also wouldn't be unprecedented, he said.

"Traditionally, you know, we didn't stay in one spot. We're nomadic, we moved around."

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

Amy Smart, The Canadian Press

Prostitution laws, not sex work, source of 'structural inequality,' says lawyer


OTTAWA — The laws governing prostitution in Canada — not sex work itself — are creating inequality, a lawyer told the Ontario Superior Court  as part of a constitutional challenge.



"Sex work itself is not a source of structural inequality. However, the impugned laws are," said Pam Hrick, the executive director and general counsel for the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, which is an intervener in the court case.

"The effects include the constant over-surveillance by police in marginalized communities, as well as barriers, including accessing and maintaining housing," she added.

"The laws have the impact of restricting the agency of sex workers."

The Supreme Court of Canada struck down the country's anti-prostitution laws in 2013 after lawyers argued provisions were disproportionate, too broad and put sex workers at risk of harm.

In December 2014, the Conservative government passed a new bill to replace them.

The Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform, which includes 25 sex-worker organizations across the country, started arguing in a Toronto courtroom on Monday that the 2014 legislation fosters stigma, invites targeted violence and removes safe consent.

They also argue it violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Under the previous laws, prostitution was legal, even though nearly all related activities, such as running a brothel, pimping and communicating in a public place for the purposes of prostitution, were against the law.

The prostitution-related offences brought in under former prime minister Stephen Harper moved closer to criminalizing prostitution itself by making it against the law to pay for sexual services and for businesses to profit from it. It also made communicating to buy sexual services a criminal offence, even if those transactions take place over the internet.

The federal government maintains those new statutes do not prevent people selling sex from taking safety measures, and that they are meant to to reduce both the purchase and the sale of sexual services.

Lawyers representing transgender, Indigenous and Black sex workers argued in court Tuesday the new laws are too restrictive and disproportionately harm marginalized groups.

Studies show Indigenous, transgender, nonbinary and racialized migrant individuals are overrepresented in the sex work industry. They also show sex workers belonging to marginalized groups are excluded from other employment sectors for a variety of reasons, including discrimination, colonialism and immigration status.

The alliance says there shouldn't be any criminal laws specific to sex work, and it has dozens of recommendations to create a more regulated industry.

Michael Rosenberg, the lawyer representing the alliance, said in court Tuesday that decriminalizing sex work "is the only rational choice."

But he also said the court can't be asked to tell Parliament what to do, it can only decide if the legislation is unconstitutional and strike it down.

Lawyers representing the federal government argued in court Tuesday that the laws in question have exemptions to prevent sex workers from being criminalized. They asked Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Goldstein to consider the intention of Parliament when the laws were passed in 2014.

Michael Morris, arguing behalf of Attorney General David Lametti, said there is no consensus on the best policy approach for commercialized sex. But he said the primary objective of the Canadian laws are to “target and end the demand for sexual services."

He said the laws also target those who capitalize on the demand for sexual services while ensuring the sex workers themselves aren't criminally liable for providing the services.

In a written statement Tuesday, Lametti's office said the minister "will always work to ensure that our criminal laws effectively meet their objectives, keep all Canadians safe, and are consistent with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms."

The 2014 law required that it be reviewed five years after it passed though that didn't happen until this year.

The House of Commons justice committee met eight times since February to review the law and made 17 recommendations, including a call to remove specific sections of the law because of the harmful effects on sex workers.

The committee's report said the 2014 law makes sex work more dangerous, and asks the government to strengthen the Criminal Code by making additional resources available to victims and law enforcement combating exploitation. They also want the government to make coercive and controlling behaviour in intimate partner relationships a criminal offence.

A dissenting report was filed by the Conservative Party of Canada, which largely continues to support existing legislation.

Lametti has 120 days to respond to those recommendations and is expected to do so before Oct. 20.

The court hearing will continue Thursday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2022.

David Fraser, The Canadian Press

Calgary’s firefighter union calls for action from fire chief amid funding concerns

Adam MacVicar - Yesterday - Global News

The Calgary Firefighters Association is calling for action from Calgary Fire Department Chief Steve Dongworth amid concerns over the fire department's funding in the upcoming city budget.


In a letter to the Calgary Firefighters Association membership, the union's president said decisions by the city and the fire chief have firefighters at a "breaking point."

In a letter sent on Monday to the union's membership obtained by Global News, association president Codey McIntyre said decisions by city administration and the fire chief "are continuing to push Calgary Firefighters to the breaking point."

"The fire chief has not been allowed to speak about these cuts nor to these ongoing issues," McIntyre said in the letter. "The fire chief is not standing up for public and firefighter safety."

The letter outlined a "history of cuts" the fire department has undergone since 2015 and "under-resourced" divisions like training and hazardous materials.

According to McIntyre, the fire department budget has been reduced by $30 million since 2015, including the elimination of 185 department positions since that same year. McIntyre said five fire trucks were also cut in 2019, and added that Calgary has the lowest staffed metropolitan fire department in the country.

Despite this, the 2022 Spring Pulse Survey of Calgarians resulted in a 96 per cent satisfaction rating for the fire department's emergency response amongst residents.

In the most recent budget adjustment in 2021, city council voted unanimously for a $13 million increase to the fire department's budget to cover the addition of 56 firefighters and training officers.

Video: Funding to improve Calgary firefighter response not expected until 2025, document reveals

The letter to members comes just days after revelations of a request from the fire department to help reduce response times may largely go unfunded in the upcoming four-year budget.

The total cost of the funding options came to $52 million in operating funds and $51 million in capital funds with the addition of 315 firefighters over the next four years.

Global News obtained preliminary budget figures that show city administration is recommending a deferral of the capital funding request to the next four-year budget cycle, while the department could receive $16.2 million of their operating funding request split between 2025 and 2026.

Read more:

Funding to improve Calgary firefighter response not expected until 2025, document reveals

However, City of Calgary officials told Global News the city’s budget and service plans “are still under development."

"The fire chief has been told by city administration to pare down his budget once again and to save it for the next business cycle in four years," McIntyre's letter said. "Where is Calgary’s fire chief in this discussion and how is he looking out for public and firefighter safety? We need a fire chief who will vocally support his firefighters and stand up for the safety of us and all Calgarians."

The letter stated the goal of the firefighters association is to get to a phased implementation of National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards of four people on all fire engine, rescue and ladder trucks.

Earlier this year, city administration determined NFPA standards would not be feasible in Calgary due to the funding required and an estimated time period of 15 to 20 years to implement them.

In an interview with Global News, McIntyre said he wants to see Dongworth speak up both in public and behind closed doors to advocate for more resources for the fire department.

Read more:

‘It’s not sustainable’: Calgary firefighters look at funding boost to help improve response times

"We've seen this time and time again and we've been communicating it for two years," McIntyre said. "I'm asking the fire chief to stand up and fight for the safety of the firefighters and the safety of all Calgarians."

In a statement to Global News, Dongworth said he couldn't comment on the upcoming budget as it is still in development and additional details remain confidential.

"However, there is no question that the Calgary Fire Department needs significant additional investment to keep pace with record call levels in an increasingly complex world," Dongworth's statement read. "The challenge continues to be securing those investments in a constrained financial environment with only so many dollars to go around with many competing priorities."

Video: Calgary firefighters prepare to rough it on pub rooftop

Dongworth said the budget recommended by city administration to council won't include cuts and will include funding increases for the fire department over the next four years.

"As one of only nine fire services in Canada to achieve international accreditation, we know how important our fire service is to Calgarians and we continue to serve the community with innovation, flexibility, and by being proactive in the way we plan for and respond to community risk and emergencies," Dongworth added.

The letter to members also outlined the union's plan to advocate for more funding ahead of budget talks, which includes community outreach, targeted digital advertising, direct discussions with city councillors, as well as having an ongoing presence at city council meetings.

Read more:

Longer wait times expected following budget cuts: Calgary fire chief

McIntyre urged local firefighters to share their experiences on social media as part of their advocacy.

City administration will present the proposed budget to city council for the first time on November 8, and deliberations are scheduled to begin on November 21.

According to McIntyre, the firefighters association will present a public submission during those budget talks.

Video: Calgary firefighters look at funding boost to help improve response times

 

Red Cross calls for civilian force, less reliance on military for disaster response


OTTAWA — Canada needs a new civilian force to respond to natural disasters and other emergencies as such events become more common and severe, the head of the Canadian Red Cross said Tuesday.



In an interview CEO Conrad Sauvé compared Canada’s current approach to responding to emergencies to fighting a fire without any previous planning or preparation.

“We're trying to sort out who does what after the fire started,” he said.

Right now, Sauvé said, "we're not paying for the firehouse."

The result is that governments at all levels across Canada are relying more and more on both the Red Cross and the military whenever a disaster or other emergency strikes, which is putting a strain on both.

It is in that vein that Sauvé is advocating for more emergency readiness as well as the creation of a dedicated civilian force that is ready to act as the sheer volume and scale of emergencies hitting Canada continues to grow.

“We need to build that standby capacity,” he said. “That civilian capacity needs to be built up so we have a deployable capacity that’s not military.”

Governments at all levels have been increasingly turning to the Armed Forces for assistance after various disasters, most recently in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona in Atlantic Canada where more than 700 troops are currently deployed.

While the military is supposed to be the force of last resort, such domestic deployments have become a regular occurrence as the number of emergencies continues to increase alongside the scale of the devastation.

The situation has reached such a point that chief of the defence staff Gen. Wayne Eyre has expressed concern that the strain is affecting the Armed Forces’ readiness to defend Canada from attack and conduct missions abroad.

Sauvé said the COVID-19 pandemic also demonstrated that the military is not always properly equipped to respond in certain emergencies. He specifically cited the deployment of troops to long-term care homes in 2020.

“It's a blunt instrument not necessarily made for this,” he added of disaster response. “And they have very specialized equipment. I was on a panel with a Canadian general who said they used an attack helicopter to transfer hoses … in the B.C. fires.”

The creation of a dedicated emergency response force wouldn’t mean the end of military assistance, Sauvé added, nor would it have to be run by the Red Cross. He also underscored the importance of building capacity and capabilities in local communities.

The point, he said, “is this is clearly in the civilian role. The military has another role and (needs) to be brought in as a last resort.”

Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair says the federal government is already taking action, with $150 million committed in May to the Red Cross and three other organizations to build up their ability to respond to humanitarian needs in Canada.

“We are committed to bolstering Canada’s humanitarian workforce and my mandate letter includes a commitment to strengthen Canada’s all hazards approach to emergency management,” Blair said in a written statement.

“The importance of these organizations cannot be overstated. Every day, around the clock, often at a moment’s notice, they bring relief and assistance to people who are experiencing the most challenging moments of their lives.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2022.

Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's potential impact on corporate America "cannot be overstated"

insider@insider.com (Marguerite Ward)

A new day could be dawning for leadership in America with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on the Supreme Court. 

Kevin Lamarque-Pool/Getty Images

Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn into the Supreme Court in June and is now hearing cases.

Jackson is the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

Corporate diversity consultants said it could prompt CEOs to make similar moves.

It's no secret that prestigious and powerful roles like a Supreme Court justice or a Fortune 500 CEO have historically been occupied by white men.

There are few exceptions who've defied the odds and ascended to the highest court — or corner offices — in the land. Former justices Thurgood Marshall and Sandra Day O'Connor broke barriers, as did current justice Sonia Sotomayor. There are high-profile CEOs like Jane Fraser, head of Citi, and Marvin Ellison, who is Black, and runs the hardware chain Lowe's. Thasunda Brown Duckett, a Black woman, heads TIAA, the insurance and investment company. Each of these leaders are history-makers in their own right.

But political and social tides could be changing: Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in as the first Black female Supreme Court justice in June, following Justice Stephen Breyer's retirement. In her first week hearing cases, Jackson drew approval from some observers for her reasoning. Legal experts called her a "force to be reckoned with."

Corporate consultants said Biden's Supreme Court decision was bold and direct, just like his decision to choose Kamala Harris, a Black woman, as his running mate. While Biden makes moves in the political sphere, corporate America, too, is trudging forward. CEOs are naming Black women as their successors. Others are promoting women of color to leadership roles. Jackson's work in the Supreme Court could inspire leaders in different sectors to further advance diversity, equity, and inclusion, sources said.




"I think the importance for society cannot be understated," Malia Lazu, a lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, told Insider. "It's happening as America is wrestling with its history and current actions of white supremacy."

Despite an emphatic backlash, Biden's move signals a departure from the Supreme Court's 233-year history, and its implications reach far beyond the nation's capital. At a time when Americans are demanding equity in all aspects of life, CEOs will be pressured into making similar calls for equity in their own companies, diversity consultants said.

A new attitude


Thasunda Brown Duckett, the CEO of TIAA. Consultants said CEOs have been realizing their role in advancing diversity. TIAA© TIAA

Consultants described Biden's move as similar to what they were seeing in corporate America: More leaders are starting to understand how racism and patriarchy have historically kept Black women out of spaces of power.

"I think George Floyd's murder raised consciousness in a lot of people," Tara Jaye Frank, a corporate consultant and author of "The Waymakers," told Insider. "It's no longer 'these Black people talking about it.' Business leaders had an opportunity to see it with their own eyes."

Surveys have suggested that America is asking CEOs to act on that new understanding.

"What I hope CEOs take away from this moment is that equity does not happen by accident," Frank said. "What's been happening for years is companies say, 'We're going to hire the most qualified people,' but what ends up happening is their affinity bias takes over."

Workplace experts define affinity bias as the phenomenon of people associating, recruiting, and hiring people who remind them most of themselves. It's been pervasive in corporate culture and in America's courts, Frank said. Some business leaders, she said, have recently started to grasp this.

"This is about representation in its purest form. Every American deserves to have their needs, interests, concerns represented by someone who shares their lived experience and cares about it intuitively," Frank said. "You don't get there without being intentional."

Tina Opie, a Fortune 500 strategist and an associate professor of management at Babson College, is hopeful about the future of corporate America. More white male CEOs, she said, are calling her for guidance on how to be deliberate in advancing diversity. They are having complicated and uncomfortable conversations with their communities, she added.

For example, Opie said she was encouraging CEOs to question the backlash to Biden's decision.

"Why is it so unfair to declare the nominee will be a Black woman?" Opie said. "You all were completely fine with white men representing over 90% of justices for decades. But we even say a Black woman, all of a sudden you start talking about quality and qualifications."

Positioning Black women for success


Joe Biden's decision to pick Kamala Harris as his vice president and to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court show the importance of allyship, experts said. 

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Experts said Biden's decisions to choose Harris as his vice president and a Black woman as his Supreme Court nominee were a testament to white male allyship.

"Biden's leadership here is a real example of not only allyship but co-conspiratorship," Lazu said. "It's not enough that you're not racist, that you put up a Black Lives Matter sign. It's what are you doing with the power you have to move the needle on equity and inclusion?"

Piper-Simone Casey, a law student at the University of Pennsylvania, said that while Biden's allyship was admirable, the business community needed to push itself further.

"I think it is time that corporate America stops questioning Black women and their merit just because they want to uphold spaces that are dominated by white men," Casey said. "Not only are Black women capable of working in these spaces, but they are likely to impart a great deal of wisdom and creativity while doing so."

The journey forward will be bumpy, Opie said, but CEOs are on a promising trajectory.

"I would encourage CEOs to approach their constituents and say something like: 'Look at the prior CEOs of our organization since its inception. What do you notice? It's largely homogenous. We have been having affirmative action for white people, and today that stops. My next successor will be a Black woman,'" she said.

This article was originally published on February 2022.

Flight 752 families want Ottawa to get tougher on Iran

OTTAWA — The families of those killed when Iran's military shot down Flight 752 in January 2020 are demanding the Canadian government take a harder line against the regime.



Iranian-Canadians gathered on Parliament Hill Tuesday to mark 1,000 days of mourning their relatives, and the crowd made clear their displeasure at the federal government's actions to date.

"I already lost all my life, all my future, said Maral Gorginpour whose husband Fareed Arasteh died in the crash.

The two got married in Iran, three days before he boarded the flight.

"I need justice; I need the truth and until that day I won't stop," said Gorginpour, who joined hundreds in front of the Supreme Court before marching through the parliamentary precinct.

In her speech the crowd, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland promised Ottawa would take more action but did not say specifically what that would be.

"We will use all the tools at our disposal, to isolate and punish the brutal dictatorship," Freeland said.

Her remarks were interrupted multiple times, as demonstrators called on the Liberals to kick Iranians with ties to the regime out of Canada.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre revved up the crowd by saying the Trudeau government has refused to deem the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of Iran's army, as a terror group.

Poilievre endorsed a formal request last month by the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims to have the International Criminal Court launch a war-crime investigation. So far, Canada has helped Ukraine pursue its own criminal case, in recognition that the airliner was registered in Ukraine.

"We've had 1,000 days of words; we need action," Poilievre said, drawing cheers.

"The time has come for deeds, and I want you to know you have friends in the Conservative Party who will fight tooth-and-nail."

Sanctions experts have said it would be challenging to list the IRGC as a terrorist organization without barring entry to Canada and freezing assets for thousands of people who had been conscripted into brief, low-ranking positions such as a cook.

But Liberal MP Ali Ehsassi, who has also been pushing his own government to step up its response, said recently Ottawa should work to find a way to deem the revolutionary guard a terrorist group without punishing those who were drafted into non-combat roles.

On Monday Canada sanctioned 25 Iranian officials and nine entities including the head of the revolutionary guard. Ehsassi, whose Willowdale riding in Toronto has a large Iranian-Canadian population, said on Twitter the sanctions are "not sufficient."

In Halifax Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada is working with other countries to get justice.

"All Canadians, this government and all political parties stand with the people of Iran as we stand up for women's rights and human rights," he said.

Iranian police have violently cracked down on protests across Iran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in mid-September, two days after she was arrested by Iran's morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab too loosely.

Gorginpour said Ottawa needs to take a tougher line against the regime, or it will continue to beat protesters, down flights and torture political prisoners.

"While they keep silent, the regime kills more people, and they are not accountable."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2022.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press