Monday, May 22, 2023

A ‘Canadian Armageddon’ Sets Parts of Western Canada on Fire

Dan Bilefsky
Sat, May 20, 2023 

Flames from a prescribed burn, started by wildland firefighters in an attempt to halt the spread of larger wildfires, in Shining Bank, Alberta, Canada on May 19, 2023.
 (Jen Osborne/The New York Times)

EDMONTON, Alberta — As acrid smoke filled the air, turning the sky around her sleepy hometown, Fox Creek, Alberta, a garish blood orange, Nicole Clarke said she felt a sense of terror.

With no time to collect family photographs, she grabbed her two young children, hopped into her pickup truck, and sped away, praying she wouldn’t drive into the blaze’s menacing path.

“This feels like a Canadian Armageddon, like a bad horror film,” said Clarke, a 37-year-old hair stylist, standing outside her truck, a large hamper of dirty laundry piled in the back.

In a country revered for placid landscapes and predictability, weeks of out-of-control wildfires raging across western Canada have ushered in a potent sense of fear, threatening a region that is the epicenter of the country’s oil and gas sector.

Climate research suggests that heat and drought associated with global warming are major reasons for the increase in bigger and stronger fires.

Amid frequent fire updates dominating national television news broadcasts, the blazes have also helped unite a vast and sometimes polarized nation, with volunteers, firefighters and army reservists from other provinces rushing in to lend a hand.

Roughly 29,000 people in Alberta have been forced from their homes by the recent bout of wildfires, though that number has been cut in half in recent days as fires subsided.

Clarke said her family had been staying in cheap motels since they were ordered about a week ago to evacuate. But she and her boyfriend were unemployed and money was quickly running out.

“I don’t know if I’ll have a home to return to,” she added Thursday, sobbing.

The fires have produced such thick smoke that during recess, children in some towns have remained in their classrooms rather than risk smoke inhalation outside. Dozens of residents left in such a frantic panic that they left pets behind.

On Highway 43, a long stretch of Alberta highway peppered by small, evacuated towns, the thick layer of smoke blanketing the road on Thursday conjured the feeling of a dystopia.

With helicopters hovering and dropping water, police cars with flashing lights blocked parts of the highway as fires approached the road. Residents trying to return to homes they hoped were still intact commiserated as they were forced to turn back.

Fires have broken out throughout western Canada, including British Columbia, but hardest hit has been neighboring Alberta, a proud oil and gas producing province sometimes referred to as “the Texas of the North,” which has declared a state of emergency. More than 94 active wildfires were burning as of Friday afternoon.

British Columbia was the site in 2021 of one of Canada’s worst wildfires in recent decades, when fires decimated the tiny community of Lytton after temperatures there reached a record 49.6 degrees Celsius, or 121.3 Fahrenheit.

Not since the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic buffeted the region has the area been so overcome by apprehension, accompanied by the all-too familiar need to wear masks outside. Only this time, residents say, a silent killer has been replaced by something more visceral and visible.

So far, no deaths have been reported. But in Alberta, Frankie Payou, a firefighter and 33-year-old father of three from the East Prairie Métis Settlement in Northern Alberta, was in a coma with severe injuries after being hit in the head by a burned tree. His home was also destroyed by a fire.

The bulk of the fires are in the far north of the province, home to many Indigenous communities, dealing a heavy blow to people who depend on the land and natural resources.

At a sprawling evacuation center in Edmonton, Ken Zenner, 61, a father of eight, two of whom are members of the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, said he and his family had been evacuated from the town of Valleyview. He worried how they would get by.

Families that have been displaced for a cumulative seven days are eligible for government-provided financial support, according to provincial regulations. But Zenner said he didn’t qualify because he had only been evacuated for six days.

“Indigenous communities have been underfunded for years and now we are seeing the consequences,” he said.

The rest of the country is mobilizing to help. Some 2,500 firefighters are battling the fires, among them 1,000 from other provinces. Joining them are wilderness firefighters from the United States.

The fires have even affected Alberta’s largest city, Calgary, where residents this week said they sat down for breakfast only to see and smell pungent smoke entering from cracks under their front doors.

Environment and Climate Change Canada said the air quality index for the city Wednesday afternoon was at 10+, or “very high risk.” Canadian health authorities have warned the smoke could cause symptoms ranging from sore and watery eyes to coughing, dizziness, chest pains and heart palpitations.

In Alberta, the blazes have brought back bad memories of 2016 when a raging wildfire destroyed 2,400 buildings in Fort McMurray, Alberta, the heart of Canada’s oil sands region with the third-largest reserves of oil in the world.

Alberta is Canada’s main energy-producing province and the United States’ largest source of imported oil and the fires have compelled some companies to curb production.

As flames bore down on wells and pipelines, major drillers such as Chevron and Paramount Resources together shut down the equivalent of at least 240,000 barrels of oil a day, according to energy consulting firm Rystad Energy.

For now, the disruptions affect only a small proportion of the country’s total oil and gas output. Still, they underscore how the production of oil and gas, the main driver of climate change, is also vulnerable to increasingly dire consequences of a warming planet.

Some say the fire may help galvanize Canadians about the perils of climate change. “The smoke from forest fires has an in-your-face impact affecting millions of Canadians that makes it harder to ignore,” the CBC, the national broadcaster, observed this week.

The human toll of the fires will reverberate for weeks to come. Christine Pettie, a business manager for a logging cooperative in Edson, a rural town about two hours west of Edmonton, said residents were still shellshocked after being evacuated.

She and her husband left in such a rush that he forgot his insulin medicine. They were fortunate that their home remained standing.

Still, Pettie said, the experience “definitely shook me to my core.”

c.2023 The New York Times Company




 


 



Alberta's air has turned toxic. 
How damaging is wildfire smoke to children?


CBC News
May 20, 2023

Right now, Alberta's air quality is currently rated one of the lowest on Earth as wildfires scorch the province. How damaging is the smoke to children and pregnant women, and what can people do to protect themselves?

 How to protect your lungs from wildfire smoke

CBC News

May 17, 2023

Wearing an N95 mask outdoors and avoiding outdoor exercise are among the ways to protect yourself from the tiny particles in the smoke from wildfires, says respirologist Dr. Sumir Gupta. 


Some Canadians are taking things into their own hands when it comes to protecting their lungs from wildfire smoke
 


 Alberta wildfires wreaking havoc on Métis and First Nations communities | Nation to Nation

APTN News   Premiered May 19, 2023

The scale of destruction from wildfires on Métis and First Nations communities in Alberta is now being calculated.

And a First Nations leader wants a reset on the proposed legislation to create a national reconciliation council.


Wildfires threaten Buffalo Narrows in Saskatchewan, force evacuation 
| APTN News

APTN News
May 16, 2023

Dramatic pictures and videos are coming out of northern Saskatchewan where fires resulted in an urgent evacuation of one community Monday night. Buffalo Narrows mayor says her community is surrounded by wildfires and they’ve been without power for two days. 


  




Wildfires rage as smoke blankets Alberta

CBC News: The National

8 hours ago

Alberta continues to battle dozens of intense wildfires as thick smoke threatens human health and even crops. Exhausted firefighters are now hoping for more rain and cooler temperatures.

AND IT SPREADS ACROSS NORTH AMERICA 

Minnesota air filled with wildfire smoke on Tuesday

KARE 11 NEWS

May 16, 2023

Wildfire smoke reached the surface in northern Minnesota Tuesday, leading to air quality alerts that expired at 4 p.m

 



Archaeologists discover a lost world of 417 ancient Mayans cities buried in remote jungle, connected by miles of 'superhighways,' WaPo reports


Bethany Dawson
Sun, May 21, 2023 

A view of a Maya temple at the el Mirador archaeological site in the Peten jungle, Guatemala.
Reuters/Daniel Leclair

Scientists in Guatemala have discovered "the first freeway system in the world," The Washington Post reports.

Archaeologists have found ancient Mayans built 417 cities interconnected by 110 miles of "superhighways."

Historians to rethink what they know of ancient Mayan civilization.


Scientists in Guatemala have discovered "the first freeway system in the world," The Washington Post reports.

In an interview with the Post, researchers from a joint US-Guatemalan archaeological study published in the Cambridge University Press in December said they had uncovered 417 cities dating back roughly 3,000 years, interconnected by 110 miles of "superhighways."

This discovery is making historians rethink what they know of ancient Mayan civilization. The discovery of a network of roads and cities, hydraulic systems, and agricultural infrastructure suggests that communities living in Central America were now more advanced than given credit for, the Post reports.

Per the paper, these findings reflect "socio-economic organization and political power."

The lost world dates as far as 1,000 B.C. to the pre-classic epoch of the Mayans, which had previously been considered a nomadic, hunter-gather society.

This discovery from the El Mirador jungle region in southern Guatemala is a "game changer," Richard Hansen, lead author of the study and affiliate research professor of archaeology at Idaho State University, told the Post.

The find is in a remote tropical jungle on the Mexico-Guatemala border. It is only accessible by helicopter to a challenging 40 miles hike through dense, Jaguar and snake-filled rainforest, said the Post.

"We now know that the Preclassic period was one of extraordinary complexity and architectural sophistication, with some of the largest buildings in world history being constructed during this time," said Hansen.

The findings have unveiled "a whole volume of human history that we've never known," he told the Post.

The team, with scientists from the US and Guatemala, has been mapping the areas in Central America since 2015 and has used lidar technology — a key archaeological laser mapping technique — to reveal the finest details, such as ancient vegetation.

It allowed the scientists to see ancient dams, reservoirs, pyramids, platforms, causeway networks, and even ball courts, per the study.

Archaeologist at San Carlos University in Guatemala City and co-author of the paper, Enrique Hernández, told the Post that after further work on this project, it could be as influential of a historical discovery as the Egyptian pyramids.
 

Ancient Maya Cities Connected By 'Super Highways' Revealed In Latest Survey


Some Canadian provinces have daycare deserts, study finds


Affordable child care is an elusive dream for many Canadian parents. The federal government has promised to make it cheaper with a $10-a-day program but there’s another major hurdle – having enough facilities to meet the demand. As Brittney Rosen explains, some parts of Canada are experiencing daycare deserts.

PRISON NATION U$A
The US artist who went from prison cell to Paris show
Story by AFP • Tuesday

Halim Flowers said his generation of jailed children were regarded as 'super predators'
© JOEL SAGET

Aged 16, Halim Flowers was arrested in the United States, tried as an adult then jailed for murder. Now aged 42, he is a prolific artist, poet and writer exhibiting in Paris.

The turnaround has been spectacular.

Flowers was only released in 2019 after a change in US law allowed for under-18s who had been tried as adults to be "re-sentenced".

Then a year later, when Covid-19 pushed much of the world into lockdown, his wife -- also an artist -- suggested he should give painting a go.

"I just took the brush. I had no idea about colour, how mixing red and white made pink. She told me how to do that, how to take care of my brushes," he told AFP.

Visiting AFP's photo studio in Paris, Flowers sketched a graffiti-style drawing on a white background and explained that art was his "only drug".

"I don't smoke drugs, I don't drink alcohol, I don't party. All I do is art," he said.

Colourful and rich in symbolism, his work highlights the experiences of people on the margins -- prisoners, the homeless, those with mental health issues.

The Washington native, who is displaying his paintings until Sunday at the Champop gallery in the French capital, told the United States' National Public Radio in 2021 he had already sold art worth more than $1 million.

His life now is a far cry from that of the skinny teenager who featured in a 1998 documentary for HBO titled "Thug Life in DC".

A disconsolate Flowers told the documentary he had no hope, and that his mother would probably be dead by the time he was freed.

- Kardashian collaboration -

Flowers was raised in a poor neighbourhood of the US capital and grew up during the crack "epidemic".


Related video: WATCH: From prison to artistic rebirth: Halim Ali Flowers, an American in Paris (Euronews)
Duration 2:00
s

He fell into drug dealing and eventually got caught up in a robbery that resulted in someone being shot dead.

Despite not being the shooter, he was tried and convicted of murder under the principle of "aiding and abetting".

He said his generation of jailed children were regarded as "super predators" but he knew he was innocent and had enough faith in himself to struggle to show his humanity.

"Those who are considered as beasts and super predators today can become those who visit the museums tomorrow," he said.

After years of campaigning, he was finally freed in early 2019 -- his mother greeting him with open arms.

Already with a track record as an author and poet, he worked with reality TV star Kim Kardashian on a documentary called "The Justice Project", which helped to secure the release of one of his childhood friends.

He met both Kardashian and her then husband, musician Kanye West, although he credits West's fellow rapper Jay-Z with sparking his interest in visual art.

- 'Lack of love' -


"I was introduced to visual art through listening to Jay-Z rap about Jean-Michel Basquiat," he said, referring to the US artist who shot to fame in the 1980s before dying of a heroin overdose at 27 in 1988.

For Flowers, seeing that a black person had been "received and revered in the art world" was a revelation and inspired him to begin studying the arts while in jail.


The similarity between his work and that of Basquiat has led to accusations he is copying his forebear but Flowers flatly denies the charge.

"To show my reverence to my ancestors through my work is an honour," he said.

"Anything that I do that resembles them is because we share the same spirit."

Now he wants to use his art to change perceptions, particularly about notions of justice.

"I think people are surprised that I came home from prison and I wasn't being bitter or angry," he said.

There's nothing that necessarily links being in jail to being angry and bitter, he stressed.

He sees the issue as a wider one -- society in general, he said, has been infected by a "pandemic of lack of love".

His mission is to create a "new visual language" that will vaccinate against this pandemic and transform our image of justice.

ls/jxb/gil
Self-defence classes focus on safety, confidence, community for Toronto sex workers



















Story by Sarah MacMillan • CBC
Tuesday, May 16, 2023

At a small Toronto boxing gym, people punch, jump, duck, and laugh. Working up a sweat is just one goal for those who are there.

All the participants in this class are sex workers — and they're there to learn self-defence.

"As part of my work, obviously safety is always a concern," said a sex worker who uses the name Selene.

"Hopefully I won't have to use it, but it's better to be prepared."

CBC Toronto has agreed to use the working names of sex workers interviewed for this story.

The classes are organized by the Maggie's Toronto Sex Workers Action Project, in response to an uptick in members reporting incidents of violence and harassment.
Demand for classes

Maggie's executive director Ellie Ade Kur said the ask for self-defence classes came directly from members.

"One of the things we hear a lot from sex workers is the issue around facing direct violence. Often not being able to necessarily defend or report that violence or be taken seriously," Ade Kur said.



The ask for self-defence classes came from sex workers themselves, who are at risk of harassment and violence on the job
.© Sarah MacMillan/CBC

The group received a $50,000 grant from Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment to fund the classes, and Maggie's partnered with local boxing coach Frederic Montaricout to teach them. All 30 spots were filled within 24 hours, and within a week there were another 50 on the wait list.

"It grew a lot faster than any of us were really expecting it to, the level of demand and excitement for it," Ade Kur said.


The classes began in March, and will run until the end of June. After more than two months, there's clear progress, Montaricout said.

"I think everybody changed like differently … physically and mentally."



Frederic Montaricout teaches the self-defence classes at his small Toronto boxing gym
.© Sarah MacMillan/CBC

'Strength in numbers'

For Alexia Woodroe, the biggest takeaway from the classes has been confidence.

"The confidence in certain moves, the confidence in how I walk, the confidence in that if something were to happen, I have some idea of what to do, if at least just to get out of the situation," Woodroe said.

Fellow sex worker Alexandra Starr knows all too well what it's like to be in an unsafe situation. She said two years ago, she was assaulted by a client. She said an Uber driver saw what happened, and intervened, and also captured video of the assailant.

"I was definitely lucky, but I can only imagine for a girl that's really alone … it's really drastic what can happen, you know," Starr said.

"After that I was like, OK, I need to learn some skills to prevent this from happening in the future."



The classes focus on technical skills, but also bring sex workers together in a social setting.
© Sarah MacMillan/CBC

Starr said she upped her security process and screening of clients, and also began hitting the gym to improve her physical fitness.

When she heard about the classes organized by Maggie's, she jumped at the chance to learn specific self-defence skills — and also the chance to get to know others in the industry.

"Being a sex worker can be lonely sometimes, and you feel like you can't share your struggles with just kind of the everyday person. So having these girls that relate to you, and have been through the same things that you've been through, it definitely gives you that strength in numbers feeling," Starr said.

Ade Kur, with Maggie's, said those social connections are a big part of why she views the program as such a success. While the classes for this cohort are set to wrap up at the end of June, she hopes to be able to offer more classes in the future, if the group is able to secure funding.

"The violence that sex workers face in community because of criminalization and stigma is jarring and absolutely heartbreaking," Ade Kur said.

"But I also think on the flip side … it's important to also focus on the fact that there are people that are working to change that, that are working to build community and directly address that. Even in the absence of policy makers addressing the issue of criminalization."





GOOGLE UNION BUSTER
Google is downsizing its contract workforce that supports YouTube shortly after one contractor team's union victory

Story by tmaxwell@insider.com (Thomas Maxwell,Hugh Langley) • May 15, 2023

A building on the Google campus in Mountain View, California.


Google is reducing its contract workforce that supports YouTube operations.
Workers in Austin recently formed a collective-bargaining group with the Alphabet Workers Union.

Google is appealing an NLRB decision to categorize it as a "joint employer" of Cognizant staff.

Google is ending some business with contracting firms including Cognizant and Accenture, which employ workers who support various YouTube services. Google bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion.

The workers impacted by these cuts support YouTube TV and YouTube's social-media accounts. Most of the workers who will be cut are based in Austin, according to four people familiar with the matter. Cognizant workers began hearing about the cuts at the start of May, with effective end dates ranging from May 31 to the end of July, according to three workers.

It's unclear exactly how many Cognizant workers were affected. At Accenture, roughly 120 to 150 workers will lose their positions, two sources estimate. Insider was not able to verify an exact number in that case, either, though one Accenture worker said their effective end date is today.


The move comes shortly after a group of Cognizant workers supporting YouTube Music voted 41-0 in favor of unionizing with the Alphabet Workers Union, which is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America, a larger trade union. The National Labor Relations Board certified the vote on May 5. The cuts did not impact the YouTube Music team, which helps curate themed playlists and review song metadata.

1 of 28 Photos in Gallery©Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The career rise of Susan Wojcicki, who rented her garage to Google's founders in 1998 and is now stepping down as the CEO of YouTube
Susan Wojcicki provided the garage space where Google was founded in 1998 and later became one of its first employees.
She rose up the company's ranks, becoming YouTube's CEO in 2014. On Thursday, she announced she's stepping down.
Here's a glimpse at the life of 54-year-old Susan Wojcicki, who has an estimated net worth of $765 million.


Most landlords only hope their renters pay on time, keep a tidy space, and don't disturb the neighbors.

But Susan Wojcicki's renters — Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin — ended up offering up a bit more: the chance to become employee No. 16 in 1998 at a young search engine startup called Google.

Of course, it's taken more than this incredible circumstance for Wojcicki to rise in the ranks at Google. From expanding the company's ad business to persuading its founders to purchase an up-and-coming video-sharing service called YouTube, Wojcicki has played a vital role in Google's becoming one of the world's most valuable companies.

She went on to serve as CEO of YouTube for nearly a decade before announcing Thursday that she's stepping down.

As Wojcicki vacates the role, here's a glimpse at her life and rise at Google from employee No. 16 to YouTube's chief:See More

The Cognizant team supporting YouTube TV had been in early talks to form their own union following the group at YouTube Music, according to three workers there.

In a statement, Google confirmed the changes to its contract workforce and denied it is related to union efforts.

"As we've said, we are managing our spend with our suppliers and vendors more effectively to create durable savings where possible," a spokesperson said. "This work has been happening for well over a year across Alphabet and spans dozens of our major suppliers in the U.S. and abroad. Any suggestion that these changes are due to reasons beyond increasing our efficiency and cost savings is untrue."

Cognizant also confirmed in an email that its contract supporting YouTube TV is ending.

"As a professional services company, ramp-downs and ramp-ups of projects are a normal part of Cognizant's work with clients," a spokesperson said in a statement. "We do have a ramp down in our YouTube TV project; although this specific project has come to an end, those affected by this change remain Cognizant employees."

Workers affected by Google's decision to end business with Cognizant will be placed on a "bench" policy, giving them five weeks of paid time to receive training and find a new job internally before they are let go, the spokesperson added.

An Accenture spokesperson wrote in a statement, "From time to time, we adjust our workforce on ongoing projects to meet the needs of our clients. We are fully committed to supporting our people through this transition."

Google and Cognizant have been appealing an NLRB ruling that deemed the search giant as a "joint employer" of Cognizant's workers who support YouTube. Cognizant HR representatives previously told workers that even if the ruling was upheld, Google would only have minimal involvement in union negotiations.

Cognizant contractors for YouTube Music in Austin first announced their intentions to unionize last year to seek a guaranteed remote-work policy, as well as other changes. Contract workers for Google at other agencies have also been organizing to demand better treatment from the search giant.

Many workers at Appen, who are referred to as "raters" because they rate the quality and relevance of search results, recently visited the Google headquarters to demand better wages, among other changes to their working conditions. Google started layoffs of 12,000 full-time employees in January, citing changing economic conditions.

Other companies like Apple, Starbucks, and Wells Fargo have been pushing back against a rise in union efforts. Even though interest in unions is near all-time highs, only about 10% of US workers are union members.