Saturday, June 03, 2023

HOMELESS RIGHT TO SHELTER
BC
Sweeps throughout the unhoused communities break inherent Indigenous rights, says outreach worker

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

For years, the unhoused community have been setting up tents in various locations throughout municipalities in B.C., with the city, bylaw, and police enforcing street and traffic regulations displacing the homeless with a lack of sustainable housing options available.

According to Nikki Otteson, founder of the Backpack Project, Victoria’s Princess Avenue, in front of Rock Bay shelter, and Pandora Avenue are places that are swept regularly.

“We get a lot of text messages and messages on social media, asking for tents and sleeping bags and clothing again,” said Otteson when reflecting on the aftermath of a sweep. “We hear lots of stories about what bylaw has taken and what they've thrown in the garbage. A lot of it is sentimental.”

When the spaces that unhoused people gathered in are swept, Otteson said “the first [thing] it does is it breaks up community and it breaks up safety.”

“When you’re scattered, you’re on your own again,” she said. “We're not only isolating them from the housed community, we're isolating them from their own communities.”

QomQem Coastal Connections is an Indigenous-led outreach program that supports Victoria’s unhoused, substance users, or those who have insecure and temporary housing.

“The folks that we are supporting are often displaced or disconnected from family and community,” shared Lacey Jones, an outreach worker with QomQem Coastal Connections. “I think being able to offer Indigenous-led services that are grounded in culture and offering that reconnection back to our relatives on the street is really imperative for their wellness.”

Jones shared that a few years ago, when the encampments had been prominent throughout Victoria, QomQem Coastal started to bring drumming to the unhoused.

“There was a Nuu-chah-nulth women’s dance group that came, and they brought their shawls and paddles,” she said.

Guy and Calvin Louie, alongside Pete Charlie, drummed Nuu-chah-nulth songs, inviting Indigenous folks from the encampment to dance with them.

Jones reflected on the experience of an individual she had been working closely with. She shared with Jones that after having danced, she had the “best sleep she’d had in years,” even though she was outside in a tent.

Brazilian Indigenous tribe protests new land bill (The Canadian Press)
Duration 0:54   View on Watch


“That was the first time she got up and danced in years,” said Jones.

“A long time ago our laws always stated that we always had a home in our community, we always had enough to eat,” shared Jones. “Looking at the sweeps and all these other things that are happening to Indigenous folks especially, goes directly against our inherent rights as Indigenous people to have a place to call home to have food to eat.”

She notes that bylaw enforcement of the homeless has “underpinnings of colonial society always telling us how to live and what we can keep…when they take down your tent, they'll decide what they'll throw away.”

“We have to go back to the idea of land being used as a way to generate wealth for some people, some individuals, and at the expense of others,” said Angela MacDougall, executive director at Battered Women's Support Services. “One of the major problems is that there's been an absolute divestment from this idea of housing being a necessity for people.”

Additionally, MacDougall notes that the lack of mental health services and substance-use treatment centers are significant issues when it comes to homelessness.

“Here we are now where we have encampments and we have encampments with people that can’t access housing, that are struggling with substance-use as a result of trauma… [and] are being poisoned by the drug supply,” she said. “People are congregating as a result of all these things.”

Due to ‘safety concerns,’ in early April, the City of Vancouver, and Vancouver Police Department (VPD) worked to shut down an illegal encampment on East Hastings, enforcing the Streets and Traffic Bylaw alongside the Vancouver Fire chief order to remove tent structures. Their primary concerns were for public safety and fire hazards, with more than 400 fires occurring in the eight months prior.

Though they worked to close the encampment in early April, some tents remain, said MacDougall.

“There's tents still here because there’s nowhere for people to go,” she said.

She explains that shelters are an emergency response and shouldn’t be positioned as “the housing option” for unhoused people.

“I would hope that we could, as a society, want to build options that don’t involve people living on the street, in a tent,” said MacDougall.

-30-

Alexandra Mehl, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Ha-Shilth-Sa

City of Kingston seeks court order to remove Belle Park encampment

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday

The city of Kingston is taking another step in its effort to remove an encampment at Belle Park that has remained at the centre of the region's conversations around homelessness for several years.

After initially issuing trespass notices in March to those on site, the city says it has relied on voluntary compliance to move residents and has not forcibly removed anyone.

Several months after the eviction notices were distributed however the city says about 25 people remain in the encampment, leading to an application for a ruling from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in order to remove the encampment at Belle Park.

A Thursday statement from the City of Kingston says this move is being made at council's direction, and that even with "low barrier" shelter spaces available on a relatively consistent basis, some residents have declined available beds.

"Kingston offers low-barrier shelter options to accommodate different needs, including couples, women-only, people with pets, and a wide range of support services," the statement reads.

"A low barrier shelter generally means requirements for entry are limited or minimal for the people who wish to stay there. There is capacity to accommodate individuals remaining in the encampment, but some have declined offers of shelter and support."

In its statement, and a follow up statement after a request for an interview with a member of city staff was declined due to the topic spanning over multiple departments, the city makes no mention of substance abuse disorder and what shelters may have low enough barriers to accommodate those in the encampment who are dealing with an addiction.

Sharry Aiken, a law professor at Queen's University, said what the city defines as "low barrier" really isn't to many of those seeking space, and that the public has a right to know why they have declined shelter space.

Aiken said it's disappointing that the city is resorting to the courts to handle what is fundamentally a social problem which the city should be seeking to resolve through social services and not through enforcement.

She says it won't solve the problem, it will just push it elsewhere.

"It's resolved through patient and consistent interventions by social services, not by going to a court," Aiken said.
Health minister's request triggered internal meltdown at Canada's drug-price regulator, documents show

Story by Catherine Lévesque • National Post

Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos in March 2023.

OTTAWA – Relations between senior leaders at the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) descended into bitter acrimony last fall, documents show, as federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos tried to get the board to pause its work to reformulate how patented drug prices are determined.

The House of Commons committee on health, which is studying the havoc that unfolded at the board over the last several months, culminating in the resignations of several of the board’s senior leaders, released more than 350 pages of private internal correspondence this week about the events leading up to the turmoil.

The emails, text messages and letters provide a picture of building resentment and frustration among board members, and toward Health Canada, in the days and weeks before the resignation of PMPRB acting chairperson Melanie Bourassa Forcier in December 2022. Forcier’s resignation was followed in February by board member Matthew Herder quitting, accusing the government of undermining the board’s “independence and credibility.” Days later, PMPRB executive director, Douglas Clark, resigned.

In late 2022, the PMPRB was in the midst of consultations on new guidelines for drug prices in Canada, having been tasked by then health minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor in 2019 to stem “ excessive prices” on patented medicines, as a means to “lay the foundation for national pharmacare.” The PMPRB is a quasi-judicial government agency tasked with reviewing and reporting on drug prices to Parliament, through the minister of health.

The correspondence leading up to Forcier’s resignation reveal that multiple attempts by PMPRB members in the fall of 2022 to brief Duclos on the state of the guideline consultations went unanswered or were stonewalled.

Duclos finally broke his silence in a November letter to ask the board to “consider pausing the consultation process” to work “collaboratively” with stakeholders on the proposed changes. That apparently drove a wedge between Forcier, who was willing to agree to the minister’s request, and other PMRB leaders who wanted to let the consultation process run its course, and had grown to mistrust Duclos’ motives.


The situation culminated in Clark, the executive director, accusing Forcier in an email sent on Dec. 3, 2022 of legitimizing “false allegations” by the pharmaceutical industry, and throwing board members and staff “to the wolves.”


The proposed changes to price policy that the PMPRB was consulting on included rejigging the list of countries it compares Canadian drug prices to, introducing new economic factors to determine whether a price is deemed “excessive,” and requiring drug manufacturers to report “confidential rebates” to third parties, such as public or private insurers.


The last two elements were deemed unconstitutional by the Quebec Court of Appeal last year, following court challenges from the pharmaceutical industry, and the federal government opted to not appeal the decision before the Supreme Court of Canada.

The PMPRB went ahead with drawing up a new list of comparative countries last year, but the board’s work has raised concerns that the PMPRB is overstepping its role, and that the new formulas could lead pharmaceutical companies to determine some new medicines aren’t worth offering in Canada, leaving patients without access to them.

The PMPRB still had to consult on its proposed new guidelines regarding the administration of the price review process last fall.

Duclos told the House of Commons health committee last month that he had never received a formal request for a meeting from the board, nor did he seek to obtain one, in order to keep the PMPRB at arm’s length from his ministry.

But the communications released this week show Clark was eager to meet with Duclos’ office. He contacted the minister’s chief of staff, Jamie Kippen, on Nov. 9, 2022 to offer him a briefing on the new guidelines, but never heard back. He twice called the office of the minister’s senior director of policy, Jean-Sebastien Bock, on Nov. 17, 2022. The first time he called that day, the receptionist told him Bock would call him back, and the second time Clark recorded that Bock simply declined to take his call.


“The receptionist advised me that Mr. Bock wished to know the reason for my call. I responded, ‘the PMPRB Guidelines’. She advised me Mr. Bock would not take my call,” read Clark’s notes from that day.

Clark then texted Kippen on Nov. 18, again suggesting a meeting. He followed up with an email to Kippen, offering again to meet, on Nov. 21.

Text messages show that Forcier had also asked the director of the board secretariat, Sherri Wilson, several times in November to secure a meeting with the minister. Wilson said on Nov. 29, 2022 that she was “unsure how to make it happen,” given that typically such requests go through the deputy minister’s office.

On Nov. 28, 2022, Duclos wrote a letter to Forcier noting that “many stakeholders,” including the pharmaceutical industry and provinces and territories, “have raised concerns and questions associated with the new Guidelines” and asking the board to “consider pausing the consultation process, so as to allow time to work collaboratively, with all stakeholders, to understand fully the short and long-term impacts of the proposed new Guidelines.”

Forcier wrote in notes submitted to the committee that the minister’s request was seen by Clark and PMPRB board members as “potential interference with the board’s independence” but she, as acting chairperson, did not see it that way.

Forcier eventually secured a meeting with the deputy health minister, Stephen Lucas, on Nov. 30. Text messages show that she was already considering suspending the consultations on the guidelines as per the minister’s request. She told Clark the reason was because she did not want to “cause a crisis.”

“We’re already in a crisis,” replied Clark.

During Forcier’s meeting with Lucas, she and Forcier were exchanging texts . When she said she had mentioned to Lucas that she was open to pausing consultations, Clark texted her: “I think you want to stop there.”

The next day, Clark told her in an email that he knows she wants to “get in the good graces” of the minister, but charged that any commitments she made to Lucas were “inappropriate” and “should never have been made before meeting with the Board”.

Clark was also convinced, based on things he had heard, that Duclos had no intention of meeting with Forcier, and in fact wanted to be rid of the PMPRB board members and was hoping they would resign.

“Nothing about what is happening right now is personal. It’s one hundred percent political, which is why it is especially problematic that the Minister is ‘asking’ us to suspend our consultations,” wrote Clark in an email to Forcier.

The PMPRB board — composed of Forcier, Matthew Herder, Carolyn Kobernick and Dr. Ingrid Sketris — convened later in the day after Forcier had her meeting with the deputy health minister. (Clark, as executive director, was not on the board)

Emails show they planned to let the consultation process run its course by Dec. 5 ,as planned, and reconvene later in mid-December to reconsider the minister’s request for a “pause.”

On Dec. 1, 2022, Forcier let board members know by email she could not support that decision.

“If this is the case, unfortunately, I will not support it. I will inform the Minister and, necessarily, I will have to think about my place within the Board because it is essential for me, in the development of public policies, to take the time to listen and to consider the actors,” she wrote.

Forcier then informed the board on Dec. 2, 2022 she would take it upon herself as acting chairperson to suspend the consultation period, to which Herder replied that the decision to suspend had to be made by the board as a group.

Herder wrote in a separate email to the two other board members later that day that he had lost “complete confidence” in Forcier and said he would be open to having a discussion about “the possibility of resigning (whether individually or together).”

The following day, on Dec. 3, 2022, Forcier said she would consider seeking an independent, outside legal opinion on whether she as acting chair had the authority to make the decision to pause consultations on guidelines.

“For several years now, the PMPRB has come up with reforms that resulted in extremely costly litigation. We lost several of these cases. I don’t want any more litigation,” Forcier argued. “I don’t understand why the members have such a problem with extending the consultation period.”

Clark’s email response was virulent. He told Forcier she had “no grounds” to seek outside legal advise, dismissed her concerns about litigation, and accused her of failing the board and consumers.

“I have never seen the head of an organization demonstrate such a lack of judgment and engage in such questionable ethical behaviour in so short a time,” Clark wrote.

Forcier shot back in another email that she was facing “insubordination and attacks on (her) reputation,” that her words were “being twisted,” that she was being “smeared,” and hinted she might be taking legal action against Clark for defamation.

“At first I thought it was your lack of understanding of French but then reading your email I realize that this is a clear attempt to portray me as a Chairperson without integrity,” she wrote.

“Never did I harm you personally and what you are doing in your email has me looking into what needs to be done to stop the harm to my reputation and defamation.”

Clark answered that all of their communications on this matter had been internal, not public “and therefore cannot possibly constitute defamation”.

Forcier reiterated she would still indicate her dissent of the board’s decision. “I note that the staff does not wish to positively respond to my request for an external and independent legal advice. Thank you for this answer. It is noted,” she wrote in an email on Dec. 4, 2022.

Forcier ended up resigning as PMPRB acting chairperson and board member on Dec. 5, 2022. Her departure forced the board to pause consultations on the guidelines.

“For a variety of reasons, I realize that I will not be the person to carry this organization forward. I am hopeful that the next Chairperson will be appointed in the near future and that they will be successful in carrying out their mandate,” she wrote in a letter sent to the clerk of the Privy Council.

On Feb. 1, Duclos announced he had appointed a new chairperson, Thomas J. Digby, an attorney with over 25 years experience in pharmaceutical patent law.

Clark and Herder both resigned from their positions later that same month. In his resignation letter, Herder denounced the Liberal government for failing to defend its own drug-pricing reform plan.

“In the absence of the political courage to support meaningful policy reform, the position of the PMPRB has become untenable,” Herder wrote.

Clark has assumed a new role as a special adviser to the board, and the PMRB said in a statement he is transitioning to retirement from the federal public service.

National Post

clevesque@postmedia.com
OPEC denies media access to Reuters, Bloomberg, WSJ for weekend policy meets
Story by Reuters • Yesterday

FILE PHOTO: A 3D printed oil pump jack is seen in front of displayed Opec logo in this illustration picture© Thomson Reuters

VIENNA (Reuters) - OPEC has denied media access to reporters from Reuters, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal to report on oil policy meetings in Vienna this weekend, reporters, Bloomberg and people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

The three media organizations are among the world's leading suppliers of financial news and information. They report on the outcome of policy meetings between OPEC and its allies, where ministers make decisions that impact the price of the world's most traded commodity.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies is a group known as OPEC+ and includes top oil producers Saudi Arabia and Russia. Ministers from the group, which pumps more than 40% of the world's oil supply, are scheduled to gather on Saturday and Sunday for regular biannual meetings.

OPEC staff declined on Friday to give media accreditation to Reuters journalists to cover the event. The staff handling media accreditation at one of Vienna's luxury hotels said they could not issue accreditation without an invite. They did not comment when asked why Reuters reporters received no invites.

OPEC has not responded to requests for comment from Reuters this week on why it has not invited or accredited Reuters reporters for the meet.

"We believe that transparency and a free press serve both readers and markets, and we object to this restriction on coverage," a spokesperson for Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters Corp, said on Friday.

"Reuters will continue to cover OPEC in an independent, impartial and reliable way in keeping with the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles."

A reporter from Bloomberg was also denied accreditation on Friday, a person familiar with the matter said.

A Bloomberg spokesperson confirmed on Friday the company has not been given accreditation to cover the OPEC meeting.

The Wall Street Journal did not respond to a request for comment.

Reporters from the three outlets, many of whom have been covering OPEC meetings for years, did not receive invitations from OPEC ahead of the meeting.

Without accreditation, journalists cannot enter the OPEC Secretariat where the ministers meet, or attend press conferences during the event.

Reporters at other media outlets including trade publications Argus and Platts received accreditation on Friday. Argus confirmed its reporters have been accredited and will attend. Platts did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Alex Lawler, Dmitry Zhdannikov, Ahmad Ghaddar, Julia Payne, Maha El Dahan; writing by Simon Webb; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

About half of Republicans oppose book bans: poll
Story by Jared Gans • Yesterday 



About half of Republicans oppose book bans: poll© Provided by The Hill

About half of all Republicans oppose banning books in schools, even as many GOP lawmakers throughout the country have implemented laws restricting materials being taught in the classroom, according to a poll released Friday.

The NPR/Ipsos poll shows 51 percent of Republicans oppose state lawmakers passing laws to ban certain books and remove them from classrooms and libraries, including 31 percent who said they strongly oppose it. More than 45 percent also said they oppose individual school boards banning books.

About a third of Republican respondents said they support state lawmakers passing laws on books bans, while about 40 percent said they support school boards taking action.

An analysis from PEN America released in April found that 1,477 book bans were put into place during the first half of the 2022-23 school year, covering 874 unique books. States with the most book bans — Texas, Florida, Missouri, Utah and South Carolina — have all implemented laws that at least somewhat restrict content allowed to be present in public school libraries.

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Many Republicans have aimed to ban books referencing the LGBTQ community, claiming their contents are pornographic or subject children to inappropriate topics. Some have also targeted books that discuss racism and race relations.

But pollsters found that respondents were generally not supportive of book bans. About two-thirds of respondents said they somewhat or strongly oppose state lawmakers or school boards approving book bans.

Almost 60 percent of K-12 parents polled said they oppose book bans from school boards, and two-thirds said they oppose state lawmakers’ bans.

Democrats and independents were even more opposed to book bans; About 85 percent of Democrats said they oppose bans from school boards and lawmakers, and about two-thirds of independents said the same.

The poll was conducted among 1,316 U.S. adults, including 452 parents of K-12 students, from May 5-11. The margin of error for the entire sample was 3 percentage points, and the margin for K-12 parents was 4.8 points.

Growing wheat is getting harder in a hotter world: study

Story by Saul Elbein • The Hill
Yesterday 


Two of the world’s major wheat-growing regions are skating on the ragged edge of a catastrophic failure.

Since 1981, wheat-withering heat waves have become 16 times more common in the Midwest, according to a study published Friday in the journal NPJ Climate and Atmospheric Science.

That means a crop-destroying temperature spike that might have come to the Midwest once in a century in 1981 will now visit the region approximately every 6 years, the study has found. In China, such frequency has risen to every 16 years.

Wheat is the main food grain produced in the United States. These findings are a sign that farmers need to be prepared for a future that is markedly more disrupted than the past, the authors wrote.

“The historical record is no longer a good representation of what we can expect for the future,” said Erin Coughlan de Perez of Tufts University, the lead author on the paper.

“We live in a changed climate and people are underestimating current day possibilities for extreme events,” Coughlan de Perez added.

The study comes as Congress debates what to cut from the upcoming farm bill — an enormous omnibus package that subsidizes much of American agriculture — to mollify hard-line conservatives opposed to any increase in spending.

Existing farm bill programs — and in particular those that deliver crop insurance, a key safety net amid disaster — are being strained by the increasing instances of extreme weather like heat waves and droughts.

In many ways, wheat — which was domesticated by ancient farmers in the dryland communities of Syria — is better suited than corn to the dry climate of the Midwest. Like other cereal grains, wheat boasts a special pair of “guard proteins” posted to keep water from escaping from the tiny holes on the leaves where plants breathe.


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Some Oklahomans have gone nearly eight months without meaningful rain.
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That biological difference means that drought hits wheat yields far less hard than it does corn, a 2016 study in PLOS One found.

But heat represents another significant threat, the NPJ study found.

The risk is not the scorching heat of summer but an unseasonably warm spring — which causes wheat plants to suffer heat stress at the crucial moment when they flower.

At above 82 degrees Fahrenheit, flowering wheat plants begin to suffer heat stress. At 91 F, essential biological processes within the plants begin to break down.

And since record-breaking heat tends to coincide with similarly extreme drought, that means a compound threat that can lead to wheat crops being killed off shortly before harvest.

This is getting more common, Coughlan de Perez said. It used to be unusual in the Midwest for spring wheat crops to reach temperatures in which they began to break down.

“We used to have seasons where you’d see an average of maybe four or five days of that enzyme breakdown threshold being exceeded — it was pretty uncommon,” she said.

But now if conditions break wrong, they could lead to heat waves that led to as many as 15 days above that threshold, which they described as “very damaging.”

Part of what makes planning for such outcomes difficult is that they are so unpredictable: Even as temperatures get hotter on average, relatively cooler years can precede ones that are devastatingly hot.

That’s why climate scientists often compare the weather to a game of dice that climate change is steadily loading — meaning extreme outcomes are more likely.

Both regions have been unusually lucky in recent years: During the cool years of the La Niña, the plains of the Midwest and Northeast China have experienced much cooler weather than should be possible under the Earth’s warming climate.

“These regions haven’t experienced the full extent of what is possible, and they might not be ready for it,” the authors wrote.

Cooler weather has led to a dangerous complacency in a world where climate change has loaded the dice, the authors wrote.

“I think, with climate change, we’re suffering from a failure of imagination. If we’re not imagining the kinds of extremes that could happen, then we won’t prepare for them,” Coughlan de Perez said.
Montreal: holdout tenant halts developer’s push to force her out

Story by Leyland Cecco in Toronto •  The Guardian

Photograph: Canadian Press/Shutterstock

A single holdout tenant in a Montreal apartment block has halted a multimillion-dollar development project, in a standoff which has focused fresh attention on the lack of affordable housing in major Canadian cities.


Real estate developer Mondev has been trying for years to persuade Carla White to move from her small, C$400-a-month apartment so it can demolish a row of mostly abandoned buildings and build 176 condominium units.

Her one-room unit in the decrepit building lacks a working stove and can only narrowly fit a desk, a bed and some leafy green plants. But for White, who previously experienced homelessness and current does not have a job, the bachelor apartment has been home for a decade – not least because under Quebec regulations, her rent has remained frozen to ensure it remains affordable.

“She’s not trying to save the building. She knows it needs to be renovated. She just wants somewhere safe and affordable to live,” White’s lawyer Manuel Johnson told the Guardian, adding that she wants a similar apartment on a long-term affordable lease – or enough compensation from the developer to ensure she won’t lose shelter in the coming years.

In a meeting in early May, the city’s demolition committee approved plans to tear down a number of buildings, including White’s apartment complex. But the committee also said the developer needed to find a solution for White.

Other tenants have accepted offers from Mondev, and partners Michael and David Owen told the Canadian Press this week they had made numerous offers to White over the last three years – all of which she has declined.

Michael Owen said the company had been unable to reach an agreement with White, and that there is “no path” forward, alleging she is demanding a “penthouse apartment worth thousands a month” on an indefinite lease – a claim her lawyer disputes.

White has expressed concern that if she accepted Mondev’s offer of a unit in a different building, rent could be raised in the coming years. But Owen said the apartment they offered is in a building old enough that annual increases are limited under the same provincial regulations.

David Owen told the demolition committee earlier in May that the company had offered White C$20,000, a figure Johnson confirmed.

“It seems, to a certain extent, that she is using this opportunity to either better her lifestyle or hold us for ransom almost, because the things that she’s requesting are way beyond the norm,” said Owen, adding “she thinks that she has a lottery ticket and not a lease, and that’s what the problem is.”

But Johnson says any amount offered by the developer would only cover a year or two of rent.

“Even if we took the $20,000 they offered, it would just go into the pocket of another landlord, who has most likely evicted low-income tenants and raised rents as part of the wave of ‘renovations’ sweeping across Canada and Montreal,” said Johnson. “Whatever reasonable settlement Ms White needs for housing stability in no way will endanger the financial viability of their project. They don’t have any cashflow problems, they’re going to be making millions of dollars on this development.”

Like other cities, Montreal suffers from a dearth of affordable social housing, where residents wait an average of five years for a subsidized apartment. While the city can require new development to include affordable units, the Mondev project does not have that requirement.

White’s fight, as a lone renter standing up to one of Montreal’s largest developers, has also captured the frustration of residents who see a city in which affordable housing is quickly disappearing, often to make way for costlier development projects.

“They majority of residents here are renters and there are still a lot of low-income people and working-class people in Montreal,” said Johnson. “We’re developing the city but we’re leaving many of these residents behind when we’re building these projects.”


Carla White on the roof of her apartment block.
 Photograph: Canadian Press/Shutterstock

Mondev says it will now put the issue with the province’s housing tribunal to determine the appropriate compensation for White at a hearing in June. While the tribunal can suggest a figure, the final decision on whether to allow a demolition and construction permit rests on the city, and not the rental board.

“The amount that Ms White would need to have housing stability is not going to hold up their project for two seconds. And it’s going to cost the developer a lot less to buy out Ms White than to allocate a number of those 176 units over to affordable social housing,” said Johnson. “This is a question of the greater good. Development that should benefit all residents of Montreal and not just a handful of wealthy investors.”
Dirty water: Fisheries on West Coast may be vulnerable to money laundering

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

The lack of transparency about who owns or controls commercial fishing licences, quota and vessels in Canada makes them attractive targets for criminals looking to launder money.

That warning was issued by lawyer and former RCMP deputy commissioner Peter German in testimony at a House committee meeting this week.

German — who authored two explosive “Dirty Money” reports for the B.C. government detailing the depth of money laundering in the province — spoke to the Standing Committee of Fisheries and Oceans (FOPO) as part of its ongoing investigation into foreign ownership and corporate concentration of fishing licences and quota.

German stressed his expertise lies in scrutinizing money laundering, organized crime and corruption, not fisheries policy.

However, he noted the lack of transparency and the federal government’s marginal understanding of who owns or controls West Coast fishing licences and quota are red flags that have been raised at FOPO repeatedly.

Additionally, in B.C. there are no apparent conditions on ownership of licences or quota, which control access to Canadian fisheries, German said.

“When you don’t have a transparent ownership system, in which the public is able to see who the ultimate, beneficial owners are of fishing licences and quotas, you are vulnerable to the involvement of [foreign] state actors, organized crime and money launderers,” German told the committee.

The purchase and sale of West Coast fishing licences and quota were flagged by the province as points for investigation during German’s second report on money laundering in 2019, which highlighted the use of luxury cars and real estate transactions to wash illicit money, he said.

“It is worth noting that the linkage between fisheries, organized crime and money laundering is a subject which has been studied internationally, including by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime,” German told FOPO. Criminality tied to the fishing industry hasn’t been a focus of major investigation in B.C., according to the 2019 Dirty Money report.

However, the high degree of concentration of ownership of West Coast fisheries licences and quota — a set share of allowable catch — revealed during research for the report was “alarming,” German said. As was the degree of ownership by foreign entities and non-citizens.

The top four “visible” owners of quota in the groundfish trawl, halibut and sablefish fisheries are foreign entities or individuals who don’t work the deck of fishing boats but own up to half of the B.C.’s quota for those species, the report concluded. Its findings were based on interviews and data from Ecotrust, a public policy group focused on the well-being of rural communities that also presented to FOPO earlier in May.

Owners of commercial fishing licences in B.C. are listed in a registry but often as numbered companies, which makes determining who owns or controls the licence difficult, the report said.

This protects licence-holders from public scrutiny. On the Pacific coast, there are also no citizenship or residential conditions or vetting of the buyers or the money used to purchase licences, quota or even fishing boats (which can all value into millions of dollars).


Money-laundering concerns aren’t as prevalent on the East Coast because the federal government has regulations that limit ownership of commercial licences to local fish harvesters who operate their vessels, German said.

As a result of B.C.’s money-laundering investigations, the province has created a landowner transparency registry to curb money laundering in real estate, German noted. The federal government is also in the process of developing a public corporate ownership registry to tackle money laundering, tax evasion and prevent the funding of terrorist groups.

“The same should apply to the fisheries,” German stressed.

“We cannot simply allow our fisheries to be sold to unknown persons using unsourced funds.”

Establishing laws or mechanisms to prevent money laundering will be ineffective unless dedicated staff and funds are also deployed, he added.

“It's a case of having enforcement agencies that are resourced and enabled and prioritize this type of work.”

Transactions involving fishing licences, quota and boat sales also don’t have to be filed with FINTRAC, the federal intelligence agency monitoring suspicious financial activity, German added.

“This is regrettable, as it eliminates an important source of intelligence for investigators seeking to ensure that the fisheries are not being used by organized crime,” German said.

“Dirty money must be laundered and it will inevitably move to areas of less resistance.”

The committee asked German for further detail on the possible links between quota ownership and money laundering uncovered during his investigation.

“[There] was an individual who had purchased a large number of quotas and was also a whale gambler in our casinos,” German said, adding that alone doesn’t demonstrate a connection to organized crime.

“That’s not a conclusion that we could draw,” he said.

However, the example highlights potential concerns when the provenance of money used to purchase fisheries and quota — or any other commodity — is vague and unknown, German said.

It’s a problem faced in various sectors, including the sale of luxury cars or boats, he said, adding unvetted funds were at the root of B.C.'s casino money-laundering debacle, which ultimately prompted stricter rules in the gambling sector.

“Is the source of funds legitimate?” German asked.

“Or are the fisheries being used as part of a broader attempt to invest money obtained through crime, or avoiding overseas capital controls or evading taxes?”

Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer

Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer
VIDEOTRON/QUEBECOR INC.
Freedom Mobile employees looking to unionize

© Provided by MobileSyrup

Story by MobileSyrup • Yesterday 

Freedom Mobile has a new owner, and its employees are using the change in management as a possible opportunity to unionize.

Labour union Teamsters Canada says Freedom employees have reached out to the organization to learn how they can take action.

According to reporting from The Canadian Press, retail and call center employees are interested in unionizing.

Christopher Monette, Teamsters Canada’s director of public affairs, told the publication the union has spoken with workers “hundreds of times” since Freedom became a Québecor company.

“The campaign is progressing rapidly,” Monette said.

Selling Freedom to Québecor’s Vidéotron was crucial for Rogers to acquire Shaw in a $26-billion transaction that was finalized in April.

“[The aquisiton] set off a wave of uncertainty and anxiety among workers at the company, who are now looking for ways to protect their jobs, protect what they have in terms of wages and working conditions, and, indeed, maybe even go out and secure even better wages and working conditions,” Monette said.

Vidéotron told The Canadian Press it was aware of the ongoing efforts.

Source: Teamsters Canada Via: The Canadian Press
The U.S. writers strike began 1 month ago. Here's how it's affecting the Canadian industry

Solidarity overrides everything, says Canadian writer

Story by Jenna Benchetrit • 7h ago

The Ontario film and television industry had a record-breaking year in 2022, with substantial growth partly thanks to U.S.-produced shows like The Handmaid's Tale and The Boys, which shoot in Canada.

But only 15 projects set up shop in Toronto this year amid talk of the now-ongoing U.S. writers strike, compared to 25 last year, according to Marguerite Pigott, the city's film commissioner and director of the entertainment industry.


Workers and supporters of the Writers Guild of America protest outside Universal Studios Hollywood after union negotiators called a strike for film and television writers in Los Angeles on May 3, 2023.© Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

"Scouting slowed down January to March, so we absolutely knew what to expect. The whole industry knew what to expect," Pigott told CBC News.

The strike began one month ago — and the Canadian industry has steeled itself for the ripple effects of a labour action that has shut down scores of Hollywood film and television productions.

A similar effect to what Pigott described has taken hold in western Canada. British Columbia hit a low of 28 active productions just before the beginning of the strike — around half of what it would typically be at that time of the year, according to Gemma Martini, the CEO of Martini Film Studios in Langley.

While Toronto's domestic industry is still going strong, Canadian film and TV staff who work across borders have suffered losses, said Pigott.

"There's no question that people in the industry are feeling the pain, especially people on crews."

Feature films rarely begin shooting without a finished script; Canadian independent productions that work with Writers Guild of Canada members are untouched by the strike south of the border.

But a large number of U.S. series, like Abbott Elementary, have reportedly been delayed. Ditto for Canadian co-productions like Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, which is shot in Toronto, and HBO's The Last of Us, which will film its second season in Vancouver.

Pigott emphasized that it's a matter of if, not when, the U.S. industry returns to Toronto. Outside of Ontario, Canadian cities like Montreal, Halifax and Calgary are favoured shooting locations for our American neighbours.

"We know the writers strike is going to end at some point," said Pigott. "When it ends, there will absolutely be that boom."

Solidarity overrides everything, says Canadian writer


Abdul Malik, a screenwriter and former labour organizer in Edmonton, said he has stopped working on his U.S. projects in solidarity with the writers strike.
© Gabrielle Brown/CBC

Many Canadian writers who've developed projects in the U.S. have put down their pens to support Writers Guild of America members.

Abdul Malik, a screenwriter and former labour organizer based in Edmonton, put all of his U.S. projects on hold when the strike began last month.


Related video: Writers strike not looking good for your favourite TV shows (cbc.ca)
Duration 2:06


"If the roles were reversed, I'd want the Americans to do it for me, right? So solidarity sort of overrides everything in that case," he told CBC News.

Malik, whose credits include CTV medical drama Transplant, the Prime Video series Streams Flow From A River and newly announced CBC drama Allegiance, said the streaming era has resulted in more U.S.-based opportunities for Canadian writers.

"That isn't to say that Canada isn't sustainable for me right now, but the upside of America is really high for Canadian writers if they can make it there," he explained.

Meanwhile, U.S. networks could be eyeballing Canadian content as a strike contingency to fill out their fall schedules. For the record, the CW Network picking up Run The Burbs, Son of a Critch, Moonshine and other Canadian programming seems to be unrelated to the strike.

But NBC recently ordered two more seasons of Transplant. We may see more of these deals throughout the summer, Malik said.

"I think you could make a reasonable assumption that a lot of American networks are looking at the quality content we produce in Canada and brokering deals with producers to air it in the U.S."

Malik said his friends in Los Angeles have been absorbing a decline in working conditions for years. Canadian scribes are experiencing many of the same issues plaguing their U.S. peers: smaller writers rooms and a shorter timeline to develop projects at a faster pace, he added.

"I do think there's a vested interest across the Canadian media sphere to keep writers in the country … it doesn't mean that we're not feeling the squeeze here, either."

Writers gave studios 'a gift,' says prof

The Hollywood studios have a triple-threat on the horizon — and not the actor-dancer-singer kind.

The Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild have contracts with the studios set to expire on June 30 — the latter union will hold a strike authorization vote this month. High-profile actors like Colin Farrell, Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Coolidge have shown up to support writers on the picket line.

They might be winning the PR battle, but the writers guild has "terribly miscalculated their leverage" against the Hollywood studios, said Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at New York University.

Studios drew a hard line on negotiations with writers, saying their profitability is declining as intense content competition and high costs hurt their bottom line.

"The studios need to recalibrate their costs, and they couldn't have imagined a bigger gift than a union forcing everyone to slow down and cut costs multilaterally," Galloway told CBC News.

From traditional networks like ABC to streaming giants like Netflix, studios have been preparing for an action with so-called "strike-proof" lineups — mostly a combination of non-scripted reality shows, and international series like the aforementioned CanCon, though you'll see South Korean and Indian exports pop up in your algorithm too.

Galloway was blunt: "The practical reality is the content bank of these studios is much deeper than the personal bank accounts of these writers."

He said the real enemy to writers are platforms like TikTok, which are pulling young audiences away from traditional Hollywood entertainment.

"I think all of the leverage and all of the incentives point to one thing: a nuclear winter for writers," he said.

Malik, the writer, said he disagrees with Galloway's analysis.

He believes networks will lose eyeballs from their "strike-proof" slates, and that TikTok and YouTube — while part of a larger entertainment ecosystem — aren't naturally built to support the type of dramatic entertainment that people love, à la Breaking Bad or Succession.

He expects the strike to last at least until September, if not beyond. It's simply a matter of who flinches first: the writers guild or the studios, he said.

"Hopefully I'll be going to the U.S. with the knowledge that they have a stronger contract and a lot more stuff that would benefit me and other Canadian writers like me."
UK
‘Women are expected to put up and shut up’: the toxicity of attending men’s football

Story by Sam Dalling
THE GUARDIAN
 • Yesterday 

Photograph: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images© Provided by The Guardian

Ask anyone what they enjoy about attending professional women’s football and the answers will be similar: they are reeled in not only by the quality but the atmosphere, friendliness and inclusivity. With the women’s game growing, the toxicity around men’s football, especially for travelling supporters, is an even more glaring contrast. As the season ends, the Guardian spoke to fans of clubs across the Premier League and EFL who reported offensive chants, language, behaviour and sexual assaults. For women, families, black, Asian and minority ethnic and LGBTQ+ fans, following their team on the road can be difficult and uncomfortable.

One female supporter spoke of experiencing sexual assaults regularly when following her team and going to other games with friends. “I’ve normalised it,” she said. “You’d think I’d turn around and call them out, but I didn’t. Last time, it was only [when] walking back to the car I said to my husband: ‘Oh yeah, that’s happened again.’ I should have been more horrified, but it happens all the time, particularly at away games where people have been drinking all day. They think that’s acceptable. I don’t accept that.”

Other supporters say physical threats are the exception rather than the rule. “You can absolutely have a horrible experience and feel massively uncomfortable but at no point feel that your personal safety is under threat. They are two very different things,” says a female supporter of a Premier League club.

But she adds: “The number of times women are expected to ‘put up and shut up’ in an uncomfortable scenario, or get told: ‘Don’t be soft, you need to harden up – this is football.’ ‘If you want to come to football, you’ve got to grow a pair.’ What? You must be kidding?”

The link between away games and unacceptable behaviour is striking. A fan of a northern club said that whereas she loves to go to away games with her father, she would not do so alone. Another said that solo home games are fine but she would not consider an away fixture without a companion. The Women of Watford group is designed to address this by allowing like-minded fans to travel and sit together. The club works alongside them to ensure this happens.

Many away fans travel by coach, whether unofficial or laid on by clubs. An LGBTQ+ supporter of a north-west team said she and her partner would never take their children on either. “You see tweets like: ‘We’re going hounding’, which basically means to pick up women,” she said. She is almost self-critical when adding that in all other areas of life she stands up to homophobic discrimination but accepts it at football.

Some fixtures – usually derbies – are designated as “bubble games”, with police dictating that away fans must use designated transport methods. A female supporter who recently took a mandatory coach to one such match spoke of feeling extremely uncomfortable at men urinating in bottles and the casual use of racist and homophobic language. At the same derby, away fans with disabilities were housed directly beneath home fans.

The longer the expectation-cum-acceptance of unhealthy norms in fan behaviour remains unchallenged, the deeper rooted they become. But the next generation of fans can bring about change.

Obtaining a ticket for an away game can be tricky, though. Football historically rewards supporter loyalty, a practice that reflects the wider business world but acts as a barrier to entry. How can one accrue credit without opportunity?

The female fan who travels with her dad relies on his friend not using his booking reference. Given the high demand for away tickets she will, without change, never be eligible of her own accord.

Manchester City addressed this a few seasons ago. Five percent of away tickets are reserved for supporters aged between 18 and 25, and loyalty points are no longer awarded for purchasing away tickets. Further, a randomly selected set of fans must collect their ticket on the day from the away club. The aim here was to close the “buy-to-sell” market. All simple steps but ones that can make a real difference.

Most clubs have posters in stadiums encouraging supporters to text a helpline if they hear foul and abusive language or discrimination. However, the way this is dealt with remains problematic.

A fan ambassador at one Premier League club has received complaints that the stewards would openly ask the complainant to identify the perpetrator. A similar story was told about a lower-league club. That instantly removes the cloak of anonymity, discouraging people from coming forward.

Another top-flight club promises zero tolerance on foul and abusive language. But one away supporter said that after reporting a home fan who spent an hour screaming obscenities at away fans, the stewards did not initially remove the offender. Only when pushed on the club’s zero-tolerance approach was the individual ejected. This behaviour is typical of those buying tickets at the barrier between home and away supporters.

Steward inertia can be problematic. “When they say zero tolerance, it isn’t zero tolerance,” says another female supporter. “Anything that crosses the line – violence, potentially something like racism – they’ll do something about that. But it’s not zero tolerance against aggressive language. It’s almost like it’s expected.”

No one suggested a blanket ban on offensive language at football, but when the primary aim of attending is to scream abuse, surely that crosses the line?

Several contributors also believed that clubs who receive pushback from banned fans do not want the hassle of resisting, or do not investigate actively enough. A supporter at a Championship club reported a fan for racially abusing a player. Despite several witnesses being present, that fan is still allowed to attend matches.

Then there are the songs. At their best, football chants can be witty, heart-filling cries. But at their worst, they are hate crimes. Post-pandemic, the trivialisation of sex offences is commonplace. Homophobia and racism, too.

Related: Football fans, the national anthem and a battle for who controls the public space | Jonathan Liew

The difficulty, clubs say, is in how hard to approach these issues: active cease-and-desist requests can have the opposite effect. Take, for example, a black player who asked his supporters not to sing about his genitals. Instead, his own fans sang louder. For parents, such chants can lead to difficult questions and conversations.

Clubs can only do so much. Everyone attending men’s football must play their part. But easy wins are not being recognised, initiatives such as those run by Manchester City or supported by Watford that other clubs could follow.

Clubs could ensure zero tolerance really does mean zero tolerance. The men’s game is lagging behind and must catch up.