TVO employees walk off the job Monday after negotiations stall

The Canadian Press
Mon, August 21, 2023 at 11:09 a.m. MDT·3 min read



TORONTO — Dozens of workers at Ontario’s public broadcaster walked off the job Monday morning after months of bargaining.

"We're living in a time where hard work is not paying off the way it used to for previous generations," said Meredith Martin, TVO's branch president with the Canadian Media Guild (CMG).

The union represents around 70 journalists, producers and education workers at the Ontario organization. Some employees at the broadcaster are represented by Unifor and are not part of the current bargaining process.

Earlier in August, almost 96 per cent of CMG members at TVO rejected an offer from the employer. The workers have been in a legal strike position since Friday morning.

One of the main sticking points is the use of contracts to fill permanent positions, the union previously said. It has also said the wages on offer are well below what’s needed for workers to catch up to the surging cost of living.

Members have received below-inflation wage increases for the past 10 years, CMG said in a previous press release, including three years of wage freezes.

The union says they deserve meaningful increases after seeing their wages capped by the one per cent limit imposed by Ontario provincial wage restraint law known as Bill 124, which capped salary increases for broader public sector workers at one per cent a year for three years. The law was declared unconstitutional last year, though the province has appealed.

Last Tuesday, the union said the wage increases on offer amounted to 2.75 per cent, 2.5 per cent, and 1.75 per cent increases over three years with a potential 1.75 per cent raise for a fourth year.

That's unchanged, said Martin.

TVO has been negotiating for months to find an agreement that is fair for employees and is "respectful of the public and donor dollars TVO manages," the organization said in a press release Monday.

"While it is unfortunate that we have not yet been able to come to a collective bargaining agreement with our CMG employees, TVO Media Education Group remains committed to continuing discussions with CMG and finding a resolution," CEO Jeffrey Orridge said in the release.

TVO viewers may notice changes to upcoming current affairs content, but will be able to watch other programs and documentaries as well as access content on TVO's app, website and newsletter, and education content on platforms like TVO Learn, the organization said.

TVO airs current affairs shows including “The Agenda with Steve Paikin,” but also has a mandate to provide learning resources that follow the provincial school curriculum.

The Ministry of Education has given an order to only create temporary contract jobs at TVO, even for permanent work, the union said in a previous release, adding that it has been told it won’t get a deal without this concession.

“These are public sector jobs that the government is trying to turn into gig work and CMG members at TVO cannot abide it,” the union said in a statement on Tuesday.

“By keeping workers in precarious contracts, TVO is denying workers health benefits, dismantling job security, and impairing the stability needed to deliver strong public services for all Ontarians.”

Some striking Metro workers were at the picket line Monday morning outside TVO's headquarters in solidarity, said Martin.

The Canadian Media Guild also represents some employees at The Canadian Press.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 21, 2023.

Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press

As worker, housing shortages collide, Canada hones in on newcomers in skilled trades

Story by Uday Rana 

A new condo site under construction in Montreal on June 9, 2023. Canada has announced Express Entry invitations for newcomers with experience in the trades.© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

Governments can’t just ‘throw money’ to solve housing issues for asylum seekers: Fraser

As Canada faces a labour crunch and housing shortage, the federal government is launching a separate stream of entry for newcomers with work experience in skilled trades.

Newly appointed immigration minister Marc Miller announced on Tuesday the first round of invitations under the Express Entry system for people working in trades.

“It’s absolutely critical to address the shortage of skilled trades workers in our country, and part of the solution is helping the construction sector find and maintain the workers it needs,” said Miller in a statement, making his first major announcement as Canada’s new immigration minister.

"This round of category-based selection recognizes these skilled trades workers as essential, and I look forward to welcoming more of these talented individuals to Canada."

Sean Fraser, Miller’s predecessor, had announced in May that Canada would amend the Express Entry program by adding category-based selections.

“Category-based selection signals Canada’s commitment to attract top global talent and help meet the need for tradespeople to support the economy. These category-based selection rounds will continue throughout the year, alongside general invitation rounds, and more details will be announced in the coming weeks,” an Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) press release said.

The statement added that by welcoming people in skilled trades such as carpentry, plumbing and welding, Canada can help its construction sector attract skilled workers.

Trades is the latest category to be added to the list of categories eligible for the Express Entry program. The others are French-language proficiency, healthcare occupation, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) occupations, transportation occupations and agriculture and agri-food occupations.

To qualify for Express Entry in the trades category, an applicant must have accumulated, within the past three years, at least six months of full-time, continuous work experience (or an equal amount of part-time work experience) in skilled trades in Canada or abroad.

Video: Canada expanding immigration in health-care sector

The construction industry is short tens of thousands of workers, and experts say a coming wave of retirements could make the problem worse. Meanwhile, Canada is millions of homes behind what’s needed to reach housing affordability this decade.

The job vacancy rate in construction is at a record high with around 80,000 vacancies in the industry, said CIBC deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal in a recent note.

Those vacancies, which push up building costs and impede productivity, come at a time when the residential construction industry is under pressure to meet the demands of a growing population.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. forecasts a need for 3.5 million more homes by 2030 than the country is currently on track to build.

The number of new homes built, however, has been in decline, from just over 271,000 in 2021 to 260,000 in 2022. And in May this year, the annual pace of housing starts dropped 23 per cent month over month, leading the CMHC’s chief economist to predict that just 210,000 to 220,000 new homes will be built by the end of the year.

— with files from the Canadian Press

Half of Canadians do not have a doctor, or battle for appointments: survey

Story by Katie Dangerfield 

The association representing doctors in Newfoundland and Labrador says the province has signed on to pay a private telehealth company more than double what it pays family doctors for a consultation.

In the midst of a family doctor shortage across the country, half of Canadians do not have a primary care physician or have difficulty securing a timely appointment with their current one, according to a recent survey.

The survey, released Thursday by Angus Reid Institute and the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), found that one in five Canadians said they don’t have a family doctor.

For those fortunate enough to have one, the struggle persists, as 29 per cent of respondents said it was difficult to get an appointment. Thirty-seven per cent of respondents said it usually takes a few days to get an appointment with their family doctor, while 15 per cent said they get in right away.

Among Canadians who do not have a family physician, 26 per cent have abandoned their search, while another 38 per cent have been looking for more than a year, the survey found.

"As a family physician working in Canada, I understand and I know the value of primary care," Dr. Kathleen Ross, president of the CMA, told Global News. "And when you don't have access to that, there's delayed diagnosis, difficulty navigating a complex system, patients are left to their own devices to try and sort out their medical concerns. We need to address this urgently."

A 2022 CMA report found that family physicians reported a higher rate of burnout than other medical or surgical specialists. And 62 per cent of family doctors said increased workload and lack of work-life balance negatively affected their mental health.

Video: Rural communities struggle to recruit family physicians

More than one in five Canadians — an estimated 6.5 million people — do not have a family physician or nurse practitioner they see regularly, according to a national survey released by OurCare.ca in April 2023.

And the extent of the shortage varies across the country, according to the CMA survey.

In Ontario, only 13 per cent of respondents reported lacking a family doctor, marking the lowest figure nationwide. In Quebec, this number doubles, with 26 per cent stating they do not have a general practitioner.

The shortage of family doctors is also a huge problem in Atlantic Canada. The survey found that roughly three in five in New Brunswick (61 per cent), Nova Scotia (67 per cent) and Newfoundland and Labrador (58 per cent) said they either don’t have a family doctor or it’s difficult to get an appointment with the one they have.

Recent immigrants to Canada also have difficulty accessing family doctors compared with those who have settled in the country for a longer time. For example, the survey found that 44 per cent of individuals who have been in Canada for less than five years said they do not have a family doctor. In contrast, the number drops for those who have been residents for over two decades, with 14 per cent reporting a similar dilemma.

"I think the average Canadian recognizes now that the health-care system is on its knees," Ross said.

"The cracks in our system are not new and they do run far too deeply for any one solution or any one entity or any one jurisdiction to solve on their own."

The survey highlighted that Canadians believe money is part of the solution to fix the country's broken health-care system, she said, but added that it is "definitely not the whole solution."

Global News

‘Frightening’ shortage of Canadian family doctor residents alarms experts

Duration 1:49   View on Watch

In February, Ottawa announced a health funding deal worth $196.1 billion over 10 years to the provinces and territories, including $46.2 billion in new money.

While a majority of Canadians (60 per cent) believe the funds will improve the health-care system, the majority in this group (51 per cent) believe the gains will be marginal, the survey found.

Two-thirds of Canadians said there are structural issues within the health-care system that cannot be resolved solely through money, according to the survey.

Canadians have priorities for what needs to be addressed and fixed.

For example, ensuring emergency departments are adequately staffed to avoid closures is a top-three priority for 43 per cent of Canadians. Reducing the mental health strain on health-care workers also ranks highly among potential fixes to the system (31 per cent). And reducing wait-lists for family doctors (27 per cent) and surgeries (31 per cent) is also a factor for Canadians.

"Streamlining application for physicians who want to work in Canada from other jurisdictions could be part of our manpower solution," Ross said. "But we recognize that when we do that, we're actually taking manpower from other countries and jurisdictions as well."

She said the CMA has been working to help the mobility of physicians across Canada.

"Having the ability to get a licence in one province and have that licence portable to other areas across Canada would go a long way to helping us address some of our challenges with staffing in rural and remote areas in particular," she said.

The survey was released the same day the CMA begins hosting its 2023 summit in Ottawa, which runs until Friday. Panels during the conference include addressing the physician shortage in Canada, the balance of public and private health care and systemic racism within the system.

The Angus Reid Institute and the Canadian Medical Association conducted an online survey from Aug. 1 to 8, 2023 among a representative randomized sample of 5,010 Canadian adults who are members of Angus Reid Forum. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of +/- 1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding. The survey was self-commissioned and paid for jointly by ARI and CMA.

Opinion

The terrible power of the state to ruin lives was exposed by the case of Andrew Malkinson

Sonia Sodha
Sun, 20 August 2023 

Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA

We like to think that our criminal justice system locks up criminals and exonerates the innocent. A comforting working assumption; but the reality is more complex. High-profile miscarriages of justice – and the years some spend wrongfully in prison – are signs that the system sometimes gets it dreadfully wrong. One way of designing out wrongful convictions is through a demanding evidentiary threshold: to convict someone, juries need to be “sure” that a defendant is guilty. The flipside of this is that the probably-guilty have to be allowed to walk free.

But jury deliberations are only one part of the process and are certainly not sufficient to prevent serious miscarriages of justice, as the horrific treatment of Andrew Malkinson has shown. Malkinson last month had his rape conviction overturned by the court of appeal after 17 years in prison. His case has been plagued by serious failings at every turn. Greater Manchester police failed to disclose key evidence undermining the prosecution’s case against him to his defence team at the time of his trial, including key witnesses’ criminal convictions and important photographic evidence. This only came to light 15 years later, as a result of extensive legal action by the charity Appeal.

Three years after his 2004 conviction, the DNA of another man was found in a “crime specific” spot on the victim’s clothing by a nationwide forensic review. The police and the Crown Prosecution Service were notified, but a CPS lawyer said there was no need for further work unless the case was brought to appeal, and then his focus would be on “bolstering” the case against Malkinson.


Malkinson applied twice to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) – the body charged with reviewing whether potentially unsafe convictions should be referred to the court of appeal – citing this new evidence, but the CCRC did not use its considerable investigatory powers to look at the original police file or request new DNA tests, and rejected his applications. It was only after the Appeal charity commissioned its own tests and uncovered the disclosure failures that Malkinson’s third application to the CCRC was successful, which resulted in the court of appeal overturning his conviction.

The issue starts with the way crimes are investigated and prosecuted

No one can give Malkinson back those 17 years. It is a reminder of the awesome power the state has to ruin people’s lives through corruption or incompetence. And it cannot be written off as a terrible but exceptional mistake. That such clear DNA evidence emerged makes Malkinson’s case unusual, but the fact that it still took him more than a decade to clear his name – with considerable time and resources invested by a campaigning charity – points to something seriously amiss in our justice system and the way it can produce, then fail to rectify, wrongful convictions.

The issue starts with the way crimes are investigated and prosecuted. The police’s role is to independently investigate crimes without prejudice; the CPS’s to make independent decisions about whether there is a strong enough case for the state to prosecute. They are not supposed to be “for” or “against” a defendant; they are statutorily obliged to disclose to the defence evidence that undermines their own investigation or case.

Yet even the most well-meaning police officers and CPS lawyers are human beings: it would take almost superhuman faculties not to become invested in a case against someone you really think did it. They operate in a system with shrinking resources, despite the greater volume of digital evidence involved in modern police work, and in a context of political pressure to increase conviction rates.

In our adversarial legal system, the main check on the independence of the police and the CPS is the defendant’s legal team. Yet deep cuts to legal aid mean that defence lawyers are operating on shoestring budgets, and there are serious questions about the quality of defence that people can access.

If a defendant has been wrongfully convicted, the appeals process is stacked against them. It can be difficult to find someone to represent you on legal aid in the first place. Some experienced lawyers and academics think that the court of appeal is itself too reluctant to quash wrongful convictions.

The CCRC was set up as an independent body to assess whether potentially unsafe convictions should be referred to the court of appeal, but it has been rendered unfit for purpose through funding cuts; worrying evidence hints at political interference. There is a lack of accountability over its decisions: the only potential challenge is through judicial review, an extremely expensive process. Malkinson is far from the only person turned down by the CCRC who went on to overturn their conviction. Victor Nealon’s application to appeal was rejected twice; his rape conviction was, like Malkinson’s, eventually overturned on the basis of DNA tests commissioned by his own legal team.

Ultimately, we have a justice system that embeds a naively optimistic view of human psychology

All this has led one former senior judge to argue that it has become harder than ever to challenge wrongful convictions; a damning assessment in light of the high-profile miscarriages of justice such as the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six that led to the establishment of the CCRC in the first place.

Ultimately, we have a justice system that embeds a naively optimistic view of human psychology – it relies on the independence of the police, CPS lawyers and judges while real-world pressures and biases tug against that – while significant reductions in resourcing have eroded some of the checks and balance on their decision-making. Add a political desire to improve conviction rates and you have a recipe for more miscarriages of justice.

The penalties are severe, most obviously for the person wrongfully convicted. The government may have now changed the rules around financial compensation, so that someone no longer has it docked because of “savings” they made on housing as a result of being unjustly convicted, but people must actively prove their innocence in order to get any compensation at all; Nealon did not qualify. But there are also penalties for the victim, who has to learnthat her attacker has gone unpunished, and for society at large, because the real perpetrator remains free to reoffend.

While it is poor, minoritised and overpoliced communities who disproportionately suffer the consequences, miscarriages of justice can affect anyone. Making sure that those who stand accused of terrible crimes get due process may not be a popular cause, but it is fundamental not just to the rule of law but to public faith in the justice system.

• Sonia Sodha is an Observer columnist

Lights, camera and almost no action — Hamilton film workers struggle as Hollywood strikes

Story by Cara Nickerson •


They have the lights and the cameras, but there's not much action for Hamilton's film productions right now, as unionized writers and actors in the U.S. continue striking.

Last year the province hit record highs for film and TV production, with around $3.15 billion contributed to Ontario's economy in 2022 — but Zach Zohr, owner of Hamilton Film Studios, told CBC Hamilton business has slowed to a trickle.

"I would say last year at this time, I would average 10 orders per day — and I'm seeing not even 5 per week right now."

Zohr's company offers studio space and film supplies to productions. Everything from gaffer tape to camera bags, make up to lighting rigs, for some of Hamilton's biggest TV series like The Handmaid's Tale, Umbrella Academy and The Boys.

"This is peak summer time. This is supposed to be film's busiest time," he said.
Canadian and American film productions are tied together

The Writer's Guild of America (WGA) has been on strike since May 2, while the Screen Actors Guild — American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has been on strike since July 14. At issue in the dispute is base and residual pay, which actors say has been undercut by inflation and the streaming ecosystem, benefits, and the threat of unregulated use of artificial intelligence.

"Employers make Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors that make the machine run," SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said. "Shame on them. They are on the wrong side of history."

While both organizations are based in the United States, Ontario's film industry is heavily tied to American productions.

Jennifer Pountney, communications manager with OntarioCreates, told CBC Hamilton in an email, that Ontario's film and television industry created "45,891 high-value full-time equivalent direct and spin-off jobs" in 2022.



The Netflix series The Umbrella Academy films in southern Ontario, including in Hamilton and in Scarborough, where this photo was taken. (Christos Kalohordis/Netflix)© Provided by cbc.ca

She said Canadian-based productions account for 38 per cent of production spending in Ontario.

Leah Kline has worked as a set designer on films and TV shows in Hamilton and Toronto for the past eight years. She said in her experience, American-based shows that film in Ontario are required to hire Canadian crew members.

In the past four years, Kline said she has seen a boom in film and television jobs in Hamilton, but said this summer the work has dried up.

"This time last summer the work was just off the chain, like there would be jobs opportunities every two weeks to work on different things," she said.

"This year (I) have only gotten that like once, maybe twice."



Leah Kline, a set designer based in Hamilton said film work in Hamilton has slowed down dramatically during the WGA and SAG strikes in the United States. (Submitted by Leah Kline )© Provided by cbc.ca

She said productions are only allowed to have a certain percentage of American employees.


"I'm not sure what the percentage is, but the majority needs to be local, like Ontario residents who are working on projects that are filmed in Ontario," she said.

A lot of the time, Kline said, higher up positions like directors, producers, writers and actors will be American and crew members are Canadian.

"There's a lot of people in this industry right now talking about switching careers again and that's a downer for sure," Zohr said.
More reality TV, Canadian content might get made

Canadian writers and actors are not on strike and filming is going ahead with Canadian projects, but Zohr said there isn't enough work to go around.

"The way Toronto and Hamilton has been booming for the last few years, now it's set up where we need all the American shows going just to keep everyone working. There's just not enough Canadian work to keep all the Canadian workers going," he said.

But Kline said she hopes the strikes will present an opportunity for more Canadian content to get made.

"Canadian writers are not on strike, right?" she said. "There's a possibility that more creative things are going to come out of this."

Kline said she believes people will notice reality shows like Blown Away — which is filmed at The Cotton Factory in Hamilton — and the CBC's Race Against the Tide now that there will be fewer programs hitting TV screens.

"This is an opportunity for some Canadian writers to get noticed, which wouldn't be bad," she said.

“Things We Lost in the Fire”: A View from the Writers Strike Line

Story by Todd Robinson •2d

“Things We Lost in the Fire”: A View from the Writers Strike Line© Provided by Hollywood Reporter

An Emmy-winning writer, producer and director, Todd Robinson has worked in film and television for nearly four decades — penning screenplays for White Squall, Lonely Hearts and The Last Full Measure. Prior to the current WGA strike, the second since he joined the guild, he’d been working on his next features Eldorado and Neponsit Circle, slated for production in 2024.

November 24, 2007, I was asleep in my childhood bedroom in my hometown of Media, Pennsylvania. Crushed after a brutal red-eye, followed by my 30th high school reunion, I was wasted.

In L.A., it was day 18 of the 2007-08 writer’s strike where I’d been picketing right up until Thanksgiving. It was a relief to get away from the sunburn, signs and honking cars. Back home, the gloom of a painful work stoppage seemed far away.

The strike had brought much into focus for my wife Elizabeth and me. I was a director and writer and she a literary agent turned manager. Our careers flowed in contrapuntal sign-waves, one of us up while the other was down. But now, because Liz represented writers, we suddenly had zero income. We had a mortgage to pay and the costs of having a young family. A strike was something we’d never experienced before and it was scary. We understood the stakes were enormously high. Then, as now, we were the visible face of American labor in a David-and-Goliath fight pitting worker bees against Africanized corporate hornets.

Cost-cutting from the bottom up always seems to be management’s first instinct rather than rewarding successful creators with a livable wage, which they can easily afford to do. For example, Netflix recently reported massive second-quarter profits of 8 billion dollars. A handsome gratuity for punishing account sharing and selling a lesser service, replete with advertising. On the other hand, we who generate the actual product are forbidden to share meaningfully in the fruits of our successes. Diabolical.

—

Back in 2007, sleeping off jet lag and a long night out, I was awakened by my mom. I tried to process as she held a phone out to me and said, “It’s Liz, honey. There’s a fire.”

Gathering myself, I took the phone. Liz explained that a wildfire was racing down the hills, surrounding our home on three sides. It was 4 a.m. in L.A., and the flames were raging. My son had a sleepover pal, there was my daughter, my visiting 85-year-old mother-in-law, two dogs, and two hamsters, all of whom had to be evacuated.

My wife is unflappable in a crisis. We’d been through family emergencies and fires before. But this was different. Not unlike in Lahaina, 70 mile-per-hour winds were driving 100-foot flames across the Santa Monica Mountains. For the first time since I’d met my wife, I heard fear in her voice.

My family only had minutes to flee. Nearly everything but our wedding album was left behind. Liz’s parting words to me were, “We’re going, I’m sorry. I don’t know if the house will be here when you get home.”

—

What’s happening in entertainment today, and in the broader labor force in general, feels a lot like that approaching firestorm, — an existential killing machine intent on carpet bombing workers, intimidating unions and guilds, while attempting to incinerate collective bargaining altogether.

For those outside of Hollywood, let me break down what getting paid as a writer actually looks like.

Let’s say you manage to earn $150,000 a year. Most don’t, but we’ll take that number. Ten percent goes to your agent. If you have a manager (many do), 10 percent more. Five percent goes to your lawyer and another 2.5 percent to union dues.

At 150K, your effective federal and state tax bill could be as high as $51,229. Subtract $41,250 in commissions and $42,000 for rent (at $3,500 a month, average for a two bedroom in L.A.) and your final net income is $15,521. Car payment? Insurance? Groceries? Utilities? Suffice it to say, you basically can’t afford to go to the very movie you wrote.

Add in a year or two of inflation, a decade of eroding residuals (or as in the Netflix model, none at all), and as a rank-and-file member of the guild you’re practically paying to make your art. Want kids, a house, a dog, two cars, daycare, God forbid a vacation? It’s just not happening. That isn’t a career, folks. It’s a hobby.



Robinson in 2007, with his Emmy in the wreckage of his home.© Provided by Hollywood Reporter

In David Leonhardt’s recent piece in The New York Times, he wrote about the “fracturing of work” in America: “Screenwriters — who are unionized — have gone on strike in an attempt to use their collective leverage to avoid becoming Hollywood’s equivalent of adjunct professors…” where pay, prestige, benefits, and job security are reserved for the “made” women and men of the tenured class.

This is what Noam Scheiber describes as “a tiered work force of esteemed versus lesser workers” reinforced by the “let-them-eat-cake” executives pulling down tens of millions a year while telling writers and actors they’re being unaccommodating.

To emphasize this animus, last month Universal Studios cut away the sidewalk shade trees. Some have alleged that this was to take advantage of the stifling heat of July to keep the picketing rabble at home. An anonymous insider quoted someone from the AMPTP of having famously said they wouldn’t return to the table “… until writers have lost their houses and apartments.” Really?

—

Bleary-eyed, I raced to the Philadelphia airport. As I sat in the terminal, I watched a CNN news blast on an overhead television. The banner read “LOS ANGELES BURNS”. The image showed an aerial assault on the blazing coastline of Southern California. The smoke, driven out to sea by the satanic Santa Ana winds, could be seen from the International Space Station. I knew somewhere in the middle of that inferno was… my home.

By 6 p.m. on Nov. 24, 2007, I’d returned to L.A. and was in the truck of a friend who’d tried to get to my house during the height of the fire. Conjuring images of the last day of Herculaneum and Pompeii, he’d been forced back by what he described as a pyroclastic plume.

When we arrived, the neighborhood was in ashes. The Technicolor vibrance of the flowers, topiary, and Sycamores was reduced to a monochromatic wasteland. Miraculously, our house was still there. Though severely damaged, it had been saved by multiple helicopter drops of water that preserved the structure but destroyed the roof.

The exterior stairs to my second-story office above the garage were gone, having burned into the walls, disintegrating the studs. Without support, the floor now sagged dangerously. Water ran freely through gaping holes cut into the ceiling by firefighters.

Pretty much everything from a 27-year career was gone. Signed movie posters, awards, photographs and decades of research and files. It would all be demolished within days. Inside the rest of the house, our clothes, bedding, draperies, carpets and furniture, even the kid’s toys, were lost to water and smoke damage. That canyon fire destroyed over 80 structures, including 49 homes. It was hot, fast, and explosive. In the end, we were fortunate. Many families lost all they had.

—

Like the destructive power of that blaze, the Hollywood work stoppage was taking its toll too. Writers were losing jobs, deals and some, yes, their homes. Like today, the strike was impacting the entire industry, including hundreds of vendors who support film and television production. Los Angeles is a company town and the strike, like an unchecked wildfire, was consuming money and property. For me it was difficult to separate the two events. Everything, it seemed, was going up in smoke.

In the carnage of our home was my 2007 strike sign. Somehow it had survived. It struck me that through the shared sacrifice of suspending that which defines and sustains us, or the mutual suffering of a community initiated in common loss, the outcome was an opportunity for understanding, esprit de corps, and solidarity.

As if to drive the point, someone got word to the Writer’s Guild that my family had been swept up in the fire, and 30 or so striking writers left the picket lines and showed up unannounced at what was left of our home with shovels, buckets and brooms. Not only did they help clean up our property, they went up and down the street assisting our grateful neighbors. Out of the ashes of the things we lost in the fire, and the smoldering strike, good people emerged, enduring their own struggles and understanding that the most useful thing they could do was to be of service to others.

A small thing perhaps, but something the 1 percent of the 1 percent might consider: In the end, we all need to be accountable to ideals bigger and more significant than stock prices. We need to be responsible to and for each other. Natural disasters and unfair work practices alike cause disruption, stress and trauma. There’s the physical displacement but more devastating is the emotional destabilization where nothing seems certain or secure anymore.



Robinson (center) on the Fox lot picket line in 2023.© Provided by Hollywood Reporter

Some felt we should have held out for more during the 2007 strike. It took years to recover from the sacrifices of that time just as it took nearly a decade to rebuild our home. As the Treaty of Versailles failed to create a lasting peace, the results of the 2007 strike were unsuccessful in protecting us from a rapidly changing system of producing and distributing our work. We got the message last time out. There are more wildfires coming. Which is why our resolve today is unbreakable. We don’t want to be back here three to six years from now in the same position.

To the CEOs, stockholders, and anyone who consumes entertainment, I quote Peter Matthiessen from his powerful book Men’s Lives on the disappearing way of life of Long Island fishermen: “It’s not fish you’re buying, it’s men’s lives.” When you go to a movie or watch television, you are supporting thousands of middle-class workers. It’s not tickets or subscriptions you’re buying, it’s the lives of the people who work endlessly to bring their art to you.

On the east end of Long Island, corporate fishing concerns, powerful sportsman’s clubs, and developers invaded the quaint villages and fisheries because they could. Today, the Bonackers and baymen are all but gone. Run off by the gilded transactionalists and Wall Street, yacht-cruising, day-trading class. They got their McMansions and jet skis, but their seafood is now flash-frozen and imported. If we’re not careful, creatives could suffer the same fate as those fishermen. Without potent guardrails, in short order we could become the equivalent of literary and thespian Neanderthals.

If it sounds like I’m a grumpy filmmaker, I’m not. I have nothing but gratitude for the opportunities I’ve had, the amazing people I’ve met and worked with. I’m supporting this effort so that I might help leave this business healthier than it is now for the younger people coming up.

I’m aware that the executives of our entertainment institutions are up against complex issues. The process of creating film and television is challenging. They answer to stockholders and corporate boards. I understand that. But they seem to view labor with a certain dismissive antipathy. Perhaps they need reminding that the creative force that serves them is made up of some of the most passionate, talented, dedicated workers on the planet. We love this business and we want it to survive and thrive. We are their partners. We want them to succeed. But not entirely at our expense.

As negotiators get back to the table and hope glimmers, we might remind them that we’re in this together. We want to create great movies and television. We want to tell great stories. We just need management to show up with some shovels and hoses and help us get it under control before this wildfire takes too much from too many.

We’re real people trying to live normal lives, doing what we’ve always dreamed of doing… and we do it better than anyone in the world. There is nothing more American than Hollywood. Show us a little flexibility, humanity, and some empathy. Take a little less, give a little more, and we’ll return to work with all the passion and solidarity we’ve taken to the streets… and deliver.

The Hollywood Reporter

THE WAR OVER THERE COMES HOME

  

Riot act read in Edmonton after anti-Eritrea clashes in Edmonton

The political tensions of northeastern Africa spilled over at several locations in Edmonton Saturday, prompting the riot act being read and tactical teams responding in order to break up fights at a cultural gathering, soccer tournament and musical event. Slav Kornik explains what happened

 

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Edmonton Journal Aug 19, 2023 Soccer for peace event cancelled, two groups clash on field, Edmonton tactical unit responds. 

UCP IS THE PC PARTY OF THE PAST
'A failure of due diligence': Alberta premier says Dynalife lab deal should have raised flags

Story by Lisa Johnson •1d

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks at a news conference in McDougall Centre in Calgary on Aug. 14, 2023.© Provided by Edmonton Journal

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says while she wasn’t responsible for a 25-year UCP deal to deliver medical lab services cut short after just over a year, it should have raised red flags from the start.

Appearing on her Saturday radio call-in show for the first time since the government announced it will take over lab services from Dynalife, Smith was asked if the province had failed to properly vet the agreement to expand the private lab testing company’s contracted services into Calgary and the southern region.

“There was a failure of due diligence somewhere and we have to figure out what went wrong in the contracting process,” said Smith.

Dynalife had already been providing lab services in northern and central Alberta, including Edmonton. Health Minister Adriana LaGrange announced Friday all Dynalife’s equipment, staff and facilities in the province will be nationalized and transferred to Alberta Precision Laboratories (APL), which is part of Alberta Health Services (AHS), by the end of this year.

“We had every reason to believe that Dynalife would be able to expand their services because they were already performing very well,” said Smith.

Public health care advocates have long argued private delivery can hurt public services, but Smith said the lesson to be learned is that having “a single source of any contract in government” is problematic, and that having only a single bid from Dynalife to do the work was an early warning sign.

“If you only have one bidder, that could be a sign that there’s something not quite economic about it,” she said.

“I didn’t make the decision,” she said, reiterating that the government was forced to take action Friday. It came after months of long wait times for things like blood tests, and a scramble by APL to cover new appointments.

“Dynalife has made the determination that they want to exit this market, and so we came to a mutual agreement that APL will take that over … for now,” said Smith.

Related

Alberta government to de-privatize Dynalife's lab testing amid long wait times

NDP calls on UCP to publish performance metrics in Dynalife contract

How much the contract reversal will cost taxpayers has yet to be disclosed.

A July 29, 2022, document available on the government’s public procurement website gives notice to all contracted providers that AHS and APL had entered into a 25-year agreement with Dynalife, beginning a transition on Dec. 5, 2022, but it does not disclose financial details.

Last year, the UCP promised the deal would save taxpayers between $18 million and $36 million.

“Why did (Dynalife) think they could make it work and be able to save money and then when it turned out, when they were actually operating it, those savings just disappeared?” asked Smith, who admitted sunk capital costs will come back to haunt taxpayers.

“We have to buy back some of the assets that we ended up transferring over to Dynalife. That’s going to cost money, and they’ve done some investments in capital and machinery. That’s going to cost money,” said Smith.

The move to expand private delivery is something the Opposition NDP has called a “reckless experiment in privatization” that illustrates the UCP’s incompetence on the health file.

On Friday, David Shepherd, the NDP’s health critic for primary and rural care, reiterated in a social media thread calls for a full accounting of the impact of the deal.

“We need answers,” he wrote.

While on Friday LaGrange argued centralizing all lab services under one APL umbrella will stabilize the system and provide “more oversight” and faster access for patients, Smith on Saturday reiterated her belief that AHS needs to be restructured.

“We’re already in the process of looking at AHS and seeing how problematic it’s been to concentrate everything into a single health super board and we’re working on decentralization,” said Smith.

lijohnson@postmedia.com

twitter.com/reportrix

Renewables companies hit brakes on Alberta projects after govt delays approvals

UCP CUTS NOSE TO SPITE FACE

SECOND PROVINCE AFTER ONTARIO 

FOR RENEWABLES

Rod Nickel
Mon, August 21, 2023

A wind farm generates electricity near bales of hay in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains


By Rod Nickel

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Alberta's seven-month pause on approving new renewable power projects in the Canadian province has caused four major international companies at various development stages to stop work on their plans, an industry official said.

Alberta's surprise move this month has also prompted some domestic companies to consider whether to refocus investment on other provinces and the U.S.

Wind and solar energy producers have criticized Premier Danielle Smith for creating business uncertainty and jeopardizing billions in potential investments.

Alberta, the country's main oil and gas producing province, paused approvals on Aug. 3 of new renewable electricity generation projects over one megawatt until Feb. 29, chilling investment in the fast-growing industry. The pause is necessary to address concerns about renewables' reliability and land use, said a spokesperson for Alberta's utilities minister.

The move has increased tensions between Smith and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government, which is drafting regulations to force provinces to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from their grids on a net basis by 2035.

One of the international companies that has paused its work had applied to build a renewable power project in the province, said Jorden Dye, acting director of the Business Renewables Centre, a Calgary-based organization that matches renewable developers and buyers.

A second company has paused design work on its first Alberta project, Dye added.

A third company delayed plans to secure Calgary office space, while a fourth was making preliminary inquiries about investing in Alberta before deciding to wait, he added.

"Those investment decisions ... are not going to move forward until the government clears this up," Dye said.

He said he could not name the companies because plans are confidential.

THE ALBERTA WAY

Alberta has led the country in building renewable capacity and is on track to eliminating combustion of coal for power next year, six years ahead of plan.

Along with domestic firms, foreign companies like Berkshire Hathaway's BHE Canada, EDF Renewables and Enel Green Power generate renewable power in Alberta. Companies have invested nearly C$5 billion ($3.7 billion) since 2019, according to the Pembina Institute.

The pause directly affects 15 projects in the approvals queue, the government spokesperson said. But Pembina said the freeze puts at risk a total of 91 projects at early development stages.

Calgary-based BluEarth Renewables is reviewing the 400 megawatts' worth of early-stage wind and solar projects it was considering for the province, although it has no projects currently in Alberta's approval queue, said CEO Grant Arnold.

"Without certainty as to what the outcome of this pause will be, we will prioritize investment into other jurisdictions," Arnold said. BluEarth also operates in three other provinces and the U.S.

Alberta Utilities Commission is deliberating whether to stop receiving applications during the pause period, rather than just halting approvals, a move that would suggest it may freeze development even longer, Dye said.

"You could see a scenario where an investor says, 'Alberta is now a risky place to invest so I need a higher return to justify the political risk,'" said Dan Balaban, CEO of Greengate Power, which built Canada's biggest solar farm in southern Alberta with fund manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, producing power for Amazon.com.

"We need to get back to the Alberta way, which is very pro-business."

($1 = 1.3550 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Ottawa; Editing by Denny Thomas and Marguerita Choy)

Peregrine falcon chicks hatched in Edmonton now learning to hunt prey in the wild

CBC
Sun, August 20, 2023

The peregrine falcon family, two parents and three fledglings, at the Cabrini Centre nesting box before the young ones got their flying feathers. (Submitted by Janice Hurlburt - image credit)

Three peregrine falcon chicks who have been residing on top of a hospital building in west Edmonton have spread their wings.

Two of the fledglings, a male and a female, had to be rescued and are currently at a site overlooking the Pembina River where they will learn how to hunt prey.

The fledglings were hatched at a nesting site on top of the Cabrini Centre, a building on the Misericordia Hospital grounds near West Edmonton Mall.

They were taken to the Pembina River location, known as a hacking site, earlier this month. That's where they are taking their early flights in nature, surrounded by trees and water.

"It's much safer for them and it also imprints them out in the rural area as opposed to the city so that they're going to migrate south for the winter," said Janice Hurlburt, a volunteer for Falcon Watch, a group dedicated to monitoring nesting peregrine falcons in the Edmonton region.

The third fledgling, a male, came out of the nest on July 29 and ended up falling nine metres down a boiler chimney which is part of the Misericordia emergency department construction, according to Hurlburt.

The male fledging wasn't seen for five days before he was rescued and checked by WildNorth animal shelter in Edmonton.

Janice Hurlburt holding a three week old Peregrine falcon chick. She has been volunteering for Falcon Watch for eight years.

Janice Hurlburt holding a three-week-old peregrine falcon chick. Hurlburt has been volunteering for Falcon Watch for eight years. (Submitted by Janice Hurlburt)

Since then, he has fledged — grown his flying feathers — and is now flying around with his parents.

"Right from the start I referred to that male as No. 1," said Hurlburt. "He just seemed more outgoing and stronger. He was the first one to fledge, he fledged pretty well and then now he's doing super well."

Last month, volunteers from Falcon Watch put up notices at the Misericordia, the Cabrini Centre, West Edmonton Mall and surrounding areas asking people who encounter the birds at ground level to not touch them and to call someone on the volunteer team.

The volunteers took shifts, sometimes lasting up to 12 hours, to watch the fledglings.

There are a number of nesting boxes under video surveillance in the Edmonton area, including the University of Alberta, the Bell Tower downtown, and the Shell Scotford site near Fort Saskatchewan.

On the left, the female fledgling after being rescued in the Cabrini parking lot. On the right, out at the hack site on the Pembina River.

On the left, the female fledgling after being rescued in the Cabrini Centre parking lot. On the right, the same bird at the hacking site on the Pembina River. (Submitted by Janice Hurlburt)

While the nesting box at the Cabrini Centre isn't video monitored, dedicated volunteers watch and rescue the birds.

"These birds really don't go any length of time at all without somebody knowing what's going on," said Dale Gienow, WildNorth's executive director.

Falcons are natural cliff-dwellers and do well on tall buildings in urban environments because they simulate the rock ledges. But urban locations can be dangerous for peregrine falcon chicks.

"They're inexperienced flyers and they can sometimes collide with buildings or get into trouble and end up in places that aren't really great," Gienow said.

Dale Gienow is the executive director of WildNorth rescue and rehabilitation center in Edmonton.

Dale Gienow is the executive director of WildNorth rescue and rehabilitation centre in Edmonton. (David Bajer/CBC)

In the 1970s, peregrine falcons were on the brink of extinction in most provinces because of pollution from DDT, an insecticide developed to protect crops and prevent the spread of disease.

Thanks to the likes of local volunteers and conservation groups, the peregrine population in Alberta has gone from one productive pair in 1970 to an estimated 80 pairs today, according to the Alberta Conservation Association.

For people who come across an injured peregrine falcon, the best route would be to contact a wildlife conservation group or a local veterinarian who then could take the bird to WildNorth, said Gienow.

"We would assess them and then we connect them with the folks from Alberta Environment and protected areas and get them back out into the wild where they belong."