Canada's teachers say ongoing staff shortages creating 'crisis.' What's behind it?

 

As children and teenagers return to school for another year, teachers are raising concerns over  an increasing number of shortages in their profession from coast to coast to coast. Sean Previl reports on what teachers have to say and what action they want governments to take. 

A shortage of teachers is impacting many school boards across the country. The situation in Quebec is so dire that the province says it will have to put unqualified people in schools to supervise classrooms.

 

BCTF worries about use of uncertified teachers amid staff shortages

CBC Vancouver

 Sep 5, 2023 

As thousands of students return to school this week — amid concerns of short-staffing and overcrowding — the prospect of uncertified teachers (allowed under the School Act to fill short-term needs) being brought in to support classrooms is worrying teachers’ associations. The CBC's Janella Hamilton takes a look at the issue.

Stark urban-rural divide emerges in tight Utah GOP special congressional primary race



A distinct urban-rural divide left a Utah special congressional primary race between a Donald Trump critic and supporter too early to call Tuesday in a tight race that will likely produce the replacement for U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart.

The GOP special primary to replace Stewart saw Celeste Maloy, who was Stewart’s chief legal counsel and has his endorsement, with a narrow lead over former state lawmaker Becky Edwards late Tuesday.

Edwards, a Trump critic, was leading in two urban counties, but Maloy, a Trump supporter, overtook her with strength from rural areas. Votes yet to be counted included thousands of mail-in ballots over the next two weeks.

Maloy told KUTV she knew it was too early to know if she would win but was happy to see rural counties in the district play such a key role in the results.

“Look at the numbers in rural Utah, these are incredible,” Maloy said. “I’ve said this a lot: Rural Utah feels under-represented. They feel like people don’t show up.”

After seeing her early lead evaporate, Edwards briefly thanked supporters and ended an election night party in Salt Lake City. As they chanted, “Becky, Becky,” Edwards said she felt optimistic but would have to wait for more vote counting.

Maloy had a roughly 2% lead in the votes counted by Tuesday at midnight, a margin of about 1,400 votes. In past races, Utah hasn't counted all votes on election day and has left about 30% to count in the days afterward.

Almost all ballots in Utah are cast by mail, and they can arrive as late as Sept. 19 and be counted, so long as they are postmarked by election day.

Businessperson Bruce Hough, a committeeman for the Republican National Committee for over a decade, trailed by a wide margin, meaning a woman will likely next represent the district covering northern Salt Lake City and much of southern and western Utah

The GOP winner in the reliably Republican area will be the favorite against Democratic state Sen. Kathleen Riebe in the Nov. 21 special general election.

Stewart, a six-term Republican and veteran of the U.S. Air Force, set off a scramble to fill his seat when he announced in May he was resigning because his wife is ill. He plans to step down Sept. 15 after 10 years in office.

Trump and his string of indictments have not been a central part of this abbreviated campaign for any of the candidates. But Edwards has said she thinks Republicans should consider other candidates for the 2024 presidential race. During her unsuccessful 2022 primary run against Sen. Mike Lee, Edwards criticized Lee for backing Trump’s efforts to discredit the 2020 election results.

“I’m looking for a Republican who can win back the White House. I think it’s time that we have that shift,” Edwards told ABC4 Utah on Aug. 19. “It’s early days in the presidential election cycle but I’m watching, as I think most Americans are right now, to look for all the candidates as they’re putting out their ideas.”

Trump won conservative Utah in 2018 and 2022 but the state has never fully embraced Trump, whose demeanor clashes with the political and religious culture that prides itself on maintaining political civility in polarizing times. More than half of the state's residents belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known widely as the Mormon church. Republican U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, a frequent Trump critic, is among the members of the faith.

The federal indictments against Trump for allegedly working to overturn the 2020 election and for allegedly mishandling classified information after he left office loomed in an Aug. 4 debate between Hough and Maloy.

Trump got little mention in the debate but both suggested the Justice Department was politically selective in charging him.

“We are seeing agencies in the federal government weaponized against people that should not be weaponized. The DOJ, the FBI, others. Everybody should be accountable to the rule of law, period, end of story. And everybody should be treated equally under the law, equally,” Hough said.

The U.S. “looks like a banana republic” with such investigations, said Maloy, who added she would want to serve on a committee to investigate the “weaponization of the federal government” if elected.

Edwards didn’t take part in the debate.

Edwards has raised the most money of the three candidates, bringing in $379,000 while loaning herself an additional $300,000 from personal funds. While Maloy outraised Hough in contributions, Hough loaned his campaign more than $334,000.

If elected, Edwards or Maloy would become the only woman in Utah's congressional delegation and only the fifth in the state's history. The state's most recent female U.S. representative, Mia Love, served from 2015-2019 and was the state's first Black congresswoman.

Maloy qualified for the primary ballot after winning a Utah Republican Party convention vote in June. Hough and Edwards each gathered a minimum of 7,000 signatures to qualify for the primary ballot. Hough is the father of “Dancing With The Stars” veterans Julianne and Derek Hough.

Mead Gruver, The Associated Press

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/09/a-biden-voting-pro-choice-republican.html

Carmakers fail privacy test, give owners little or no control on personal data they collect



BOSTON (AP) — Cars are getting an “F” in data privacy. Most major manufacturers admit they may be selling your personal information, a new study finds, with half also saying they would share it with the government or law enforcement without a court order.

The proliferation of sensors in automobiles — from telematics to fully digitized control consoles — has made them prodigious data-collection hubs.

But drivers are given little or no control over the personal data their vehicles collect, researchers for the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation said Wednesday in their latest “Privacy Not Included” survey Security standards are also vague, a big concern given automakers’ track record of susceptibility to hacking.

“Cars seem to have really flown under the privacy radar and I’m really hoping that we can help remedy that because they are truly awful,” said Jen Caltrider, the study’s research lead. “Cars have microphones and people have all kinds of sensitive conversations in them. Cars have cameras that face inward and outward.”

Unless they opt for a used, pre-digital model, car buyers “just don’t have a lot of options,” Caltrider said.

Cars scored worst for privacy among more than a dozen product categories — including fitness trackers, reproductive-health apps, smart speakers and other connected home appliances — that Mozilla has studied since 2017.

Not one of the 25 car brands whose privacy notices were reviewed — chosen for their popularity in Europe and North America — met the minimum privacy standards of Mozilla, which promotes open-source, public interest technologies and maintains the Firefox browser. By contrast, 37% of the mental health apps the non-profit reviewed this year did.

Nineteen automakers say they can sell your personal data, their notices reveal. Half will share your information with government or law enforcement in response to a “request” — as opposed to requiring a court order. Only two — Renault and Dacia, which are not sold in North America — offer drivers the option to have their data deleted.

“Increasingly, most cars are wiretaps on wheels,” said Albert Fox Cahn, a technology and human rights fellow at Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. “The electronics that drivers pay more and more money to install are collecting more and more data on them and their passengers."

“There is something uniquely invasive about transforming the privacy of one’s car into a corporate surveillance space,” he added.

A trade group representing the makers of most cars and light trucks sold in the U.S., the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, took issue with that characterization. In a letter sent Tuesday to U.S. House and Senate leadership, it said it shares “the goal of protecting the privacy of consumers.”

It called for a federal privacy law, saying a “patchwork of state privacy laws creates confusion among consumers about their privacy rights and makes compliance unnecessarily difficult.” The absence of such a law lets connected devices and smartphones amass data for tailored ad targeting and other marketing — while also raising the odds of massive information theft through cybersecurity breaches.

The Associated Press asked the Alliance, which has resisted efforts to provide car owners and independent repair shops with access to onboard data, if it supports allowing car buyers to automatically opt out of data collection — and granting them the option of having collected data deleted. Spokesman Brian Weiss said that for safety reasons the group “has concerns” about letting customers completely opt out — but does endorse giving them greater control over how the data is used in marketing and by third parties.

In a 2020 Pew Research survey, 52% of Americans said they had opted against using a product or service because they were worried about the amount of personal information it would collect about them.

On security, Mozilla's minimum standards include encrypting all personal information on a car. The researchers said most car brands ignored their emailed questions on the matter, those that did offering partial, unsatisfactory responses.

Japan-based Nissan astounded researchers with the level of honesty and detailed breakdowns of data collection its privacy notice provides, a stark contrast with Big Tech companies such as Facebook or Google. “Sensitive personal information” collected includes driver's license numbers, immigration status, race, sexual orientation and health diagnoses.

Further, Nissan says it can share “inferences” drawn from the data to create profiles "reflecting the consumer’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes.”

It was among six car companies that said they could collect “genetic information” or “genetic characteristics," the researchers found.

Nissan also said it collected information on “sexual activity." It didn't explain how.

The all-electric Tesla brand scored high on Mozilla’s “creepiness” index. If an owner opts out of data collection, Tesla’s privacy notice says the company may not be able to notify drivers “in real time” of issues that could result in “reduced functionality, serious damage, or inoperability.”

Neither Nissan nor Tesla immediately responded to questions about their practices.

Mozilla's Caltrider credited laws like the 27-nation European Union's General Data Protection Regulation and California's Consumer Privacy Act for compelling carmakers to provide existing data collection information.

It's a start, she said, by raising awareness among consumers just as occurred in the 2010s when a consumer backlash prompted TV makers to offer more alternatives to surveillance-heavy connected displays.

Frank Bajak, The Associated Press

BC 

Decriminalization: How police drug seizure, even without arrest, can create harms

Story by Kanna Hayashi,

 Research Scientist at the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use & St. Paul's Hospital Chair in Substance Use Research and Associate Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University • THE CONVERSATION

International Overdose Awareness Day, an annual campaign to end overdose and drug poisonings while also remembering those who have died, is Aug. 31. Events are being held in communities across Canada, a sign of a worsening crisis that has taken more than 36,000 lives since 2016.

The day also represents an opportunity to discuss much-needed policy changes. The decriminalization of people who use drugs has long been one of the proposed solutions, an approach that is currently being piloted in British Columbia.

On Jan. 31, 2023, B.C. began a first-in-Canada pilot “decriminalization” policy, in which criminal sanctions for the possession of small amounts of certain illegal drugs for personal use were removed for adults aged 18 or above.

Seven months into this experiment, the impact of this policy remains unclear. Because a dashboard of policy impact indicator data has not yet been published at the time of writing, it is difficult to weigh the initial effects of the policy.

However, in the city of Vancouver, a policy of depenalization (also referred to as de facto decriminalization) has been in place since 2006, providing an opportunity to understand how the provincial pilot may be working — or even improved.
Depenalization in Vancouver

Seventeen years ago, the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) launched its drug policy to promote the depenalization of simple possession offences. Under this policy, VPD officers were encouraged to not arrest or charge people for simple drug possession for personal use except for certain circumstances.

The VPD’s policy differed from B.C.’s pilot decriminalization in several important ways. For example, the VPD’s policy did not specify the class or threshold quantity of drugs to define simple possession. VPD officers were given broad enforcement discretion with respect to drug possession.

Although publicly available VPD data are limited, available data indeed indicated low and declining numbers of simple possession charges recommended by the VPD to Crown counsel from 2016 to 2019. These numbers have often been cited as the indicator of success of the VPD’s depenalization policy: fewer people are sent to the criminal justice system for the sake of personal drug use.

However, anecdotal reports and previous qualitative research suggested that police officers might not arrest people for simple possession, but they would still seize drugs. Local communities of people who use drugs and public health advocates in Vancouver expressed concern about the harm created by this policing behaviour.

We undertook surveys involving more than 1,800 people who used drugs on a daily basis in Vancouver to investigate this often undocumented discretionary policing practice.

Police drug seizures without arrest

During a 16-month study period in 2019-2021, we found that six per cent of 995 people who used drugs daily in Vancouver (60 per cent residing in the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood that is known for high rates of marginalization and drug use) had had their drugs seized by police without arrest at least once in the past six months. Of those, more than one in four experienced it more than once during the same six-month period.

Of particular concern, 68 per cent of our study participants who had their drugs taken by police without arrest reported having obtained new drugs immediately after the seizure. This portion of the data was collected from the same study population between 2009 and 2012.

Previous qualitative research documented that acquiring drugs this way could put health and safety at risk in multiple ways. For example, it can put people at a higher risk of drug market violence by creating drug debts.

Some users may also be compelled to acquire new drugs in a rush from an unknown supplier, especially when experiencing painful withdrawal. Amid the ongoing drug toxicity crisis, increasing the frequency of buying drugs in the unregulated drug market, especially through an unknown source, increases risk of drug poisoning.

This is contrary to a belief held among some police officers that seizing drugs would prevent harms, including drug poisoning.
The role of police in the toxic drug crisis

A broader question is: Are there any circumstances where police drug seizures are beneficial in preventing drug poisoning? A recent study from the United States highlighted that police efforts to reduce the unregulated drug supply may worsen the drug toxicity crisis by showing a consistent pattern. As police seizures of drugs increased, drug poisoning cases also increased.

Several scholars noted that police drug seizures would not address the toxic drug supply, that the narrow mission of police may exacerbate drug-related harms and that more harm reduction interventions to address the toxic drug supply are needed.

Findings from our study indicate that the VPD’s depenalization policy essentially “mimics the health and safety harms associated with criminalization” and likely undermines overdose prevention efforts.

Under B.C.’s pilot decriminalization policy, police officers can no longer seize drugs from an adult who possesses up to 2.5 grams of certain illegal drugs. However, the threshold quantity of drugs that defined simple possession has been shown to be too low to fulfil the policy objectives. Some people who use drugs, particularly those more marginalized and engaging in high-intensity drug use, may carry more than 2.5 grams of drugs. They may get arrested or experience police drug seizures without arrest.

The annual International Overdose Awareness Day compels us to reckon with ongoing toxic drug deaths and what we can do to reverse this worsening crisis. If decriminalization is going to contribute to positive change, police need to stop seizing drugs from people who use them.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:
Safer supply of opioids saves lives: Providing alternatives to toxic street drugs

Supervised consumption sites reduce drug overdoses and disease transmission — and deserve government support

Kanna Hayashi holds the St. Paul's Hospital Chair in Substance Use Research and is supported in part by a U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) grant (U01DA038886) and the St. Paul’s Foundation. For the research work presented here, she received funding through a NIDA grant (U01DA038886), a Michael Smith Health Research BC Scholar Award and the William and Ada Isabelle Steel Fund through Simon Fraser University. She also receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to support her ongoing research in this area. She is also affiliated with the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority as research staff and the Division of Social Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia as an affiliate assistant professor.

Canada needs to resolve social issues before tackling gun violence

Story by The Canadian Press •

Recently, a 23-year-old man from my high school passed away from a shooting in Toronto.

I did not know him personally, but to know someone my age had his life taken away was terrible to see.

At the scene of the incident, he died saving someone else’s life when trying to pull them out of harm’s way.

He is also the 42nd homicide victim of the year in the city. The year before that, there was a total of 45 homicides in Toronto, and 53 by the end of 2021.

From a rural perspective, these types of incidents are abnormal. Yet, when you live in the city, or have grown up in the city, shootings, unfortunately, become normalized.

There are so many factors to consider when talking about gun violence. Whether it’s homicides, suicides or mass shootings, it seems that the increase in violent crime is a combination of the impacts from the pandemic and the growing gap between high-income and lower-income families.

NPR’s article, ‘Why Gun Violence is Surging in Toronto,’ explains why many shootings in the city are happening, connecting it to street gang activity, and there being a “thriving gang culture in Toronto centered on the illegal drug trade, largely in the city’s poorer outer suburbs.”

The article also mentions that the Toronto Board of Health, and others, believe the growth in gang activity is partly rooted in the city’s growing gap between rich and poor.

However, another article mentions that gun violence is not just a problem in Toronto, but rather a problem throughout all of Canada.

In, ‘It’s not just Toronto. Violent crime is a national problem,’ it explains how cities such as Edmonton and Winnipeg have suffered from random attacks as a result of people struggling with the impacts from the pandemic.

A tragic example was the shooting incident that happened in West Edmonton Mall a few weeks ago, resulting in three people dealing with serious injuries.

Insight: Law meant to stop people under domestic violence restraining order from buying guns deemed unconstitutional

From 2021, there were 61 homicides in Manitoba which equals to a rate of 4.41 per 100,000 population. Saskatchewan was the only province above it, with a higher rate of 5.93 per 100,000 population, according to StatsCan.

Despite Canada having tighter gun laws than the U.S., it seems the country is following the same path as the U.S. on gun violence.

As part of the federal government’s plan to tackle gun violence, a national freeze on the sale, purchase, and transfer of handguns was first introduced in May, 2022, and is currently pending on its third reading by the Senate.

Yet, despite Canada having stricter gun laws, more guns are in fact being imported from the U.S into Canada.

Although legal purchases of guns stop at the Canadian border, it fails to solve the problem of guns being used less within the country.

One circumstance involved a man from Texas who bought 16 guns from licensed dealers in the state before illegally reselling them; four being traced back to crimes in Canada, and the other 12 being linked to crimes in America.

Gun violence is often criticized because of flawed policies and regulations, yet, poverty, food insecurity, mental health issues and addictions all play a role in the violence as well.

All of these social issues, and more, lead to violent crimes, which overall lead to innocent lives being taken away.

The man from my high school was an active member in the community, and was loved and cared for by many. He is one person of hundreds who was trying to do good, but died too early.

Seeing on the news someone losing their life because of gun violence is sad as it is, but it brings more of a personal feel to it when you know of the person.

Even if you don’t know of them, the thought of friends and families being forced to mourn the violent death of their loved ones is tragic.

More needs to be done to help people who are struggling mentally and financially, so that they don’t turn to violent acts and end up harming innocent people.

Sierra D'Souza Butts, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The World-Spectator

CANADIANS NEED PAID SICK LEAVE

Colleagues coming to work sick? Know your rights as cold and flu season looms

Story by Sean Previl •

Sick, covid and unwell call center agent blowing his nose and spreading germ in an office space. An African customer service and support agent suffering from a cold or flu symptom at work© Getty Images

With doctors bracing for a potential "tripledemic" as summer comes to an end, people working in an office may be questioning what they can do if they are working alongside someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 or may be sick with another illness like the flu.

Earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic, various policies were in place in an effort to limit people from getting sick, including quarantine requirements, sick leave legislation and working from home.

Last year, the federal government legislated 10 paid sick days for federally regulated employees, which took effect in December 2022. That same year, British Columbia put in place five permanent paid days.

But other provinces have a mixture of rules.

For example, Quebec workers are entitled to two days — though that was also the case in that province before the pandemic. Ontario, meanwhile, ended its sick leave program this past March, ending workers' ability to access three paid days under the province's temporary program.

But as some companies have moved away from working from home, and provinces have dropped quarantine requirements, it could mean you may be working next to someone who is ill.

Jon Pinkus, a partner at the Labour and Employment Group at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, said if an employee does have such a concern, the first thing they should do is speak with management.

He said in Ontario, the Ministry of Labour expects employees to try and resolve things before taking things further, and determine if there's a practical solution.

"That's what any employee should do and that's what any employer should consider if someone's coming to them with that kind of complaint," he said.

He added that if a resolution was not reached, a government inspector could be brought in, but they would be working to determine if the employer was following provincial guidelines.

For example, if quarantine requirements were to be brought back into force in Ontario and an employer failed to abide by them, Pinkus said an employee shouldn't be penalized if they refused to come to the office — in fact, an inspector would likely order the employer to send the sick individual home.

But workers should be careful about refusing to come in as it could also depend on the employer.

Video: N.B. businesses, chambers call for more in-office work days

"So employees do have to be careful and not just assume, 'Well, this seems unsafe to me, so I'm not going to accept it,'" Pinkus said.

It's why medical professionals and doctors say paid sick days are still needed nationwide.

Dr. Mara Waters, an infectious diseases doctor and member of the Decent Work and Health Network (DWHN), said a lack of sick days can lead to more people working while sick.

"They might feel that their boss might think that they're unreliable and they might lose out on shifts," she said. "So it's with great moral distress that people go to work sick."

A November 2022 report by the National Partnership for Women and Families found that people without paid sick days were 1.5 times more likely to report going to work with a contagious illness.

Waters added that some studies have shown paid sick days would not be a massive cost to employers.

For example, a study by the Centre for Future Work that analyzed a proposed 10-day sick leave policy in B.C. found it would increase business costs by 0.21 per cent of existing expenses. That province eventually made it so eligible employees were able to access five paid sick days provided they had worked for their employer for a minimum of 90 days.

Video: Calls for B.C. to triple its paid sick days

"When people get sick, it means that more people get sick, more people are using health-care dollars and that does come out of the public purse," Waters said. "There's really no financial downside to providing paid sick days."

However, as advocates continue to push for paid sick days, Pinkus said while it may not be mandatory, employers should consider having a clear policy surrounding employees working while ill.

"It is always good to have if you want to prevent disputes from arising," he said. "Having a clear policy that you can point to at the employee is a sign that it's not vague.

"It's very specific exactly what's going to happen if someone is sick with COVID and someone is unable to attend the workplace. Here are the steps we want to take, here are your rights under this policy, then an employee doesn't have to think, 'Is this legal under the Occupational Health and Safety Act?'"

He added that it also then gives employees the ability to decide if they want to continue working at the organization if, for example, they are uncomfortable with that policy.

Voices of Black youth remind adults in schools to listen — and act to empower them

Story by Tanitiã Munroe, PhD candidate (ABD) and researcher, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto • 

THE CONVERSATION

 Sept. 5, 2023

The idea of inviting students into classroom conversations that teach them to define and express their concerns, ideas and opinions takes inspiration from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

The right to be heard is the general principle, and Article 12 of the UNCRC provides for children’s involvement in decision-making that affects their lives. It includes the right for children to express their views.

Many educators are increasingly concerned with the representation of student voices in kindergarten to Grade 12 classrooms. In the words of educator Shane Safir: “Educators should view students not as empty vessels for the transfer of information but as knowledge builders in their own right. We need to share influence in the classroom rather than hoard it.”

But this concern is not necessarily adopted by all teachers. Creating dialogue among educators and students, especially Black Canadian youth, regularly proves problematic because of the history of their negative schooling experiences.

As an education researcher who examines schooling experiences of Black Canadian youth and their families, I have worked alongside Black high-school students in grades 10-12 to engage youth voices at the Black Student Summer Leadership Program. This is offered through the Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement at the Toronto District School Board.

Youth Participatory Action Research involves youth participating in their communities and in their own education to research issues that affect their lives. It also necessarily implies action on the part of receptive and understanding adults, willing and poised to help bring about changes youth need to see.
Struggles in and for ‘voice’

One of the greatest struggles to allow for “voice” is the role of adults in these interactions and the hierarchical nature of schools. Paying attention to student voice involves changing fundamental values, norms and institutional practices, which means teachers need to be open to this shift.

The term youth voice has gained credibility since the early 1990s. Scholars and education researchers challenged school staff to stop seeing youth as passive recipients of an education. “Youth voice” describes the many ways youth might have opportunities to have a voice and active participation in decisions shaping their lives.

Read more: If I could change one thing in education: Community-school partnerships would be top priority

Positioning Black students as learners and collaborators will require a shift in educators’ attitude towards them. That is, changing perceptions that see them as a threat.

Educators need to acknowledge stereotypical perceptions of Black people and communities that often inform how schools and teachers interpret Black students’ behaviours, and get to know Black students beyond their academic or extra-curricular achievements.
Black youth’s whole selves

If schools desire genuine opportunities for students to be heard, educators must see Black youth as their whole selves. Teachers who view the validity in sharing power in classrooms will actively seek Black students’ input. This must be done outside of the formalized structure of student councils or associations where students are elected to represent student communities.

Change is needed in the way Black students’ voices are positioned in education, bearing in mind:

Black youth are not voiceless. They should be able to inform decisions. To include students’ input in the decision-making process fosters their growth and development.

There are many ways youth exercise their voices among their peers. For Black youth to negotiate education spaces safely, they often choose how to amplify their voices, including what to say, when to speak up and who to address.

Educators must remember they (we) are not granting Black students the ability to speak. Rather, we must strive to create classroom and school environments where Black students’ voices and ideas are welcomed and respected.


Educators must see Black youth as their whole selves.© (Mike Von)

Related video: Youth Voices Needed // Generation Schools (KMGH Denver, CO)

Duration 4:14  View on Watch

Youth Participatory Action Research

When Black students work in an environment where they feel safe to express their concerns, this creates avenues for them to build transferable skills (like writing, community activism, research, public speaking and so on).

The TDSB’s Black Student Summer Leadership Program was originally created in 2019 through a partnership with the Jean Augustine Chair at York University, with graduation coaches for Black students at the helm. Since then it has evolved with the support of other departments at the board. Black students involved in this program gain leadership opportunities and positive relationships with adults and their peers while participating in research.

Participatory action research has been associated with revolutionary educational projects. It’s inspired by the work of education scholar Paolo Freire who wrote about popular education as a way of raising people’s consciousness and empowerment.
Youth as co-researchers

The principle of Youth Participatory Action Research includes adults sharing the space with youth as co-researchers, sharing ownership in decision-making and supporting and empowering youth as agents of change. It is inquiry based. Topics chosen by students are grounded in their lived experiences either in school and community.

Together, or individually, Black students have learned how to engage in participatory action research using an Afrocentric research paradigm. For research to be relevant to Black students in the summer program, they learn to use methods and choice of presentation tools that embodies their creativity, skills, lived experiences and intersecting identities.

Black students learn how to become submerged in their own research, rather than experiencing themselves as the object of others’ research.

What shapes education

Youth Participatory Action Research provides Black students with opportunities to discuss what shapes their education. In the summer program, Black students present research projects to education stakeholders.

Their findings include sharing practical solutions based on their experiences negotiating things such as: anti-Black racism, lack of representation in curriculum, mental health and well-being, student-teacher interactions and relationships, linguistic or hair discrimination and newcomer experiences.

Among their recommendations are carefully outlined considerations for school improvement efforts. For example, students have called for providing ongoing professional development training for teachers and school staff that is culturally relevant and responsive to Black students’ well-being and needs. Some research has highlighted the need for more accountability from staff, based on examining policies to protect their rights as students so they may be successful.

In order for change to be implemented, key decision makers need to be willing to engage youth and to act. Authentically empowering student voice requires that educators listen, validate youth knowledge and experience, and respond.
A promising approach

Youth Participatory Action Research is a promising approach for creating avenues to support Black students’ self-determination and agency.

Amplifying youth voice in alignment with the mission and values of school communities is significant for an empowered path forward. Such a path does not see decisions being made for and about Black student lives as an afterthought.

Rather, as outlined in the UNCRC, commitments to participatory action research acknowledge Black youth as competent to act, experts in their own daily lived social realities.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:
How to curb anti-Black racism in Canadian schools

Dismantling anti-Black racism in our schools: Accountability measures are key

Tanitiã Munroe works for Toronto District School Board.

Unionized Starbucks store in Vancouver to close as lease expires

Story by The Canadian Press •




VANCOUVER — One of the few unionized Starbucks stores in British Columbia is closing at the end of September.

Leanna Rizzi, a spokeswoman for the coffee chain, confirmed the closure of the Dunbar Street location in Vancouver via email, saying it’s due to a natural lease expiry.

She says the store is one of the smallest in the Starbucks portfolio, and it wasn’t possible to make necessary investments to renovate it, but workers will have the opportunity to transfer to a nearby location.

Twenty-two workers at the cafe voted to join the United Steelworkers Union in February, becoming one of a handful of unionized Starbucks locations in B.C. represented by that union.

The United Steelworkers Union also represents some Starbucks stores in Alberta and Ontario.

The most recent Starbucks store to join the Steelworkers was in Ajax, Ont., where workers voted to join at the end of August.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 5, 2023.

The Canadian Press

North Korean hackers have allegedly stolen hundreds of millions in crypto to fund nuclear programs

Story by Sheila Chiang •CNBC



North Korea-linked hackers stole $200 million worth of crypto from January to Aug. 18, accounting for over 20% of all stolen crypto this year, according to a recent report by TRM Labs.
"Most experts agree the North Korean government is using these stolen assets to fund its nuclear weapons programs," according to crypto research company Chainalysis.
North Korea is under several U.N. sanctions, aimed at limiting the regime's access to sources of funding it needs to support its nuclear activities.


The FBI claims North Korea-linked hackers were behind a $100 million crypto heist on the so-called Horizon bridge in 2022.© Provided by CNBC

North Korea-linked hackers have stolen hundreds of millions of crypto to fund the regime's nuclear weapons programs, research shows.

So far this year, from January to Aug. 18, North Korea-affiliated hackers stole $200 million worth of crypto — accounting for over 20% of all stolen crypto this year, according to blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs.

"In recent years, there has been a marked rise in the size and scale of cyber attacks against cryptocurrency-related businesses by North Korea. This has coincided with an apparent acceleration in the country's nuclear and ballistic missile programs," said TRM Labs in a June discussion with North Korea experts.

In that discussion, TRM Labs said there has been a pivot away from North Korea's "traditional revenue-generating activities" — an indication that the regime may be "increasingly turning to cyber attacks to fund its weapons proliferation activity."

Separately, crypto research company Chainalysis said in a February report that "most experts agree the North Korean government is using these stolen assets to fund its nuclear weapons programs."

The Permanent Mission of North Korea to the United Nations in New York, a diplomatic mission of the regime to the UN, did not respond to CNBC's request for comment.

Since North Korea's first nuclear test in 2006, the United Nations has slapped multiple sanctions on the reclusive regime — known formally as DPRK, or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea — for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The sanctions, which include bans on financial services, minerals, metals and arms, are aimed at limiting North Korea's access to sources of funding it needs to support its nuclear activities.

Just last month, the FBI warned crypto companies that North Korea-linked hackers are planning to "cash out" $40 million of crypto.

The agency also said in January it continues "to identify and disrupt North Korea's theft and laundering of virtual currency, which is used to support North Korea's ballistic missile and Weapons of Mass Destruction programs."

"They are under pretty serious economic stress with international sanctions. They need every dollar they can. And this is just obviously a much more efficient way for North Korea to make money," Nick Carlsen, intelligence analyst at blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs, told CNBC.

"Even if that dollar stolen in crypto doesn't directly go towards the purchase of some component for the nuclear program, it frees up another dollar to support the regime and its programs," said Carlsen.
North Korean hackers' exploits

North Korea-affiliated hackers exploit vulnerabilities in the crypto ecosystem in a variety of ways.

Some examples include phishing and supply chain attacks, as well as through infrastructure hacks which involve private key or seed phrase compromises, TRM Labs said in the report.

According to data from Chainalysis, 2022 was the biggest year ever for crypto hacking.

A whopping $3.8 billion was stolen from crypto businesses, primarily from exploiting decentralized finance protocols and by North Korea-linked attackers, said Chainalysis.

In March last year, U.S. officials accused North Korea-linked hackers of stealing a record amount of more than $600 million worth of crypto assets from Ronin Bridge in the popular blockchain game Axie Infinity using stolen private keys — passwords that allow users to access and manage funds.

Hackers exploit what's known as a blockchain "bridge," which allows users to transfer their digital assets from one crypto network to another.
Evolving tactics

North Korean-affiliated cybercriminals reportedly posed as recruiters and lured an engineer from blockchain gaming firm Sky Mavis into believing there was a job opportunity, The Wall Street Journal said in June.

The hacker shared a malware-laced document with the victim, enabling the criminals to access the engineer's computer and steal more than $600 million in crypto after they broke into Sky Mavis's digital pets game, Axie Infinity.

"They leverage social engineering and they get themselves into the community. They build relationships and gain access to systems," Erin Plante, vice president of Investigations at Chainalysis, told CNBC.

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control and South Korea's authorities has imposed sanctions against several entities and individuals for helping North Korean IT professionals fraudulently obtain employment overseas and launder illicitly obtained funds back to North Korea.

"They target employers located in wealthier countries, utilizing a variety of mainstream and industry-specific freelance contracting, payment, and social media and networking platforms," said the press release, adding that North Korean IT workers often take on projects that involve virtual currency.

"DPRK IT workers also use virtual currency exchanges and trading platforms to manage digital payments they receive for contract work as well as to launder these illicitly obtained funds back to the DPRK."

INTERSECTIONALITY

Berlin clubbers and green protesters unite to fight motorway plans

Story by Kate Connolly in Berlin • The Guardian

Photograph: Odd Andersen/AFP/

Berlin clubbers have united with environmental campaigners to fight plans to extend a city autobahn that threatens the future of about 20 nightclubs in the east of the city.

Thousands of techno fans and a broader clutch of protesters standing up for the city’s cultural life took to Berlin’s streets at the weekend in the latest in a string of demonstrations which have caused parts of the German capital to grind to a halt.

At stake is an area stretching from Treptower Park, across the Spree River and towards Friedrichshain, at the heart of the city’s nightlife. Clubs in the proposed path of the autobahn, which protesters have nicknamed the “highway to hell”, include some with a near-legendary status such as About Blank, a techno club housed in a once derelict industrial building, and Renate, a magnet for LGBTQ+ clubgoers.

An extension of the A100 motorway, which began being built in the 1950s, could see them all razed to the ground if work begins as planned in 2027. The project has the backing of the transport ministry in the federal government as well as the city’s newly elected first conservative mayor, Kai Wegner.

A transport ministry spokesperson recently reiterated its backing for the project, calling it “necessary to enable the management of traffic and deal with increasing traffic flows in the future”.

Lutz Leichsenring, spokesman for the Clubcommission Berlin, said the extension of the A100 would pose an “existential threat to Berlin’s unique cultural landscape” which had been established in the decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

A nationwide campaign which has received widespread international support called #clubsAREculture has pledged to continue to put pressure on local and federal governments with protest raves.

Mohamed Ben Mustapha, from the club ZUKUNFT am Ostkreuz (Future at East Cross) called the planned extension “the equivalent of Berlin shooting itself in the kneecap” and said the removal of the clubs would be devastating for cultural exchange in the city.

“The areas under threat are precisely the places where an eclectic interaction between people from a variety of backgrounds … is taking place, not on the street or in the workplace.”

Berlin’s club scene grew on the back of a large number of empty buildings left by deindustrialisation in the aftermath of the second world war. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, dance and electronic music were among the creative endeavours that moved in to the often illegally occupied derelict spaces with the legacy of a distinctive Berlin scene that has continued to thrive and expand. Cultural officials estimate it is worth an annual €1.5bn (£1.3bn) to the German capital’s economy

“This historic development created what the government often cites as Berlin’s standout feature, as a lively, creative and colourful city,” Leichsenring said.

“The settlement of a large range of other industries is largely down to the particular cultural offering Berlin has – international companies, startups, as well as industrial developments in everything from transport to food and tourism.”

He said that once the clubs were destroyed, it would be virtually impossible to recreate the scene and many thousands of jobs would be lost as a result.

Clubcommission Berlin is calling for a halt to the A100 building plans plus a comprehensive strategy to deal with gentrification in the city, including the creation of a common vision for urban development.