Kelowna man bemoans 'awful,' unexpected FortisBC tree work
CBC
Fri, May 10, 2024 

Giulio Di Palma was shocked to come home from work to find the branches of his spruce tree slashed down one side and trimmed at the top by utility company FortisBC. (Brady Strachan/CBC - image credit)


Giulio Di Palma was shocked to return home from work one day in April to find the branches on half of his large spruce tree missing and a portion of the top cut off.

The tree stood proudly in middle of his front yard, but it's been humbled by the unexpected pruning job, with every one of its street-facing limbs removed.

"It looks awful," said Di Palma. "I'm the laughingstock on Barkley Road."

Di Palma's case serves as an example of how far utility company FortisBC is allowed to go when a tree grows near power lines.

The Kelowna resident says he understands the tree could have posed a safety risk near the wires, but he's upset he received no communication from FortisBC before it was trimmed.

The company says residents are notified when a tree needs to be completely removed, but not necessarily when trimmed.

Di Palma says his beloved tree, which he estimates to be more than 50 years old, was already on the property when he bought it 26 years ago.

He said the tree offers privacy from the street, and had been about 25 feet tall before FortisBC cut three feet off the top.

A screengrab from Google Maps shows the tree in 2014. (Google Maps)

Di Palma is puzzled as to why the company cut as many branches as it did.

"I couldn't understand the ones on the bottom — which were literally 20 or 30 feet away from the wires — how they would be at all affected," he said.

'Not there to trim for esthetic reasons'

Gary Toft with FortisBC confirmed to CBC that Di Palma was not contacted prior to the tree work.

He said it's "less often" that property owners are notified when a tree needs to be trimmed, as opposed to removed.

"We're not there to trim for esthetic reasons; we're there to keep the community safe," Toft said Wednesday on CBC's Radio West.

"If we're there, it's because it's become a safety issue and it needs to be addressed."

He said trees too close to power lines risk falling on the line, potentially causing power outages or even a fire.

Toft said at any given time, the company has upwards of 15 tree-trimming crews working in 10 different communities.

He said homeowners should ensure they do not plant trees under power lines. For those who do have trees that pose a risk, he recommends home owners hire a certified utility arborist to have it trimmed for both safety and appearance.

Di Palma says FortisBC should consult with homeowners prior to trimming trees on their property, and hopes the company will change its policy.

"It's an eyesore for the neighborhood," he said of the tree. "It's atrocious."

Di Palma says he is in discussions with FortisBC, and is hoping the company will remove the tree and replace it with a new one.

"I just want that tree down," he said.

To protect piping plovers, Kouchibouguac National Park closes some areas to visitors

CBC
Sun, May 12, 2024 

A tiny piping plover on Prince Edward Island. Piping plovers are also found in New Brunswick. The birds make their nests on sandy shorelines which leaves them exposed to predators and human activity. (Submitted by Sean Landsman - image credit)


Frequent visitors to Kouchibouguac National Park will once again see some areas closed this summer to protect piping plovers

The piping plover is an endangered species in Canada and according to the park ecologist, Daniel Gallant, it is a fragile species because of where it nests.

"They nest on sandy shores, where they are exposed," he said, noting that the little birds like areas that have very little vegetation.


"They can be exposed to flooding, they can be exposed to predation. … They try to blend in that environment. But, you know, they fall prey to predators quite often."

A sand dune at Kouchibouguac National Park seen here in early summer. During breeding season, piping plovers like to nest in sandy areas with little vegetation. (Nigel Fearon/Parks Canada/Kouchibouguac National Park)

Gallant said these predators include gulls and crows, but also foxes. The predation of the species is only made worse by humans, he said, because forgotten garbage or human activity can attract predators to the shoreline.

According to the Government of Canada's website about the piping plover (melodus subspecies) recovery strategy, despite major conservation efforts "ongoing threats ... continue to create challenges in meeting population objectives."

It goes on to say that in many jurisdictions, this subspecies of the bird, found in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Quebec, is now considered management-dependent.

This June 2006 file photo shows a clutch of eggs from a piping plover in the sand at Seawall Beach in Maine. (Pat Wellenbach/The Associated Press)

Management-dependent species require intervention measures, such as predator control or habitat management, to survive.

Gallant said the park closures are based on the habitats of the plovers, so the birds can choose the best location to nest.

The northernmost part of the park shoreline is closed, along with the North Kouchibouguac dune, the northern and southern tip of the South Kouchibouguac dune, and the northern tip of the North Richibucto dune.



A map shows the regions of Kouchibouguac National Park that are closed for piping plover breeding season. (Parks Canada)

"It's not all areas," said Gallant. "For example, in the area of Kelly's Beach, you've got several kilometres of unclosed shoreline where people can walk and enjoy this habitat."

The closures are in place for the entire breeding season, from mid-April until the last day of August.

The park will also be monitoring the species, observing the nests every three-to-five days so the number of nests that fail or succeed can be logged.

Gallant said the Environment Canada recovery plan has a target of, on average, 1.7 fledged chicks per nest. He said the number at the park last year was 1.5 and it was 1.8 the year before. But he said that number has been as high as almost three during some breeding seasons.

"Sometimes we are able to get really really good results that can be the best results in the whole of the Gulf of St. Lawrence."

In order to best protect the nests, Gallant urged people to respect the closed areas of the park and also to keep the beach clean as a way to discourage predators. He also asked that people respect that dogs are not allowed in the park, with the exception of Callandars Beach while leashed.

"If we have people that are regularly going in these areas that are prime nesting habitat, the plovers end up being disturbed all the time, and they might not choose an ideal spot to nest or they might abandon their nest," he said.

The U.S. Felon Succeeding Putin’s Notorious ‘Chef’

Shannon Vavra
Sat, May 11, 2024 

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Twitter

A convicted felon who was locked up in a U.S. prison for money-laundering is pulling the strings behind a sweeping Kremlin influence operation with ties to Russian intelligence, The Daily Beast has learned.

Mira Terada—a 36-year-old Russian national who has also gone by the name Oksana Vovk—was arrested at Helsinki Airport in late 2018, two years after she was implicated in a cocaine-smuggling operation that stretched from Texas to Virginia.

She later pled guilty to money-laundering charges in connection to the drug scheme, and spent more than two years in prison—an experience she later claimed had opened her eyes “to the brutality of the American judicial system, the inhumanity of American prisons and the complete indifference of the so-called liberal American society.”


But her story doesn’t stop there: upon her release and return to Russia in 2021, Terada announced that she had made the decision to head the Foundation for Battling Injustice (FBR), a non-profit established by the infamous boss of Russia’s Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin. She didn’t reveal who had offered her the position, if anyone.

Prigozhin—who earned the nickname “Putin’s chef” for his catering company, which served the Kremlin—was notorious for his army of private mercenary soldiers. His side gig, however, encompassed running Russian influence operations through organizations like FBR and the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a troll farm that has interfered in U.S. presidential elections.

Putin’s Gangster Reign of Chaos Finally Catches Up to Him

After Prigozhin fell from Vladimir Putin’s good graces, he died in a plane crash last year, in what appeared to be a Kremlin-ordered assassination. Now, Terada—apparently eager to fill the vacuum—has thrust herself into the spotlight, building her own influence empire from the remnants left behind by the mercenary boss.

The blonde ex-convict appears to have milked her felony sentence, capitalizing on her experience in a U.S. prison to run a network of pro-Kremlin propagandists claiming to be advocates for human rights and press freedom.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Russian private security company Wagner, in an unspecified location in Africa on Aug. 21, 2023.
Wagner Account/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

“I saw the nightmares of the US prison hell, which are diligently hushed up by the world media: torture, bullying of prisoners, the sadism of the jailers and the cold ruthlessness of the American penitentiary system,” she said in a blog post detailing her future ambitions. “I am full of strength and determination to announce that I accept the post of the head and official representative of the Foundation to Battle Injustice.”

In January, Terada convened a group of journalists from around the globe to discuss plans for a new organization allegedly dedicated to helping journalists. She called it the “Brics Journalists Association,” and spoke to her guests for 40 minutes about the group’s mission: to “provide assistance” to journalists from BRICS (the organization comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates) as well as reporters from other countries who need “help and support.”

Terada’s operations at both FBR and the new Brics association feature a series of prongs and networks of connected pro-Kremlin individuals, some of whom have previously tried to interfere in American politics, according to U.S. officials. At the heart of the scheme is the distribution of “articles” that push pro-Kremlin narratives and anti-Western diatribes, which are parroted and recirculated by an array of Russian disinformation platforms.

The Daily Beast did not receive responses to comment requests sent to Terada, her former counsel, the FBR, and the Russian embassy for this story. The State Department and the federal attorneys who brought U.S. cases against Terada did not respond by time of publication.

Patrick Warren, Associate Professor in the John E. Walker Department of Economics at Clemson University—who has been studying Russian disinformation—told The Daily Beast that Terada appears to be trying to take up where Prigozhin left off.

This is essentially the “Russian successor organization to Prigozhin’s influence empire,” Warren told The Daily Beast.

Just this week, when the Ukrainian government announced that it had thwarted a Russian-directed plot to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky, Terada’s network hunkered down on the narrative that Moscow was not responsible.

Ukraine's President Volodymr Zelensky inspects new fortifications for Ukrainian servicemen, in Donetsk region, Ukraine, April 19, 2024.
Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Reuters

“As expected, Moscow is accused of being behind the attempted attack, but there is no evidence that the Russians participated in the conspiracy. On the other hand, the West seems quite interested in eliminating Zelensky,” one writer said in a piece published at the infobrics.org website.

The post was re-published on multiple Russian disinformation sites that appear to be tied to Terada’s network. One site that featured the post has links to the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), according to the State Department. The post was also circulated on a platform connected to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), according to the agency.

Mysterious Fraudsters Are Exploiting the Plot to Kill Zelensky

A source familiar with the matter, who spoke with The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity, said there are signs that staffers and resources that were previously tied to Prigozhin’s IRA—the troll farm notorious for its interference in U.S. politics and the U.S. presidential election in 2016—are now working in Terada’s extended network of Russian shills.

The person familiar and their team have made their assessment with moderate confidence.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials are hunting for Terada’s associates. Terada’s organization, the FBR, has coordinated activities in the past with a mysterious Russian citizen named Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, who has been working with the FSB since at least mid-2018, according to U.S. officials. In 2021, Ionov sought to discuss with the FBR the feasibility of supporting a specific candidate in a 2022 gubernatorial election in the United States.

Ionov has also launched an organization that has received funding from a trust created by Russian President Vladimir Putin himself. He worked on Prigozhin’s Project Lakhta, which focused on spreading disinformation online, including through troll farms and fake online personas, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, which has sanctioned him. Terada has called the accusations against Ionov “far-fetched.”
‘Large Amounts of Cocaine’

In her January launch of the Brics Journalists Association, Terada spoke softly and melodically. A video of the virtual conference showed her wearing a whimsical outfit made of white dentelle and mesh. The cream-colored wall in the background made it look as though Terada was surrounded by a glowing halo.

While Terada appears to be seizing the limelight now, her past remains murky.

Terada previously lived in Houston, Texas and owned a Texas-based company called “STYLISH TRAVELER, LLC,” which was believed to launder the drug proceeds, according to court records. U.S. authorities first began looking into Terada in early 2016 as part of an Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation.

In one incident in November of 2016, she was found in a vehicle that had been used for transporting cocaine, which was hidden in the engine compartment of the car. Terada and another alleged co-conspirator had traveled by car from Houston all the way to Vienna, Virginia, with the cocaine ostensibly concealed.

She was charged with money-laundering and one felony count of conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, according to court records obtained by The Daily Beast. Investigators alleged that Terada had worked as part of an organization alongside her ex-husband “known to illegally smuggle large amounts of cocaine from the Houston, Texas area for redistribution within the Washington, D.C. region,” the affidavit in her case states. Her ex-husband had provided and received kilos of cocaine for years as part of the operation, according to court records.

Her ex-husband, who did not immediately respond to a comment request from The Daily Beast, has a lengthy criminal rap sheet. It includes felony convictions for voluntary manslaughter while armed, assault with a dangerous weapon, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and two convictions for possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, according to the Department of Justice.

Terada’s 2018 detainment and extradition from Finland came after U.S. authorities had issued an Interpol warrant for her arrest. The Russian citizen had been on her way from St. Petersburg to Spain when she was caught, according to Sputnik. After her extradition to the United States in June of 2019, Terada was held in the Alexandria Detention Center in Virginia.

Terada—or Vovk, as she was known back then—made a partial guilty plea to conspiracy to commit money-laundering. The court dismissed her other charge, and sentenced her to 30 months in prison.

A memorial for Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, and Dmitry Utkin, the group commander, in Moscow, Russia August 29, 2023.
Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

Doing Time

After returning to Russia in 2021, Terada claimed through her organization—the FBR—that the charges against her were “trumped up,” despite the fact that she had pleaded guilty to money-laundering.

Terada’s claim to fame—and apparent effort to build credibility as the head of an organization ostensibly focused on human rights—is about manufacturing a counterweight to the West’s focus on human rights violations in Russia, said Darren Linvill, who is tracking Terada’s organization alongside Warren.

“You know how in the West, we have all kinds of foundations that explore human rights,” Linvill told The Daily Beast. “If you want to create a multipolar world, and your country is guilty of a long list of human rights violations, you might need to start your own foundation that explores human rights violations—but, you know, only the human rights violations that everybody else is committing.”

The FBR, for its part, doesn’t appear to post anything about human rights violations in Russia. It is, however, full of posts and articles on racism and police brutality in the United States, protests in European countries, and anti-NATO and Ukraine perspectives—including one recent piece that claims that western intelligence agencies are behind the largest terrorist attacks of this century.

It’s clear to experts like Linvill, however, that FBR is “just a front organization.”

“They put out a bunch of reports that not very many people ever talk about,” Linvill told The Daily Beast. “It’s just there to look good.”

Broad support for Saskatoon's affordable housing plan, but landlord group offers warning 

(BECAUSE OF COURSE THEY DO AFFORDIBALE IS NON PROFIT

CBC
Sun, May 12, 2024 

Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark discusses how Saskatoon will distribute money from Ottawa's housing accelerator fund. (Travis Reddaway/CBC - image credit)


An affordable housing program with faults is better than no program at all, a city hall committee heard while discussing how Saskatoon will distribute $41.3 million from Ottawa's housing accelerator fund.

"No funding formula is perfect. We'll take what we can get," said Angela Bishop, board chair of the Camponi Housing Corporation, a Métis-led non-profit.

Bishop told the committee Camponi has a shovel-ready project waiting for funding and more than 300 families on the wait-list for affordable housing.


On Wednesday, the city's planning and development committee voted in favour of the proposed plan. It now needs final approval at a future city council meeting.

The plan allocates $35 million for incentive programs, split between the city's own Innovative Housing Incentives policy, multi-unit dwellings in the downtown and corridor growth areas, and housing developments on city-owned land.

Camponi's Blairmore project on Hart Road is planned to have more than 150 affordable housing units. The project is zoned and shovel-ready, but rising construction costs halted progress. Bishop said getting a portion of the accelerator funding will help Camponi leverage funds from other levels of government so the project can proceed.

Mayor Charlie Clark said at committee that the plan's rapid rollout was necessary to get money flowing to organizations soon enough to avoid missing a construction season.

"We're hearing that this has the potential to really make a difference in our ability to get that badly needed housing out there," Clark said. "We need to get as many of the options out there as possible as quickly as we can."

The average rent for a one-bedroom unit in Saskatoon increased to $1,215 in April, an 8.4 per cent increase from the same month last year, according to a new report from Rentals.ca. Average rent for a two-bedroom increased to $1,417, up 14.8 per cent from the same month in 2023.

Proposed incentive policies could scare off developers: landlord assoc.

One part of the plan offers a grant of up to $27,000 per new affordable unit and a five-year tax abatement. There is also a stipulation that organizations and businesses that get funding sign a 20-year affordability agreement to keep rents below market value, while still allowing for some rent increases based on current standards of affordability.

That stipulation could scare off potential partners, said Saskatchewan Landlord Association CEO Cameron Choquette at the meeting.

"Providers don't want to be saddled with 20-year rent control agreements," Choquette said.

He asked the committee to consider 10-year agreements. The committee did not make any amendments before moving the plan to city council for approval.


Camponi Housing Corp. plans to build more than 150 affordable housing units at its Hart Road project in Blairmore. (Camponi Housing Corporation)

Housing advocates aren't convinced landlords will stick to affordable rates without multi-decade agreements. Métis Nation-Saskatchewan acting director of programs and services Jason Mercredi told committee members long-term agreements are necessary.

"We're seeing a transition from low-income to market rate rentals because there's also a housing shortage in this city, so you'll be able to fill those units regardless and you'll charge more," he said. "There is less incentive for the sector to charge low-income rental rates unless it's tied to funding agreements with 10, 20, 30-year outcomes."

Ottawa's Housing Accelerator Fund will distribute $4 billion to communities until 2027, with the goal of adding at least 100,000 units of affordable housing across Canada.

Saskatoon defines affordable housing as "units that are affordable to low-income households with incomes below the Saskatchewan Household Income Maximums while spending no more than 30 per cent of their income on housing."

The income maximums range from $38,000 for a one-bedroom unit to $66,500 for a four-bedroom (with top-ups for people with disabilities).

N.W.T. snake assessed as 'species of concern'

CBC
Sat, May 11, 2024 

The red-sided garter snake lives is now a species of concern after the 2023 wildfires burned much of its habitat around Fort Smith. (Submitted by the Department of Environment and Climate Change - image credit)

The only known reptile in the Northwest Territories could soon be added to the territory's list of species of risk.

The red-sided garter snake lives around Fort Smith, but after last summer's wildfires burned much of their habitat in the South Slave, the territory's species at risk committee is reporting that the snake's population is under threat.

Johanna Stewart, a researcher studying the red-sided garter snake population in Fort Smith, says she's been visiting areas where there are typically hundreds of snakes but so far hasn't seen anywhere close to those numbers.

"It's possible that snakes are still yet to emerge, we may still see more coming out," she said. "It's also possible that these snakes have moved to different areas, or that their population numbers have changed."

The N.W.T. species at risk committee announced that it assessed the snake as a "species of concern" earlier this month. This came after a meeting in Fort Smith to assess the species in late April.

That means that the species is at risk of becoming threatened or endangered in the territory. It's the first time the committee assessed the red-sided garter snake.

The committee will report its assessment to a group called the Conference of Management Authorities (CMA) in May. The CMA will then meet with N.W.T. communities and decide whether the red-sided garter snake should be added to the territory's list of species at risk. If added, it would still be considered a species of special concern.

Stewart says there are a few possible explanations for why they're not seeing the usual large populations. One is that the snakes have changed their habitat use and are hanging out in areas where they're not normally seen.

"But it's also possible that there were losses in the fire," she said.

Johanna Stewart

Johanna Stewart is a researcher studying the red-sided garter snake population in Fort Smith. She hopes her work will inform government decisions in how to protect the snake and how to manage land impacted by wildfires. (Submitted by Department of Environment and Climate Change)

Anecdotally Stewart said that she's seen snakes that seem to have burn marks or scars from the fire.

She said it also could be that burned forest has left the snakes more exposed to predators and that could also be contributing to a smaller population.

Stewart has been trained to safely capture the snakes and will spend the summer weighing, measuring and tagging them for a report to inform government on how best to protect the species and to manage land in a way that allows wildlife to recover from major climate events like wildfires.

She says she expects to have some preliminary results before the winter but will be back in the field next summer and have more information that she hopes to share with the community and territorial governments.

A report from the species at risk committee says that the extent of the 2023 wildfire season has created "urgent need" for more information on the snake, its habitat and the factors that threaten it.

That report suggests creating a working group where members of the public can meet to collect and share information on the snakes. It also suggests promoting public education initiatives to conserve red-sided garter snakes.

B.C. ends jade mining in northwest, all mines to close in 5 years

CBC
Sat, May 11, 2024 

An aerial viewpoint shows the winding Dease River along Highway 37, north of the community of Dease Lake, about 1,750 kilometres northwest of Vancouver. The province has ordered jade mining operations in the region to stop. (TranBC/Flickr - image credit)

British Columbia isn't allowing any new jade mines to open in the northwest, and has set a five-year wind-down period for existing operations.

A statement from the Ministry of Energy and Mines says officials have been working closely with First Nations to address concerns about the effects of jade mining on sensitive alpine environments in the area near Dease Lake, about 1,750 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.

An order under the Environment and Land Use Act was necessary to protect the area from further harm and disturbance, it said.


Mining activities on new tenures must stop immediately, while existing tenure holders may continue operating for five years with "enhanced regulatory requirements," allowing them "adequate time to wind down."

A merchant examines a jade stone displayed at the Myanmar Gem Emporium in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Monday, March 11, 2019. The annual emporium began Monday and will last until March 20.

A merchant examines a jade stone displayed at the Myanmar Gem Emporium in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (Aung Shine Oo/The Associated Press)

"The ministry has been working closely with local First Nations, with input from industry, to address concerns regarding the environmental impacts to sensitive alpine environments from jade mining in the Turnagain region of northwestern B.C.," the statement reads. "The order is needed to protect these areas from further harm and disturbance."

In addition to environmental harms, the ministry said jade mining has posed significant challenges when it comes to permitting, compliance and enforcement in northwestern B.C., where many sites are only accessible by helicopter.

The province said the order is limited to jade mining in that region, and it does not affect other kinds of mining or jade tenures elsewhere in B.C.

Jade is the provincial stone, and in 2016, under the then-B.C. Liberal government, energy and mines minister Bill Bennett declared May 28 as Jade Day, to promote awareness of its "economic benefits."

However, there has been significant contention over jade mining in the past several years. In 2020, the province, under the B.C. NDP government, implemented a temporary ban on jade placer mining in the northern half of B.C.

CBC News reached out to the Tahltan Central government, which has publicly objected to jade mining on its territories, but no one was immediately available to comment.

In a 2021 statement, the nation demanded an end to a reality TV show Jade Fever, which followed a jade mining operation on Tahltan territory. It also criticized the province's ban on placer mining, saying it didn't go far enough.

About two months later, in July 2021, the province updated its ban on jade mining to include a ban on hard rock jade mining.

Companies say they were not consulted

In response to the province's bans, two companies, Cassiar Jade Contracting Inc. and Glenpark Enterprises Ltd. filed a lawsuit against the B.C. government in March 2024 seeking financial compensation for the monetary damages caused by the bans.

In April, the province filed a response in court, stating the companies "could never have had a reasonable expectation of unconditional rights in relation to their mining claims." The lawsuit remains before the courts as of publication.

Kristin Rosequist, left, and Tony Ritter, right, are the heads of jade mining firms that are suing the B.C. government. The companies, Glenpark Enterprises and Cassiar Jade, say that the B.C. government halting jade mining operations is causing monetary damage.

Glenpark Enterprises president Kristin Rosequist and Cassiar Jade president Tony Ritter are against the ban on jade mining and their companies have filed a lawsuit against the B.C. government. (CBC)

Glenpark president Kristin Rosequist said she thought the government was going to announce a reform of the province's jade mining industry in the northwest — not a total shutdown.

"I hope that the people can recognize that the government is being so heavy-handed," she told CBC News. "In lieu of enforcing their own regulations, they find it more suitable to shut down an entire industry."

Tony Ritter, the president of Cassiar Jade, said mining companies were not appropriately consulted before the latest announcement, and that the government has only just reached out to set up a working group to discuss the incoming regulations.

"There's a lot of I have — a lot of questions that are unanswered," he said.

Ritter said companies like his are being punished despite an excellent environmental record, due to other companies' disregard of the regulations.

Trump praises fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter during rally speech


Ex-president calls Hopkins’ cannibalistic Lecter ‘late, great’ while condemning ‘people who are being released into our country’


Edward Helmore

Sun 12 May 2024 

THE GUARDIAN

Donald Trump on Saturday praised fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter “as a wonderful man” before segueing into comments disparaging people who have immigrated into the US without permission.

The former president’s remarks to political rally-goers in Wildwood, New Jersey, as he challenges Joe Biden’s re-election in November were a not-so-subtle rhetorical bridge exalting Anthony Hopkins’ cannibalistic Lecter in Silence of the Lambs as “late [and] great” while simultaneously condemning “people who are being released into our country that we don’t want”.

Trump delivered his address to an estimated crowd of about 80,000 supporters under the shadow of the Great White roller coaster in a 1950s-kitsch seaside resort 90 miles (144.8km) south of Philadelphia.

The occasion served for Trump to renew his stated admiration for Lecter, as he’s done before, after the actor Mads Mikkelsen – who previously portrayed Lecter in a television series – once described Trump as “a fresh wind for some people”.


Among other comments, Trump on Sunday also repeated exaggerations about having “been indicted more than the great Alphonse Capone”, the violent Prohibition-era Chicago mob boss.

Trump since the spring of 2023 has grappled with four indictments attributing more than 80 criminal charges to him for attempts to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election he lost to Biden, retaining classified materials after his presidency and hush-money payments to an adult film actor which prosecutors maintain were illicitly covered up.

The trial over the hush money is set to enter its fourth week Monday.

Yet Capone was indicted at least six times before his famous 1931 tax evasion conviction.

Trump nonetheless used the occasion to call the charges against him “bullshit”, with spectators then chanting the word back at him.

The Philadelphia Inquirer noted that the former president’s supporters had poured into Wildwood in “pickup trucks decked out in Trump flags” from up and down the east coast.

According to the outlet, hundreds of people set up camp overnight on the boardwalk to get into the event.

“The country is headed in the wrong direction,” Kelly Carter-Currier, a 62-year-old retired teacher from New Hampshire, told the Inquirer. “So, hopefully, people will get their shit together and vote the right person in. And if they don’t, I don’t know. World War III?”

On the other hand, New Jersey Democrats dismissed the significance of the event.

Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill said many of the Trump supporters expected would be from out of state. “Jersey is not going to be a welcoming place for Trump,” Sherrill said.

Sherrill’s fellow New Jersey Democrat Andy Kim, a congressman running for the US Senate, said that generalized apathy toward government helped Trump’s support.

“I hope people recognize that he is not somebody that has an agenda that’s going to lead to a better type of politics,” Kim said.

Trump Says He’d Deport ‘Anti-American’ Protesters in Bizarre Rally Speech

TO WHERE?!!

Jeremy Childs

ROLING STONE
Sat, May 11, 2024 


Much like the college administrators who called the cops on student protesters, Donald Trump’s solution to quash any political uprising appears to be using the force of the state.

While speaking about Israel’s war in Gaza during a campaign rally in Wildwood, New Jersey on Saturday, Trump criticized the pro-Palestine protests on American college campuses, saying, “When I’m president, we will not allow colleges to be taken over by violent radicals.”

“If you come here from another country and try to bring jihadism, or anti-Americanism, or antisemitism to our campuses we will immediately deport you, you’ll be out of that school,” Trump continued.


Trump also alleged the campus protesters are being funded by President Joe Biden’s political donors, echoing a Politico story that Rolling Stone debunked. He has previously compared the campus protesters at Columbia University to the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, although he distinguishes the former as destructive and damaging and the latter group as “unbelievable patriots.”

Trump also criticized Biden’s decision to withhold a shipment of bombs to Israel due to its planned invasion of Rafah.

“Crooked Joe’s action is one of the worst betrayals of an American ally in the history of our country,” Trump said. “I support Israel’s right to win its war on terror, is that OK?”

Tens of thousands of people were in attendance for the rally held in the coastal city on the tip of the South Jersey Shore, with the Trump campaign claiming up to 80,000 people showed up to hear the presumptive GOP presidential nominee speak.

In addition to criticizing Biden’s response to the conflict in Gaza, Trump also spent much of his speech lambasting the Biden administration’s environmental policy, including the Environmental Protection Agency’s new guidelines to increase the number of electric vehicles on the roads, calling it Biden’s “insane electric vehicle mandate.” The oil and gas industry is reportedly writing executive orders to roll back Biden’s environmental policies in a second Trump administration.

Trump also took a moment to praise the villain of the 1991 horror film The Silence of the Lambs in one of the more bizarre tangents of the evening. Trump had been discussing Biden’s “open border,” alleging that criminals and “people from insane asylums and mental institutions” were coming into the U.S., a popular topic in his rally speeches.

“”Has anybody ever seen The Silence of the Lambs? The late, great Hannibal Lecter. He’s a wonderful man,” Trump said. “He oftentimes would have a friend for dinner.”

The moment is not the first time Trump has mentioned Lecter during a campaign stop, having referenced him in an apparent mix-up with the actor who portrayed the character, Anthony Hopkins, during a speech in Iowa last October. Trump wrapped up the tangent by saying, “Congratulations, the late, great Hannibal Lecter.”



The rally comes after the fourth week of Trump’s hush money trial, where the former president is charged on suspicion of 34 counts of falsifying business records stemming from payments made to former porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Daniels took the witness stand herself this week, recapping her encounter with Trump and undergoing cross-examination by his legal team.

GRIFTER IN CHIEF

New York Times: Trump could owe more than $100 million in taxes as a result of IRS inquiry

Eric Bradner, CNN
Sat, May 11, 2024 

Qian Jun/MB Media/Getty Images


Former President Donald Trump could owe more than $100 million in taxes as a result of a yearslong Internal Revenue Service inquiry into claims of huge losses on his Chicago skyscraper, The New York Times and ProPublica reported Saturday.

The news organizations reported Trump claimed massive financial losses twice — first on his 2008 tax return, when he said the building, then mired in debt, was “worthless,” and again after 2010, when he had shifted its ownership into a new partnership also controlled by Trump.

The 2008 claim resulted in Trump reporting losses as high as $651 million for the year, and there is no indication it drew an IRS challenge, the outlets reported. Then, Trump’s lawyers enabled further claims of losses in 2010 by shifting the Chicago tower into another partnership, “DJT Holdings LLC,” The Times and ProPublica reported.

In the years that followed, other Trump businesses, including golf courses, would be shifted into that same partnership — which his lawyers used as the basis to claim more tax-reducing losses from the Chicago tower. That move sparked the IRS inquiry. Those losses added up to $168 million over the next decade, the report said.

The outlets calculated the revision sought by the IRS could result in a tax bill of more than $100 million.

The only public mention of the IRS audit into Trump’s Chicago tower loss claims came in a December 2022 congressional report that The Times and ProPublica reported made an unexplained reference to the section of tax law at issue in the case. That mention, the outlets reported, confirmed the audit was still underway.

“This matter was settled years ago, only to be brought back to life once my father ran for office. We are confident in our position, which is supported by opinion letters from various tax experts, including the former general counsel of the IRS,” Trump’s son Eric Trump, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, told The Times and ProPublica in a statement.

Biden calls Trump ‘unhinged’ and says ‘something snapped’ in former president after he lost 2020 election

Samantha Waldenberg, CNN
Sat, May 11, 2024



President Joe Biden on Saturday called Donald Trump “clearly unhinged” and claimed that “something snapped” in the former president after he lost the 2020 election.

“It’s clear that … when he lost in 2020, something snapped in him,” Biden told supporters in Seattle at a private fundraiser Saturday, according to reporters in the room. “He’s not only obsessed with losing in 2020, he’s clearly unhinged. Just listen to what he’s telling people.”

Even though Biden thinks the presumptive GOP presidential nominee is “unhinged,” he said he believes the November election will be “close.”


“We feel good about the state of the race, but we know the race is close,” Biden said, pointing to recent polls.

Trump continues to hold an advantage over Biden, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS last month. Trump’s support in the poll among registered voters held steady at 49% in a head-to-head matchup against Biden, the same as in CNN’s last national poll on the race in January, while Biden’s stood at 43%, not significantly different from January’s 45%.

As Trump has spent much of recent weeks in a Manhattan courtroom amid his hush money trial, Biden has kept a robust schedule of policy speeches and campaign events, finding plenty of ways to needle the former president.

“By the way, remember when he was trying to deal with Covid, he said just inject a little bleach in your veins?” Biden told a crowd of builders last month. “He missed. It all went to his hair.”

Saturday’s Washington state fundraiser was held at the home of former Microsoft executive Jon Shirley, who introduced the president.

As Biden was concluding his remarks, he told donors, “I’ll try my best not to disappoint you.”

CNN’s Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.



Joe Biden wants to remind 2024 voters of a record and an agenda. Often it's Donald Trump's

DARLENE SUPERVILLE and COLLEEN LONG
Updated Sat, May 11, 2024 



SEATTLE (AP) — President Joe Biden is running for reelection on a record and an agenda -- often Donald Trump’s.

In a hotel ballroom in Seattle, at fancy homes in California and at stops in Illinois and Wisconsin over the past week, Biden has been betting that reminding voters about Trump's presidency and highlighting his Republican opponent's latest campaign statements will work to the Democrat's advantage.

At a Seattle fundraiser Friday night, Biden brought up Trump's recent interview with Time magazine in which Trump said states should be left to determine whether to prosecute women for abortions or to monitor their pregnancies.

“I really urge you to read it,” Biden said.

Biden, who headlined another Seattle fundraiser Saturday before returning to the East Coast, has plenty of other Trump material to draw from, too.

The president highlights how Trump has promised, if elected, to be “a dictator on Day 1”, how he has suggested the United States would not necessarily defend allies from aggression and how he has pledged to “totally obliterate the deep state” in the federal bureaucracy, which he blames for blocking his first-term agenda.

“And he said a whole lot more,” Biden said during a Chicago appearance. “But the bad news is he means what he says. He means what he says. Unless you think I’m kidding, just think back to the 6th of January. This guy means what he says,” referring to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Biden wants the 2024 election to be a referendum on Trump's record and plans, but he also wants voters to look favorably on his own policies and actions.

Biden and his allies think the country needs reminding about Trump's tenure and his outlandish and often concerning statements, particularly because the Republican is no longer ubiquitous on X, formerly Twitter, nor is he in front of television cameras as often as he once was.

“Chaos is nothing new for Trump,” Biden said in Chicago. “His presidency was chaos. Trump is trying to make the -- the country forget about the dark and unsettling things that he did when he was president. Well, we’re going to not let them forget.”

Biden frequently highlights Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and how he stood by when supporters violently stormed the Capitol as Congress met to certify his loss to Biden. He also points to Trump separating children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border, tax cuts the Republican pushed through that benefited corporations and the wealthy and his repeated efforts to overturn the Affordable Care Act.

Biden's barbs have been getting sharper of late.

He opened his Seattle fundraiser on Friday night by telling donors, “Thank you for the warm welcome. Please keep it down, because Donald Trump is sleeping. Sleepy Don.” That was a riff off of news reports that the former president has dozed off during his criminal trial in a New York courtroom. Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges in a hush money scheme to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election.

Biden also talks about Trump’s admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his self-described “love letters” with Kim Jong Un, the authoritarian leader of North Korea.

Biden frequently jabs at Trump for wondering aloud during the COVID-19 pandemic whether disinfectants could be injected or ingested to fight the virus. “That bleach he didn’t inject in his body; he just put it in his hair,” Biden says to laughter every time. “But, look, he’s got more hair than I do.”

Trump's campaign said in a statement that “their records speak for themselves. President Trump created the most secure border in history and peace in the world. President Trump was the first president in modern history not to enter the U.S. in any new wars. Joe Biden’s weakness has led to wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, an immigrant invasion of our border, anti-Semitic protests on our college campuses, and crime and chaos in every American city.”

Trump doesn't hesitate to criticize Biden and his policies. Trump is spending much of his time lately sitting in court. But before and after the proceedings, he often stands in front of cameras outside the courtroom and goes after Biden.

At a recent Wisconsin rally, Trump mentioned Biden within the first 2½ minutes of his speech and referenced the president or his administration more than 60 times during his remarks.

Trump's criticism often takes a dark turn. Last weekend, he told donors at his Florida resort that Biden was running a “Gestapo administration."

The Gestapo was the secret police force of the Third Reich that squelched political opposition generally and, specifically, targeted Jewish people for arrest during the Holocaust. Trump’s unfounded comparison to Nazi-era tactics is part of his effort to deny and deflect the charges against him, most notably his effort to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory.

Biden's strategy is a gamble. Voters are divided in their views of both men's presidencies.

An April poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that nearly half thought Trump’s presidency hurt the country on voting rights and election security, relations with foreign countries, abortion laws and climate change. But more than half of U.S. adults thought Biden’s presidency hurt the country on cost of living and immigration.

For all his criticism of Trump, Biden does get around to talking about his agenda and accomplishments. He tells supporters about his work to boost the economy and to bring the country out of the pandemic. He discusses his support for abortion rights even as he highlights how Trump has taken credit for the overturning of Roe v. Wade in part because of his Supreme Court nominations.

“Folks, the choice is clear,” Biden told supporters recently in the nation's capital. “Donald Trump’s vision of America is one of revenge and retribution.”

“I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s chances,” he went on. “Not because I’m president, because of the state of the moment. The world needs us.”

___

Long reported from Washington. AP White House Correspondent Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

Police announce arrest of fourth suspect in B.C. Sikh activist Nijjar's death
The Canadian Press
Sat, May 11, 2024 

SURREY, B.C. — A fourth Indian national living in Canada has been charged in last year's killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside of a temple in British Columbia.

The province's Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said in a release Saturday that 22-year-old Amandeep Singh was already in the custody of Peel Regional Police in Ontario for unrelated firearms charges.

"IHIT pursued the evidence and gained sufficient information for the BC Prosecution Service to charge Amandeep Singh with first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder," the police statement said.

Police also confirmed that Singh is an Indian national splitting his time in Canada in Brampton, Ont., Surrey, B.C., and Abbotsford, B.C.

Investigators say no further details of the arrest can be released due to ongoing investigations and court processes.

Earlier this month, police arrested three Indian nationals — Karan Brar, Kamalpreet Singh and Karanpreet Singh — in Edmonton and charged them with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Nijjar, who was gunned down in the parking lot of the Surrey, B.C., Sikh temple where he was president.

A spokesman for the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Protesters from the temple rallied outside the provincial courthouse in Surrey last Tuesday when the three men charged in the case appeared via video link.

Nijjar's death has sparked tensions between Canada and India, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying credible intelligence linked the killing to India's government, while Indian officials denied involvement.

The arrests have also heightened scrutiny on Canada's permitting process for international students after revelations that a video posted online in 2019 by an India-based immigration consultancy showed Brar saying his "study visa has arrived" while a photo showed him holding up what appeared to be a study permit.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada had said it cannot comment on active investigations or individual cases when asked about the suspects' immigration status.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2024.

The Canadian Press

Northvolt should turn Quebec into a major EV player. So why are people so unhappy?

The Canadian Press
Sun, May 12, 2024 


MONTREAL — In late September, Quebec Premier François Legault announced his government had attracted the largest private manufacturing investment in the province's history, which he said would transform Quebec into a global player in the electric vehicle supply chain.

He lauded it as the "greenest electric battery factory in the world," but since then, the $7-billion project has managed to anger many across the province — particularly environmentalists.

"Satisfying everyone is an impossibility, but satisfying nobody seems like a pretty mean feat to pull off," said Moshe Lander, a senior lecturer in economics at Montreal's Concordia University.

In the rush to attract Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt's factory, the Legault government committed $2.9 billion while Ottawa chipped in $4.4 billion. And the province quietly changed environmental regulations that resulted in the project avoiding Quebec's public consultations bureau, known as the BAPE.


The reaction was swift. An environmental group sued; Quebecers complained that the price tag was too high at a time when Legault was crying poverty during salary negotiations with teachers and nurses; and vandals sabotaged the work site east of Montreal by driving metal bars into trees, hoping to damage clear-cutting machinery. Then, last week, bottles filled with flammable liquid attached to detonators were found under equipment at the site.

Marc Bishai, a lawyer with the group that is suing Quebec — the Centre québécois du droit de l'environnement, or CQDE — said the widespread opposition is explained by "the way the government allowed the project to go ahead without respecting the laws that we as a society put in place."

His group sought a court injunction to protect wetlands and stop clear-cutting on the 171-hectare site, which straddles two communities about 30 kilometres east of Montreal. It lost that application but continues its legal fight to invalidate the environment minister's approval of preparatory work at the site.

Asked whether it was paradoxical that an environmental group is fighting an electric battery factory, Bishai said the CQDE "has never criticized the Northvolt project." Rather, his group is against the way the government pushed the factory forward "under conditions that are not democratic and sufficiently respectful of biodiversity and the population."

The CQDE is in court, he said, in part because the province failed to submit the project to public hearings, a process he said could have been completed in four months.

But Quebec Environment Minister Benoit Charette has said a full BAPE review would in fact have taken 18 months and led the Swedish company to look elsewhere. Before the project was announced, the government increased the threshold of battery production needed to trigger a review, raising it to 60,000 tonnes a year from 50,000. At a planned output of 56,000 tonnes a year, Northvolt is now exempt, but Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon has said the environmental regulations were not tailored to benefit the company.

In February, Legault told reporters it made him "sad" to hear people criticize Northvolt, saying that "with this attitude" Quebec would have been unable to build its major hydroelectric projects. "If we listened to these people, nothing would change," he said. "We would do nothing. So we really need to change this attitude in Quebec."

For Lander, the factory, which is supposed to begin manufacturing electric battery cells and producing cathode active material by 2026, is controversial because it reflects a lack of consistency with the Legault government's nationalist approach to governing.

In defence of Quebec's autonomy, language and culture, Legault has limited immigration — against the wishes of the business sector. He has introduced a language reform that manufacturing companies say will force some of them from the Quebec market. And Legault has increased out-of-province university tuition as a way to reduce the number of English-speakers in downtown Montreal, despite the protests of Montreal's mayor.

But this "Quebec first" approach hasn't extended to the Northvolt project, for which a foreign company is taking over Quebec land and using its hydroelectricity without being submitted to public consultations, Lander said in a recent interview.

"It's always been Quebec first at the expense of everything else, including the economy ... to dump this (project) on Quebecers' laps and say 'fix yourselves,' I think he needs to look in the mirror first," he said.

Laurence Bherer, a political science professor at Université de Montréal, agrees there is a disconnect in Legault's messaging, but she said Quebecers are far more concerned about his lack of consistency on the environment.

She said the BAPE "is an institution that really has a lot of legitimacy in Quebec." Sidestepping the bureau creates mistrust, which extends to the government's ecological vision, she added.

The government is championing the Northvolt project as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and electrify the transportation network, but at the same time Legault is reviving a major highway project in the Quebec City region known as the third link.

"It's as if the government's environmental policy is based on technological innovation," Bherer said. "Many people mistrust that. They think it's a form of greenwashing: we invest in this factory but we relaunch the third link."

Back at the Northvolt site, the explosives left under equipment were "rudimentary" and did not detonate, Paolo Cerruti, co-founder of the Swedish company, told reporters last week.

"We are more determined than ever to go forward," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2024.

Giuseppe Valiante, The Canadian Press