Stanford women's basketball coach Tara VanDerveer calls out NCAA on 'blatant sexism'

Erick Smith, USA TODAY 

3/21/2021

Stanford women's basketball coach Tara VanDerveer became the latest high-profile figure to offer criticism of the differences between how the NCAA is administering the respective men's and women's tournaments.

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Jocelyn Willoughby reacts to NCAA Tournament womens' weight room: 'Did not sit well with me at all'

VanDerveer, whose No. 1-seeded Cardinal are making their 33rd consecutive tournament appearance, posted a statement on Twitter that outlined grievances with amenities and COVID-19 testing.

The NCAA acknowledged its failure to provide suitable weight training facilities for the women's teams compared to what was offered to men's teams. There were issues also with differences in food and COVID-19 testing, with men's teams getting more accurate PCR tests, while the women's teams are getting daily antigen tests

© The Associated Press Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer reacts toward players during the first half of her team's NCAA college basketball game against Southern California in Santa Cruz, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

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She called the differences "blatant sexism" and claimed it was "purposeful and hurtful."

"I feel betrayed by the NCAA," VanDerveer, who has led the Cardinal to two national championships, said in the statement. "I call on University Presidents and Conference Commissioners to demand accountability. Who made these decisions and why?

"Women athletes and coaches are done waiting, not just for upgrades of a weight room, but for equity in every facet of life. Seeing men's health valued at a higher level than that of women, as evidenced by different testing protocols at both tournaments, is disheartening.

"This cannot continue to be business as usual. There are necessary changes that need to be made."

OPINION: NCAA's mea culpa isn't enough

OPINION: Women's tournament promises wild, wacky ride

The NCAA moved quickly to address the weight training issue. On Saturday, photos and videos on social media showed that the space that earlier held one set of weights and a few yoga mats had been expanded to include more equipment.

NCAA President Mark Emmert told three news outlets, including USA TODAY Sports, there are no different risks from either of the COVID-19 tests.

"I’m not a medical expert so not going to get into a debate about PCR and antigen. All the health experts said the protocol that we’re using in all of our venues and all of our championships has no different at all in terms of our ability to mitigate risk," E

Germany women's soccer stars slam court for sexist judgment

3/21/2021

BERLIN — Germany women's soccer stars are calling for an explanation over why a male coach was apparently ordered to take charge of a female team’s training sessions as part of his punishment for verbally abusing female match officials.

The players from the top two divisions issued a joint statement Saturday condemning the decision made in a case against Borussia Mönchengladbach under-23 team coach Heiko Vogel at the sports court of the West German soccer association (WDFV).

Vogel was made to answer at the court following his comments to Vanessa Arlt and Nadine Westerhoff, who were officiating at a game involving his team on Jan. 30.

The court on March 9 issued Vogel with a fine of 1,500 euros ($1,800), a ban for two league games, and ordered him to take charge of six training sessions of a women’s or girls’ team before June 30.

“The question arises as to how the training of a women’s or girls’ team can be defined as punishment,” the players said in a joint statement that was shared on Instagram by Germany captain Alexandra Popp among others. “There is also no value in offering to compensate for such unsporting behaviour by offering to train a women’s team for a few hours."

The statement said the judgment "discriminates against all women in sport and especially in soccer.”

The WDFV said in a statement on its website that it is also critical of the arrangement and that it has asked the court to review the decision.

“There is no room for discrimination either in soccer or in society,” WDFV vice-president Gundolf Walaschewski said. “The WDFV and with it the soccer family in North Rhine-Westphalia are expressly committed to this. That means no tolerance for sexist discrimination and no tolerance for discrimination in general.”

The German soccer federation (DFB) also backed the players’ call.

“It’s incomprehensible for me that training a women’s team is given as a punishment,” DFB vice-president Hannelore Ratzeburg said. “I can therefore understand the players’ anger and why they make themselves heard in public. We have been in exchange with the WDFV for several days. The fact that the executive committee of the WDFV has clearly positioned itself and ordered a review of the judgment is a correct and necessary sign.”

Gladbach sporting director Max Eberl had already criticized Vogel for his comments to the officials.


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Ciarán Fahey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cfaheyAP

CiaráN Fahey, The Associated Press

Quebec job post for 'white woman' sparks debate about caring for mentally ill seniors

MONTREAL — Recent news that a Quebec hospital repeatedly posted notices seeking a "white woman" caregiver has sparked a debate about how to care for mentally ill seniors who refuse to be treated by people of another race.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The heads of two placement agencies in Quebec say those kinds of requests usually come from racist patients who have dementia or Alzheimer's. They say Black and other racialized workers are sent to care for other patients for safety reasons.

But experts in the health field say trying to protect workers of colour by replacing them with white people is patronizing and paternalistic.

"That is racism, that's rationalization, said Bharati Sethi, a social work professor at King’s University College at Western University. Focusing on transferring racialized health-care workers instead of looking at bigger institutional issues downplays the problem, she said in an interview Friday.

"Bluntly, we have to stop rationalizing, look at the problem at the root and do something about it," Sethi, who worked as a personal-support worker before becoming a professor, said.

Earlier this week, Montreal La Presse reported that a hospital in St-Eustache, Que., north of Montreal, sent 10 requests to placement agencies asking for a “white woman only” or a woman with “white skin.” The hospital had reportedly sought a white woman to care for a patient with dementia who was disruptive in the presence of racialized staff.

In response, the regional health authority in Quebec’s Laurentians region said it has opened an investigation.

Jill Eusanio, president of Comfort Keepers Quebec, said her placement agency receives requests for white workers a few times a year. She said, however, the issue is more complex than it may seem.

"Usually, these requests are for senior citizens, clients, that are racist, and who have a mental disease that's set in, like Alzheimer's or dementia, and they're mean to the worker," she said in an interview Thursday.

"What do I do?" Eusanio said. "Do I put a Black worker in this environment who will be verbally abused, who could be physically hit?"

Eusanio, whose placement agency provides personal support workers, nurses and nurses aids for home care, long-term care facilities and hospitals, said she would never promise to send a white worker. But, she said, if one of her

Video: Lack of access to Indigenous midwifery (Global News)


Gravel said those kinds of requests are intended to ensure employees aren't placed in difficult situations when dealing with patients suffering from conditions like dementia and Alzheimer's who have difficulty dealing with people who are different.

In some cases, however, she has received requests from people recovering from surgery or other medical procedures who need temporary home care but don't want a Black person helping them.

In those cases, she said, she refuses to serve the client. She said she doesn't tolerate racism.

Sethi recently conducted a study on racism against personal-support workers at an Ontario nursing home. She found that Black workers frequently experienced racism from patients and their families, and in some cases, from colleagues.

If personal-support workers are subject to racist abuse and believe they will be replaced by white people, then that might encourage them to stay silent out of fear of losing work, Sethi said.

Dr. Sophie Zhang, who oversees 15 long-term care centres in Montreal, said she has had patients who are openly racist against workers, adding that it can be challenging to manage those patients when they're suffering illnesses such as dementia.

Regarding requests for white-only workers, Zhang said there are two issues involved: one is about accommodations in the workplace, while the other is about hiring discrimination.

"For me, discriminating at the time of hiring is unacceptable," she said in an interview Friday. "That, I don't think we can make any excuses for."

Sometimes, however, when a decision needs to be made about who will be assigned to a patient, accommodations may have to be made, she said.

"This is not because we want to 'give in to racism,' but it's because sometimes the safety of the worker is at risk because there has been abuse, there has been verbal and physical abuse."

But she said it's the last resort. When patients are able to be reasoned with, she said, the first step is dialogue.

"My first reaction is to tell them that we don't accept racism," Zhang said. "That all our health-care workers are competent, are qualified, will take good care of them no matter what race they are, and that any sort of verbal or physical assault is not tolerated."

Sometimes, Zhang said, the patient ends up trusting the worker who takes care of them, adding that overall, she has had to manage few cases where people have demanded to be treated by non-racialized people.

"It's a very small number of cases where we have to intervene and make these accommodations."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 20, 2021.

———

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Jacob Serebrin, The Canadian Press

Raylene Whitford Appointed To Federal Task Force On Women In The Economy


(ANNews) – On March 8, International Women’s Day, a federal task force on Women in the Economy was created to advise the federal government on a pathway to a national feminist economic recovery from the pandemic.

On March 15, PhD Student Raylene Whitford was appointed to the task force.

“The setup of this group is very non-traditional,” said Whitford, a PhD student in the Faculty of Native Studies and the Alberta School of Business, and founder of Canative Energy. “They’ve brought together an amazing cross-section of women from different industries and experiences. It’s wonderful to be a part of and contribute to this.”

The task force is co-chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, and Minister of Middle Class Prosperity Mona Fortier. It also consists of 17 other women from across the country.

THE FEDS HAVE A MINISTER FOR MIDDLE CLASS PROSPERITY AKA THE WORKING CLASS ABOVE MINIMUM WAGE

“Over the past year we have seen the alarming impact of this pandemic on women’s economic participation … Canada’s future prosperity and competitiveness depend on the ability of women to participate equally—and fully—in our workforce,” said Minister Freeland.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on Canadian women as they have faced steeper losses in jobs, wages, and hours. Since February 2020, more than 80,000 women aged 15 and older have left the labour force, compared with about 25,000 men.

“We know that women have paid a particularly high price due to the impacts of the pandemic. The steep job losses have impacted women the most,” stated Minister Fortier. ”

Mothers have had to take on more responsibilities around the home to support children who are learning virtually. And women have been at the forefront of our collective fight against COVID-19, as they represent the majority of essential workers in healthcare, education and other core frontline sectors.

“Today, on International Women’s Day, I am proud to announce the members of the new Task Force on Women in the Economy. Their diverse perspectives will help our government make smart, targeted investments through Budget 2021 and beyond to advance gender equity and address the systemic barriers and inequities faced by women, including Black, Indigenous, and people of color – so that Canada’s economic recovery leaves no one behind.”

The group will be discussing possible recovery strategies over the next year.

“This task force is all women focusing on a feminist recovery, and that’s really special,” Whitford noted. “Most of the spaces I’ve worked have been very male-dominated, so I have rarely had the opportunity to join a group of professional women of various backgrounds and specialities, and they’re able to speak openly and honestly with each other.

“I am the only committee member with an international background in finance, the only one from oil and gas. However, I see my primary role as being an advocate for Indigenous women, as I understand the issues that are faced at the community level.”

The Task Force will hold its first in a series of meetings in early March, in the lead-up to Budget 2021.

Jacob Cardinal, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News

COVID-19 pandemic has made Canadian millennials ‘conscious’ moneywise: experts
WELCOME TO YOUR GREAT GRANDPARENTS DEPRESSION ECONOMY

Twinkle Ghosh 

GLOBAL NEWS

3/21/2021

Among several Canadian habits affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, one thing that will likely continue is how people, especially millennials, are rethinking their personal financial positions.

© Provided by Global News Canadian $100 bills are counted in Toronto, Feb. 2, 2016. The registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) is one of the best-known tax shelters available to Canadians, particularly in the weeks before the annual contribution deadline, which is March 1 this year. But financial experts say a tax free savings account (TFSA) is often a better choice over the long run. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme Roy

Even beyond the ongoing tax season, young people appear to be looking at ways to save or invest money for better returns in the future, experts say.

Read more: Coronavirus: COVID-19 and the Canadian economy, one year later

A large percentage of people aged 24-35 are "very committed to saving more and investing," Carissa Lucreziano, vice-president, financial planning and advice, CIBC, told Global News on Friday.

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While such goals are laudable at any age, it is particularly so "for this demographic as actions now can have long-term benefits," she added.

New findings further show that millennials have grown far more concerned about better managing their money over the last year than they were before the pandemic.

Online search trends, analyzed by Semrush, a data provider of online behaviour, found that Canadian millennials are visiting banking-related websites more than any other age group lately.

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How could an economic rebound impact your bottom line? A financial expert weighs in

During the first wave of the pandemic -- March 2020 to September 2020, and the second wave -- October 2020 to January 2021, nearly "23.6 per cent of people aged between 24-35," and "20.7 per cent of people from the 35-44 age group" were seen visiting banking websites, the Semrush findings showed.


The data "reflects a general snapshot of the market as a whole," Eugene Levin, chief strategy officer at Semrush told Global News.

"Nationwide searches show us that now people are more conscious moneywise," Levin added.

"They are using this time (the pandemic) to plan out their finances to either mitigate their financial insecurity or improve their financial security," Levin said.

Read more: ‘Biggest financial crunch I’ve ever faced’: A year living on COVID-19 recovery benefits

Moreover, searches for tax-free savings account or TFSA have increased by 45 per cent nationwide, the findings show.

Having a tax-free savings account ensures that the money within the account grows tax-free.

Video: Consumer Matters: Tax tips for the time of COVID

While it is similar to how funds grow free of taxes within a Registered Retirement Savings Plan or RRSP, contributions made to a TFSA do not provide an income tax deduction.

Withdrawals from the TFSA, however, are always tax-free.

Apart from increased interest in tax-free savings, there has also been a yearly increase from 2020 to 2021 in searches for “investment app by 173 per cent, along with an increase by 646 per cent in searches for the Wealthsimple app” followed by a 442 per cent increase in searches for the Questrade app,” Levin said.

Given the uncertainty in the job market, people "are more conscious of their options," he suggested.

Read more: No job during the COVID-19 pandemic? Here’s what you can do in 2021

"This reflects a growing interest among Canadians to invest online for themselves as an additional financial source," Levin noted, adding, "it also relates to the spike in TFSA searches, as people can also use them for investment purposes."

A CIBC poll conducted from Feb. 16 to Feb. 17, 2021, based on an online survey of 3,026 randomly selected Maru Voice Canada panelists, reflected similar findings.

VIDEO Taking on record debt during the pandemic? A finance expert shares tips and insights

Millennials have been "our most digitally active age group," a CIBC spokesperson told Global News in an emailed statement.

"Thirty-eight per cent" of people aged between 25-34 said their "spending has decreased during the pandemic," the statement said.

Further, 36 per cent from the same age group said their savings had "increased during the pandemic," while 35 per cent said "they will use extra money to save for a specific goal."

A large section (nearly 34 per cent) also plans to put more money into investments like TFSA or RRSP, or "use excess money to build emergency savings," the CIBC data showed.

Read more: How the pandemic pushed Canadian millennials to home ownership

However, there has also been a spike in loans, given the nominal interest rates, and the fact that people are still reeling from the economic losses of the pandemic, according to Semrush.

As a result, searches for “installment loans” has increased by 38 per cent, followed by searches for "payday loans" that has seen a sharp 25 per cent hike.

This clearly reflects the "financial insecurity among Canadians who have limited options," and that "people need more time to support their economic recovery," Levin said.

Survey suggests one in two people of colour have experienced online racism in Canada

© Provided by The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — Noor Fadel says most people assume that the night she was attacked by a racist man on a SkyTrain in Vancouver in 2017 was the worst night of her life.

In fact, the nights that followed were even more harrowing, as her social-media post about the assault went viral and she received a torrent of hateful and threatening messages.

"People think that hiding behind a screen and saying something won't have an impact. It does. It has a huge impact on people," she said.

"That one message that you may think could not hurt someone, it's just a simple message, it can actually be the message to ruin someone's entire day, if not someone's life."

Fadel, 22, is sharing her story in support of a campaign launched by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and YWCA Canada to highlight the consequences of social-media hate.

The #BlockHate campaign coincides with a separate, unrelated survey by the Association for Canadian Studies, which sheds new light on racism in Canada both online and offline.

To mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on Sunday, the association commissioned Leger Marketing to ask Canadians about their views on racism.

The survey found that seven in 10 respondents are worried about the degree of racism in the country, a concern held by three in four participating women and people between 18 and 34.

One in two survey participants who identify as visible minorities have felt attacked by hateful comments on social media, and nearly six in 10 said they have witnessed hatred online.

Those who were exposed to hateful internet comments were more likely to be worried about racism, said association president Jack Jedwab.

"It's not so much the violent incidents that we've seen over the past year, which have attracted considerable media attention, that are fuelling people's concerns about racism," he said.

"It's also the extent to which people are witnessing this phenomenon expand in social media."

The survey also suggested that one in three Canadians admit to holding a negative view of Muslims, one in five have a negative view of Indigenous people and one in seven state a negative view of Chinese people, Jews or immigrants.

People who have never met any members of those groups are more likely to think negatively of them, suggesting that social media is playing a role once again, said Jedwab.

"They get information from social media about these groups ... and the outcome, unfortunately, is that they hold negative or prejudicial views."

The survey of 1,514 Canadians was conducted online between March 12 and 14 using web panels. The polling industry’s professional body, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error as they are not a random sample and therefore are not necessarily representative of the whole population.

It also suggested Atlantic Canadians and Ontarians are most worried about the degree of racism in Canada, and that Canadians are more concerned about racism in the country and province than in their neighbourhoods.

The findings ring true for Fadel, who said she encountered racism many times in Vancouver before the incident on the SkyTrain in December 2017, when she was 18.

She said a man approached her and yelled that he was going to kill her and all Muslims before grabbing her head and forcing it toward his crotch.

He then struck her across the face, prompting another transit rider to push him off her.

Pierre Belzan, 46, received a suspended sentence and two years probation in 2018 after pleading guilty to assault and threatening to cause death or bodily harm.

Fadel said she took to social media after the incident because she was sick of hearing that racism in Canada doesn't exist. While her Facebook post received thousands of supportive comments, the hateful ones stood out to her the most.

The messages included comments telling the Canadian-born woman to "go back to her country," calling her sexist and racist slurs, accusing her of lying and threatening to kill her.

She said she only realized while isolated during the COVID-19 pandemic that she is still traumatized by the messages, years later, and she is still working on healing.

The #BlockHate campaign launches Monday and aims to encourage regulation to minimize the volume and frequency at which online hate speech and racism is spread.

Online hate is often a precursor to violent, in-person attacks against marginalized people, noted Mohammed Hashim, director of the Canadian Foundation for Race Relations.

People with hateful views will likely always exist, but social media has handed them the biggest microphone they’ve ever had, Hashim said.

“What we’re looking to do is to constrict that. We understand that it’s going to exist, but let it remain in the fringes of society,” he said.

Regulations must ensure that hateful posts can be taken down quickly to decelerate their spread, and include deterrents so posters experience consequences, he said.

Hashim also pointed out that logging off is not an option for victims of online attacks now that everyone's personal and professional lives are increasingly virtual, especially during COVID-19.

"If we don't deal with this now, this is only going to get worse," he said.

"If we leave it the way it is, I want people to think about: what is the world that we're creating for the next generation?"

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 21, 2021.

Laura Dhillon Kane, The Canadian Press

#DISARM    #DEFUND   #DISBAND THE POLICE

Colten Boushie's family to respond to watchdog report that found discrimination

REGINA — First Nations leaders and relatives of a young Indigenous man shot and killed on a Saskatchewan farm are expected to address findings today from a watchdog's review that concluded RCMP racially discriminated against his mother.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Colten Boushie died in August 2016 when the SUV he was riding in drove onto farmer Gerald Stanley's property near Biggar, Sask.

A jury delivered acquitted Stanley after he testified that he had fired warning shots and the gun "just went off."

Concerns had been raised about how police handled Boushie's death and the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission studied the RCMP investigation.

It outlined several missteps by police, saying that officers treated his mother so insensitively when they notified her of her son's death that it amounted to discrimination.

The commission says officers told Debbie Baptiste to "get it together," questioned whether she had been drinking, smelled her breath and searched her home without permission.

"After spending the evening fearing that something had happened to her son and just seeing her worst fears realized, Ms. Baptiste saw her home encircled by a large number of armed police officers and had to endure this treatment from the RCMP members who remained in her home for about 20 minutes," the commission wrote.

It also found two officers inappropriately showed up to Boushie's wake to update her on the criminal case.

The commission says the way police notified the public about the shooting caused suffering to the young man's family because it allowed people to form an inaccurate picture of what happened,

It said the initial press release by RCMP focused mostly on alleged property crimes and failed to mention someone had been arrested for murder in Boushie's death.

The commission says the 22-year-old didn't leave the vehicle or touch any of the belongings on Stanley's farm.

Despite issuing other releases updating the public about the progress of the investigation, the watchdog concluded RCMP communications gave the public piecemeal information, fuelling racial tensions online and in the community.

At one point, former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall called for calm after a deluge of racist and hate-filled messages had been posted online about Boushie's death.

The commission also found RCMP didn't properly protect the SUV Boushie had been riding in, resulting in the loss of blood spatter and other evidence.

"It is not known, and will never be known, what difference this evidence, as well as any other evidence lost as a result of the failure to protect the vehicle, could have had on the outcome of the case," it wrote.

The National Police Federation representing front-line officers took issue with the finding of discrimination, and says the review showed police generally carried out a professional investigation.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 22, 2021

Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press

#DISARM    #DEFUND   #DISBAND THE POLICE

RCMP racially discriminated against mother, mishandled witnesses, evidence in Colten Boushie case: watchdog

Guy Quennevill

CBC NEWS

MARCH 21,2021

The RCMP's watchdog says Canada's national police force racially discriminated against the mother of Colten Boushie during their investigation of the Indigenous man's shooting death in 2016

— a finding accepted by RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki.

"She has been saying this all along," lawyer Eleanore Sunchild said of Debbie Baptiste, Boushie's mother.

The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) also found that the way officers informed Baptiste of Boushie's death was insensitive and that an early RCMP media release about the shooting could have left the impression "that the young man's death was 'deserved.'"

Officers also mishandled witnesses and evidence in the controversial case, according to CRCC findings that will be made public on Monday. CBC News has obtained copies of the reports.

Boushie, 22, was shot and killed after he and four others from the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan drove onto white farmer Gerald Stanley's property near Biggar, Sask., in August 2016.

An altercation occurred between the people in the SUV and Stanley and his son, ending in the fatal shooting.

In February 2018, a jury found Stanley, 56, not guilty of second-degree murder or manslaughter.
1 or more officers smelled grieving mother's breath: CRCC

The CRCC launched its probe soon after the trial, in part to assess whether officers discriminated on the basis of race. Boushie's family had complained to the RCMP about insensitive treatment and appealed to the CRCC for an independent review.

Officers visited Baptiste's home on the Red Pheasant reserve on the night of the shooting. They were there to break the news of Boushie's death and search the home for a witness they believed might have a gun.

While finding no signs of discrimination in officers' approach and search of the home, the CRCC found evidence of discrimination during "the police's conduct towards Ms. Baptiste with respect to her sobriety and her credibility." The family had accused one officer of telling the grieving Baptiste to "get it together" and asking if she had been drinking.

"One or more RCMP members smelled her breath," the commission wrote.

RCMP in Ottawa said Saturday they won't comment before the report is officially published on Monday, while the Mounties' Saskatchewan division issued a statement late Saturday.

"The actions taken by the officers responding on that day in August 2016, as well as the days following, were done with the best of intentions; their priority was to ensure public safety and to complete a thorough homicide investigation," according to the statement.

"The findings and recommendations made by the CRCC are important as they contribute to the enhancement of public confidence in the RCMP."

The division has implemented all but one of the 17 recommendations under its authority.

Union for RCMP members criticizes 'broad-brush findings'

The National Police Federation, a union representing regular members of the RCMP, struck a markedly different tone.

It said the CRCC's work was biased against police accounts and "unconditionally" accepted the Boushie family's assertion of discrimination.

"It is clear that the CRCC relied more heavily on Ms. Baptiste's version — demonstrating a bias against our members' accounts, despite their handwritten notes made contemporaneously and a written report," federation president Brian Sauvé said in a statement to CBC News.

© CBC Brian Sauvé, the head of a union representing 

RCMP members, said the CRCC's findings were biased against the police.

The union also questioned whether the civilian-run commission was qualified to rule on the issue of discrimination.

"This is typically reserved for a human rights tribunal which falls outside of the CRCC's scope," Sauvé said.

"In the CRCC's own words, their finding of discrimination was based on a 'social, legal and historical context,' including 'colonial assertions, stereotypes and a troubled history of police and Indigenous peoples' relations.' These broad-brush findings about our members — simply because they are police officers — is not constructive to reconciliation."

RCMP commissioner responds

In her own response to the CRCC's findings, Lucki said she agreed that Baptiste was racially discriminated against.

While police were justified to surround Baptiste's home because they believed there was an armed, intoxicated man who had fled the homicide scene, there's no dispute the next-of-kin notification was handled insensitively and lacked good judgment, Lucki wrote.

Cultural awareness training is mandatory for all RCMP members, she added.

Michelaine Lahaie, who chairs the CRCC, said on Saturday that more will be needed to prevent future acts of discrimination.

"However, I take note of the positive steps the RCMP is taking and I hope that this case and the present report can be part of the catalyst for the RCMP to further engage in a necessary process of change," Lahaie said in a statement to CBC News.

Lucki's response to the commission report stands in stark contrast to the Saskatchewan division of the RCMP, which looked into the complaint but did not support the family's allegation of mistreatment.

"RCMP members treated the [family] reasonably, respectfully and courteously," according to a statement of defence filed in response to a lawsuit launched by the family. The statement denied that officers discriminated on the basis of race "at all."

RCMP media release caused 'anguish'

The family also had concerns about the RCMP's first media release about the shooting.

According to the release, Boushie and his friends "entered onto private property by vehicle in the rural area and were confronted by property owners." It said Boushie was shot while "other occupants ... were taken into custody as part of a related theft investigation."

The family said the news release painted Boushie as a thief and sowed racial discord in the province.

The CRCC agreed.

"The RCMP's media releases caused anguish for the family. Although they did not contain inaccurate information, these releases could leave the impression that the young man's death was 'deserved' or that possible property offences that might have been committed by the young man's friends were of more concern to police than the young man's death," the commission wrote.

"This narrative immediately emerged on social media after news of the death came out, which fuelled racial tensions both on social media platforms and in the community."

Lucki wrote that there were lessons to be learned from how media releases were "written and perceived" and that they could form the basis of a case study for future unconscious bias training.

Sunchild, Baptiste's lawyer, said the vitriol on social media fed "the racism that this family has felt since Aug. 9, 2016," the date of Boushie's death.

"It feeds the whole stereotype of a drunken, thieving Indian that deserved to be killed," she said.

Beginning one month after the shooting, the Saskatchewan RCMP had its Indigenous Policing Services unit review all media releases discussing serious incidents involving Indigenous people.

Lucki said making that change nationwide should be considered too.

The CRCC also questioned the optics of two officers attending Boushie's wake to update the family on the status of the investigation.

Sauvé said that finding reflected one of several errors or omissions by the CRCC

"The officers waited outside the funeral hall and [Baptiste] came out and spoke with them voluntarily. Notably missing from the CRCC report is that our members observed no animosity from the family about attending outside the wake," Sauvé said.

Sauvé said the commission also discarded information about how some officers attending Baptiste's home on the night of the shooting acted compassionately towards her.

Boushie's family is holding a news conference Monday at 10:15 a.m. CST.
Issues found with how Boushie's friends treated

The CRCC probe looked at whether the investigation was "reasonable" and followed RCMP policies and training.

It made 47 findings related to the investigation, 25 of which found no errors or misconduct, including the questioning of Gerald Stanley.

"The commission found that the investigation conducted by the RCMP was generally professional and reasonable," the CRCC wrote.

The 22 remaining findings included errors in procedure, communication breakdowns and staffing shortages, but no discrimination "with respect to the gaps in the criminal investigation."

The commission found issues with how officers treated three of the friends who accompanied Boushie onto the Stanley farm and were arrested for mischief.

The arrests were deemed reasonable, but the way in which officers interviewed the trio was "unreasonable in the circumstances," even though officers did not discriminate during the interviews, according to the CRCC.

"RCMP investigators were frustrated with what they felt was a lack of co-operation from the three witnesses," the commission wrote.

"However, the interviewers made little effort to establish trust. Given the historic distrust of police by Indigenous communities, the trauma, shock and chaos of the previous day's events, the lack of sleep, the lodging in cells and the potentially severe hangovers the witnesses suffered, the commission found that the RCMP interviewers did not reasonably foster a state of mind that was conducive to witness co-operation."

After they gave their statements, Boushie's friends were detained longer than is justified under the Criminal Code, the CRCC also reported.

The commission is asking the RCMP to review its policy to address the treatment of non-suspect witnesses held in custody.

The union said the witnesses were offered food, water and sleep "to give them an opportunity to sober up and rest from the previous day."

After more than 16 hours of rest, the witnesses each verbally confirmed they understood they were being asked to give witness statements, the union added.

Training on witness handling also needed: CRCC

The CRCC also scrutinized how the RCMP handled Gerald Stanley's wife, Leesa, and his son, Sheldon, who were at the farm on the day of the shooting.

The report said it was unreasonable that four officers — including the sergeant in charge of the initial scene — did not ensure that Leesa or Sheldon Stanley did not discuss the shooting with each other before giving their statements to police.

Sheldon testified during the trial that after Gerald Stanley shot Boushie at close range, but before police arrived, the Stanleys retreated to their house to sit and have coffee in silence.

Leesa Stanley did not testify at her husband's trial.

The RCMP should provide training on witness handling to the officers involved, the CRCC said.
Lack of communication hampered investigation

The CRCC listed other concerns about the RCMP's work, some of which came out during trial testimony.

The SUV that Boushie was shot in went uncovered, and rain washed away some blood evidence. The RCMP did not ask a blood spatter specialist to come to the scene.

Experts consulted by CBC News agreed that errors were made but did not conclude it would have changed the outcome of the trial.

The CRCC concluded that discrimination was not to blame when it came to issues relating to evidence handling.

However, it wrote, "The lack of communication between the various RCMP units involved in the investigation of the death of Mr. Boushie led to some of the errors and inefficiencies."

The commission recommended that the RCMP ensure it has enough staff to work on major crimes investigations in a timely manner. It also asked the Saskatchewan division to consider acquiring a mobile command centre, which "could have proven to be useful in this case and potentially resulted in avoiding some of the shortcomings or omissions that occurred.

The recommendations are not binding.

Some of Lucki's responses — which the commission needed to complete its work and publicly disclose its findings — were not sent to the CRCC for more than a year, according to the commission.

"The family should have had answers a lot sooner," Sunchild said.
Family already pursuing civil action

The CRCC probe has taken place against the backdrop of an ongoing civil lawsuit filed by Debbie Baptiste and her family against the Attorney General of Canada, the office that is representing the RCMP in court.

Filed in August 2018, on the second anniversary of Boushie's death, Baptiste's lawsuit contained even more allegations about the RCMP members who visited her home on the night of her son's fatal shooting.

In a statement of claim, the Baptiste family alleged that officers rode toward the home at high speed, shone spotlights on the house and approached with guns drawn — all of which was denied by the attorney general's office in its statement of defence on behalf of the RCMP.© Guy Quenneville/CBC Colten Boushie's uncle, Alvin Baptiste, filed the complaint about RCMP conduct on behalf of the family.

"RCMP members treated the [family] reasonably, respectfully and courteously," the statement of defence said.

The Baptiste family also claimed that an officer leaned in to smell Debbie Baptiste's breath and that an officer checked the microwave after being told Boushie's dinner was being kept there.

The court file was last updated in May 2020 to indicate that "the requirements for mediation in this action have been met."

Brian Pfefferle, a Saskatoon criminal lawyer who closely followed the Gerald Stanley trial, said that court update suggests the family and the RCMP completed the mandatory mediation without reaching a settlement.

THE RESISTANCE TO WHITE POWER GROWS

Hundreds gathered across the US to support Asian communities after Atlanta-area spa killings

MUTUAL AID & SOLIDARITY ARE OUR WATCHWORDS

By Natasha Chen and Hollie Silverman,

CNN 3/22/2021

Nearly a week after eight people were killed at spas in the Atlanta area, hundreds gathered to remember the victims and call for an end to hate towards Asians in a year that has seen an uptick in attacks against members of the community.

© Wang Ying/Xinhua/Getty Images People march during a protest against Asian hate in New York City on Sunday, March 21.

Six of the eight victims in Atlanta were Asian women. And while police are still working to determine the motive and whether hate crime charges will apply, the message from attendees at rallies this weekend said this act is one of hate and the community will need to come together in order to heal from this tragedy.


In Atlanta multiple Korean church congregations held a Korean language service outside the Gold Spa in honor of the victims, with some attendees holding signs reading, "Stop Asian hate."



Pastor Byeong Cheol Han of the Korean Central Presbyterian Church called the killings an "awakening moment" for many Asian Americans. He stressed that this a time to become more involved in social justice on behalf of all communities of color in the United States.

"It's an awakening moment for Asian Americans to stand strong. Stand up and raise our voice. And participate in social justice movement," Han said. "Many Asian Americans tend to avoid those kind of things, it's not our business, we're just focusing on our survival, but this is an awakening for us."

The suspect arrested in the case told police that he suffered from a sex addiction and that he wanted to eliminate temptation. But Han said this act was clearly a hate crime. The suspect's alleged sex addiction "was a very poor excuse. He aimed (at) those very vulnerable. Those who cannot resist."

"It's not just a young man's deviation, or an isolated incident. This is clearly a racially motivated crime," Han added

Han said members of his congregation have expressed complicated feelings since the killings, mostly fear and anger.


Communities call for change

Those sentiments were echoed across gatherings in other cities this weekend, including Denver, where members of the AAPI community gathered and share their feelings Saturday.

There has been a rise in anti-Asian violence and an increase in vandalism at Asian owned businesses across the Denver area in the past year, said Clarence Low, a member of the Asian Chamber of Commerce board of directors member.

Low said there have been reports of spitting, slurs, and graffiti targeting community members, as well as countless unreported crimes.

"The rhetoric and behavior of our national leaders emboldened and inflamed anti-Asian sentiment," Low said, noting that the US has had policies in place for more than 100 years that target and discriminate against Asian Americans, including the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and Executive Order 9066 which ordered Americans of Japanese descent into internment camps in the 1940's.

Low also cited the 1982 killing of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American who was mistaken as Japanese and beaten to death in Detroit by two White men who blamed Japan for the loss of auto jobs.

People attending a rally New York City's Columbus Park Sunday told CNN they came out because they are tired of dealing with discrimination and hope the tragedy in Atlanta will spark change.

When asked why she attended, Angela Eunsung Kim said, "'Cause I'm Asian, and I'm a woman, and if I don't stand up for myself then no one else will. So that's why I'm here."

"I want people to finally hear us, for us, not only when we're trending," she added. "I want to see change in people around me, my friends, my, you know work, everything, all the way down from our neighbors, all the way up to lawmakers. That's the kind of change I want to see."

Tiffany Wetherell said the time has come for her community to be heard in the wake of the killings.

"I want to come out today to support the cause. I want to raise awareness," she said. "I want everyone to know we're not your token Asian. We're not your Asian friend. We're everywhere. And it's our turn to be heard."

The New York Police Department reported 28 arrests for hate crimes targeting Asians in 2020, up from three in 2019 and two in 2018. The Los Angeles Police Department also reported an increase: 15 anti-Asian hate crimes were reported in 2020, up from seven in 2019 and 11 in 2018.


Lives lost in the shootings

Last Tuesday, police said suspect Robert Long, 21, went to three separate spas in the Atlanta area and fatally shot eight people.

He told police he believed he had a sex addiction and that he saw the spas as "a temptation ... that he wanted to eliminate," according to Cherokee County sheriff's Capt. Jay Baker. Long said the attacks weren't racially motivated, Baker said.

The first shooting occurred at Youngs Asian Massage in Acworth shortly before 5 p.m. on March 16, authorities said.

Four people were killed in the first shooting: 49-year-old Xiaojie Tan of Kennesaw; Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, of Acworth; Paul Andre Michels, 54, of Atlanta; and Daoyou Feng, 44. Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, of Acworth, was also shot but survived.

Within an hour after the first shooting, four more Asian women were killed at two spas on Piedmont Road in Atlanta; three at the Gold Massage Spa and one at the Aroma Therapy Spa across the street, authorities said. Those victims were identified as Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; Suncha Kim, 69; and Yong Ae Yue, 63, according to the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office.

One of the four victims in Atlanta was a South Korean citizen and permanent resident of the US, according to Kwangsuk Lee, South Korea's deputy consulate general in Atlanta. The other three are believed to be Americans of Korean ethnicity, Lee told CNN on Friday.

The families of the victims who have spoken out said they want justice for the senseless deaths of their loved ones.

"This was a massacre. We have a justice system and he'll have to be held accountable," Tan's ex-husband Michael Webb told CNN Sunday.

He said Tan worked seven days a week to save for retirement. "I'm sad it ended in an instant while she was working, hard," Webb told CNN.

"She kept saying to me, I'm going to be able to retire soon," Webb said. "She worked to die," Webb said.

Webb told CNN that Tan was protective of her employees, sometimes kicking certain men out of the facility.

"She wanted to know where her employees were...who the customers were, she used to tell me a lot of times she would throw customers out because they would come in and think that they could have sex," Webb explained.

Suspect denounced by church

After his arrest on Interstate 75 in south Georgia, Long has been held without opportunity for bail in Cherokee County, where he faces four counts of murder with malice, one count of attempted murder, one count of aggravated assault and five counts of using a firearm while committing a felony.

He has been charged with four counts of murder in connection with the two spa shootings in Atlanta, according to Atlanta police.

The investigation into the killings is ongoing and appropriate charges will be brought, Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace said last week.

On Sunday, Crabapple First Baptist Church, Long's church, said in a statement that it had removed him from its memberships ranks because they could "no longer affirm that he is truly a regenerate believer in Jesus Christ."

Earlier in the week the church released a longer statement saying they were "absolutely devastated at this senseless loss of life and callous disregard for human beings created in the image of God."

"We grieve for the victims and their families, and we continue to pray for all of those affected by this heinous crime as they deal with unimaginable pain and sorrow," they added, saying they were "absolutely distraught" to find out the suspect in the deaths was a member of their church.

"These unthinkable and egregious murders directly contradict his own confession of faith in Jesus and the gospel," the statement said.

© Nicole Craine/Bloomberg/Getty Images Demonstrators gather at Liberty Plaza during a Stop AAPI Hate Rally outside the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta on Saturday, March 20.

Attacked spas had been targeted by prostitution stings

UNTIL THIS ARTICLE THE VICTIMS WERE NOT DESCRIBED AS 

SEX WORKERS IN THE PRESS UNEXPECTEDLY HUMANE OF THEM

ATLANTA — Two Atlanta area massage businesses where a gunman waged a deadly assault this week had been repeatedly targeted in police prostitution investigations over the years, raising questions about the mayor's earlier comments that the spas operated legally.

Police records show officers went to the businesses repeatedly in the past 10 years, which appears to contradict Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms' statement that officers in her city had not been to the businesses beyond a minor potential theft and that they were not “on the radar” of police. Bottoms added that she did not want to blame the victims.

Robert Aaron Long, 21, is charged with killing four women at the Atlanta spas and four other people inside a massage business about 30 miles (50 kilometres) away in Cherokee County. Long, who is white, told investigators the attacks were not racially motivated and claimed to have a sex addiction, which caused him to lash out at what he saw as sources of temptation.

Police in both Atlanta and Cherokee County said they were investigating if the killings could be considered hate crimes. Seven of the victims were women — six of Asian descent — and the gunman targeted the massage businesses despite a strip club and lingerie stores nearby.

According to a 2019 report written by a group of academics, public health experts and community organizers, employees in massage businesses that illicitly offer sex often ended up working there because they had few options to pay off the tens of thousands of dollars they owed smugglers or to support parents or children back home in countries like China and South Korea.

The authors of Illicit Massage Parlors in Los Angeles County and New York City Stories from Women Workers interviewed dozens of women who provided sex at the businesses. They said their employers sometimes offered them a place to live and eat in the businesses, which also made the work difficult to turn down.

The authors stressed not all massage businesses are involved in the sex trade. And the majority of the women they interviewed who did sex work didn't see themselves as being trafficked, instead feeling they were helping their families or themselves, said author Lois M. Takahashi, who heads the USC Price School of Public Policy in Sacramento.

But 40% of them reported that a client forced them to have sex while 18% said a client hit them or physically hurt them.

Takahashi said that for many of the women, getting arrested was an extremely traumatic process. A lot of times the women were thrust into a legal system that they didn’t understand and in a foreign language.

“They had a lot more fear of being arrested than they did of being robbed,” she said.

Police records released by the city Friday show 10 people were arrested at the two Atlanta massage businesses on prostitution charges, but none since 2013. Almost all the arrests came in undercover stings where an officer paid for a massage and an employee offered sex or a sex act for more money. The reports were first obtained by The Washington Post.

At a news conference the day after the shootings, Bottoms said, “As far as we know in Atlanta these are legally operating businesses that have not been on our radar, not on the radar of APD (the Atlanta Police Department).”

A spokeswoman for the mayor said Friday the shootings were an ongoing investigation and she expected new evidence to be discovered.

“What the mayor said was ‘as far as we know’ and that’s the operative part of that sentence, ‘as far as we know,‘” Bottoms’ spokeswoman Elise Durham said. “The comments were made less than 24 hours after the shooting incident."

All three businesses where people were fatally shot Tuesday have detailed recent reviews on an online site that leads users to places that provide sexual services.

Authorities released the names of the Atlanta victims hours before President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris arrived in Atlanta to meet with Asian American community leaders.

Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63, were shot in the head, the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office said. Family members identified Grant by her maiden name, Hyun Jung Kim. Suncha Kim, 69, died from a gunshot to the chest, authorities said.

Three of the women died at the Gold Spa in Atlanta, while the fourth woman died across the street at Aromatherapy Spa. The medical examiner didn’t immediately say which woman died at Aromatherapy.

Four people were killed and a fifth wounded at Youngs Asian Massage near Woodstock, in Atlanta’s northwestern suburbs.

Cherokee County authorities earlier identified the dead there as Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Paul Andre Michels, 54; Daoyou Feng, 44; and Xiaojie Tan, 49, who owned Youngs.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry said it helped police identify the four slain women of Korean descent and inform their families. Officials said they would help arrange funerals and asked U.S. authorities for a swift investigation to find the reason for the shooting amid an increase in violence against Asian Americans.

Georgia lawmakers last year passed a hate crimes law that allows additional penalties to be imposed for certain offences when motivated by a victim’s race, colour, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender or disability. A hate crime is not a standalone crime under the law, but it can be used to add time to a sentence once someone is convicted of another crime.

Investigators believe Long had previously visited two of the Atlanta massage businesses where four of the women were killed, police said.

Crabapple First Baptist Church, where Long was an active member, issued a statement Friday that it was seeking to remove Long from membership, saying “we can no longer affirm that he is truly a regenerate believer in Jesus Christ.”

The church said its teaching does not condone violence against Asian Americans or women and it’s improper to view women as somehow responsible for male sexual urges.

Long waived his right to an initial hearing in Cherokee County Magistrate Court.

___

This story was first published on March 19, 2021. It was updated on March 20, 2021 to correct that there were 10 prostitution-related arrests at the two Atlanta businesses, and police were called to them repeatedly.

___

Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Rebecca Santana in New Orleans contributed to this report.

Kate Brumback And Jeffrey Collins, The Associated Press