WAIT, WTF!

Telus doesn't need CRTC approval to surcharge majority of customers, regulator says

Denise Paglinawan - Financial Post


A Telus Communications Inc. building in Toronto

The processing fee application Telus Corp. filed to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission only applies to a small subsection of users — and Telus doesn’t need the telecom regulator’s approval to add a credit card surcharge on the majority of its customers, a CRTC spokesperson said.

Telus’ tariff applications garnered over 4,300 interventions from individuals and consumer groups, but for most of their customers, the hearings are moot.

“It is really restricted to some rural exchange areas where there’s no competition, because the CRTC does not regulate areas where it seems there’s enough market forces and competition,” said Patricia Valladao, the regulator’s media relations manager.

The Vancouver-based telecom company already implemented the 1.5 per cent charge last month for most wireless and home-service customers who pay their bills by credit card.

Like most businesses in Canada, Telus has been able to include the charge since Oct. 6, when the new rules on credit-card surcharging came into effect as a result of the settlement of a years-long class-action lawsuit with Visa and Mastercard.

The additional fee, however, does not apply in Quebec due to provincial consumer protection laws, nor does it apply to customers of Telus’ Koodo subsidiary.

“It gets confusing for everybody else because they probably think the CRTC has the power to say no, but the reality is we do not for the areas we don’t regulate the company,” Valladao said.

For the areas that the watchdog does regulate, including a small subsection of rural British Columbia and Alberta, the CRTC has until Dec. 6 to make a final decision on whether to allow Telus to surcharge credit card fees.

While Telus was one of the first Canadian companies to announce a fee on credit-card payments amid the new surcharging rules, it won’t be the last to do so. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business said nearly 20 per cent of small businesses it surveyed are considering a surcharge to offset credit-card processing fees.

Telus is the first major Canadian company to implement a surcharge. The Financial Post asked numerous others if they planned to follow suit, but none confirmed they intended to do so. Some, such as Loblaw Companies Ltd. and Dollarama said they were not planning to introduce the surcharge. Others, including Calgary-based carrier WestJet Airlines Ltd., said they had not evaluated the issue in detail. Many did not respond.

For convenience stores, the ability to surcharge only distracts from what they say is the fundamental issue — the high interchange fees themselves, the Convenience Industry Council of Canada, an industry lobby group, said.

“Surcharging is a bait and switch,” said the group’s president, Anne Kothawala, arguing that the fees charged by credit card companies and banks have become “exorbitant” and bear no relation to the cost of processing the transaction.

Consumers can now get charged for using credit cards in Canada. What does this mean?

 

Telus wants to charge customers a fee for paying their bills with a credit card

 

FP Answers: What are credit-card surcharges and when can merchants start charging them?

Kothawala said the convenience store industry is already one of the most competitive retail environments, and surcharging would be “an absolute last resort” for those in the sector as they don’t want to risk losing customers.

She added that the group’s members reported a 55 per cent increase in retailer interchange fees over the course of the pandemic due to an increase in touchless payments, as well as increased use of premium cards.

Currently, interchange fees range from about 1.4 to 2.4 per cent of every sale, depending on the type of credit card.

In March, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business reported a similar statistic, which said that 55 per cent of small businesses started accepting or increased their acceptance of contactless debit or credit payment methods throughout the pandemic.

“Small businesses are finding it more and more difficult to deal with accumulating credit card fees as consumers shift away from cash payments due to the growth of e-commerce and even for small, in-store purchases,” the CFIB’s senior vice-president, Corinne Pohlmann, said at the time.

• Email: dpaglinawan@postmedia.com | Twitter: denisepglnwn

The origins of human society are more complex than we thought

Vivek V. Venkataraman, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary -

THE CONVERSATION

In many popular accounts of human prehistory, civilization emerged in a linear fashion. Our ancestors started as Paleolithic hunter-gatherers living in small, nomadic and egalitarian bands. Later, they discovered farming and domesticated animals for food and service.

THIS IS NOT ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE ICE AGE COMMUNIST FAMILY

During the Ice Age, hunter-gatherer societies built sedentary settlements.© (Shutterstock)

Before long, they progressed to complex societies and the beginnings of the modern nation-state. Social hierarchies became more complex, leading to our current state of affairs.

“We are well and truly stuck and there is really no escape from the institutional cages we’ve made for ourselves,” writes historian Yuval Noah Harari in his bestselling Sapiens.

A new book — The Dawn of Everything by late anthropologist David Graeber and archaeologist David Wengrow — challenges this narrative. Rather than being nomadic hunter-gatherers, they argue human societies during the Palaeolithic were, in fact, quite diverse.

Today, increasing inequality, polarized political systems and climate change threaten our very existence. We need a deeper historical perspective on what kind of political world shaped us, and what kinds are possible today.

Social flexibility


In ‘The Dawn of Everything,’ Graeber and Wengrow make the claim that Palaeolithic human societies were quite diverse.© (Penguin Random House)

Ice Age hunters in Siberia constructed large circular buildings from mammoth bones. At Göbekli Tepe, a 9,000 year old site in Turkey, hunter-gatherers hoisted megaliths to construct what may be the world’s “first human-built holy place.”

In Ukraine, 4,000 year-old cities show little evidence of hierarchy or centralized control. And in modern times, hunter-gatherers shift between hierarchy and equality, depending on the season.

To Graeber and Wengrow, these examples speak to the virtually unlimited social flexibility of humans, undermining Harari’s dark assessment about the possibility for social change in the modern world.

As an evolutionary anthropologist and hunter-gatherer specialist, I believe both accounts miss the mark about the course of human prehistory. To see why, it is important to understand how anthropologists today think about nomadic egalitarian bands in the scheme of social evolution.

Human social evolution

In the 19th-century, anthropologists like Lewis Henry Morgan categorized human social evolution into three stages: savagery, barbarism and civilization. These correspond to hunting and gathering, farming and urban life, respectively. These so-called “stage models” incorrectly view social evolution as a steady march of progress toward civilized life.

Scholars do not take stage models seriously today. There is little intellectual connection between stage models and modern evolutionary approaches toward studying hunter-gatherers.

Anthropologists developed the nomadic-egalitarian band model during a 1966 conference called Man the Hunter. According to this model, humans, prior to agriculture, lived in isolated nomadic bands of approximately 25 people and subsisted entirely on hunting and gathering.

Research since Man the Hunter has updated our understanding of hunter-gatherers.


Hunter-gatherer rock art paintings in the Vumba Mountain Range in Manica, Mozambique.© (Shutterstock)

Hunter-gatherers and prehistory

One assumption was that small bands consist of related individuals. In fact, band societies consist of mostly unrelated individuals. And anthropologists now know that hunter-gatherer bands are not closed social units. Rather, they maintain extensive social ties across space and time and sometimes assemble in large groups.

Hunter-gatherers are profoundly diverse in modern times, and they were in the past too. This diversity helps anthropologists understand how the environment shapes the scope of social expression in human societies.

Consider nomadic egalitarian hunter-gatherers like the !Kung in the Kalahari or the Hadza in Tanzania. Being nomadic means it is difficult to store food or accumulate much material wealth, making social relations relatively egalitarian. Group members have equal decision-making power and don’t hold power over others.

On the other hand, sedentary societies tend to have more pronounced levels of social inequality and leave material evidence such as monumental architecture, prestige goods and differential burial treatment.

When these markers are not present, anthropologists can reliably infer that humans were living more politically egalitarian lives.

Palaeolithic politics

Human societies have generally become larger-scale and more complex over time. Popular accounts typically implicate farming in kick-starting the path to “civilization” and inequality. But the shift to farming was not a single event or a simple linear process. There are many paths toward social complexity and inequality.

The Dawn of Everything, along with reviews in cultural evolution and evolutionary anthropology, suggests that complex societies with institutionalized inequality emerged far before the dawn of agriculture, perhaps as far back as the Middle Stone Age (50,000 to 280,000 years ago).

This is a tantalizing possibility. But there is reason to be skeptical.

Complexity on the coastline

Social complexity emerged among hunter-gatherer populations living in resource-rich areas like southern France and the Pacific Northwest Coast of the United States and Canada.

So rich were the salmon runs of the Pacific Northwest Coast, Indigenous peoples could sustain themselves on wild foods while living a sedentary life, even evolving complex hierarchies dependent on slave labour.

Similarly, complex societies could have arisen in the Palaeolithic along rich riverine systems or on coastlines — now submerged by sea level changes — with plentiful marine resources. But there is no unambiguous evidence for sedentary settlements where marine sources are used in the Middle Stone Age.

Collective hunting

Collective hunting is another pathway toward social complexity. In North America, hunters cooperated to trap pronghorn antelope, sheep, elk and caribou. At “buffalo jumps,” ancient Indigenous hunters drove bison over cliff sides by the hundreds. This feat likely required, and fed, several hundred people.


STONE AGE INDUSTRY

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in Alberta was the site of a communal Indigenous hunting practice where bison were driven over a cliff.© (V. Venkataraman)

But these examples represent seasonal events that did not lead to full-time sedentary life. Buffalo jumps occurred in the autumn, and success was probably sporadic. Most of the year these populations lived in dispersed bands.

Egalitarian origins

Anatomically modern humans have been around for roughly 300,000 years. There is little evidence of markers of sedentary lifestyles or institutionalized inequality going back more than 30,000 to 40,000 years.

Read more: When did we become fully human? What fossils and DNA tell us about the evolution of modern intelligence

That leaves a big gap. What kind of society did people live in for most of the history of our species?

There is still strong evidence that humans actually lived in nomadic egalitarian bands for much of that time. Complementing the archaeological evidence, genetic studies suggest that human population sizes in the Palaeolithic were quite low. And the Palaeolithic climate may have been too variable to permit long-term sedentary life, instead favouring nomadic foraging.

This does not mean that humans are naturally egalitarian. Like us, our ancestors faced complex politics and domineering individuals. Egalitarian social life needs to be maintained through active and coordinated effort.

From these origins, an astonishing variety of human societies emerged. Our politics today reflect a small and unusual slice of that diversity. Prehistory shows us that human political flexibility is far greater than we can imagine.

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

Read more:
How did the patriarchy start – and will evolution get rid of it?

Women were successful big-game hunters, challenging beliefs about ancient gender roles

plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

Italy refuses to allow entry of migrants rescued by NGO vessels

Daniel Stewart - News 360

The Italian authorities have again expressed their refusal to allow the entry of migrants rescued by vessels of various NGOs in the Mediterranean and have requested that it is precisely the countries whose flags these vessels fly that should take in the migrants in question.


Migrants rescued by Doctors Without Borders on board the ship 'Geo Barents'.

 - FILIPPO TADDEI / MSF

"We cannot bring in migrants who are rescued at sea by foreign ships operating without any coordination with the authorities," Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi has asserted, as reported by 'Corriere della Sera' newspaper.

Piantedosi has indicated that migrants arriving in the country after being rescued by these vessels account for 16 percent of the arrivals, although the government deals with the other 84 percent that reach Italian shores in boats that are assisted by the authorities. "Italy will not abandon its duty to rescue people at sea, but European solidarity has to become a reality," he said.

Thus, he has called for greater "solidarity" on the part of Europe and has insisted that it is the countries whose flags carry these ships that accept these migrants now that about a thousand of them are on board the ships 'Humanity 1', 'Geo Barents' and 'Ocean Viking' waiting to reach a safe harbor near the Italian coast.

Related video: Migrant rescue by Greek coastguard

Duration 0:58

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The 'Humanity 1' is German-flagged and the other two are Norwegian-flagged. NGOs have warned of bad weather conditions, which are worsening.

MORE THAN 500 MIGRANTS STILL ABOARD THE 'GEO BARENTS' 

The NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has warned that the 'Geo Barents' is waiting for a safe port to dock with 572 people on board, including three pregnant women and more than 60 minors.

The organization has warned that despite the fact that all rescues have taken place in Maltese waters, the government has not issued rescue instructions or responded to requests for a safe harbor, which "contradicts international law." MSF has also asked to disembark in Italy on three other occasions.

"We have 572 people on board with 572 different stories," explained Riccardo Gatti, head of the MSF search and rescue team on board the 'Geo Barents'. "On board is a child who is determined to go to Germany. There is his mother, terminally ill with cancer. He wants to see her one last time before she leaves," he said.

The migration agreement reached between Italy and Libya is due to be renewed this Wednesday and will be in force for another three years. The pact, sponsored by the European Union, has involved millions of euros in financial and technical assistance to the Libyan Coast Guard, which has intercepted more than 100,000 people at sea since it was first signed in 2017.

However, the NGO has denounced the "cycle of violence funded by this agreement" and has repeatedly stated that Libya "is not a safe place for migrants to be returned."

Opinion: Elite women athletes aren't safe. What does that mean for us mere mortals?

Opinion by Amy Bass - CNN

News last week that a Russian court upheld Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner’s sentence of nine years in a penal colony for drug smuggling surprised no one. While Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, deemed the appeal “another sham judicial proceeding” and asked that Griner “be released immediately,” the outcome continues to hang in the air as her legal team considers next steps.

Amy Bass - 

Griner’s plight raises tough questions regarding women in sports. Would public reaction to her situation or her fate itself be different, for example, if she were an NBA, not WNBA, star? Does anyone challenge the reality that Griner never would have been in Russia, where she receives a star’s salary to play for UMMC Yekaterinburg, in the first place apart from her gender and the pay gap that goes along with it?

Griner’s continued Russian imprisonment sits among a barrage of headlines regarding dangerous situations for female athletes. While circumstances may be vastly different, one thing remains the same: in different ways, in different places, female athletes are not safe. And if sports cannot protect the women who play, how can we ever expect society at large to do it?

Despite foggy detail and little evidence, for example, when stories emerged that Iranian rock climber Elnaz Rekabi had gone missing after competing in the Asian Continental Climbing Championships in Seoul without wearing a hijab, many believed them, with much speculation about her passport, her cell phone and her whereabouts.

The climber posted to Instagram that she had made a mistake in a rush to compete and didn’t mean to climb without her hijab. After she returned home several days later, her head covered by both a baseball hat and hood, cheering crowds greeted her and the team.

But her fate remains a question mark amongst the surge of anti-government protests – “Woman, Life, Freedom” – led by women and girls (and increasingly a number of men) in the wake of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested by the Iran’s morality police for violation of hijab protocol. Some say as of last week that Rekabi is under house arrest; others contend that authorities forced her apology, noting subtle changes in her reasons for climbing without her hijab.

Rekabi’s story and its many unknowns are eerily familiar. Just last year, Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai disappeared from public view after she posted sexual misconduct allegations against former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli to China’s Twitter-like platform, Weibo.

Peng then denied making those allegations, once in an interview conducted with her in the presence of Wang Kan, the Chinese Olympic Committee chief of staff. After pressure from the United Nations Human Rights office and an embargo by the Women’s Tennis Association, she re-emerged, making an appearance at an event at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games alongside IOC President Thomas Bach.

Reactions to Rekabi and Peng demonstrate how we – global society – are so quick to understand how women, especially those who live under oppressive regimes that threaten their lives and liberties on a daily basis – are not safe. Even in situations where they eventually appear to be safe for, well, appearance’s sake, many of us remain unsure. Why? Because we have reason to be wary.

We see evidence time and again that instead of looking to dismantle misogynist systems, society, far too often, asks women to bear the burden of responsibility for the violence that falls upon them. That sends a chilling message: You know this world isn’t safe, and you didn’t do everything you could to protect yourself.

The danger, of course, does not merely lie with the individual athlete, but can be found in the systems that organize and govern sport as well. Last year, reporting on the National Women’s Soccer League in The Athletic by Meg Linehan alongside the brave testimonials of players Mana Shim and Sinead Farrelly led to the termination of Portland Thorns’ coach Paul Riley and the resignation of NWSL commissioner Lisa Baird.

But those consequences were not enough to undo the abuses revealed in devastating detail by the recently released 173-page Yates Report on the NWSL, a document commissioned by US Soccer in the wake of Riley’s firing and completed by former acting attorney general of the United States Sally Yates on behalf of law firm King & Spalding.

From its very first pages – the Table of Contents is even difficult to stomach with headers that include “systemic abuse,” “there was no way out,” “emotional manipulation,” and “yet another monster” – the report, based on over 200 interviews, demonstrates that there has been little, if any, accountability or workplace protection for professional women’s soccer players.

One of the critical conclusions of the report is that regardless of what was exposed, when, and by whom, what was needed to happen to make it stop, and (even better) guarantee it never happened again, did not happen. Instead of creating even the most basic workplace protections, a “culture of protecting ‘open secrets’” endured, a culture similar to the one uncovered in US gymnastics regarding the predatory – and criminal – behavior of Dr. Larry Nassar, who now serves a life sentence. His longstanding lack of accountability was laid bare in congressional testimony of athletes that included stars Simone Biles and Aly Raisman.

These stories – as wide-ranging and different as they are – speak to a deeper point. Sport is one of the most controlled arenas in society. There are rules, officials, managers, owners, organizing bodies, coaches, and fans all watching, all observing, every move an athlete makes.

There are helmets and pads for protection; drug tests to ensure fair play. And there are consequences for dangerous behaviors – heightened punishments for fouls deemed flagrant in the form of free throws, penalty kicks and power plays. A slide tackle in soccer with cleats up? Here’s a red card, don’t do it again. Throw an elbow into someone’s face on the basketball court? Take a seat.

In the United States, Title IX, which just observed its 50th anniversary, tried to legislate gender equality in education and, in doing so, in sports. But while enormous strides have occurred, the seemingly endless examples indicate that the rules of the game, however fair and just they might seem, do not protect these athletes. “We know sports is a hostile space for women, generally,” journalist Jessica Luther, author of “Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Football and the Politics of Rape,” told me. “That their very existence within sports is always political because sports, in most ways, was not set up to include them.”

The lack of accountability is well known to women but needs to take up more space, prompt more action, in society writ large. It is part of why so many of us cannot look away from what might lie ahead for an Iranian rock climber, a US basketball star, a professional soccer player, and so many others. If these elite athletes – the owners of these bodies who fly and soar, slam and hit, climb and jump, who work in a world filled with rules and judges and spectators – are not safe, then what can the rest of us mere mortals expect?

We can and should expect change, a revolution that leads to safe space for not just female athletes, but all women. As the Portland Thorns beat the Kansas City Current for its historic third NWSL title on Saturday, fans at Audi Field held signs that read “Support the Players,” a mantra that applies both on and off the field.

Shim, for one, who has already done so much in this effort, says she is up to the challenge. “For far too long, leaders across the soccer ecosystem – including at US Soccer – have not taken responsibility for protecting players,” she stated when she announced her new position as chair of the newly formed Participant Safety Taskforce at US Soccer. “But I believe in the capacity for change….We need to find the root causes of our sport’s systemic failures and take action at every level – from the youth game to the professional game.”

IMMIGRANTS ARE NOT CHEAP LABOUR

Ambitious immigration targets could help with Albertan labour shortage: Report

Stephanie Swensrude - 

The federal government is planning a massive increase in the number of immigrants allowed to enter Canada, and some groups in Alberta think it will help businesses experiencing labour shortages.


A "closed' sign hangs in a store window in Ottawa, Thursday April 16. An intensifying labour shortage is rippling through Canada's economy, forcing businesses to curtail operations, reduce hours and in some cases, euthanize livestock.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld© ajw

The plan, announced by immigration minister Sean Fraser Tuesday, envisions a flood of new arrivals from outside the country: 465,000 people in 2023 — rising to 500,000 in 2025 — with a heavy emphasis on admitting people based on work skills or experience.

Read more:

Ottawa raises immigration targets with new goal of 500K per year by 2025

To make sure the new Canadians can actually help with the labour shortage, Alberta groups want lighter restrictions on immigrants taking lower-wage jobs and for the government to support agencies that help resettle the newcomers.

The Calgary Chamber of Commerce released a report Tuesday detailing what it calls the critical role immigration plays in alleviating labour challenges.

Video: Calgary Chamber of Commerce urges action on labour shortage

“Immigration is so important to addressing the talent shortage that every business is facing across the country, whether you're in the service sector, the tech sector, the energy sector, the health care sector, everybody's looking for that last unit of labor,” said executive director Deborah Yedlin.

While she welcomes the announcement, she proposes the focus shift to include lower wage workers and more than just skilled professionals who are technically trained.

“(With) something like the Alberta Opportunity Stream … there's a bit of a catch-22 because you need prior work experience, you need language skills, and it means that these programs are only available to a select number of immigrants,” said Yedlin.

“We need to figure out how to make sure that the ability to come and work is offered as an opportunity for a broader sector of the immigrant population than it already is.”

Read more:

‘Alberta is calling’ campaign to attract workers, promote healthy competition: economists

Edmonton Centre MP Randy Boissonault said the cheaper cost of living in Alberta can help attract people.

“Edmonton and Calgary are top of the list of affordable housing across the country because, not just those cities, but all cities in Alberta have been very good at continuing to build housing,” said Boissonault.

He hopes the hundreds of thousands of newcomers will be able to fill shortages in the tech sector.

“When I was meeting with the Alberta Machine Institute in downtown Edmonton, they were saying that a lot of their partners are looking for the computer scientists and the math experts that are going to really push the frontiers of artificial intelligence, the machine learning,” he said.

Edmonton labour shortage as employers struggle to fill hundreds of jobs

The provincial government runs a program with a goal of expediting processing of foreign workers employed at Alberta tech companies.

Yedlin said companies are having to lean on immigration because Alberta workers don’t always have the skills necessary for the job.

“I look at Calgary and I think about all the tech jobs that have been empty — they've been posted and waiting for it to be filled for quite a while.

"What that tells me is that we still are not necessarily focused also on the right programs within post-secondary."

The Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers (EMCN) helps settle newcomers in the capital region and senior manager of settlement services Rispah Tremblay said the announcement introduces some challenges for other agencies.

“With increasing numbers, that also needs additional resources,” said Tremblay.

Read more:

Alberta town looks to immigration to help ease labour shortage

Tremblay said EMCN would need more funding to pay staff who manage cases, help find housing and teach languages to clients.

Without these staff members helping newcomers settle, they might not be able to transition into the Canadian labour force.

“It's really important that as soon as they land here, there's additional support for them to settle and get the right training or the right support that they need so that they're able to integrate and start working immediately,” she said.

Tremblay is also concerned that the housing supply may start to dry up with the influx of people moving here. She hasn’t heard anything from the federal government in terms of cash to support scaling up services, but thinks those conversations will start in the spring.

FRAMED

Edmonton police deny statue vandalism charge an attempt to 'discredit a critic'

Jonny Wakefield - Yesterday 

Duncan Kinney at a demonstration outside the Alberta legislature in 2017. He is currently charged with mischief for vandalizing a statue of Roman Shukhevych at the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex in 2021.© Provided by Edmonton Journal

Edmonton police are responding after the man accused of vandalizing a statue he later wrote about claimed the charge was an attempt to intimidate a critical journalist.

On Monday, Progress Report writer Duncan Kinney addressed the mischief charge laid against him Oct. 14, claiming it “appears to be an attempt by the EPS to silence and discredit a critic.”

Police responded to Kinney’s claim Tuesday.

“The Edmonton Police Service sees this as a serious allegation,” spokeswoman Cheryl Sheppard said in an email.

“(EPS’s) general counsel and head of professional standards branch has reached out to Mr. Kinney through (Tom Engel, Kinney’s lawyer) asking for information about Mr. Kinney’s conspiracy allegation,” she said, referring to the branch of the service that investigates misconduct allegations.

“Unfortunately, they are refusing to provide any information or clarification to substantiate this accusation,” Sheppard said. “We do note that EPS did consult with the Alberta Crown Prosecution (Service) prior to laying the charge against Mr. Kinney.”

The charge relates to vandalism of the Ukrainian Youth Unity Centre’s statue of Roman Shukhevych, which in August 2021 was painted with the words “Actual Nazi,” a reference to the nationalist figure’s collaboration with Nazi Germany during the Second World War.


A screenshot of an Aug. 10, 2021, article on the Progress Report regarding the vandalism of a statue of Roman Shukhevych at Edmonton’s Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex.© Screenshot

Kinney wrote about the statue before and after the vandalism, claiming in a story on the Progress Report that an “ unknown person or persons” had defaced the monument.

Engel confirmed he had been contacted by EPS’s lawyers. “I simply said that he would not be commenting.”

“I’m not sure why they’re characterizing this as a conspiracy,” he added. “But in relation to Mr. Kinney’s comment, all I can say would be ‘stay tuned.'”

Related
Police charge journalist with 2021 vandalism of controversial Edmonton Ukrainian centre statue

Kinney said Tuesday that Engel is still waiting to receive full evidence disclosure from the Crown. He said he could not discuss specifics of the case but vowed to “ mount a vigorous defence, if it comes to that.”

Kinney’s first court date is Nov. 10.

Progress Report describes itself as an “independent and proudly left-wing media project produced by Progress Alberta.” Edmonton police revoked the site’s media accreditation in February.

Edmonton journalist accused of vandalizing statue vows ‘vigorous defence’

Jonny Wakefield - Monday

The operator of a left-wing news website charged with vandalizing a statue of a Ukrainian Nazi collaborator has broken his silence for the first time since his arrest.


Duncan Kinney, executive director of Progress Alberta, speaks at an Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission hearing in 2017. Kinney is currently charged with mischief for allegedly spray painting a statue he later wrote about.© Provided by Edmonton Journal

On Monday, Duncan Kinney said he intends to plead not guilty to the charge of mischief under $5,000 police laid against him Oct. 14, claiming in a post on the Progress Report news site that the charge “appears to be an attempt by the EPS to silence and discredit a critic.”

“However, the advice from my lawyer on this is clear,” Kinney said. “I (cannot) talk about the substance of the case. But I can promise you that I will mount a vigorous defence, if it comes to that.”
Related

Group resumes decades-old fight to remove statue of Ukrainian Nazi collaborator outside Edmonton cultural centre

Edmonton Police Commission investigating claim councillor tried to 'influence' journalist vandalism investigation

In August 2021, a statue of Roman Shukhevych outside the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex in north Edmonton was marked in red paint with the words “Actual Nazi.” Shukhevych, a Ukrainian who fought alongside Nazi Germany, has been implicated in massacres of Jews and Poles but has been reclaimed in some circles as a heroic nationalist figure for his resistance to the Soviet Union.

Local Ukrainian groups have dismissed criticism of Shukhevych as Russian misinformation. A memorial at St. Michael’s cemetery to Ukrainian soldiers who fought in the Second World War was also painted with the words “Nazi Monument 14th Waffen SS,” though no one has been charged in that incident.


A volunteer washes spray paint off the Roman Shukhevych statue at the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex, 9615 153 Ave., in Edmonton on Aug. 10, 2021. 

David Bloom/Postmedia

Kinney, a writer and editor with Progress Alberta, wrote about the Shukhevych statue both before and after the 2021 vandalism, writing in an Aug. 10, 2021, post that “an unknown person or persons” painted the statue. He added, “It’s unclear when this happened but pictures of both defaced monuments were sent to the Progress Report on Aug. 10, 2021.”

Kinney has since wrangled with the Edmonton Police Service over Progress Report’s media accreditation, which was revoked in February. Kinney claimed the move was in response to critical reporting on the service.

Kinney interviewed by police for half-hour

In his statement Monday, Kinney said he was arrested outside his office around 9 a.m. by a constable with the EPS hate crimes and violent extremism unit. He said he was handcuffed, placed in an unmarked police vehicle and taken to police headquarters where he was “interrogated” by another officer for around a half-hour.

Kinney said he refused to answer any questions and was released on an undertaking. He said his Nov. 10 court date is a “purely administrative event” because his lawyer has not yet been given evidence disclosure by the police.

In a statement last week, Edmonton police spokeswoman Cheryl Voordenhout said EPS consulted with the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service before laying the charge, an extra step which only occurs in some cases. EPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

jwakefield@postmedia.com

twitter.com/jonnywakefield

Stone Age child's grave site in Finland reveals surprises

Ashley Strickland - CNN

The burial site of a young child who lived 8,000 years ago has been discovered in Eastern Finland, providing a rare glimpse into how Stone Age humans treated their deceased.

The Majoonsuo grave first drew the attention of researchers in 1992 in the municipality of Outokumpu when bright red ocher, a clay rich in iron, was spotted on the surface of a new service trail in the forest. Red ocher has been associated with rock art as well as ornamentation and burials.

The Finnish Heritage Agency began excavating the spot in 2018 due to concerns over erosion and motor traffic.

Little was found in the grave, but the surrounding soil revealed its secrets in a recent microscopic analysis published in September in the journal PLOS One.


Bright red ocher marked the spot of the grave, uncovered on a service road in a forest in Eastern Finland. - Kristiina Mannermaa

Finland’s Stone Age societies buried their dead in pits in the ground. The soil is so acidic in Finland that little remains preserved after thousands of years, which means traces of archaeological evidence are extremely rare.

The teeth of a child were found in the grave, as well as fragments of bird feathers, plant fibers and canine hair strands after an analysis using a painstaking protocol to uncover the microscopic evidence.

Together, these clues paint a portrait of the deceased.

Researchers determined that the teeth belonged to a child between 3 and 10 years old. Two quartz arrowheads and two other quartz objects, thought to be grave goods, were also recovered.

About 24 tiny feather fragments were found, and seven of them were associated with waterfowl. They represent the oldest feather fragments ever found in Finland. It’s possible that the child was laid to rest on a bed of down feathers, or the child was wrapped in clothing made from waterfowl, like an ancient parka or anorak.

A falcon’s feather was also found in the grave, thought to be part of an arrow likely once attached to an arrowhead, or used as decoration on the child’s clothing.

Fine hairs found at the child’s feet belonged to either a dog or a wolf. It’s possible that one was buried at the child’s feet, or the child was wearing shoes made from the fur of a dog or wolf.



Stone Age child's grave site in Finland reveals surprises© Provided by CNNThis image shows a possible canine hair from the grave viewed beneath an electron microscope. - Tuija Kirkinen

“Dogs buried with the deceased have been found in, for example, Skateholm, a famous burial site in southern Sweden dating back some 7,000 years,” said study coauthor Kristiina Mannermaa, researcher and associate professor in the University of Helsinki’s department of cultures, in a statement.

“The discovery in Majoonsuo is sensational, even though there is nothing but hairs left of the animal or animals — not even teeth. We don’t even know whether it’s a dog or a wolf. The method used, demonstrates that traces of fur and feathers can be found even in graves several thousands of years old, including in Finland.”

Lead study author Tuija Kirkinen, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Helsinki’s department of cultures, carried out the analysis of the plant- and animal-based materials within the soil.

The team collected 60 bags of soil samples and carefully separated organic matter from the soil using water. Three laboratories were used to search the samples for microparticles, fatty acids and carry out an analysis of the soil. The soil, stained by the red ocher, had to be gently sieved and was closely studied using electron microscopes and high-resolution images.

She works on the Animals Make Identities project, led by Mannermaa. The research group studies “social links between humans and animals in hunter-gatherer burial sites” in Northeast Europe. These links can unlock more insights into the deceased, who lived between 7,500 and 9,000 years ago. Kirkinen’s work is focused on developing methods to search for the minute remnants that help share ancient stories.

Kirkinen also found plant fibers that likely came from willows or nettles, which may have been used to make fishing nets, cords used to attach clothing or string bundles. The protocol she developed to search for fibers and fragments in the soil takes time, but it produced results.

“The work is really slow and it really made my heart jump when I found minuscule fragments of past garments and grave furnishings, especially in Finland, where all unburnt bones tend to decompose,” she said.

“This all gives us a very valuable insight about burial habits in the Stone Age, indicating how people had prepared the child for the journey after death.”

A Stone Age child buried with bird feathers, plant fibers and fur

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI

 

IMAGE: AN ARTIST’S IMPRESSION OF THE CHILD BURIED IN MAJOONSUO DURING THEIR LIFE view more 

CREDIT: TOM BJORKLUND

The exceptional excavation of a Stone Age burial site was carried out in Majoonsuo, situated in the municipality of Outokumpu in Eastern Finland. The excavation produced microscopically small fragments of bird feathers, canine and small mammalian hairs, and plant fibres. The findings gained through soil analysis are unique, as organic matter is poorly preserved in Finland’s acidic soil. The study, led by Archaeologist Tuija Kirkinen, was aimed at investigating how these highly degraded plant- and animal-based materials could be traced through soil analysis.

During the Stone Age in Finland, the deceased were interred mainly in pits in the ground. Little of the organic matter from human-made objects have been preserved in Stone Age graves in Finland, but it is known, on the basis of burial sites in the surrounding regions, that objects made of bones, teeth and horns as well as furs and feathers were placed in the graves.

Teeth and arrowheads found in the red ochre grave

The Trial Excavation Team of the Finnish Heritage Agency examined the site in 2018, as it was considered to be at risk of destruction. The burial place was located under a gravelly sand road in a forest, with the top of the grave partially exposed. The site was originally given away by the intense colour of its red ochre. Red ochre, or iron-rich clay soil, has been used not only in burials but also in rock art around the world.

In the archaeological dig at the burial site, only a few teeth were found of the deceased, on the basis of which they are known to have been a child between 3 and 10 years of age. In addition, two transverse arrowheads made of quartz and two other possible quartz objects were found in the grave. Based on the shape of the arrowheads and shore-level dating, the burial can be estimated to have taken place in the Mesolithic period of the Stone Age, roughly 6,000 years before the Common Era.

What made the excavation exceptional was the near-complete preservation of the soil originating in the grave. A total of 65 soil sample bags weighing between 0.6 and 3.4 kilograms were collected, also comparison samples were taken from outside the grave. The soil was analyzed in the archaeology laboratory of the University of Helsinki. Organic matter was separated from the samples using water. This way, the exposed fibres and hairs were identified with the help of transmitted-light and electron microscopy.

Oldest feather fragments found in Finland

From the soil samples, a total of 24 microscopic (0.2–1.4 mm) fragments of bird feathers were identified, most of which originated in down. Seven feather fragments were identified as coming from the down of a waterfowl (Anseriformes). These are the oldest feather fragments ever found in Finland. Although the origin of the down is impossible to state with certainty, it may come from clothing made of waterfowl skins, such as a parka or an anorak. It is also possible that the child was laid on a down bed.

In addition to the waterfowl down, one falcon (Falconidae) feather fragment was identified. It may have originally been part of the fletching of the arrows attached to the arrowheads, or, for example, from feathers used to decorate the garment.

Dog or wolf hairs?

Besides the feathers, 24 fragments of mammalian hair were identified, ranging from 0.5 to 9.5 mm in length. Most of the hairs were badly degraded, making identification no longer possible. The finest discoveries were the three hairs of a canine, possibly a predator, found at the bottom of the grave. The hairs may also originate, for example, in footwear made of wolf or dog skin. It is also possible a dog was laid at the child’s feet.

“Dogs buried with the deceased have been found in, for example, Skateholm, a famous burial site in southern Sweden dating back some 7,000 years,” says Professor Kristiina Mannermaa, University of Helsinki.

“The discovery in Majoonsuo is sensational, even though there is nothing but hairs left of the animal or animals – not even teeth. We don’t even know whether it’s a dog or a wolf,” she says, adding: “The method used, demonstrates that traces of fur and feathers can be found even in graves several thousands of years old, including in Finland.”

“This all gives us a very valuable insight about burial habits in the Stone Age, indicating how people had prepared the child for the journey after death”, says Kirkinen.

The soil is full of information

Also found were three fragments of plant fibres, which are preserved particularly poorly in the acidic Finnish soil. The fibres were what are known as bast fibres, meaning that they come from, for example, willows or nettles. At the time, the object they were part of may have been a net used for fishing, a cord used to attach clothes, or a bundle of strings. For the time being, only one other bast fibre discovery dating back to the Mesolithic Stone Age is known in Finland: the famed Antrea Net on display in the National Museum of Finland, laced with willow bast fibres.

A fibre separation technique was developed in the study, and is already being applied in subsequent studies. The project has demonstrated the great information value of soil extracted from archaeological sites.

The study is part of the ERC-funded project entitled Animals Make Identities (https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/animals-make-identities) headed by Kristiina Mannermaa.

The study was published in the PlosONE series. In addition to Kirkinen and Mannermaa, contributing to the study were Olalla López-Costas and Antonio Martínez Cortizas from the EcoPast research group at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Sanna P. Sihvo, Hanna Ruhanen and Reijo Käkelä from the Helsinki University Lipidomics Unit (HiLIPID), Marja Ahola and Johanna Roiha from the discipline of archaeology at the University of Helsinki, Jan-Erik Nyman, Esa Mikkola and Janne Rantanen from the Archaeological Field Services unit of the Finnish Heritage Agency and Esa Hertell from the museums of the City of Lappeenranta.

  

Location of Majoonsuo.

CREDIT

Johanna Roiha

---

JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0274849 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Preservation of microscopic fur, feather, and bast fibers in the Mesolithic ochre grave of Majoonsuo, Eastern Finland

QUEBECOIS WHITE SUPREMACY

Cree and Inuit voters concerned with Quebec electoral system that shuts them out

Quebec woke up after the October 3 provincial election to find a resounding endorsement of the status quo. While François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) coasted to its second majority with 90 of 125 seats, the story behind the headlines had many analysts calling for election reform.

The CAQ won 72% of seats with only 41% of the popular vote, while four other parties garnered similar size votes with wildly different results. The Liberals remained official opposition with 21 seats despite fewer votes than the Parti Québécois (3 seats) and Québec Solidaire (11 seats), which had 15.4% of the popular vote compared to the Liberals’ 14.4%. The Conservatives, less than two percentage points behind the Liberals, got no seats.

While the CAQ dominated most of the province, it took only two of 27 seats on the islad of Montreal, where voters largely rejected its legislation impacting religious and linguistic minorities. In the Duplessis riding, Kateri Champagne Jourdain, an Innu woman originally from Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam, made history as the first Indigenous woman to become a Member of the National Assembly.

CAQ MNA Denis Lamothe retained his seat in the Ungava riding, which once again had the lowest voter turnout in the province. He told the Nation his record was good, referencing school construction projects in Wemindji and Chisasibi, new housing for health workers and infrastructure in Chibougamau.

One of Lamothe’s top priorities for his next mandate is improving mobile phone coverage, particularly in isolated areas of the Billy Diamond Highway. He blamed the pandemic for travelling little throughout the region and defended his statement regarding the suspension of the moose sports hunt in Zone 17, which was criticized by Grand Chief Mandy Gull-Masty for his lack of consultation.

“I respect what Mrs. Mandy Gull said but at the end we were June 30, hunters were waiting,” said Lamothe. “I just mentioned the decision that was taken – hunters were calling us [saying] we have to take vacation. Since elected, we haven’t had communication yet but I’m planning to travel at the end of the month to meet (Cree) leaders. I strongly believe in good communication.”

Lamothe received 36.3% of the 8,633 votes cast out of over 29,000 eligible voters, for a more decisive victory than in 2018 when he won by just 46 votes after a recount. He was followed by Maïtée Labrecque-Saganash (Québec Solidaire) with 24.2% and Tunu Napartuk (Liberal) with 18.2%.

The results renewed calls for better representation of Indigenous and northern voters, which Napartuk suggested could be accomplished by creating separate ridings in Nunavik and Eeyou Istchee. Both regions have at least the same population as the Magdalen Islands, which has its own riding.

“One of the purposes of ridings is to properly represent the voters, to have a voice for a specific group of people at the National Assembly,” asserted Napartuk. “[Nunavik] would have the same argument as similar ridings – I’d say it’s even more critical for Eeyou Istchee as it has a much bigger population than we have.”

The two-time mayor of Kuujjuaq believed that Nunavik Inuk and Cree Eeyou voices were not considered in the wider campaign and was disappointed that the CAQ seemed only concerned with Quebec’s white francophone majority. During the campaign, Legault suggested increasing immigration would be “suicidal” and many anglophones felt targeted by his updated language law.

“The CAQ machine worked very well on its niche voters,” Napartuk told the Nation. “It provided a message they need to look after themselves and did not even try to convince other groups of society or cultures. The entire Native voice and the challenges and realities we have in the whole province was a non-issue.”

While some have suggested that neither Indigenous candidate was elected because the Indigenous vote in Ungava was split, Napartuk responded that the more choices there are, the better. He maintained that low voter turnout was the bigger obstacle to electing an Indigenous candidate and often says that the young populations aged 18 to 35 in Nunavik and Eeyou Istchee “can literally decide who gets voted in.”

However, many who did come out to vote reported being turned away when their names weren’t on the voter list. Unlike in federal elections, people cannot be added on election day by swearing an oath, producing two pieces of identification and proof of address.

“In most of our 14 Nunavik communities, there were complaints about names not being on the list,” confirmed Napartuk. “Elections Quebec needs to do much better preparation to ensure every voter understands the process, not just a couple of weeks before the election date.”

With even people who showed up for advance polling and took necessary steps unable to vote, Napartuk said there needs to be someone from the region to coordinate and make last-minute adjustments in consideration of the region’s isolation and remoteness.

According to Elections Quebec, it is the responsibility of the voter to ensure their information is correct and they are on the voter list. A spokesperson said they made voting and revision information available in eight Indigenous languages, including Cree and Inuktitut. There was advance voting by mail in remote regions and revision teams were sent to 23 Indigenous communities during the last week of September.

In Eeyou Istchee, even some people who received their voter card in the mail with their correct name and address couldn’t vote. Some who had lived for many years at the same address and voted provincially without incident in the past either didn’t receive voting cards in the mail or received cards without their name on it.

“This is the first time we couldn’t vote,” Chisasibi’s Gracie Chiskamish Sealhunter told the CBC. “I always vote. We didn’t have problems before.”

“Many Crees and Inuit were denied voting at the polls, even if they were previously on the provincial list,” tweeted Labrecque-Saganash. “Since the first day of campaign I’ve tried to raise awareness on the challenges to access democracy in Nunavik and Eeyou Istchee, but no one listened.”

Waswanipi’s Labrecque-Saganash mobilized many voters with her passionate advocacy for Northern issues like improving infrastructure, accessible housing and healthcare reform. The Cree Nation Government thanked her “for a very courageous first run that had us on the edge of our seats all evening.”

“Mista mikwetc for daring and hoping to make a difference by bringing our voice to the National Assembly,” the CNG tweeted. “We hope that your campaign inspired others to contribute to shaping the political and social landscape of Eeyou Istchee.”

Patrick Quinn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Nation

Suncor Fort Hills deal hints at new strategy for Canada oil sands mine replacement

By Nia Williams and Rod Nickel

FILE PHOTO: Suncor Energy facility is seen in Sherwood Park, Alberta© Reuters/CANDACE ELLIOTT

(Reuters) - Suncor Energy's acquisition of a larger stake in the Fort Hills oil sands project is a sign that Canada's second-largest oil company is looking for alternatives to extending the life of its biggest mine, which has run into political obstacles, industry observers said.

The purchase indicates Suncor is looking to acquire new bitumen supply to replace production from its Base Mine instead of, or in addition to, developing its own oil sands leases, energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie said, raising expectations of more deals.

Suncor's Base Mine is a key part of the company's operations in northern Alberta, producing around 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) of bitumen used to feed upgraders at its oil sands base plant that produce higher-value synthetic crude. The open pit mine, operating since 1967, is expected to run out of bitumen by the mid-2030s.

The company proposed the Base Mine Extension project, an expansion of the existing mine to produce 225,000 bpd from around 2030, but the federal government said in April that the mine would not pass an environmental review because projected emissions are too high..

Canada's oil sands hold the world's third-largest crude reserves and the long-life projects can produce for decades. However, carbon-intensive new mines are difficult to square with Ottawa's goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, making it important to keep existing ones running.

Last week Suncor agreed to buy Teck Resources' Fort Hills stake for about C$1 billion ($737 million) in cash as "part of our Base Plant mine replacement strategy". The deal increases Suncor interest in the project to 75.4%, giving it higher share of bitumen output.

"This is the first time Suncor has hinted at the risk that (Base Mine Extension) may not be going ahead," said Mark Oberstoetter, Wood Mackenzie's head of Upstream Americas.

Oberstoetter said the extension is likely still Suncor's base-case scenario, but interim CEO Kris Smith's comments around Fort Hills suggested the company was looking at alternatives.

Suncor did not respond to requests for comment. It releases quarterly results on Wednesday.

Other acquisition targets could include French major TotalEnergies' stake in Fort Hills and its 50% share of the Surmont thermal oil sands project, Oberstoetter added.

Last month TotalEnergies said it plans to spin off its Canadian oil sands assets into a separate company.

Jamie Bonham, director of corporate engagement at NEI Investments, a Suncor shareholder, said for oil companies, consolidation seemed a safer bet than developing new assets that may have cost overruns or become stranded assets if oil demand wanes faster than expected during a transition away from fossil fuels.

"This doesn't increase the overall number of barrels being added, (so) it could be aligned with a low-carbon transition path," Bonham said.

The Fort Hills deal is the latest move by Calgary-based Suncor to focus on its core oil sands business. Earlier this year the company sold its wind and solar assets and Norwegian oil assets.

It is unusual for companies to make big acquisitions while under an interim CEO, but prioritising core assets was a key demand of activist firm Elliott Investment Management, which disclosed a Suncor stake in April.

Suncor's previous CEO Mark Little resigned in July after a string of fatalities at Suncor sites.

(Reporting by Nia Williams; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)