UK
Satanism and devil worship is on the rise, according to census data

Story by Ben Butcher, Gabriella Swerling • Yesterday 

The past decade may, for some, be characterised by Brexit, the pandemic, the death of Queen Elizabeth II, a recession, the rise of social media, and Adele releasing three albums.


Lucifer, as depicted by Federico Zuccari for Dante’s Divine Comedy, was the name given to 15 babies according to the last UK census - Roberto Palermo/Uffizi Gallery© Roberto Palermo/Uffizi Gallery

For others, however, it was the decade that saw a rise in Devil worshippers.

In collecting its data on religion, among the most surprising findings of the 2021 census include the rapid rise of Satanism.

The number of people in England and Wales identifying as Satanists saw a 167 per cent increase between 2011 and 2021. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) researchers found that within that ten-year period, the number of Satanists rose from 1,893 to 5,054.

Satanism is a religious, or counter-cultural practice, centred on the figure of Satan, otherwise known as the Devil. In Christianity and Judaism, the figure is seen as the embodiment of absolute evil. Historically, Satanism, which is also known as devil worship, rejects Satan’s antithesis - God and/or Jesus Christ.

The reason for the rise of Satanism remains unclear. However, it does correlate with separate ONS data published last year which clearly indicated that a reverence for the Devil was on the rise.

Last year, the ONS released baby name data which revealed that the name, Nigel, was on the verge of extinction, with no baby Nigels born in 2020 (or, statistically, two at most). This is arguably not that surprising, as more old-fashioned names often wane in popularity. There were, however, in that same year, a total of 15 Lucifers born that year.

Lucifer

In 2021, a further 15 babies were christened Lucifer - a name which didn’t appear in the rankings until 2016.

The figures should, however, be taken with a very large pinch of salt. In the 2011 census, 177,000 people declared themselves Jedi under the religion section, making it the seventh most popular religion. A further 6,242 people answered Heavy Metal for their religion, and 650 said they were New Age.

Many of these will now come under the ‘other’ section offered to respondents in the census. For those filling in forms for the 2021 census, Jedi Knights were left disappointed as this was no longer a separate option.

The 2021 census also revealed a rise in the number of Pagans up from 56,620 to 73,733 - as well as a rise in the number of Animists - who believe that all natural things have a soul. They increased from just 541 in 2011 to 802 in 2021.

In contrast, the number of people practising witchcraft in England and Wales is in decline. That community saw its population fall from 1,276 to 1,045 over the ten-year period. Scientologists also saw a similar level of decline (2,418 to 1,859) and members of the Occult fell from 502 to 490.

Not just FIFA World Cup, Qatar is also hosting a beauty contest for… Camels

World News

Published on Nov 30, 2022

FIFA World Cup: The participants belong to different Gulf countries and compete in different categories according to their age and breed.

A woman stands next to a camel near Sealine Beach in Mesaieed, Qatar.(AP)

ByMallika Soni

The FIFA World Cup is not the only competition taking place in Qatar. Camels are taking part in the Qatar Camel Mzayen Club beauty contest in Ash-Shahaniyah.

“The idea is similar to the soccer World Cup, we did a camel beauty World Cup. We have participants from the Gulf Cooperation Council, we have big names and today is the fifth day of the tournament,” Hamad Jaber al-Athba, president of the Qatar Camel Mzayen club said.

Read more: FIFA World Cup reporter robbed while on air, shocked by cops' response: Report

The participants belong to different Gulf countries and compete in different categories according to their age and breed.

“The characteristics to measure the beauty of a camel differ from one group to another. For instance the black camels are judged according to the size of the body and the head and the location of the ears,” Hamad Jaber al-Athba said.

But for the Maghateer-type camel, we look for proportionality and the ears should be dropping down, not stand straight. In addition to the way the mouth is curved. As far as the Asel are concerned, they have special characteristics. The location of the ears is important, there should be a delicacy in the bones, the hooves, so there are characteristics that need more detail," Hamad Jaber al-Athba explained.

Camel pageant 'like a World Cup'

for beautiful beasts in Qatar

Finest animals paraded in front of an audience 

as Gulf country hosts world's football nations

  

The camel beauty contest proved hugely popular with the crowd

The National
Nov 30, 2022

As football — the beautiful game — grasps the world's attention in Qatar, a beauty of a very different kind is also being appreciated enthusiastically in the small Gulf nation.

While most sets of eyes are on the Fifa World Cup, camels from across the Gulf are competing at the Qatar Camel Mzayen Club’s beauty festival in Ash-Shahaniyah.

"The idea is similar to the football World Cup, we did a camel beauty World Cup”, club president Hamad Jaber Al Athba told Reuters.

He called the camel "a companion during the beginning of civilisation in the Gulf".

With their heads held high and chewing constantly, participating camels waited in a pen before being paraded in front of an audience seated indoors and enjoying coffee and sweets while gauging the beautiful beasts.

The competition between camels is fierce with different categories according to age and type.

"Black camels are judged according to the size of the body and the head and the location of the ears,” Mr Al Athba said. "But with the Maghateer-type camel, we look for proportionality and the ears should be dropping down, not stand straight, in addition to the way the mouth is curved."

READ MORE

Camel's beauty declared untouched by Botox

To avoid fraud and detect cosmetic surgery, a medical committee examined the animals before allowing them to participate in the beauty pageant.

The committee president said owners sometimes used fillers, Botox or silicon to increase their camel’s chances of winning — foul play that results in disqualification.

Ahead of declaring the winner of the day’s competing category, other female camels were milked and the owner of the one producing the most was rewarded 20,000 Qatari riyals (about $5,500).

But all eyes were on the competition between Maghateer-type camels over the age of four, the day’s competing category, the winner of which received a sum 10 times higher.

The Saudi Arabian owner of the camels that won bronze and gold in the competition, Mohanna Ibrahim Al Anazi, was thrilled after receiving his prize.

"I can't describe my feelings, because this female has an audience like the audience of the World Cup, like Real Madrid or Manchester (United)," he said. "And now, they are all celebrating."

Two Indonesian soldiers get seven months’ jail for gay sex

Amnesty International has reported that at least 15 Indonesian soldiers and policemen have been fired or sued for being gay.

 PHOTO: AFP

JAKARTA – Two Indonesian soldiers have been given a seven-month jail term for having gay sex, which is banned by the nation’s military as “inappropriate behaviour”.

The soldiers, who joined the army in 2021 and were based on the country’s main island of Java, were also booted from the army, according to a military court ruling dated Nov 9.

While gay sex is barred in the military, it is legal for civilians in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation, except in conservative province Aceh.

But there is widespread discrimination and some gay Indonesians have been arrested for lewd conduct under anti-pornography laws.

“The defendants’ acts of committing deviant sexual behaviour with the same sex was very inappropriate because as soldiers, the defendants should be an example for the people in the defendants’ surrounding environment,” the 60-page ruling read.

“The defendants’ actions were very much against the law or any religious provisions.”

The country’s Supreme Court posted the decision last week but the case was only brought to light on Tuesday evening by local news site Detik.

In 2020, Amnesty International said at least 15 members of Indonesia’s military or police have been sacked for having same-sex relations in recent years.

“This has been the increasing pattern among the Indonesian armed forces and police in recent years, where members were being fired or taken into court just for who they are, who they love, who they like,” Amnesty International Indonesia director Usman Hamid told AFP.

Mr Usman said “inflammatory statements” by the country’s political leaders have helped to further stigmatise minority groups, including the LGBTQ community, adding that the recent case was only “the tip of the iceberg”. 

AFP

Is the FBI’s ‘Black Identity Extremist’ Label Still in Use?

by Patrick Eddington Posted onNovember 30, 2022

It’s been over five years since the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) “Black Identity Extremist” (BIE) report was leaked to Foreign Policy magazine in early October 2017. The August 3, 2017, report – which alleged that “perceptions of police brutality against African Americans spurred an increase in premeditated, retaliatory lethal violence against law enforcement” – drew a torrent of criticism from civil rights and civil liberties groups, as well as a backlash from Black House and Senate members. The fact that the FBI was employing overtly race-based criteria for investigating the political activities of Black Americans brought back ugly memories of the Bureau’s infamous Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) targeting the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Southern Christian Leadership Congress, NAACP, and a host of other prominent Black civil rights leaders and organizations from the mid-1950s through at least the late 1970s.

In the two years after the leak of the “BIE” report, FBI Director Chris Wray found himself constantly on the defensive over the report and the FBI’s use of the BIE term. In late July 2019, Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Bureau had abandoned the use of the BIE phrase, with one other FBI official claiming the term had not been used by the FBI since 2018.

FBI documents obtained by the Cato Institute via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit appear to tell a somewhat different story.

The Cato FOIA request in question sought documents about the FBI’s compliance with its own Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (DIOG), a nearly 700-page manual that serves as the day-to-day guidance for FBI agents and their supervisors as to what kinds of investigative methods and tactics are, or are not, permissible. One document released in the litigation showed a case active as of June 2020 that involved FBI Investigative Classification 266K (see extract below):

That’s significant, because according to a previously classified FBI Investigative Classification guide released to Cato via FOIA, Classification 266K concerns “Black Separatist Extremists” (see extract below):

The acronym “AOT-DT” is shorthand for “Act of Terrorism – Domestic Terrorism” in FBI parlance.

The document containing the June 2020 Classification 266K also has the abbreviation of “FI,” which is short for Full Investigation – the most sweeping kind of FBI investigation in which the full range of investigative tools and techniques can be employed against a target, including wiretaps, covert physical searches, the use of confidential informants, the employment of “otherwise illegal activities,” and “undisclosed participation” in a domestic organization by an FBI employee.

As Cato’s FOIA was dated September 14, 2020, FBI provided no data in the FOIA litigation beyond the date of the request. Thus, whether any additional Classification 266K “Black Separatist Extremists” (which may now be the FBI’s replacement term for “Black Identity Extremists”) assessments or investigations have been opened is not publicly known.

The fact that the FBI’s Investigative Classification system continues to focus, at least in the case of Black Americans, on race-based criteria is clearly at odds with FBI Director Wray’s prior statements to Congress on the matter. Given the ongoing political activities of groups affiliated with the “Black Lives Matter” movement, a renewed Congressional examination of the FBI’s use of the 266K “Black Separatist Extremists” Investigative Classification (and perhaps others) is warranted.

Former CIA analyst and ex-House senior policy advisor Patrick Eddington is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute

ANTIWAR.COM

Ho Chi Minh City’s plastic ‘habit’ leaves piles of waste

Small scale recycling efforts are under way but most rubbish still ends up in landfills and waste-to-energy plans have stalled.

Waste pickers, or ve chai, are the driving force behind recycling in Ho Chi Minh City 

[Govi Snell/Al Jazeera]

Published On 30 Nov 2022

Ho Chi Minh City – Kieu Anh Tran heads down a small alley to her workshop in Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Thanh District. Inside, her team is busy washing used plastic tarpaulins, cutting patterns, and sewing the discarded material into backpacks, tote bags, and wallets.

In Vietnam’s southern city and commercial hub, there is no official recycling system. Its population of more than 10 million produces about 9,500 tonnes of domestic rubbish every day, and if Tran did not repurpose the tarps once used for shop awnings and as truck covers, they too would be headed to the dump.

“We recycle plastic every day, we know how bad it is. But when you hear about it in the large scale and you hear about how many tonnes of trash is coming out of Saigon … it is so stressful,” Tran told Al Jazeera, using the city’s former name.

“When you work on this kind of thing you have to stay positive. It can drag you down to think you can’t help much,” she said of her business making bags out of used tarps.

Ho Chi Minh City authorities are tasked with controlling waste management and contract private and government-owned companies to collect rubbish and operate landfills where waste is dumped and buried. But the expanding city is producing ever more waste, and Ho Chi Minh City’s two main landfills are filling up.

The United Nations’s first intergovernmental negotiations to agree on a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution are currently under way. With Vietnam among the top 5 nations contributing to ocean plastic, the spotlight will be on the country to rein in its mismanaged waste.

Single-use plastics are a common sight throughout Ho Chi Minh City [Govi Snell/A; Jazeera]

Plastics usually end up in the southern Vietnamese city’s rapidly-expanding landfills, with only a tiny proportion of items recycled [Govi Snell/Al Jazeera]

For those living near the city’s dumps, action cannot come quickly enough.

Tuan Nguyen lives about 10km (6 miles) from Ho Chi Minh City’s largest dump, Da Phuoc. When the wind shifts in his direction, the stench from the decaying rubbish fills his home.

“The smell is very bad even from 10 kilometres away … It is a very unacceptable situation,” he said. “Not any single [piece of] waste is handled properly [and] the volume of Da Phuoc is increasing day by day.”

Burning plastic

Across Vietnam, just 27 percent of the plastic waste generated each year is recycled.

After a revision to Vietnam’s Law on Environmental Protection went into effect this January, the country’s municipalities were made responsible for sorting and recycling waste. But without enforcement or implementation, there continues to be no official recycling mechanism.

Ho Chi Minh City authorities have proposed incineration and the conversion of waste to energy as the best solution to its waste problem. Under a management plan that runs until 2025, landfills will gradually be closed and 80 percent of the city’s waste will be converted into energy through incineration

.

While Ho Chi Minh City murals promote recycling, there is no official recycling system in the city [Govi Snell/Al Jazeera]

A groundbreaking ceremony was held in Cu Chi District for the construction of a $400m waste-to-energy plant in August 2019, one of three planned projects. Sparklers went off as men dressed in business clothes and wearing hard hats shovelled sand.

The Vietstar Joint Stock Company plant was slated to open in 2020 with the capacity to process 4,000 tonnes of rubbish daily by 2021. Two other companies, Tam Sinh Nghia and Tasco, also began building waste-to-energy plants in 2019, with each of their facilities designed to process 6,000 tonnes of waste a day.

But none of the projects have been completed.

Part of the problem is the country’s national power development plan, the still to be finalised PDP8, which will specify the country’s energy mix from 2021 until 2030, and lay out a vision towards 2045.

Vietnam pledged at last year’s climate talks to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, but at this year’s just concluded summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, it failed to reach a funding deal with G7 countries to support its clean energy transition.

A revised draft of PDP8 released by the Ministry of Industry and Trade on November 11 outlined an increase in the use of coal power until 2030 and a decrease in renewable energy targets.

It was the absence of PDP8 that Vietstar said had prevented it from starting operations. Tam Sinh Nghia and Tasco are also being held up by bottlenecks in the approval process, according to local media.

Although Ho Chi Minh City’s waste-to-energy plans are at a standstill, other parts of Vietnam are embracing incineration as an energy source.


In July, the country’s largest incineration plant began operating in the capital, Hanoi. The plant can burn 4,000 tonnes of dry waste daily and produce as much as 15 megawatts of power for the national grid.

But while some see the potential for controlled waste incineration, others worry about the effect on people’s health.

“There are a lot of negative impacts of incinerators. As a zero-waste solution, incineration is a false solution, including waste-to-energy,” Xuan Quach, coordinator at Vietnam Zero Waste Alliance, told Al Jazeera.

Along with releasing greenhouse gases and chemicals, including dioxin and furan, Quach says incineration does nothing to encourage recycling or discourage plastic use.

In 2019, Vietnam’s plastic industry contributed $17.5bn to the national economy, equivalent to nearly 7 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).


Like Quach, Yobel Novian Putra at the Global Initiative for Incinerator Alternatives worries about the potential harms of burning waste.

“Dioxin is one of the most toxic group of chemicals,” he said, citing that the chemical has been shown to cause cancer and long-term hormonal issues which can be passed down generations.

Kieu Anh Tran’s recycling business turns old shop awnings and other used plastics into backpacks, tote bags, and wallets [Govi Snell/Al Jazeera]

A US study published in 2020 found women who lived 10km (6.2 miles) from any solid municipal waste incinerators had increased breast cancer risks. Burning rubbish and poor waste management have also been linked to the development of “cancer villages” across Vietnam.

And while Ho Chi Minh City’s waste-to-energy plants promise advanced technologies to minimise toxic emissions in the burning process, Putra worries about a lack of oversight.

“There is no credibility,” Putra told Al Jazeera. “Transparency is an issue when you’re dealing with private companies.”

For Hong Quan Nguyen, director of the Institute for Circular Economy Development at Ho Chi Minh City National University, incineration is not an ideal solution but could help reduce waste overflow at landfills and contribute to the circular economy with energy output.

“When we’re talking about circular economy solutions [waste-to-energy] is just better than the landfill … you can collect some energy for Ho Chi Minh City,” he said. “We have to make sure the solution has no environmental impacts … we have to do it carefully.”

Mismanaged waste

Although there is no official recycling mechanism in Ho Chi Minh City, waste pickers, or ve chai, are the driving force of recycling. They make a meagre income by collecting plastic bottles, cardboard, and metal and then selling the goods to informal recycling centres.

What the ve chai do not gather is collected at households and businesses and trucked to landfills. Solid municipal waste often goes unsorted or treated, and plastic is piled or buried along with food waste and other types of rubbish

.

Plastic waste often gets tangled among the water hyacinth in Ho Chi Minh City’s waterways 

[Govi Snell/Al Jazeera]

Da Phuoc was opened in 2007 in Binh Chanh District, approximately a 45-minute drive from the centre of Ho Chi Minh City. The landfill covers 138 hectares (341 acres), but with about two-thirds of the city’s waste trucked to Da Phuoc, space is running out.

Nguyen and other residents affected by Da Phuoc congregate in Facebook groups to discuss the issues they face due to the waste site. Although previous protests and messages sent by group members to city officials to close the dump have gone unheeded, they are not giving up.

“In the next few months we will go together to submit a letter to the officials,” Nguyen said. “I plan to ask city authorities to stop burying garbage and use new technology to handle it properly.”

In 2017, residents claimed the landfill was polluting waterways after people living nearby noticed a foamy and foul-smelling layer on the surface of a nearby river.

Worried about the problems the pollution could cause for their health and for fishing businesses, residents blocked the entrance to the landfill overnight, stopping rubbish trucks from bringing more waste into the site.

Vietnam Waste Solutions (VWS), the owner and operator of Da Phuoc, criticised residents for “spreading rumours” and scaring their workers. The company claimed the foamy and bad-smelling water was the result of sand used for construction at the landfill mixing with the water after a heavy rain. The year before however, the company had been fined $66,100 for illegally discharging waste.

VWS President and CEO David Trung Duong also runs a waste management company in the United States – California Waste Solutions. From Nguyen’s perspective, corruption has played a role in the landfill being able to continue operations despite poor management. He said that despite claims from the company’s CEO that waste would be treated and sorted with advanced technology, the lack of proper management has led to the pollution that plagues residents.

“The volume of Da Phuoc is increasing so they cannot tolerate it any longer,” Nguyen said of those calling for the landfill’s closure. “I am very, very sad and disappointed about the government.”

In the absence of a city-wide approach to managing waste, residents are taking matters into their own hands

.

Workers clean discarded plastic at the Dong Dong Saigon workshop for repurposing into new products [Govi Snell/Al Jazeera]

Along with Tran’s business making bags from used tarpaulin sheets, some stall holders at local markets have set up refill stations to reduce plastic waste while others have begun to use paper packaging for foods, shouldering any additional cost.

In a small office in District 3, Nguyen Ngoc Anh leads a team of volunteers planning the next campaign for the non-profit Xanh Vietnam. The team organises rubbish collection drives in many locations across the country. In October, the non-profit led 150 volunteers to collect rubbish in Ho Chi Minh City’s Thu Thiem Ward and collected 100 bags of rubbish within two hours with the support of local authorities.

Anh founded her non-profit after a trip to Vung Tau, a coastal city just more than two hours drive from Ho Chi Minh City. There, she saw children sitting on the beach making sandcastles out of a mixture of sand and plastic waste.

“Years ago, we lived in an environment where we could live freely and play without any plastic,” she told Al Jazeera. “But the younger generation nowadays, they have to bear the burden of our habit of destroying the environment.”

A treaty to end the age of plastic

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Canada announces ban on single-use plastics in ‘historic step’

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

UK

CWU’s Dave Ward takes apart Royal Mail CEO Simon Thompson on BBC Breakfast

Basit Mahmood Today
Left Foot Forward

“What he’s putting in front of our members no union, no worker would accept.”

The general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, Dave Ward, has taken apart the Royal Mail’s CEO Simon Thompson during an appearance on BBC Breakfast today, which has earned widespread praise.

CWU members are currently on strike over what it says is a bad pay deal as well as over plans to alter the way the service is structured, as inflation soars and the cost of living crisis worsens.

Appearing on BBC Breakfast, Ward was asked whether he was ‘holding Christmas to ransom’ a claim made by the CEO of Royal Mail. Ward replied: “It’s completely untrue, the people who are destroying Christmas and the Royal Mail forever not just this Christmas, is the guy you had on earlier on (Thompson) who’s completely out of his depth.

“He doesn’t tell the truth about what this dispute is about, sorry to correct you, this is about thousands upon thousands of jobs, the most brutal attack we’ve seen on a very popular group of workers in the UK for decades, it’s also about financial mismanagement of the company by Mr Thompson and the board and the board really need to step in now because this company is being destroyed before our eyes and it doesn’t need to be this way.

“What he’s putting in front of our members no union, no worker would accept.”

Ward went on to add that thousands upon thousands of members were being sacked while at the same time the company was bringing in self-employed drivers on 20% less pay, while also retaining 11,000 agency workers.

He urged the government to step in and said that the Royal Mail were determined to abandon the ‘AM delivery period’ and were set to turn the Royal Mail into another ‘parcel courier company’, wanting to end the universal service it offered.

Asked about the losses that the company was incurring as a result of the strikes, Ward replied: “There’s £567 million he gave to shareholders, there’s over £400 million he’s cut away from the Royal Mail from the international acquisitions by handing that over to shareholders rather than supporting Royal Mail, that’s a huge amount of money that would’ve seen us through these difficult times’.

His comments came after Thompson appeared on BBC Breakfast earlier, and was asked on five separate occasions whether he’d attended the last stage of talks with the CWU but refused to say so.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

NOT SINCE BIBLE BILL ABERHARDT HAS ALBERTA BEEN SO CLOSE TO FASCISM

Alberta sovereignty act: Municipalities, local police could get provincial directives

By Emily Mertz Global News
Posted November 29, 2022

On Tuesday, the first day of the fall sitting at the Alberta legislature, the United Conservative government introduced its proposed Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act.


The province says that if passed, the act could be used “to stand up to federal government overreach and interference in areas of provincial jurisdiction, including… private property, natural resources, agriculture, firearms, regulation of the economy and delivery of health, education and other social programs.”

Opposition NDP MLAs voted against first reading of Bill 1 and released a statement saying the legislation would create “investment uncertainty, jeopardize federal funding agreements and risk Alberta’s economic future.”

READ MORE: Premier Danielle Smith asks ministers to take ‘united front’ when dealing with feds

“I hope we never have to use this bill,” Premier Danielle Smith told reporters Tuesday afternoon.

“We need the power to reset the relationship with Ottawa,” she added, saying: “I believe it’s already working.

“It begins the conversation with Ottawa so that they do not continue to pass aggressive policy targeted specifically at our industry and specifically at our development of our natural resources.

“That is not the way the country is supposed to work. And so we’re helping to educate them and the rest of the country about that.”

Standing up to Ottawa stressed in Alberta throne speech

The proposed act gives cabinet authority to “direct provincial entities to not enforce specific federal laws or policies with provincial resources.” Anyone subject to the act must comply with it, but the act does not outline enforcement measures.

It defines provincial entities as:a provincial public agency
a provincial Crown-controlled organization
an entity that carries out a power, duty or function under a provincial enactment
an entity that receives a grant or other public funds from the provincial government that is contingent on the provision of a public service
a regional health authority
a public post-secondary institution
a school board as defined
a municipality
a municipal or regional police service

We’ve been ignored’: Smith defends proposed Alberta sovereignty act

BULLSHIT

The act lays out the legislative framework through which Alberta can “formally defend its provincial jurisdiction, while fully respecting Indigenous and treaty rights, Canada’s Constitution and the courts,” the province’s news release said.

It also stresses that the bill cannot infringe on First Nations rights, a concern Alberta treaty chiefs have raised.


2:25Alberta Premier Danielle Smith introduces controversial sovereignty act

In response to the tabling of the bill, Treaty 6 and Treaty 8 chiefs released statements reiterating their opposition to it. Treaty 6 chiefs said the act “could conceivably apply to any federal law or requirement, whether in respect to public health, the environment, or treaties — international agreements that take legal precedence over provincial and federal law.

“The lack of prior consultation with Indigenous peoples about this proposed act indicates that reconciliation is not a priority for this premier or this government.”

READ MORE: Alberta plans to resist federal efforts to seize prohibited weapons: Justice minister

The process starts with a member of executive council (premier or any minister) introducing a motion in the legislative assembly for a proposed use of the act. The motion would identify a federal action, policy or law “as being, in the opinion of the legislative assembly, unconstitutional, contrary to the Charter or otherwise harmful to Albertans, along with the nature of that harm.”

The act does not define what “harmful” means. It also does not explain how something could be determined to be “unconstitutional” in the absence of a court ruling.

The motion would also propose measures or actions for cabinet to consider in response.

Then, the legislative assembly would debate the resolution. If the majority of MLAs vote in favour of the motion, it would pass. If the resolution passes, cabinet has the power to carry out the measures in the resolution, including:directing a minister to exercise power vested in that minister by legislation or regulation

giving specific directives to provincial entities
temporarily amending enactments in accordance with the resolution
any other action cabinet is legally able to take

The act would give cabinet the power to change legislation by order in council. That means, laws could be changed or amended without legislative debate.

Under the act, that power would last for a maximum of four years after the resolution is passed.

Proposed sovereignty act provides legal framework to defend Alberta’s rights, freedoms: justice minister

Justice Minister Tyler Shandro was asked specifically about this power at a news conference later Tuesday.

A reporter explained his interpretation of the bill as: “once the motion is debated in legislature and the majority of MLAs vote on it, and then it goes to cabinet and there are directives within that motion, then the cabinet ministers have the ability to unilaterally, if they so choose, change legislation.”

Shandro replied: “That is correct.”

The NDP said the act would “grant cabinet new powers to unilaterally bypass the democratic will of the legislature when making laws,” calling it “alarming.”

“Danielle Smith was elected by one per cent of the Alberta voters and now she wants to give herself dictatorial powers,” said Alberta NDP deputy leader Sarah Hoffman. “Danielle Smith and the UCP are focused on creating more chaos, costs and conflict with her sovereignty act.”

Bill 1 first step in pushing Ottawa ‘back into its own lane’: Alberta Premier Danielle Smith

The province said the act would not compel any private citizen or business to violate federal law.

The United Conservative government also stressed the act does not “involve anything related to separation from Canada.”

Premier Danielle Smith has already asked ministers to prepare resolutions for the spring legislative session that would “push back on several federal laws and policies,” including Bill C-69, fertilizer cuts and emissions reductions, firearms rules, and the delivery of health care, education and other social programs “with strings-attached funding.”

“Albertans are proud Canadians and we love our nation dearly,” Smith said in a news release. “The Canadian Constitution is clear that the federal and provincial governments are equals, each with our own areas of exclusive jurisdiction.

“The Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act will be used as a constitutional shield to protect Albertans from federal overreach that is costing Alberta’s economy billions of dollars each year in lost investment and is costing Alberta families untold jobs and opportunities.”

Sovereignty act, affordability to define Fall legislative session in Alberta

Another goal of the act is to “shift the burden to the federal government to legally challenge Alberta’s refusal to enforce unconstitutional or harmful federal laws or policies instead of Alberta having to initiate legal challenges and waiting years for a decision,” the province said.

The bill would come into force upon royal assent — after it passes third reading and is signed by the Lieutenant Governor — which could happen during this legislative session.

READ MORE: Smith’s sovereignty act to ‘respect Supreme Court decisions’: advisor

The sovereignty act was the cornerstone of Smith’s successful campaign to win the leadership of the United Conservative Party last month to take over from Jason Kenney as premier.

The bill has been criticized by Kenney and even some of Smith’s leadership rivals — four of whom now sit in her cabinet — as a recipe for legal uncertainty, investment flight and the first step toward separation.

Alberta introduces sovereignty act bill granting cabinet broad powers to fight Ottawa

The bill was tabled after Lt.-Gov. Salma Lakhani read aloud in the chamber the speech from the throne, launching a new legislative session.

In the speech outlining government plans and priorities, Lakhani said the four-week fall sitting would focus on helping Albertans with inflation, health care and battling the federal government.

“Ottawa is not our ruler. Ottawa is our partner and it needs to begin acting like it,” Lakhani told the assembled legislature members and dignitaries.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith sworn in as an MLA on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022 in Edmonton, Alta. Credit: Legislative Assembly of Alberta

Earlier Tuesday, Smith was sworn in as the new member for Brooks-Medicine Hat after winning a byelection for the seat earlier this month.

It was her first time back on the floor of the legislature chamber since the spring of 2015.

At that time, Smith was with the Progressive Conservatives, having led a mass floor-crossing of her Wildrose Party months earlier. She failed to win a nomination for the PCs in 2015 and returned to journalism as a radio talk-show host for six years.

READ MORE: Jason Kenney quits Alberta politics with critical letter on state of democracy

Kenney — who was a backbench UCP legislature member since stepping down as leader — announced his immediate resignation as MLA for Calgary-Lougheed Tuesday afternoon. He was not in the chamber for the throne speech or the introduction of the bill.

READ MORE: Federal Liberal cabinet minister concerned with Alberta premier’s proposed sovereignty act

Edmonton Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault said earlier Tuesday he wanted to read the act, which had not yet been tabled, but that he’s deeply concerned with what he called “Alberta’s attack on Canadian unity.”

“Any act that’s going to say: ‘We’re going to cherry pick which federal laws apply in Alberta’ is some sort of opt-out clause that doesn’t exist in our federation.

“I grew up in the Lougheed era when I saw Premier Lougheed take swipes at the federal government over legitimate grievances that the province had. And the prime minister of the day worked it out with the premier of the day but inside the context of strong federation and a stronger Canada.

“My appeal to the premier and to her ministers is: let’s work together,” Boissonnault said.


Trudeau ‘looking forward’ to working with Alberta’s Danielle Smith on range of issues

Ontario Liberal MP Mark Holland said earlier Tuesday that the relationships between the federal government and the provinces are critically important.

“We’re facing the most challenging time in human history probably since World War II. I think whether or not you’re looking at your provincial government, your federal government or your municipal government, I think there’s an expectation that we’re going to work together, that we’re going to find common ground, and we’re not going to play games that divide us.

“I know our government … is focused on having a constructive relationship with Alberta,” he said, before reading the act in full.

“At this point in time, we need to dial back our partisan interests or how we might exploit divisions between us. Instead, this is a time when it’s demanding us to come forward with solutions as productively as possible.”

— With files from Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for SOCRED 

YPJ fighter: Every Turkish bomb strengthens ISIS

Interview. We spoke with Ronahî Tolhildan, a fighter with the Kurdish women's defense units, YPJ, stationed in Kobane.

 ‘Turkey is not only weakening the structures of the SDF that are holding ISIS members in custody, but is giving concrete support to the Islamic State.’

 

written by Chiara Cruciati  
November 28, 2022

Villages, grain silos, refineries and oil wells: small installations that are propping up northeastern Syria, extracting incomparably minuscule wealth compared to the neighboring energy giants. However, five days after the launch of Turkey’s Operation Claw-Sword, it is apparent that these are its targets, together with civilian infrastructure and population centers, from the east to the west of Rojava.

While the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commemorate the eight fighters killed Wednesday in the Turkish raid on the Al-Hol camp (a tent camp where 60,000 ISIS militiamen and their families are detained), there were some signs of protest from Washington, which had been inscrutable so far: Recent air strikes in Syria directly threatened the safety of U.S. personnel who are working in Syria with local partners to defeat ISIS and maintain custody of more than 10,000 ISIS detainees.” As a result, the U.S. called for “immediate de-escalation.”

We spoke about these developments with Ronahî Tolhildan, a fighter with the Kurdish women’s defense units, YPJ, stationed in Kobane.

How high is the risk of increased ISIS activity in Rojava due to Turkish raids? Or of new breakouts, like the one attempted in January in Hasakah?

Every attack on the Northeast Syria Autonomous Administration is strengthening ISIS. Turkey is not only weakening the structures of the SDF that are holding ISIS members in custody, but is giving concrete support to the Islamic State in the form of information, resources, coordinated attacks. In early 2022, during the attempted breakout from Hasakah prison, Turkey targeted reinforcements who were on their way there to stop it. The occupied city of Afrin is now in the hands of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham [the Al-Qaedist group formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front] and on Thursday, jihadist mercenaries approached the cities of Manbij and Raqqa. The jihadist and Turkish attacks should be seen as part of the same attack against the revolution and its values. The risk of a return of ISIS is not confined to these places: Europe is at risk, the world is at risk, because of it.

What is the Turkish strategy? To quickly occupy communities on the Turkish-Syrian border to close the northern corridor or pressure the SDF and civilians to flee, undermining the revolution from within?

The Turks’ military strategy has multiple parts. First, they try to attack society by destroying people’s resistance, demoralizing them and disconnecting them from the Autonomous Administration. Then they strengthen ISIS sleeper cells, as we saw yesterday with the bombs dropped on the security forces at Al-Hol camp. Finally, as soon as possible, Turkey will invade overland and attempt to close the land corridor at the border. In the long run, Islamist groups are expected to establish themselves in the occupied regions, as happened in Afrin, Serêkaniyê and Gire Spî. And it seems that the U.S. wants to reach a “joint solution” with Turkey. This would lead to a new Afghanistan.

So a land-based invasion is possible.

Certainly. Erdogan has already done that in 2018 in Afrin and in 2019 in Serêkaniyê and Gire Spî. Neither the U.S. nor Russia intervened. The first target is likely to be Kobane, a symbol of popular resistance to ISIS. Much of the shelling is already targeting this town and district. In this way, Turkey would link up the occupied cities, Azaz, Serêkaniyê and Gîre Spî.

Were you warned by the United States of the attack Turkey was about to launch?

The U.S. had warned its citizens a few days before. But this was an action more aimed at spreading panic than warning of danger.

The current war is also a psychological war: a constant military pressure which, together with the de facto embargo, steals time and energy away from the revolution, resources that could be used to improve on the already major successes reached.

This kind of low-intensity warfare affects people. The Turkish state is targeting infrastructure and civilians in order to terrorize people and push them to flee. But the self-defense units and the people are standing side by side and will defend the liberated areas. We have been subject to multiple Turkish attacks for years, but the resistance has never been defeated. We will not leave our positions. The revolution has been ten years in the making and has achieved a great deal. Too often the achievements of the people are threatened and destroyed. Peace in northeastern Syria is necessary both for those who live here and also for the whole Middle East, because it is seen by the whole world as a model of women’s liberation, self-determination and cultural diversity.

Do you have any kind of coordination with the Syrian army for the defense of the northeast?

There is no cooperation with the Syrian army.

Chiara Cruciati
Originally published in Italian on November 25, 2022https://ilmanifesto.it/le-bombe-turche-hanno-ridato-forza-ai-jihadisti-in-siria

To reverse course, fewer dividends and higher wages

Commentary. The soaring prices are at the top of Italians’ concerns. In our country, less affluent families allocate 50% or more of their income to food, while affluent ones use less than 15%.

written by Gaetano Lamanna
Topic Italy
Published on November 28, 2022

In Italy, outrageous private wealth coexists with a dramatic economic and social emergency. Half of the financial and real estate wealth in the country (estimated at a total of about €10 trillion) belongs to families located at the top of the social pyramid. In contrast, the 10% at the base of the pyramid own less than 1%.

The steady decline in the share of wage income for the past 30 years has been accompanied by the rise in the share of profits and annuities. The paychecks of managers and CEOs are 300 times higher than those of blue-collar workers – an astronomical distance, a completely disproportionate ratio, which has no justification, either economic or merit-based.

Inequalities are heightening, soup kitchens are working at full capacity, dumpster diving for food is on the rise. And the real distances between classes, in terms of culture, living conditions and overall well-being, are greater than the statistics show.

The soaring prices are at the top of Italians’ concerns. In our country, less affluent families allocate 50% or more of their income to food, while affluent ones use less than 15%. This is data that confirms once again the relevance and validity of Engel’s law, named after the German statistician who, almost two centuries ago, was the first to study the correlation between income and consumption. Ernst Engel showed that the higher a family’s disposable income, the lower the proportion of expenditures for food as a share of its total expenditures. And conversely, the lower the income, the greater the share reserved for food. In addition to food, rents and utility bills are also rising, as are home mortgage payments and the interest to be paid on loans.

In short, inflation is widening the gulf of inequality, and the government is responding with a few band aids here and there. It’s no wonder that the right wing is doing what it always does, taking more from those who have less and rewarding those who don’t pay taxes. If anything, it’s surprising that the left is playing catch-up and is late in putting the issues of primary and secondary distribution, wages and the welfare state on the agenda.

Wage incomes have been held down by a decades-long “labor peace,” and the latest increases in the collective contracts have evaporated in no time flat. The shame of starvation-level wages is still with us. The welfare system is being destroyed under the blows of the privatization of services and the politics of bonuses, bestowed, often and intentionally, on the basis of quid-pro-quo relationships or the search for electoral support, not real need.

In no European country do we see such a great redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top as in Italy. With the same tax burden, France and Germany maintain a stronger and better structured welfare state, and the share of wage income is 30 percentage points higher than in our country. A mix of neoliberalism and blind defense of rents and corporate privileges – nested in the backward sectors of the economy – make up a situation unique to Italy, leading to disastrous side effects in terms of social fragmentation, gaps between territories, cultural degradation, as well as in the level of corruption, tax evasion, illegality, mafia presence, and the state of democracy.

This drift provides the explanation for the victory of the right, and for why in the budget adjustment proposal, the first of the Meloni era, there was not a word on the reform of the Land Registry, on the taxation of large real estate income, on the wealth tax and, more generally, on the many horizontal and vertical inequities of our taxation system.

Newspapers are constantly singing the praises of the Meloni government for its supposed prudence, pragmatism, and continuity with the “Draghi Agenda.” But what if it is precisely this “continuity” (which has been there for a long time) that makes Italy one of the states in the Western world in which unparalleled private wealth is combined with a public debt at the limit of sustainability and, at the same time, with a growing number of the poor? These tangles are now coming to a head: debt margins have run out, inflation is rising, recession is looming, and the ECB’s monetary policy is veering decisively toward raising interest rates, putting limits on purchases of government bonds.

The squeeze on the working classes and the lower and middle classes is likely to get even tighter. It is up to the trade unions and the political left to make clear who needs to foot the bill for the crisis, by starting a grassroots mobilization for social justice and fiscal fairness. The goal is for the burden of austerity to fall on those who have broad shoulders, are making outrageous profits and are living off lavish rents.

The alternative is clear-cut: lower dividends to shareholders and more dignified wages to workers, higher taxation of financial and real estate transactions, and welfare worthy of a civilized country.

Originally published in Italian on November 25, 2022