THE ORIGINAL; 'JEWS SHALL NOT REPLACE US'
Photos show the horrors of Auschwitz, the largest and deadliest Nazi concentration camp, 78 years after its liberation

Natalie Colarossi,Lauren Frias
Fri, January 27, 2023 

An aerial view of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination camp on December 19, 2019 in Oswiecim, Poland.

Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

It has been 78 years since the Soviet Army liberated Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration complex.


First established in 1940, Auschwitz had a concentration camp, large gas chambers, and crematoria.


More than 1.1 million people were murdered at Auschwitz, including nearly one million Jews.

It was the greatest tragedy of the Holocaust. In just five years, over one million people were murdered at Auschwitz, the largest and deadliest Nazi concentration camp.

Auschwitz was established in 1940 and located in the suburbs of Oswiecim, a Polish city the Germans annexed. Between 1940 and 1945, it grew to include three main camp centers and a slew of subcamps — each of which were used for forced labor, torture, and mass killing.

An estimated 1.3 million people were deported to Auschwitz during its five-year operation, and approximately 1.1 million were killed.

The terror of Auschwitz finally subsided on January 27, 1945, when the Soviet Army liberated the remaining 7,000 prisoners from the camps.

On the 78th anniversary of this liberation, these photos exhibit the horror and history of Auschwitz.

Auschwitz was established in 1940 in the suburbs of Oswiecim, Poland. During its first year, authorities cleared 15 square miles for the camp.

An aerial view of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination camp on December 19, 2019 in Oswiecim, Poland.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Source: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Auschwitz I, the first camp to undergo construction, was initially created for three reasons: to imprison enemies, to use forced labor, and to kill certain groups of people.

The crematorium near gas chamber one at the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz I in Oswiecim, Poland, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019.Markus Schreiber/AP

Sources: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Auschwitz‑Birkenau Memorial and State Museum

Construction of the largest camp, Auschwitz II, also called Auschwitz-Birkenau, began in October 1941. Electrified barbed wire divided it into 10 different sections.

The remains of brick stone chimneys of prisoner barracks can be seen inside the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz Birkenau or Auschwitz II.Markus Schreiber/AP

Sources: Jewish Virtual Library, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Auschwitz-Birkenau's different sections were for "women; men; a family camp for Roma (Gypsies) deported from Germany, Austria, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia; and a family camp for Jewish families deported from the Theresienstadt ghetto," according to the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Women in the barracks at Auschwitz, Poland, January 1945.Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images

Sources: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Inmates were put into poorly structured wooden barracks with 36 bunks each. Five to six prisoners were packed in so over 500 prisoners were in each unit.

Reuters Pictures Archive

Source: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Incoming prisoners who were selected for forced labor received tattoos and had a serial number sewn into their uniforms. Auschwitz was the only concentration camp to do this.

Auschwitz concentration camp survivor Eva Behar shows her number tattoo in her home on December 1, 2014 in London, United Kingdom.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Source: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Shortly after construction, Auschwitz-Birkenau became the largest killing center and central location for the extermination of Jews in Europe.

Bodies of prisoners found in Auschwitz, shortly after liberation in 1945.Reuters

Source: Museum of Jewish Heritage

In 1942, two farmhouses just outside the camp were turned into gas chambers.

Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

But as Auschwitz-Birkenau became a central location for mass killing, these gas chambers were too small. Four new chambers were built between March and June 1943, each containing a disrobing area, gas chamber, and crematory ovens.

Shoes of victims exterminated at Auschwitz.Rolf Vennenbernd/picture alliance via Getty Images

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

As millions of people were murdered, mounds of eye glasses, razors, shoes, and other belongings were left behind.

Remains of glasses from people exterminated at Auschwitz.Pawel Ulatowski/Reuters

In 1942, Auschwitz III, also known as Buna or Monowitz, opened near the town of Monowice to house more forced laborers.

An ariel picture taken of Auschwitz barracks taken on December 15, 2019 in Oswiecim, Poland.Pablo GONZALEZ / AFP via Getty Images

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Forty-four subcamps with different specializations were established at Auschwitz between 1942 and 1944. The Nazis made prisoners work on large farms, in coal mines, in weapons production — basically anything the German military needed for war.

A photo of women deemed fit for work, taken in May 1944 in Auschwitz.AFP via Getty Images

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Between 1940 and 1945, an estimated 1.3 million people were sent to Auschwitz. Approximately 1.1 million were killed.

Cadavers of women and Children who died in cold weather at Auschwitz.Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images

Source: Museum of Jewish Heritage

In January 1945, before Soviet forces could reach the camps for liberation, nearly 60,000 people were forced to march west, and thousands more were killed.

Soviet soldiers with survivors of Auschwitz in 1945.REUTERS:HO AUSCHWITZ MUSEUM

Source: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The terror finally subsided on January 27, 1945, when the Soviet Army reached the gates of Auschwitz.

Soviet soldiers arriving at the gates of Auschwitz in 1945.REUTERS:HO AUSCHWITZ MUSEUM REUTERS

Source: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

When Soviet soldiers arrived, only between 6,000 and 7,000 prisoners remained. The majority of them faced starvation, illness, and death.

Sovfoto/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Source: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Available records indicate that when the soldiers arrived, at least 700 youth prisoners were still at the camp, half of whom were Jewish.

Children who have lived to be liberated by the Red Army from the Auschwitz concentration camp on January 27, 1945.TASS via Getty Images

Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum

In many cases, the liberated children were malnourished, severely weak, vitamin deficient, and diseased. Of 180 children examined after liberation, 40% had tuberculosis.

Jewish children, survivors of Auschwitz, with a nurse behind a barbed wire fence, Poland, February 1945.Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images

Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum

Immediately after liberation, many of the children were sent to hospitals organized by the Soviet army and the Polish Red Cross.

Holocaust survivor Rachel Rubin shows a photograph of herself as a 14-year-old girl shortly after her liberation in 1945.Julian Stratenschulte/picture alliance via Getty Images

In 2016, a group of children who survived the horrors of Auschwitz met to take their photo together.

81-year-old Paula Lebovics, 79-year-old Miriam Ziegler, 85-year-old Gabor Hirsch and 80-year-old Eva Kor pose with the original image of them as children taken at Auschwitz at the time of its liberation on January 26, 2015 in Krakow, Poland.Ian Gavan/Getty Images

In total, 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. One-sixth of these exterminations happened at Auschwitz alone.

Photographs are displayed at the Birkenau Museum, December 10, 2004, of the many faces of the men, women and children at the Auschwitz II.Scott Barbour/Getty Images

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

To commemorate this grave tragedy, world leaders met in Israel in 2020 to mark 75 years since the camp's liberation.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin arrived in Israel on a working visit to attend celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.Mikhail Metzel/TASS via Getty Images

On January 27, 2023, Holocaust survivors gathered in Oswiecim, Poland, to attend a ceremony marking the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Holocaust survivors wearing striped scarves attend a ceremony during 78th Anniversary Of Auschwitz - Birkenau Liberation and Holocaust Remembrance Day.Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Holocaust survivors and former Auschwitz inmates were joined by world leaders at a wreath-laying and candle ceremony in front of the Death Wall to remember the thousands who died at the former Nazi concentration complex.

The flag of Israel and candles are seen during the 78th Anniversary Of Auschwitz - Birkenau Liberation ceremony and Holocaust Remembrance Day in Brzezinka, Poland, on January 27, 2023.Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Editor's note: This list was first published in January 2020 and has been updated to reflect recent developments.

Business Insider

Kelowna man photographs rare encounter with pack of wolves

Thu, January 26, 2023

On Jan. 21, Kelowna, B.C., resident Mike Walchuck found a wolf pack in Black Mountain - sntsk'il'ntən Regional Park, where it's rare to spot the animal. (Mike Walchuck - image credit)

A man's casual hike at a regional park in B.C. led to the encounter of a lifetime.

Mike Walchuck of Kelowna, B.C., was out for a late morning walk on Jan. 21 in Black Mountain - sntsk'il'ntən Regional Park when he encountered a pack of wolves.

"The first thought was like, 'Is that a big coyote?'" Walchuck said.

"But when I got a closer look I'm like no, that definitely looks bigger than a coyote … and then I saw the black one came out."

About half-way through an eight-kilometre hike, Walchuk came to an open field with fewer trees — where he first caught a glimpse of the animals.

The park, located in Kelowna's eastern outskirts, borders a golf course, with residential areas several kilometres away. It's rare to spot a wolf in the area.

'I've never seen wolves before'

Walchuck has hiked the area several times and explored several other parks in the Okanagan. He and his wife moved to the area in 2020 to get closer to nature.

He describes himself as a wildlife nerd who enjoys the outdoors, and it's not uncommon for him to see wildlife on his walks.

"I have seen coyotes, deer, and elk, but I've never seen wolves before."

Mike Walchuck

Walchuck says they were about 150 metres away when he first spotted them. He's not certain how many wolves were in the area, but he saw four animals.

He believes there were likely more.

Wolf sightings rare in area, says professor

Adam Ford, a biology professor at the University of British Columbia Okanagan, says Walchuck was lucky to get so close to the elusive carnivores.

He says wolves have evolved to be fairly skittish around people and tend to be more active at night.

Ford adds that the animals have large territories and will pass through areas like the Okanagan while pursuing prey like elk or deer.

"It's hard to know if that area in Black Mountain is at the edge of their range and they're just occasionally coming in," he said.

Ford says the animals in the Central Okanagan may stick around if there's food, but they could travel as far away as Sicamous — about 125 kilometres north of Kelowna — or to the U.S. border if that's where their prey is.

He adds that it's unlikely wolves in the Interior will become habituated to urban areas the way coyotes have.

"We typically don't see wolves and people in the same areas," he said. "But we've also seen cases in places like Banff National Park where wolves have been food-conditioned by irresponsible campers which has led to the destruction of those wolves because it became unsafe for people."

Mike Walchuck

In 2019, a wolf attacked a man while he was sleeping in a tent with his family in Banff National Park.

Parks Canada tracked the wolf believed to be responsible for the attack to a location about one kilometre south of the campground and killed it.

The agency said it was the first incident of its kind within a national park.

Avoid encounters with wildlife: WildsafeBC

WildsafeBC, a non-profit organization educating people about wildlife safety, says there are approximately 8,500 wolves in the province.

WildsafeBC co-ordinator Lisa Lopez says human-wolf interactions are extremely rare. But she says people should avoid potential encounters with wildlife, even if they are tempted to take a photo or observe the animals.

"If they are protecting a kill, if they are on a hunt, or protecting young … perhaps avoid that area," she said.

Lopez adds it's important to always keep pets leashed, because wolves are territorial and could see a pet as a potential threat or prey.

Tucker Carlson Talks Nonsense About U.S. Invading Canada To Remove Trudeau

TUCKER MUST HAS BEEN INSPIRED BY THIS

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/01/tory-thugs-should-move-south-large.html

Ron Dicker
Fri, January 27, 2023
HuffPost

Tucker Carlson on Thursday called for the U.S. to invade Canada and remove Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The Fox News host claimed he meant it before saying he was talking himself “into a frenzy.” (Watch the video below.)

During Fox Nation’s “Tucker Carlson Today,” Carlson referenced the arrests last year of anti-vax truckers in Canada. The demonstrators paralyzed commerce and won over extremists with their traffic-tying protests of COVID-19 safety measures. At the time, Carlson said the country had become a dictatorship because the government took action.

And now he suggested he’d like to do something about it.

“I’m completely in favor of a Bay of Pigs operation to liberate that country,” Carlson said. “Why should we stand back and let our biggest trading partner ... why should we let it become Cuba? Like, why don’t we liberate it? We’re spending all this money to liberate Ukraine from the Russians. Why are we not sending an armed force north to liberate Canada from Trudeau? And I mean it.”

The right-wing personality then laughed and said, “I’m just talking myself into a frenzy here.”

Carlson’s suggestion brought to mind the mostly forgotten 1995 movie “Canadian Bacon,” in which the United States fabricates tension with Canada, prompting American vigilantes to prepare for war.

h/t Media Matters

WHO decision on COVID-19 emergency won't effect Canada's response: Tam

Fri, January 27, 2023 



OTTAWA — On Monday, exactly three years from the day he declared COVID-19 to be a global public health emergency, World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will decide whether to call it off.

But declaring an end to the "public health emergency of international concern" would not mean COVID-19 is no longer a threat. It will also not do much to change Canada's approach.

"In Canada, we're already doing what we need to do," chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said in her most recent COVID-19 update.

She said the WHO discussion is important but COVID-19 monitoring and public health responses are not going to end. That includes continued surveillance of cases, particularly severe illness and death, and vaccination campaigns.

The WHO's emergency committee, which was struck in 2020 when COVID-19 first emerged as a global health threat, voted Friday on whether to maintain the formal designation of a public health emergency.

Tedros will make the final call Monday based on the advice the committee gives him.

He warned earlier this week that he remains concerned about the impact of the virus, noting there were 170,000 deaths from COVID-19 reported around the world in the last two months.

"While I will not pre-empt the advice of the emergency committee, I remain very concerned by the situation in many countries and the rising number of deaths," he said Jan. 24.

"While we are clearly in better shape than three years ago when this pandemic first hit, the global collective response is once again under strain."

He is worried not enough health-care workers or seniors are up to date on vaccinations, that access to antivirals is limited and that health systems around the world remain fragile following three years of pandemic strain.

In Canada, there was a noticeable rise in cases, hospitalizations and deaths over Christmas and early in January but all are trending down again. Tam said there were no surges of the virus anywhere in Canada, though the latest variant of Omicron was being watched closely.

Federal surveillance data shows more than 30 people are still dying of COVID-19 every day, and hundreds of people are still hospitalized.

The formal designation of the global public health emergency was made on Jan. 30, 2020, when 99 per cent of confirmed COVID-19 cases were still restricted to China.

The decision was made to declare an emergency because human-to-human transmission was starting to occur outside China, and the hope was that by designating an emergency it could prompt a public health response that could still limit the impact of COVID-19.

That did not happen. On March 11, 2020, Tedros declared a global pandemic, practically begging countries to do more to slow it down.

The declaration of a pandemic meant that there was exponential growth in the spread of the virus.

By WHO terminology, a "public health emergency of international concern" is the highest formal declaration and the one which triggers a legally binding response among WHO member countries, including Canada.

It is what is done when a health threat is "serious, sudden, unusual or unexpected," when it carries global public health implications and may require "immediately international action."

A designation prompts the WHO director-general to issue recommendations for member countries including increased surveillance to identify new cases, isolating or quarantining infected people and their close contacts, travel measures such as border testing or closures, public health communications, investments in research and collaboration on treatments and vaccinations.

Dr. Sameer Elsayed, an infectious diseases physician and the director adult infectious diseases residency training at Western University in London, Ont., said to his mind the WHO should end the global emergency designation even though the pandemic itself is not over.

"I don't know that we should continue to call it an emergency," he said. "I hope they say that we're going to bring it down a notch."

Elsayed said for vulnerable populations, including the elderly and those with compromised immune systems, COVID-19 continues to pose a serious threat, but for most people there are far bigger threats, including suicide. He said with limited health resources, COVID-19 needs to be put in its proper place alongside other health issues.

Children, in particular, said Elsayed, are much more at risk from influenza and RSV than COVID-19 in wealthy countries, and from food insecurity and the lack of access to clean water in many developing nations.

Tam said regardless of what WHO decides, Canada won't stop monitoring the evolution of the virus that causes COVID-19, including for new variants that may require adjustments to vaccines or other treatments.

She also said we must continue to monitor the ongoing developments in long COVID.

"We mustn't, I think, let go of the gains that we've had in the last several years," she said.

"I think whatever the decision is made by the director-general of WHO, I think we just need to keep going with what we're doing now."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 27, 2023.

Mia Rabson, The Canadian Press

CANADA HAS NO SECOND AMENDMENT

Mandatory minimum penalty for firing gun at house unconstitutional: Supreme Court

NO NEED WITH SCOC

Fri, January 27, 2023 



OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that a mandatory minimum sentence of four years for firing a gun at a house is unconstitutional on the basis it could amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

In a companion judgment Friday, the top court said two other minimum sentences, both involving armed robbery offences, do not represent excessive punishment and are therefore constitutional.

The Supreme Court also affirmed and developed the framework for weighing challenges to the constitutionality of a mandatory minimum sentence under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms provision against cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.

The first decision came in the case of Jesse Dallas Hills, who pleaded guilty to four charges stemming from a May 2014 incident in Lethbridge, Alta., in which he swung a baseball bat and shot at a car with a rifle, smashed the window of a vehicle and fired rounds into a family home.

Hills had consumed large amounts of prescription medication and alcohol and said he did not remember the events.

He argued the minimum four-year sentence in effect at the time for recklessly discharging a firearm into a house or other building violated the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

A judge agreed and Hills was sentenced to a term of 3 1/2 years, but the Alberta Court of Appeal overturned the finding of unconstitutionality and the sentence was increased to four years.

In allowing Hills's appeal, the Supreme Court said the mandatory minimum sentence was grossly disproportionate, given that a young person might fire a paintball gun at a house as part of a game.

"The mandatory minimum cannot be justified by deterrence and denunciation alone, and the punishment shows a complete disregard for sentencing norms," Justice Sheilah Martin wrote on behalf of a majority of the court.

"The mandatory prison term would have significant deleterious effects on a youthful offender and it would shock the conscience of Canadians to learn that an offender can receive four years of imprisonment for firing a paintball gun at a home."

In any event, the Liberal government repealed this particular mandatory minimum sentence, along with several others, after the appeal was heard.

In the companion judgment involving two other Alberta cases, the Supreme Court said mandatory minimum penalties for a pair of armed robbery offences did not amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

The first offence, robbery committed with a restricted or prohibited firearm, carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison.

The second, robbery with an ordinary firearm, carried a mandatory minimum sentence of four years at the time the appeal was heard, but this minimum sentence has since been repealed.

A majority of the Supreme Court said Parliament is entitled to enact mandatory minimum sentences that signal that a disregard for the life and safety of others in handling firearms is simply not acceptable.

There is also a need for general deterrence when a person endangers the safety of others in wielding a firearm, the court added.

The framework applicable to challenges of mandatory minimums under the Charter prohibition against cruel treatment requires a two-stage inquiry, the top court said.

First, a court must determine a fit and proportionate sentence for the offence in respect of the objectives and principles of sentencing in the Criminal Code.

The court must then ask whether the provision in question requires it to impose a sentence that is grossly disproportionate when compared to the fit and proportionate sentence, the Supreme Court said.

This exercise entails looking at the scope and reach of the offence, the effects of the penalty on the offender, and the penalty and its objectives.

Martin indicated the two-part assessment can focus on either the actual offender before the court or another individual in a "reasonably foreseeable" case — for instance, a young person firing a BB rifle or a paintball gun at a house.

"A reasonable hypothetical scenario needs to be constructed with care," she cautioned.

But Martin said the desire expressed by certain members of the Alberta Court of Appeal to excise the use of reasonably foreseeable scenarios from the court's framework is "completely contrary to both precedent and principle."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 27, 2023.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press

RENT IS INFLATION
Halifax sees highest year-over-year rent increase for a Canadian city, says CMHC

PROPERTY IS THEFT

Fri, January 27, 2023 



HALIFAX — With the average rent up 9.3 per cent, Halifax has had the highest year-over-year spike in the country for residential rental costs, says Canada's national housing agency.

The executive director of the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia said the data is not surprising and that the impact of soaring rent is evident in the record number of Haligonians experiencing chronic homelessness.

As of Jan. 25, the association had identified 796 people in Halifax who had been without housing for more than six months, Michael Kabalen said in an interview Friday.

“That’s the highest we’ve ever seen,” Kabalen said, noting that prior to the pandemic, the association was reporting that about 250 people in Halifax were chronically homeless.

Released Thursday, the annual report of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation said the average rent for a two-bedroom residence in Halifax jumped 9.3 per cent between 2021 and 2022, hitting $1,449 per month. That rise is well above the national average increase of 5.6 per cent, which brought the average rent for a two-bedroom unit in Canada to $1,258 monthly.

Vacancy rates in Halifax were at one per cent as of October 2022, below the Canadian average of 1.9 per cent — the lowest national vacancy rate since 2001.

Kelvin Dnoro, a market analyst with the housing agency, said the "situation is dire" for low-income renters, who must compete for the limited housing options as just three per cent of total rental units in Halifax are considered affordable to the lowest 20 per cent income earners.

Kabalen agreed: “The constant conversation at our tables is that we can't find suitable housing for the clients.”

His group has partnered with the federal government to tackle homelessness by funding community-based housing support groups and using its growing portfolio of residential units to increase the housing supply. It is renting out about 160 units of varying affordability in the province, Kabalen said, adding that two new apartment builds in Dartmouth, N.S., are underway.

Dnoro said the biggest takeaway from the housing agency's annual report is that more rental housing is needed at all price points. In order to incentivize new residential builds in the current economic climate, he said, units will have to be rented at a higher cost to compensate for the effect of inflation on building expenses.

“We need much more new housing supply," he said, adding the focus of new builds shouldn’t be on a unit's price when it hits the market. "Because if there’s lots of supply on the market, they will have to bring down their prices in order to compete."

Like Halifax, neighbouring New Brunswick’s two biggest cities also saw an average rent rate increase above the national average. In Moncton, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment rose 6.4 per cent year-over-year, and in Saint John it rose 7.6 per cent.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, the average two-bedroom rent rose 4.2 per cent between 2021 and 2022, below the national average.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 27, 2023.

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

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press

S. Dakota tribes seek disaster declaration in storm recovery


Fri, January 27, 2023



PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota’s congressional delegation wrote letters to President Joe Biden in support of the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations’ requests for a major disaster declaration following winter storms that left six people dead.

The declaration would assist the tribes’ recovery from destruction that tribal leaders say could have been prevented if there had been more resources to assist people stranded by the December storms. The requests outline that the weather's severity blocked access to medical and heating supplies.

Both the Oglala Sioux and Rosebud Sioux tribes are asking for the declaration to address emergency costs and damages.

“The emergency operations conducted by the tribe reduced the storms’ impact and accelerated the recovery of tribal communities," U.S. Sens. John Thune and Mike Rounds, and U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, wrote in a letter to Biden on Thursday. "Despite these efforts, a number of tribal members remained trapped in their homes and were unable to access necessary supplies.”

Amancai Biraben, The Associated Press

Saddle Lake Cree Nation Confirms Existence Of Unreported Mass Grave

Fri, January 27, 2023 

(ANNews) – A new report from the Saddle Lake Cree Nation-based Acimowin Opaspiw Society non-profit says it’s found evidence of “undocumented mass graves” at the former site of Blue Quills Indian Residential School.

The report, which was released Jan. 24, found that the majority of the student deaths occurred as a result of tuberculosis contracted from unpasteurized raw cow milk the students were given to drink.

One of the mass graves was accidentally uncovered in 2004. It took until 2022 to confirm it was an unmarked grave through ground penetrating radar, the report notes, adding that there are suspected to be two others.

The Blue Quills school moved three times over the duration of its existence. From 1890 to 1898 it was located in Lac La Biche, from 1898 to 1932 it was on Saddle Lake Cree nation, and then from 1932 to 1970 it operated out of St. Paul County.

AOS executive director Leah Redcrow’s family has a long history with the school, as outlined in the report’s preface. Three generations of her family were imprisoned at the school at each of its locations, starting with her great grandfather Edward Redcrow in Lac La Biche.

Her grandparents, Stanley and Ruby Redcrow were married at the Saddle Lake location in 1928, and then her parents, Alex and Sheila Redcrow wed in St. Paul in 1974, after her grandfather had taken over administration of the school.

She said prior to the summer of 2021, when members started inquiring about unmarked graves, she had no idea there was a residential school on reserve, which included the Sacred Heart Cemetery.

“Once I found out there was an actual residential school there, we got more disclosures from our community members about them finding body parts of children while excavating, because it’s used as a graveyard still,” Redcrow told the Alberta Native News.

The residential school on reserve was essentially a Catholic colony, with its own church, sawmill and rectory, in addition to the cemetery, she explained.

She said they are mass graves, rather than unmarked graves, because there are multiple people buried in one grave.

“There’s a bunch of clandestine graves of children,” said Redcrow. “We don’t know the exact amount yet because we’re still sifting through all the burial records.”

The grave that’s been uncovered is located about 200 metres north of the school grounds, she added.

Even when the school moved to St. Paul, the dead children would be transferred back to the reserve, without their parents’ knowledge.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul provided AOS with its documents from the residential school, which is how they were able to determine the cause of death, Redcrow said.

She said these children entered the school with a clean bill of health, according to to the records, and then would contract TB within a month.

“We discovered that the cause of that would be drinking unpasteurized raw milk from cattle. It’s quite dangerous to drink unpasteurized milk, because none of the bacteria is killed in the milk. The cattle were also not being tested for tuberculosis or any other diseases, and the children were required to drink three glasses of milk a day with their meal,” Redcrow explained.

She said AOS and the Archdiocese have collaborated closely to get an accurate picture of what occurred at Blue Quills.

“Without them, we would just be like everybody else and we would be totally lost. We wouldn’t have known who died. We wouldn’t have had a clue who any of these children’s bodies are that we’re finding in our cemetery,” Redcrow said, referring to the Archdiocese’s documentation as the “most vital piece of the investigation.”

She said collaborating with Church officials is an example of what reconciliation looks like in practice.

“The people who are there today are not responsible. It’s the people who are alive at that time period who are responsible, and they’re dead,” Redcrow said.

Jeremy Appel, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News

B.C. First Nations face complex, stressful choice: should school sites be excavated?


Fri, January 27, 2023




WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. — The chief of the Williams Lake First Nation says he would support excavating possible unmarked graves at the site of the former St. Joseph's Mission residential school if that's what elders and the community decide is best.

But the decision is complex, involving dozens of other First Nations whose children also attended the institution, numerous landowners, potential DNA tests, multiple levels of government, the coroner and the RCMP.

All that is in addition to the anxiety Chief Willie Sellars said he has about ensuring there isn't more trauma for survivors if bodies are found.

"I really start stressing out when I start thinking about excavation," Sellars said in an interview.

"And we're going to get there, I would imagine, but it's not going to happen overnight."

The First Nation announced this week that 66 more "reflections," indicating possible graves, were found with radar and other methods during the second phase of its work around the site of the former Catholic-run school, 500 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.

The nation announced in its first phase of searching last year that 93 potential graves were detected.

Chief Joe Alphonse, chair of the Tsilhqot’in National Government, which represents six Tsilhqot’in communities whose children attended St. Joseph’s Mission, said the nation would be open to having conversations about exhumation, but it could also issue a cease-and-desist order if it isn't properly involved.

Alphonse said their government wants more than just updates from the Williams Lake First Nation and should be "part of the planning and every aspect of doing any work" on the site.

Whitney Spearing, lead investigator on the project, said Wednesday during the announcement that there won't be confirmation that the "reflections" are human remains without excavation.

"It must be emphasized that no geophysical investigation can provide certainty into the presence of human remains," she said.

The nation has identified 48 First Nations whose children attended the institution while it was in operation between 1886 and 1981.

Sellars said they have started reaching out to have conversations about what's next.

"We're more than willing to sit down and discuss with any nation that is impacted and talk about next steps, and talk about inclusion, and talk about working together on these things," he said.

"But we haven't reached out and had that dialogue with all 48 of the communities that are impacted. We're getting there though."

Sellars said there is debate across the country about whether to leave remains in the ground or "bring them home."

"If you start talking about bringing kids home that are buried, then there's a topic of discussion around DNA and confirming where those kids came from," he said.

"And again, you just look at how complicated it gets. I really look forward to having those conversations with those communities, and having those conversations with the families that are impacted, moving forward into the future."

The discoveries at the Williams Lake site is one of several similar searches across the country since ground-penetrating radar located what are believed to be the remains of children at the site of the former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.

Sellars said the work that's been done at the St. Joseph's site is just "scratching the surface."

About 34 of the 782 hectares have so far been subjected to geophysical analysis.

More than six private landowners own parts of the properties, Sellars said.

He said the First Nation has a great relationship with the owners of the property searched in the first two phases and discussions have started on what Phase 3 could look like.

Sellars said a decision on exhuming possible remains will proceed carefully, so that it doesn't create more trauma.

"We're getting to a point right now where elders and survivors are starting to feel more comfortable about telling their story, because they're being empowered by the amount of support that we're seeing in our sacred fires, at our ceremonies, at our events," he said.

Alphonse said any protocols around exhuming would also have to take into consideration the beliefs of all First Nations involved.

"We're all First Nations, but we have our own spiritual beliefs and our own customs and protocols, and all of those things have to be honoured and respected," he said in an interview.

"The whole purpose of looking for these people is that they've been forgotten and now that's being addressed. But this is not just a Williams Lake First Nations issue."

Alphonse said Federal Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Marc Miller was "very disrespectful" when he tweeted support for the Williams Lake First Nation after the potential remains were announced without mentioning other First Nations.

"The other nations that had students go to that residential school, now they're being forgotten in this whole process. So, they're adding more trauma to the situation," he said.

Williams Lake First Nation is holding a sacred fire until Saturday, as a way of honouring those who attended the school. Sellars said multiple First Nations were represented at a drum circle as part of the ceremonies.

"It was very uplifting to just be there and be present and that's really what the focus is on right now," he said.

The final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which documented the experiences of those affected by Canada's residential school system, found at least 4,100 children died while attending the institutions.

The Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program has a hotline to help residential school survivors and their relatives suffering with trauma invoked by the recall of past abuse. The number is 1-866-925-4419.

— By Ashley Joannou in Vancouver

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 27, 2023

The Canadian Press

Retired teacher finds mammoth shoulder blade bone while walking dogs west of Edmonton

Thu, January 26, 2023 

Stacy Long found this bone west of Edmonton during a dog walk. Experts believe it is at least 10,000 years old. (Jamie McCannel/CBC - image credit)

Stacy Long was walking her two Great Danes west of Edmonton last spring when she found what appeared to be a large bone.

Long hoped the metre-long object was a bone, but because her dogs, Bart and Boss, didn't seem at all interested, she thought it might just be piece of petrified wood.

Though the dogs weren't intrigued, the quaternary paleontology team at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton was.

Long submitted photos of the object to multiple museums and Royal Alberta Museum staff recently told her they suspected she had found a partial mammoth shoulder blade bone. The museum estimates the animal it came from was alive about 10-14,000 years ago.

The museum is not publicizing the exact location of the discovery because it wants to prevent people from searching the area. Paleontologists plan to visit the site in the spring.

"I was definitely shocked," Long told CBC News on Thursday.

Submitted by Tracy Long

This isn't Long's first discovery.

The retired teacher previously found part of a hadrosaur's tibia bone, which the Royal Tyrell Museum identified for her.

She has also found what the Royal Alberta Museum believes to be a partial skull of an ancient bison.

Paleontologist Katherine Bramble said Long's mammoth discovery is special because the museum doesn't have many specimens. The museum has one other mammoth shoulder blade, but it belonged to a juvenile, not an adult.

"They're not as common to find as other things, like dinosaurs," she said.

She said most mammoth specimens are found in sand and gravel pits, so she and her colleagues were very excited that a member of the public found one in a different context.

Long has donated the bone to the museum, where it will be added to its research and reference collection.

The museum's experts don't yet know which type of mammoth the bone came from. Two species, the Columbian and wooly mammoths, are known to have lived in Canada. Columbian mammoths were the bigger of the two.

Submitted by Stacy Long

The museum has been using illustrations of the woolly mammoth in its official logos since 1990.

Bramble said the museum will compare Long's bone to other mammoth bones that have been found.

Staff could also use radiocarbon dating to determine its age.

Long said she donated the specimen to the museum because she wants to share it with others.

"I'm excited for little kids to be able to go there and see it and learn from it," she said.

Royal Alberta Museum

She said she appreciated how welcoming museum staff were. They gave her a tour and educated her about what she had found.

Since the museum shared her story on social media yesterday, Long said a lot of former students have been contacting her to find out more about it.

"A few of them are teachers now themselves so they've been asking lots of questions," she said.

The Truth about Ukraine and the Jews


Bernard-Henri Lévy
Thu, January 26, 2023

A rabbi walks past a monument commemorating the victims of Babyn Yar, one of the biggest single massacres of Jews during the Holocaust, in Kyiv on Sept. 29, 2022. 

Credit - Oleksii Chumachenko—SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

There’s a kind of background noise.

A nasty little music orchestrated by Putinist propaganda and its band of useful idiots.

It’s the idea, broadly, that Ukraine at war and martyred is also one of Europe’s most incorrigibly antisemitic countries.

So, once and for all: What’s the story with Ukraine and anti-Semitism?

The truth is, of course, that Ukraine in the ’30s and ’40s of the 20th century was a bloodland for Jews.

Soviet Ukraine, or Ukraine Sovietized, or, more precisely, Ukraine buffeted between Sovietism and Hitlerism, was one of the theaters of the Shoah by bullets, with, counting just the ravines of Babi Yar, 33,771 Jewish men, women, and children forced to dig the pits where their warm corpses would be piled, still shivering, not quite dead.

And when I say “Soviet” or “Sovietized” it’s not to minimize the part played in the massacre by compatriots, in the countryside or the cities—but it is to recall that there have been, and there are, two Ukraines.

One that was yet to exist as a free and sovereign nation; which the Ukrainian-born Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko depicted, in his requiem to the dead of Babi Yar, as that of the “barroom regulars” thirsting for the “blood of pogroms,” stinking “of vodka and onion,” and, when the victims, “kicked to the floor,” begged for mercy, encouraging the assassins to “Beat the Yids, Save Russia!”—yes, Russia…

And then another Ukraine; the one that liberated herself from that Russia; the one that, since the onset of the U.S.S.R., then the Maidan Revolution, and then the invasion of Putin’s army, refuses the status of vassal, of the humble twinned servant, of the Cinderella of the tundra, that the invaders, drunk on their Lebensraum, wished to relegate her to; and the one that, having become this young free country, having irrevocably fallen in line with the democracies of Europe, is now turning the page on its past.

This Ukraine knows that she is one of the four countries to have counted, along with Metropolitan Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky and many others, the greatest number of Righteous Among the Nations.

This is the Ukraine of Uman, the city of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, where I filmed, for my upcoming film, Slava Ukraini, a rav, in a kind of echo of the Righteous, recounting how it was in his synagogue that the peasants of Cherkasy Oblast came to find refuge on the first days of the Russian attack.

Hasidic pilgrims sing and dance during the annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage to the tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov in Uman, Ukraine, on Sept. 27, 2022

.Pete Kiehart—Redux

It’s the only country in the world where, on December 17, first day of Hanukkah, on the Maidan, that historic revolutionary square representing dignity and resistance, one could see the following: Hasidim raising a giant menorah; a whole people, starting with the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, joining in on the lighting of this flame; and the flame shining brightly atop a city bombarded and deprived of electricity—“the Russians send us ballistic missiles,” joked a rabbi. “We’ll send back Kabbalistic missiles!”

It’s the country of the Azov regiment, one of whose commanders, Ilya Samoilenko, survivor of the hell of Azovstal and soldier of limitless audacity, is just back from Israel. He went to Masada to replenish his well of strength to return to combat; and the image of this brave soul treading the hot stones of that shrine to Jewish resistance while in cold Ukraine it snows, the idea of a Ukrainian zealot clambering over herbs and the rubble of the Judean fortress millenary twice over, carrying, in his head, the destruction of Mariupol, the bombs and the ruin that defiled the basements of the steel plant where he held out, he too, 40 days, are extraordinary. Is this visit not the most scathing retort against the idiots who promise, contra the winds of History, to return Ukraine to its demons?

And this Ukraine is also—we can never repeat it enough—the homeland of Volodymyr Zelensky, the Churchillian president elected in a landslide, who is, also, a Jewish hero: the story of this descendant of survivors of the Shoah who had, at the outset, neither tanks, nor apparatus, nor apparatchiks to take on the Giant, but just his country’s hard-won liberty. Doesn’t it seem straight out of a Biblical tale?

In the face of the return of Goliath the Philistine, isn’t this the rebirth of little David, master of truth and war chief, an artist who knows how to sing, and is also an incomparable strategist, who finds ways to use only the intelligence of his muscles and his guile to oppose the invasion?

Isn’t this the story of Abraham rising up alone, according to the Midrash, to battle the armies of the five kings who hold Lot hostage?

And isn’t this Judah Maccabee sealing the resounding victory of the weak over the strong, the humble over the proud, the few over the many, and, in the end, over the false brilliance of the desecrated temple, the victory of the tiny oil lamp whose light is not that of power, but of exception?

Rabbi David Goldich blesses the wine during sabbath prayer at the Great Choral Synagogue in Kyiv on Dec. 10, 2022.Anastasia Vlasova—The Washington Post/Getty Images

A cunning trick of reason.

An adventure of memory.

But the fact, whether we like or not, remains.

History is not always a curse.

It is not the eternal return of resentments and crimes.

If there was ever a place, in this crazy war in front of Russian neo-fascism, barbarism, and terrorism, where one can hear the echo of the Jewish soul, it’s in Ukraine.