Canadian-American First Nations filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin to win MacDowell Medal

The Canadian Press
Sun, April 2, 2023 


PETERBOROUGH, N.H. — Prolific filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin will receive the MacDowell Medal.

MacDowell, an American arts organization, says the Canadian-American documentarian will be the first female filmmaker to win the prize when it's awarded at a ceremony in July.

The award goes to an artist who's made an outstanding contribution to their field.

The 90-year-old Obomsawin, who is Abenaki, has more than 50 films under her belt, including 1993's "Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance" and last year's short "Bill Reid Remembers."

Past winners of the prize include James Baldwin, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Toni Morrison.

Jesse Wente will introduce Obomsawin at an event on the MacDowell campus in Peterborough, N.H.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 2, 2023.

Filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin to receive Edward MacDowell Medal

Sun, April 2, 2023 

NEW YORK (AP) — Documentary maker Alanis Obomsawin is this year's winner of the Edward MacDowell Medal, a lifetime achievement honor given previously to Toni Morrison, David Lynch and Roseanne Cash among others. She is the first female director to win the medal, presented by the MacDowell artist residency program. She is also the first recipient who descends from the Abanaki People, part of whose homeland is now the setting for MacDowell, based in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

“It is a distinct pleasure to be counted among such a magnificent group,” the 90-year-old Obomsawin, referring to the other medal winners, said in a statement.

A New Hampshire native who grew up in Quebec, she has made dozens of movies, focused often on First Nations people, her credits including “Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance” and “Incident at Restigouche.” She is also an activist, actor and musician who has received numerous awards in Canada.

"As the Grand Dame of the Indigenous film world and the documentary field, Alanis Obomsawin’s exemplary 52-year body of work uplifting Indigenous stories and triumph inspired us with compelling and unequivocal enthusiasm to award her with the 2023 Edward MacDowell Medal,” Bird Runningwater, a member of the Medal Selection Panel and guide for the Sundance Institute’s investment in Native American and Indigenous filmmakers, said in a statement.

The Canadian writer Jesse Wente, board chair of Canada’s Council for the Arts, will introduce Obomsawin during a July 23 gathering at MacDowell,

In its announcement Sunday, MacDowell noted that it “has been reexamining its core values and vision, making changes to outdated and exclusionary policies, acknowledging that its program takes place on un-ceded First Nations lands, and continuing to activate diversity, equity, inclusion, and access throughout the organization.” MacDowell, founded early in the 20th century, had called itself the MacDowell Colony until 2020, when it dropped “colony,” saying the word suggests elitism and exclusion.

The Associated Press

First Nations chiefs to debate Trudeau government's draft UNDRIP action plan

Mon, April 3, 2023 

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples contains 26 articles affirming inherent and pre-existing collective rights and human rights of Indigenous peoples. (Ka’nhehsí:io Deer/CBC - image credit)

As the Trudeau Liberals approach eight years in power, David Lametti acknowledges much is riding on his government's upcoming plan to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in Canada.

The Liberals will paint a detailed picture of their current reconciliation agenda and chart a course for the federal bureaucracy for years when they release the finished document in June.

They'll likely get strong feedback this week from Assembly of First Nations (AFN) chiefs as they gather April 3-6 in Ottawa to scrutinize a still-incomplete draft offering a wide-ranging bundle of 101 ongoing and proposed policy initiatives.


"A lot is riding on getting this right," said Lametti, federal minister of justice and attorney general, in a recent interview.

"It's walking and chewing gum and juggling and playing the saxophone at the same time. That's what we're trying to do with the action plan."

Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

Under 2021's United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (Bill C-15 or UNDA), the federal government must align Canadian laws with the international declaration, a legally non-binding document outlining minimum standards for the recognition and protection of Indigenous rights.

Under that law, Ottawa has until June 2023 to table the action plan, which Lametti said will lay out a "roadmap for how we go forward" but which Indigenous leaders are not impressed with so far.

First Nations in B.C. watching closely

"What the federal UNDA action plan is very lean on is co-management," said Hugh Braker, a member of the political executive of the First Nations Summit, one of the largest First Nations organizations in British Columbia.

First Nations in the province are watching the federal approach with keen interest, said Braker, a lawyer and citizen of the Tseshaht First Nation.

He said B.C. First Nations are focused on co-management, meaning the affirmation of their decision-making power over things like fisheries, land and natural resources.

But Lametti wouldn't answer directly when asked if his plan will require Indigenous consent before resource extraction projects impacting them go forward.

"Indigenous peoples have to be involved in any project from day one," he said.

"If they are involved in any project from day one, I think it is a guarantee that only good projects will go forward."

A promise of involvement from "day one" isn't enough, Braker said.

"We're not talking about consultation," he said.

"We're talking about co-management, and we're talking about free, prior and informed consent."

Russ Diabo, a First Nations policy analyst and one of the law's most vocal opponents, raised the same point.

"The draft is basically continuing with the status quo," said Diabo, who is a contract adviser to the AFN national chief but offered the opinion on his own behalf.

"By replacing consent with consultation under that domestic standard, it's basically guaranteeing that natural resource development will go ahead."

Indian Act 'must be repealed,' plan says

Among other things, the draft plan promises to establish an Indigenous rights ombudsperson and pursue amendments to fisheries legislation. It mentions ongoing proposed legal reforms concerning Indigenous health, policing and water.

It calls the Indian Act "a colonial-era law designed to exert control over the affairs of First Nations" that will never align with UNDRIP and therefore "must be repealed."

But Diabo said the law "domesticates" UNDRIP, bringing the international declaration under a well-entrenched colonial legal system that includes Canada's Constitution and Supreme Court rulings.

"I see the action plan as a threat to our treaty and inherent rights," said Diabo.

"All the measures that they have in there are all based under Canada's assumed Crown sovereignty."

Submitted by Russ Diabo

Lametti acknowledged much is at stake with the UNDRIP plan, but he said it's not a make-or-break moment.

"I don't like 'make or break' because it puts too much pressure on one person or one piece of legislation," he said.

"We have a number of different incremental steps."

These include jumps in spending on Indigenous programs, new Indigenous child-welfare and language laws, lifting of dozens of boil-water advisories, work to reform the land claims process and cut governance deals across the board, he said.

But the Liberals' reconciliation record has been under scrutiny, and this may well be a make-or-break moment for some observers, said Lynn Groulx, CEO at the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC), which advocates for Indigenous women nationally.

"I wouldn't be so confident if I was him," she said of Lametti.

"If we can't get this right, we're really in trouble."

First Nations' court challenge to B.C.'s mineral rights system begins today

CBC
Mon, April 3, 2023 

An aerial view of Gitxaała Nation territory on B.C.'s North Coast. The nation says there's no way for it to effectively intervene in mineral rights claims under the province's current system. 

(Gitxaała Territorial Management Agency - image credit)

A challenge by two First Nations against the way British Columbia grants mineral claims begins in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday morning, marking the first legal test of the province's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.

The Gitxaała and Ehattesaht First Nations have sued the province over its Mineral Tenures Act, which currently grants mineral claims for a nominal fee via an online system and does not include initial consultation with Indigenous people.

The two nations say this process goes against the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which the province adopted in 2019. The declaration requires governments to obtain free, prior and informed consent before taking actions that affect Indigenous peoples and territories.

In the current system, by the time the nation finds out mineral rights have been granted, the process has often moved on to permitting and exploring, Gitxaała Nation Chief Coun. Linda Innes says.

"The dominoes have already started dropping there, and there's no way for our Gitxaała Nation to intervene at that point," Innes said.

'Groundbreaking legal challenge'

In a written statement, the Gitxaała said the case is "a groundbreaking legal challenge against B.C.'s outdated practice of granting mineral claims."

In January, the B.C. Human Rights Commission was granted intervenor status in the case.

"The interpretation of the Declaration Act plays an important role in ongoing decolonization and reconciliation efforts in our province," said B.C. Human Rights Commissioner Kasari Govender at the time.

The Gitxaała say several mineral mining rights have been granted on their territory in the past few years. They hope to overturn those claims and change the way claims are granted.

The B.C. Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation says it can't comment on matters before the court.

The Ministry did say "the province is committed to working in consultation and co-operation with all Indigenous Peoples and in alignment with the Declaration Act and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples."

It also said the province committed to modernizing the Mineral Title Act in March 2022, as part of the Declaration Act Action Plan, and that work is being done "in consultation and co-operation with Indigenous peoples."

The case is scheduled to run for eight days. Gitxaała leaders are expected to hold a news conference prior to the start of the court hearings.

ROM hosts panel discussion on Cree visual artist's work

Sun, April 2, 2023 

(ANNews) - University of Lethbridge Blackfoot scholar Leroy Little Bear is participating in a panel discussion at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) alongside Cree visual artist Kent Monkman about Monkman’s work.

“We Are Made of Stardust: How Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Western Science Intersect in Kent Monkman's Being Legendary” is happening April 6 from 7 to 9 p.m.

Little Bear and Monkman will be joined by co-panelists Opaskwayak Cree Nation star lore expert Elder Wilfred Buck and University of Victoria astrophysicist Kim Venn, as well as moderator Lisa Jackson, a filmmaker from Aamjiwnaang First Nation.

The discussion will focus on the intersection of Indigenous and Western ways of knowledge, being and science, with an emphasis on Monkman’s new ROM exhibition, “Being Legendary.”

Moderator Jackson’s latest documentary, centres on Wilfred Buck, an expert in Indigenous star knowledge.Those who want to tune into the panel discussion from Alberta can do so on the ROM’s Facebook page after the event ends.

Jeremy Appel, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News

Canada gives Mi'kmaq 14% of lucrative Maritime elver fishery for 2nd year



Mon, April 3, 2023

A bucket of elvers is shown near Chester, N.S., in 2019. (Richard Cuthbertson/CBC - image credit)

For a second year, the federal government is giving Mi'kmaw First Nations 14 per cent of the lucrative Maritime fishery for baby eels — or elvers — without compensating commercial licence holders.

The transfer implements the Mi'kmaw treaty right to fish for a moderate living, but also sets the stage for further court challenges by commercial elver licence holders.

"I'm quite confident that we will be taking legal action based on this again," said Michel Samson, a lawyer representing Wine Harbour Fisheries.

Wine Harbour is one of several licence holders in federal court trying to overturn the 2022 decision, saying it was unfair and rushed.

The quota transfer will collectively cost seven commercial licence holders several million dollars, based on 2022 prices which reached $5,000 per kilogram.

The tiny, translucent elvers are caught in Maritime rivers, shipped live to Asia and grown for food.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has put licence holders on notice that a permanent cut is coming.

"Over the course of 2023, and consistent with the Government of Canada's reconciliation agenda to increase First Nation participation in fisheries, DFO will conduct a review of the elver fishery with a primary objective being the sharing of benefits through enhanced Indigenous participation in the fishery over the longer term," Jennifer Ford, DFO's director of resource management and licensing, Maritimes region, wrote in a March 28 letter to industry.

Ford outlined this year's allocation: 1,200 kilograms — or 14 percent of the commercial quota — to 10 Mi'kmaw communities.

Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press

The quota cut does not affect the We'koqma'q First Nation in Cape Breton, which also holds a commercial licence.

In 2022, DFO also took 1,200 kilos of commercial quota but only allocated 600 kilograms to the Mi'kmaq. The remaining 600 kilograms were not caught.

In 2023, the full 1,200 kilograms has been allocated based on DFO authorizations that reflect community harvest plans.

Commercial licence holders object

In southern Nova Scotia, Kespukwitk First Nations (Acadia, Annapolis Valley, Bear River and Glooscap First Nations) will designate harvesters from among their members to fish a 450-kilogram allocation, an increase of 50 kilograms compared to 2022.

The Wolastoqey Nations in New Brunswick (Madawaska Maliseet, Tobique, Woodstock, Kingsclear, St. Mary's and Oromocto First Nations) will also designate harvesters from among their members to fish a 750-kilogram allocation, an increase of 550 kilograms compared to 2022.

The Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaw Chiefs did not provide comment.

Commercial licence holders say they have been poorly treated.

They claim in 2022 DFO did not consider their offers to sell out in good faith — a process known as willing-buyer, willing-seller.

It has been used for decades to integrate Mi'kmaq into commercial fisheries without increasing pressure on a given species.

'It's a smash and grab'

Samson says this year was worse.

"This is now two years in a row that the minister is arbitrarily cut quota without offering compensation. And without even asking for proposals from license holders who would be prepared to exit the fishery. And that should send a chilling effect across all commercial fisheries in Canada," he said.

"It's a smash and grab, you know, basically put a gun to your head and they're just going to take it," says Brian Giroux, a member of the board of directors for the Shelburne Elver Group. "They never even gave the willing buyer, willing seller process a chance."

Mi'kmaw entry to elver fishery challenged by N.S. MP

Justice Department lawyers told the federal court earlier this year DFO is not obliged to compensate licence holders even if federal fisheries ministers have repeatedly committed to the process.

In Ottawa, Nova Scotia Conservative MP Rick Perkins has regularly challenged Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray about the elver fishery.

"Eleven per cent of the licenses have now gone, are made-up of First Nations, while the Mi'kmaq are only 2.7 per cent of the population. So what's the level at which you say, OK, that's enough licenses relative to the overall total allowable catch?" Perkins asked Murray at a parliamentary committee meeting last week.

CBC

"Our reconciliation fisheries are not specifically about population quota. They are about our mandate to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and accommodate a treaty affirmed rights to fish," Murray said.

Murray has repeatedly said DFO remains committed to the willing-buyer, willing-seller process because it provides predictability in the market but will not allow failure to reach a deal to thwart expanding Indigenous access.

A PHENOM REST IN POWER
Ryuichi Sakamoto, Japanese musician and film composer, dies


Sun, April 2, 2023 

TOKYO (AP) — Ryuichi Sakamoto, a world-renowned Japanese musician and actor who composed for Hollywood hits such as “The Last Emperor” and “The Revenant,” has died. He was 71.

Japan’s recording company Avex said in a statement Sunday that Sakamoto died on March 28 while undergoing treatment for cancer.

He was first diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014. In 2022, he revealed that he had terminal cancer, a year after he disclosed suffering from rectal cancer.

Sakamoto was a pioneer of the electronics music of the late 1970s and founded the Yellow Magic Orchestra, also known as YMO, with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi.

Takahashi died in January.

Despite his battle with cancer, Sakamoto released a full-length album “12” on his 71st birthday in January, stating that composing had a “small healing effect on my damaged body and soul,” according to the official statement released with the latest album.

He was a world-class musician, winning an Oscar and Grammy for the 1987 movie “The Last Emperor.”

Sakamoto was also an actor, starring in the BAFTA-winning 1983 film "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.”



He was mostly based in New York in recent years, though he regularly visited Japan.

Born in Tokyo in 1952, Sakamoto started studying music at the age of 10 and was influenced by Debussy and the Beatles.

The statement from Avex said that despite his sickness, when he was feeling relatively well, he kept working on his music in his home studio. “To his final days, he lived with music,” it said.

The statement expressed gratitude to the doctors who had treated him in the U.S. and Japan, as well as to all his fans around the world. It referenced the words Sakamoto loved: “Ars longa, vita brevis,” which refers to the longevity of art, no matter how short human life might be.

Sakamoto also left his mark as a pacifist and environmental activist. He spoke out against nuclear power following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant meltdowns caused by an earthquake and tsunami.

He took part in rallies and made speeches in Tokyo, and was among a group of respected Japanese artists, like the Nobel-winning novelist Kenzaburo Oe, who were not afraid to take an unpopular stand on political issues.

In a July 2012 rally, he got up on stage and read from notes on an iPhone, warning Japan not to risk people’s lives for electricity.

“Life is more important than money,” he said in Japanese, then added in English, “Keeping silent after Fukushima is barbaric.”

He also appeared in advertising for Nissan electric cars, although he acknowledged he got a bashing for being so commercial. At his home in New York, he gets electricity from a company that relies on renewables, he said.

“How we make electricity is going to diversify, with fossil fuel and nuclear power declining,” Sakamoto told The Associated Press in an interview in 2012. “People should be able to choose the kind of electricity they want to use.”

Funeral services have been held with family and close friends, the Avex statement said.

Sakamoto is survived by his daughter Miu Sakamoto, a musician. She posted on her Instagram the years her father had lived — from Jan. 17, 1952, to March 28, 2023 — and a photo of a worn out, half-broken piano. He was separated from his former wife, singer and composer Akiko Yano.

___

Associated Press writer Juwon Park in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

Yuri Kageyama And Mari Yamaguchi, The Associated Press

  

Japan's Ryuichi Sakamoto, composer of 'The Last Emperor' score, dies aged 71

Elaine Lies
Sun, April 2, 2023 



 Japanese musician and composer Sakamoto waves during a photocall for the movie "Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda" at the 74th Venice Film Festival in Venice


By Elaine Lies

TOKYO (Reuters) - Ryuichi Sakamoto, the Oscar-winning Japanese composer famed for his scores for "The Last Emperor", "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" and other epic films, has died aged 71.

Sakamoto was also known for his acting, and for his work with the pioneering electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) which he co-founded.

"He lived with music until the very end," Avex, the recording company he worked with, said on its website. He had been suffering from cancer, but kept working in his home studio whenever his health allowed, the statement added.

He died on March 28, Avex said.

Introduced to the piano as a toddler, Sakamoto lived for music. As a high schooler, he rode on Tokyo commuter carriages so packed nobody could move, amusing himself by counting all the different sounds the train made along the way.

Sakamoto, who described French composer Claude Debussy as his hero, studied ethnomusicology at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, with particular interest in the traditional music of Japan's Okinawa prefecture as well as Indian and African musical traditions.

"Asian music heavily influenced Debussy, and Debussy heavily influenced me. So the music goes around the world and comes full circle," he told WNYC public radio in 2010.

Embracing electronic music, he and fellow studio musicians Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi formed YMO in 1978. The band's groundbreaking use of a vast array of electronic instruments brought both domestic and global success.

Sakamoto's first score was for the 1983 film "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence", in which he also played the commandant of a prisoner of war camp, starring alongside David Bowie. The score went on to win a BAFTA.

His most celebrated work was 1987's "The Last Emperor" - a film in which he also acted. The score won an Oscar, a Grammy and a Golden Globe.

Fans posted tributes on social media.

"Rest in peace Maestro. Your music enriched our lives and changed our view of the world around us and within us," read one message on the Twitter account @elhichri0.

Sakamoto, who was an anti-nuclear campaigner and environmental activist, took a break from work in 2014 for about a year to be treated for throat cancer. Though cured of that after years of treatment, he announced on his website in January 2021 that he had been diagnosed with rectal cancer.

In December 2022, Sakamoto gave what was clearly meant to be a farewell concert for his fans, broadcast online.

"My strength has really fallen, so a normal concert of about an hour to ninety minutes would be very difficult," he said in an online message several days before.

"As a result, I've recorded it song by song and edited it together so it can be presented as a regular concert - which I believe can be pleasurable in the normal way. Please, enjoy."

(Reporting by Elaine Lies; additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Edwina Gibbs and Andrew Heavens)

  

Climate activists protest RBC's fossil fuel investments


CBC
Sun, April 2, 2023 

Protesters in Halifax joined thousands across Canada to protest the Royal Bank's investments in fossil fuel projects (Jeorg Sadi/CBC - image credit)

Climate activists met outside a Royal Bank branch in Halifax on Saturday to protest the financial institution's investment in fossil fuel projects.

According to a press release, the activists joined thousands of protesters across Canada for what they called Fossil Fools Day.

The press release said the aim was to highlight how RBC's policies have failed to respect Indigenous sovereignty and are fuelling the climate crisis.

Groups involved in the protest include Decolonial Solidarity Halifax, Mi'kmaw Grassroots Grandmothers, Sierra Club, School Strike for Climate, Ecology Action Centre and Council of Canadians.

Deborah Luscomb, media liaison for the event, said that the protest was specifically to show support for the Wet'suwet'en territory in northwestern B.C. in its dispute over the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

"RBC is part of a huge colonizing machine in Canada, the biggest funder of fossil fuels in Canada," she said in an interview. "Canada is the biggest funder of fossil fuels in the world."

Jeorg Sadi/CBC

The press release states that "RBC continues to fund projects in Canada and around the world that lack free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous peoples, and fuelling the climate crisis as the world's 5th largest financier of fossil fuels."

"RBC talks, you know, they have a good talk about the climate and the environment and our Indigenous brothers and sisters, but their actions belie that talk," Luscomb said in the interview. "They put their money into damage. They put their money into power. They put their money into getting richer."

She said that the protest was meant to raise awareness and to request RBC to side with Indigenous communities and environmental needs.

Event organizer Andrew Glencross said the Coastal GasLink project would not exist without RBC money.

"The Royal Bank's role in all of this is that they are the money and that's why we're focusing on them," he said. "The only way we can force them to change their ways is to tarnish their image as a politically neutral organization."

RBC said in an email that it is "committed to achieving net-zero in its lending by 2050" and has established interim emissions reduction targets "that will help us drive action and measure progress."

Banks face rising shareholder pressure through climate resolutions as AGMs loom


The Canadian Press
Sun, April 2, 2023


TORONTO — It was only after his flight landed in Toronto last year that Wet'suwet'en hereditary chief Na’Moks learned that Royal Bank of Canada had cancelled its in-person annual general meeting with less than a day's notice.

The bank cited COVID-19 as the reason it moved the event entirely online, but those assembled to protest the bank’s climate record were left wondering if there was more to it andNa’Moks says he was insulted that executives weren’t willing to face him.

Undeterred, he is trying again this year. Na'Moks will head to Saskatoon for the bank's April 5 meeting, where he plans to share his concerns about its fossil fuel funding and encourage the assembled shareholders to support a resolution related to respecting Indigenous rights.

“Dave McKay, he’s the CEO, but he has to listen to the people that do business with him,” said Na’Moks.

The resolution he's pushing, put forth by the B.C. General Employees’ Union with the support of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, is just one of many Canada's big banks face as climate activists increasingly look to shareholder proposals to shift corporate policy.

“They’re a really important tool for investors to catalyze change," said Catherine McCall, executive director of the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance, which represents the interests of institutional investors.

“They can introduce issues to management and the board that are important, and they can signal how important they are to investors.”

RBC faced its first climate-related shareholder proposal in 2018, while this year it has five going to a vote. There are also three resolutions at Toronto-Dominion Bank going to a vote, two at Bank of Nova Scotia, and one each at Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and National Bank of Canada as activists increasingly focus on banks as key intermediaries in the climate fight.

“They're invested everywhere, and they lend everywhere,” said Jennifer Story, associate director of climate advocacy at the Shareholder Association for Research & Education (Share).

“So they have a phenomenal ability to accelerate change on behalf of corporate issuers in Canada and elsewhere, if they choose to leverage it.”

Share, on behalf of its institutional clients, has put forward a resolution for Scotiabank's April 4 AGM looking for more detail on how the bank will be assessing the transition plans of its high-emission clients.

Scotiabank said in its proxy circular response that the proposal was "overly onerous, prescriptive, and not aligned with industry practice," and that it was surprised to see it filed as it was in ongoing engagement about it.

It was only after talks stalled that Share decided to elevate the issue with a shareholder proposal, said Story.

“In essence the dialogue broke down, and we were disappointed in the lack of progress over almost a year and decided that this was the best route to take.”

Those pushing resolutions emphasize that it’s not so much about a simple pass or fail on these votes (they are non-binding even if they pass), but more about allowing them to engage with other shareholders, a way to communicate and create dialogue around the issues.

“There are ripple effects that go on throughout the year after the dust has settled at the AGM, that’s not the end point," said Matt Price, director of corporate engagement at Investors for Paris Compliance, which filed a resolution at TD pushing for more details on how it will achieve its 2030 financed emissions targets.

The proposals do also give the option for major shareholders to make a statement, with even small percentages of support representing billions of dollars of investments, said Richard Brooks at Stand.earth.

“The resolutions are meant to send a message to management,” said Brooks, head of the group's climate finance program, which submitted a proposal calling for RBC to set a deadline for when it will stop funding new fossil fuel developments.

The message is getting louder, he said, as bigger shareholders step into the fray.

The Public Sector Pension Investment Board, which has $231 billion in assets under management, said on March 22 that it would be using its voting power to promote corporate practices that address climate change, and that it's ready to vote against directors when boards fail to prepare.

And this year RBC also faces a proposal about setting absolute emission reduction targets from the New York City Comptroller, which oversees the city’s US$242 billion portfolio of pension funds.

“Absent a concrete plan to reduce absolute emissions in the real world in the near term, any net zero-plan rings hollow,” said Comptroller Brad Lander in a statement announcing the proposal, while noting that BMO and numerous international banks have already set hard targets on emission reductions.

RBC said in its response, recommending shareholders vote against it, that while it recognizes the importance of reducing absolute emissions, only intensity-based ones are “appropriate at this point in the bank’s transition journey.”

As with its response to Stand.earth’s proposal, RBC went on to note the need to continue to engage with clients in high emitting sectors, rather than simply reducing emissions by cutting off their funding, as part of an orderly transition.

“This is why RBC’s goal to achieve net-zero in our lending by 2050 is intended to balance the needs of people and planet.”

For Na’Moks, the bank’s talk is little more than greenwashing.

“It really bothers me when you read their statements of 'by 2050, we’ll do this'. You know how much damage is going to happen to this planet by 2050 if they continue the way they are?” he said.

“Things have to happen now. We've had decades to prepare, and make sure we're not in the climate crisis we're in, and it was all about money and they kept moving forward.”

He'll be looking for allies within RBC investors for the resolution on how the bank assesses how well clients have implemented free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous peoples, as well as on climate action.

“Money talks; that's the world right, that is their world,” said Na'Moks. “It will be the shareholders and those who do business with RBC that will make the difference. That’s how it operates. So they just need to listen.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 2, 2023.

Companies in this story: (TSX:RY; TSX:TD; TSX:BNS; TSX:BMO)

Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press

For want of a pipeline: Canadian LNG should power low-carbon revolution, report says

The Canadian Press
Sun, April 2, 2023 



WASHINGTON — As the world struggles to find the right balance between a carbon-free future and a present that still runs on fossil fuels, Canada could be leveraging its natural-gas riches to help fuel both, a new report suggests.

The report, to be released Monday by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, urges the federal government to finally get serious about building the infrastructure necessary to fast-track the extraction and export of liquid natural gas.

The carbon-credits clause of the 2015 Paris climate accord could be a "key driver of growth" for the LNG sector if Canadian natural gas were to become a viable alternative for coal-fired power plants around the world, it suggests.

"This initiative could not only support natural gas exports but an array of services, technology, and materials exports," writes Eric Miller, president of the D.C.-based Rideau Potomac Strategy Group and the report's author.

"Canada should use the global carbon market framework to build a stronger Canadian natural gas sector and a cleaner world."

In addition to several measures to develop and promote Canadian gas as a global low-carbon alternative, the report encourages Canada to retool its often convoluted regulatory processes and give Indigenous Peoples a greater stake in natural gas projects.

Canadian natural gas already has certain advantages beyond the fact that it's plentiful and cleaner than coal, Miller suggests: it's also produced under Canada's carbon-price regime, an advantage that could create a market premium in coming years as demand for cleaner fuel sources with a smaller carbon footprint continues to rise.

It could well help power the switch from coal to gas around the world, Miller writes: converting just 20 per cent of Asia's coal-fired power to gas would save the equivalent of an entire year's worth of Canadian greenhouse gas emissions.

The challenges, the report acknowledges, are myriad.

First and foremost is Canada's glaring lack of the necessary infrastructure — pipelines and export terminals, particularly on the east coast — to get its gas to international markets.

Since 2008, no fewer than 18 new LNG export terminals have been proposed, Miller writes, including 13 in B.C., three in Nova Scotia and two in Quebec. Only the LNG Canada facility in Kitimat, B.C., is anywhere near completion.

The report blames a "lack of decisiveness" on energy policy over the last 20 years for the country's current inability to export its landlocked resources.

"Had Canada supported the construction of even a fraction of these terminals, it would have been at the centre of support for growing Asian and European markets that are in desperate need of LNG, and would be actively contributing to the displacement of coal."

Miller cites last summer's "missed opportunity" with Germany as an instructive example of Canada's problem.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in August hoping to secure an agreement for liquified natural gas to ease its dependence on Russia, now a global pariah following the invasion of Ukraine.

But he left empty-handed. Months later, Germany signed a 15-year gas supply agreement with Qatar instead.

"This opportunity to supply Germany has now passed Canada by," Miller writes. "Qatar, not Canada, will now get the economic and employment benefits of producing and shipping gas to Germany."

A more robust LNG pipeline network would have the added advantage of being adaptable to the future use of hydrogen as a modern-day low-carbon alternative to fossil fuels, the report notes.

"Being able to piggyback on existing infrastructure would be an enormous advantage in hydrogen's scaling process," Miller writes.

"In addition to investing in hydrogen research, the government of Canada should move to understand what specifically would be involved in converting gas infrastructure to hydrogen and what the cost structure would look like."

Indeed, Canada and Germany did manage to reach an export agreement for hydrogen during Scholz's visit, which proposed to establish a transatlantic supply corridor that could be operating as early as 2025.

And during last month's visit by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Trudeau announced a new hydrogen deal with the EU that he vowed would "mobilize investment, support businesses, share expertise and get clean Canadian hydrogen to Europe."

Von der Leyen called Canada a "prime potential partner for hydrogen" in Europe, such as through an already-announced, long-term deal with Germany.

A better understanding of how a natural gas pipeline network could be converted to hydrogen would help "clarify the long-term economics" of building such infrastructure, the report says.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 2, 2023.

James McCarten, The Canadian Press

Femicides rising in Canada as a woman or girl is killed every 48 hours, shows report

More than 800 women and girls have been killed since 2018, according to the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability.


Chris Stoodley
·Lifestyle and News Editor
Sun, April 2, 2023 

Femicide cases are drastically increasing in Canada, according to a new report that details hundreds of women and girls have been killed over the past five years.

In a report released on Thursday, the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability (CFOJA) indicated that at least 850 women and girls have been killed since 2018.

"That means, at least, one woman or girl is killed by violence every two days," the CFOJA noted in its report. "One woman or girl is killed every 48 hours. Where information is known, men are the majority of those accused."

There were at least 184 killings in 2022, the highest number the organization has seen since it began documenting these deaths in 2018. The number of killings that year was 169, and has been growing each year since 2020.

While 2019 saw a slight drop to 148 killings, there were 172 deaths in 2020 and 177 a year later.

One highlight in this year's report shows there was a 27 per cent rise in deaths involving male suspects in 2022 compared to 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 184 deaths noted in 2022 were tallied up from 170 cases. Eighteen of those cases do not have an accused suspect. For the other 152 cases, there were 173 people accused.

Out of the cases where the accused were identified, 82 per cent were male suspects and 18 per cent were female suspects.

For the 150 women and girls killed by male accused in 2022, the type of relationship between the parties were known for only 89 victims, or 59 per cent. Out of those, 52 victims — or 58 per cent — were killed by a current or former intimate partner.

For familial femicide, there were 20 cases in 2022 involving 24 victims and 20 accused.

Non-intimate femicide cases — where the relationships are primarily between acquaintances or strangers — accounted for 11 cases in 2022. Of those, there were 13 victims and 12 accused.

"We really wanted to address the issue so there would be better understanding publicly," Myrna Dawson, founder of the CFOJA and University of Guelph professor, shared in a news release.

On March 30, commissioner Michael MacDonald said it's time for men to start doing their part in acknowledging and calling out gender-based violence for what it is — an "epidemic." Femicide cases across Canada have reached a new high in 2022.

 (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese)

Advocates have been pushing for the federal government to include femicide in the Criminal Code of Canada, while some have called on provinces to address intimate partner violence.

In the final inquiry report for the 2020 Nova Scotia mass shootings, the Mass Casualty Commission urged the government to recognize "gender-based, intimate partner and family violence as an epidemic."

The CFOJA's report indicates there are 20 countries — including Brazil, Argentina and Mexico — that have legislated the term "femicide," or used it to classify some offences.

Out of 35 countries, Canada is one of three that has not committed to the 1994 treaty, "Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women," according to the release.

"This is one example of how Canada lags behind other countries in its response to male violence against women and girls," Dawson added.

Inquiry into N.S. killings calls for bold change to tackle family violence 'epidemic'


Sun, April 2, 2023 

OTTAWA — The public inquiry into the April 2020 shootings in Nova Scotia is calling for an overhaul of the way society handles the "epidemic" of gender-based, intimate-partner and family violence.

In addition to creating better supports for victims of such violence, the Mass Casualty Commission says governments should pass laws to abolish mandatory arrest and charging policies.

Canadian law requires police to lay charges of assault in cases where they have reasonable grounds, regardless of the victims' wishes.


The commission says a "prevention-oriented public health approach to violence" should be adopted, which includes treatment for perpetrators.

And it says there must be a recognition that many men who commit mass violence have a history of domestic violence, and many mass killings begin with an attack on a specific woman.

One Halifax-based advocate says achieving what the report recommends will require bold, transformative and necessary change.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 2, 2023.

The Canadian Press

Train carrying Coors Light and Blue Moon derails in PARADISE,  Montana


Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY
Mon, April 3, 2023 

A freight train carrying beer derailed in Montana Sunday, officials said, marking the latest of a string of rail incidents in the United States.

The derailment occurred near a river in in Paradise about 9 a.m., according to a press release from the Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District.

Officials said about 25 cars derailed in the crash.

As of late Sunday, the department reported there was no threat to the public and no hazardous material was released.

The railcars that spilled into the river were empty or carrying Coors Light and Blue Moon, the agency said.

The derailment took place near a river along Highway 135 about 70 miles northwest of Missoula.

No injuries were reported but people were being asked to avoid the area.

Minnesota train derailment: Residents forced to evacuate after train carrying ethanol derails, catches fire in Minnesota

Weather forecast: Northern Plains braces for potentially 'biggest snowstorm of the year'; blizzard warnings issued
A recent spate of train derailments

The Montana crash marks the latest in a wave of derailments over the past two months. Since a fiery Ohio derailment on Feb. 3, trains have derailed in Florida, West Virginia, Michigan, Oklahoma, Alabama, Nebraska and Washington state.

Most recently, a train derailed last week in Minnesota and forced the evacuation of nearby residents.

Data shows such derailments are not unusual.

Every day, the nation's railroads move millions of tons of raw materials and finished goods around the country on about 140,000 miles of rails, but their safety record is getting new attention amid scrutiny of the East Palestine derailment disaster.

Trains keep derailing all over the country: What's going on?

Contributing: Trevor Hughes and Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY; Associated Press

Natalie Neysa Alund covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Montana train derailment: Cars carrying Coors Light, Blue Moon derail

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Execs at Austal, which builds LCSs for U.S. Navy, indicted for fraud

Austal USA

The Associated Press
Sat, April 1, 2023 

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Three current and former former executives of a shipbuilder that constructs vessels for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard have been indicted on accounting fraud charges accusing them of falsely inflating the company’s reported earnings, federal prosecutors said.

Craig Perciavalle, 52, Joseph Runkel, 54, and William Adams, 63, all of Mobile, Alabama, where Austal USA LLC is based, are accused of misleading shareholders and investors. They are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud affecting a financial institution, five counts of wire fraud, and two counts of wire fraud affecting a financial institution, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release Friday.

LCS shipbuilder president resigns amid US and Australian financial investigations

Court records were not immediately available to show if the men had attorneys to comment on their behalf.-

Austal USA LLC is a subsidiary of Australia-based Austal Limited and builds littoral combat ships for the Navy. The ships are designed to operate in shallow coastal waters.

Perciavalle resigned as Austal USA’s president in 2021 following an investigation by federal and Australian authorities into practices dating back more than four years, the company said at the time. Adams is the former director of the littoral combat ships program, according to the SEC. Runkel is the director of financial analysis.

Prosecutors alleged the three men manipulated an accounting metric to hide growing costs in order to maintain and increase the share price of Austal Limited’s stock, hurting U.S. investors.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in a news release that the three “engaged in a scheme to artificially reduce the cost estimates to complete certain shipbuilding projects for the U.S. Navy by tens of millions of dollars.”

Venezuela arrests nine CVG officials over corruption probe


 Venezuela's Attorney General Tarek Saab addresses the media 

on anti corruption probe, in Caracas

Sun, April 2, 2023 

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan authorities have taken nine officials from state-owned metals conglomerate Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana (CVG) - including from steel-maker subsidiary Sidor - into custody during corruption investigations, attorney general Tarek Saab said on Sunday.

Prosecutors began investigating irregularities at CVG and Sidor on Friday, adding to investigations into alleged corruption at state oil company PDVSA and a government agency overseeing cryptocurrency transactions, both led by Tareck El Aissami who subsequently resigned as oil minister.

Nestor Astudillo and Pedro Maldonado, the presidents of Sidor and CVG respectively, are under arrest, as well as four company vice presidents and three managers, Saab said on Twitter.

The government of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro on March 31 appointed an oversight board in CVG, according to the country's official gazette, which was read on state television.- 

Some 42 people have been arrested as part of investigations into corruption, Saab tweeted on Saturday night, without giving more details.

Last week 21 people - including officials, businessmen and a member of the National Assembly - were charged relating to losses incurred by PDVSA when tankers left the country with cargoes that had not been paid in full, the authorities said.

(Reporting by Mayela Armas; Additional reporting by Deisy Buitrago; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Josie Kao)