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With China now being appointed to the Human Rights Council and the 'consultative group’ there is concern by several countries that human rights abuses will not be investigated or properly condemned.
China has itself has regularly been accused of abuse and this could now further increase concerns that the Council has become as politicized and ineffective as its predecessor.
Colin Robertson is a former Canadian diplomat to China and to the U.N.
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Critics of China’s human rights record accuse the country of efforts to derail human rights resolutions whether directed at them or at others.
Colin Robertson, now with the Global Affairs Institute, is a former Canadian diplomat to China and to the U.N. (supplied)
In July last year, 22 western nations signed a letter to the U.N about China’s arrests and incarceration of Uyghurs, and dissenters. This was followed by a letter from 37 nations, including N. Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia and others, many of whom have human rights abuses of their own people with accusations of the ‘politicization’ of human rights issues and supporting China’s actions.
Robertson says this latest appointment is part of a systematic programme of the Chinese government to seek influential positions and influence wherever it can. This is to push their global strategy of expanding Chinese interests globally beyond current aspirations in the South and East China sea, limit international criticism, and extend their power.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has been aggressively promoting Chinese influence at the U.N. where it can shape policies (Thomas Peter-Reuters)
In an email to RCI he also wrote “The UN is the global parliament and it reflects national interests. We had hoped after the fall of the Soviet Union that the liberal international order would become the norm for all but it has not and it was naive to think it would. Russia and China see global affairs in traditional terms: as a concert of great powers each with their own spheres of influence with tributary and vassel nations within that sphere”.
He says it is unfortunate that the U.S has backed away as it leaves a vacuum and weakens the international concept of multilateralism and western ideals of ‘rule of law’.
With China now at the head of four of 15 specialized U.N. committees, there are concerns that China will not move towards a more westernized mindset, but that the world will be influenced more towards a Chinese mindset, which some critics have long said runs counter to western ideals. Germany’s foreign minister once said for example in February 2018 at the Munich security conference, ““China is developing a comprehensive system alternative to the Western one, which, unlike, our model, is not based on freedom, democracy and individual human rights”.
Additional information
The Conversatio: Matthews/ McCuaig-Johnston: China must now shape the future of human rights at the U.N. The Diplomat: E.Albert: Apr.8/20: China appointed to influential human rights council panel- concern about agenda The Conversation: A. Faiz: Jul.18/19: China is building a global coalition of human rights violators to defend its record in Xinjiang – what is its endgame? The Economist: D.Bell: Jun 12/18: China’s political meritocracy vs Western democracy CBC; G.Reaume: Nov 27/219: China is on a mission to re-make the world
Stock markets are tumbling, people are losing huge value on their investments as panic selling sets in. The drop in value is such that automatic systems have halted trading on at least a couple of stock markets. But what should people do in this most unusual situation? Jessica Moorhouse (AFCC) is Millennial Money Expert, Financial Counsellor & Podcast Host
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Several situations have converged in the last many months.
Jessica Moorhouse, financial consultant (supplied)
Jessica Moorhouse, financial consultant (supplied)
We have ongoing conflicts in some areas, trade disputes, notably the U.S and China, as well as China and Canada, there’s the Brexit uncertainty, recently the oil war between the Saudis and Russia which has drastically cut the price of oil, but the latest big uncertainty affecting domestic and global economies is the corona virus pandemic from COVID-19. Stock markets took another hit this morning as panic continues.
The rapid decline in market value triggered and automatic halt to the TSX this morning, other markets also fell in Monday trading. (TSX-twitter)
Moorhouse says, it is not wise to panic sell, but probably also not the time to take your savings and invest in hopes of making a better return as the stocks eventually rise. She says if you have regular contributions to your investment set up, that is something that you should keep doing.
As to when the economy and stock values might “eventually” recover, she says that could take months or even a year or more as recovery could be slow once the virus risk fades and that itself is an unknown and might not be for weeks or months. Thus a full recovery might be a couple of years away. She also suggests that If you don’t have a high interest savings account, that is something you should set up as an emergency fund to cover such things as job loss, or a cut back in hours.
additional information
NY Times: Mar 16.20: Wall Street Plummets Despite the Fed’s Support: Live Updates
With the declaration of a Covid-19 pandemic, and the first recorded death from the virus in Canada, the federal government pledged a billion dollars to both fight the virus and mitigate the effects on society.
Ian Culbert, is the executive-director of the Canadian Public Health Association. He explains how the money will be used, and the unique aspects of this ‘new’ virus.
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The government plan includes money sent to the provinces to purchase medical supplies and cope with increased needs in hospitals and other institutions.
Ian Culbert, executive-director of the Canadian Public Health Association
Some $275 million has been earmarked for research into such things as anti-virals to combat COVID-19.
Culbert points out that although there are many types of corona virus, such as the ones causing the common cold, they are nonetheless distinct. As such an anti-viral that may work to fight one virus, may very likely not work to combat another.
He notes that this virus which originated in an animal source and has jumped to humans is an entirely new virus of the corona family.
For a biology professor in Winnipeg, an interest in history has become almost equivalent to a full-time passion.
Gordon Goldsborough (PhD) is a professor of biological sciences at the University of Manitoba, and president of the Manitoba Historical Society.
Away from the university he’s usually on the road to obscure places in the western province to record vestiges or 'ghosts' of the past. Either that or he's in the archives somewhere trying to discover more about a once important or popular place, a place now abandoned and often in ruins or with mere vestiges left of what once was there.
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Manitoba like most Canadian provinces is huge, in this case bigger than all of France. As settlers moved in and development began, buildings and institutions sprang up across the province. But times and needs and culture change and places are left to the elements.
Gordon Goldsborough (PhD), University of Manitoba biology, and amateur historian (supplied)
Goldsborough’s goal is to record such places with photos and GPS both as a permanent record of what was, and as a way for like minded historians and history buffs to locate them for themselves.
The giant dredge of Port Nelson on Hudson Bay. Built in 1913 it arrived on site the next year in an ambitious project to create a northern shipping port. After WWI, the government decided Churchill was a better location for a port. In 1924 a vicious storm pushed the dredge up onto the artificial island it had created from dredging, where it has remained since a remnant of a grand and expensive idea (Gord Goldsborough)
His work has been recorded in two books already with a third on the way.
He doesn’t merely record images of the place and the remnants but in his books delves into the history of the place, what it was, why it was where it is, and its fate.
Gordon Goldsborough's first book. The second book More Abandoned Manitoba is out with a third in the works (McNally-Robertson Publishing)
He says many communities sprang up along rail lines, once the main, if not the only means of travel for any distance in the huge province. As road building took over it became easier to move about and many of the feeder rail lines become unprofitabale and were shut down and communities slowly died out.
Ghost of another era. "Crabby Steve's Dance Hall". With great distances to travel, rural residence had few places to go for entertainment so dance halls (barn dances) sprang up to serve the need. Crabby Steve's was built only in 1947, but was a very popular locale for a few decades until times changed and it was abandoned in the 1980's. (Gord Goldsborough)
Some places only existed until the resource ran out, or the major construction project completed or abandoned, while in other cases, there might be a sadder story of a failed enterprise or farm.
Lake of the Woods grain elevator, believed to be the oldest in the province dating from approximately 1897. (Gordon Goldsborough)
But with so many places to choose from, he said the places chosen for his books are the ones with more interesting stories about them.
With an insulated floor and standing on piles above shifting permafrost is the abandoned remains of a Cold War surveillance post near Churchill (Gordon Goldsborough)
His hobby has led to him becoming a popular public speaker with dozens of presentations every year and a weekly appearance on the public broadcaster CBC weekend morning show.
Additional information
Winnipeg Free Press: D. Speirs: Mar 6/20: Mapmaker for memories CBC: Oct 23/16: New book uncovers places left behind in Manitoba's past McNally-Robinson Publishing: (books)Abandoned Manitoba; More Abandoned Manitoba RCI: Jan 19/14: Disappearing praire grain elevators Western Producer: J. Bachusky: Feb 7, 19: Bold vator mission comes to a close
For too long, women’s voices and perspectives have been silent in much of world.
The Canadian group Journalists for Human Rights is changing that. The group is launching an ambitious multi-year programme in several African countries to train female journalists and to get their voices heard in editorial decision making.
Rachel Pulfer in Toronto is the Executive Director of Journalists for Human Rights.
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The programme is called ' Canada World: Voice for Women and Girls'. The current effort is to empower women in journalism in Syria, Jordan, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Rachel Pulfer, Executive-Director in Toronto for the NGO Journalists for Human Rights (supplied)
Helped by over $11 Million in federal government funding, the programme is currently in a set-up phase to establish infrastructure and settle other needs, with the first of the Canadian media experts to be sent in June.
Editor at the Juba Monitor in South Sudan, Anna Nimiriano in the newsroom (JHR)
The programme is expected to run from this year for the next four years.
Pulfer says it’s important for 50 per cent of these populations to hear voices similar to theirs and report on topics of importance to them and to society that are often not covered, or to cover them from a new and different perspective.
Journalist Sarafina Paul interviewing a female divorce lawyer in South Sudan (JHR)
Additional information
Journalists for human rights Global News: May 3/19: Ottawa announces $11.7M in funding for Journalists for Human Rights Globe and Mail: R. Pulfer: May 3/19: How Syrian journalists took on sexist violence – and won change, through a fatwa
As the world fights a battle with the Covid-19 virus, researchers point out that deaths from air pollution constitute a lesser realised but very serious chronic threat worse than most diseases.
Researchers estimate that some 8.8 million premature deaths annually are due to air pollution. The study says the loss of life expectancy (LLE) exceeds that of tobacco smoking.
Breaking it down further, they say that about 75 per cent of that figure is due to human-generated pollution, or some 5.5 million deaths.
Dr Courtney Howard (M.D.) is president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment
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A study in Lancet in April 2011 showed that some 20 per cent of new cases of asthma in children in the big urban centre of Toronto was related to air pollution from vehicle traffic
The studies suggest air pollution can shorten lifespans by up to three years.
Dr. Courtney Howard (MD, CCFP-EM) is president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, and an emergency room doctor in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. She notes that climate change is bringing new animals and insects into the north where they've never been seen before, along with their new pathogens, some of which have the possibility of transfer to humans ( Pat Kane)
Dr Howard notes that not only is air pollution a worldwide health issue for individuals, but negatively affects the economy through increased hospital visits and medical resource requirements and through loss of workdays as adults are off work, or have to take time off to care for children who are ill.
Haze in the city of Montreal under a smog alert Dec. 2019. Residents of Canadian cities are not exempt from air pollution, with Toronto often registering as having one of the higher rates of childhood asthma (CBC)
She points out that as these tiny particulates are so small they cross over into the bloodstream where the can influence inflammation with resultant issues of heart disease, lung infections, stroke, diabetes, and high blood pressure.
She says the news of the direct health affects of air pollution should help raise awareness of situation she says we as humans have the ability to control and add to the concern about air pollution’s affect on climate.
Additional information-sources
The Lancet: Apr. 2019: Global, national, and urban burdens of paediatric asthma incidence attributable to ambient NO2 pollution: estimates from global datasets Fast Company: Mar 2/20: K/. Toussaint: The world is facing an air pollution pandemic Science Alert: C. Cassella: Mar 7/20:The World's Facing a Silent 'Pandemic' More Dangerous Than Most Viruses: Air Pollution National Observer: D Carrington: Apr 11/19: Canada has third highest global rate of new childhood asthma cases from traffic pollution Toxicology.org: R. Burnett et al Global Exposure Mortality Model, GEMM: Application of a new risk estimator for health impact assessment of air pollution
NOTE: updated March 10: the original article said the data was from the World Health Organisation, In fact it came from a study based on WHO information. The study was published in the science journal Cardiovascular Research March 3. 2020 entitled "Loss of life expectancy from air pollution compared to other risk factors: a worldwide perspective" Jos Lelieveld et al.
A U.S.-based conservation group has chosen a site off the Nova Scotia coast to build a retirement home for entertainers who have brought joy to hundreds of thousands at the expense of their own mental and physical health.
Ladies and gentlemen, those entertainers--beluga or orca whales--will now have a place to live out their days in relative peace--in a place where they belong, not in an aquarium.
It will be the first whale sanctuary in North America and a million light years from the lives the whales led before.
Tourists at Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ont., lined up at a viewing area to see a small pod of beluga whales. (Scott Dunlop/TheCanadian Press)
The Whale Sanctuary Project wants to provide a home for about eight whales in a 40-hectare inlet southeast of Sherbrooke, N.S. at Port Hilford on the province's rugged north shore, about 200 kilometres northeast of Halifax.
According to Charles Vinick, director of the non-profit, the project involves--among other things--installing nets to enclose an inlet.
That will create an area where a retired whale is free to swim and dive deeply, while still being cared for by humans.
The project still requires provincial and federal permits, but if all goes according to plan, Vinick says the $12 to $15 million project will be up and running by the end of next year.
In this Jan. 18, 2014, file photo, a southern resident female orca leaps from the water while breaching in Puget Sound, west of Seattle, Washington. The Whale Sanctuary Project wants whales who have spent their lives in captivity to get a taste of similar freedom off Canada's East Coast by the end of next year. (Elaine Thompson/AP Photo/File)
For some perspective, consider that more than 300 beluga whales and 60 orcas remain captive in aquariums around the world.
And it's hard to imagine anyone who has fought harder to get them sprung from those aquariums and to try to make sure no future whales will be subjected to the indiginities they face that Camille Labchuk, the executive director of Animal Justice, an Ottawa based animal rights group.
Labchuk and Animal Justice were instrumental in finally building up enough public pressure to force Canada's House of Commons last June to ban keeping whales, dolphins and porpoises in captivity.
I spoke by phone with Labchuk at her Ottawa office about the project.
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With files from CBC, CP, The Guardian, The Weather Network
Turkey has said it can no longer support the mass influx of migrants from Syria and elsewhere.
It says it will no longer keep them from attempting to cross into Greece and Bulgaria as they seek to head into European Union countries.
Paul Heinbecker is the Deputy Chair of the The World Refugee Council, and a former Canadian Ambassador to the UN, and Germany.
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As the mass at border crossings with Greece, or attempt to cross the Aegean to Greek islands, the Greek forces are attempting to keep them out.
The Deputy Chair of the The World Refugee Council, and a former Canadian Ambassador to the UN, and Germany (CBC)
Tear gas and piano wire use is prevalent, with heavily armed police and military standing at border points, while patrol vessels forcibly turn back rafts and boats attempting to cross the sea.
Greek patrols were forcing rafts and boats back from attempts to cross the Aegean from Turkey. In some cases warning shots were fired into the water in front of the rafts. (CBC)
Heinbecker says Turkey seems to have a legitimate position as he says the EU has not lived up to agreements with Turkey for funding and resettlement to help that country deal with the almost 4 million migrants now there.
Turkey has been housing almost 4 million migrants, many of whom want to head to the EU countries, and have begun camping out at the borders with Greece and Bulgaria, hoping for a chance to cross (CBC)
Turkey had also wanted to set up a safe zone in Syria where people fleeing the civil war there could go, but Heinbecker says, NATO and the EU seemed not particularly interested.
Greece has moved police and fully armed military into position along its borders to prevent migrants from crossing. (CBC)
Turkey is now reported to have sent 1,000 armed police to the border to stop Greece from forcing the migrants back into Turkey. Athens says it has prevented as many as 35,000 from crossing in the past five days and is said to be preparing to deport hundreds of other who have managed to slip across.
The two countries have a long history of belligerence and so tensions are rising.
Additional information
Al Jazeera: Mar 5/20: Turkish police bolster Greek border to stop migrants' return BBC: Mar 3/20: EU chief says Greece is Europe's shield in migrant crisis Thomson-Reuters (via CBC) Mar 4/20: Greek and Turkish police fire tear gas as migrants try to cross into Greece Associated Press (via CBC) Mar 3.20: Greece PM rips Turkey as thousands of migrants seek entry into Europe
The agency which tracks all types of fraud in Canada estimates the cost of mass marketing fraud, (phone, internet, mass mailing, e-mail, personal contact) to be almost $130 million per year. This is what is reported, but apparently only a small percentage is actually reported. Still The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) says that’s about a 30 per cent increase since 2017. They also say some 27,000 Canadians are victims of identity theft annually, another number that’s likely under-reported.
A recent consumer survey by Equifax Canada found a fairly high degree of complacency among Canadians about checking credit activity to spot identity theft. Equifax Canada is one of the two major credit-rating bureaus in Canada. Julie Kuzmic is their director of consumer advocacy.
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The Equifax survey found that only 29 per cent of survey respondents checked their credit report as a means to help protect their personal data over the last 12 months and again, only a relatively small number ( 38%) said they would report it to a credit bureau.
Julie Kuzmic, Equifax Canada director of consumer advocacy.
The numbers of people saying they felt vulnerable to identity theft has also diminished since surveys were taken in 2017 and 2019. This is in spite of other statistics showing fraud and identity theft is increasing.
Equifax Canada
Jeff Thomson, a senior RCMP intelligence analyst with the CAFC, notes that “More and more fraudsters are not only seeking access to victims’ hard earned money but also their personal information. While data breaches and phishing emails still remain the top reported attack methods, Canadians also need to remain diligent to not provide personal or financial information to unknown callers.”
Equifax Canada
Some 60 per cent of millennials and 47 per cent of other respondents agreed with the statement, “If someone committed fraud in my name or with my identity, I would not know what to do to fix it.”
Kuzmic suggests checking your credit reports at least once a year. These checks are free in Canada from either Equifax or TransUnion
Additional information
Equifax: identity theft education TransUnion: online disclosure CBC MarketPlace: Feb 22/19: Credit freezes are one easy way to protect against identity fraud — but they're not available in Canada Ontario Govt: How to avoid or recover from identity theft Canadian Bankers Assoc. Fraud Prevention Learn the signs of identify theft and how to protect yourself
In Canada where the often bitterly heated debate about firearms has been raging on and off for decades, a federal politician decided he needed to be informed by fact, not opinion.
Tako Van Popta is the Conservative Member of Parliament for the riding of Langley-Aldergrove in British Columbia
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Van Popta says he had never held a firearm before taking the required course (and other processes) to obtain a “possession and acquisition licence” (PAL) for firearms.
This also includes paying fees of course, along with written spousal approval and other references, police background check, and daily scrutiny. Interestingly, legal gun owners are the only segment of society subject to daily police checks.
MP for Langley-Aldergrove in British Columbia, Tako Van Popta was challenged by constituents to learn the facts of gun ownership in Canada. Here he takes the instruction course required as a part of the long and somewhat expensive process to obtain a gun licence (supplied)
As a politician who would be involved in debates on the subject, he admitted he knew almost nothing about firearms. He was challenged by constituents to learn first hand and realised that to better understand the situation he would take the mandatory ownership and owners course.
He says he doubts many of the politicians who debated and voted on gun laws like C-71 actually know about the extent and restrictions of current gun laws in Canada.
Hunters and target shooters say they are "easy targets" for increased restrictions and mandatory gun buybacks as they are the ones who obey laws. One expert says the government plan for (mandatory) buyback of semi-auto rifles will cost billions, not the half million the government claims. Van Popta says that money should be spent on the "real problems" of underfunded social programmes and fighting criminal gangs and gun smugglers instead. (CCFR)
Van Popta also expressed dismay at the Liberal government proposal to create a mandatory buyback of semi-auto rifles through a possible ‘order in council’ which would avoid a debate in Parliament.
He also believes the vast sums spent on such a programme will not make Canada safer, and that the money should instead be spent on policies he says would target the real problem of gangs and illegal gun smuggling.
After taking the course, he is very doubtful he would become a hunter or even buy a firearm, but may accept invitations for target shooting. Van Popta also says it would be a good idea if other politicians informed themselves first hand of Canada’s firearms laws and requirements before taking a position and creating laws which could negatively affect over 2 million legal owners, and the tens of thousands of employees at small businesses throughout the country serving hunters and sport shooters.
Additional information-sources
Fraser Institute: G Mauser; Jan21.20: Trudeau government’s ‘buy back’ gun program likely a multi-billion boondoggle Ottawa Citizen: Mar 2/20: S. Yogarnetnam:Proactive policing, not gun buybacks or CCTV cameras: Ottawa Police Service iPolitics: T. Naumetz: Feb 4/20: Liberal Red Flag plan panned by gun safety advocate and firearm lobby leader Open Parliament: debates on C-71 Poly Remembers: gun control lobby website Canadian Firearms Safety Course (mandatory)
It has been revealed that facial recognition technology is being ‘tested’ by many police agencies in both Canada and the U.S.
There are concerns that its use may contravene Canadian privacy laws, and who may be using it beyond police forces. Some have even hinted at a approach towards an Orwellian future.
Teresa Scassa PhD is the Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy and Full Professor, Faculty of Law, Common Law section at the University of Ottawa.
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Professor Scassa says that there should be real discussions about when and how these technologies are used, and clear guidelines about their use, and even if they should be used at all.
Teresa Scassa,(PhD) the Canada Research Chair in Information Law, at the University of Ottawa says 'we leave ourselves open to essentially a form of total surveillance' if we don't set limits on what police can access. (CBC ) Big Brother? She notes that the company claims that only registered police agencies can use Clearview technology are already being stretched to include campus police, which are not a public agency, the beginning perhaps of a slippery slope towards wider use, and increasing risk of misuse. Professor Scassa adds that there is always a potential for abusive use of the technology, and that if there is a commercial market for this technology, the interest for companies like Clearview to serve that market can be quite strong.
She points out that a couple of provincial privacy commissioners, and the federal commissioner are already investigating use of the technology
additional information-sources
CBC: P. Lee-Shanok: may 30/19: Privacy advocates sound warning on Toronto police use of facial recognition technology CBC: R. Pringle: Sep18/18: Facial recognition is everywhere — here's why that's concerning CBC: R.Levy-McLaughlin: Jul 20.19: Smile, you're probably on facial recognition software
Canadian research and development of a new drug has shown great potential to help patients in their recovery from stroke by reducing brain cell damage.
Dr. Michael D Hill (MD MSc, FRCPC) is a professor of Neurology at the University of Calgary and lead author of the study.
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A double-blind randomized trial led by the Cumming School of Medicine’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute and Alberta Health Services involved additional research and an international trial of 1,105 patients between March 2017 and August 2019 at centres in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.
Dr Michael D. Hill, stroke neurologist Foothills Medical Centre and professor Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary ( U Calgary)
The results were published in the influential medical journal The Lancet this week under the title, “Efficacy and safety of nerinetide for the treatment of acute ischaemic stroke (ESCAPE-NA1): a multicentre, double-blind, randomised controlled trial” (abstract here)
A major blocked artery can have serious effects, even fatal if not treated quickly. The new drug appears to protect weakened brain cells from dying, and enable their recovery when blood flow is returned. (U Cgy)
Typically when a blocked artery causes a stroke, the patient is given the drug ‘alteplase’ which can break up small clots, but if that doesn’t work, then a specialised tool is inserted into the artery to pull out the clot. However, once the brain damage has started, and even after blood flow is restored, some brain cells will continue to die.
The trial with this newly developed Canadian drug, ‘nerinetide’ was shown to provide a degree of protection for the weakened brain cells preventing cell death to a measurable degree and allowing them to recover with the restored blood flow.
Dr Michael D. Hill, stroke neurologist Foothills Medical Centre and professor Cumming School of Medicine with Dr. Mayank Goyal, a neuroradiologist, Foothills Medical Centre and clinical professor in the Department of Radiology at the Cumming School of Medicine ( U Calgary)
Dr Hill noted a very substantial recovery improvement in patients who received the nerinetide, not only in recovery, but in reduction of mortality. He says he himself was surprised at the extent of the drug’s beneficial effect.
The trial did show however that when used with alteplase, the effect was nullified.
How common are these strokes? Actually fairly common according to Dr. Hill, although most stroke is minor, it is these major artery blockages that cause the most impact to health and it is the large artery blockages that these results apply to.
Speed is of the essence in improving recovery. The new drug gives an important new option to medical staff in stroke treatment depending on the situation. ( U Calgary)
As to the new drug, Dr. Hill says it is indeed possible that nerentide could be usefull in other situations such as injuries from head trauma and alzheimers, as the cell-death mechanism acted upon by the drug is not unique to stroke. However, much research work would be needed to determine other possible uses.
Right now the research team is working on organised a second “verification” trial required to prove the drug’s efficacy and thus for regulatory approval.
Do you trust government to do the right thing for their citizens? Do you trust the media to tell the story truthfully and fully? Do you trust business on environmental issues, or NGO’s on their claims and efforts.
The latest annual Edelman ‘trust barometer’ survey shows Canadian trust in such institutions has declined.
The American-based Edelman firm is an influential public relations and marketing consultancy firm with offices in many countries around the world.
Lisa Kimmel is Chair and CEO of Edelman Canada.
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The trust barometer is now in its 20th year. The firm tracks the rise and fall of trust, originally so the firm could advise its clients on their reputation, but the survey has now expanded greatly in scope. It looks at 28 countries responses and their responses to questions of citizens faith in the institutions of government, media, business, and NGO's/
Lisa Kimmel is chair and CEO of Edelman Canada (supplied)
Ms Kimmel explains China’s surprisingly high rating in that the survey may be due to the fact it is conducted over the internet, which is controlled in China, and that the Chinese have no real experiences other than with that of a centrally controlled Communism.
Ms Kimmel says trust in institutions is based on two things, competence- to get the job done, and even more important by far is ethics, the desire and ability to ‘do the right thing’.
The 2020 survey shows a surprisingly high number of Canadians who say capitalism is doing more harm than good, and they feel a strong sense of injustice (Edelman)
Having polled some 1,500 Canadians, the trust barometer found firstly, that more that three quarters of Canadians (76%) feared for the jobs. A majority also felt that technology was out of control, that it was too fast (62%), that government doesn’t understand them enough for proper regulation (65%), and that technology is making it impossible to know what is real (66%).
The survey shows Canadians generally do not trust leaders to properly deal with current problems, including politicians (Edelman)
The survey showed the highest trust in scientists (83%) but below 50 per cent or distrust in CEO’s, government leaders,, religious leaders, and the super rich.
More than half (15 of 28) countries respondents felt they and their families will not be better off in five years. Canada was among that group with a dim view of their future prospects, just as it was last year, although this time down another 2 percent from the previous survey.
This the 20th annual Edelman international survey of trust in institutions like government, NGO's, media, and business.
Some of the mysteries of the red planet are going to be uncovered as part of a NASA mission to Mars.
A large rover will be sent into space this year with the goal to collect rock and soil samples.
As part of the team to decide what samples to collect, Canadian geologist Chris Herd (PhD) has been selected as the only Canadian on this elite team.
He is a planetary geologist professor in the Department of Earth and atmospheric sciences at the University of Alberta.
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Professor Herd is also the curator of the University of Alberta meteorite collection some of which are housed in the only meteorite cold room in the entire world.
University of Alberta professor Chris Herd (PhD) has been selected by NASA as a geological expert for the Mars 2020 mission ( University of Alberta)
He will be one of only two “returned sample” scientists on the team, and one of ten science experts for the mission and as such is responsible for making critical decisions on where to send the rover to collect samples and which samples to take.
Professor Herd is also curator of the world's only meteorite cold room. The purpose is to keep frozen meteorites from thawing on Earth and likely being contaminated with earthly bacteria ( U Alberta)
The samples will be left in sealed tubes to be collected by a later mission and eventually returned to Earth perhaps in a decade from now.
RCI: Oct 2018 : New theory about Martian moons (Interview C Herd)
The purpose of the mission is to learn if there was life on Mars and about its geology and climate, and with a view in part towards preparation for future human exploration.
Showing relative size of the rover, similar to a medium-sized vehicle on Oct. 8, 2019, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, captures the first time the Mars 2020 rover carries its full weight on its legs and wheels.The rover was photographed in JPL's Simulator Building, where it underwent weeks of testing. (JPL-NASA- Caltech)
The rover will operate in Jezero Crate, just north of the planet’s equator and which was once the site of a river delta.
Professor Herd’s participation in this exciting innovative mission is being funded by the Canadian Space Agency.
Where does food come from? Do kids really know?
It’s an interesting question and the fact is that as society becomes more urbanised, more children don’t realize that food, their hamburgers, bread, eggs, milk, breakfast cereal etc, originates on a farm.
For more than 20 years, Conny Kappler who farms vegetables in Newell County, Alberta, and at her parents farm in Cypress County has been travelling to schools in the region to talk about agriculture to young children.
That experience has led to a website "I love dirt" and important book on the topic “Dirt to Dinner”
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The book is important for several reasons says Kappler. She says it's not only to let children know that food originates on farms and not at a fast food outlet or supermarket, but also the connection between food and the environment, and how they work together to create our food.
Children's book "Dirt to Dinner" gives children a glimpse into how they get their food. (photo Ralaina Virostek)
In addition it's also to provide a first sense that without a realisation of those two points, children may eventually hold jobs where they decide on the future of land use. If farm land is reduced, or farming otherwise threatened she says we will lose the ability in this country to feed ourselves, and others, and will have to look abroad with the consequences of depending on foreign influence for these vital products.
The book also deals with some of the science of the farm such as photosynthesis, pollination, soil, and weather along with references to the other connected businesses throughout society related to farming from machinery sales to banking. It also has the potential for far greater reach through purchases and distribution than she can achieve through her classroom talks limited to her region.
Ralaina Virostek-photographer (L) and Conny Kappler-author (R) with copies of Dirt to Dinner ( Pat Dirk)
The book is intended for readers from grade 2 to grade 6 level, and although the material may sound quite complicated, Kappler draws on her years of classroom skills with children to keep it simple. The book is divided with the simpler text and message on the pages on the right, with more detail for the more advanced readers on the left page.
The book is laid out in such a way that younger readers can read and understand pages on the right hand side, while older children can get more detail on the left side pages.
Although only a month old, Dirt to Dinner is already getting great comments from educators who say there is a real need for such a book in order to give children, especially in urban situations, at least a first understanding of the role farming and agriculture plays in our daily lives,
Open-office and unassigned work desks, i.e., not dedicated to a particular person but open to anyone who needs a spot, are relatively recent office trends.
A new survey finds that a majority of workers find such ideas unappealing and that it lowers their productivity. Kane Wilmott, CEO and founder of iQ Offices co-working space explains.
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The survey of over 1,500 Canadians by Maru/Blue for iQ found that 57 per cent of employees felt that distractions at work meant up to two hours of lost productivity.
Kane Wilmott, CEO and founder of iQ Offices (supplied)
Loud and chatty colleagues, open-concept offices, unassigned workspaces (sometimes called hot desks, or nomad seating) and time wasting meetings are ranked first to fourth as the main distractions to productivity. An even greater percentage (73%) felt they could save up to two hours a day in a more productive environment.
“Canadians overwhelmingly highlight design, physical environment productivity challenges like nomad seating arrangements, noise and distracting open concept design, ahead of other workload-related challenges, such as excessive email (17 percent) or unexpected extra work (19 percent),” Kane Willmott, iQ Offices
Almost 2/3 (64%) said they’d accept a lower salary if the workplace was more conveniently located and better designed for productivity and employee satisfaction.
The noise and lack of privacy of the open office concept are distractions. Willmott also says “we’re creatures of habit” and the issue of nomad seating is another productivity challenge and contributes to a sense of lack of belonging, resulting in a lessening of loyalty to a company.
Other things that can add to productivity are windows with natural light, and plants.
Additional information
CBC: Jun 28/18: Open-plan offices leave women subject to sexism at work, research suggests Coldwell Banker: Mar 16/17: Is the Open Office Concept a Goner? Global News: M. Collie: Feb 10/20: Most Canadians lose 2 hours of work per day because they can’t focus: survey Vice: M. Hay: Aug 2/18: Does Working in an Open-Plan Office Affect Your Health? PBS News Hour: Akpan/Griffin: Jul 30/18: Here’s proof that open office layouts don’t work, and how to fix them
Toronto resident Desmond Cole, is an activist and journalist. He wrote an article in 2015 about the many times he had been stopped by police and interrogated on the street. The article in Toronto Life was a spark that brought both himself and his concerns into national prominence.
But he says, that hasn’t stopped either police or the public’s general attitudes against black people.
His book is an expansion on that article and chronicles a year of police violence against blacks and other minorities, and the roots of general Canadian attitude of smugness regarding racism.
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Toronto-based activist, journalist and author Desmond Cole(Waubgeshig Rice -CBC)
In 2011 UNESCO declared February 13th to be World Radio Day, which was adopted by the U.N General Assembly as an ‘international day’ the following year.
This year the theme is diversity.
Radio Canada International joined with four other broadcasters in Poland, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Romania to talk about diversity in their countries, and how they were reflecting or promoting that both within their respective stations, and in their countries.
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UNESCO notes that in spite of technological advances and new media, radio remains one of the most important, accessible, and low cost ways to reach people and as a platform for democratic discourse. On this World Radio Day, let us recognize the enduring power of radio to promote diversity and help build a more peaceful and inclusive world. UN Secretary-General António Guterres On this 9th anniversary of WRD, UNESCO is calling on radio stations to serve their increasingly diverse audiences by broadcasting a wide variety of viewpoints while also reflecting increasing diversity in the on-air staff and editorial staff. This should be in gender, origin, sexual orientation, religion, age, social and socio-economic backgrounds.
Multi-cultural staff and programming options provide new perspectives and opinions on issues and the UNESCO says, helps counter discrimination while increasing creativity and relevance to the audience.
Happy World Radio Day!
Additional information
UNESCO Courier: Radio: Stronger and more vibrant than ever UNESCO: World Radio Day CBC Diversity and inclusion plan 2018-2021 Plan
Its seems that as climate changes, particularly warming in the northern hemisphere, new diseases are also appearing to infect humans. But climate change is not the only reason
Dr Courtney Howard (MD, CCFP-EM) is president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, and an emergency room doctor in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
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The current ongoing concerns of the deadly CoViD-19 (coronavirus) has again raised concerns about the spread of new diseases. Dr. Howard says there may be a number of factors to consider regarding the appearance and spread of new pathogens.
Dr. Courtney Howard (MD, CCFP-EM) is president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, and an emergency room doctor in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. She notes that climate change is bringing new animals and insects into the north where they've never been seen before, along with their new pathogens, some of which have the possibility of transfer to humans ( Pat Kane)
. Here in Canada for example, climate change, ie warmer shorter winters, is allowing ticks carrying Lyme disease to increase their range a few kilometres northward every year from the U.S. Already these ticks, and the disease are widespread across most of the southern parts of Ontario, Quebec and through the maritimes.
Warming is also bringing animals and insects (with their particular diseases and parasites) into completely new areas, exposing other animals, and humans, to these new pathogens.
Warmth and moisture also help propagate viruses and bacteria.
Another issue is encroachment and expansion of humans into new areas where they expose themselves to closer contact with animals and insects they would not previously have encountered. In addition is the eating of “bush meat”, not traditional animals as food such as chimanzees or gorillas, which are similar to humans and where their pathogens are easily transferrable to humans.
It is thought for example that the Covid-19 was transferred to humans from eating infected bats (although there is no confirmation of this), or with some other connection to a large animal and seafood market in Wuhan.
Dr Howard says that in the far north of Canada the Inuit have been seeing great changes in both the environment and movement of animals, with many new species arriving into areas never previously seen.
She says if warming continues we will continue to encounter new pathogens that will have to be fought by science and adaptation.
Additional information
Wall StreetJournal: J. Page: Jan 26/20: Virus Sparks Soul-Searching Over China’s Wild Animal Trade The Lancet: Feb 6/20: 2019-nCoV in context: lessons learned? Science Daily: Feb 10/20: Coronavirus outbreak raises question: Why are bat viruses so deadly?
Reuters: Bat meat still popular in parts of Indonesia, despite coronavirus fears
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-indonesia-bats/bat-meat-still-popular-in-parts-of-indonesia-despite-coronavirus-fears-idUSKBN20511R
Does it seem like our politicians are more than ever dressing for a theatrical effect, or have you seen them using props, or employing theatrical gestures and language?
In Toronto, Laura Levin (PhD), associate professor in the Theatre Department of York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design thinks so.
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Professor Levin notes that theatrics to some extent has always been a part of politics, but its changing.
Laura Levin (PhD), professor in York University's York’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (supplied)
With the advent of internet, increased TV news coverage, and a variety of social media, politicians are being viewed, and perhaps is some cases view themselves, as celebrities as much as politicians.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the campaign trail in Sept, 2019. Though a millionaire, sleeves are rolled and tie loosened to better imitate "the middle class working person". His past employment includes time as a drama teacher. . (CBC)
She also notes the concepts behind reality television seem to be having an influence on politicians, their habits, actions, and dress.
She also says that while this is especially considered to affect American politics, Canada is part of the same landscape and not immune. Indeed, she points out there are clear cases of politicians in other countries engaging in theatrics to garner attention to themselves by the broadcast media, and any and all other media, and social platforms.
Leaders debates have changed from staid affairs, to now become important theatrical events especially since the 1988 debate with Liberal leader John Turner and then Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in which accusations flew back and forth. Debates are also seen as matches to be "won or lost" (Radio-Canada)
Is it likely to go away? Not really, she says, noting even the overly repeated claims by some politicians that they will not and do not engage in such theatrics can itself be construed as a form of theatrics.
Marshall McLuhan the late Canadian philosopher who predicted the world wide web decades before its invention, and who coined the term “global village” also said, “the medium is the message”; another prediction that seems easily applicable to where politics may be headed.
Apparently a fungus is attacking coffee trees and reducing the harvest. This is mostly in central and south America where some of the best beans come from.
Stuart McCook (MS, PhD), a professor of history, and assistant vice-president international at the University of Guelph, and author of Coffee is Not Forever: A Global History of the Coffee Leaf Rust.
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The coffee rust fungus apparently has always been around but is being made worse by changing climate conditions. McCook says this is a similar situation to that which is happening to banana crops also now being threatened with fungus.
A worker picking coffee 'cherries' on a plantation on the slope of Agua volcano, Guatemala 2015 (Nadia Sussman-Bloomberg)
Compare the healthy tree above with this tree which has been attacked by the coffee leaf rust in 2013 in Gualemala (Moises Castillo-AP)
While progress is being made in developing plants resistant to the rust, the other factor is the weather. As climate changes it’s likely there will be less suitable land available to grow the trees. Added to that is a growing world demand.
Professor and author Stuart McCook at a coffee farm, Finca Sol Naciente in Dota, Costa Rica. (supplied)
McCook says its likely there will coffee available in the foreseeable future, but that may be only if the farmers themselves earn more to pay for resistant plants and as an incentive to keep growing coffee instead of other crops. That means, and likely no surprise here, that in coming years your cup of coffee may increase substantially in price.
Stuart McCook- Coffee is not forever" A global history of the Coffee. Leaf Rust. Note the photo of the coffee leaf attacked by rust
Around the world countries and companies are rushing to embrace and develop the so-called 5G network. This will be needed for the massive amounts of data transfer as more and more devices become connected to the internet, from cars, to refrigerators.
Dr. Anthony Miller (MD, FRCP, FRCP (C), FFPH, FACE) is a specialist in internal medicine and Professor Emeritus of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. He is among a group of concerned medical experts and individuals that the health risks of radio frequency radiation. This comes from all these mobile devices and the myriad towers we already have, and he says the health risks at present are being ignored and that these risks and concerns will only be increased with 5G.
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Dr. Miller points out there are already studies showing the concerns for increased cancer risks from cell phones constantly held to the head, or carried in pockets close to genitals.
He and others say with 5G, the number of cell towers and signals will greatly increase the amount of RF radiation we are experiencing.
Dr Anthony Miller appearing at Toronto City Council meeting on RF radiation in 2013. (Toronto City Council. Youtube)
This group includes Frank Clegg, former president of Microsoft Canada and now CEO of the non-profit Canadians for Safe Technology, which seeks to inform about potential risk of wireless devices and how to use them more safely.
In addition to the concerns of many medical experts, is a small group of individuals who experience electromagnetic hypersensitivity resulting in severe headaches and other symptoms which they blame on the signals.
They also say the Canadian government agency Health Canada, has outdated guidelines and limits in its Safety Code 6, which they say need to be re-evaluated in light of evidence of scientific concern
In cities almost everywhere you look you can now see cell antennaes, either on the tops of buildings or stuck on the sides of any high structure. With 5g, their number, and signals, are expected to increase dramatically. (CBC)
In 2017 a large number of scientists and medical doctors launched an appeal against 5G. Their website says the number of concerned experts has risen to 286 as of Feb.3, 2020. The appeal begins as follows:
We the undersigned, more than 180 scientists and doctors from 36 countries, recommend a moratorium on the roll-out of the fifth generation, 5G, for telecommunication until potential hazards for human health and the environment have been fully investigated by scientists independent from industry. 5G will substantially increase exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) on top of the 2G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, etc. for telecommunications already in place. RF-EMF has been proven to be harmful for humans and the environment.
For their part the telecom companies say they use low-energy RF signals similar to that of televisions and baby monitors. They also say the 5G frequenices have already been in long use for fixed wireless communications and satellite internet connections.
They also say that there is no scientific proof that the RF technologies cause any harm when used within national and international guidelines. In Canada they note they adhere to the levels of Safety Code 6.
A report by a government committee reporting on Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Radiation and the Health of Canadians ” tabled in the House of Commons on June 15, 2016, noted, "While some studies have reported health effects below Canadian and international safety limits the totality of the scientific evidence does not support the link between radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF EMF) and health effects".
Additional information
Canadians for Safe Technology Winnipeg Free Press: M. Cash: Jan 23/20: Is 5G a health hazard? Depends on who you ask CBC: Jan 12/18: Canadians claiming to have 'electromagnetic hypersensitivity' feel forced to ...
Uses natural antibodies, not drugs A small-scale trial study has shown promise in the fight against HIV.
The study involves use of natural white blood cell antibodies to help fight the virus.
Dr. Daniel Kaufmann (MD) is a professor in the Department of Medicine at they Universite de Montreal, and a researcher at the Centre de Recherche, Centre Hospitalier de l’Universite de Montreal (CRCHUM)
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People infected with HIV must take anti-retroviral drugs (ART) for life. The drugs help suppress the virus, but do not eliminate it.
In collaboration with the Rockefeller University (United States) and the University of Koln (Germany) researchers have tested a new treatment on a small sample of nine people with HiV and who are taking the drug treatment.
Dr Daniel Kaufmann, with doctoral student and lead author Julia Niessl (CRCHUM)
The research involves laboratory creation of two antibodies the body itself would create to recognize the virus.
T cells are important white blood cells (lymphocytes) that help control chronic infections like HIV. The patients stopped their ART and were given injections of the “neutralizing antibodies”. It showed continued repression of the virus and also showed an unsuspected interaction and a potential influence between the two arms of the human immune system: humoral immunity (antibodies) and cell-mediated immunity (T cells).
The patients experienced continued suppression of the virus for several weeks after ART was stopped. Blood tests at intervals during the cessation of the standard drug treatment showed that the activity level of CD4 and CD8 T cells responding specifically to HIV was augmented during the period of antibody therapy.
Niessl et al
Niessl et al.
As antibodies are not drugs but are a natural production of the body, Dr. Kaufman points out that the antibody treatment has virtually no negative side effects. They not only block the virus but may stimulate the immune response system itself.
Dr Kaufmann points out the larger trials are being undertaken, and that the concept of developing antibodies to treat viruses can be expanded to deal with other diseases; He says this is an expanding field of research and is already being researched in relation to the deadly Ebola virus where results in tests have been very promising. The concept is also being tested in cancer research
The World Health Organisation estimates there as of the end of 2018 there were over 37 million people around the world infected with HIV.
The research was published today in the science journal Nature Medicine under the title: Combination anti-HIV-1 antibody therapy is associated with increased virus-specific T cell immunity. (abstract here)
An independent panel reviewing electronic media in Canada has released a long awaited report.
Canada’s Broadcast Act hasn’t been updated since 1991, well before the arrival of the internet and streaming services like Netflix, Prime, Crave, Apple, Spotify and Amazon etc.
The just released report, Time to Act' seeks to make recommendations concerning a variety of current technologies and situations including streaming services, the public broadcaster, The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Radio-Canada (CBC/R-C) and the regulatory agency the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
Tech and telecom journalist Anja Karadeglija was among reporters attending the release. She is editor of the The Wire Report and is in Ottawa.
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The panel was to examine and suggest updates to Canada’s long outdated Broadcast Act, and wider issues of electronic media production, distribution, and regulation.
Anja Karadeglija, editor of the The Wire Report (supplied)
Canada has been concerned that streaming services are available in the country but pay few or no taxes though they can sell advertising space to Canadian and multinational companies. Governments have been reluctant to impose taxes, but the report recommends that foreign online services pay the Goods and Services Tax
Janet Yale Chair of the independent Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review panel holds up a copy of the report during a news conference in Ottawa, Wednesday, January 29, 2020. Over 200 pages it suggests sweeping changes to the media landscape in its 97 recommendations (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld)
Canadian broadcasters say it’s additionally unfair as they have to pay into the Canada Media Fund, which finances and supports the creation of Canadian media content, but the digital platforms don’t.
Netflix made a deal with the Liberal government earlier to invest in Canadian production, but the chair of the panel said, making an American show in Canada for an American audience does not constitute Canadian content and doesn’t reflect Canadian experiences. Netflix argued that clients choose what they want to watch and CanCon quotas would “merely encourage spending on quantity over quality to meet an arbitrary number."
The panel also said the CBC/RC should be adequately funded so it can eliminate advertising on TV and with a renewed focus on reflecting national, regional, local, and Indigenous communities to Canadian audiences. The panel said the public broadcaster should be “a public media institution with a singular focus on serving a public rather than a commercial purpose”, and should not be in competition with private broadcaster and print media for dwindling advertising revenues.
It is interesting to see how the panel desire for more Canadian content, especially from the CBC plays against reports that the CBC itself had earlier asked the CRTC to allow a reduction in Canadian content in the face of competition from American online and streaming services.
Another aspect of the wide-ranging report is to ensure the CRTC has adequate regulatory authority over streaming services,
The Report is over 200 pages and makes 97 recommendations. The Heritage Minister, Steven Guilbeault, said after the report was presented that the government would act on the report within months, although given the complexity and issues, that will likely be a challenge
Additional information
Government of Canada: Panel Report; CBC: E. Glasner: Jan 29/20: Independent panel report calls for more Canadian streaming content and an ad-free CBC Canadian Press ( via Huff Post): Jan 29/20: CBC Should Drop All Ads In 5 Years: Recommendations Canadian Press (via TorStar): D. Padden: Jan 29/20: Head of expert panel urges Liberals to act quickly on telecom, broadcast reforms Global News: A. Connolly; Jan 29/20: Netflix, other streaming services should be forced to create CanCon,...
The U.K. has just announced it will permit a partial use of Huawei technology in development of its 5G network.
Other countries have banned Huawei over security concerns. Canada is still debating its position on Huawei.
Stephanie Carvin (PhD) is an assistant professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa. She notes security alone may not be the only consideration
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The so-called 5G network is going to represent a significant leap forward in technology allowing for rapid transfer of vast amounts of data. But the U.S. and other security experts say Huawei technology poses a danger due to the potential for theft of secrets and security information.
Stephanie Carvin (PhD) is an assistant professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa.
RCI:Jan 28/20: UK decision on Huawei leaves Canada thinking about its plans
While so far there has been no public release of any information showing Huawei has built in so-called “back-door” access to its technology, Carvin says there are other concerns.
She notes that the Chinese government has shown it is more than willing to act very forcefully to defend and promote Huawei. She notes that if Huawei was shown to break domestic laws in Canada or other countries, prosecution would be a touchy issue as China would likely react with severe trade sanctions and other measures as it has down already in the Meng Wanzhou case here in Canada, and threats against Germany as well.
Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou has been under partial house arrest in Vancouver on a U.S extradition request for fraud, but is free to move around since being detained in December 2018. Two Canadians were subsequently detained in China under what are described as terrible conditions on charges of espionage, in what is being called by some as "hostage diplomacy". China has shown it will react very forcefully to restrictions or other actions against Huawei, which is claimed to be an independent company ( Reuters- Leslie Wasson)
She notes that the Trudeau government has said that security is not the only concern in the eventual decision to allow Huawei to develop Canada’s 5G net, saying geopolitics and geoeconomics are factors in the decision to come.
Additional information
CNN Business: J. Horowitz: Jan 29/20: Europe moves to secure 5G networks but won't ban Huawei CBC: Jan 25/20: U.K.'s proposal to limit Huawei's role in 5G networks most 'pragmatic' path, expert says Bloomberg: Czuczka/Arons: Dec 14/19: China Threatens Retaliation Should Germany Ban Huawei 5G
This week saw the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the biggest of the Nazi death camps, camps where a total of about six million Jews were murdered. The hope was that the lesson was learned that myths, mistrust, and misunderstanding leads to hate which leads to violence and murder.
It seems that lesson is being forgotten and that anti-semitism may be on the rise.
Tina Fetner (PhD) is an Associate Professor of Sociology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
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Are anti-Semitic hate crimes on the rise in Canada? It might be so, but as professor Fetner points out, there are no clear definitions of might constitute a hate crime in jurisdictions across Canada, and what constitutes a “reportable” crime.
McMaster University professor Tina Fetner (PhD) (supplied)
There has been an increase in anti-Semitic attacks elsewhere such as a deadly attack against a Synagogue in the U.S.
It also seems hateful speech of all kinds is becoming more prevalent generally and in a variety of ways.
In December 2017, a Toronto synagogue opened this hate letter, the same one sent to at least four other synagogues in the country, including two in Edmonton. (B'nai Brith Canada)
Professor Fetner says to curb this increase in hate, people have to be willing to move away from bystander when hate is expressed, to someone prepared to intervene to stop it before it grows and spreads.
Additional information-
CBC: M.Ziegler: Jan 24/20: Holocaust survivor in famous Auschwitz liberation photo says rising anti-Semitism 'scares me' PostMedia: D.Quan: Jan 3/20: ‘A disturbing new normal’: How Jewish Canadians are reacting to spate of anti-Semitic violence Associated Press (via CBC): Feb 12/19: Anti-Semitism 'spreading like a poison' in France, interior minister says CBC: Dec 21/19: Anti-Semitic attacks hard to fight because no single organization behind them, says journalist (U.S. home attack) CBC; Dec 18/17: 'An 8 on the frighten scale': Toronto synagogue troubled by letter calling for Jewish genocide
While several studies in recent years have highlighted dangerous levels of fishing on many ocean species, they do not include the effects of recreational fishing.
A new study by an international team of scientists estimates some 900,000 tonnes of fish are taken from the oceans yearly.
Daniel Pauly (PhD, FRSC) heads the research project called The Sea Around Us, named in honour of Rachel Carson’s 1951 book.
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The study is published today in the journal Frontiers of Marine Science under the title “Estimating global catches of marine recreational fisheries”. (open source here)
Daneil Pauly (PhD FRSC) heads the research group The Sea Around Us
While there are already expressed concerns about the accuracy of individual country’s catch reports to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, usually suspected of being under-reported, the recreational catch estimated at over a million tonnes, has never been included in the estimates.
An added concern to the issue, is that recreational catches of sharks and rays, already endangered, amounts to over 50,000 tonnes.
Pauly notes that the ‘environmental’ policy of catch and release very often doesn’t save the fish or shark, “For example, 98 per cent of scalloped hammerheads die.”
He adds that shark reproduction in slow and if many die before they can reproduce, it’s an additional threat to an already threatened population.
“In Australia, a group of recreational fishers lands large tiger sharks and hammerheads from the beach. These large animals are essential to population health and are unlikely to survive the experience of a lengthy fight and subsequently being dragged up the beach,” said Jessica Meeuwig, co-author of the study and director of the Marine Futures Lab at the University of Western Australia. “Given the threatened status of these species globally, such practices are inappropriate.”
The report estimates thousands of tonnes of endangered sharks and rays are caught by sport fishers, but even when released many will not survive the ordeal. (pub domain PxFuel)
Also of concern is the ‘high-grading’ of species, that is catching the biggest of fish and taking the best examples out of the breeding pool, a situation already a concern with big-game trophy hunting on land.
Pauly says the report is to highlight the issue to governing bodies which study and regulate fishing quotas.
While many average earners complain of taxes, a group of the world’s wealthiest is saying they should be taxed more.
The disparity in earnings between the wealthiest and the middle and lower classes is such that some of those uber-rich are becoming concerned about social upheaval.
Jeff Rubin is the former chief economist at CIBC Markets and the author of the forthcoming book by Penguin Random House The Expendables: How The Middle Class Got Screwed by Globalization
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A small group of millionaires and billionaires has been lobbying the U.S. government for some time to increase taxes on them. Now they’ve gone to the world stage realising that the disparity between rich and poor is a global phenomenon and needs to be dealt with internationally.
Jeff Rubin, author, speaker and former chief economist at CIBC Markets explains the motives behind the millionaires calls to increase their taxes. (Western University-via YouTube)
Rubin points out that even in Canada, the rich have been dodging some $3 billion in taxes on investments from the approximately $240 billion they have in offshore accounts.
He notes also that huge multinational corporations like Google, Facebook and others also book global revenues in low or no tax jurisdictions to avoid paying taxes as much as possible.
Huge leaks of tax-haven financial records in recent years have exposed the vast sums of global wealth hidden offshore. A Canada Revenue Agency study estimates wealthy Canadians have hidden up to $240.5 billion in foreign accounts and are dodging up to $3 billion a year in federal tax on those funds. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
He says surveys show that people in dozens of countries no longer feel capitalism is working for them. Rubin notes the rise of so-called populism in democracies is evidence that people are looking to other messages than the prevalent centrist messages of politicians, and that in spite of claims to be for the workers and middle class, people don’t believe the mainstream politicians nearly as much as they have.
He notes that historically when social disparity becomes too great, social and/or political change has been the result and not always smoothly.
In a tweet the millionaires indicate the possibility of revolt if the wealth disparity continues (twitter) Millionaires letter To Our Fellow Millionaires and Billionaires Across the Globe, There are two kinds of wealthy people in the world: those who prefer taxes and those who prefer pitchforks.
We, the undersigned, prefer taxes. And we believe that, upon reflection, you will as well. For that reason, we urge you to step forward now – before it’s too late – to demand higher and fairer taxes on millionaires and billionaires within your own countries and to help prevent individual and corporate tax avoidance and evasion through international tax reform efforts. We make this request as members of the most privileged class of human beings ever to walk the earth.
Extreme, destabilizing inequality is growing across the globe.
Today, there are more billionaires on earth than ever before, and they control more wealth than they ever have. Meanwhile, the incomes of the poorest half of humanity remain virtually unchanged. In many nations, tensions caused by inequality have reached crisis levels. Low social trust and a pervasive sense of unfairness are diminishing basic social cohesion. This breakdown within nations exacerbates tensions between countries. The resulting dynamics guarantee that the global community will fail to adequately respond to the looming climate catastrophe. This will be disastrous for everyone, including millionaires and billionaires. It is time for us to act. Despite vocal protests to the contrary, most reasonable people understand that philanthropy has always been, and always will be, an inadequate substitute for government investment.
Taxes are the best and only appropriate way to ensure adequate i...
Announced this week, Canada has a new agency to look into the various issues of climate change.
Non-partisan and arms-length from the government which is funding it, the agency will partner with experts in a variety of fields of research to suggest policy and actions to all levels of government working toward reducing emissions and mitigating the effects of climate change. Dave Sawyer is the Chief Economist at the new institute, and I reached him in Ottawa this morning.
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The agency is called the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices and as part of the mandate will hold discussions with experts including economics, climate change adaptation and mitigation, Indigenous knowledge, natural and social sciences, public policy, energy systems, engineering, business leaders and other stakeholders.
Dave Sawyer is the Chief Economist at the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices (supplied)
It will develop evidence-based suggestions to help decision-makers and Canadians understand and evaluate the policy choices that could put Canada on a path to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The idea is for Canada and Canadians to better understand the challenges, opportunities and choices ahead to address the many present and expected issues around climate change.
Additional information:
Canadian Institute for Climate Choices: Charting our course CBC: A. Wherry: Jan 21/20: New federally funded climate institute launches after demise of national roundtable
As usual, he was right on the edge, but in the end he prevailed--pretty much like he always did on a baseball field.
Walker becomes the first position player from Canada ever to be elected to the Hall and the second Canadian, following pitcher Ferguson Jenkins, from Chatham, Ontario, who was voted in in 1991.
https://twitter.com/fergieajenkins/status/1219764866422136832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1219764866422136832&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rcinet.ca%2Fen%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D135793%26action%3Dedit
It was Walker's 10th and final chance to be voted in by the baseball writers and he barely made it above the minimum 75 per cent of the votes required, but he will now have a place to go during the last week of July every summer when members of the Hall of Fame gather to celebrate.
And that weekend will sit just fine for Walker, a man possessed with the ability--as was one of his mentors, Tim Wallach--to make everyone around him feel terrific.
Walker is greeted by his teammate, friend and mentor Tim Wallach, left, after Walker hit a two-run home run in 1990. (Mary Butkus/Associated Press)
Walker, who was born and raised in British Columbia, first gained fame as a member of the Montreal Expos and was on the team in 1994, the year a work stoppage cost the team what everybody said was a legit shot to become World Series champions.
The team was dismantled the following spring, and Walker moved on to Colorado, where he excelled.
But the sensational numbers he put up were said to be tainted--at least by many HOF voters--because the thin mountain air allows a baseball to travel a whole lot further, so it wasn't a fair fight--or so the experts said.
But as the Sabermetrics guys proliferated across the game, so did new respect for Walker.
Gradually, people began to realize that playing in Colorado was not the piece of cake everybody thought it was.
And so, Walker, finally--and legitimately--has made it to Cooperstown.
About time, I say.
But I confess, I am prejudiced. I really, really like the guy.
Gregarious, generous, and a possessor of immaculate comic timing, he was someone you wanted to be around and last night he was feeling pretty good about life when he spoke to the CBC's Andrew Chang.
Never mind Hall of Fame Ballplayer, Walker's always been a Hall of Game Guy.
A mutual friend of ours is Richard Griffin, who is the director of baseball media for the Toronto Blue Jays, after being the top baseball writer and columnist for the Toronto Star.
Before that, Griffin was Expos media relations director, a job that saw him spend a lot of hours with Walker.
Griffin joined me by phone from his home in Toronto today to talk about Walker, the person, Walker, the ballplayer, and Walker, the Canadian.
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China has reported about 200 cases of a new coronavirus originating in the city of Wuhan which has caused the deaths of six people so far.
It also is now reportedly spread from person to person, vastly increasing concerns.
The World Health Organisation is holding an emergency meeting in Geneva today to discuss potential courses of action to halt the spread as needed.
For more on this new disease we spoke with Dr. Dick Zoutman He's an infectious disease specialist and professor at Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario and at the University of Toront, he was also chair of the scientific advisory committee on SARS. He's currently chief of staff with the Scarborough Health Network.
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Its called a coronavirus due to its physical appearance when viewed under electron microscopes. Chinese authorities say it has now spread to other cities with over 200 new cases reported. There is further concern about the spread as millions of Chinese are expected to travel as part of the Chinese Lunar new year holiday starting later this week
Infectious disease specialist Dr. Dick Zoutman of the Scarborough Health Network and the University of Toronto, and Queen's University (CBC)
Concern about this new infection is already being raised in effort to prevent another pandemic like the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak which also began in China in 2002. That resulted in over 8,000 casea and almost 800 deaths in 37 countries around the world.
Travellers pass by a health checkpoint before entering immigration at the international airport in Beijing last week. Other international airports and entry points have begun additional screening for visitors arriving from China or who display any of the flu-like symptoms (Ng Han Guan/Associated Press)
Although the new disease is of the same basic virus family and bears some similarity to the SARS virus, it is not the same. Over 200 new cases of the Wuhan virus have been reported in the past couple of days.
Dr. Zoutman notes that technology has greatly improved since then as have detection, intervention and prevention techniques.
On a personal level he says of greater concern to individuals for the moment is to prevent the spread of the flu, which can be done by regular hand washing (to prevent contact with the face) and getting a flu shot.
Additional information-sources
Associated Press (via CBC): Jan 20/20: China confirms human-to-human transmission of new coronavirus Thomson-Reuters (via CBC): Jan 19/20: China reports sharp rise in new cases of pneumonia, 3rd death as coronavirus spreads Reuters: Jan 19/20: As virus spreads to more Chinese cities, WHO calls emergency meeting
A new book is being released called “From the Depths of Our Hearts”. It’s sparked a bit of controversy within the Roman Catholic church.
It seems to push a conservative message about celibacy, and includes an essay by retired Pope Benedict who has asked to have his name removed as co-author.
Micheal Swan is associate editor of The Catholic Register which lists itself as “Canada’s Catholic news source since 1893”
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While the book supports the idea of celibacy, the bigger controversy seems to swirl around the retired Pope Benedict’s apparent interference in Pope Francis’s policies.
Michael Swan, associate editor of Canada's "The Catholic Register" news
According to Swan, it seems the former Pope was unaware of how a “personal” opinion was to be used, and given a degree of papal authority in the book. This was against his own expression that he would not interfere and hence the call to have his name removed.
The book which is causing a stir within the Roman Catholic church (Ignatius Press)
Part of the controversy seems to be over the idea of extending the priesthood to married deacons in the Amazon to fill a need for priests there to perform the full Catholic rites. Theoretically this “married” extension might someday apply to Canada’s far north and other remote areas for the same reasons.
The other issue here says Swan, seems to be a desire by the conservative elements of the Church, backed by big money, to push their message and create some degree of discomfort with the current Pope. This he says is with a view to influence Cardinals in their choice of the next Pope which this element hopes would be a more traditional one.
Additional information
Catholic News Agency: Jan 14/20: From the Depths of Our Hearts - Latest News Catholic World Report: Jan 12/20: Pope Emeritus Benedict, Cardinal Sarah author new book on priesthood, celibacy
Viewed by some as ‘too restrictive’, Canadian laws around medically assisted dying are under review.
The government is asking Canadians to submit their views on the laws and what might be changed.
Arthur Schafer is founding director of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba, and was a consultant on previous government discussions on the issue
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It’s called medical assistance in dying, and known by the acronym MAID.
Current laws are deemed too restrictive by some, and by a Quebec court which challenged the law as being unconstitutionally restrictive.
The law states that someone requesting MAID must be at least 18 years of age, suffereing from a grievous medical condition, suffer intolerable pain, the condition is incurable, and are mentally competent to make the decision to end their life, and death is ‘reasonably forseeable’. This latter is deemed very vague by most st
Professor Arthur Schafer (PhD) of the University of Manitoba
akeholders.
RCI: Feb 2019: Medically assisted dying in Canada: seeking better rules
There is a desire to make exceptions to the age limit for a category they would like to create called ‘mature minors’. This would be where the conditions apply but the minor is fully understanding the decision would be eligible.
There is also the issue of ‘competence’ which may exist at the time of gaining permission for MAID, but as the disease progresses that competence may be lost and currently the moment that happens, the eligibility disappears even though that is when the individual would seek the procedure. There is hope that a “pre-approval’ may be allowed so that the person may get MAID when they are no longer competent in a situation somewhat akin to a “do not resucitate’ directive.
The new law is likely to be proposed this year.
Additional information
Gov’t of Canada- consultation on MAID CBC: C Cullen: Jan 13.20: Who should get a medically assisted death? Canadians get 2 weeks to weigh in on new limits
After initially denying they were at fault, Iran quickly backtracked saying the shot down the passenger jet by mistake?
But with modern sophisticated systems how could a large, slow moving, and climbing jetliner be mistaken for a “hostile” fighter jet or cruise missile?
James McKay (PhD) is a professor of political science at the Royal Military College in Kingston Ontario.
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There should have been several clear indications that PS752 was not hostile and was in fact a large passenger jet.
James McKay, political science professor at the Royal Military College of Canada. (supplied)
Strategists say a hostile craft would have been smaller, faster and travelling towards a potentially identifiable target on a probable level course with no identification. In this case, PS752 would have been on a Standard Instrument Departure (SID) had its identifying transponder on, ‘squawking’ an allocated IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) transponder code as a non-threat. As a radar passes over a plane the transponder is triggered to respond with a 4-digit code, while an additional selection on the radar unit can read altitude.
A TOR M1 Surface to air missile launcher, front radar folded down during movement. The missiles are launched out of the top of the vehicle (AP photo)
PS752 was relatively slow, and climbing away from the city -outbound- not inbound- on a known regular flight path.. So what went wrong? So many possibilities.
Communications breakdown is likely along a system involving civilian aviation authorities, the regime leadership, the regular military, and the separate Revolutionary Guards military command which operates the missile system and going down through the lower levels of the Guards down to the missile battery and the crew of the particular launcher.
Iran had launched a missile attack on military bases in Iraq just hours before and McKay notes the Iranians were fearing American reprisal attacks. He says the crew of the launcher may have been shutting down their radar and communications periodically to prevent their location from being identified and becoming a target for anti-radiation missiles which seek and track radar emissions. This meant they may have missed critical information about passenger flights from the still operating airfield.
Radar track shows flights from Tehran airport showing PS 752 was on a standard flight path and climbing when communication suddenly ended, two minutes after leaving the runway ( Flight24)
McKay also says the system “Identification friend or foe” (IFF) system may have had a malfunction but the direction of flight he says casts doubt on that.
He also says it may be a question of training of the Revolutionary Guards operating these deadly missiles. Also playing into the tragic equation may be an issue of crew fatigue affecting judgement, the force having been on high alert for up to several days.
While McKay says the case will be studied by military analysts in Iran and elsewhere in efforts to avoid such mistakes, and the civil aviation body may also rethink policy about operations in hostile or potentially hostile airspace, will this tragedy prevent anything like it in the future?
The TOR M1 is fitted with 9m330 missiles 2.4m tall. The missile contains about 15kg of explosive designed to spray metal shrapnel into the target aircraft. (Allocet-wiki commons)
There have already been previous cases .
On September 1, 1983, a Korean Airlines 747 accidentally strayed into Soviet airspace. Thinking it was a similar looking American spy-plane it was ordered shot down even though the jet interceptors closing in on it said it appeared not to be a spy-plane. Some 269 people died
In July 1988, an American warship shot down an Iranian Airbus flying between Iran and Dubai claiming it was thought to be an Iraqi F-14. Some 290 died, in a tragedy noted this week by Iranian President Rouhlani in a tweet.
In 2015 and 2016, children in a British Columbia elementary school took part in a First Nations smudging ceremony and prayer. A mother objected saying the school obliged her children to take part in a religious ceremony and a later First Nations prayer contrary to the School Act and her own religious beliefs.
A judge in the British Columbia Supreme Court ruled this week that the practice did not infringe on religious beliefs.
Jay Cameron (MA. LLB) is with the legal advocacy organisation, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) and the is the Litigation Manager and Counsel for Candice Servatius and her young children
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In his ruling against the claim, the judge said, the woman "failed to establish that the Nuu-chah-nulth smudging in her children's classrooms or the prayer said by the hoop dancer at the school assembly interfered with her or her children's ability to act in accordance with their religious beliefs”.
Jay Cameron, M.A., LLB, (supplied)
The school argued the smudging and prayer and dance was part of their obligation and desire to teach and informing the young students about indigenous practices of the local Nuu-chul-nuth First Nations.
This is something that Ms. Servatius has no problem with.
However, the question hinges on the issue that showing items connected with a religious or cultural practice is much different than actually involving the children in the practice. Later she learned that a prayer based on First Nations spirituality had been performed at a mandatory student assembly, with explicit references to an unspecified “god”.
Smudging involves sage, sweetgrass and cedar boughs. The grass is set alight and the smoke is wafted over persons or objects to 'cleanse" their spirit (CBC)
There were various opinions expressed in court also as to whether these were cultural or religious practices. The ruling dismisses the challenge saying no imposition of religious beliefs took place.
John Carpay of the JCCF is quoted by the CBC in 2016 said, "The distinction here that the school board is not honouring is a difference between teaching about religion and actually practising religion by forcing kids to go through a religious ceremony," He added, “
"The way the school explained it was that everything has a spirit, the chair, the tables, the furniture, the classroom, the children. If that's not religious, then I don't know what it is.
In court it was stated that a letter which Ms Servatius received after the smudging had taken place, indicated in detail how the ritual would “cleanse” the classroom of “energy” and cleanse the “spirits” of the students. The letter claimed that without cleansing, the classroom and even the furniture would harbour negative “energy” and would not be safe until the “energy” was “released.” The letter stated that each student would participate in the cleansing ritual by holding onto a cedar branch while having “smoke from Sage fanned over [their] body and spirit.”
Cameron says that the aspect of energy and that all things have a spirit involves the supernatural and enters into the area of spiritual ritual. He also notes that other legal rulings have given credence to the religious aspect as they have decided in favour of certain individuals such as prisoners having access to smudging ceremonies claiming it as a religious right.
Cameron says the ruling is very concerning because of its implications and they are reviewing the ruling towards a possible appeal
Additional information- sources
BC Supreme Court decision: Jan 8/20 JCCF media release on court decision CBC: M.Thomas: Nov 15/16: B.C. mother takes school district to court over Aboriginal spiritual ceremony Victoria News: N. Pescod: Nov 22/19: Province argues in B.C. Supreme Court for smudging in schools, says it relates to curriculum
We've all seen it, we all know it when we see it, and we've all most certainly wondered just how downright stupid our species can so often be.
For most of us, witnessing the insanity of drunken driving, is something we experience (hopefully) just in passing.
Anecdotal.
Until it isn't: until the time when somebody we know or love is involved in a fatal accident that has alcohol at its root.
A woman, 21, died in this crash in Richmond Hill, Ont. in August, 2018. A Toronto driver, also 21, was charged with impaired driving causing death, impaired driving causing bodily harm, dangerous driving causing death, dangerous driving causing bodily harm and refusing to provide a breath sample. (Tony Smyth/CBC)
Still, there is cause for hope that eventually we'll get it right.
In fact, it appears that a great many of us are actually wising up.
For instance, in 2016, the most recent year for which data is available, 480 Canadians were killed in road crashes involving a drinking driver.
Horrible!
But that was a 55 per cent decrease from the 1,057 people killed in 1995, according to Traffic Injury Research Foundation, which has released the results of its annual investigation into drinking and driving in Canada.
More good news: In 2016, the percentage of persons killed in a crash on a public roadway involving a drinking driver in Canada was 28.8 per cent--down from a peak of 37.3 per cent in 1995.
Montreal police trying to keep an eye on things in December 2018. In 2016, the last year for which data is available, 480 Canadians were killed in road crashes involving a drinking driver. (Radio-Canada)
But an uptick in negative statistics--especially in the percentage of people admitting to drinking and driving when they thought they were over the legal limit--has the road safety watchdog wondering if progress to reduce drinking and driving in Canada "may have stalled."
For a look at the 2019 survey and an overall perspective on drinking and driving in Canada and what the future may--or may not--hold, I spoke by phone today with Steve Brown, one of the authors of the TIRF study.
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With files from CTV (Cillian O'Brien), Traffic Injury Research Foundation,
With the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, the entire mid-east situation is in turmoil.
Hundreds of thousands are turning out in the streets of Tehran and other major centres, to mourn the general.
But was there more behind the killing and what of internal politics in Iran?
Ali Dizboni (Ph.D.) is Director of Military and Strategic Studies-MSS and professor in the Department of Political Science and Economics at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario.
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Dizboni notes that Soleimani was in Iraq trying to extend Iran’s influence and power in the area. He also says that while reporting to Iran’s leader, the general nonetheless seemed to be operating as a state within a state acting on his own initiative in both foreign and domestic affairs, and as Dizboni says, was to some extent was running foreign policy. The professor says because of that some in the top echelons of the regime may indeed have wanted to see the general moved out the way to reduce his increasing political influence. However, while not entirely out of the question, he feels it is unlikely that the dislike would go so far as to have anyone in the regime involved in the general’s death.
Political science professor Ali Dizboni (Queen's University)
Elsewhere, Dizboni says the U.S. may feel that removing the top military figure will hamper the regime externally in its influence in the region while economic sanctions are squeezing the regime internally. He believes the U.S. hope is that this will force the Iranian leadership to the negotiating table.
Vast crowds gather in Tehran to hear military officials call for revenge. (via CBC)
For the moment however, the move is having the opposite effect as there is popular unity against the U.S. and the west amid loud calls for revenge.
Protests against the U.S. and allies in Tehran.. Once the anger fades, will Iranians begin to turn against the regime in the face of ongoing economic hardship? (Reuters-WANA News Agency)
At the same time however, the professor notes there is also a very great concern among the population that the country could end up fractured like Syria, or involved in some wider conflict. This may temper the official response to the attack, especially as Dizboni says, the hardship of economic sanctions could begin to turn on the leadership as internal demonstrations in the past couple of years have already shown, and once the immediate anti-U.S. anger dissipates.
A few dozen Iranian-Canadians gathered in Toronto last week to celebrate the death of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. Some loud arguments and scuffles broke out between groups supporting the Iranian regime and Soleimani and those opposed to the general and what he and the regime have done to the country. This is the kind of division that Dizboni feels may grow within Iran itself, even though dissent there is tightly controlled (Cole Burston/Canadian Press)
He feels that if that happens, and the economy continues to suffer, there is the possibility that some kind of takeover or at least additional pressure by the military may occur to ensure security and perhaps head to negotiations with the U.S.
After the U.S. drone strike on Friday that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, and several other important Iranian military or militia leaders on Iraqi soil. U.S. President Trump said Soleimani's "reign of terror" was over. The U.S. action appears to be a unilateral attack without consultation with NATO allies.
That strike has caused outrage in Iran and with Iranian expats around the world. Iran has threatened retribution, and NATO is holding an emergency meeting today. Of immediate concern are the many NATO troops in Iraq leading training exercises. Canada has about 500 troops there and the entire NATO mission is led by Canada.
Christian Leuprecht (PhD) is a professor of political science at the Royal Military College of Canada and Director of the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations at Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario, and Fulbright Research Chair of Canada-US Relations at Johns Hopkins University in Washington.
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The attack on Soleimani, 62, came from a missile armed drone. He was head of Iran's elite Quds Force which is the special operations arm of the Revolutionary Guard and in charge of Iran's proxy forces, which has been blamed for many attacks outside Iran including the deaths of U.S. troops in Iraq.
RMC and Queen's University professor Christian Leuprecht ( Sonja S Photography)
The attack may lead to retribution attacks against the many NATO troops in various locations in the Middle East, or within NATO countries. It is believed there are many sleeper cells of Quds groups in many foreign countries which have the potential to launch what has been termed in recent years as “kinetic” attacks, such as with bombs or guns. Leuprecht notes that Iran may also launch cyber attacks although he says the Iranians seem not quite as sophisticated as some other countries in cyber disruption.
Anti-American protests were staged in cities around the world. Here Kashmiri Shia Muslims shout anti-American and anti-Israel slogans during a protest against the U.S. airstrike in Iraq that killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Maj.-Gen. Qassem Soleimani, seen in the photographs, in Indian-controlled Kashmir, on Friday. (Mukhtar Khan/The Associated Press)
While the regime is expressing outrage and threatens retaliation, Leuprecht and other experts have also wondered whether the Iranian regime was beginning to feel threatened by the popular military leader. Soleilmani operated largely on his own initiative and was also a substantial drain on already stretched Iranian resources. More so however, he was becoming a powerful political force in his own right as evidenced by his chairing the Iraqi cabinet meeting in December. The suggestion is that allowing him to travel to Iraq may have been an acceptable risk for the regime.
About 100 people demonstrated against the drone strike in front of the U.S Consulate in Toronto on Saturday. Similar demonstration were held in other Canadian cities with most concerned about the potential threat of war for relatives still in Iran and Iraq. There was some tension as some held a candlelit vigil for the General, while others, against the current regime expressed opposition. Police however kept things in control.(Angelina King/CBC)
Meanwhile, Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary-General responding to reporters today said he would not speculate on NATO potential actions or reactions as that could only inflame the situation. He said that the members were unified in their support of the organisation and in calling for restraint on all sides. Later noting the attack was solely a U.S decision he added however that all members were concerned about Iran’s role in destabilising the region.
Canadian Brigadier-General Jennie Carignan shown here at Canadian base on July 15,2019, leads the NATO training mission. The future of the mission is currently in some doubt due to tensions from the killing of an Iranian military leader (Sean Kilpatrick-CP)...
Looking back on 2019--a year lacking Olympics, another year missing a Canadian-based Stanley Cup champion, a year with a less than stellar performance by the Canadians at the Women's World Cup of Soccer.
What are we left with?
How about basketball? How about tennis? How about another terrific year in moguls skiing by Mikaël Kingsbury?
And--maybe most of all--how about a lot of stories about hockey that those in the hockey world would just as soon forget--like abusive coaches and racist behaviour?
Following a terrific 2019, Bianca Andreescu heads into the coming WTA tennis season No. 5 in the world rankings. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
Let us begin with the good.
Certainly, Bianca Andreescu provided everyone with more than their share of thrills, winning--among other things--the Rogers Cup in Toronto and the U.S. Open to finish the year ranked No. 5 in the WTA world tennis rankings.
Meanwhile, her male counterparts astounded a lot of folks by making it to the finals of the Davis Cup before finally meeting their match in Rafa Nadal and Spain.
Denis Shapovalov and Vasek Pospisil of Canada celebrate victory with Canada team captain Frank Dancevic in the semifinal doubles match between Russia and Canada at the 2019 Davis Cup on November 23 in Madrid, Spain. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
But it was what happened in the late spring that will go a long way to marking 2019 as a year to remember.
The Toronto Raptors wowed what seemed to be the whole country during their wild and crazy run to the National Basketball Association title.
It was extraordinary, really.
Much was made about basketball somehow supplanting hockey as Canada's sport of choice.
Is such a thing even possible?
Given the rough year the National Hockey League had--both behind various team benches--and on the iconic Hockey Night in Canada telecasts, one begins to wonder about what once would have been branded a ludicrous idea.
Don Cherry, who parlayed a sharp tongue, immaculate timing and a lot of bluster into a long career on television went one step too far in November. His words and the backlash they stirred cost him his job. (Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
Don Cherry left his Saturday night perch on our television sets and two NHL head coaches left their spots behind their teams' benches for reasons having nothing to do with their win-loss records.
Another who left was later accused of less than ideal treatment of some of his players.
All this coming in a year the Raptors and a bunch of terrific tennis players were catching Canada's collective fancy.
So how, one wonders, do these combination of events play out?
Might hockey be in more than a bit of danger of having its supremacy in the Canadian Sporting Ethos seriously challenged?
Bruce Dowbiggin (cbc. ca)
I know few--if any--people who know more about hockey and its place in Canada's emotional and sociological firmament than Bruce Dowbiggin, author of a number of books on all phases of the game.
Dowbiggin, a long-time friend of RCI and host of the website Not the Public Broadcaster, joins us at the end of every year for a look back at the world of sports.
This year, I could not resist asking about the hold hockey has held in our national imagination for so long.
Here is our conversation.
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Animal rights activists, a determined lot at any time, are looking back at their gains in 2019 and feeling pretty good about both themselves and the animals they seek to protect.
https://youtu.be/u3O7RoSWMTI
The year, according to the executive director of Animal Justice, Camille Labchuk, was marked by some historic wins--including the ones making the most news–-a new law to ban keeping whales, dolphins and porpoises in captivity, new federal legislation cracking down on animal cruelty that will list those convicted of bestiality on Canada's national sex offenders registry. and new legislation in Ontario strengthening that province’s animal cruelty laws.
Labchuk believes there are even better days ahead, as she told me when I spoke with her by phone at her office in Ottawa.
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In 2015 a study of over 200 lakes around the world (containing a total of half the world's freshwater supply) showed a clear warming trend. At the time, it was suggested that this is affecting drinking water quality, fish habitat, and has an effect on other animals.
A new study looks at how declining ice cover has an detrimental economic affect on people.
Sapna Sharma (PhD) is a professor in the Department of Biology at York University in Toronto.
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The study showed that about 15,000 lakes around the world that in the past would regularly freeze in winter, are no longer regularly freezing as they did. The study estimates up that as global warming continues, up to 200,000 lakes around the world would no longer freeze every winter.
York University professor Sapna Sharma (PhD) in Brantford Ontario Dec. 24.,2019
The study was published earlier this year in the journal for the Association Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography under the title Consequences of lake and river ice loss on cultural ecosystem services. (open access here)
Professor Sharma says that warming isn’t linear, meaning a given lake will freeze less and less each year, but that as a trend over many years, there will be less occurrence of freezing, which will become more frequent as decades pass.
Supplies brought in over winter ice roads are critical for remote northern communities, but the seasons are getting shorter. Here a fuel truck has gone through while crossing the lake toward Deline N.W.T on Mar, 5, 2019.
The study notes that here in N. America major ice fishing competitions which can bring in up to hundreds of thousands of dollars to a community have also had to be cancelled.
The ice road between Detah and Yellowknife had one of its latest openings ever starting only on Jan 11, 2019. It has has opened later than usual for several years in a row now (Steve Silva- CBC)
Communities that depend on scheduled winter activities to boost local economies have seen those hopes dashed as unexpected spells of warm weather spoil or force cancellation of the event.
She points out that a skating race which began in the Netherlands in 1797, has had a sketchy history of late as cold periods long enough to freeze the canals had become rarer with the last event held in 1997 . A similar long distance race is now held on Lake Malaren in Sweden called the Viking Run where even there it was cancelled in 2000, 2002 due to poor ice, and in 2008 when there was practically no ice at all throughout the winter.
Ice fishing huts on a Saskatchewan lake. Competitions can attract hundreds of fisherfolk and contribute vast sums to a local economy, but the number of cancellations due to unsafe ice has been slowly increasing over time, hurting communities that depend on the income. (Radio-Canada)
Remote northern communities in Canada which depend on winter ice roads for supplies are also seeing their supply season shortened. In the study, a warmer winter could mean a delay in supplies reaching them by up to three weeks.
Ski resorts in many cases must now rely on expensive snow making equipment to continue functioning.
She notes that her Ontario community is where hockey legend Wayne Gretzky grew up practicing on a frozen winter backyard rink, something that she says is not really possible anymore, adding there’s almost no snow at all on the ground this Christmas.
Additional information
Muskoka Tourism: M. Bidding: Dec 20/19: Warming Winters Threaten Culture In Northern Communities, Report Says
A new analysis of hundreds of studies covering two decades of studies related to genetics and about 200 diseases. The result may come as a surprise to many. It finds, in most cases, little correlation between a genetic mutation and risk of the disease.
David Wishart (PhD, FRSC) t, professor in the University of Alberta’s Department of Biological Sciences , the Department of Computing Science, and the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. He is the supervising co-author on the study
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It is the largest meta-analysis ever conducted into the issue of the relationship between common gene mutations, also known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and different diseases and conditions.
University of Alberta professor David Wishart (PhD FRSC) led the study. (John Ulan-University of Alberta)
It was published this month in the science journal PLOS ONE under the title, ‘Assessing the performance of genome-wide association studies for predicting disease risk’ (open access here)
The study found that conditions like many cancers, diabetes, obesity, Alzheimers, and many others, only have a limited genetic predisposition for getting the particular disease of five to ten per cent.
Wishart says of the result show , “Simply put, DNA is not your destiny, and SNPs are duds for disease prediction. The things that influence disease come more from what you are exposed to and diet and lifestyle”
It does note that for certain other diseases, including Crohn’s disease, celiac disease, and macular degeneration, there is a a much higher and more relevant genetic contribution of approximately 40 to 50 per cent. Still, Wishart says the results indicate the risks for getting most diseases arise from your metabolism, your environment, your lifestyle, your gut microbiome or your exposure to various kinds of nutrients, chemicals, bacteria, or viruses”.
He notes that measuring one’s metabolites, microbes or proteins, is a better predictor of health risks, versus your genes,”
Indeed, his research page notes, “Metabolites aren't simply the “bricks and mortar” of cells or fuel for cellular energetics, they appear to have a more varied and important role as signaling molecules, immune modulators, endogenous toxins, and environmental sensors.
In short, he feels our environment plays a more relevant role in determining health and risks and “highlights the need to understand our environment and the safety or quality of our food, air, and water”.
University of Alberta-Science- YouTube
Additional information
Wishart Research Lab
The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear a case involving a 44-year-old ailing elephant, dashing the hopes of animal activists and likely confining her to the Edmonton Valley Zoo for the rest of her days.
Zoocheck Canada has been going to court-unsuccessfully--for years to have the elephant, named Lucy, moved to a warmer location, a move that is supported by celebrities who include famed author Margaret Atwood and prominent former game show host Bob Barker.
The group says the zoo is violating provincial standards by keeping her isolated from her own species and failing to provide her with a facility that meets her "biological and behavioural needs," and wanted Alberta to impose conditions on the zoo's permit to force compliance.
The debate surrounding the relocation of Lucy the elephant resurfaced again last year after the Edmonton Valley Zoo received a dishonourable mention on a list of the worst zoos for elephants. Lucy, who has lived at the zoo since 1977, is ailing. (CBC)
The top court dismissed an appeal application Thursday morning and--as per custom--did not give a reason.
Officials at the zoo, where Lucy has lived since 1977 after being orphaned in Sri Lanka, say she is treated well and is continually monitored by veterinarians
The zoo's website calls her "charming and precocious."
Lucy has long been the focus of a fight between animal rights groups and the City of Edmonton, which runs the Valley Zoo. (CBC)
She is also a sick Asian elephant, who is having problems with her feet, hips, teeth and respiratory system, illnesses that the zoo and Zoocheck say make her too sick to move.
"It is possible that the zoo has created a self-fulfilling prophecy by stalling for so long that she may be too ill for transport, since her medical records now show that she is going down due to colic, a very dangerous situation for elephants," Julie Woodyer, Zoochek's campaign's director, told CBC News' Kathleen Harris.
"However, even if it is too late to move her safely, there are still things they could do to improve her life."
Prior to Thursday's ruling, Camille Labchuk, the executive director of Animal Justice, was optimistic the Supreme Court would decide to hear the case.
I spoke with her by phone at her office in Ottawa afterwards.
ListenEN_Interview_4-20191219-WIE40
With files from CBC (Kathleen Harris)
It’s a worldwide problem that nets scammers untold wealth from unsuspecting and trusting phone users.
Telephone scams, along with simple spam, have been increasing dramatically in the last couple of years, and now the Canadian government is ordering companies to act against it.
Greg O'Brien is the editor and publisher of Cartt DOT ca - which covers the telecom and TV industry. We reached him in Hamilton, Ontario
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In a press release on Tuesday, the oversight and regulatory agency, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced the implementation of a first level of action against unwanted calls. Ian Scott, Chairperson and CEO of the CRTC wrote,
"Canadians need to have the right tools to manage nuisance calls. With the implementation of a call blocking system, calls that are malformed will be stopped within the network. At the same time, we are working with the industry on other tools to better protect Canadians from nuisance calls, including a process to alert them when the caller ID has been spoofed. "
Greg O'Brien is the editor and publisher of Cartt DOT ca - which covers the telecom and cable industry. (supplied)
-The new phone call blocking rules come into effect today. Telecom companies are ordered to block illegitimate calls from reaching consumers. These are calls with ID information that either exceeds 15 digits or doesn’t conform to a number that can be dialled (for example, 000-000-0000).
This will block obvious illegitimate calls, but for the moment will not block ‘spoofed’ numbers. These are legitimate numbers that the scammers have hijacked to appear on call display.
Spoof numbers are ones that scammers have used to hide their own number and substitute another actual number. New technology to take effect next year should help detect and block spoofed numbers (CBC News)
A technology called, ‘Stir/Shaken’ which is a caller ID authentication and verification measure which should hamper spoofed number calling is to be implemented in September 2020.
The CRTC and police agencies continue to recommend never giving out personal information (such as banking information or Social Insurance Numbers) over the phone without first verifying whether the request is legitimate. Experts also say if you answer and there’s a delay of more than a second and it sounds like you’re being connected to a call centre, you should hang up. They also note that in Canada, government agencies like Revenue Canada (taxes), Border Services (immigration), the Department of Justice etc. will not call you.
Scammers have collected a known amount of more the $24 million from victims in Canada last year alone. As O’Brien points out, the actual amount scammed from Canadians may be much higher due to people’s reluctance to tell the police they were fooled.
CBC News (2:02)
Additional information
CRTC- Call ‘spoofing’ CRTC- manage unwanted calls CRTC- Press release Dec 17/19: Call blocking comes into force: Canadians to have more protection against nuisance calls CARTT- Dec 17/19: First stage of spam call blocking comes into force Thursday 650 CHOM: Dec 13/19: Tech expert: new phone regulations won’t stop scammers Globe and Mail: P.Nowak: The CRTC is cracking down on spam calls, but Canada’s wireless carriers should go further
Pretty much every one of us has been there--though likely not to anything resembling this nth degree--so maybe that's why the plight of Leonard Mawora has touched so many.
Mawora, a 26-year-old accounting and finance student, was set to complete his final semester at Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, beginning in the new year.
But first, he was heading home for Christmas in Zimbabwe--to see his mom and to help her mourn the loss of a family member.
The flight was last Sunday.
As he was packing for his trip on Saturday, Mawora realized he didn't have his passport.
And this is the spot where so many of us have been--no matter what the disappeared object.
The recipe for a horrible present are well known: panic followed by fear followed by hope followed by resignation.
Shake and repeat.
As he began frantically searching for his papers in his basement apartment, Mawora realized that--along with his Canadian study visa--his passport was in a duffel bag he had purchased for his trip home.
The problem was he had returned the bag to the store, a branch of the Winners chain.
He raced back to the store--four times on Saturday.
He was informed that the bag had been purchased and Winners had no way to track it.
"I am in a tight spot because in that passport was my study permit, there was my U.K. visa, my Canadian visa," he told CBC News' Jeremy Eaton, who published a story about Mawora on Tuesday.
Mawora, seen his St. John's apartment, remains--more than ever--something of a stranger in a stange land, but remains grateful for the concern and love strangers from across Canada have shown. (Jeremy Eaton/CBC)
"So I am stuck. I can't even go anywhere."
Officials at Zimbabwe's Ottawa embassy told him they could get him emergency travel documents to get home, but without his Canadian visa, he would not be able to immediately return to Canada to resume his studies.
How long it would take to get his papers was anyone's guess.
In Zimbabwe wait times tend to be predicated on who one knows.
"There are other people who have been waiting for this passport for more than two years and they still haven't received this passport," he told Eaton.
His ordeal has touched the hearts of many Canadians, including Rick Mercer, the well-known actor, political satirist, author and television personality.
Mercer, a native of Newfoundland and Labrador, went to Twitter to share Mawora's story, including a link to Eaton's CBC News article. If you are from Newfoundland & recently purchased a duffel bag from Winners please read. This man needs a social media Christmas miracle. Please share and make it happen. https://t.co/VuQtg0wfZO
— Rick Mercer (@rickmercer) 17 December 2019
I spoke by phone with Mawora Wednesday morning at his St. John's apartment.
ListenEN_Interview_4-20191218-WIE40
With files from CBC (Jeremy Eaton), Narcity (Colin Leggett)
A prominent green economy think tank is backing the federal government's promise to plant two billion trees over the the next 10 years to combat climate change, saying the plan is feasible.
A new study by the Smart Prosperity Institute at the University of Ottawa says planting the trees could reduce emissions between two and four million tonnes a year by 2030, and up to eight million tons a year by 2050 as the trees mature and absorb more carbon dioxide.
That could amount to about five per cent of the additional emissions Canada needs to cut in order to hit its Paris climate targets to reduce emissions by 2030 to be 70 per cent of what they were in 2005.
The study predicts the cost per tonne of carbon dioxide absorbed would range from $16 to $36, less than the $50 a tonne carbon tax that will be in place by 2022.
Saplings given away as part of Ecology Ottawa's tree giveaway program are pictured during an announcement on June 5, 2019 — World Environment Day — in Ottawa. More and more experts say supporting tree planting forestation projects is an accessible way for people to make a tangible, measurable difference in the fight against global warming. (Justin Tang/Canadian Press)
In the recent election campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to spend $3 billion on land and water conservation projects--including planting two billion additional trees--before 2030.
"Two billion is a good start," Dave Sawyer--an environmental economist at the institute who, with Seton Stieber, co-wrote the study--told The Canadian Press's Mia Rabson.
Under the plan, the federal government would not plant the trees itself but fund others to do it.
"It's not a panacea to solve Canada's problem," Sawyer told Rabson. "But clearly there is something here and we can actually get a lot of carbon and a lot of co-benefits."
Rabson writes that even at four million tonnes a year by 2030, the impact on Canada's emissions would not be huge.
Canada is currently aiming to cut emissions from 716 million tonnes in 2017 (the most recent year for which data is available) to no more than 511 million tonnes by 2030.
Environmentalists say planting young trees is not only cheaper but gives trees a better chance to adapt to the surrounding climate. (Free Images)
That target is expected to increase next year.
Planting billions of trees has been backed by climate change campaigners such as activist Greta Thunberg and American clean-tech leader Elon Musk.
According to a new analysis by ecologist Thomas Crowther and colleagues at ETH Zurich, a Swiss university, there is enough room in the world’s existing parks, forests, and abandoned land to plant 1.2 trillion additional trees, which would have the CO2 storage capacity to cancel out a decade of carbon dioxide emissions,
Sawyer says Canada does, indeed, have room to plant two billion new trees.
I spoke by phone Tuesday with Sawyer in Ottawa.
ListenEN_Interview_4-20191217-WIE40
With files from CP (Mia Rabson), CBC, Global,
Smart speakers with their voice assistants are becoming more and more common, and many might find their way under a Christmas tree this year. But for all the assistance and helpful information they may provide, they could also be gathering lots of private and personal information and data about you, your family, and even guests. Where that personal information ends up and what it might be used for is also a big concern.
I spoke with Jordan Pearson in Toronto. He is a Senior Editor at Motherboard, a tech news site from VICE Media.
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The smart speakers are also microphones that pick up your conversations. They’re supposed to be activated only by “wake” words, but as Pearson notes , they’re not perfect and can be recording things you may not want them to. He says people haveto realise they are always ”on”.
Jordan Pearson, tech expert for Vice Media (Vice)
Of course even when operating as desired they’re still collecting data on your habits, and all kinds of other data. Where that information ends up is also a concern. He notes that police have requested smart phone conversations.
Also, these are American companies which is also a concern because while they operate in our country they may not be subject to the same degree of scrutiny.
There is now a wide variety of smart speakers on the market along with several voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, and so on. (Reuters Peter Hobson, Beck Diefenbach,Stephen Lam, Harman Kardon)
He points out these devices are designed to collect as much information as possible as the default setting and there is always the question of trust in these companies. He noted that the case in Europe- where someone requested to see the data a company had gathered on them....and they were sent someone else's file.
Christmas, a time for parties, and guests. The head of Google says when inviting people to your home you should advise them that you have the device which some would classify as "surveillance" (via CBC)
Pearson says people should try to read the terms of use agreement when buying these devices, or any similar internet connected electronic data gathering device, although he notes these “contracts” seem deliberately long and confusing. One thing to do is to become familiar with the privacy settings on the device and set them to your level of comfort with data gathering.
Of course, because they’re not perfect, unless you physically turn them off, they’re always “on” and listening.
additional information
BBC: L. Kelion: Oct 15/19: Google chief: I'd disclose smart speakers before guests enter my home CBC: Jun 14/19: Smart home security could have real impacts on privacy, racial profiling Bloomberg Business Week: Carr/Day/Frier/Gurman: Dec 10/19: Silicon Valley Is Listening to Your Most Intimate Moments Washington Post: A. Chiu: Dec 12/19: She installed a ring camera in her childrens room for ‘peace of mind’ A hacker accessed it and harassed her 8-year-old daughter. Verge: N. Statt: Dec 20/18 Amazon sent 1,700 Alexa voice recordings to the wrong user following data request
Following the actions of China internationally and in respect of the diplomatic and trade dispute still ongoing with this country, Canada will strike an all party committee to study and recommend policy regarding dealings with China.
Colin Robertson is a former consular diplomat with Chinese experience and currently Vice-President at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, an independent, non-partisan research institute related to foreign policy
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Many political analysts in the recent past have suggested that Canada take a harder line against China. While internationally China has been criticised over its human rights abuses and such things as occupation of the South China Sea, relations with Canada have become particularly frosty.
Colin Robertson, VP- Canadian Global Affairs Institute, and foremer Canadian consul in Hong Kong. (supplied)
This comes mostly from Canada’s detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on an extradition request from the United States.
China responded by arresting two Canadians on what were widely viewed as being vague charges and simple retribution and suddenly upping the charges of two other Canadians arrested for alleged drug offence to that of a death penalty.
Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou seen in front of one of her Vancouver mansions on Sept 25, 2019. She is being held under house arrest. Two Canadians were imprisoned in China in near torture conditions with limited consular access on alleged espionage charges (Darryl Dyck-CP)
The opposition Conservative party has long pushed the Liberal government to take a harder line and last week in a vote in the House of Commons, they were supported by members of the other opposition parties in a request for an all-party committee to study China policy and make recommendations to the government. Conservative foreign affairs critic Erin O’Toole tabled a motion to “appoint a special committee with the mandate to conduct hearings to examine and review all aspects of the Canada-China relationship including, but not limited to consular, economic, legal, security and diplomatic relations.”
The Liberals had argued there was no need for such a committee as any such issues or policy reviews could be handled by the Commons foreign affairs committee. They opposed the motion but lost 148 to 171 in the first vote for the newly re-elected government.
Subi Reef, part of the Spratly chain of islets in the South China Sea, is seen in May 2015. China has been building up miltary reef bases in the sea to bolster its territorial claim to the area, which has been rejected by the U.N.and condemned internationally especially by countries in the region. (courtesy of the U.S. NAVY)
The committee will consist of six Liberals, four Conservatives, one Bloc Quebecois and one New Democrat. The committee would also have power to order Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Phillipe Champagne and Dominic Barton, Canada’s ambassador to China, to appear as witnesses if necessary.
Additional information
Globe and Mail: R. Fife: Dec 10/19: Opposition parties vote to create China committee, handing Liberals first defeat of minority Parliament Global News: Lao/Connelly: Dec 19/19: Parliament passes Conservative motion to create committee on Canada-China relations PostMedia: J. Ivison: Dec 10/19: OpEd: John Ivison: Lost vote over special committee on China an embarrassment for Liberals Ottawa Citizen: T Glavin: Dec 11/19 OpEd: Canadian politicians are finally taking on China – at least some of them are
It's pretty much conventional wisdom that an afternoon nap is good for you--a credo that a lot of people around the world have lived by for years.
A new study published in September of Swiss adults aged 35 to 75 found that the occasional nap--once or twice a week--appears to cut in half people's risk of heart attack, strokes and heart disease, compared with folks who never nap.
However!
Researchers also found more frequent napping provided no additional benefit.
Some studies are finding that either too much or too little sleep can increase the risk of cardiovascular events, including stroke. (CBC)
So much for the number of naps, at least for now.
What about duration?
A study published last week in the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology suggests that people who nap more than 90 minutes are 25 per cent more likely to have a stroke.
Say What?
(The study found that people who took naps lasting from 31 minutes to one hour were no more likely to have a stroke than people who took naps lasting from one to 30 minutes.)
The study of Chinese participants, who were 62-years-old on average, also found that people who sleep nine or more hours per night are 23 percent more likely to later have a stroke than people who sleep seven to less than eight hours per night.
(People who sleep less than seven hours per night or between eight and less than nine hours per night were no more likely to have a stroke than those who slept from seven to less than eight hours per night.)
Research will, of course, continue, but these studies may indicate that sleep duration and nap frequency may serve as triggers for strokes, which 15 million people around the world suffer every year.
Six million of those people die; another five million suffer serious disabilities.
Sleep expert Atul Khullar says for adults naps over 90 minutes are not good. (CBC)
Researchers have long debated the health benefits of napping and the debates are bound to continue.
Dr. Atul Khullar is medical director of the Northern Alberta Sleep Clinic and an Associate Clinical Professor at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Alberta who has long studied naps and their effects.
The latest studies appear to confirm something he has said for a number of years: for older adults, naps of over 90 minutes are not good.
"Excessive naps of 90 minutes, or a couple of hours, almost is a biological emergency," he told CBC News in 2016.
"The body is not supposed to be doing that."
For some perspective on what the latest studies may--or may not--mean, I spoke with him by phone Monday during a break at his clinic in Edmonton.
ListenEN_Interview_4-20191216-WIE40
With files from CBC (Kas Roussy) Science Daily, US News and Word Report, Science Daily
Transport Minister Marc Garneau was at Ottawa International Airport today to remind travellers that a new set of airline travel regulations take effect on Sunday.
It was a redux of last July when Garneau announced passenger-rights rules that required airlines to compensate and respond to tarmac delays, denied boardings and lost or damaged luggage.
The last phase of the Air Passenger Protection Regulations kick in Sunday, providing compensation for flight delays and cancellations. (Mike Cassese/Reuters)
The rules that take effect Sunday will require airlines to seat parents beside or near their children at no extra cost, and compensate flyers for delays and cancellations within an airline's control.
The payouts will be based on how long a passenger is delayed before arriving at their final destination could amount to $1,000 if the flight in stalled more than nine hours.
However, not everything is sweetness and light in the world of air transportation as the holiday season fast approaches.
As Transport Minister Marc Garneau (seen in April) reminded Canadians of new passenger rules set to take effect Sunday, a poll suggested about half of Canadians had never heard about them. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
Garneau's Friday reminder comes the same week he urged the country's flagship carrier, Air Canada, to resolve problems with its new reservation system, which is frustrating and angering would-be travellers.
Air Canada issued a statement that said it is undergoing "temporary issues" after replacing its aging booking system.
The carrier said there have been some cases of customers encountering "technical issues and longer wait times" as the airline's agents adapt to the new reservation system.
Meanwhile, a Canadian Press story published today says new polling suggests many people boarding flights this holiday season don't know about the Liberal government's new regime outlining air passengers' rights.
The Canadian Automobile Association-commissioned poll found that just over half of respondents said they hadn't heard or read anything about the rules aiming to protect flyers caught in travel nightmares.
When the first batch of regulations were announced in July, passenger rights advocate Gabor Lukacs warned that too many loop holes in the regulations would lead to too many problems.
Consumer advocate Gabor Lukacs is seen in 2017 photo. (CBC)
In September the CBC's Sophia Harris reported that the Canadian Transportation Agency had received 147 passenger complaints concerning denied boarding issues after the new rules went into effect on July 15.
If Lukacs was unhappy with the rules in July, he is is equally concerned now.
I spoke with him today by phone in Halifax.
ListenEN_Interview_4-20191213-WIE40
Wtih files from CBC, CTV, CP, RCi, Government of Canada
A new report from the National Farmers Union says that combining new technologies with old-fashioned mixed farming methods would be an effective weapon in the battle against human-driven climate change, as well go a long way toward saving the farming industry itself.
Agriculture generates about eight per cent of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions and the report suggests ways those emissions could be cut in half by 2050.
The study, which follows the NFU's national convention last month in Winnipeg (above), also links growing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture with changes that have seen the industry get bigger, more expensive and open to fewer and fewer people.
Noting that farm debt has doubled since 2000, the report says expensive fertilizers and other inputs must be used more efficiently, adding that biofuels and electrification would cut emissions and costs, as would on-farm power generation and more efficient use of farm outputs (milking, harvesting and shearing, for example), aided by technology.
"If regenerative agriculture exists, it is likely found in mixed-farming systems that utilize natural nutrient cycles, diverse animal and plant mixes and best-possible grazing methods to restore soils, raise carbon levels, protect water, enhance biodiversity and support sustainable livelihoods," the report says.
NFU President Katie Ward (above), who raises about 100 head of sheep on a farm near Ottawa, says keeping inputs to a minimum and tilling the soil as little as possible would reduce emissions and leave more revenues for farmers, letting them make a living on smaller holdings.
"The climate crisis and the farm crisis share many of the same causes," she told Bob Weber of The Canadian Press.
I spoke by phone with Ward earlier today at her farm.
ListenEN_Interview_4-20191212-WIE40
With files from CP (Bob Weber), CBC, NFU
By making genetic research so much easier, the recent technology known as CRISPR has allowed scientists an enormous advantage in research into so many areas.
Unfortunately there’s a downside which raises serious ethical questions.
Françoise Baylis (CM, ONS, PhD, FRSC, FCAHS), is a research professor at Dalhousie University Halifax who has written on the subject.
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The concern with gene-editing is with experiments into modification of human DNA, which could lead in theory to changing of the human genome forever. It could in theory enable creating “designer babies”. Indeed it’s been just over a year since the first genome edited babies were created by a Chinese scientist. A Russian researcher has since announced plans to carry out similar human gene editing experiments. Other Chinese experiments involve putting human genes into monkeys. All of these, and other potential experiments, have raised the concern of the scientific world that some of its members are going beyond ethical concerns of science.
Research professor Francoise Baylis at Dalhousie University, Halifax
RCI: Apr 16/19: Controversial experiment: Chinese add human gene to monkey brains (interview)
While some experts have expressed concern about state manipulation to create specific characteristics, Professor Baylis suggests that designer babies could result in greater class divide. This would be due to the expense making such technology accessible to the upper echelons and entrenching elite advantage, and thus privilege, in their DNA.
However she says these experiments have resulted in governments and the scientific community coming out with regulations and recommendations to slow down or halt such research until such time as serious ethical discussions take place to establish limits on what should be done and how.
F Baylis on the ethical questions involving CRISPR technology and gene editing of the human genome , Harvard University Press
She says the human genome belongs to “all of us” and any single or small group of scientists shouldn’t be altering it on their own.
“As a direct consequence of increasingly audacious moves by some scientists to engineer future generations, important decisions must now be made —decisions that will set a new course for science, society, and humanity. May these decisions be inclusive and consensual. May they be characterized by wisdom and benevolence. And, may we never lose sight of our responsibilities to ‘us all.’” F Baylis:’ Altered Inheritance: CRISPR and the Ethics of Human Genome Editing’ F Baylis:’ Altered Inheritance: CRISPR and the Ethics of Human Genome Editing
Fortunately some action has been taken. The WHO has convened a multi-disciplinary Expert Advisory Committee on Human Genome Editing to “examine the scientific, ethical, social and legal challenges associated with human genome editing (both somatic and germ cell). Professor Baylis is a member of the group which met for the first time this spring.
She lauds those countries that have established regulations regarding such research but notes there is always the chance of “rogue” scientists.
She also notes that scientists are usually very concerned about recognition by their peers and being shunned for having crossed established ethical lines is something they would very likely avoid
Additional information
The Conversation: F Baylis: Dec 10/19: A year after the first CRISPR babies, stricter regulations are now in place Dalhousie U: (YouTube): F Baylis speech (32min)
It’s known officially as CUSMA- the Canada, US, Mexico Agreement, although it’s still often referred to as NAFTA, or NAFTA 2.0 (North American Free Trade Agreement)
It’s been a long time in negotiation, almost there with agreements and signing, then new amendments worked out and finally an agreement.
So as a major international deal, what’s good and not so good after so long and often contentious negotiation.
Michael Manjuris (BAScMBA, PEng) is professor and chair global management studies at Ryerson University
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This deal had its origins back in the late 1980’s with the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement signed in 1989. This evolved into NAFTA with the addition of Mexico in 1994.
U.S. President Donald Trump, centre and Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto show off signatures while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau applauds at the USMCA signing ceremony in Buenos Aires, Argentina Nov. 30, 2018. Mexico's economy minister, Ildelfonso Guajardo, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland are behind them. It seemed there was a deal, but not quite as revisions were demanded, (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
The trade deals have been contentious since they were first proposed, and although the leaders involved insist they are all beneficial for all parties, many critics disagree.
RCI: Dec 10/19: Canada, US, Mexico sign “infinitely better” revised free trade deal
Nonetheless, professor Manjuris gives this latest deal a “B” grade. Given the competing demands of the three parties, he says Canadian negotiators did a fair job of protecting Canadian interests especially given the volatile politics of the U.S under the current administration.
As it was in the past, he says some industries and businesses may find it tough going during the period of transition, once the deal has been ratified by the three governments, but now that terms have at least been agreed to, he says they will have a much clearer guide as to the rules going forward.
A new report examining racism in Canada has been published, confirming what a lot of people already knew from first-hand experience.
The report, based on a survey by Environics Institute for Survey Research was publicly released today.
It finds that one in five Canadians experiences discrimination regularly, or from time to time.
The survey found that just under 40 per cent of racist incidents reported took place on the street.
An equal number of incidents took place in the workplace.
Environics says the race relations survey is the first of its kind in Canada to examine Canadians' experiences, attitudes and perceptions at the national level.
Lead researcher Keith Neuman told CBC News' Mark Gollom on Monday that "one of the unexpected results was a significant proportion of Canadians across all racial groups acknowledged that racism is a reality in Canada."
Neuman added that "a significant proportion of white respondents" agreed.
"I think it is notable, maybe a bit surprising, because there's this notion that non-racialized Canadians don't think there's a problem," Neuman told Gollom.
The survey found that discrimination can take many forms in day-to-day experiences, involving subtle slights or insults, such as being treated as being not as smart or mistaken for someone who serves others.
One person well acquainted with the ill-effects of racism is Montreal community activist and McGill law student, Balarama Holness.
Last year, Holness was instrumental in collecting over 22,000 signatures, obligating the City of Montreal to hold public consultations on systemic racism and discrimination.
I spoke with him Tuesday about the Environics report.
ListenEN_Interview_4-20191210-WIE40
With files from CBC News (Mark Gollom)
A long time strong proponent of Canada-China relations, has recently changed position.
Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, had almost four decades of service in the upper levels of Canadian government in science and technology policy and Chinese affairs. She is currently a Senior Fellow with the China Institute at the University of Alberta and Senior Fellow at the Institute of Science, Society and Policy, University of Ottawa.
She feels that China has evolved into a much different country under the current leadership than it was decades ago. She feels the country is lacking respect for international law and conventions. She has joined a chorus of other experts who in varying ways, are saying Canada needs to rethink its policies toward China, getting tougher on one hand, and looking to expand trade to other countries in the Indo-Asian region.
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Recently she wrote an opinion piece for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an influential Canadian think tank on policy. Her article is entitled, "Dealing with the New China: How Canada can reset its relations with Beijing".
Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a Mandarin speaker and long analyst of Canada Chinese affairs in science and technology. ( University of Ottawa)
While there has been concern over cyber hacking and theft of intellectual property it was the action of the arbitrary arrest of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, an action she classifies as state kidnapping ,that caused her to change her position. This came in conjunction with the sudden increase to a death sentence for two other Canadians in custody in China, having her locked suitcases secretly broken into and searched, and being told that China had created a long list of Canadians they could detain if it so chose.
RCI: Dec 9/19: Canadian detainees mark 365 days in Chinese captivity
As a Mandarin speaker she notes that the word “han” spoken to Canadian officials or business persons is interpreted by the Canadians as meaning the Canadians are nice, open, and friendly, but for the Chinese the meaning is silly, naïve, and of little concern. In other words, she says they smile to the Canadian faces, but denigrate them behind their backs.
Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Canada Cong Peiwu participates in a roundtable interview with journalists at the Embassy of China in Ottawa on Friday, Nov. 22, 2019. It seems there is no change in the tough talk on issues from the previous ambassador, and no change regarding imprisoned Canadians (Justin Tang/THE CANADIAN PRESS)
While she commends the current Canadian government for getting other countries to indicate their concern over Chinese actions in the case of the imprisoned Canadians, many critics have said this is only an annoyance to the current Communist government, and many are recommending that to earn any respect from the Chinese government, much tougher actions must take place as well as diplomatic words.
Additional information
TorStar: J. Nutall: Nov 23/19: A ‘friend of China’ no more: Why a longtime Canadian ally has become one of Beijing’s fierce critics Fortune Magazine: R Hackett: Oct 19/19 Chinese Hacking: The Plane Made from Stolen Tech? Simon Fraser University: (Youtube): Oct 11/19: Conversations that matter: OpEd; Why the Canada-China relationship needs a reset (w-Jonathan Manthorpe-author) (30 min) Macdonald Laurier Inst. : The Dragon at the Door-The future of Canada-China relations Assembly: J. Smith: Oct 24/12: Did Outsourcing and Corporate Espionage Kill Nortel? Financial Review: J. Kehoe: May 28/14: How Chinese hacking felled telecommunication giant Nortel Two Tears on the Window: Julia and Kevin Garrett: book recounting the experience of two Canadians imprisoned in China
The original concept of artificial turf held a theoretical number of advantages. The tiny pellets of rubber infill made from recycled tires diverted thousands of those tires from landfill sites, while the fields eliminated the need for pesticides, fertilizers and watering.
Crumb rubber is spread throughout the artificial turf as filler and support between the “grass” blades, and as a cushioning for players
Since the arrival of artificial turf however, there have been ongoing concerns about the toxicity of crumb rubber. That concern has been increased through a new study by researchers in Montreal.
Hans Larsson is co-senior author of the study. He is a professor of vertebrate palaeontology at McGill University in Montreal and director of the Redpath Museum. I reached him by mobile phone in the Andes in Colombia where he is on another research project.
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The study was published in the science journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) under the title, Artificial turf infill associated with systematic toxicity in an amniote vertebrate (abstract here)
Hans Larsson, McGill University Montreal, co senior author of study(via Quebec Centre for Biodiversity Research)
It seems that the finely chopped up tires are full of toxic chemicals, including heavy metals, which leach out in water from a rainfall or as they sit in snow, and get runoff into the environment. In addition, Larsson says there is “offgassing” as the volatile chemicals are slowly released into the air.
While other research has found toxins from crumb rubber leachate, they dealt with lower life forms like algae, and tiny acquatic daphnia, and small zebrafish. This was the first to study effects on more complex life forms and used chicken embryos.
Tiny pellets of crumb rubber infill in artificial turf. Made from recycled tires, the product has been linked to anecdotal claims it causes cancer in recent years. (CBC)
They found that even moderate doses could result in non viable embryos in some cases, and in survivors, there were both physical and brain deformations.
Larsson points to some studies which have shown a high rate of cancer in soccer goalies whose knees and hands (or gloves) are in close contact with the rubber surface and are more likely to also be touching their faces.
Larsson says this study raises serious questions to be explored in more research, but also the same serious questions about the continued use of crumb rubber on artificial turf and its potential for harm to the environment, wildlife, and humans as well.
Additional information
CBC: M Laanela: Nov 6/15: Artificial turf and cancer in soccer goalies explored in documentary Center for Environmental Health: A Cocktail of Harmful Chemicals in Artificial Turf Infill Synthetic Turf Council: Facts about recycled rubber EPA (US) study vol 1 Jul 2019 EPA study vol 1 part 2 The Guardian (UK): E. Holden: Jun 25/19: US playgrounds: fears grow over health risks from rubber particles
Finally!
A deal--officially--is in place to build a new hockey arena in Calgary.
After years of back-and-forth, the city and the owners of the NHL Calgary Flames and the Calgary Stampede have signed on the dotted line.
The official announcement was made Thursday and ensures that the Flames will remain in Calgary for at least the next 35 years.
This conceptual drawing of a new hockey arena in Victoria Park is from the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation, which owns the Calgary Flames. It shows what a proposed arena would look like at 12th Avenue and Fourth Street S.E (Rossetti/Calgary Flames)
Taxpayers are paying $290 million toward the project; the Flames are paying $275 million.
The two sides had previously agreed to evenly split $550 million in costs, but Calgary Councillor Jeff Davison said Thursday through the negotiating process the city agreed to commit an additional $15 million in taxpayer funding to cover land transfer and demolition costs.
The building replaces the 36-year-old Scotiabank Saddledome as the Flames' home rink and will serve as an anchor of a planned entertainment distinct bordering the Stampede grounds on the east side of the city's downtown district, Victoria Park.
Construction on the 19,000-seat arena is expected to begin in late 2021 and to be completed by late 2024.
The 36-year-old Scotiabank Saddledome, built for the 1988 Winter Olympics, will finally be put out to its proverbial pasture, but not until 2024. (CBC)
It will sit just north of where the Saddledome, which will be demolished, is now located.
The signed agreement ends five years of rancor and heated debate.
Officials said Thursday the agreement does not deviate from a deal reached in July.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi acknowledged that the arena “is not something that has universal support and acclaim throughout our community,” but added that it is “the right thing to do.”
“We’ve got a good deal in front of us,” Nenshi said Thursday. “A deal that makes sense for the public purse, but a deal that makes sense for the future of the community as well.”
Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp. (CSEC) president and CEO John Bean confirmed the signing of the deal in a statement posted on the Flames’ website.
Author and journalist Bruce Dowbiggin is a long-time resident of Calgary. (cbc,ca)
Bruce Dowbiggin is a long-time resident of Calgary and an even-longer-lover of hockey.
Dowbiggin, who has written numerous books about the sport, its players and its management, currently hosts the Not The Public Broadcaster website.
I spoke with him Friday about what's taken place over the past few years and what the near future may have in store.
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Let's face it, homeless people in Canada and elsewhere don't have a whole lot of people in their corner.
But don't count William Panenka as one of those guys who looks the other way, like so many of us do, when he meets some person on the street, shivering, or maybe in rags, asking us for a handout.
Panenka has credentials to burn and soul to share.
Among other things, he's a physician and researcher with the B.C. Neuropsychiatry Program and the Provincial Health Services Agency in Vancouver.
In 2018, Vancouver city lawyers advised council to not proceed with a shopping cart ban because of the potential of court challenges from homeless advocates which would be a financial burden on the city. (David Horemans/CBC)
And he's just led a study that might go a long way--or, maybe it's just a short way, given the nature of the problem--to helping the rest of us better understand people stuck on the street with no direction home.
The study, published this week in Lancet Public Health, is an analysis of data from 38 other studies published between 1995 and 2018 from six high income countries: Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, the UK and the USA.
It was funded by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research project grant and co-authored by researchers from Simon Fraser University, the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, the B.C. Provincial Neuropsychiatry Program, BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services, and the department of psychiatry at UBC.
The biggest takeaway: the researchers found that one out of every two people who are homeless may have experienced traumatic brain injury.
Dr. William Panenka (above), a physician and researcher with the B.C. Neuropsychiatry Program and the Provincial Health Services Agency in Vancouver, led the study. (bcchr.ca)
Comparing their estimates to studies of the general population, the researchers estimated that the lifetime prevalence of traumatic brain injury in people who are homeless and in unstable housing situations could potentially be up to four times higher than in the general population.
So, you may wonder, what's the big deal?
That's what I asked Dr. Panenka when I spoke to him by phone on Thursday.
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The study by Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, and the University of Guelph in Ontario is called "Canada's Food Price Report 2020”
Its’ the tenth annual report, and it notes that climate change, with its accompanying bad weather, is an important contributing factor in the expected increase in food prices.
Sylvain Charlebois is the Director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, and lead author of the report.
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While the inflation rate in Canada is around 1.9 per cent the study suggests the food increase will be from two to four percent, but likely at the higher end of that scale.
Sylvain Charlebois of Dalhousie University is lead author of the tenth annual report (Radio-Canada)
This means an average Canadian family of 4 will spend almost $500 more on food this year or about $12,667.
Charlebois expects meat prices to have the most dramatic increase, mostly due to an outbreak of swine flu in China resulting in mass culling of herds. China has been buying up meat in markets around the world to replace their herd loss.
The report also notes the changing climate playing a role in increased prices. “Canadian food systems will be affected by changing weather patterns including droughts and forest fires, heavy precipitation, reduced freshwater access and rising sea levels. Climate models suggest that Canada’s agricultural regions will subsequently feel the impacts of a drier summer season and increased spring and winter precipitation. Canadian farmers will face challenges in the future dealing with unpredictable crop yields, heat-wave livestock threats, pasture availability and pest and disease outbreaks” Canada’s Food Price Report 2020. Soybeans are covered in snow on Charles Fossay's farm in the Rural Municipality of Cartier, Man. A wet fall and early winter has hurt crops across Canada's prairie provinces. (Bartley Kives/CBC)
With farmers in Canada hit with an early snow in the west, and less than ideal conditions elsewhere it’s going to be a less than ideal harvest for the market in 2020 in a variety of crop categories. In the one year period ending September 2019, vegetables were hard hit by climate change resulting in a 12 per cent jump.
Co- lead author of the report Simon Somogyi says Canada needs to promote domestic vegetable production such as in greenhouses. But because of the Liberal government legalising cannabis, some operations are instead getting out of food production instead. In southern B.C, greenhouses once producing food are switching to cannabis. One company alone, Canopy Growth, is planning 275,000 sq metres of production (Lien Yeung- CBC).
Charlebois points out that food is in a world market and what happens in one part of the world affects other parts. Storms can slow down transport creating expensive shortages. Storms, drought or fires can in some cases seriously harm entire crop harvests. Increased warmth in southern markets resulted in more cases of E-coli disease in lettuce creating shortages for the market and increasing prices for alternatives like spinach.
RCI: Aug 7/19 Food or cannabis? Farming questions in Canada
Simon Somogyi, lead researcher from the University of Guelph says Canada should develop a national food policy that promotes greater domestic production of high cost items like vegetables through such things as greenhouse operations and vertical farming. This would mean reduced disease risk, shorter shipping distances, and potentially lower costs. The alternative he says is leaving the country vulnerable to the vagaries of imports and continued food price increase.
Additional information
CBC: K. Yarr: Dec 4/19: Booming P.E.I. economy could push up food prices more than average Canadian Press (via CTV): A. Sagan: Dec 4/19: Climate change to push food prices higher, report predicts up to 4 per cent hike in 2020 Global News; H. Jackson: Dec 4/19: Here’s how much more Canadians will...
It is, of course, that most wonderful time of the year...the December shopping season.
Stresses you out a little, eh?
'Tis the season to be jolly, right?
The holiday shopping season is in full swing and the clock is ticking. It may be time to think green. (CBC)
Not feeling it yet?
Here's a shot worth taking, a study well worth reading.
It's from the John Molson School of Business at Montreal's Concordia University, written by Professor Onur Bodur and one his his PhD students, Ali Tezer, who is now an assistant professor at HEC Montreal.
They examined the so-called "greenconsumption effect"--how using a green product creates a "warm glow" feeling in consumers
And guess what?
They found that spending some of that Christmas shopping money on green products makes people feel a whole lot better, particularly the recipients of greener gifts.
The study, The Greenconsumption Effect: How Using Green Products Improves Consumption Experience, is published in the Journal of Consumer Research.
Onur Bodur is an associate professor of marketing at the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University. (Anna Oliinyk/Unsplash)
I spoke by phone with Dr. Bodur on Wednesday at his office at Concordia.
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After the initial enthusiasm of nuclear power starting in the 1950’s, that enthusiasm began to wane a few decades later, especially after the Hollywood film, The China Syndrome, and the almost simultaneous 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear disaster. Now a newer idea is being promoted of these smaller localised reactors. Indeed, three of Canada’s provincial leaders recently signed a deal to develop the technology of SMR’s, or small modular reactors.
Warren Mabee (PhD) explains SMR's. He's the director of Queen's University's Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy in Kingston, Ontario.
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With the SL-1- US Army accident in 1961, the Three Mile Island disaster, Tchernobyl, and Fukashima, and many other accidents and incidents less reported, people began to be wary of nuclear power.
Professor Warren Mabee (PhD) is director of Queen's University's Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy (Queen's U. Youtube)
However, with certain limitations to solar and wind power generation, and with tidal power still in its infancy, the idea of small localised reactors has grown.
Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp.'s Micro Modular Reactor Energy System is designed to fit in a standard shipping container. The company is partnering with Global First Power and Ontario Power Generation, who are in talks with Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. and the CNSC about preparing a site for a reactor at AECL's Chalk River Laboratories. Infrastructure is then added around the reactor, but still at a far far smaller scale than 'traditional' large reactors (Ultra Safe Nuclear)
What are small modular reactors?. These are reactors and accompanying infrastructure that are much much smaller than the typical huge installations usually associated with nuclear power generating plants. The idea is that these localised reactors could be used to “green” the increasing need for power generation and could provide electricity for entire small towns, or localised sections of a large city.
A further indication of the relative compactness of SMR's. An illustration shows a NuScale Power Module on a truck. NuScale is one of the small modular reactor companies whose designs are going through pre-licencing approval with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. Many are designed to be small enough to transport by truck or by shipping container. (NuScale Power)
The SMR’s generate less than 300MW, and as little as 5Mw, and are compared to Canada’s current nuclear stations of 515 and 881MW. By further comparison, Fukashima’s six reactors produced a combined capacity 4.7 GW of electricity.
RCI: Dec 2/19: Three Premiers announce nuclear reactor development deal
While there is ample power produced with no real carbon emissions, Mabee points out we still haven’t figured out what to do with the waste fuel and pipes and other parts that wear out and are radioactive for thousands of years.
The CANDU type Canadian design reactors don't require the typical huge cooling towers but still require a huge infrastructure and space. This one at Point Lepreau New Brunswick generates 660MW. (Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission report to INRA, May 17 2018)
However he also notes that while there is electrical power loss as the huge central nuclear stations have to distribute that power over long networks, this would not nearly be the case for the SMR’s and their localised networks, making the system more efficient.
Refurbishing the core at Point Lepreau in 2012. Highly complex and astronomically expensive to repair, the problem also remains with all reactors of what to do with the old/used replaced parts which remain radioactive for centuries. (CBC)
Nuclear chemist and Saskatchewan Environmental Society board member Ann Coxworth quoted in the CBC says there are about 100 possible technological designs it would take years of testing and as many years to build. The first prototype would be ready for trials in Ontario only by 2030.
Most alliances historically don’t last more than a couple of decades, but the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance is 70 this year, and has grown over that time to its now 29 members.
Originally formed as a protection against the Soviets, new and much different types of threats lurk, and there are divisions in the organisation.
Colin Robertson, a former Canadian diplomat and a Vice President of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. discusses the issues.
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U.S. President Donald Trump has been forcefully scolding many members of the Alliance for not living up to defence spending. In 2018, the Alliance widened the rules as to what counts as defence spending. Canada is among several members, including France and Germany, not living up to the commitment to spend at least two per cent of GDP on defence.
Colin Robertson, VP Canadian Global Affairs Institute, former Canadian diplomat (supplied)
This now includes for example, pensions paid to former soldiers. The Liberal government has been meticulously searching for any expense that might be counted as defence spending including RCMP expenses for members involved in peacekeeping, costs for Canada’s spy agency-the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) and even death benefits for veteran’s survivors. Canada now spends about 1.27 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product on defence.
Robertson notes that the Alliance is burdened with disagreements, but that this is not unusual in NATO’s history.
Members of the enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group Latvia wait for helicopters in the training area during Exercise TOMAHAWK Soaring at the Lielvārdes Military Base, Latvia on Oct. 3, 2018. Canada points to such efforts and training missions of other NATO troops as a demonstration of its commitment, beyond mere dollars. (eFP BG ROTO 10 LATVIA Imagery/CAF)
It now faces new and much different threats from the more simpler Cold War period, such as new state actor threats, social but somewhat fluid and unorganised threats like piracy and mass migration, and non-state actors like Al Queda and DAESH, and a move by Russia and China to militarise space. While it has its hurdles to overcome, Robertson feels the Alliance will remain strong coming out of this week’s meetings.
Additional information
CBC: M. Brewster: Dec 2/19: NATO summit expected to put Canada under pressure on multiple fronts CBC: M. Brewster: Dec 3/19: How NATO's defence spending benchmark turned into an international PR exercise BBC: J. Marcus: Dec 3/19: Nato summit: Divisions exposed ahead of meeting CNN: C. Brown: Mar 14/19: NATO report says only 7 members are meeting defense spending targets
So who's next to go in this National Hockey League public relations nightmare?
One wonders.
Don't bet against Marc Crawford.
Crawford is currently a Chicago Blackhawks assistant coach.
Sort of.
Marc Crawford leads a Colorado team practice in Denver in 1996 as assistant coach Bob Hartley looks on. Crawford led the Avalanche to the Stanley Cup that spring. (Paul Chaisson/Canadian Press)
At the moment, he is away from the team while the Hawks and the National Hockey League investigate some alleged misconduct in his treatment of some players in the past.
And that's all we know for now.
Crawford is a person with whom Canadian hockey fans are well acquainted.
He's been a full-time head coach of four franchises, winning the Stanley Cup with Colorado in 1996, and lest we forget--and thousands of Canadians will never forget--Crawford was the guy who kept Wayne Gretzky on the bench during a semifinals shootout at the 1998 Nagano Olympics.
Crawford, then an associate coach with Ottawa, reacts to a play on the ice in the third period against the Anaheim Ducks at the Canadian Tire Centre on Dec. 22, 2016. (Marc DesRosiers/Reuters/USA TODAY Sports)
Right now, he's more grist for the hockey mill, following departed TV broadcasting icon Don Cherry, former Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock, and former Calgary Flames coach Bill Peters, all of them forced out into unwanted hockey spotlight.
The Blackhawks are supplying no details about what they are looking into, but former NHL forward Sean Avery recently told the New York Post that Crawford kicked him after he was whistled for a too-many-men-on-the ice penalty when Avery and Crawford were with the Los Angeles Kings during the 2006-07 season.
Avery tempered the charges on Monday.
And Crawford is picking up support elsewhere.
Another of Crawford's former players, Brent Sopel, said last year that Crawford "kicked me, he choked me, he grabbed the back of my jersey and just pulling it back."
Both Crawford and Sopel were with Vancouver at the time.
Where all this is headed is anyone's guess, but questions abound.
Stu Cowan is a sports columnist with the Montreal Gazette. (YouTube)
Is this the way it's always been and where does hockey, a rough-and-tumble sport marked by periods of flowing grace, go from here?
For some perspective, I spoke with Stu Cowan, a sports columnist at the Montreal Gazette.
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With files from CBC, CP, AP, CTV, Global Sportsnet, TSN
Holodomor - derivation of “moryty holodom” to kill by starvation Rhea Clyman was her name, a ground breaking woman in so many historic ways, yet few have heard of her, few remember.
Self-taught and absolutely daring, this young Canadian woman from a poverty stricken background, became a foreign news correspondent at a time when such a thing for women was almost unheard of. She was also the first western journalist to expose the forced starvation in Ukraine that killed millions
Jars Balan, Director Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies University of Alberta, came across her remarkable story and is writing a book about her.
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As a very young child, she lost part of her leg in a streetcar accident. Later as a child working in a factory to help support the family, she improved upon a limited school education with self-study. In the 1920’s she moved to New York, then to London, then to Paris always hoping to work as a journalist. In 1928 seeing dissent in Germany as a possible career launch she moved to Berlin and saw Hitler’s first failed power grab.
Jars Balan, Director Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies University of Alberta
Then at age 24, she left for Moscow. Within months she had learned enough Russian to get by on her own and as a freelance correspondent for the London Daily Express and Toronto Evening Telegram.
Two of the rare images of the remarkable Rhea Clyman,(L) Ottawa Citizen , (R) Toronto Evening Telegram, both published related to her expulsion from the the USSR
As with many young journalists at the time, there was an initial sympathy for the Communist ideals of equality and prosperity for all. Unlike most foreign journalists who travelled on whirlwind tours with interpreters who were instructed on what to show and how to explain it, Clyman lived with a Russian family, was able to travel on her own, and quickly experienced the daily hardships and the underlying institutionalised terror of Stalin's regime.
One of her articles of the hardships under the Stalinist regime. The O-Gay Pay Oo referred to is the OGPU secret state police.
Her reports on the terrible conditions and abuse of political prisoners in the Siberian labour camps brought her to the attention of the Soviet leadership. By 1932 her reports on the horrific Stalin-ordered famines in the Ukraine, were often in conflict with the less informed western journalists taken on propaganda tours.
It was those truthful reports that prompted the dictatorship to order the OGPU secret police to arrest and expel her on false charges of being a purveyor of what we would call today “fake” news.
Soldiers confiscate grain from peasants in Novokrasne, Ukraine, in 1932 during the Holodomor. Canadian-born Rhea Clyman is considered the first western journalist to document the deliberate starvation of millions of Ukrainians by the Stalin regime. (Photo: history.org.ua)
Back in London, she was now much freer in writing articles exposing the atrocities of the Communist government and the lie that Communism was creating a new, better, and egalitarian society.
Later this young Jewish woman left for Germany again to document the rise of Hitler lasting through the rising antisemitism there, and the annexation of Austria and of the Sudetenland.
One of her articles again revealing the horror of the forced starvation
One of the survivors of a deadly air crash which was ferrying refugees out of Germany, she moved to Montreal as a Canadian correspondent for the London Daily Express. By 1942 she moved to New York and her story starts to fade. She died there, mostly forgotten in July of 1981.
"She's someone every Canadian should know about,” said Balan. “Hers is such an amazing story. She reported from two totalitarian regimes, was a feminist, a single woman—a Jewish woman reporting from Nazi Germany", adding, "She's a remarkable Canadian, a remarkable woman, a remarkable journalist".
Stop me if you've heard this one: another natural treasure is under threat--really under threat.
Just the Great Lakes, folks.
You know: those five enormous and gorgeous bodies of water, straddling Canada and the U.S., that have long served as an oh-so-vital component of our collective physical, cultural, economic and spiritual life.
A new study finds they are now filling with so much plastic waste that they are about to rival the world's oceans in that no-so-healthy regard.
And God knows, we've all seen those photos.
Ocean plastics are a problem around the world, including Newfoundland and Labrador (above). (Rich Carey/Shutterstock)
But guess what, there are things we can do.
The person who tells me this is the same person who carried out the study.
Her name is Gail Krantzberg, a human dynamo with a self-described passion for water.
Krantzberg is also an engineering and public policy professor at the Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, hard by Lake Ontario.
Her findings are being published in the Journal of Waste Resources and Recycling.
Krantzberg has been in love with water all her life. (Courtesy: Ontario Society of Professional Engineers)
As you might guess, it is--most emphatically--not a pretty read.
"We are increasingly detecting microplastics in the waters and fish and wildlife in the Great Lakes," Krantzberg told The Canadian Press in a recent interview when asked about her study.
"A fish with a gut full of plastics cannot be a healthy fish and can, in fact, starve to death. We know the problem is increasing in severity."
But Wait!
I spoke by phone with Kranzberg on Thursday about how the plastics are getting to the Great Lakes and her call for "swift action," which--as it turns out--is something all of us can contribute to every day, if we can just muster the needed will.
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With files from CP, Digital Journal
The United Nations latest warning on climate says we’re heading for a global average increase of 3.2 degrees Celsius.
It notes that countries agreed to targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to slow the increase are well short of the timeframe needed.
Robert McLeman (PhD) , discusses the implications of the report. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario
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The report is called “Emissions Gap Report 2019” and is the tenth report about greenhouse gas emissions assessing “the annual guage of the disconnect between where we are and where we need to be”. and comes on the heels of another report last month called “Lessons from a decade of emissions gap assessments”
Professor Rob McLeman (PhD), Wilfrid Laurier University Department of Geography and Environmental Studies (supplied)
It warns that, ” Unless mitigation ambition and action increase substantially and immediately in the form of new or updated nationally determined contributions (NDCs) by 2020 and are reflected in ambitious long-term GHG development strategies, exceeding the 1.5°C goal can no longer be avoided, and achieving the well-below 2°C temperature goal becomes increasingly challenging”
Global greenhouse gas emissions per type of gas (left) and (right) theTop greenhouse gas emitters, excluding land-use change emissions due to lack of reliable data (UNEP)
RCI: Nov 26/19: UN issues another stark warning about climate
The reports note that large annual emissions cuts need to take place between 2020 and 2030 to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and paint yet another very worrisome picture of the future under various scenarios and degrees of action
The ArcelorMittal Dofasco steel and coke plant. The UN reports say there's still time to take drastic action to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but if not the world is headed for a 3.2 degree temperature increase with severe problems by the end of this century. (John Rieti-CBC)
However, they also say, there have never more opportunities for nations to increase action to the levels needed to ward off the worst impacts of climate change.
For his part McLeman says a 3.2C increase would lead to massive displacement of people due to sea rise, and food crises due to droughts and floods. "It would not be a nice place to raise your children", he says.
additional information
Emissions Gap Report 2019- Full document Emissions Gap Report-2019: executive summary
For the second time in less than a month, hockey is back in the headlines for--what staunch supporters will tell you--are all the wrong reasons.
In what seems like a heartbeat ago, everybody was venting--pro or con--about the firing of Don Cherry, the long-time Saturday night television mainstay/icon, who was fired by Sportsnet following some loaded words directed at immigrants.
Now, the hockey coach of the NHL Calgary Flames, Bill Peters, appears to be in serious trouble--the result of an alleged racist incident involving a Nigerian-born player, Akim Aliu, he was coaching in the minor leagues 10 years ago.
Akim Aliu played seven games for the Flames between 2011 and 2013. (Associated Press)
In an interview with The Sports Network, Aliu alleged Peters "dropped the N bomb several times towards me in the dressing room in my rookie year because he didn't like my choice of music."
Aliu said the incident occurred during the 2009-10 season when both were with the Chicago Blackhawks' minor-league affiliate in Rockford, Ill.
The NHL and the Flames are investigating and nothing has been proven so the only thing we know for certain at this point is that Peters will not be behind the Flames' bench tonight--under club orders--when they play the Buffalo Sabres.
"This is a very serious matter and we want to be thorough in our review ... We will have no further comment until our review is complete," the Flames said in a statement.
Flames' General Manager Brad Trevliving called the allegations "repulsive."
Flames' General Manager Trevliving. (cbc.ca)
"This is subject matter that has no place in our organization," Treliving said. "Now it's my job to find out exactly what's taken place."
Here's what Aliu told TSN's Frank Seravalli about the incident, apparently sparked by Aliu playing hip hop music in the locker room.
"He walked in before a morning pre-game skate and said 'Hey Akim, I'm sick of you playing that n---s---'" Aliu told Seravalli.
"He said 'I'm sick of hearing this n---s f---other n---s in the a--stuff.'
"He then walked out like nothing ever happened. You could hear a pin drop in the room, everything went dead silent. I just sat down in my stall, didn't say a word."
Seravalli reported two other players on that team — Simon Pepin and Peter MacArthur — independently corroborated the incident.
Aliu, who was born in Nigeria, raised in Ukraine and moved to Canada at the age of seven, has played just seven NHL games and is currently a free agent after playing 11 games last season in the ECHL.
The treatment of Colin Kaepernick (pictured in 2016) by the National Football League was a reason Aliu cited for not coming forward sooner. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Photo/ File)
Asked why he waited 10 years to step forward, he cited former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
“This isn’t me being bitter. I sat on this a really, really long time. It broke my heart, I think it made my career go downhill before it started,” Aliu said. “This isn’t to the degree of Kaepernick by any means, but if you play the race card, it’s most likely the end of your career.”
Aliu said he did not confront Peters at the time of the incident, nor in the private meeting that followed in Peters’ office.
“What am I going to say? I was 20 years old and a first-year pro. I was too scared to speak up,” he said.
“I beat myself up every day over it.”
For some perspective, I called Balarama Holness, a former professional football player who is now a community activist and a law student at McGill University.
We spoke by phone on Wednesday.
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With files from AP (John Wawrow), TSN (Frank Seravalli)
With pro-democracy protests still ongoing, albeit, slightly calmed, the elections for the lower echelon of government, the regional councils, were held on Sunday.
Pro-democracy candidates won almost all positions and now 17 of the 18 regional councils are dominated by pro-democracy members.
Colin Robertson gives an analysis of the implications, and Canada’s position. He is Vice-President at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, an independent, non-partisan research institute related to foreign policy and a former Canadian consul in Hong Kong
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The message that Chief Executive Officer Carrie Lam had been promoting to the press and apparently to Beijing is that a silent majority in Hong Kong were fed up with the protests and wanted authorities to firmly end them. The massive public turnout and vote in favour or pro-democracy candidates has clearly shown that not to be the case.
Colin Robertson, VP Canadian Global Affairs Institute, former Canadian Consul in Hong Kong (supplied)
Robertson notes that Beijing’s reaction has once again been a firm warning of the west not to meddle in China’s affairs which include Hong Kong. He suggests that these results may calm the demonstrations now that the pro-democracy movement has at least a small voice in politics.
Meanwhile, the BBC is reporting that virtually all coverage of the pro-democracy result has been downplayed by China, with some news stories claiming tampering in the results.
A team including management, security guards, councillors and the Hong Kong Red Cross, search rooms for any remaining protesters hiding at PolyU on Tuesday. It is thought that by having at least a small political voice as a result of the elections, the violent demonstrations such as that at the university, may be calmed (Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images)
Robertson notes that with recent trade actions by China against Canada, concerns about human rights treatment of China’s minority groups and dissidents, and potential security issues, Canadians are starting to become more wary of China. It is unclear how this may play out in terms of Canadian policy at this point. While other members of the so-called “Five Eyes” countries have banned Huawei from developing a 5G network in their countries, Canada has yet to decide whether to deny or allow the Chinese electronics giant to participate in Canada.
Additional information
Thomson Reuters (via CBC): Nov 26/19: Humiliated at polls, Hong Kong's leader acknowledges discontent with government BBC: Nov 26/19: Hong Kong elections: Chinese media attempt to downplay results PostMedia: Nov 25/19: Pro-democracy activists urge Trudeau to show some 'guts' dealing with China Guardian (UK): E Graham-Harrison: Nov 25/19: China issues warning over Hong Kong after election blow South China Morning Post: Nov 25/19: Hong Kong election results giving opposition camp huge win boost Hang Seng, as hopes rise violent protests may subside
For many of us, one of the great pleasures of life is playing a team sport.
One of the things that makes it great is the locker room, a place we tend to feel safe, mainly, I would submit, because we are hanging out with our peers, people we feel are not all that different from who we believe we are, or would like to be.
It's something most of us pretty much take for granted.
Or not.
Take Harrison Browne.
Harrison Browne, centre, takes a shot on Stephen Cadigan during Boston Pride Hockey LGBT hockey action in Boston earlier this month. (Handout photo/Boston Pride Hockey LGBT/Kyle Outlaw/Canadian Press)
Browne never felt all that much at home--at least completely at home--in a whole lot of locker rooms.
Browne, it should be noted, was an excellent player--good enough to play NCAA Div. 1 college in the United States, good enough to play for Team Canada in the 2011 U18 Championship, a team that won a silver medal in Stockholm, good enough to play professionally with the Buffalo Beauts of the U.S.- based National Women's Hockey League.
Brown's first name then was Hailey.
"I didn't feel myself at all when I would be announced as Hailey or they'd be saying 'she' had a good game, 'she' scored this many goals," Browne told CBC News' Lorenda Reddekopp in 2016.
Harrison Browne is pictured back when he was known as Hailey at the rink. (Harrison Browne)
"I didn't feel connected to that at all."
He asked the National Women's Professional League to officially change his name, becoming the first transgender athlete in North American professional sports.
In March 2017, he retired to complete his transition.
But hockey runs deep in the blood of Canadians, so earlier this year when he was asked to join an all-transgender hockey team known as Team Trans, he accepted.
Named honorary co-captain, Browne took part in two games earlier this month against the Boston Pride, an LGBTQ hockey team.
Browne described the experience to Cassandra Szklarski of Canadian Press as "life-changing."
I spoke by phone with Browne on Tuesday.
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Something brand new has happened in Canadian politics. Just last week, the recently re-elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, named his cabinet. One of the ministers was named to a new position of Minister of Middle-Class prosperity.
Stephen Gordon (PhD) takes a look at how we define this “class” and the job of the new ministry. He is a professor of economics at Laval University in Quebec City.
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Gordon says Mme Fortier, as the associate Minister of Finance, responsible for ‘middle class prosperity” will have a tough job. Partly because there’s no definition of middle class.
Stephen Gordon (PhD) is a professor of economics at Laval University, Quebec City. (supplied)
Asked in a CBC interview to define middle class, Fortier responded, “Well, I define the middle class where people feel that they can afford their way of life. They have quality of life. And they can ... send their kids to play hockey or even have different activities. It's having the cost of living where you can do what you want with your family. So I think that it's really important that we look at, how do we make our lives more affordable now?”
Liberal Member of Parliament for Ottawa-Vanier, Mona Fortier shown in Ottawa just prior to being sworn in as Minister of Middle Class Prosperity and Associate Minister of Finance at Rideau Hall on Wednesday. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
A national poll done by Canada’s MacLean’s magazine found that roughly 70 per cent of Canadians defined themselves as middle class.
In May 2017, Transport Minister Marc Garneau in the House of Commans had another way of defining it using ‘values’, saying,
"Middle-class values are values that are common to most Canadians from all backgrounds, who believe in working hard to get ahead and hope for a better future for their children."
Still another definition comes from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). That 2016 definition for middle class says it’s anyone who earns between 75 per cent and 200 per cent of median household income after tax.
Because the term is vague, and the duties of the new minister seem vague at this point, and because much of the population in Canada in the median income range has been doing relatively well, Gordon says she’ll have to find problems that need solving.
Asked if the new breif was political window dressing by the Trudeau government, Gordon responded that if the government can’t define middle class, and won’t define it, then “yes, I think so”.
Additional information
OECD-Dec 1/16: The Squeezed Middle Class CBC: S. Hogan: Oct 13/19: who is Canada’s middle class CBC: Nov 22/19: What does a minister of middle class prosperity do? Globe and Mail: B Curry: Nov 22/19: New minister of middle class prosperity declines to provide clear definition of middle class TorStar: J. Wells: Nov 23/19: Is the new minister of middle class prosperity for real?
A hardy bunch of Canadians will gather this Sunday for the 107th time in a city with a football stadium to--at the very least--partake in some darn good parties and, yes, watch a football game.
This year it's between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
It's Grey Cup time in Canada, everybody!
This year it's in Calgary, Alberta.
Game time: 4 p.m.
Hamilton Tiger Cats wide receiver Brandon Banks (16) celebrates his highlight reel touchdown catch from quarterback Dane Evans (9) in the East Division final against Edmonton, won by the Cats 33-16. (Peter Power/Canadian Press )
This year's game is being billed as "The Drought Bowl," since the Bombers and the Cats carry the longest active streaks without having won the Canadian title.
Winnipeg last won in 1990, Hamilton in 1999.
For the record Hamilton is favoured by 3.5 points.
The two teams have a Grey Cup history--most famously in the 1962 game, known forever as "The Fog Bowl."
If it wasn't the most memorable Grey Cup ever, it certainly was the most bizarre, taking two days to play after fog rolling in from Lake Ontario covered Toronto's Exhibition Stadium.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers celebrate after defeating the Saskatchewan Roughriders 20-13 in last Sunday's CFL West Final. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)
Nobody--neither players nor fans--could see a damn thing.
The game was halted with nine minutes and 29 seconds to go on Dec. 1, a Saturday, with the Bombers leading 28-27.
That's how it ended the next day when the teams returned to complete the proceedings.
There will be no repeat of THAT on Sunday; we've got what passes for a balmy Canadian November day.
The forecast calls for a mix of sun and clouds with a high of three Celsius--no rain, no snow, no fog, no mud.
Bruce Dowbiggin. (cbc.ca)
In the eye of the Grey Cup storm is Calgary resident Bruce Dowbiggin, author, sportswriter, broadcaster and host of the Not the Public Broadcaster website.
I spoke to him Friday about Grey Cups and what they mean.
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Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death worldwide with heart attacks as a major concern, This is when blood flow to the heart itself is restricted which can lead in some cases to heart failure. In Canada there are approximately 600,000 patients living with advanced heart disease.
In what is being hailed as a “world first”, researchers in Canada have developed a new treatment that can easily help restore a percentage of heart function, preventing or greatly delaying heart failure
Emilio Alarcon (PhD, MRSC) was a co-lead supervisor. He is a Principal Investigator and Laboratory Director, University of Ottawa Heart Institute, and an assistant professor in the university’s Faculty of Medicine.
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The university scientists research led by Professors Alarcon and Erik Suuronen, was published in the journal Nature Communications, under the title Injectable human recombinant collagen matrices limit adverse remodeling and improve cardiac function after myocardial infarction, (open source access HERE)
Professor Emilio Alarcon, University of Ottawa Heart Institute UOHI (Christopher McTiernan, BEaTS lab)
Normally in a heart attack, the area of the heart affected is damaged as the cells, deprived of oxygen and nutrients, cease to function and die.
The damaged area ends up akin to scar tissue thickened and without elasticity limiting its ability to pump blood.
The research team has developed a “gel” of recombinant human collagen which can be injected directly into the heart, and which can improve elasticity and create an environment for new cells to help restore function while also limiting the spread of the damage.
Dr. Emilio Alarcon (8th from left) poses with members of his research team. He has travelled the world, he says, to assemble this talented group. From left to right: Antony El-Khoury (NSERC summer fellow), Madison Bak (MSc student), Brook Biniam (Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP)), Ashley Baldwin (lab manager), Dr Veronika Sedlakova (postdoctoral fellow), Justina Pupkaite (PhD student), Sarah Mclaughlin (PhD student), Dr. Christopher McTiernan (postdoctoral fellow), Dr. Erik Suuronen (director, BEaTS), Maxime Comtois-Bona (co-op student), Dr. Marcelo Muñoz (postdoctoral fellow) and Alex Ross (MSc Student). Missing from photo: Dr. Marc Ruel, Zohra Khatoon, Erik Jacques, David Cortes, Michel Grenier, Keshav Goel – photo credit: uOttawa Faculty of Medicine
Developed in conjunction with fellow scientist Erik Suuronen and the BioEngineering and Therapeutic Solutions (BEaTS) laboratory of the UOHI
the gel helps restore elasticity to the damaged area in addition to other beneficial action. Alarcon says, “The treatment works, in part, by increasing the number of cardiac muscle cells and blood capillaries in the tissue surrounding the damaged area. The gel also promotes the recruitment of more wound healing cells to the site of injury.”
Schematic representation for the human recombinant collagen-based therapy for cardiac tissue repair (Credit Image: Ella Maru Studio)
While bypass surgery and drugs are the common treatment and work very well, a certain percentage of patients will nevertheless go on to have an enlarged heart and then heart failure.
In animal model trials using the human protein gel the damage can be contained, or the potential failure delayed significantly while a donor heart can be obtained.
(Sarah McLaughlin et al., Injectable human recombinant collagen matrices limit adverse remodeling and improve cardiac function after myocardial infarction- Nature Communications)
Quoted in a Heart Institute press release, Dr. Marc Ruel, Division Head of Cardiac Surgery at the UOHI, and co-author of the paper said,
“As people with damaged hearts are living longer, the incidence of heart failure is increasing. Therefore, a treatment capable of recovering cardiac function and preventing heart failure would have a tremendous...
The fact is that most people give very little thought to where their food comes from, or who’s producing it.
Filmmaker Kelsey van Moorsel is from a farming background in Alberta and found that many people in the urban centres where she spent time had a misconception about farming: what’s actually involved and who farmers were.
With her own knowledge, she contacted three women who were farmers to talk about their roles as the leaders on the farm and they they are not just the wives and daughters of farmers, but farmers themselves
Filmmaker Kelsey van Moorsel talks about her documentary on women farmersEN_Interview_1-20191120-WIE10
Maybe you have an image of a farmer as an adult male of a certain age wearing a beat up baseball cap or straw hat sitting atop an old tractor while ploughing a field.
Picture a Farmer Trailer (full film on YouTube)
Nowadays that old tractor might easily be an eight-wheeled high tech computer controlled vehicle operated by a woman. While women have always played a vital role on farms, few urbanites or even the farm community considered the women as “farmers”. Often not even the women themselves.
Lynn Dargis took over the large family farm after the sudden loss of her parents in an accident.She's been operating the farm for several years, She is "the farmer" ( Picture a Farmer)
That has been changing, as women themselves assume the title for the work they’ve always done, including taking on the leading role on farms often as owners and operators of the farm.
Susan Holme Manyluk has been operating a cow and calf farm in central Alberta for 40 years. (Picture a Farmer)
Van Moorsel says the point of the film was not to portray women as superwomen but rather just to point out that women can and are doing everything any other “farmer” does in a farming operation and to give urban dwellers a small taste of what farmers and farming is like and who are the people producing the food they consume.
Additional information
Storyhive: website “Picture a Farmer” video Alberta Farmer:A. Kienlen: Aug 12/19; Film about farm women shows how times have changed Lindisfarne Productions;
November carries a lot of baggage in Canada--mostly a mix of shivering and foreboding.
This year we get to throw in shovelling, as winter--not officially, mind you--has come early to way too many places across the country.
So what happens next?
We all wonder, though we have a pretty good idea.
The Weather Network issued its winter forecast Monday.
There are those who say the best way to cope with winter is to just stop fighting it. (Conservation Officer Service of British Columbia)
"The upcoming winter across the country looks to be more frozen than thawed, and we've already seen an early entrance of winter weather this fall," chief meteorologist Chris Scott told Canadian Press.
"The signs that we're seeing this year do suggest we're in for a winter that's more on than off across the country — and that it's going to be fairly long for many Canadians."
Optimists (aka sublimators and deniers) will not be encouraged by the Old Farmer's Almanac prediction, which is tossing around phrases like "polar coaster" and "bitterly cold."
"Our long-range forecast is calling for yet another freezing, frigid, and frosty winter for two-thirds of the country," editor Peter Geiger writes.
"If you remember last winter's freezing temperatures, you're going to want to be prepared."
Canadian Gothic: A snowplow at work in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador (CBC)
AccuWeather?
Pretty much the same, though just a tad tempered.
Since I had already set things up to talk with David Phillips, Environment and Climate Change Canada's senior climatologist, about the winter ahead, I reached for the phone today with more than a touch of trepidation.
I began by asking him how he sees the next five months playing out.
And guess what!
Well, here is our conversation.
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Many of the several hundred students barricaded at Hong Kong University have surrendered to police early this morning. However, it seems unlikely that the protests, now several months old, will abate anytime soon.
Colin Robertson, is Vice-President at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, an independent, non-partisan research institute related to foreign policy a former diplomat, as Canadian Consul in Hong Kong,
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Reports this morning say only a handful of student protesters remain in the university, but without food or water so that situation is likely over.
As Robertson says however, with about 2 million supporters of the movement, the overall protest situation will likely continue. He also suggests that with such strong support the legitimacy of the Beijing supported Carrie Lam government is in serious doubt.
Police hold a student protester on the ground as clouds of tear gas spread around the university this week (via CBC)
While there has been some suggestion that China could send in the military, Robertson thinks that unlikely at this point, if for no other reason than the international optics that would represent.
It also appears unlikely that neither the Hong Kong government or China will relax their positions, in light of protesters demands for democratic guarantees or reforms.
Police have been accused of excessive use of force, including use of rubber bullets. (Tyrone Siu-Reuters July 2019)
Fears of a mass exodus of ex-pats with Canadian, British, U.S. and other citizenship seems not on the immediate horizon.
Nonetheless, Hong Kong’s status as entry point into the vast Chinese and wider Asian market, and an exit point for those same countries is weakening, as Robertson says, due to the uncertainties and disruptions of the protest movement, and in the shadow of the U.S-China trade dispute. This is says is not good for Hong Kong, for China, for Canada-because of a long trade relationship, as well as for other countries with similar trade and business ties with Hong Kong.
Additional information-sources
CBC News report Nov 18/19 Canadian Press (via CP24) Nov 18/19: Canadian universities encourage exchange students in Hong Kong to head home
Imagine the millions of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and the millions more planets orbiting those stars, Now imagine a cluster of galaxies, perhaps thousands of them.
Toby Brown (PhD) is a post-doctoral fellow at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. He is also leading an international team of some 30 astronomers studying the process that kills galaxy clusters far far out in deep space.
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The universe is a “star factory” converting gas into stars which form galaxies and as Brown says, they all have life cycles. But the team of astronomers is trying to determine the phenomena that changes galaxies from creating stars, to what stops them from creating stars thereby resulting in their death so to speak.
Toby Brown (PhD) Of Mc Master University in Hamilton Ontario, leads a team studying the process of the death of galaxy clusters (supplied-McMaster U )
The answer seems to lie in the extreme forces created by this unimaginable mass of thousands of galaxies in a cluster: extreme gravity, extreme speed, and extreme heating of plasma around the cluster.
Four of the 66 radio telescope antennas of the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) project, in the Chajnantor plateau, Atacama desert, some 1500 km north of Santiago Chile Canada is a partner in this telescope, which is part of the Event Horizon telescope system. Toby Brown is currently leading an international team of astronomers styding a distant galaxy cluster (MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images
As for Earth, we’re part of the Milky Way galaxy in a galaxy group, which is a smaller number of galaxies than a cluster and where the forces of gravity and superheated plasma are not nearly as great.
A time lapse image of ALMA, a state-of-the-art telescope system and is the largest ground-based astronomical project in existence. It aims to study some of the furthest galaxies in the universe. (C Malin-ALMA)
So Brown says the Milky Way and our own Earth and Sun will not suffer the relatively quick death of a cluster death.
Brown points out that our neighbouring galaxy is Andromeda and the two galaxies are moving toward each other. He says they will collide or “merge” in something like four to five billion years. But unfortunately it seems no one will be left to witness the event. Our own sun will be burning out around that time and as it does, it will expand outward, absorbing Mercury and Venus and frying the Earth.
An illustration showing the predicted merger of our Milky Way galaxy with the neighboring Andromeda galaxy. In this image, representing Earth's night sky in 3.75 billion years, Andromeda, left, fills the field of view and begins to distort the Milky Way with tidal pull. (NASA/ESA/Z. Levay R. van der Marel, STScI/T. Hallas/A. Mellinger)
So potentially for Earth, not a happy ending either way.
Additional information
Live Science: T Brown: Sep 19/19: Something Is Killing the Universe's Most Extreme Galaxies
Camille Labchuk took a vow of silence over the weekend.
Bound for no ashram to meditate, the silence was simply another step in her relentless pursuit to protect animals, who--she is always quick to note--lack the power to advocate for themselves.
Labchuk is the executive director of the animal rights group Animal Justice and making life better for animals requires money to fight court battles in pursuit of, well, animal justice.
Lawyer and Animal Justice executive director Camille Labchuk is a relentless advocate for the rights of animals in Canada. (Courtesy: Animal Justice)
Hence, the silence Labchuk and her fellow animal rights activists lived on Saturday.
Labchuk, her supporters and her co-activists, raised more money that they had originally hoped, marking another victory in a year that has produced many, including the ones making the most news--a new law to ban keeping whales, dolphins and porpoises in captivity, passed by Parliament in June, and new legislation introduced last month in Ontario, strengthening the province's animal cruelty laws.
I spoke with Labchuk by phone at her Ottawa office on Thursday.
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A dire report from Canadian medical, veterinary and economic experts begins with the words, ”Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is now recognized as a global threat that if not addressed will have a devastating impact on the health and welfare of the planet that may be difficult to reverse.”
It suggests that increasing incidence of anti-biotic resistance could result in the deaths of almost 400,000 Canadians, and a hit to the Canadian economy in the hundreds of billions of dollars just within the next couple of decades
Gerry Wright (PhD) is the director of the Michael DeGroote Institute of Infectious Disease Research, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University in Hamilton Ontario.
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Funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada, The Council of Canadian Academies recently brought together experts in a wide variety of fields from microbiology, epidemiology, veterinary medicine, public policy, economics and others, all to discuss the growing number of anti-biotic resistant bacteria, the so-called “superbugs”.
Professor Gerry Wright (PhD) of McMaster University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Hamilton, Ontario. (supplied)
Their report is called “When Antibiotics Fail:The Expert Panel on the Potential Socio-Economic Impacts of Antimicrobial Resistance in Canada”
The numbers are staggering.
The report says that within a mere 30 years, if the rate of resistant bacteria increases to 40 percent, the untreatable infections could kill almost 400,000 Canadians, and cost Canada about $500 billion. This would be through some $120 billion in hospital costs coupled with a decline of some $388 in gross domestic product over those three decades
Currently about 26 % of bacterial infections are resistant, and as bacteria evolve, scientists estimate that could increase to 40%, with severe consequence for society. (iStock)
Even if resistance to first line drugs remains constant at the current rate of about 26 per cent, the Canadian economy would still shrink.
Beyond the economics however is the direct effect on health care and the ability to safely carry out almost all kinds of surgeries from heart surgery, to joint replacement, to childbirth and everything in between, where the risk of untreatable infection will increase, sadly often leading to deaths.
One of many bacteria types from soil samples growing in the McMaster lab is search of creating new anti-biotics. (Nicholas-Waglechner-McMaster U)
Professor Wright says the report now puts actual numbers to the state of the problem and with that the purpose of the report is a wake up call to citizens and to policy makers backed by these hard figures.
Additional Information
The Conversation: G Wright; Antibiotic resistance could destroy our way of life CBC: L. Kane: Nov 12/19: Drug resistance likely to kill 400,000 Canadians Canadian Press (via Health): L. Kane: Nov 12/19: Report predicts drug resistance likely to kill 400,000 by 2050 PostMedia:S. Kirkey: Nov 12/19: More deaths, fewer joint replacements, huge costs: The superbug crisis CCA report: When Anti-biotics fail
As we reported yesterday, Canada's own very own version of Archie Bunker has exited, and it sure didn't go unnoticed across Canada--making front page news across the country.
Don Cherry finally rolled snake eyes Saturday night, going after newcomers to Canada for not buying poppies.
After pushing his luck for years, it was one giant, clumsy step too many.
Don Cherry and his sidekick, Ron MacLean, pose for a photo during the unveiling of their joint star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto on Monday, July 25, 2016. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/Canadian Press)
It cost him his job and he says he's not about to apologize.
So what the heck just happened here?
Everyone has an opinion.
For what it's worth, I figure there's no better person to ask than author, sportswriter and broadcast personality Bruce Dowbiggin, who currently hosts the Not the Public Broadcaster website.
Bruce Dowbiggin (cbc.ca)
Dowbiggin and Cherry once worked together and have had their share of dust-ups over the years.
But I, too, have worked with Dowbiggin and he didn't win a bunch of awards for being dishonest.
I called him today at his home in Calgary.
Here is our conversation.
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Over 104 years ago, as the First World War raged around him, a Canadian surgeon sat in an ambulance in a part of Belgium that had already seen more than its fair share of carnage and fighting and would see a whole lot more through the rest of the 20th Century.
Poppies surround a newly unveiled statue of Lt.-Col. John McCrae to commemorate the Second Battle of Ypres and his poem 'In Flanders Fields,' during a ceremony in Ottawa on Sunday, May 3, 2015, 100 years to the day that he wrote his famous poem.(Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)
Taking a brief respite from the horror he had just witnessed, the surgeon, a Canadian named John McCrae, wrote a poem that lives to this day--in elementary schools where young Canadians recite it, to the poppies that people around the world wear to commemorate those who died in the so-called Great War.
Born out of heartache, written in the midst of insanity in the spring of 1915, In Flanders Fields may be the most famous poem ever written by a Canadian.
David Calderisi (courtesy of David Calderisi)
For Remembrance Day, I asked a friend, noted Canadian actor David Calderisi, to share both the poem and the history of its origins.
Be forewarned: like the war from which is sprang, it is not a pretty history.
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It’s an alarming thought, but leaving sponges, clamps, needles, probes inside patients after surgery is a possibility, and a new study shows it happens all too often in Canada.
A new report puts Canada in a bad light in this regard.
Tracy Johnson is Director of Health Systems Analysis and Emerging Issues at The Canadian Institute for Health Information.
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The report from the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI) notes that between 2016 and 2018 some 543 medical objects have been left inside patients in Canada. It also seems that the problem is getting worse. The report notes these latest results show a 14 per cent increase over the previous report.
While the report showed Canada fared well compared to some 34 other countries in medical care and results, the number of objects left inside patients was the worst among the 12 countries recording such data, including Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway, which reported on this statistic. Other countries like the U.K., Australia, and the U.S. don’t report on these cases.
It also showed a 14 per cent increase over the previous reporting period five years earlier.
While this indicates a serious problem Johnson notes the study has 57 indicators of health care and in 32 of them, Canada is on par with international health systems.
While hospitals have instituted a checklist to count all supplies and instruments before and after operations, a new technology is being added to the supplies checklist during operations. It is a "black box" which records the video and audio during surgery (CBC)
Canada has better breast and colon cancer survival rates than the other OECD, and fewer deaths from heart attack and stroke.
Johnson says the report is important for hospitals and staff to know whether procedures are working, or not, and adjust practices accordingly.
While instruments, sponges, etc are counted before and after surgery, a variety of distractions, some major, and changes in personnel during operations, can result in lost counts.
One new technology just being adopted is an audio and visual recording of the surgery to be used as a record for review and can also be used as a teaching tool to help avoid mistakes.
Additional information
Canadian Press (via CBC): Nov 7/19: Surgical objects being left inside patients in Canada CBC: R Marchetti: Nov 6/19: Medical device used in labour falls out of patient 10 weeks later Blackburn News: A. Loiselle: Nov 7/19: More than 500 objects left in patients during surgery CBC News Video Report (YouTube) Objects left in patients- How can it be prevented?
It's November--time to partake in a long-standing Canadian rite of passage: ugly professional football.
The Canadian Football League conference semifinals take place Sunday--the first hurdle for any team looking to win the 2019 Grey Cup in two weeks time.
Montreal hosts Edmonton and Calgary hosts Winnipeg.
Relentless snow in the first half and a cameo from the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made for a truly Canadian championship Grey Cup game in 2017. (Canadian Press/ Getty Images)
Winners advance.
The thing about November Football in Canada is that it tends to be about way more than wins and losses, unless, of course, your team is involved.
Most Canadians, I would wager, can tell you about November Football games they remember, even when their team was not involved.
Winnipeg quarterback Matt Nichols unleashes a pass against Calgary in the West playoffs last year. (John Woods/The Canadian Press)
Most will likely not remember the score, but they'll very likely remember the setting.
November Football, you see, is about coming to grips with the reality that Old Man Winter is not about to turn tail and head off in another direction,
It's about realizing those mean, bleak conditions you see on the tube or witness live are going to be with us for another five months or so.
Prepping the field in 2017 before the Toronto Argonauts stunned the Calgary Stampeders 27-24 to win the 105th Grey Cup in Ottawa. (Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press)
November Football is, in fact, a not-so-sneaky preview of what's about to happen.
True, the mud-caked uniforms and grime-stained faces of the players that we used to carry in our memories are no longer a part of the spectacle, thanks to the invention of artificial turf.
Still.
Rites of passage are allowed to evolve.
Bruce Dowbiggin. (cbc. ca)
A man who has spent more than his share of time partaking in all this is my pal Bruce Dowbiggin, author, sportswriter, broadcaster and host of the Not the Public Broadcaster website.
I spoke with him at his home in Calgary on Friday.
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Eli Pasquale died of cancer on Monday. He was 59.
He was a terrific basketball player, a Canadian Basketball Hall of Famer.
For lovers of the game, he was a big part of our collective consciousness back in the 1980s--not just because he helped win five straight university titles at the University of Victoria or went to two Summer Olympic Games.
No, it was the way Pasquale played that inspired so many of us.
Pasquale was a fierce competitor at both the university and international levels. (Courtesy: University of Victoria Vikes)
A gritty overachiever, he served as an inspiration for every kid sitting at the end of players' bench watching way-more-naturally-talented guys getting all the playing time.
Pasquale made those kids believe in themselves and in their ability, no matter how slight it might be--a belief that a lot of them were able to carry into the real world.
After Pasquale died this week, one of Canada's foremost sportswriters, Michael Farber, wrote on Twitter:
"Can't think of anyone who extracted more of his innate basketball talent than Eli Pasquale, Canada's point guard in the 80s. RIP"
Pasquale led the University of Victoria to five straight university championships. (Courtesy: University of Victoria Vikes)
And there, as so often is the case when Farber writes, was the secret to all that inspiration Pasquale delivered to the rest of us.
I spoke by phone with Farber on Thursday at his home in Montreal.
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I'm an old guy so I'm forced to confess that I lack the intense terror that Greta and her friends feel about where this planet is heading.
For me, the terror remains mostly above my shoulders.
For the young people--the ones taking to the streets around the world--the terror goes a whole lot deeper.
Maybe that's why Greta and her friends refuse to pull their punches as they confront the environmental insanity.
And Neither does an open letter in the journal BioScience, released Tuesday, the same day Donald Trump officially notified the United Nations that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris climate accord this time next year.
Entitled, “World Scientists Warning of a Climate Emergency," the letter begins: "Scientists have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat and to 'tell it like it is.'
"On the basis of this obligation and the graphical indicators presented below, we declare, with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from around the world, clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency."
Sound like anyone we know?
A tiny dynamo and force of nature from Stockholm, maybe?
The letter appears to confirm a couple of things: 1. A growing number of scientists are firmly in Thunberg and her friends' corner, and 2. more and more scientists are prepared to leave their labs to help persuade the rest of us that the kids know what they are talking about.
Of the 11,258 signatures to the letter from 153 countries, 409 were from Canada.
Professor Lonnie Aarssen was one of 409 scientists from Canada to sign the letter in BioScience.. (youtube.com)
One of them is Queens University biologist Lonnie Aarssen, author of "What Are We? Exploring the Evolutionary Roots of our Future."
I spoke with professor Aarssen on Wednesday.
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Canada has instituted a carbon tax in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, a new study show there may well be unintended and less desirable consequences.
Carlos Murillo prepared a study of these concerns. He is the senior research associate, energy and environment at the Conference Board of Canada, a non-partisan think tank.
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Murillo’s report is called, "Tipping the Scales: Assessing Carbon Competitiveness and Leakage Potential for Canada’s EITEI’s"
Carlos Murillo,senior research associate, energy and environment at the Conference Board of Canada, (supplied)
In the report he looks at the effect of the tax on emissions-intensive and trade-exposed industries (EITEIs). These industries, chemical, petroleum, forestry, pulp and paper mining, and other manufacturing industries.
Canada’s EITEIs also account for more than one-tenth of the economy and about one-half of total energy use and GHG emissions. For these industries, carbon compliance costs increase input costs by two percent but in tight economic conditions, that could be enough to push them to move all or some production to jurisdictions without these added costs. This is “carbon leakage” i.e, not reducing GHG, but simply moving it elsewhere. It’s also estimated this could cost the Canadian economy about $10 Billion and up to 50,000 jobs.
Petro Canada refinery Edmonton 2009. Murillo says nationwide, "leakage" may not have a huge effect on the economy or jobs, but in energy intensive regions like in Alberta's oilpatch,, the effects could be much greater. (Dan Reidhuber-Reuters)
While this is not insignificant, Murillo says it really represents a relatively small portion of the Canadian economy and job market as a whole
He says if other jurisdictions around the world also join in carbon pricing “leakage” would lessen, but that if Canada increases its taxes, without such world action, the consequences domestically will be increased.
As we approach Remembrance Day on November 11, a new book on Canadians in war has had a timely release. The book’s title is “Seven Days in Hell, Canada’s battle for Normandy and the rise of the Black Watch Snipers".
It tells of how a disparate group of volunteers and a few army “regulars’ came together in a already legendary Montreal regiment and fought their way across Normandy and into a brutal and devastating battle at Verrieres Ridge in an effort to break German resistance,
Historian and author David O’Keefe is also a teacher at a Montreal collegiate.
Historian, author, teacher David O'Keefe on his latest book of the Black Watch as they fought through Normandy to the terrible battle of Verrieres Ridge in WWIIEN_Interview_1-20191105-WIE10
After Canadians has fought across Normandy, the still relatively green members of the Royal Highland Regimen of Canada (Black Watch) now faced some of the most hardened and experienced German troops as they moved toward Verrieres Ridge.
David O'Keefe's new book is published by Harper Collins
Intelligence reports had suggested light if any resistance, which proved tragically false. As delay mounted upon delay, the battle plans set forth in Operation Spring fell apart.
The members of the regiment, were left exposed and the need to uphold honour and tradition drove them on, in many cases to their deaths.
Canadian infantry moving forward for Operation Spring. The Black Watch would suffer huge losses, when the planned timetables were not met. (LAC)
The Black Watch suffered enormous losses in the taking of the heavily defended ridge where German forces had decided to take a stand.
O’Keefe lays out not only the historical aspects, but also goes into detail of the individual and personal situations for the soldiers. This was accomplished through direct interviews with survivors, war diaries, and individual battle action reports.
"Sexton" Self-propelled guns with mounted QF 25pdr artillery support Canadian action near Ifs, France, July 1944.(Donald Grant, Library and Archives Canada—PA162412)
It was written deliberately in a narrative style to draw the reader in and avoid a dry and pedantic story of a most harrowing and deadly struggle where life and death could be a second apart and perhaps also a matter of inches.
O Keefe says it’s important to write these stories to remind Canadians that in spite of historical domination by foreign countries, Canada has a courageous, exciting, and vivid history of their own.
Additional information
RCI: Nov 2016: Documentary Black Watch Snipers RCI: Nov 2015: David O’Keefe; One day in August- Tragedy at Dieppe RCI: Oct 31 1944 Battle of Walcheren Causeway.
Care to know a whole lot more about polar bears?
I know just the place.
A new centre in Churchill, Manitoba aimed at helping the fight to save the world's polar bears opened on the weekend. (BJ Kirschhnoffer/polarbearsinternational.org)
Treat yourself to a trip to Churchill, Manitoba, the Hudson Bay town that bills itself as the "Polar Bear Capital of the World."
A lot of people were there on the weekend for the grand opening of Polar Bears International House that supporters hope will serve as Ground Zero for all things polar bear and their conservation.
Among the guests were Polar Bears International ambassador and spokesperson Kate Upton and her husband, Major League Baseball pitcher Justin Verlander.
Kerstin Langenberger posted this photo on her Facebook page in 2015 and suggested a link between the polar bear's emaciated state and climate change. The photo has been shared more than 52, 000 times. (Kerstin Langenberger/Facebook)
Also on hand was Dani Reiss, president and CEO of Canada Goose, a member of the Polar Bears International Board.
Reiss's family foundation gifted $1 million to the project, designed by the Montreal-based architecture firm Blouin-Orzes.
The goal of the facility is to educate visitors about polar bears and the Arctic sea ice they depend on, and to send visitors home inspired to join the battle.
Geoff York and a friend. (Mike Lockhart/polarbearsinternational.org)
Geoff York has spent much of his life advocating for the protection of polar bears.
I spoke with York, Polar Bear International's senior director of conservation, on Tuesday about where polar bears in the world stand in their fight for survival, the new facility, and how it might help.
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It's November, the clocks got turned back this weekend--time to accept that summer won't be returning to these parts any time soon.
A perfect time, in other words, to take one last stab at a summer state of mind by talking a little tennis, the game of sun and sweat.
Indeed, Canadians--both fans and players--can look back at a whole year of terrific tennis.
Bianca Andreescu receives a medical treatment on her leg after suffering a knee injury during the WTA Finals Tennis Tournament against Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in Shenzhen, China last Wednesday. Andreescu later withdrew from the tournament, prompting concern from Canadian tennis fans that she might be injury prone, something that could hinder her budding career. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Bianca Andreescu came out of nowhere to win three prestigious tournaments, including the Canadian Open and--more important--the U.S. Open.
She is now No. 5 in the world.
On the men's side, a couple of young hot-shots, Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime, tickled more than a few fancies as they vied to replace Milos Raonic as Canada's top male player.
Milos Raonic struggled through another season of injuries and saw his ATP ranking fall to No. 32. (Julian Finney/Getty Images/File)
Both succeeded.
Shapovalov is now ranked No. 15 on the ATP computer, Auger-Aliassime is No. 21 as Raonic's ranking fell to No. 32.
Shapovalov and Auger-Aliassime were scheduled to compete in the aptly-named Next Generation ATP Finals in Milan this week.
Neither is.
Montreal's Felix Auger-Aliassime suffered an ankle injury in practice in Vienna last month and missed this week's Next Generation ATP Finals in Milan. Auger-Alliassime finished the year ranked No. 21 in the world. (Associated Press)
Auger-Aliassime rolled an ankle in Vienna and Shapovalov begged off after a fierce end to his season that culminated with a loss in the Paris Masters final Sunday to Novak Djokovic.
Shapovalov's success in Paris came as Andreescu was hobbling through (and finally withdrawing from) the WTA Finals Championships in Shenzhen, China.
For some perspective on the injuries, the successes and what they may mean, I spoke with Stephanie Myles, editor-in-chief of Tennis.life, who has a book about Andreescu coming out later this month,
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Are obese people addicted to food? It’s an often proposed idea and something researchers in Montreal investigated
Dr Alain Dagher (MD. FRCP) supervised the research team. He is a professor in the department of neurology at the Montreal Neurological Institute (the Neuro)
Dr Dagher talks about research showing obesity is only slightly linked to addiction to foodEN_Interview_1-20191031-WIE10
Statistics from the World Health Organisation indicate that obesity rates have tripled since 1975. Obesity brings with it a multitude of health issues, many costly, and debilitating.
Age- and gender-adjusted rates of obesity and overweight, 2005 OECD standard population. Measured height and weight in Australia, England, Korea, Mexico and the United States; self-reported in other countries. No projections were produced in 2010 for Australia, Mexico and Switzerland. Source: OECD analysis of health survey data (OECD)
Why are people becoming obese? Primarily because cheap, calorie heavy foods and snacks are so readily available, says Dr Dagher, but that’s not the whole story.
While drugs, tobacco, alcohol, even coffee have “addictive” compounds, it’s generally understood that foods don’t, although some say sugar may create act in a pharmacological sense to create an addictive habit.
The researchers studied the idea of food addiction and found there was a connection to addictive personality, but that it was a relatively weak factor in obesity.
This addictive tendency, or rather overlap with addictive personality, was more likely in people who tested low on a consciensciousness test; the ability to be organised, ordered, stick to a plan. The researchers compared data of over 18,600 subjects in the complex NEO Personality Inventory measures 30 facets of how people typically think, feel, and behave.
Genetics can play a role, but rather than an addiction, simple quick, easy, and relatively inexpensive access to high calorie foods is a big factor, (iStocck)
This study was published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour on Oct. 28, 2019. under the title "Obesity has limited behavioural overlap with addiction and psychiatric phenotypes". (abstract here)
The scientists also discovered that obesity also shared behavioural overlap with mood disorders and certain personality disorders. "The main reason is over-consumption of calories" Dr A Dagher Dr Dagher points our however there is also a genetic predisposition to obesity, making the treatment even more complex. He says while there may be some benefit is borrowing addiction treatments in order to improve people’s self control, it shouldn’t focus on how addictive personalities handle sensation seeking, as this isn’t much of an issue for obese people.
“Current results suggest that we should take whatever is useful from the limited similarities that obesity and addictions share, and then look elsewhere to fully comprehend the behavioural profile of obesity”. Dr Dagher does suggest that exercise can help greatly in weight control .
The research was supported by Fonds de Recherche du Québec, The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and The Estonian Research Council.
By October of 1944 Canadians had fought their way from the Normandy beach to the French interior, then along the Atlantic coast through Belgium, capturing German rocket sites and all of it bitterly defended by hardened German troops. After fighting through Normandy through to Caen, the Verrieres Ridge and being instrumental in closing the Falaise gap, the Canadians were given a new assignment. By the end of the month, they had to attack Walcheren Island.
But there was only one very narrow access point, a killing zone, 1.2km long, straight as an arrow. and just wide enough for a rail line, a road, and a bicycle path.
Peter Boyle (C.D) describes the battle. He is president of Valour Canada, and holds the rank of LCol in the Canadian Forces Reserves.
Peter Boyle, president of Valour Canada, speaks about the battle of Walcheren Causeway, Oct 31,1944EN_Interview_1-20191030-WIE10
Under the command of Canadian General Harry Crerar, the Canadians with British and Polish troops, had fought through Flanders liberating cities like Furnes, La Panne, Nieuport, Ostend, Knocke-Heist, Bruges, Eecloo, and the northern suburbs of Antwerp, taking the Schipdonk and Leopold canals, Breskens and Beveland in Holland
Aerial view of the long narrow causeway. Almost 2 kilometres long, no cover, and heavily defended with sighted guns. tidal mud flats on either side. The causeway no longer exists as the land on either side has been reclaimed and the former island joined to the mainland to now become an isthmus, (via Calgary Highlanders Museum and Archives)
In costly battles to take the south shore of the estuary, Canada's 3rd division had lost over 2,000 men.
Maj George Hees was an artillery staff officer who volunteered to go to the Walcheren battle and take over A Company, He was wounded in the arm but stayed in command. (RMC club)
Now the Black Watch (RHR Montreal), the Calgary Highlanders, and the Regiment de Maisonneuve (Montreal) were assigned an almost suicidal task. They had to take the fortified Island.
Major Jacques Ostiguy of Le Regiment de Maisonneuve who was just been decorated with the Distinguished Service Order, October 1944. (Credit: Library and Archives Canada
The island was a strategic point defending the Scheldt Estuary leading to the vital Belgian port of Antwerp. As long as Walcheren with its heavy guns was in German hands, the port could not be used by the Allies to deliver desperately needed supplies.
Looking eastward down the causeway from the island, tidal mud flats at right . 1.6 km with virtually no cover from German bullets and artillery 1946 (DND)
Sent forward across the killing zone of the causeway amid shot, shell, and deadly splintered stone fragments, Canadians somehow managed to eventually cross and briefly hold the far end but could not advance from this untenable position. The bitter fighting continued in a stalemate but kept the defenders preoccupied until British forces managed an amphibious landing at Westkapelle on the Atlantic side and Vlissingen (Flushing) at the mouth of the estuary attacking from behind and forcing the Germans inland. With Canadians to the east and south, and British to the west, the defenders surrendered by November 8.
-Pipe Major H. McDonald, Piper D.W. MacDonald and Piper W.J. Hannah at the burial of 55 infantrymen of “A” Company, The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment of Canada). October 1944 in the Netherlands. ( Credit: Library and Archives Canada)
The battle is remembered by all three Canadian regiments as a battle honour and example of extreme courage.
Additional information
Valour Canada: Walcheren Legion Magazine: Oct 17/19: M Zuelke: Opening the estuary YouTube: Calgary Highlanders Walcheran ghost story DND- Victory Campaign (C.P Stacey) Battle of the Scheldt-Breskens, South Beveland, Walcheren Canadian Soldiers (M Dorosh): Walcheren Veterans Affairs Canada: Canadians in Belgium 1944
Only 16 per cent of Canadian adults are meeting the national guidelines of 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week, according to a national non-profit. Calling this an “inactivity crisis,” ParticipACTION says inactivity can lead to increased risk of chronic diseases, cognitive decline, falls and social isolation among older adults. It has issued a first-ever report card on physical activity in adults and has given them a grade of D.
“Physical activity has been engineered out of our lives,” says Elio Antunes, president and CEO of ParticipACTION, a national organization founded to promote physical fitness and healthy living. “Everything that we have is to make life easier and with less effort. We have a culture of convenience.”
A large slice of the Canadian population is aging and becoming more sedentary. They will age better with the benefit of regular physical activity, says Antunes.
ParticipACTION suggests employers have walking meetings rather than book a boardroom. (iStock) Small changes can have big effect ParticipACTION suggests simple ways to start increasing activity such as moving more throughout the day, trying something new, upping the intensity , asking others to join in, breaking up extended periods of sitting and adding strength training two to three times a week.
Antunes says three-quarters of adults know they need to be physically active and they want to be. “As individuals, we need to take responsibility. We need to incorporate...even bouts of 10 minutes of physical activity at a time makes a big difference,” he says. “But we also need to ensure that the environment that we’re in supports us wanting to be physically active.”
For example, Antunes says municipalities should build communities that encourage walking or other active transportation, health practitioners could prescribe physical activity to patients, employers could create workplaces that encourage movement and hold walking breaks or meetings.
Antunes says this is an extremely important issue, especially given that inactivity will increase costs to the health care system by billions of dollars as time goes on.
Elio Antunes says physical activity needs to be a vital part of everyday life to all Canadians.EN_Interview_2-20191029-WIE20
The respected and influential medical journal The Lancet, recently published a series of researched articles on the world illicit drug situations. The purpose was to begin to change the perceptions around illicit drug use and develop evidence-based policies in dealing with it.
Dr Julie Bruneau (M.D., MSc.) is a co author of two reports in the six section series. She is a professor in the Department of Family and Emergency Medicine at the Universite de Montreal, and a researcher at the CRCHUM (University of Montreal Hospital Research Center)
Researcher, Dr. Julie Bruneau, co-author talks about the latest Lancet series on illicit drug useEN_Interview_1-20191029-WIE10
The Lancet series on drug use, (vol 394, No. 10208) says global illicit drug production and consumption is increasing while at the same time new substances are being created and added to the issues. This results in equally increasing risks and harms. The series describes various aspects of the worldwide problem and possible actions to take.
This includes:
The global drug problem: change but not progression Strategies to reduce drug-related harm: responding to the evidence base Global patterns of opioid use and dependence: harms to populations, interventions, and future action Public health implications of legalising the production and sale of cannabis for medicinal and recreational use Responding to global stimulant use: challenges and opportunities New psychoactive substances: challenges for drug surveillance, control, and public health responses
A protest march in Vancouver in February 2018 sought decriminalisation of illicit drugs. (Tina Lovgreen-CBC)
Dr. Bruneau says most of the world’s policies to combat illicit drugs and their use were drawn up in the 1960’s, adding they clearly haven’t worked as illicit drugs and their use have only increased.
She says attitudes surrounding drug use need to change before policies can be changed, noting that drug addiction should be considered a disease and treated as such, with the realisation that drug users should be treated as human beings with the same rights as others.
Marilou Gagnon, a volunteer with Overdose Prevention Ottawa, stands between the tents set up for Ottawa's first pop-up drug use site. Sep 2017. Although busy with dozens of visits a day, there was widespread opposition by residents nearby (Radio-Canada)
The point of the series she says is to present facts and evidence of better methods and treatments that could be translated into policies that fit today’s contexts around the world.
Additional information
CBC: T.Lovgreen: Feb 20/18: The answer to Canada's opioid overdose crisis is decriminalization, say Vancouver drug users and advocates CBC: Sep 10/17: Anger grows over pop-op drug use site (Ottawa): CBC: E.von Scheel: Aug 18/18: Despite ‘good Samaritan’ law many drug users too scared of arrest to report overdoses
In Canada, medical errors account for 28,000 deaths yearly, according to the Canadian Patient Safety Institute which campaigns to reduce that number. Errors are said to be the third leading cause of death in Canada after cancer and heart disease, and every minute and 18 seconds someone is injured from unintended harm. A worldwide problem “These are alarming statistics,” saws Chris Power, CEO of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute. “If we look at other countries around the world, we’re seeing similar or worse rates of harm. This is an epidemic around the world.”
The most frequent medical errors involve medications. They may include giving a patient either the wrong one or the wrong dose, or an allergy to the drug was on the record but went unnoticed. People also sometimes acquire infections in hospitals or they may be misdiagnosed. At home, people sometimes fall and are injured.
Campaigns to increase hand washing in hospitals aim to reduce the spread of infection. (iStock) Ongoing campaign seeks to reduce risk The Canadian Patient Safety Institute has been working for 19 years on ways to reduce harm to patients. It has collaborated with health authorities in Canada and around the world on such things as hand washing and systems to improve medication and surgical safety.
Contributing to the problem is that people are reluctant to speak up if they feel that something is wrong for fear of alienating their healthcare care providers. There is said to also be silence between patients and providers, between colleagues in healthcare facilities, and between the public and policy makers.
The week of October 28 to November 1, 2019 has been declared Canadian Patient Safety Week and the stated goal is to conquer that silence. The institute has developed some tools and resources to help patients and families ask questions in a way that will not alienate health care providers. It wants patients, providers and leaders to discuss how they are conquering the silence and ensure safety. The online campaign will continue all year and feature a different topic every two months.
Chris Power says medical errors causing death are “alarming” in Canada and around the world.
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Every day it seems we get pictures and stories about another forest fire breaking out and raging somewhere in the world.
And scientists say the number is growing.
Now, a team from Montreal's Concordia University has come up with something they hope will help.
They want to make better use of drones in detecting forest fires.
Researchers in Montreal say better use of drones would go a long way in detecting and fighting forest fires. (CBC)
Led by Youmin Zhang, a professor of mechanical, industrial and aerospace engineering at Concordia's Institute of Aerospace Design & Innovation, the team presented a paper at the 3rd International Symposium on Autonomous Systems, in Shanghai in May.
The paper, co-authored by two of Zhang's students, Anim Hossain and Chi Yuan, suggests that drones--or unmanned aerial vehicles--are not susceptible to the shortcomings found in other methods of detecting potential fires.
"Basically we want to use drones to provide solutions in an environment that may be dangerous to humans or very tedious," says Zhang.
The Concordia team says its system would require a permanently airborne fleet of drones patrolling pre-programmed flight paths around or near areas that are believed to be fire-prone.
Youmin Zhang is a professor of mechanical, industrial and aerospace engineering at Concordia's Institute of Aerospace Design & Innovation. (Courtesy: Concordia University)
The study identified three key tasks that an effective drone-based system must include to be useful: detection, diagnosis and the ability to predict fire behaviour.
Zhang and his team are developing algorithms that would help drones get up to the needed technical speed.
I spoke with Zhang on Monday about his team and where the research is headed.
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In Canada’s federal election, 63 per cent of voters chose parties with strong platforms on mitigating climate change. The Liberal Party will form the government but, since it does not have a majority of seats, it will have to seek the support of other parties in order to govern. Two of these parties strongly favour tougher measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The New Democratic Party and the Green Party both campaigned hard for major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. (iStock) Two opposition parties seek stronger climate action “We see that the Liberals, the New Democratic Party...the Green Party...all agree that this country needs to step up the ambition of our climate commitments,” says Catherine Abreu, Executive Director of the Climate Action Network of Canada, a coalition of groups concerned about climate change.
“We need to meet that 2020 deadline set out by the UN to come back to the table with a stronger commitment under the Paris Agreement. We need to legislate..emissions reduction targets...that help us get there, as well as holding ourselves accountable for those commitments and establishing institutions that keep us on track.
But the Conservative Party ran on a promise to kill the carbon tax that the previous Liberal government levied on provinces. The leaders of the oil-rich, western provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan are opposed to the tax and other environmental measures that would weaken the oil industry.
The challenge of the new minority government will be to reconcile those conflicting visions.
Political parties recognize there will be a need for a transition from oil industry jobs to greener alternatives. (iStock) Parties agree job diversification needed Some of the parties emphasized a need for economic diversification and job creation as the country moves away from fossil fuel industries and toward what they call a climate-safe future.
Abreu likens the situation to the collapse of the cod fishing industry in the 1970s in eastern Canada that forced families to leave and seek work in other parts of the country. “Even though politicians foresaw the collapse of the cod fishery, they didn’t plan for it. And I want us to make sure that we are not in the same position in the next couple of decades, that we see that the oil and gas industry...does need to wind down gradually...over time, and that we need to plan and prepare for it, have conversations with workers and communities about what they need to prepare for it and invest in the industries of the future that are going to protect people and the planet.”
The Liberals will form a government with 157 seats, leaving it short of the 13 required for a majority. For support on climate issues, it can seek the help of the NDP which obtained 24 seats, the Bloc Quebecois which garnered 32 seats, and/or the Greens with three. Conservative Party is a strong supporter of the oil industry The Conservative Party which supports the oil industry obtained 32 seats and so, does not have enough to topple the government if it disagrees with climate policy.
However, even though his Liberal Party did not win any seats in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Prime Minister Trudeau has said he wants to serve people there as well and he plans to go ahead with the expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline to bring oil product to tidewater. The NDP, the Bloc Quebecois and the Greens are opposed.
The prime minister has made no formal alliance with any party and says he will seek their support on a case-by-case basis.
It will be interesting to see how he manages.
A minority government in Canada typically falls in about 18 to 24 months.
Catherine Abreu says there will be much opposition party support for strong action to mitigate climate change.EN_Interview_2-20191024-WIE20
It seems counterintuitive, calm your brain activity, and you live longer.
That’s seemingly the results of a new American research study led by researchers at the Harvard Medical School in Boston.
Others say this research should not replace the “use it or lose it” doctrine.
Dr. Iris Gorfinkel, (M.D., CM) is a family physician, and founder of Prime Health Clinical Research in Toronto
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It seems that in the study, the brains of people who died before their mid-80’s had fewer proteins known as REST than did the brains of people who lived to be 100 or more. These proteins help tamp down brain activity. Thus the theory that people with a less-active brain, or less excited brain, live longer.
Dr Iris Gorfinkel (MD, CM): Don't rush to conclusions from this study, it's still better to keep the brain stimulated
The study was published in the journal Nature, under the title, Regulation of lifespan by neural excitation and REST. (abstract here)
Using worm and mouse models, the researchers added REST, and the creatures lived longer. But, does that mean that as we age we should not be trying to learn to play an instrument, a new language, or do crosswords or soduku to stimulate the brain?.
Dr. Gorfinkel says no, keeping the brain active keeps you active into old age.
In addition, there are many variables related to the study, and implications of other studies that show for example older people activate more brain cells than younger people to accomplish a particular task indicating possibly less efficient brains ion the elderly or attempts to use more circuits to compensate. Ageing, brain use, and human behaviour are exceptionally complex, and one study should not be taken on its own as an answer.
Dr Gorfinkel notes that the higher one is on the knowledge and intelligence scale, and with continued learning, the longer and slower is the eventual descent toward dementia, and that people who continually stimulate their brain have less loss over time. She also says avoiding depression is extremely important as well for a longer happier life.
Additional information
Nature: Research study Washington Post: C.Y. Johnson: Oct 16/19: Excessive brain activity linked to shorter life Very Well Health: M Stibich(PhD): Apr 5/19: Important longevity to-dos for your 70’s
A new book suggests that depression should be considered an inflammatory illness. That is to say, depression can provoke high levels of stress hormone which cause certain brain cells to stop working properly and to produce proteins that cause inflammation. Inflammation can cause other problems like heart disease, diabetes and obesity.
“When you have multiple or very severe episodes (of depression) there’s actually an inflammatory cascade that is set up in the brain and it can lead to real measurable changes in the brain’s structure and functioning,” says Dr. Diane McIntosh, a psychiatrist and author of the book This is Depression: A Comprehensive Compassionate Guide for Anyone who Wants to Understand Depression.
“We can see in the brains of chronically, severely depressed patients that they have shrinkage of particular brain areas, one called the hippocampus. We can measure that in people who have severe and chronic depression and that’s related to an inflammatory cascade.”
Severe and chronic depression can cause changes in the brain. says author. (iStock) Treatment must be tailor-made, says psychiatrist McIntosh says there are no specific anti-inflammatory treatments for depression yet and there is much work being done to be more specific in the targeting of depression. However, many current treatments for depression do have an impact on the inflammatory system and neurotransmitters, and they help nourish the brain. Among the treatments are anti-depressants, electro compulsive therapy, and exercise to can have a beneficial effect.
The difficulty is that everyone is different and every treatment needs to be tailor-made for each patient. Things like yoga and mindfulness can also help patients manage their symptoms. McIntosh says there is much trial and error involved in finding the right regimen for each patient.
Dr. Diane McIntosh says depression is complex and involves inflammation.EN_Interview_2-20191023-WIE20
The Canadian electorate has returned Justin Trudeau to power but he will need the support of another party or parties for his government to survive. To hold a majority in Canada’s House of Commons, a party needs 170 seats, but the Liberals only obtained 157. The Conservative Party was disappointed to obtain 121 seats, in spite of the fact that they got marginally more of the popular vote.
This means the Liberals will have to get the support of either the New Democratic Party (NDP) which won 24 seats, or the Bloc Québécois which won an extraordinary 32 seats and is a nationalist party representing the special interests of the mainly French-speaking province of Quebec. The Liberals may also seek support for the Green Party, but it only picked up three seats.
The only right-leaning, populist party in the running, The People's Party of Canada, failed to gain a seat.
Former Liberal cabinet minister Jody Wilson-Raybould narrowly won her seat as an independent. She was ejected from the Liberal Party over the SNC-Lavalin scandal. At the time, she was attorney general and charged that she was pressured by the Prime MInister's Office to spare the engineering company from prosecution and instead make a reparations agreement.
For the first time, no party got more than one-third of the popular vote.
The result is indicative of stark regional differences in Canada. This was immediately acknowledged by Trudeau.
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Andrew Scheer and his Conservative Party are strong supporters of the oil industry and were massively supported by voters in Alberta and Saskatchewan. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press) Concerns for the oil industry, economy apparent in west The Liberals were shut out of the western provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. These are oil-rich provinces and they will be represented by the Conservative Party, as they traditionally have been.During the election campaign the Conservatives had vowed to withdraw the carbon tax imposed by the Liberal government as a measure to combat climate change. The Liberal government had tried to balance this effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with a boost to the oil industry in the form of purchasing a major oil pipeline. This appears to not have assuaged western voters who are worried about the decline of the oil industry and harm they have suffered to their economy. Promotion of Quebec interests popular On the other side of the country, voters in Quebec were not happy with the Conservative idea of building an oil pipeline through that province. Quebec was one of the first adopters of a carbon cap and trade system and voters are very sensitive to the environment. In addition, they are very protective of their unique culture and French language. While the Bloc Québécois is a sovereigntist party, it has vowed it will not seek the independence of Quebec during this mandate. Indeed, public opinion polls show there is no appetite for sovereignty at this time.
Trudeau's Liberal Party is centre-left and the New Democratic Party (NDP) would appear to be a natural ally for the Liberals. Leader Jagmeet Singh expressed his willingness to work with the Liberals during the election campaign.
Minority governments in Canada generally last 18 to 24 months. Analysts have pointed out that no party is in a position any time soon to vote no confidence in a Liberal government and trigger another election. They will need time to raise more money and to regroup. Conservatives may question the leadership of Andrew Scheer who did not deliver the number of seats they thought they would win. His deputy leader, Lisa Raitt, also lost her seat.
Hear Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau's victory speech:
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is the leader whose views are closest aligned with those of the Liberal Party. Hear his election night speech.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6BmJu1vItM&t=43s
The Conservative Party did not win as many seats as expected,
Two men were shot early on Oct. 20, 2019 at an Ottawa home that neighbours told CBC was an Airbnb rental. This was not confirmed by the company. But several neighbours told CBC reporters that the home was what they called a “ghost hotel” and the site of frequent noisy parties.
There have been several other complaints about short-term rentals in Canada. In February 2019 a woman was arrested for throwing a chair from the balcony of what was thought to be a short-term rental unit in a high-rise.
“It demonstrates that regulations for short-term rental companies like Airbnb are very much needed across the country,” says Thorben Wieditz, a researcher with Fairbnb, a group that campaigns for such regulations. He says the number of short term-rentals has increased dramatically in Canadian cities and is growing in smaller cities and suburbs too. Tens of thousands of homes lost to the housing market, says researcher Wieditz is not just concerned about the noise and disruption caused by some of the tourists renting these units. He says companies like Airbnb are having a dramatic effect on the housing stock in some cities.
“Airbnb is removing tens of thousands of homes from the housing market and turns them into full time, what we call ghost hotels. So, it has an immense impact on the availability and affordability of housing in our cities.”
Posters in Toronto’s Kensington Market call for action on short-term rentals and the problem of tenants who are evicted to make room for renters using websites like Airbnb. (Martin Trainor/CBC News) A call for a 'fair and balanced' approach The city of Toronto is considering regulations to deal with the problems but home owners affiliated with Airbnb are fighting the change. Wieditz explains the proposed regulations: “It’s a very fair and balanced approach,” says Wieditz. “If you and I want to rent out our home on Airbnb, we’re allowed to do so, but where Toronto’s rules would draw a line in the sand is to say, if you and I buy up, lease up, or otherwise acquire dozens and dozens of properties, condos or rental apartments for the sole purpose of turning these into ghost hotels that would not be allowed.”
This would prevent the huge loss of rental housing stock. And Wieditz says the problems of noise and disruption would diminish since individual homeowners are more likely to monitor such problems in order to maintain relations with their neighbours.
Wieditz is not in favour of Canada-wide rules to control short-term rentals because the problems are different in each city. But he urges city officials to study the problem in each jurisdiction in order to come up with the solutions that suit them best.
Thorben Wieditz says short-term rentals are removing tens of thousands of homes from Canada’s housing stock making rental units less available and less affordable. (Fairbnb)
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With files from CBC reporters Hillary Johnstone and Laura Glowacki.
In the Great Professional Tennis Scheme of Things, an ATP 250 in Stockholm and an ATP Challenger in Las Vegas are not the kind of tournaments that garner a lot of headlines.
But don't kid yourself.
Unless you're a top-ten player, it's no cakewalk to the winner's circle, which is where two Canadian tennis players, Denis Shapovalov and Vasek Pospisil, wound up this weekend.
They are quite a ways apart on the ATP ranking spectrum
Shapovalov is a hot-shot comer at the age of 20.
Pospisil, who is 29, is trying to resurrect a career long-plagued by injuries
Both have to be feeling pretty darn good about themselves right now.
Shapovalov caught the tennis world's attention a couple of years ago in Montreal when he made the semifinals of the Rogers Cup and then advanced to the fourth round of the U.S. Open, winning lots of fans with his emotional, all-out, go-for-broke style.
But as more and more players grew to know what to expect from him, he had more than a few problems, going 0-7 in semifinals at tournaments around the world.
That all changed this week.
In his first-ever ATP final, Shapovalov scored a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Serbian Filip Krajinovic, the world's No. 60.
Ranked No. 34 going into the tournament, Shapovalov is now back in top-30 for the first time since July.
Vasek Pospisil was all smiles after his victory Sunday in Las Vegas. (Twitter)
Meanwhile in Las Vegas, Pospisil claimed his eighth ATP Challenger Tour title and first in nearly two years, defeating Australian World No. 133 James Duckworth 7-5, 6-7(11), 6-3.
The victory was the latest step in a long, tough and gritty comeback campaign for Pospisil, who advanced to the Round of 16 appearance at the Rolex Shanghai Masters as a qualifier earlier this month.
At Shanghai, he earned his second Top 20 win in recent weeks, upsetting Diego Schwartzman after toppling Karen Khachanov at the US Open.
Once upon a time--in January, 2014--Pospisil was ranked No. 25 in the world.
Since then, because multiple injuries, he has seen his ranking fall.
Sunday's victory moved him from No. 191 to No. 168.
For some perspective on Shapovalov and Pospisil's victories and what they mean for each player, I spoke with Stephanie Myles, editor-in-chief of Tennis.life and the author of an upcoming book on Bianca Andreescu, the Canadian who won this summer's Rogers Cup and the U.S. Open.
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