nationalobserver--2020-08-05--Military in Arctic aims to send message without spreading COVID-19

Canada and some of its closest allies have kicked off a three-week naval exercise in the Arctic that aims to send a message of unity against potential adversaries in the North without spreading COVID-19 to local communities .
The training exercise known as Operation Nanook has been a mainstay for the Canadian Armed Forces since 2007 but this is the first year that the U.S. , France and Denmark will all be participating as well .
Canadian and U.S. naval officers told reporters during a briefing Tuesday that the involvement of those other nations reflected the importance of co-operation among @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in an increasingly important part of the world .
Western countries as well as potential adversaries such as Russia and China have been steadily expanding their military footprints and activities in the region as climate change makes it easier to reach and operate in , raising concerns about the threat of a conflict .
`` The message is the Arctic is strategically important , it 's becoming increasingly important and it 's important for our collective national security , '' said Vice-Admiral Steven Poulin , commander of the U.S. Coast Guard 's Atlantic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ risk as court rejects interim stay on Ontario evictions • Co-operation happening at the Canadian-U.S.A. border may surprise you • Environment minister says he shares concerns of B.C .
hunger strikers `` And I think the participation is a reflection of a mutual commitment by the partners and allied nations to share goals to that end . ''
Yet this year 's iteration of Operation Nanook is also smaller than past versions , which have included personnel and equipment from across the Canadian military , particularly the Canadian Rangers , as well as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Santarpia , commander of the Royal Canadian Navy 's Maritime Forces Atlantic , said this year 's exercise will not include any land-based forces and focus almost exclusively on naval operations because of concerns about spreading COVID-19 .
`` Much of Nanook we decided not to conduct this year because we did n't want to be a vector into our own remote populations , where they 're quite protected from COVID now just by that very fact of being remote , '' Santarpia said .
The three Canadian navy ships and four foreign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Canada 's Far North .
Their only port call will be to Nuuk , Greenland , to refuel .
Sailors will not be allowed off their ships .
Canada 's three territories have been largely spared from any COVID-19 outbreak , with only a handful of positive cases reported .
Canada and some of its closest allies have kicked off a three-week naval exercise in the Arctic that aims to send a message of unity against potential adversaries in the North without spreading COVID-19 to local communities .
The Canadian and allied @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the Davis Strait between Baffin Island and Greenland , which is considered part of the Northwest Passage .
Canada and the U.S. have been at odds for decades over whether the passage is Canadian or international waters , a question Santarpia , Poulin and Vice-Admiral Andrew Lewis , commander of the U.S. 2nd Fleet , studiously avoided .
`` It 's a complex issue that involves more lawyers than naval officers and it has a lot to do with interpretations of international law , '' Santarpia said .
`` This exercise is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ together than we already do and we 'll let the lawyers worry about the rest of it . ''
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 4 , 2020 .

Canada and some of its closest allies have kicked off a three-week naval exercise in the Arctic that aims to send a message of unity against potential adversaries in the North without spreading COVID-19 to local communities.
The training exercise known as Operation Nanook has been a mainstay for the Canadian Armed Forces since 2007 but this is the first year that the U.S., France and Denmark will all be participating as well.
Canadian and U.S. naval officers told reporters during a briefing Tuesday that the involvement of those other nations reflected the importance of co-operation among allies when it comes to military operations in an increasingly important part of the world.
Western countries as well as potential adversaries such as Russia and China have been steadily expanding their military footprints and activities in the region as climate change makes it easier to reach and operate in, raising concerns about the threat of a conflict.
"The message is the Arctic is strategically important, it's becoming increasingly important and it's important for our collective national security," said Vice-Admiral Steven Poulin, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard's Atlantic area.


nationalobserver--2020-08-05--TikTok sale puts Canada between Trump and China

The potential sale of social-media platform TikTok to Microsoft is leaving Canada with a sense of deja vu .
Experts say the country is once again being pressured to take sides in a debate about digital technology that seems driven more by politics than by policy .
U.S. President Donald Trump is effectively forcing the sale of the Chinese-owned TikTok , citing national-security concerns over the user data and device access potentially available to China 's government .
Microsoft has emerged as a potential buyer for the popular video-sharing app , seeking to acquire its presence in the United States @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Michael Geist , an expert in internet law at the University of Ottawa , says the issue feels like a replay of the debate over whether to allow Huawei technology into Canada 's 5G wireless data networks .
• Thousands of tenants at risk as court rejects interim stay on Ontario evictions • Co-operation happening at the Canadian-U.S.A. border may surprise you • Environment minister says he shares concerns of B.C .
hunger strikers The federal government still has n't ended that debate with a decision , while Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after being arrested in Vancouver and two Canadians , Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor , have been detained in China for more than 600 days .
Geist says Canada is once again uncomfortably pressured to take sides in an emerging global digital tech battle and may try to not get too involved in the TikTok talks .
`` At this stage , I 'm not convinced that the Canadian government has clear policy on the area , '' Geist said , `` meaning our likely response is to stay on the sidelines and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or engagement . ''
TikTok launched three years ago and now boasts 100 million users worldwide who upload short , catchy videos .
A report earlier this year from We Are Social , a global agency that tracks social-media use , found that TikTok was the sixth most-downloaded app in Canada in 2019 , but used by only nine per cent of Canadian internet users aged 16 to 64 .
Trump has framed his concerns around a Chinese company having access to Americans ' personal data , echoing concerns that earlier this year @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Grindr , a gay dating app , to an American company for over US $ 600 million .
The potential sale of social-media platform TikTok to Microsoft is leaving Canada with a sense of deja vu .
Trump 's push comes amid escalating rhetoric towards Beijing over trade and the novel coronavirus pandemic .
`` The recent TikTok developments in the U.S. appear to be driven far more by politics than policy , '' Geist said .
`` There is little difference in the data collection practices of TikTok and the large U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last month from the Court of Justice of the European Union highlighted what it saw as the inadequacy of U.S. privacy laws , saying the U.S. government could have unchecked access to user information through its own surveillance laws .
So while bringing TikTok 's user data to U.S. servers might alleviate concerns about Chinese spying , it does n't eliminate concerns of U.S. agencies doing the same to an American-owned platform .
`` When Europe passed the strongest privacy regulation in the world , Microsoft decided to offer those protections and rights @ @ @ @ @ @ @ n't required to by law , '' said Lauren Reid , president of privacy consultancy The Privacy Pro .
`` At the end of the day , Microsoft is a U.S. company and is subject to the U.S. government surveillance programs , which allow unchecked access to the personal information held by private companies . ''
On Monday , Trump told reporters he would ban TikTok in the U.S. unless Microsoft or another American company bought the app by Sept. 15 , with a portion of the sale going to the U.S. treasury @ @ @ @ @ @ @ associate at the University of Toronto 's Citizen Lab , said Trump 's actions to force a sale would be a fairly substantive break with the way governments ordinarily treat internet companies .
In effect , the president 's actions suggest that each country should have its own branches of social media companies , Parsons said .
A question for Canadian policy-makers is what they would do if a country demanded part of a domestic tech darling — Parsons used Ottawa-based Shopify as an example — be hived off for similar reasons Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were to be involved , I think that it may be less around concerns about there being two TikToks ... and more around are these the kinds of norms we want to be propagated , '' he said .
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 4 , 2020 .

The potential sale of social-media platform TikTok to Microsoft is leaving Canada with a sense of deja vu. Experts say the country is once again being pressured to take sides in a debate about digital technology that seems driven more by politics than by policy. U.S. President Donald Trump is effectively forcing the sale of the Chinese-owned TikTok, citing national-security concerns over the user data and device access potentially available to China's government. Microsoft has emerged as a potential buyer for the popular video-sharing app, seeking to acquire its presence in the United States, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. Michael Geist, an expert in internet law at the University of Ottawa, says the issue feels like a replay of the debate over whether to allow Huawei technology into Canada's 5G wireless data networks.
The federal government still hasn't ended that debate with a decision, while Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou awaits possible extradition to the United States after being arrested in Vancouver and two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, have been detained in China for more than 600 days. Geist says Canada is once again uncomfortably pressured to take sides in an emerging global digital tech battle and may try to not get too involved in the TikTok talks. Billion-dollar land deals in Ontario raise corruption suspicions "At this stage, I'm not convinced that the Canadian government has clear policy on the area," Geist said, "meaning our likely response is to stay on the sidelines and let the issue unfold without much input or engagement."
TikTok launched three years ago and now boasts 100 million users worldwide who upload short, catchy videos. The potential sale of social-media platform TikTok to Microsoft is leaving Canada with a sense of deja vu. A report earlier this year from We Are Social, a global agency that tracks social-media use, found that TikTok was the sixth most-downloaded app in Canada in 2019, but used by only nine per cent of Canadian internet users aged 16 to 64. Trump has framed his concerns around a Chinese company having access to Americans' personal data, echoing concerns that earlier this year led a Chinese gaming company to sell Grindr, a gay dating app, to an American company for over US$600 million. Trump's push comes amid escalating rhetoric towards Beijing over trade and the novel coronavirus pandemic. "The recent TikTok developments in the U.S. appear to be driven far more by politics than policy," Geist said. "There is little difference in the data collection practices of TikTok and the large U.S. social-media companies."
A decision late last month from the Court of Justice of the European Union highlighted what it saw as the inadequacy of U.S. privacy laws, saying the U.S. government could have unchecked access to user information through its own surveillance laws. So while bringing TikTok's user data to U.S. servers might alleviate concerns about Chinese spying, it doesn't eliminate concerns of U.S. agencies doing the same to an American-owned platform. "When Europe passed the strongest privacy regulation in the world, Microsoft decided to offer those protections and rights to everyone — even though they weren't required to by law," said Lauren Reid, president of privacy consultancy The Privacy Pro.


nationalobserver--2020-08-05--Feds sign deals with Pfizer, Moderna to get doses of COVID-19 vaccines

Canada is negotiating deals with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and U.S.-based biotech firm Moderna to secure millions of doses of their experimental COVID-19 vaccines , in case either is approved for wide-scale use .
But Procurement Minister Anita Anand wo n't say yet how much Canada is spending or how many doses of either vaccine candidate Canada will get because she says Canada is in talks with other domestic and international firms to secure doses of their experimental vaccines as well .
`` The information we can reveal at the current time regarding doses in particular is being kept confidential because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the negotiations while we are engaged with other suppliers , '' she said , at a news conference in Toronto .
She said there will be firm orders with multiple suppliers and options to purchase more should further doses be needed .
After a company pronounces a vaccine safe and effective , Health Canada must approve it for use here before it can be used .
Anand said once that happens , she anticipates delivery of approved vaccines in 2021 .
`` As the situation evolves and as the number of suppliers becomes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ precisely how many doses we might need , '' Anand said .
• Thousands of tenants at risk as court rejects interim stay on Ontario evictions • Co-operation happening at the Canadian-U.S.A. border may surprise you • Environment minister says he shares concerns of B.C .
hunger strikers Last month Public Services and Procurement Canada issued bids to supply 75 million syringes and other vaccine administration supplies like alcohol swabs and bandages , to be delivered by the end of October .
The goal is to have enough supplies to give every Canadian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ These agreements with Moderna and Pfizer are indicative of our aggressive approach to secure access to vaccine candidates now so that Canadians are at the front of a line when a vaccine becomes available , '' Anand said .
`` These vaccine candidates are very promising and we all look forward to the day when restrictions can be lifted entirely . ''
Both Pfizer and Moderna began Phase 3 clinical trials of their vaccine candidates in the last week , large-scale tests to determine how well the vaccines work .
Both of these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ try to provoke an immune response to COVID-19 .
They are among about two dozen COVID-19 vaccine candidates in clinical trials around the world .
Dozens more are in earlier stages of development .
Both Pfizer and Moderna are part of the United States government 's Operation Warp Speed program to facilitate the development and production of COVID-19 vaccines quickly .
Pfizer said July 22 that it has a US $ 1.95-billion agreement to supply 100 million doses to the U.S. government , with an option for 500 million more .
Canada is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S.-based biotech firm Moderna to secure millions of doses of their experimental COVID-19 vaccines , in case either is approved for wide-scale use .
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in a conference call Wednesday that small amounts of Moderna 's vaccine have been priced between US $ 32 and US $ 37 a dose , but that the price would be lower for big orders .
Pfizer also said it expects it can produce 100 million doses of its vaccine by the end of December , and another 1.3 billion doses in 2021 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reported positive results from smaller trials .
Moderna 's vaccine was tested on 45 healthy adults between 18 and 55 years old in a Phase 1 trial in May and June , and reported a strong immune response in all people , with mild or moderate side effects such as fatigue , fever and body aches .
The Phase 3 trials will both test the vaccines on 30,000 people , and results are expected in the fall .
Canada 's chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam warned Tuesday about expecting a vaccine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic , saying they provide hope but likely no silver bullet for the novel coronavirus .
Anand echoed that sentiment , urging Canadians to continue to practice physical distancing , wash their hands and wear masks in public to prevent the spread of the virus while we await a vaccine .

Canada is negotiating deals with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and U.S.-based biotech firm Moderna to secure millions of doses of their experimental COVID-19 vaccines, in case either is approved for wide-scale use.
But Procurement Minister Anita Anand won't say yet how much Canada is spending or how many doses of either vaccine candidate Canada will get because she says Canada is in talks with other domestic and international firms to secure doses of their experimental vaccines as well.
"The information we can reveal at the current time regarding doses in particular is being kept confidential because we are taking a prudent approach to the negotiations while we are engaged with other suppliers," she said, at a news conference in Toronto.
She said there will be firm orders with multiple suppliers and options to purchase more should further doses be needed. After a company pronounces a vaccine safe and effective, Health Canada must approve it for use here before it can be used. Anand said once that happens, she anticipates delivery of approved vaccines in 2021.
"As the situation evolves and as the number of suppliers becomes more firm for Canada we can isolate precisely how many doses we might need," Anand said.


nationalobserver--2020-08-05--Canadian company urges human trials for its COVID-19 vaccine

A Canadian company is telling the government today that its trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine on animals completely blocked the virus , but it must conduct human trials to know whether it has found a possible cure for the pandemic .
And a leading health-care expert says the findings are promising even though they have n't been peer-reviewed .
Providence Therapeutics says it needs federal funding to move forward , but it has not heard back from the Trudeau government since May , the month after submitting a $ 35-million proposal to conduct first-stage human trials .
Providence has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ million doses of its new vaccine by mid-2021 for use in Canada if it were able to successfully complete human testing , but it has heard nothing .
Eric Marcusson , the San Francisco-based co-founder of Providence and its chief science officer , says the company has concluded testing on mice that showed its vaccine was able to block the entry of the novel coronavirus into their cells .
• Thousands of tenants at risk as court rejects interim stay on Ontario evictions • Co-operation happening at the Canadian-U.S.A. border may surprise you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of B.C .
hunger strikers Successful tests in animals can provide proof of the concept behind a potential new medicine or vaccine before trials in ever-larger groups of human subjects determine how well the drug works in the body and whether it has harmful side-effects .
Trials in humans are expensive and usually time-consuming .
Mario Ostrowski , the University of Toronto professor of medicine and immunology whose laboratory performed the animal trials , said he supports the results and says they are on par with tests of vaccine candidates from the American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
All three companies use the same new mRNA vaccine technology and last week , Moderna began a 30,000-person human trial after receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from the U.S. government .
The U.S. has also committed to pay Germany 's BioNTech and its American partner Pfizer $ 1.95 billion to produce 100 million doses if their vaccine candidate proves safe and effective in humans .
The mRNA vaccine technology involves using a key fragment of genetic material instead of working with an inactive sample of live virus .
A Canadian company @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 5 , 2020 , that its trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine on animals completely blocked the virus , but it must conduct human trials to know whether it has found a possible cure for the pandemic .
`` We have been testing the prototype vaccine in animal studies , '' Ostrowski told The Canadian Press .
`` When we give the vaccine to mice , it is safe and makes a very strong immune response and very potent antibodies . ''
Ostrowski said that the strength of the antibodies found in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than other similar vaccine candidates have at the same testing stage .
`` Another point is that the Providence vaccine is very similar to the Moderna vaccine in the U.S. and the German ( BioNTech ) vaccines , both showing excellent results , '' added Ostrowski , who practices at St. Michael 's Hospital in Toronto .
Brad Wouters , the executive vice-president of the Toronto-based University Health Network , said he has seen the new Providence data and it looks promising , but it needs to be peer-reviewed .
`` The fact @ @ @ @ @ @ @ means that the mouse immune system is reacting to the vaccine and producing antibodies that block the ability of the virus to infect cells , '' Wouters said in an emailed response to questions .
`` This suggests the results are better than even they were expecting . ''
But Wouters added that the Providence data needs a full peer review , and that under normal circumstances he would n't even be commenting publicly on research at this stage unless it were accompanied by a published peer review .
`` This is the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happen .
But as you have seen , COVID-19 is breaking traditions and they ( Providence ) are certainly not the first to release information from experimental research in advance of publication , '' said Wouters , who is also the senior scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre .
Alberta Sen. Doug Black has urged Ottawa to fund Providence so it can develop a domestic COVID-19 vaccine to lessen the risk Canadians will have wait in line for a foreign-made pandemic cure .
Several health-care professionals have also written to Innovation Minister @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up his mind on the Providence proposal .
The company plans to release the results publicly on Wednesday at the same time it delivers them to several relevant government departments .
`` We 're still blocking the virus 100 per cent .
Nothing gets in , '' Marcusson said in a telephone interview from San Francisco , where he has been living in lockdown since March as the pandemic exploded in California .
`` There 's no doubt this vaccine needs to be tested in humans because the results in mice are really @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be an extremely effective vaccine , but we wo n't know for sure until we get into humans , '' he said .
Marcusson is a 20-year veteran of the American biotechnology sector and had founded his own consultant business before meeting Providence chief executive Brad Sorenson in 2014 .
The two founded Providence in 2015 to develop cancer vaccines but it has pivoted to COVID-19 .
Marcusson said 20 per cent of his work remains outside the company as a consultant .
Black and several health experts say the government must @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there have been troubling signs that a vaccine produced abroad likely would n't be available to Canadians until much later .
Canada has already funded a the partnership between China 's CanSino Biologics and Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia but China has held up shipments of the vaccine that it was supposed to send to Dalhousie researchers by the end of May to start human trials .
`` They 've already been burned a couple of times with masks not getting across the border from the U.S. and a vaccine that they helped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it was held up at customs in China , '' said Marcusson .
`` So , this is a vaccine that can be made in Canada for Canadians , '' he added .
`` It would be nice if that was n't important , but it is important , and they need to realize this and fund a Canadian solution to this problem . ''
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 5 , 2020 .

A Canadian company is telling the government today that its trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine on animals completely blocked the virus, but it must conduct human trials to know whether it has found a possible cure for the pandemic. And a leading health-care expert says the findings are promising even though they haven't been peer-reviewed. Providence Therapeutics says it needs federal funding to move forward, but it has not heard back from the Trudeau government since May, the month after submitting a $35-million proposal to conduct first-stage human trials. Providence has told the government it could deliver five million doses of its new vaccine by mid-2021 for use in Canada if it were able to successfully complete human testing, but it has heard nothing. Eric Marcusson, the San Francisco-based co-founder of Providence and its chief science officer, says the company has concluded testing on mice that showed its vaccine was able to block the entry of the novel coronavirus into their cells.
Successful tests in animals can provide proof of the concept behind a potential new medicine or vaccine before trials in ever-larger groups of human subjects determine how well the drug works in the body and whether it has harmful side-effects. Trials in humans are expensive and usually time-consuming. Billion-dollar land deals in Ontario raise corruption suspicions Mario Ostrowski, the University of Toronto professor of medicine and immunology whose laboratory performed the animal trials, said he supports the results and says they are on par with tests of vaccine candidates from the American pharmaceutical firm Moderna and Germany's BioNTech.
All three companies use the same new mRNA vaccine technology and last week, Moderna began a 30,000-person human trial after receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from the U.S. government. A Canadian company is telling the government today, Aug. 5, 2020, that its trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine on animals completely blocked the virus, but it must conduct human trials to know whether it has found a possible cure for the pandemic. The U.S. has also committed to pay Germany's BioNTech and its American partner Pfizer $1.95 billion to produce 100 million doses if their vaccine candidate proves safe and effective in humans. The mRNA vaccine technology involves using a key fragment of genetic material instead of working with an inactive sample of live virus. "We have been testing the prototype vaccine in animal studies," Ostrowski told The Canadian Press. "When we give the vaccine to mice, it is safe and makes a very strong immune response and very potent antibodies." Ostrowski said that the strength of the antibodies found in the mice appeared to neutralize the virus better than other similar vaccine candidates have at the same testing stage.
"Another point is that the Providence vaccine is very similar to the Moderna vaccine in the U.S. and the German (BioNTech) vaccines, both showing excellent results," added Ostrowski, who practices at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. Brad Wouters, the executive vice-president of the Toronto-based University Health Network, said he has seen the new Providence data and it looks promising, but it needs to be peer-reviewed. "The fact that the vaccine has created neutralizing antibodies means that the mouse immune system is reacting to the vaccine and producing antibodies that block the ability of the virus to infect cells," Wouters said in an emailed response to questions.


nationalobserver--2020-08-05--WE takes bite out of Trudeau's popularity

Nearly half of Canadians would support an election being called if the federal watchdog finds Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to have violated the Conflict of Interest Act again over the WE charity affair , a new poll suggests .
The survey by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies also suggests the WE controversy has taken a bite out of Trudeau 's popularity , as well as that of the federal Liberal party , putting the Conservatives within striking distance of victory .
`` To me these are numbers that will certainly worry or concern the Liberals at this moment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ summer , this is raising a lot of eyebrows , '' said Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque .
The online poll of 1,531 adult Canadians took place July 31 to Aug. 2 , in the days following Trudeau 's appearance before a parliamentary committee to answer questions about the deal with WE .
It can not be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered truly random .
The survey results come as federal ethics commissioner Mario Dion is investigating both Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau over whether they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ government 's decision to give the WE organization a sole-sourced contract to run a $ 912-million student-volunteer program .
• Thousands of tenants at risk as court rejects interim stay on Ontario evictions • Co-operation happening at the Canadian-U.S.A. border may surprise you • Environment minister says he shares concerns of B.C .
hunger strikers Trudeau was previously found to have broken the Conflict of Interest Act for accepting two paid family vacations from the Aga Khan and for improperly pressuring Jody Wilson-Raybould , who was then attorney general , to halt the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The prime minister has apologized for not recusing himself from the WE decision , given the connections that he and his family have to the Toronto-based development organization , but denied any wrongdoing .
WE backed out of the deal in early July .
Forty-nine per cent of survey respondents said that if Trudeau is found to have broken the ethics law a third time , there should be an election to decide if he is fit to continue serving as prime minister .
Thirty-five per cent disagreed and 16 per cent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supporters , unsurprisingly , were most in favour at 78 per cent .
So were 67 per cent of those who said they intend to vote for the Bloc Quebecois .
Those who identified as NDP supporters were almost evenly split while Liberal voters , at 64 per cent , were most opposed to the idea .
Forty-nine per cent of respondents also felt that the WE controversy has hurt their opinion of Trudeau while 42 per cent said the same thing about the Liberal Party .
Fewer than five per cent said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Perhaps most troubling for the prime minister and his Liberals is that support for the party among decided voters has slipped by six percentage points in the last two weeks , with the Conservatives , who have not yet elected their new leader , reaping the most recent benefits .
Nearly half of Canadians would support an election being called if the federal watchdog finds Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to have violated the Conflict of Interest Act again over the WE charity affair , a new poll suggests .
The poll shows @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Liberals versus 31 per cent for the Conservatives and 20 per cent for the NDP .
The Bloc followed with eight per cent and the Greens at six .
`` From a voter-intention perspective , it allows the Conservatives to be back in the game , '' Bourque said .
`` Since the start of the pandemic , they were always behind the Liberals .
But now they 're within a couple of points and this allows them to be part of the dance now .
So as soon as they get @ @ @ @ @ @ @ say they want an election now . ''
Meanwhile , the poll also suggested many Canadians are relatively unenthusiastic about the return of professional sports that have been suspended by COVID-19 , with only 32 per cent of respondents saying they were excited and 39 per cent were not .
Forty-nine per cent also said they did not believe professional sports should resume before a vaccine is available versus 33 per cent who did .
Despite this , 42 per cent of respondents said they would like to see NHL hockey resume .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ playoffs kicked off on the weekend .

Nearly half of Canadians would support an election being called if the federal watchdog finds Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to have violated the Conflict of Interest Act again over the WE charity affair, a new poll suggests. The survey by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies also suggests the WE controversy has taken a bite out of Trudeau's popularity, as well as that of the federal Liberal party, putting the Conservatives within striking distance of victory. "To me these are numbers that will certainly worry or concern the Liberals at this moment because even though it's in the summer, this is raising a lot of eyebrows," said Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque. The online poll of 1,531 adult Canadians took place July 31 to Aug. 2, in the days following Trudeau's appearance before a parliamentary committee to answer questions about the deal with WE. It cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered truly random. The survey results come as federal ethics commissioner Mario Dion is investigating both Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau over whether they broke conflict-of-interest rules in relation to the government's decision to give the WE organization a sole-sourced contract to run a $912-million student-volunteer program.
Trudeau was previously found to have broken the Conflict of Interest Act for accepting two paid family vacations from the Aga Khan and for improperly pressuring Jody Wilson-Raybould, who was then attorney general, to halt the criminal prosecution of Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavalin. The prime minister has apologized for not recusing himself from the WE decision, given the connections that he and his family have to the Toronto-based development organization, but denied any wrongdoing. WE backed out of the deal in early July. Billion-dollar land deals in Ontario raise corruption suspicions Forty-nine per cent of survey respondents said that if Trudeau is found to have broken the ethics law a third time, there should be an election to decide if he is fit to continue serving as prime minister. Thirty-five per cent disagreed and 16 per cent said they did not know.
Conservative supporters, unsurprisingly, were most in favour at 78 per cent. So were 67 per cent of those who said they intend to vote for the Bloc Quebecois. Those who identified as NDP supporters were almost evenly split while Liberal voters, at 64 per cent, were most opposed to the idea. Nearly half of Canadians would support an election being called if the federal watchdog finds Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to have violated the Conflict of Interest Act again over the WE charity affair, a new poll suggests. Forty-nine per cent of respondents also felt that the WE controversy has hurt their opinion of Trudeau while 42 per cent said the same thing about the Liberal Party. Fewer than five per cent said it had improved their view of either. Perhaps most troubling for the prime minister and his Liberals is that support for the party among decided voters has slipped by six percentage points in the last two weeks, with the Conservatives, who have not yet elected their new leader, reaping the most recent benefits. The poll shows 33 per cent of decided voters supporting the Liberals versus 31 per cent for the Conservatives and 20 per cent for the NDP. The Bloc followed with eight per cent and the Greens at six. "From a voter-intention perspective, it allows the Conservatives to be back in the game," Bourque said.
"Since the start of the pandemic, they were always behind the Liberals. But now they're within a couple of points and this allows them to be part of the dance now. So as soon as they get a new leader, they could basically say they want an election now." Meanwhile, the poll also suggested many Canadians are relatively unenthusiastic about the return of professional sports that have been suspended by COVID-19, with only 32 per cent of respondents saying they were excited and 39 per cent were not. Forty-nine per cent also said they did not believe professional sports should resume before a vaccine is available versus 33 per cent who did.


nationalobserver--2020-08-06--Biden’s Weak Link On Energy And Ethics Is An Ex-Obama Official With Deep Fossil Fuel Ties

Ken Salazar , the Obama administration ’ s first-term interior secretary , took a job at an industry law and lobbying firm just months after leaving office .
There , he refashioned himself as an oil champion and avoided disclosing the companies that paid him to lobby .
This story was originally published by HuffPost and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration The Revolving Door Project and dozens of other left-leaning organizations sent a letter to the Biden campaign this week urging the Democratic hopeful to avoid potential conflicts of interest by committing to keep industry insiders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his administration , Politico reported .
“ Salazar ’ s lucrative spin through the revolving door from public servant to agent of the fossil fuel industry is no less indefensible when done by an Obama alumnus than when done by a member of Trump ’ s team , ” said Jeff Hauser , director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research ’ s Revolving Door Project .
But as Biden seeks to draw stark contrasts with President Donald Trump , government watchdogs say Salazar threatens to undermine the campaign ’ s promises @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and could help Republicans obscure the Trump administration ’ s uniquely egregious record of self - dealing and pandering to polluters .
They see Salazar as an example of the corporate influence in politics and the constant movement of people between government and industry ― the so-called “ swamp ” that Trump famously promised to drain before stacking his Cabinet with dozens of former lobbyists and industry insiders .
There ’ s no clear indication yet that the former U.S. senator and attorney general of Colorado is advising Biden ’ s policy approach @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the federal government and slashing climate-changing emissions .
In June , after Biden clinched the Democratic presidential nomination , the campaign added Salazar , 65 , to its list of potential transition team recruits .
And earlier this month , the former vice president tapped the self-described “ 12th-generation son of the southwest ” to co-chair its Latino engagement committee .
While Salazar appears to have kept his promise about BP , in early 2017 , he represented Anadarko Petroleum , a since-acquired Texas-based oil and gas giant that owned a 25 % @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and in 2015 was slapped with a $ 159 million fine for its involvement in the Deepwater disaster .
In June 2013 , less than two months after stepping down as interior chief , Salazar became a partner at WilmerHale , a D.C-based law and lobbying firm that represented BP in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and whose clients include several other drilling and mining companies that the Interior Department regulates .
At the time , he pledged to abide by federal ethics rules , “ walling himself off from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the federal agency , the International Business Times reported .
That would include being “ completely segregated from revenues that come in from BP , ” he said .
But Salazar , who also chaired Hillary Clinton ’ s transition team in 2016 , has himself come under fire for perceived ethical shortfalls .
The Biden proposal slams the Trump administration as “ the most corrupt administration in modern history ” and accuses it of dismantling the Obama administration ’ s stringent ethics code .
“ It is time that we strengthen our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” the proposal reads .
In October , a month after receiving Salazar ’ s endorsement , Biden unveiled a sweeping plan to “ restore ethics in government ” and “ reduce the corrupting influence of money in politics.
” Still , good government groups say Salazar ’ s work for the oil and gas sector and failure to disclose his lobbying work on behalf of Anadarko raise serious concerns .
Policy positions aside , he should have been upfront about who ’ s paying him to lobby , said Tyson Slocum @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Public Citizen ’ s energy program .
Salazar ’ s work for Anadarko in Colorado did not violate federal ethics rules , which apply only to former Cabinet officials trying to influence the federal government , not state or local governments .
Those rules prohibit political appointees from lobbying federal agencies for two years after leaving government service , and permanently bar lobbying on particular matters they worked on while in government .
The legal counsel Salazar provided Anadarko was not related to the Gulf spill , but rather to the explosion of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ company ’ s active wells in Firestone , Colorado , the International Business Times reported after obtaining emails another Anadarko lawyer sent to then-Colorado Gov .
John Hickenlooper ’ s office .
The April 2017 blast destroyed a home , killing two people and injuring three others .
The company reached a settlement with victims ’ families in 2018 .
“ You have to understand that the corporate lobbyist revolving door is one of the most troublesome in American politics because when industry can afford to buy a former Cabinet secretary and U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get results , ” Slocum said .
“ Part of that deal is you get out in front of that by getting out and saying , ‘ I ’ m being paid by this company.
’ … That he didn ’ t do that is really problematic.
” At times , Anadarko benefited from Salazar ’ s tenure in government .
In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon blowout , Salazar ’ s Interior Department granted the company a waiver for an offshore drilling project in the Gulf of Mexico , exempting it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And in 2012 , flanked by Anadarko representatives , Salazar approved the company ’ s plan to develop more than 3,600 natural gas wells on 163,000 acres in northeast Utah .
The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance , a local environmental group , signed off on the project after Anadarko committed to protecting sensitive areas in the White River area .
Salazar ’ s WilmerHale biography notes his ongoing work on energy and natural resource issues and says that as interior chief , he “ led the nation ’ s efforts to develop and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ energy independence , ” including overseeing development of fossil fuels and renewable energy and “ overhauling the regulatory oversight of oil and gas exploration and production.
” A 1-page Anadarko fact sheet on hydraulic fracturing includes a glowing quote from Salazar : “ Hydraulic fracking is very much a necessary part of the future of natural gas .
I would say to everybody that hydraulic fracking is safe.
” WilmerHale has extensive ties to the Trump administration and the Trump family .
It represents Trump ’ s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort , according to Politico .
And Trump has tapped at least two former WilmerHale attorneys for high-ranking federal positions .
Hauser said Salazar “ personifies the soft corruption of what is legal in American politics.
” “ Just because Salazar is powerful enough , and our ethics laws so pathetic , that he has avoided triggering ethics rules and norms around ‘ registered lobbyists ’ does not mean his access peddling is healthy , ” he said .
“ Salazar is a key cog in big fossil @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an adequate policy response to the climate crisis.
” Biden won praise this month from climate activists for his proposal to phase out all carbon-emitting coal and gas power plants by 2035 and direct 40 % of federal energy benefits to mostly poor and minority communities who have borne the brunt of fossil fuel pollution .
It marked a significant shift from what he proposed earlier in the primary and tracked with how Democrats have embraced scientifically realistic goals that top party officials dismissed as a progressive “ green dream ” as recently @ @ @ @ @ @ @ record with the fossil fuel industry isn ’ t just out of step with the dramatic shift in climate politics over the past two years , amid mounting scientific warnings and the emergence of the Green New Deal movement .
Even in 2008 , his nomination to head the Interior Department drew environmentalists ’ ire .
Daniel Patterson , a former official at the Interior Department ’ s Bureau of Land Management , criticized Salazar ’ s “ disturbingly weak conservation record , particularly on energy development , global warming , endangered wildlife @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s choices for Secretary of Energy and his ‘ Climate Change Czar ’ indicate a determined willingness to take on global warming , ” Kieran Suckling , a founder of the Center for Biological Diversity , said at the time .
“ That team will be weakened by the addition of Ken Salazar , who has fought against federal action on global warming , against higher fuel efficiency standards , and for increased oil drilling and oil subsidies.
” Sure enough , even as the Environmental Protection Agency rolled out increasingly aggressive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ frequently sided with industry .
In 2009 , the Interior Department upheld a Bush administration policy prohibiting federal regulators from using the Endangered Species Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions , despite the key role such pollution played in the perilous decline of polar bears and other species .
In 2010 , Salazar exempted BP and dozens of other oil drillers from environmental reviews in the Gulf of Mexico .
Roughly a year later , the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded , killing 11 workers and causing the largest oil spill in the history @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gushed from an underwater well for months , the Interior Department waived environmental reviews for another 26 new offshore drilling projects , at least two of which were requests from BP .
Salazar granted a 27th exemption the same day the Interior Department issued a moratorium on offshore drilling .
One month after the spill , Salazar hired Sylvia Baca , a former senior-ranking BP employee , to run Interior ’ s Minerals Management Service , which oversees the process for granting environmental review exemptions .
The Interior Department defended the decision , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recused from participating personally and substantially in any particular matter involving specific parties in which BP is or represents a party , for a period of two years following her appointment.
” In 2012 , the Interior Department granted Royal Dutch Shell permits to drill in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska , a decision The New York Times described later as a “ serious miscalculation ” that led to repeated accidents and delays .
( The Obama administration once again approved Shell ’ s drilling permits in 2015 . )
Using His Pulpit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fuels Even after leaving the administration in 2013 to join WilmerHale , Salazar used his pulpit as a former Cabinet secretary to vocally advocate on behalf of the industry he once regulated .
In 2014 , while the Obama administration debated permitting the controversial Keystone XL pipeline , Salazar threw his weight behind the project ― one Trump has prioritized throughout his term ― saying construction could be “ a win-win for energy and the environment.
” “ At the end of the day , we are going to be consuming that oil @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conference in Texas .
“ So is it better for us to get the oil from our good neighbor from the north , or to be bringing it from someplace in the Middle East ?
” The comment mirrors one that Trump ’ s first interior chief , Ryan Zinke , repeated often : that it is better to produce energy in the U.S. under reasonable regulations than to have it be produced overseas with none .
Zinke also frequently boasted that the Trump administration favors an “ all-of-the-above energy strategy ” that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its website , WilmerHale notes that Salazar was a key figure in “ developing and implementing President Obama ’ s ‘ all of the above ’ energy strategy.
” It was hardly his only legacy .
The Obama administration protected more than 550 million acres of federal land and water ― more than any other president in U.S. history .
Trump , on the other hand , has worked to weaken safeguards for nearly 35 million acres ( nearly 1,000 times more than it has protected ) , earning the title of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ according to a recent analysis from the left-leaning Center for American Progress .
In July 2018 , Salazar criticized mounting lawsuits by cities and counties seeking restitution from oil companies for their role in promoting climate denial as climate change now damages infrastructure .
“ I don ’ t agree with those who take those positions into the courts , ” Salazar said at the annual Denver luncheon of Colorado Petroleum Council , a division of the national trade group the American Petroleum Institute , according to the industry-funded blog Western Wire .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ increase the distance oil and gas wells are required to be from schools and homes as “ fundamentally unconstitutional.
” In the years since Obama ’ s presidency , there ’ s been a divergence among Obama administration alumni about their legacy on natural gas , Hauser said .
His worry is that individuals who do not express remorse about that record at this stage in the fight against climate change will ultimately land key posts in a future Biden administration .
Salazar , he said , is “ the type of Democrat @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we ’ re going to address the climate crisis .
”

There’s no clear indication yet that the former U.S. senator and attorney general of Colorado is advising Biden’s policy approach, which includes curbing corporate corruption of the federal government and slashing climate-changing emissions.
In June, after Biden clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, the campaign added Salazar, 65, to its list of potential transition team recruits. And earlier this month, the former vice president tapped the self-described “12th-generation son of the southwest” to co-chair its Latino engagement committee.
Ken Salazar, the Obama administration’s first-term interior secretary, took a job at an industry law and lobbying firm just months after leaving office. There, he refashioned himself as an oil champion and avoided disclosing the companies that paid him to lobby.
This story was originally published by HuffPost and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration
The Revolving Door Project and dozens of other left-leaning organizations sent a letter to the Biden campaign this week urging the Democratic hopeful to avoid potential conflicts of interest by committing to keep industry insiders off his transition team and out of his administration, Politico reported.
“Salazar’s lucrative spin through the revolving door from public servant to agent of the fossil fuel industry is no less indefensible when done by an Obama alumnus than when done by a member of Trump’s team,” said Jeff Hauser, director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research’s Revolving Door Project.
But as Biden seeks to draw stark contrasts with President Donald Trump, government watchdogs say Salazar threatens to undermine the campaign’s promises to bring ethics back to Washington, and could help Republicans obscure the Trump administration’s uniquely egregious record of self - dealing and pandering to polluters. They see Salazar as an example of the corporate influence in politics and the constant movement of people between government and industry ― the so-called “swamp” that Trump famously promised to drain before stacking his Cabinet with dozens of former lobbyists and industry insiders.
The Biden proposal slams the Trump administration as “the most corrupt administration in modern history” and accuses it of dismantling the Obama administration’s stringent ethics code. “It is time that we strengthen our lobbyist rules and hold public officials accountable,” the proposal reads.
In October, a month after receiving Salazar’s endorsement , Biden unveiled a sweeping plan to “restore ethics in government” and “reduce the corrupting influence of money in politics.”
In June 2013, less than two months after stepping down as interior chief, Salazar became a partner at WilmerHale, a D.C-based law and lobbying firm that represented BP in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and whose clients include several other drilling and mining companies that the Interior Department regulates. At the time, he pledged to abide by federal ethics rules, “walling himself off from matters” he worked on while at the federal agency, the International Business Times reported. That would include being “completely segregated from revenues that come in from BP,” he said.
But Salazar, who also chaired Hillary Clinton’s transition team in 2016, has himself come under fire for perceived ethical shortfalls.
While Salazar appears to have kept his promise about BP, in early 2017, he represented Anadarko Petroleum, a since-acquired Texas-based oil and gas giant that owned a 25% stake in BP’s Macondo well and in 2015 was slapped with a $159 million fine for its involvement in the Deepwater disaster.
The legal counsel Salazar provided Anadarko was not related to the Gulf spill, but rather to the explosion of a severed flowline from one of the company’s active wells in Firestone, Colorado, the International Business Times reported after obtaining emails another Anadarko lawyer sent to then-Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper’s office. The April 2017 blast destroyed a home, killing two people and injuring three others. The company reached a settlement with victims’ families in 2018.
Salazar’s work for Anadarko in Colorado did not violate federal ethics rules, which apply only to former Cabinet officials trying to influence the federal government, not state or local governments. Those rules prohibit political appointees from lobbying federal agencies for two years after leaving government service, and permanently bar lobbying on particular matters they worked on while in government.
Still, good government groups say Salazar’s work for the oil and gas sector and failure to disclose his lobbying work on behalf of Anadarko raise serious concerns. Policy positions aside, he should have been upfront about who’s paying him to lobby, said Tyson Slocum, director of the progressive watchdog group Public Citizen’s energy program.
“You have to understand that the corporate lobbyist revolving door is one of the most troublesome in American politics because when industry can afford to buy a former Cabinet secretary and U.S. senator, you get access and you get results,” Slocum said. “Part of that deal is you get out in front of that by getting out and saying, ‘I’m being paid by this company.’ … That he didn’t do that is really problematic.”
At times, Anadarko benefited from Salazar’s tenure in government. In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon blowout, Salazar’s Interior Department granted the company a waiver for an offshore drilling project in the Gulf of Mexico, exempting it from conducting a detailed environmental assessment. And in 2012, flanked by Anadarko representatives, Salazar approved the company’s plan to develop more than 3,600 natural gas wells on 163,000 acres in northeast Utah. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, a local environmental group, signed off on the project after Anadarko committed to protecting sensitive areas in the White River area.
Salazar’s WilmerHale biography notes his ongoing work on energy and natural resource issues and says that as interior chief, he “led the nation’s efforts to develop and implement the framework for America’s energy independence,” including overseeing development of fossil fuels and renewable energy and “overhauling the regulatory oversight of oil and gas exploration and production.”
A 1-page Anadarko fact sheet on hydraulic fracturing includes a glowing quote from Salazar: “Hydraulic fracking is very much a necessary part of the future of natural gas. I would say to everybody that hydraulic fracking is safe.”
WilmerHale has extensive ties to the Trump administration and the Trump family. It represents Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, according to Politico. And Trump has tapped at least two former WilmerHale attorneys for high-ranking federal positions.
Hauser said Salazar “personifies the soft corruption of what is legal in American politics.”
“Just because Salazar is powerful enough, and our ethics laws so pathetic, that he has avoided triggering ethics rules and norms around ‘registered lobbyists’ does not mean his access peddling is healthy,” he said. “Salazar is a key cog in big fossil fuel’s efforts to push off an adequate policy response to the climate crisis.”
Big Oil’s Ally In The Obama White House
Biden won praise this month from climate activists for his proposal to phase out all carbon-emitting coal and gas power plants by 2035 and direct 40% of federal energy benefits to mostly poor and minority communities who have borne the brunt of fossil fuel pollution. It marked a significant shift from what he proposed earlier in the primary and tracked with how Democrats have embraced scientifically realistic goals that top party officials dismissed as a progressive “green dream” as recently as last year.
Salazar’s record with the fossil fuel industry isn’t just out of step with the dramatic shift in climate politics over the past two years, amid mounting scientific warnings and the emergence of the Green New Deal movement. Even in 2008, his nomination to head the Interior Department drew environmentalists’ ire. Daniel Patterson, a former official at the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management, criticized Salazar’s “disturbingly weak conservation record, particularly on energy development, global warming, endangered wildlife and protecting scientific integrity.”
“Obama’s choices for Secretary of Energy and his ‘Climate Change Czar’ indicate a determined willingness to take on global warming,” Kieran Suckling, a founder of the Center for Biological Diversity, said at the time. “That team will be weakened by the addition of Ken Salazar, who has fought against federal action on global warming, against higher fuel efficiency standards, and for increased oil drilling and oil subsidies.”
Sure enough, even as the Environmental Protection Agency rolled out increasingly aggressive regulations on oil and gas, Salazar frequently sided with industry. In 2009, the Interior Department upheld a Bush administration policy prohibiting federal regulators from using the Endangered Species Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, despite the key role such pollution played in the perilous decline of polar bears and other species.
In 2010, Salazar exempted BP and dozens of other oil drillers from environmental reviews in the Gulf of Mexico. Roughly a year later, the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, killing 11 workers and causing the largest oil spill in the history of marine drilling. Yet as oil gushed from an underwater well for months, the Interior Department waived environmental reviews for another 26 new offshore drilling projects, at least two of which were requests from BP. Salazar granted a 27th exemption the same day the Interior Department issued a moratorium on offshore drilling.
One month after the spill, Salazar hired Sylvia Baca, a former senior-ranking BP employee, to run Interior’s Minerals Management Service, which oversees the process for granting environmental review exemptions. The Interior Department defended the decision, insisting Baca “has been and is recused from participating personally and substantially in any particular matter involving specific parties in which BP is or represents a party, for a period of two years following her appointment.”
In 2012, the Interior Department granted Royal Dutch Shell permits to drill in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska, a decision The New York Times described later as a “serious miscalculation” that led to repeated accidents and delays. (The Obama administration once again approved Shell’s drilling permits in 2015.)
Using His Pulpit As A Former Secretary To Push Fossil Fuels
Even after leaving the administration in 2013 to join WilmerHale, Salazar used his pulpit as a former Cabinet secretary to vocally advocate on behalf of the industry he once regulated.
In 2014, while the Obama administration debated permitting the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, Salazar threw his weight behind the project ― one Trump has prioritized throughout his term ― saying construction could be “a win-win for energy and the environment.”
“At the end of the day, we are going to be consuming that oil,” Salazar said at an industry conference in Texas. “So is it better for us to get the oil from our good neighbor from the north, or to be bringing it from someplace in the Middle East?”
The comment mirrors one that Trump’s first interior chief, Ryan Zinke, repeated often: that it is better to produce energy in the U.S. under reasonable regulations than to have it be produced overseas with none. Zinke also frequently boasted that the Trump administration favors an “all-of-the-above energy strategy” that includes fossil fuels and renewables. On its website, WilmerHale notes that Salazar was a key figure in “developing and implementing President Obama’s ‘all of the above’ energy strategy.”
It was hardly his only legacy.
The Obama administration protected more than 550 million acres of federal land and water ― more than any other president in U.S. history. Trump, on the other hand, has worked to weaken safeguards for nearly 35 million acres (nearly 1,000 times more than it has protected), earning the title of the most “anti-nature” president ever, according to a recent analysis from the left-leaning Center for American Progress.
In July 2018, Salazar criticized mounting lawsuits by cities and counties seeking restitution from oil companies for their role in promoting climate denial as climate change now damages infrastructure.
“I don’t agree with those who take those positions into the courts,” Salazar said at the annual Denver luncheon of Colorado Petroleum Council, a division of the national trade group the American Petroleum Institute, according to the industry-funded blog Western Wire.
He dismissed a proposed ballot measure to increase the distance oil and gas wells are required to be from schools and homes as “fundamentally unconstitutional.”
In the years since Obama’s presidency, there’s been a divergence among Obama administration alumni about their legacy on natural gas, Hauser said. His worry is that individuals who do not express remorse about that record at this stage in the fight against climate change will ultimately land key posts in a future Biden administration.
Salazar, he said, is “the type of Democrat that has to be left behind if we’re going to address the climate crisis.”


nationalobserver--2020-08-06--Environment Minister says he needs to be convinced shipping terminal won't harm endangered killer wh

Environment Minister says he needs to be convinced shipping terminal won't harm endangered killer whales

Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said he will need to “ personally be convinced ” that the environmental impacts of a proposed Metro Vancouver shipping terminal — including on endangered southern resident killer whales — could be mitigated .
The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority says the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project — a new three-berth terminal planned to be built next to Deltaport and the Westshore terminal — is needed to keep up with shipping container demand and to meet international trade objectives through the next two decades , and would provide economic benefits for the region .
But the project @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the nearby City of Delta , which recently produced a report recommending Prime Minister Justin Trudeau block the terminal ’ s approval .
Delta ’ s mayor says he ’ s worried about the project being approved over concerns raised by scientists .
On Wednesday , Nanaimo—Ladysmith Green Party MP Paul Manly also said in a statement that he had written to Wilkinson last month expressing his concerns about the port expansion , arguing that the harms outweigh the benefits .
“ It does n't take much to disturb the balance of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said .
A review panel that carried out a five-year environmental assessment process concluded in March that the project would result in “ significant adverse and cumulative effects on wetlands ” in the area and impact numerous wildlife species including southern resident killer whales , as well as likely result in adverse effects on Indigenous communities .
• ‘ I feel like I ’ m getting sent back to die ’ : Students angered by Doug Ford 's back-to-school plan • Thousands of tenants at risk as court rejects interim stay on Ontario @ @ @ @ @ @ @ concerns of B.C .
hunger strikers There are reportedly 72 southern resident killer whales currently alive , and they are listed as endangered under the Species at Risk Act .
Roberts Bank encompasses the whales ’ critical habitat , according to the City of Delta report .
Wilkinson , the MP for North Vancouver , made the comments Tuesday after announcing a program meant to help protect and restore species-at-risk habitat in the Kootenay region of British Columbia .
He said he will have to make a determination in the coming months as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ environmental impacts .
If he decides that there is , it will go to cabinet for a “ conversation about whether those impacts can be mitigated to the extent that the project should proceed , or not.
” “ Certainly I ’ ve been very clear , about all major projects , that if there are significant environmental impacts , they would have to be addressed in very substantive ways , for projects to be able to go ahead , ” he said .
“ In this case , one of the most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ resident killer whales — something that I have worked both long and hard on , both in this role and in my previous role as minister of fisheries and oceans .
I would need to personally be convinced that we can mitigate those impacts in a way that would not be significantly detrimental to the whales.
” In an interview after the minister ’ s comments , Delta Mayor George Harvie said he is not satisfied that the concerns raised by the city have been properly addressed so far , including the impact @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the project would take up valuable agricultural land .
Canada 's environment minister says he will need to `` personally be convinced '' that the `` significant concerns '' raised over a proposed Metro Vancouver shipping terminal ’ s potential impact on endangered southern resident killer whales could be mitigated .
“ We ’ re relying on the next process , which is the minister of environment ... if he says it needs a cabinet decision , then the cabinet ( should ) know that the City of Delta wants to have those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of supporting the development in Delta , ” he said .
“ Part of our official community plan is that decisions have to take the environment into consideration ...
This is already the largest port in Canada .
If it gets larger it must , must address the concerns that scientists have raised.
” The review panel found whales would be significantly adversely effected given the effects of the project and the marine shipping associated with it .
It cited issues like underwater noise , the availability of Chinook salmon prey , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whales , as well as a lack of mantatory mitigation measures .
The panel said it was informed by several participants that the whales “ may be at a tipping point , beyond which their population would not be able to recover.
” Ecojustice , for example , said increased shipping traffic would push the population into decline , while the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans said more disturbances could lower whales ' ability to forage , potentially leading to reduced survival .
The port authority said it will develop a plan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the Roberts Bank ecosystem , ” including potentially making a “ meaningful contribution to the future health and recovery of iconic west coast species ” such as the southern resident killer whale .
It acknowledged to the project review panel that the underwater noise generated by container ships and other vessels such as tugboats had the potential to affect marine mammals .
But it said that the underwater noise from the project wouldn ’ t go above average levels more than five per cent of the year .
The port authority also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mitigation measures for construction activity including using marine mammal observers and “ underwater noise reduction and dampening methods and technologies , ” as well as putting in place buffer zones .
The federal government has made numerous efforts to protect the southern resident killer whale population , including fishery closures and sanctuary zones prohibiting vessel traffic , as well as mandatory vessel approach distances in southern British Columbia coastal waters .

Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said he will need to “personally be convinced” that the environmental impacts of a proposed Metro Vancouver shipping terminal — including on endangered southern resident killer whales — could be mitigated. The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority says the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project — a new three-berth terminal planned to be built next to Deltaport and the Westshore terminal — is needed to keep up with shipping container demand and to meet international trade objectives through the next two decades, and would provide economic benefits for the region. But the project is running into fresh opposition, including from the nearby City of Delta, which recently produced a report recommending Prime Minister Justin Trudeau block the terminal’s approval. Delta’s mayor says he’s worried about the project being approved over concerns raised by scientists. On Wednesday, Nanaimo—Ladysmith Green Party MP Paul Manly also said in a statement that he had written to Wilkinson last month expressing his concerns about the port expansion, arguing that the harms outweigh the benefits. “It doesn't take much to disturb the balance of a fragile estuarine ecosystem,” he said. A review panel that carried out a five-year environmental assessment process concluded in March that the project would result in “significant adverse and cumulative effects on wetlands” in the area and impact numerous wildlife species including southern resident killer whales, as well as likely result in adverse effects on Indigenous communities.
There are reportedly 72 southern resident killer whales currently alive, and they are listed as endangered under the Species at Risk Act. Roberts Bank encompasses the whales’ critical habitat, according to the City of Delta report. Wilkinson, the MP for North Vancouver, made the comments Tuesday after announcing a program meant to help protect and restore species-at-risk habitat in the Kootenay region of British Columbia. Billion-dollar land deals in Ontario raise corruption suspicions He said he will have to make a determination in the coming months as to whether Terminal 2 has significant adverse environmental impacts. If he decides that there is, it will go to cabinet for a “conversation about whether those impacts can be mitigated to the extent that the project should proceed, or not.”
“Certainly I’ve been very clear, about all major projects, that if there are significant environmental impacts, they would have to be addressed in very substantive ways, for projects to be able to go ahead,” he said. Canada's environment minister says he will need to "personally be convinced" that the "significant concerns" raised over a proposed Metro Vancouver shipping terminal’s potential impact on endangered southern resident killer whales could be mitigated. “In this case, one of the most significant concerns...(are) southern resident killer whales — something that I have worked both long and hard on, both in this role and in my previous role as minister of fisheries and oceans. I would need to personally be convinced that we can mitigate those impacts in a way that would not be significantly detrimental to the whales.” In an interview after the minister’s comments, Delta Mayor George Harvie said he is not satisfied that the concerns raised by the city have been properly addressed so far, including the impact on whales, as well as whether the project would take up valuable agricultural land. “We’re relying on the next process, which is the minister of environment ... if he says it needs a cabinet decision, then the cabinet (should) know that the City of Delta wants to have those issues addressed before we do any means of supporting the development in Delta,” he said. “Part of our official community plan is that decisions have to take the environment into consideration ... This is already the largest port in Canada. If it gets larger it must, must address the concerns that scientists have raised.”
The review panel found whales would be significantly adversely effected given the effects of the project and the marine shipping associated with it. It cited issues like underwater noise, the availability of Chinook salmon prey, and the potential for ships to collide with whales, as well as a lack of mantatory mitigation measures. The panel said it was informed by several participants that the whales “may be at a tipping point, beyond which their population would not be able to recover.” Ecojustice, for example, said increased shipping traffic would push the population into decline, while the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans said more disturbances could lower whales' ability to forage, potentially leading to reduced survival.


nationalobserver--2020-08-06--‘I feel like I’m getting sent back to die,’ student says as NDP calls for Doug Ford to scrap back-to

‘I feel like I’m getting sent back to die,’ student says as NDP calls for Doug Ford to scrap back-to-school plan

Ontario ’ s Opposition NDP Leader Andrea Horwath called on Premier Doug Ford to scrap the province ’ s current back-to-school plan on Thursday and replace it with one that delivers smaller class sizes .
“ This is not a plan that allows for safe distancing of kids , and it 's not a plan that is about the safety of our children , ” Horwath said , standing outside a Hamilton-area school expecting more than 1,000 students in September and which already uses 19 portables .
Ford said Wednesday he is “ not holding back on a penny ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about back-to-school plans critics say do not provide enough funding to keep students safe from the COVID-19 pandemic .
“ Going into September , talk about losing sleep , that ’ s my number one priority , to protect the kids , and I 'll do whatever it takes to protect the kids , ” Ford said at a news conference on Wednesday about an unrelated funding announcement where most questions from reporters revolved around education .
That was not good enough for Stacey Davis , a Grade 1 teacher with children in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on Thursday and called the plan “ insufficient , underwhelming , and quite frankly , irresponsible.
” • Thousands of tenants at risk as court rejects interim stay on Ontario evictions • Environment minister says he shares concerns of B.C .
hunger strikers • Environment Minister says he needs to be convinced shipping terminal wo n't harm endangered killer whales Davis said she was among a group of teachers asked in June to see how much space they could create in their classrooms and was unable to space the desks for her 20 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ apart .
She was unsure whether she would send her own children back to school .
“ I want them to attend school and I want to teach as well , but until the government makes adequate changes to this plan , I will not be sending my kids to school and I do not feel protected as an educator , ” she said .
“ This plan can be made better , ” she added .
“ I will not be made a guinea pig and I will not settle.
” Ford @ @ @ @ @ @ @ add to the $ 309 million it set aside for pandemic-related adjustments in the plan he and Education Minister Stephen Lecce released last week , saying he would “ never say never , put it that way.
” “ We know what Mr. Ford is all about , ” Horwath said .
“ Let 's not forget this is the guy ( who ) was expanding classroom sizes before the pandemic hit .
He was on track to fire 10,000 teachers.
” Ontario Premier Doug Ford answers questions on August 5 , 2020 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the minister of heritage , sport , tourism and culture industries .
Screengrab of live feed from premier 's YouTube channel Ford also sought to present the plan as the product of advice provided by pediatric and public health experts and said the money made available was the most per student in the country .
“ If it was up to us , there ’ d be five kids in the classroom , ” he said .
“ We ’ re doing pretty good ( with overall COVID-19 cases ) , so let @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ontario is spending $ 165 per pupil , which the government said compared to $ 162 in Quebec and $ 79 in British Columbia .
Guidance released by the Hospital for Sick Children and other health experts at the end of July recommended that smaller class sizes be a priority , guidance that opposition politicians say Ford and Lecce have ignored .
“ Addressing structural deficiencies , such as large class sizes , small classrooms and poor ventilation , must be part of any plan to reopen schools , ” the July 29 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ refers to this report , but refuses to follow their advice , ” said Ontario Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca , whose party has estimated it would cost $ 3.2 billion to reopen schools safely .
“ He has not put one dollar towards finding additional space for students or teachers.
” The hospitals — which also include Ottawa ’ s CHEO , Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto , Kingston Health Sciences Centre , Children ’ s Hospital at London Health Sciences Centre , McMaster Children ’ s Hospital in Hamilton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ carefully worded statement after Ford spoke that did not directly reference the earlier call for smaller class sizes .
“ We encourage the Ministry of Education , all school boards and schools to consider our guidance as they implement the health and safety measures based on their local environments and COVID-19 circumstances , ” they wrote .
‘ I feel like I ’ m getting sent back to die ’ Student Isaiah Towers is not comfortable with the plan , seeing negative outcomes whether attending class in person or choosing to stay home @ @ @ @ @ @ @ student , I can confirm I ’ m terrified , ” Towers tweeted .
“ So are a majority of students .
Personally , I feel like I ’ m getting sent back to die .
But if I don ’ t go my education will slip even more.
” As a student , I can confirm I ’ m terrified .
So are a majority of students .
Personally , I feel like I ’ m getting sent back to die .
But if I don ’ t go my education will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( @ Ontario_boy ) August 5 , 2020 While children who contract COVID-19 appear to fare better than adults , less likely to be heavily hurt by it , the broader risk is that schools reopening could reignite community spread .
An online petition started by a teacher-librarian on the weekend that demands a reduction in class sizes had garnered almost 168,000 signatures by mid-afternoon Thursday .
Ford said he would not hesitate to shut schools again if a second wave of infections emerges .
“ It ’ s time for the premier @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get back to the drawing board , ” said Mike Schreiner , the leader of the Green Party of Ontario .
“ Crowded classrooms and too few dollars for education make for unsafe learning come September.
” The country ’ s largest school board , the Toronto District School Board , said in a planning document released last month that it would need to hire nearly 2,500 more teachers at a cost of almost $ 250 million in order to teach elementary students full time in groups of 15 .
Ford said that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ both a teacher and an early childhood educator , and that they would be expected to cohort students into groups of 15 within the classroom .
Ford also said that people “ live in a bubble to a certain degree in Toronto , and we don ’ t think anywhere else exists.
” He said that the government ’ s plan also takes into account the “ 80 per cent ( of Ontarians who ) ... live in the rural areas , ” whom , he said , have in some cases gone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fact , almost six million of Ontario ’ s 14.6 million people ( or more than a third ) live in the Greater Toronto Area , which includes the city of Toronto and a string of municipalities surrounding it .
Editor ’ s note : This article was updated at 3:34 p.m. on Aug. 6 , 2020 with comments from NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and a teacher/parent .

Ontario’s Opposition NDP Leader Andrea Horwath called on Premier Doug Ford to scrap the province’s current back-to-school plan on Thursday and replace it with one that delivers smaller class sizes. “This is not a plan that allows for safe distancing of kids, and it's not a plan that is about the safety of our children,” Horwath said, standing outside a Hamilton-area school expecting more than 1,000 students in September and which already uses 19 portables. Ford said Wednesday he is “not holding back on a penny” as he faced a barrage of questions about back-to-school plans critics say do not provide enough funding to keep students safe from the COVID-19 pandemic. “Going into September, talk about losing sleep, that’s my number one priority, to protect the kids, and I'll do whatever it takes to protect the kids,” Ford said at a news conference on Wednesday about an unrelated funding announcement where most questions from reporters revolved around education. That was not good enough for Stacey Davis, a Grade 1 teacher with children in grades 3 and 5 who joined Horwath on Thursday and called the plan “insufficient, underwhelming, and quite frankly, irresponsible.”
Davis said she was among a group of teachers asked in June to see how much space they could create in their classrooms and was unable to space the desks for her 20 to 22 students at least one metre apart. She was unsure whether she would send her own children back to school. Billion-dollar land deals in Ontario raise corruption suspicions “I want them to attend school and I want to teach as well, but until the government makes adequate changes to this plan, I will not be sending my kids to school and I do not feel protected as an educator,” she said.
“This plan can be made better,” she added. “I will not be made a guinea pig and I will not settle.” Ford dodged when asked if his government might add to the $309 million it set aside for pandemic-related adjustments in the plan he and Education Minister Stephen Lecce released last week, saying he would “never say never, put it that way.” “We know what Mr. Ford is all about,” Horwath said. “Let's not forget this is the guy (who) was expanding classroom sizes before the pandemic hit. He was on track to fire 10,000 teachers.” Ontario Premier Doug Ford answers questions on August 5, 2020, while accompanied by Lisa MacLeod, the minister of heritage, sport, tourism and culture industries. Screengrab of live feed from premier's YouTube channel
Ford also sought to present the plan as the product of advice provided by pediatric and public health experts and said the money made available was the most per student in the country. “If it was up to us, there’d be five kids in the classroom,” he said. “We’re doing pretty good (with overall COVID-19 cases), so let’s give this a shot.”


nationalobserver--2020-08-07--Temporary farm workers want to end "crazy" wait for health insurance in light of COVID-19

Every summer , thousands of migrant farm workers flock to B.C .
bearing painkillers and antibiotics .
These personal pharmacies reflect workers ’ concerns they won ’ t have access to adequate health care in the province , despite working in one of B.C.
’ s most dangerous — and essential — industries .
It ’ s a situation advocates say puts farm workers at risk despite government assurances the system is working .
“ They bring everything because they know the first three months , it ’ s going to be hard to access health care , ” said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ workers ’ rights with the Vancouver-based organization Sanctuary Health .
“ It ’ s crazy.
” About 50,000 to 60,000 temporary foreign workers come to Canada each year to work on farms , in food processing , and in the fisheries .
Close to 18 per cent of those working on farms come to B.C.
, where they ’ re essential to an industry that supplies about half the province ’ s food .
All are eligible to sign up for provincial health insurance , or MSP , after a three-month waiting period @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on March 1 due to the pandemic ; workers arriving in the province with visas for six months or more could receive B.C .
health care upon arrival .
It was a change recommended in a 2015 report by the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives on the gaps migrant farm workers face accessing health care , and one Cruz and other advocates had been calling for for years .
• ‘ I feel like I ’ m getting sent back to die , ’ student says as NDP calls for Doug Ford to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he needs to be convinced shipping terminal wo n't harm endangered killer whales • Biden ’ s Weak Link On Energy And Ethics Is An Ex-Obama Official With Deep Fossil Fuel Ties Despite their opposition , the three-month wait was reinstated July 31 , the Ministry of Health said in a statement .
Protesters gather in front of B.C.Health Minister Adrian Dix 's constituency office on July 30 , 2020 .
They were calling on the B.C .
government to maintain emergency measures that eliminated the three-month waiting period for temporary foreign workers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Photo : Omar Shu/Sanctuary Health Two federal programs allow B.C .
farmers to hire migrant workers .
The Temporary Foreign Worker program lets Canadian companies hire agricultural workers from any country to work in Canada for up to two years , often through a third-party recruitment agency .
Meanwhile , the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program ( SAWP ) is based on bilateral agreements between Canada , Mexico and 11 Caribbean countries and lets Canadian companies hire workers for up to eight months .
Most migrant farm workers are Mexican , come to B.C @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their whereabouts tracked by the Mexican government .
They almost exclusively are covered by private insurance co-ordinated by the Mexican government , which exceeds the provincial standards , explained Hugo Velázquez , a consular official with the Mexican Consulate in Vancouver .
In 2019 , 46,707 workers came to Canada through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program ; 73 per cent of them were from Mexico .
Both programs require that employers offer their migrant workers health insurance , either through the provincial government or a private insurer .
That choice is made by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ private insurance , Employment and Social Development Canada , the agency responsible for managing the programs , said in an email .
Every summer , thousands of migrant farm workers flock to B.C .
bearing painkillers and antibiotics .
These personal pharmacies reflect workers ’ concerns they won ’ t have access to adequate healthcare in the province .
On the surface , it ’ s a fail-proof system that ensures migrant farm workers can access health care when they ’ re in Canada .
But reality is more complex , said Cruz @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2015 report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives found that only eight per cent of migrant farm workers eligible for provincial health insurance had been signed up for the program by their employer .
That leaves them exposed to issues associated with using private insurance in a public health-care system , he said .
Some clinics refuse to charge the private insurance company directly , forcing workers to pay for treatment and claim reimbursement later .
“ It is not uncommon for a single consult to cost $ 100 , and lab @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dollar range .
This is a large financial barrier , ” Amy Cohen , a volunteer with the advocacy group Radical Action with Migrants in Agriculture Okanagan and a professor of anthropology at Okanagan College , wrote in an email .
“ Reimbursement is slow , and by mail so often once a reimbursement cheque arrives , it is months later or the worker is back in Mexico or the Caribbean.
” Cruz also cited cases of migrant workers avoiding treatment because of language barriers , fears they might lose income , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The 2015 report echoed Cruz ’ s concerns , noting that 69 per cent of workers avoided reporting health concerns when they were injured or ill for fear of losing hours or impacting future employment prospects .
“ Farmworker advocates stated that a common employer response to illness and injury among migrants was firing the individual and arranging his/her deportation , ” the report notes .
Many will try to avoid treatment altogether , relying on their personal pharmacies instead .
Still , Velázquez , the official at the Mexican Consulate , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cruz — migrant workers paying for care upfront , for instance — are , for Mexican workers in the country through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program , primarily due to bad communication .
“ We all realized three years ago that not everybody knew the whole aspects of the ( private health insurance ) program , ” he said .
That pushed the consulate to facilitate communication between migrant workers , employers , private insurance providers , clinics and hospitals , and advocates like Cruz .
It ’ s an approach Velázquez said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the situation has slightly improved recently .
Byron Cruz , who advocates for migrant workers ’ rights with the Vancouver-based organization Sanctuary Health , said farm workers will avoid seeking medical treatment and try to hide their symptoms , out of concern they will need to pay .
Photo : Ian Messiner/Wikimedia Commons Still , Velázquez can only help Mexicans arriving through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program .
Other migrant farm workers coming through the Temporary Foreign Worker program or from other countries — many Guatemalans and Filipinos also work in B.C .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ position , Cruz said .
“ The debate around ‘ sustainable agriculture ’ ... has not focused enough , if at all , on the issue of sustainable and safe employment for agricultural workers , ” the 2015 report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives noted .
“ A food system that depends on precarious workers can not be viewed as sustainable.
” It ’ s a perspective echoed by Cruz and other advocates for migrant farm workers .
And eliminating the three-month waiting period to receive provincial health care was a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like to see maintained .
That would help eliminate the financial barriers facing migrant workers who seek medical care with private insurance , and fill the gaps left by the private insurance provider .
“ Ultimately , we have deemed these workers essential , ” concluded Cohen in an email .
“ They deserve to be covered by provincial health-care coverage from the moment they arrive in Canada .
”

Every summer, thousands of migrant farm workers flock to B.C. bearing painkillers and antibiotics. These personal pharmacies reflect workers’ concerns they won’t have access to adequate health care in the province, despite working in one of B.C.’s most dangerous — and essential — industries. It’s a situation advocates say puts farm workers at risk despite government assurances the system is working. “They bring everything because they know the first three months, it’s going to be hard to access health care,” said Byron Cruz, who advocates for migrant workers’ rights with the Vancouver-based organization Sanctuary Health. “It’s crazy.” About 50,000 to 60,000 temporary foreign workers come to Canada each year to work on farms, in food processing, and in the fisheries. Close to 18 per cent of those working on farms come to B.C., where they’re essential to an industry that supplies about half the province’s food. All are eligible to sign up for provincial health insurance, or MSP, after a three-month waiting period. That waiting period was temporarily waived on March 1 due to the pandemic; workers arriving in the province with visas for six months or more could receive B.C. health care upon arrival. It was a change recommended in a 2015 report by the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives on the gaps migrant farm workers face accessing health care, and one Cruz and other advocates had been calling for for years.
Despite their opposition, the three-month wait was reinstated July 31, the Ministry of Health said in a statement. Protesters gather in front of B.C.Health Minister Adrian Dix's constituency office on July 30, 2020. They were calling on the B.C. government to maintain emergency measures that eliminated the three-month waiting period for temporary foreign workers with visas lasting over six months. Photo: Omar Shu/Sanctuary Health Billion-dollar land deals in Ontario raise corruption suspicions Two federal programs allow B.C. farmers to hire migrant workers. The Temporary Foreign Worker program lets Canadian companies hire agricultural workers from any country to work in Canada for up to two years, often through a third-party recruitment agency.
Meanwhile, the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) is based on bilateral agreements between Canada, Mexico and 11 Caribbean countries and lets Canadian companies hire workers for up to eight months. Most migrant farm workers are Mexican, come to B.C. through this program, and have their whereabouts tracked by the Mexican government. They almost exclusively are covered by private insurance co-ordinated by the Mexican government, which exceeds the provincial standards, explained Hugo Velázquez, a consular official with the Mexican Consulate in Vancouver. Every summer, thousands of migrant farm workers flock to B.C. bearing painkillers and antibiotics. These personal pharmacies reflect workers’ concerns they won’t have access to adequate healthcare in the province. In 2019, 46,707 workers came to Canada through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program; 73 per cent of them were from Mexico. Both programs require that employers offer their migrant workers health insurance, either through the provincial government or a private insurer. That choice is made by the employer, and most opt for private insurance, Employment and Social Development Canada, the agency responsible for managing the programs, said in an email. On the surface, it’s a fail-proof system that ensures migrant farm workers can access health care when they’re in Canada. But reality is more complex, said Cruz, the migrant farm-worker advocate. A 2015 report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives found that only eight per cent of migrant farm workers eligible for provincial health insurance had been signed up for the program by their employer. That leaves them exposed to issues associated with using private insurance in a public health-care system, he said.
Some clinics refuse to charge the private insurance company directly, forcing workers to pay for treatment and claim reimbursement later. “It is not uncommon for a single consult to cost $100, and lab bills to be in the several hundred dollar range. This is a large financial barrier,” Amy Cohen, a volunteer with the advocacy group Radical Action with Migrants in Agriculture Okanagan and a professor of anthropology at Okanagan College, wrote in an email. “Reimbursement is slow, and by mail so often once a reimbursement cheque arrives, it is months later or the worker is back in Mexico or the Caribbean.”