truthout--2020-12-14--Warren Urges Raise in Minimum Wage to $15 an Hour for Federal Contract Workers

Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Sunday urged President-elect Joe Biden to use his executive authority to raise the minimum wage for all federal contract workers to $ 15 an hour on his first day in office , echoing a demand pushed by economists and progressive commentators as a way to substantially improve the lives of millions of low-paid employees .
“ We need to raise the minimum wage to $ 15 — and the Biden-Harris administration can do that on Day One for all federal contractors , ” tweeted the Massachusetts senator .
While Biden has voiced support for raising the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hour , it is unclear whether such a move would garner sufficient support in Congress — particularly if Democrats fail to win both Senate runoffs in Georgia next month , a scenario that would leave Republicans in a position to continue blocking any proposed increase to the current minimum wage of $ 7.25 .
But as Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute ( EPI ) wrote for The American Prospect last month , “ there is plenty that President Biden can do to support working people that doesn ’ t require Congress.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ federal contracting system .
While the president can not — without Congress — increase the federal minimum wage , the president can , through executive power , increase the minimum wage of workers on federal contracts , ” Shierholz noted .
“ The impact would be substantial.
” Workers on those contracts ( and subcontracts ) do everything from building interstate highways to answering questions on Covid-19 safety measures at CDC call centers to cleaning federal buildings to caring for veterans receiving VA benefits to serving concessions at national parks .
While the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is unknown , estimates put the number at around five million .
The current federal contracting system leaves many of these contract workers facing low wages and poor working conditions .
The contracting system prioritizes low prices for contracts for routine services in which labor costs make up the majority of the cost of the contract .
This provides an incentive for contractors to cut corners with respect to worker pay and workplace safety .
In 2014 , then-President Barack Obama signed an executive order raising the minimum wage to $ 10.10 an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , for all workers on federal construction and service contracts .
EPI argued in a policy memo last month that the president-elect “ should build upon the Obama administration ’ s action and raise the minimum wage for all federal contract workers — like nursing assistants , concession workers , and people serving food to our troops , many of whom are women , people of color , or immigrants.
” “ This effort would both boost wages and help build momentum to the push for H.R .
582 , the Raise the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ referring to House-passed legislation that would hike the federal minimum wage to $ 15 per hour by 2025 .
Writing for The Intercept last month , Matthew Cunningham-Cook and Jon Schwarz noted that Biden will soon have the authority to enact sweeping changes — including but not limited to a wage hike for federal contract workers — that “ would together add up to genuine material improvements in people ’ s lives.
” “ As president , ” Cunningham-Cook and Schwarz wrote , “ Biden will be able to mandate overtime pay for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ implement protections from Covid-19 for their workers ; require government contractors to pay a $ 15 minimum wage ; and much more , no matter what current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ( R-Ky. ) does .
”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others say President-elect Joe Biden should meet this demand on day one.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Sunday urged President-elect Joe Biden to use his executive authority to raise the minimum wage for all federal contract workers to $15 an hour on his first day in office, echoing a demand pushed by economists and progressive commentators as a way to substantially improve the lives of millions of low-paid employees.
“We need to raise the minimum wage to $15 — and the Biden-Harris administration can do that on Day One for all federal contractors,” tweeted the Massachusetts senator.
While Biden has voiced support for raising the national minimum wage to $15 an hour, it is unclear whether such a move would garner sufficient support in Congress — particularly if Democrats fail to win both Senate runoffs in Georgia next month, a scenario that would leave Republicans in a position to continue blocking any proposed increase to the current minimum wage of $7.25.
But as Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) wrote for The American Prospect last month, “there is plenty that President Biden can do to support working people that doesn’t require Congress.”
“One key area is the federal contracting system. While the president cannot — without Congress — increase the federal minimum wage, the president can, through executive power, increase the minimum wage of workers on federal contracts,” Shierholz noted. “The impact would be substantial.”
Shierholz continued:
Workers on those contracts (and subcontracts) do everything from building interstate highways to answering questions on Covid-19 safety measures at CDC call centers to cleaning federal buildings to caring for veterans receiving VA benefits to serving concessions at national parks. While the precise number of workers on federal contracts is unknown, estimates put the number at around five million. The current federal contracting system leaves many of these contract workers facing low wages and poor working conditions. The contracting system prioritizes low prices for contracts for routine services in which labor costs make up the majority of the cost of the contract. This provides an incentive for contractors to cut corners with respect to worker pay and workplace safety.
In 2014, then-President Barack Obama signed an executive order raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, with annual increases for inflation, for all workers on federal construction and service contracts.
EPI argued in a policy memo last month that the president-elect “should build upon the Obama administration’s action and raise the minimum wage for all federal contract workers — like nursing assistants, concession workers, and people serving food to our troops, many of whom are women, people of color, or immigrants.”
“This effort would both boost wages and help build momentum to the push for H.R. 582, the Raise the Wage Act,” EPI noted, referring to House-passed legislation that would hike the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025.
Biden needs to go well beyond repealing Trump’s bad executive orders — he has the power to assure that workers paid by federal contracts are a national model.–@hshierholzhttps://t.co/XlpQsgqxI1 — Economic Policy Institute (@EconomicPolicy) November 24, 2020
Writing for The Intercept last month, Matthew Cunningham-Cook and Jon Schwarz noted that Biden will soon have the authority to enact sweeping changes — including but not limited to a wage hike for federal contract workers — that “would together add up to genuine material improvements in people’s lives.”
“As president,” Cunningham-Cook and Schwarz wrote, “Biden will be able to mandate overtime pay for many more Americans; force businesses to implement protections from Covid-19 for their workers; require government contractors to pay a $15 minimum wage; and much more, no matter what current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) does.”
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.


truthout--2020-12-14--Public Distrust in Science Made COVID Worse. It Will Also Harm Climate Policy.

Earlier this year , when the coronavirus pandemic led to a global wave of lockdowns , the world saw marked declines in carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) emissions due to closed borders , restricted travel and shifting energy demands .
At the height of the lockdown , estimates pin the daily CO2 emission reductions as high as 17 percent , while current numbers indicate that the global emission reductions for the year could fall between 4.2 percent and 7.5 percent .
These trends , however , don ’ t necessarily translate into a drop in atmospheric CO2 levels , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ past emissions .
That ’ s because CO2 concentrations , which reached a record high in 2019 , continue to rise , albeit at a slower rate than last year , according to the World Meteorological Organization .
This upward trend is borne out at individual testing stations , with the monthly average CO2 concentrations at Mauna Loa , Hawaii , hitting 411.29 parts per million ( ppm ) this past September — up from 408.54 ppm a year prior .
The impacts from the coronavirus pandemic aren ’ t restricted to greenhouse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ongoing fallout promises profound political , regulatory and societal ripple-effects on wholesale efforts to tackle climate change .
“ We have not done very well as a globe on cooperating on this one very specific , quite well-defined and scientifically clear issue , ” said Lisa Dale , lecturer with Columbia University ’ s The Earth Institute , of the overall global response to the pandemic .
And so , when it comes to the “ much larger , much more complex , much less scientifically certain issues around climate change , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we understand the possibility for international cooperation ?
” This year has seen a number of international climate related conferences temporarily pushed back , at the vanguard of which is the Conference of the Parties ( COP 26 ) , the latest UN climate change conference , which has been postponed until November 2021 .
There are plusses and minuses to this delay , experts argue .
Given how the commitments outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement still allow for more than a 3 degree Celsius ( 3°C ) rise in global temperatures @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could have devastating environmental impacts — this year ’ s conference was to be an opportunity for countries to announce significantly stepped-up climate strategies five years on .
With the clock ticking and greenhouse-gas emissions still rising , any kind of foot-dragging is seen by many as potentially perilous .
This is especially important given prior criticisms levelled at the agreement , such as the non-binding nature of national emission cuts .
Nevertheless , according to Nathaniel Keohane , senior vice president at the Environmental Defense Fund and former special assistant to President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had the conference gone ahead as anticipated , the timing would have occurred immediately after the recent presidential election , “ and that was going to mean the U.S. wasn ’ t going to be prepared.
” Depending on the election outcome , “ either you would have had a situation , like at Marrakech in 2016 , when everybody ’ s sitting around , head in their hands , ” he said of that year ’ s UN climate change conference , which came on the heels of Donald Trump ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would have had people celebrating , and yet , not have the time and preparation to act on it.
” What ’ s more , an additional year will give the Biden administration time to settle into the White House , ensure that the U.S. re-joins the Paris climate accord and start making good on his promise to “ rally the rest of the world ” to meet the threat of climate change , said Keohane .
“ I think we ’ re going to see , ironically , that the rescheduling of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ambitious COP and for a better outcome , ” he said .
What Will Biden Do ?
Beyond a staggering death toll , the pandemic has wreaked havoc on global economies .
Here in the U.S. , the federal government announced at the end of October the largest recorded three-month economic contraction which erased nearly five years of growth .
But experts glimpse opportunities for governments to make significant investments in low-carbon projects , like renewable energy and clean transportation infrastructure , as a means of kick-starting flat-lining economies .
“ I do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ climate change will be the investments that we ’ ll make as a means of driving economic recovery , ” said Keohane .
Indeed , part of Biden ’ s climate plan is a promise to invest in infrastructure projects , like modernizing the electric grid , in an effort to achieve a 100 percent clean energy economy and net-zero emissions by 2050 .
In a recently released 2021-2022 spending review , the U.K. government announced £100 billion in capital expenditures next year , which includes funding for electric vehicle charging infrastructure and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) clusters .
The domestic stimulus packages that Germany and France unveiled both focused heavily on low-carbon investments .
Even so , taken as a global whole thus far , economic stimulus plans have seen funds largely funnelled towards high carbon industries .
Here in the U.S. , climate and sustainable energy projects received little attention in the $ 3 trillion in relief packages passed earlier this year , for example .
The International Energy Agency ’ s ( IEA ) latest report finds that global investments in energy efficiency have been declining @ @ @ @ @ @ @ further impacts .
Other climate experts are pushing for G20 countries to “ significantly ” increase their stimulus investments in nature-based solutions , like tropical forest and coastal protection and restoration schemes , as a means of securing economic and environmental sustainability .
All the while , political headwinds abound .
As President-elect Biden will seek to put into action his ambitious climate policies , he faces the prospect of a divided Congress , with a Republican-led Senate presided over by Mitch McConnell — who , during his tenure as Senate majority leader @ @ @ @ @ @ @ green the economy with obstructionism .
Added to that is a fossil fuel industry with tremendous political clout on Capitol Hill .
Some of Biden ’ s administration picks have also ruffled feathers among the progressive wing of the Democratic party .
In John Kerry , for example , Biden ’ s has nominated a climate envoy with experience leading the U.S. ’ s efforts to fight global warming , but who has proven at crucial moments deferential to the private sector .
Brian Deese , Biden ’ s pick to lead the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seat at BlackRock , a global investment firm heavily criticized for its fossil fuel ties .
“ We ’ re in such a hyper-partisan moment in U.S. politics that I don ’ t think one should be naive about what it ’ s going to take to turn the page , ” said Rachel Cleetus , policy director with the Climate and Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists .
“ There ’ s a lot the Biden administration can do through administrative actions , including regulations , ” she added .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ reductions and a wholesale greening of U.S. government buildings .
“ But there ’ s no doubt that they need Congress to act as well , to really get some major transformative policies through.
” Where Cleetus sees potential positives is the way in which the cost of renewables has been slashed over the past 10 years , with the IEA recently claiming , for example , that solar is the “ cheapest electricity ” in history .
Indeed its latest report , the agency focuses on renewables like wind and solar , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ energy efficiency investments , as a primary means of creating millions of jobs .
“ They ’ re extraordinarily competitive , ” she said , of wind and solar .
“ Many of the benefits that 10 years ago were being talked about are true .
They ’ re employing many people — they can be a source of even more employment , ” Cleetus added .
“ And they ’ re helping start a shift away from fossil fuels .
Here in the U.S. , we ’ re seeing a record shift @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There ’ s also a health equity component to the need to modernize and green the nation ’ s energy infrastructure , as highlighted in the Lancet ’ s latest report on health and climate change , which found shared commonalities between the climate emergency and COVID-19 .
Climate change is proven to affect health and place additional stress on health systems , for example , while fossil fuel-driven air pollution can lead to higher rates of asthma .
And which communities have been hardest hit by the coronavirus in the U.S. ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Where are we going to invest that taxpayer money ?
” Cleetus asked .
“ Are we going to invest it in the things that are going to help safeguard communities now and into the future ?
Or are we going to use it to reinforce fossil fuel dependence that has caused untold harm already ?
” A radical realtering of our lives has resulted in 30 percent more plastic waste being generated this year compared to 2019 .
Monthly across the globe , some 129 billion face masks and 65 billion gloves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this ?
By August , according to Scientific American , if all the masks manufactured up to that point had been stitched together , they would have covered the “ entire landmass of Switzerland , ” with a tremendous amount of this waste ending up in the ocean .
This problem is being shaped by broader forces .
The collapse of the global oil market during the pandemic has made the production of single-use plastics cheaper than ever , for example , while at the same time budget constraints have led to recycling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ problem of what to do with all this additional plastic waste isn ’ t a notable problem for the U.S. — and one primarily for developing countries with poor waste management infrastructures — would be sorely mistaken .
This study found that the U.S. could be the third-highest contributor to coastal plastic pollution .
When it comes to climate change , the correlation with plastics are well established , and extend beyond the fossil fuels used in plastics production .
These wastes that go to landfills become part of the third-largest source of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , they can end up in the ocean .
As Dave Ford , founder and partner of SoulBuffalo , a group that brings activists and the industry together to develop solutions to the plastics problem , explains , “ a dead ocean is not going to be very good for the climate.
” Kelp forests , for example , are a potent carbon sink .
But Ford isn ’ t necessarily despondent about the future .
He points to a new global treaty on plastic waste — what he calls a “ Paris @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s garnering growing international support .
“ Part of the problem with plastics is there ’ s no uniform definitions — there ’ s so many different types of plastics , ” he said .
“ But everyone agrees that we need to figure this out , that we need to have a framework globally.
” An unavoidable feature not only of the pandemic but for many years has been an erosion in public trust of science and scientific leaders .
“ We have these hollowed-out scientific agencies right now in the U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to rebuild , ” said The Earth Institute ’ s Dale .
And how will this winnowing of public trust in the scientific realm play out in ongoing efforts to tackle global warming ?
“ I think that ’ s going to be amongst the hardest parts of this , ” Dale replied .
“ We ’ re going to have to work hard to reclaim scientific leadership .
I think we can do it , but I think we have a lot of cards stacked against us , and it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @

Earlier this year, when the coronavirus pandemic led to a global wave of lockdowns, the world saw marked declines in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions due to closed borders, restricted travel and shifting energy demands. At the height of the lockdown, estimates pin the daily CO2 emission reductions as high as 17 percent, while current numbers indicate that the global emission reductions for the year could fall between 4.2 percent and 7.5 percent.
These trends, however, don’t necessarily translate into a drop in atmospheric CO2 levels, which is the accumulated total of current and past emissions.
That’s because CO2 concentrations, which reached a record high in 2019, continue to rise, albeit at a slower rate than last year, according to the World Meteorological Organization. This upward trend is borne out at individual testing stations, with the monthly average CO2 concentrations at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, hitting 411.29 parts per million (ppm) this past September — up from 408.54 ppm a year prior.
The impacts from the coronavirus pandemic aren’t restricted to greenhouse gas emission levels alone, however — the ongoing fallout promises profound political, regulatory and societal ripple-effects on wholesale efforts to tackle climate change. “We have not done very well as a globe on cooperating on this one very specific, quite well-defined and scientifically clear issue,” said Lisa Dale, lecturer with Columbia University’s The Earth Institute, of the overall global response to the pandemic. And so, when it comes to the “much larger, much more complex, much less scientifically certain issues around climate change,” Dale wonders: “How can we understand the possibility for international cooperation?”
This year has seen a number of international climate related conferences temporarily pushed back, at the vanguard of which is the Conference of the Parties (COP 26), the latest UN climate change conference, which has been postponed until November 2021. There are plusses and minuses to this delay, experts argue. Given how the commitments outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement still allow for more than a 3 degree Celsius (3°C) rise in global temperatures over pre-industrial levels — an increase that could have devastating environmental impacts — this year’s conference was to be an opportunity for countries to announce significantly stepped-up climate strategies five years on. With the clock ticking and greenhouse-gas emissions still rising, any kind of foot-dragging is seen by many as potentially perilous. This is especially important given prior criticisms levelled at the agreement, such as the non-binding nature of national emission cuts.
Nevertheless, according to Nathaniel Keohane, senior vice president at the Environmental Defense Fund and former special assistant to President Obama on energy and the environment, had the conference gone ahead as anticipated, the timing would have occurred immediately after the recent presidential election, “and that was going to mean the U.S. wasn’t going to be prepared.” Depending on the election outcome, “either you would have had a situation, like at Marrakech in 2016, when everybody’s sitting around, head in their hands,” he said of that year’s UN climate change conference, which came on the heels of Donald Trump’s presidential victory. “Or, you would have had people celebrating, and yet, not have the time and preparation to act on it.”
What’s more, an additional year will give the Biden administration time to settle into the White House, ensure that the U.S. re-joins the Paris climate accord and start making good on his promise to “rally the rest of the world” to meet the threat of climate change, said Keohane. “I think we’re going to see, ironically, that the rescheduling of the conference will make for a more ambitious COP and for a better outcome,” he said.
What Will Biden Do?
Beyond a staggering death toll, the pandemic has wreaked havoc on global economies. Here in the U.S., the federal government announced at the end of October the largest recorded three-month economic contraction which erased nearly five years of growth. But experts glimpse opportunities for governments to make significant investments in low-carbon projects, like renewable energy and clean transportation infrastructure, as a means of kick-starting flat-lining economies. “I do think one of legacies of COVID on climate change will be the investments that we’ll make as a means of driving economic recovery,” said Keohane.
Indeed, part of Biden’s climate plan is a promise to invest in infrastructure projects, like modernizing the electric grid, in an effort to achieve a 100 percent clean energy economy and net-zero emissions by 2050. In a recently released 2021-2022 spending review, the U.K. government announced £100 billion in capital expenditures next year, which includes funding for electric vehicle charging infrastructure and new carbon capture and storage (CCS) clusters. The domestic stimulus packages that Germany and France unveiled both focused heavily on low-carbon investments.
Even so, taken as a global whole thus far, economic stimulus plans have seen funds largely funnelled towards high carbon industries. Here in the U.S., climate and sustainable energy projects received little attention in the $3 trillion in relief packages passed earlier this year, for example. The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) latest report finds that global investments in energy efficiency have been declining since 2015, with the pandemic triggering further impacts. Other climate experts are pushing for G20 countries to “significantly” increase their stimulus investments in nature-based solutions, like tropical forest and coastal protection and restoration schemes, as a means of securing economic and environmental sustainability. All the while, political headwinds abound.
As President-elect Biden will seek to put into action his ambitious climate policies, he faces the prospect of a divided Congress, with a Republican-led Senate presided over by Mitch McConnell — who, during his tenure as Senate majority leader, has frequently met Democratic efforts to green the economy with obstructionism. Added to that is a fossil fuel industry with tremendous political clout on Capitol Hill.
Some of Biden’s administration picks have also ruffled feathers among the progressive wing of the Democratic party. In John Kerry, for example, Biden’s has nominated a climate envoy with experience leading the U.S.’s efforts to fight global warming, but who has proven at crucial moments deferential to the private sector. Brian Deese, Biden’s pick to lead the National Economic Council, will vacate his seat at BlackRock, a global investment firm heavily criticized for its fossil fuel ties.
“We’re in such a hyper-partisan moment in U.S. politics that I don’t think one should be naive about what it’s going to take to turn the page,” said Rachel Cleetus, policy director with the Climate and Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “There’s a lot the Biden administration can do through administrative actions, including regulations,” she added. Already proposed executive actions include methane emission reductions and a wholesale greening of U.S. government buildings. “But there’s no doubt that they need Congress to act as well, to really get some major transformative policies through.”
Where Cleetus sees potential positives is the way in which the cost of renewables has been slashed over the past 10 years, with the IEA recently claiming, for example, that solar is the “cheapest electricity” in history. Indeed its latest report, the agency focuses on renewables like wind and solar, as well as a broad suite of energy efficiency investments, as a primary means of creating millions of jobs.
“They’re extraordinarily competitive,” she said, of wind and solar. “Many of the benefits that 10 years ago were being talked about are true. They’re employing many people — they can be a source of even more employment,” Cleetus added. “And they’re helping start a shift away from fossil fuels. Here in the U.S., we’re seeing a record shift away from coal, for example.”
There’s also a health equity component to the need to modernize and green the nation’s energy infrastructure, as highlighted in the Lancet’s latest report on health and climate change, which found shared commonalities between the climate emergency and COVID-19. Climate change is proven to affect health and place additional stress on health systems, for example, while fossil fuel-driven air pollution can lead to higher rates of asthma. And which communities have been hardest hit by the coronavirus in the U.S.? Largely low-income communities of color.
“Where are we going to invest that taxpayer money?” Cleetus asked. “Are we going to invest it in the things that are going to help safeguard communities now and into the future? Or are we going to use it to reinforce fossil fuel dependence that has caused untold harm already?”
Plastic Waste Rises as Emissions Decline
A radical realtering of our lives has resulted in 30 percent more plastic waste being generated this year compared to 2019. Monthly across the globe, some 129 billion face masks and 65 billion gloves are being produced. How much is this? By August, according to Scientific American, if all the masks manufactured up to that point had been stitched together, they would have covered the “entire landmass of Switzerland,” with a tremendous amount of this waste ending up in the ocean.
This problem is being shaped by broader forces. The collapse of the global oil market during the pandemic has made the production of single-use plastics cheaper than ever, for example, while at the same time budget constraints have led to recycling program closures. Anyone thinking that the problem of what to do with all this additional plastic waste isn’t a notable problem for the U.S. — and one primarily for developing countries with poor waste management infrastructures — would be sorely mistaken. This study found that the U.S. could be the third-highest contributor to coastal plastic pollution.
When it comes to climate change, the correlation with plastics are well established, and extend beyond the fossil fuels used in plastics production. These wastes that go to landfills become part of the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the U.S. Discarded, they can end up in the ocean. As Dave Ford, founder and partner of SoulBuffalo, a group that brings activists and the industry together to develop solutions to the plastics problem, explains, “a dead ocean is not going to be very good for the climate.” Kelp forests, for example, are a potent carbon sink.
But Ford isn’t necessarily despondent about the future. He points to a new global treaty on plastic waste — what he calls a “Paris Accord on plastics” — that’s garnering growing international support. “Part of the problem with plastics is there’s no uniform definitions — there’s so many different types of plastics,” he said. “But everyone agrees that we need to figure this out, that we need to have a framework globally.”
An unavoidable feature not only of the pandemic but for many years has been an erosion in public trust of science and scientific leaders. “We have these hollowed-out scientific agencies right now in the U.S. that Biden’s going to have to rebuild,” said The Earth Institute’s Dale.
And how will this winnowing of public trust in the scientific realm play out in ongoing efforts to tackle global warming? “I think that’s going to be amongst the hardest parts of this,” Dale replied. “We’re going to have to work hard to reclaim scientific leadership. I think we can do it, but I think we have a lot of cards stacked against us, and it’s going to take significant time.”
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.


truthout--2020-12-15--Trump Admin Continues Assault on Environmental Protections Post-Election

In the aftermath of the Nov. 3 election , President Donald Trump has tried every trick in the book to avoid facing the reality of his loss .
A barrage of lawsuits accompanied by disinformation campaigns has attempted to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election .
But a close look at regulatory actions and executive moves shows that , even as Trump makes a show of refusing to concede or transition power to the incoming Biden administration , his team is pushing through a slew of last-minute rules and regulations .
Many of these changes will harm the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t surprising that an administration that has attempted to roll back more than 100 environmental protections in the past four years would step up its assault in its waning months .
But that doesn ’ t make the continued attacks any less important .
Here ’ s some of what ’ s at risk : Tribes and environmental groups have fought for decades against a proposed copper mine in an area of Arizona known as Oak Flat , which is a sacred site for a dozen tribes , including the San Carlos @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pushing to fast-track a deal that would transfer ownership of the land , which is in the Tonto National Forest , to Resolution Copper , a firm owned by mining companies Rio Tinto and Billiton BHP .
“ Last month tribes discovered that the date for the completion of a crucial environmental review process has suddenly been moved forward by a full year , to December 2020 , even as the tribes are struggling with a COVID outbreak that has stifled their ability to respond , ” an investigation by The Guardian found @ @ @ @ @ @ @ completed before Trump leaves office , the tribes may be unable to stop the mine.
” Just days after the election , Trump switched up the leadership of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission , which has a hand in regulating hydroelectric projects , as well as interstate transmission of electricity , oil and natural gas .
Chairman Neil Chatterjee was replaced by fellow Republican James Danly , who has a more conservative view on federal energy policy .
Chatterjee , once known as a “ coal guy , ” had recently advocated for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grid operators to embrace carbon pricing as a market-based solution for addressing climate change .
The Great American Outdoors Act , a major conservation bill signed into law in August , allocated $ 9.5 billion to help fix national park infrastructure and permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund .
But despite ( falsely ) hailing himself as a conservation hero at the law ’ s signing , Trump has already begun undermining the legislation ’ s effectiveness .
An order signed by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on Nov. 9 allows state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or water acquisitions made through the fund .
Chris D ’ Angelo at HuffPost called the move a “ parting gift to the anti-federal land movement.
” Montana Sen. Jon Tester , who advocated for the Land and Water Conservation Fund , wrote a letter to Bernhardt urging him to rescind the order .
“ This undercuts what a landowner can do with their own private property , and creates unnecessary , additional levels of bureaucracy that will hamstring future land acquisition through the Land and Water Conservation Fund , ” he wrote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conservation groups in New Mexico were surprised to learn that none of their projects proposed to receive funding through the Land and Water Conservation Fund were selected by the Department of the Interior .
Some believe the move is political retribution for being critical of the Trump administration and its policies .
On Nov. 20 the Trump administration finalized a plan to raise the height of Northern California ’ s 600-foot Shasta Dam by 18.5 feet , which would allow for more water storage .
The reservoir feeds the federally run Central Valley @ @ @ @ @ @ @ miles south to cities and farms .
That includes the politically connected Westlands Water District in the San Joaquin Valley , which formerly employed Interior Secretary David Bernhardt as a lawyer and lobbyist .
The state of California has strongly opposed the effort to raise the dam ’ s height because it would flood the McCloud River , protected as wild and scenic .
Conservation groups also say the plan would threaten endangered species such as Chinook salmon , delta smelt and Shasta salamanders .
California Rep. Jared Huffman called it the “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s laughably infeasible and just not real.
” The staunchest opposition has come from the Winnemem Wintu Tribe , which lost 90 % of its sacred sites with the construction of the dam and faces the loss of its remaining sites and burial grounds if the reservoir is expanded .
The Environmental Protection Agency announced on Nov. 20 it was taking away a tool states can use to control how pesticides are deployed .
The action could further endanger farmworkers and wildlife .
A Section 24 provision of the Federal , Insecticide @ @ @ @ @ @ @ set stricter restrictions on federally regulated pesticides in response to local needs and conditions .
But after numerous states sought to limit the use of the weed killer dicamba , the agency will now no longer allow states to set more protective rules for any pesticides .
A gutting of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 took a big step forward at the end of November , clearing the way for the administration to finalize the rule change by the end of Trump ’ s term .
The U.S .
Fish and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Statement to redefine the scope of the law to no longer penalize the energy industry or developers for “ incidentally ” killing migratory birds .
The agency ’ s own analysis found that the rule change would “ likely result in increased bird mortality ” because — without penalties — companies wouldn ’ t take additional precautions to help make sure birds aren ’ t killed by their operations .
That ’ s already proving true .
“ Since the administration began pursuing its looser interpretation of the law in April 2018 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , according to documents compiled by conservation groups this year , ” The Washington Post reported .
The Bureau of Land Management announced on Dec. 3 that oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would go on sale on Jan. 6 , following a shortened time frame for the nomination and evaluation of potential tracts to be drilled .
“ Once the sale is held , the bureau has to review and approve the leases , a process that typically takes months , ” The New York Times reported .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ 6 potentially gives the bureau opportunity to finalize the leases before Inauguration Day .
That would make it more difficult for the Biden administration to undo them.
” Despite the fact that the Trump administration is intent on opening the door to drilling in the 1.6 million-acre coastal plain — one of the wildest places left in the United States — it ’ s still unclear how interested the oil industry will be .
Or how readily they ’ ll be able to finance their operations .
All the major U.S. banks have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new oil and gas exploration in the Arctic .
One week into December , the administration finalized its decision declining to enact stricter standards for regulating industrial soot emissions .
This came despite the fact that the administration ’ s own scientists found that maintaining the current limits on tiny particles , known as PM 2.5 , results in tens of thousands of early deaths each year .
And despite the fact Harvard researchers found that those who have lived for decades with high levels of PM 2.5 pollution are at a greater @ @ @ @ @ @ @ incoming Biden administration has vowed to not build another foot of the border wall , but the borderlands ecosystem remains under threat as the Trump administration is continuing to push ahead .
In some cases wall builders are even attempting to speed up the work .
“ That ’ s happening from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas to Arizona ’ s stunning Coronado National Memorial and Guadalupe Canyon , a wildlife corridor for Mexican gray wolves and endangered jaguars , ” NPR reported .
“ At $ 41 million a mile , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ projects of the entire border wall.
” In Arizona they ’ re needlessly razing vegetation and blasting mountains for roads in remote areas to help enable construction that likely won ’ t even take place .
Trump may be leaving office , but marine mammals won ’ t be able to rest easy .
NOAA Fisheries issued a rule on Dec. 9 allowing the oil and gas industry to harm Atlantic spotted dolphins , pygmy whales , dwarf sperm whales , Bryde ’ s whales and other marine mammals in the Gulf of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , including air guns , to gather data on resources on or below the ocean floor .
In an effort to further efforts for oil and gas drilling , nearly 200,000 beaked whales and more than 600,000 bottlenose dolphins could be “ disturbed.
” And “ pygmy and dwarf sperm whales are expected to be harassed to the point of potential injury , with a mean of 308 whales potentially harmed per year , according to the final rule , ” E & E News reported .
The Arctic isn ’ t the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to exploit public lands .
On Dec. 9 the Bureau of Land Management updated an environmental assessment for a 2013 plan for leases to extract climate- and water-polluting tar sands on 2,100 acres in northeastern Utah .
But then just days late it hit the pause button on the effort .
While that one may be on hold , the administration did kick off the sale of leases for oil drilling on 4,100 acres of federal land in California ’ s Kern County on Dec. 10 .
The first such sale in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the Biden administration and if not , would face legal challenges from environmental groups .
One of the administration ’ s biggest parting gifts to industry — the “ cost-benefit ” rule — was finalized on Dec. 9 .
It would require the EPA to weigh the economic costs of air pollution regulations but not many of the health benefits that would arise from better protections .
“ In other words , if reducing emissions from power plants also saves tens of thousands of lives each year by cutting soot , those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ counted , ” in the EPA ’ s new analysis , the Washington Post explained .
The rule would be a big blow to efforts to improve public health and curb pollution .
“ The only purpose in making this a regulation seems to be to provide a basis for future lawsuits to slow down or prevent future administrations from regulating , ” Roy Gamse , an economist and former EPA deputy assistant administrator for planning and evaluation , told Reuters .
Slowing down the Biden administration will continue to be a big @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in office — along with the finalization of more rule changes to add insult to injury .
Legal experts have begun mapping which rollbacks will be quick and easy to undo and those that will take sustained effort .
But one thing is certain : There ’ s a long road ahead to reverse dangerous regulations , restore scientific integrity and make up for lost ground on climate change , extinction and other cascading crises .

The administration is rushing to cement its destructive legacy with attacks on clean air, wildlife and public lands.
In the aftermath of the Nov. 3 election, President Donald Trump has tried every trick in the book to avoid facing the reality of his loss. A barrage of lawsuits accompanied by disinformation campaigns has attempted to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election.
But a close look at regulatory actions and executive moves shows that, even as Trump makes a show of refusing to concede or transition power to the incoming Biden administration, his team is pushing through a slew of last-minute rules and regulations.
Many of these changes will harm the environment and public health.
It isn’t surprising that an administration that has attempted to roll back more than 100 environmental protections in the past four years would step up its assault in its waning months. But that doesn’t make the continued attacks any less important. Here’s some of what’s at risk:
1. Tribal Lands
Tribes and environmental groups have fought for decades against a proposed copper mine in an area of Arizona known as Oak Flat, which is a sacred site for a dozen tribes, including the San Carlos Apache.
Now the Trump administration is pushing to fast-track a deal that would transfer ownership of the land, which is in the Tonto National Forest, to Resolution Copper, a firm owned by mining companies Rio Tinto and Billiton BHP.
“Last month tribes discovered that the date for the completion of a crucial environmental review process has suddenly been moved forward by a full year, to December 2020, even as the tribes are struggling with a COVID outbreak that has stifled their ability to respond,” an investigation by The Guardian found. “If the environmental review is completed before Trump leaves office, the tribes may be unable to stop the mine.”
2. FERC Shakeup
Just days after the election, Trump switched up the leadership of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has a hand in regulating hydroelectric projects, as well as interstate transmission of electricity, oil and natural gas.
Chairman Neil Chatterjee was replaced by fellow Republican James Danly, who has a more conservative view on federal energy policy. Chatterjee, once known as a “coal guy,” had recently advocated for policies supporting distributed energy and for regional grid operators to embrace carbon pricing as a market-based solution for addressing climate change.
3. Hamstringing LWCF
The Great American Outdoors Act, a major conservation bill signed into law in August, allocated $9.5 billion to help fix national park infrastructure and permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
But despite (falsely) hailing himself as a conservation hero at the law’s signing, Trump has already begun undermining the legislation’s effectiveness. An order signed by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on Nov. 9 allows state and local governments to veto any land or water acquisitions made through the fund.
Chris D’Angelo at HuffPost called the move a “parting gift to the anti-federal land movement.” Montana Sen. Jon Tester, who advocated for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, wrote a letter to Bernhardt urging him to rescind the order. “This undercuts what a landowner can do with their own private property, and creates unnecessary, additional levels of bureaucracy that will hamstring future land acquisition through the Land and Water Conservation Fund,” he wrote.
In another blow, officials and conservation groups in New Mexico were surprised to learn that none of their projects proposed to receive funding through the Land and Water Conservation Fund were selected by the Department of the Interior. Some believe the move is political retribution for being critical of the Trump administration and its policies.
4. Dam Raising
On Nov. 20 the Trump administration finalized a plan to raise the height of Northern California’s 600-foot Shasta Dam by 18.5 feet, which would allow for more water storage. The reservoir feeds the federally run Central Valley Project, which funnels water hundreds of miles south to cities and farms. That includes the politically connected Westlands Water District in the San Joaquin Valley, which formerly employed Interior Secretary David Bernhardt as a lawyer and lobbyist.
The state of California has strongly opposed the effort to raise the dam’s height because it would flood the McCloud River, protected as wild and scenic. Conservation groups also say the plan would threaten endangered species such as Chinook salmon, delta smelt and Shasta salamanders.
California Rep. Jared Huffman called it the “QAnon of water projects, meaning it’s laughably infeasible and just not real.”
The staunchest opposition has come from the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, which lost 90% of its sacred sites with the construction of the dam and faces the loss of its remaining sites and burial grounds if the reservoir is expanded.
5. Pesticide Changes
The Environmental Protection Agency announced on Nov. 20 it was taking away a tool states can use to control how pesticides are deployed. The action could further endanger farmworkers and wildlife.
A Section 24 provision of the Federal, Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act lets states set stricter restrictions on federally regulated pesticides in response to local needs and conditions. But after numerous states sought to limit the use of the weed killer dicamba, the agency will now no longer allow states to set more protective rules for any pesticides.
6. Migratory Birds
A gutting of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 took a big step forward at the end of November, clearing the way for the administration to finalize the rule change by the end of Trump’s term.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released its Final Environmental Impact Statement to redefine the scope of the law to no longer penalize the energy industry or developers for “incidentally” killing migratory birds.
The agency’s own analysis found that the rule change would “likely result in increased bird mortality” because — without penalties — companies wouldn’t take additional precautions to help make sure birds aren’t killed by their operations.
That’s already proving true. “Since the administration began pursuing its looser interpretation of the law in April 2018, hundreds of birds have perished without penalty, according to documents compiled by conservation groups this year,” The Washington Post reported.
7. ANWR Auction
The Bureau of Land Management announced on Dec. 3 that oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would go on sale on Jan. 6, following a shortened time frame for the nomination and evaluation of potential tracts to be drilled.
“Once the sale is held, the bureau has to review and approve the leases, a process that typically takes months,” The New York Times reported. “But holding the sale on Jan. 6 potentially gives the bureau opportunity to finalize the leases before Inauguration Day. That would make it more difficult for the Biden administration to undo them.”
Despite the fact that the Trump administration is intent on opening the door to drilling in the 1.6 million-acre coastal plain — one of the wildest places left in the United States — it’s still unclear how interested the oil industry will be. Or how readily they’ll be able to finance their operations. All the major U.S. banks have said they’ll no longer fund new oil and gas exploration in the Arctic.
8. Dirty Air
One week into December, the administration finalized its decision declining to enact stricter standards for regulating industrial soot emissions.
This came despite the fact that the administration’s own scientists found that maintaining the current limits on tiny particles, known as PM 2.5, results in tens of thousands of early deaths each year. And despite the fact Harvard researchers found that those who have lived for decades with high levels of PM 2.5 pollution are at a greater risk of dying from COVID-19.
9. Border Wall
The incoming Biden administration has vowed to not build another foot of the border wall, but the borderlands ecosystem remains under threat as the Trump administration is continuing to push ahead.
In some cases wall builders are even attempting to speed up the work.
“That’s happening from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas to Arizona’s stunning Coronado National Memorial and Guadalupe Canyon, a wildlife corridor for Mexican gray wolves and endangered jaguars,” NPR reported. “At $41 million a mile, the Arizona sections are the most expensive projects of the entire border wall.”
In Arizona they’re needlessly razing vegetation and blasting mountains for roads in remote areas to help enable construction that likely won’t even take place.
10. Harming Whales and Dolphins
Trump may be leaving office, but marine mammals won’t be able to rest easy. NOAA Fisheries issued a rule on Dec. 9 allowing the oil and gas industry to harm Atlantic spotted dolphins, pygmy whales, dwarf sperm whales, Bryde’s whales and other marine mammals in the Gulf of Mexico while using seismic and acoustic mapping, including air guns, to gather data on resources on or below the ocean floor.
In an effort to further efforts for oil and gas drilling, nearly 200,000 beaked whales and more than 600,000 bottlenose dolphins could be “disturbed.” And “pygmy and dwarf sperm whales are expected to be harassed to the point of potential injury, with a mean of 308 whales potentially harmed per year, according to the final rule,” E&E News reported.
11. More Lease Sales
The Arctic isn’t the only place where the rush is on to exploit public lands. On Dec. 9 the Bureau of Land Management updated an environmental assessment for a 2013 plan for leases to extract climate- and water-polluting tar sands on 2,100 acres in northeastern Utah. But then just days late it hit the pause button on the effort.
While that one may be on hold, the administration did kick off the sale of leases for oil drilling on 4,100 acres of federal land in California’s Kern County on Dec. 10. The first such sale in the state in eight years could be canceled by the Biden administration and if not, would face legal challenges from environmental groups.
12. Cost-Benefit Rule
One of the administration’s biggest parting gifts to industry — the “cost-benefit” rule — was finalized on Dec. 9. It would require the EPA to weigh the economic costs of air pollution regulations but not many of the health benefits that would arise from better protections.
“In other words, if reducing emissions from power plants also saves tens of thousands of lives each year by cutting soot, those ‘co-benefits’ should be not be counted,” in the EPA’s new analysis, the Washington Post explained.
The rule would be a big blow to efforts to improve public health and curb pollution.
“The only purpose in making this a regulation seems to be to provide a basis for future lawsuits to slow down or prevent future administrations from regulating,” Roy Gamse, an economist and former EPA deputy assistant administrator for planning and evaluation, told Reuters.
Slowing down the Biden administration will continue to be a big part of Trump’s last month in office — along with the finalization of more rule changes to add insult to injury.
Legal experts have begun mapping which rollbacks will be quick and easy to undo and those that will take sustained effort. But one thing is certain: There’s a long road ahead to reverse dangerous regulations, restore scientific integrity and make up for lost ground on climate change, extinction and other cascading crises.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
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truthout--2020-12-15--Canadian Guards Beat a Prisoner to Death Four Years Ago. Now They Have Impunity.

December 15 marks yet another anniversary in the calendar of carceral violence : the killing of Soleiman Faqiri , who was beaten to death by guards in an Ontario solitary confinement cell in 2016 .
This August — almost four years later — the Ontario Provincial Police announced that no one will be charged .
Faqiri , known as Soli , was 30 years old .
He had studied environmental engineering at university before being diagnosed with schizophrenia following a car accident in 2004 .
At the time of his death , he was being held in Central East Correctional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trial for assault .
He was placed in solitary confinement despite his diagnosis , a violation of the United Nations Convention Against Torture .
On his 10th day in solitary , Faqiri was “ viciously beaten to death , ” in the words of an eyewitness , by a group of guards sent into his cell to pacify his agitation and distress .
The coroner ’ s post-mortem report found over 50 “ blunt impact trauma ” injuries covering almost every area of his body .
Guards had pepper-sprayed Faqiri in the face @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spit hood , trapping the irritant in his airways , and allegedly held him down with a knee to his neck : practices linked to deaths by asphyxiation in police custody , including recently those of George Floyd and Daniel Prude in the United States .
The brutalization of Faqiri was a manifestation of the violence endemic in Canada ’ s carceral system , while the state ’ s “ investigation ” exemplifies the fortress of impunity placed around it — much as in the U.S. criminal legal system .
Even such basic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ participated in the beating — somewhere between six and 20 — remain unknown .
Police failed to interview the eyewitness , quoted above , who came forward ; it fell to the media to uncover his testimony .
The coroner ’ s report , despite finding the massive extent of injury , somehow still concluded that the cause of death was “ unascertained.
” The outcome of this whole Potemkin process — the refusal of the state to hold anyone to criminal account — is hardly any surprise .
Reportedly , the official @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that no one can be charged because it is impossible to determine which participant in the mass beating struck the fatal blow .
This conflicts directly with the case law established for non-state perpetrators of violence .
In the 2011 case of R. v. Ball , the British Columbia Court of Appeal confirmed that , “ where co-perpetrators engage in a deadly assault , the Crown need not prove which of the attackers struck the fatal blow or blows… .
This principle has been pithily stated in concrete terms that ‘ the blow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the blow of all of them.
’ ” The net of culpability is cast even wider in areas of law reserved primarily for criminalizing the racialized and marginalized .
For example , terrorism prosecutions under Canadian law — 98 percent of which have been against Muslims — can proceed preemptively , even when no violence has been anywhere close to occurring at all .
Indeed , only two out of the 54 completed terrorism prosecutions in Canada so far have involved any actual act of violence , and neither of those caused any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supremacist massacres like the 2017 Quebec mosque shooting haven ’ t been charged as terrorism . )
On the other hand , many of these terrorism prosecutions have involved state informants central to manufacturing the prosecuted plots ; and as in the United States , those identified as vulnerable due to mental illness have been favorite targets for elaborate and expensive stings .
This logic of mass incrimination is the exact inversion of the logic of mass exculpation applied to state violence .
With non-state “ terrorism , ” the blows of none @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many .
At the opposite pole of absurdity , when it comes to the state , the blows of the many are vaporized into the guilt of none .
“ There is a fragmentation of the total human act , ” as psychologist Stanley Milgram wrote in Obedience to Authority , on his ( in ) famous experiments showing subjects ’ willingness to inflict electroshock torture when instructed by an experimenter .
“ No one man decides to carry out the evil act and is confronted with its consequences .
The person who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evaporated .
Perhaps this is the most common characteristic of socially organized evil in modern society.
” Attempting to hold this strategically disaggregated entity accountable is like fighting not a windmill but the wind itself : pervasive , powerful and ungraspable .
The provincial ombudsman received 350 complaints about excessive use of force in Ontario jails between 2010 and 2013 , but only four jail staff members were criminally charged .
Since then , the number of complaints has further increased , reaching record levels in 2020 .
According to the ombudsman ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ [ e ] to lie , destroy , and falsify records ” to protect their co-workers .
While brutality is coordinated and collaborative , accountability is fragmented .
It is impossible to even know exactly how many people have died in Ontario ’ s jails : at least 150 over the last decade , but different agencies counting according to different legal definitions come to different results .
In the rare instances when the violence occurring behind carceral walls does come to light , the division and stratification of power provides each level @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a civil lawsuit filed by the Faqiris , for instance , the individual guards blame the province for “ inadequate training , ” and the province blames the guards for acting “ outside the course and scope of their duties ” ( while also contradictorily maintaining that no “ unauthorized force ” was used ) .
While “ it is commonly understood that in its focus on rights and obligations law is centrally concerned with organizing responsibility … legal institutions are [ in fact ] centrally involved in organizing irresponsibility , ” argues @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with respect to the production of large-scale harms — including extensive human rights violations , forms of colonialism , or environmental or nuclear devastation … legal institutions operate to facilitate dispersals and disavowals of responsibility , and they do so in consistent and patterned ways.
” Responsibility is instead projected back onto the sufferers of state violence .
In Faqiri ’ s case , the coroner ’ s post-mortem report fixates extensively on a possible “ genetic mutation affecting the heart or blood vessels that may have contributed to this death ” — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of any cardiac abnormality .
The report even begins by suggesting that the entire Faqiri family should get medically tested , as recommended “ when a family member has died from one of these conditions.
” Desperately seeking answers regarding the death of their son and brother after being viciously beaten in state “ care , ” the Faqiris are redirected to look instead within their own allegedly faulty hearts ( and DNA ) .
This is the same vein in which deaths in police or prison custody are blamed on Black people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , not the tasers that electrocuted them ; or on Indigenous people ’ s “ failing ” internal organs , not the police boots that pulverized them .
Such deflections echo the colonial medical officials of centuries past , who explained away the high Indigenous death rates in Canada ’ s prisons with the claim that “ the Indians can not bear confinement as well as whites or Chinese.
” The subjects of Milgram ’ s experiments also managed to justify the torture they believed they were dispensing , by denigrating those on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” “ stubborn ” and “ deserving ” what they got .
With these sleights of hand , the violence lying at the heart of the states ’ own legal and carceral systems is concealed .
“ Legal interpretation takes place in a field of pain and death , ” as legal theorist Robert Cover famously reminded .
In settler states like Canada , the “ field of pain and death ” is not just metaphorical but material : the terrain on which Canada ’ s police stations , courthouses , prisons and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; their “ right ” to discipline and punish built on genocidal negation of the Indigenous sovereigns whose governance systems long pre-date Canada ’ s own .
Canada ’ s prisons and jails are part of a vast and shape-shifting carceral archipelago , which perpetually finds new ways to enforce the dominant rule .
Residential schools are now shuttered and declared “ national historic sites ” but Indigenous children continue to be seized en masse by child welfare — at higher rates than at the height of the residential schools — while the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prison system confine and torture ever-growing numbers of Indigenous people behind bars .
Enslavement was officially outlawed in Canada by the British Empire in 1834 , but the widespread indentureship of Black and Brown “ temporary migrant workers ” from the Global South endures , while incarcerated laborers toil in prison work programs for the typical “ wage ” of 30 cents an hour .
The Ontario government has finally apologized — without accepting criminal liability — to those who suffered decades of torture , rape and abuse in asylums like the Huronia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Asylum for Idiots ; but the institutional terrorization of those deemed mentally ill , like Faqiri , persists .
The role once performed by asylums has largely now been taken over by prisons and jails : like Faqiri , one-third of those incarcerated in Ontario last year had a mental health alert on file , up from 7 percent two decades ago .
Also like Faqiri , more than 70 percent of all people jailed in Ontario are “ legally innocent , ” on remand awaiting trial .
The ranks of the legally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ provincial jails continue to swell , even as government-reported crime rates decline .
Imprisonment is increasingly untethered from the official justification of punishing legally-ascribed “ guilt.
” This exposes even more nakedly mass incarceration ’ s “ [ ideological function ] as an abstract site into which undesirables are deposited , relieving us of thinking about real issues afflicting those communities from which prisoners are drawn in such disproportionate numbers , ” as renown scholar and dissenter Angela Davis writes .
“ The prison has become a black hole into which the detritus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ incarceration is structured to not only target mental illness but to intensify it .
This is exemplified by the pervasive use of solitary confinement , “ the hole ” within the “ black hole , ” identified as one of the “ predominant methods of psychological torture ” by the UN special rapporteur on torture .
Solitary confinement produces discernable disruptions to brain patterns , similar to those caused by physical brain injury , after only a few days .
Hallucinations , delusions and perceptual distortions are common : the mind ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ solitary cell .
Individuals in solitary have gouged their eyes , stuck objects through their skin , tried to strangle themselves and set themselves on fire : an externalization of the internal anguish solitary engenders .
Prisoners describe isolation as an “ entombment ” and a “ living death.
” According to the CIA , psychological torture is often more devastating ( or , from their perspective , effective ) than physical torture : “ whereas pain inflicted on a person from outside himself may actually focus or intensify his will to resist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sapped by pain which he seems to inflict upon himself.
” Three years before Faqiri was killed at Central East , another prisoner , Lawrence Prindible , died by suicide in a segregation cell at the same jail .
In both cases , psycho-social death by solitary was a prelude to biological death .
As with incarceration in general , the particular tortures of solitary are systematically visited disproportionately on some : Indigenous people , Black people and people diagnosed with mental illness .
In some situations — U.S. counterterrorism prosecutions , for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a coercion tactic , to extract guilty pleas by turning the psychological screws .
In other situations , equally grotesquely , the torture is simply a by-product of mass incarceration ’ s human warehousing function .
“ Many of those in segregation simply should not be there , ” Ontario ’ s Independent Corrections Reform Advisor Howard Sapers has found .
“ In most institutions , segregation is the default tool to manage individuals with mental health needs ; those at risk of self-harm or suicide ; the disabled and elderly who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patients requiring close medical supervision ; individuals who feel unsafe when left alone in general population units ; and transgender inmates before in-depth placement and needs assessments can be completed.
” Even supposed care may end up being torture in another guise .
In the name of containing the coronavirus pandemic , hundreds of federal prisoners ( including many testing negative ) were locked up incommunicado in solitary cells for almost 24 hours a day , without access to showers , fresh air , family members , lawyers or phones .
Yet the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to legal challenges , that it no longer practices solitary confinement at all .
Instead , the same old segregation cells have been rechristened as “ structured intervention units , ” little more than solitary by another name .
Aliases for solitary confinement proliferate : “ administrative segregation , ” “ special handling , ” “ special needs , ” “ therapeutic range ” and now “ structured intervention unit ” — while the underlying reality remains largely unchanged .
In Ontario ’ s jails , meanwhile , the number and length of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , even in the wake of damning reports by official investigators .
Segregation placements , defined as 22 hours per day in isolation , are meant to be periodically reviewed .
But this requirement is circumvented by “ restarting the clock ” every time an individual is transferred to a different facility or allowed 121 minutes ( exactly one minute over the threshold ) outside the isolation cage .
As in Faqiri ’ s case , the fragmentation of the total system of violence — between different actors , labels , locations and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ injury without accountability .
Even the most progressive judicial decisions on solitary confinement in Canada restrict themselves to refining its administration , instead of abolishing it .
For example , the common standard of a 15-day time limit — endorsed recently by the Ontario and British Columbia Courts of Appeal — would have done little to help someone like Faqiri , who was in solitary for “ only ” 10 days before he died .
Perversely , “ many attempts to improve conditions of confinement in solitary , or to limit its imposition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reformist efforts , ultimately bolstering the legitimacy of the existing system , ” criminologist Keramet Reiter warns .
Courts castigate some of the “ cruel and unusual ” excesses of mass incarceration , while the all too usual cruelties proceed unabated behind carceral walls .
What differentiates this highly organized system of terrorization from what is commonly called “ terrorism , ” represented as the paradigmatic category of illegitimate violence ?
Many of the features cited to distinguish terrorism from state violence in fact testify to the state ’ s far greater capacity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is criminalized in expansive and absolute terms ; state violence is perpetrated in the name of the law .
“ Terrorism ” is defined as violence against civilians for political or ideological purpose ; state violence , including mass incarceration , exalts and obscures itself as apparently apolitical and nonideological , a part of the seemingly natural order of the world .
“ Terrorists ” are depicted as extremist individuals ; state violence is committed through a vast and complex network of actors and institutions , so structurally entrenched their brutality appears banal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scientist Charles Tilly described state-making as a “ quintessential ” form of “ organized crime ” — but one that operates “ with the advantage of legitimacy ” ( self-conferred ) .
While the term “ terrorism ” was originally coined in the 18th century to denounce the atrocities of the state , the concept of state terrorism has now all but disappeared , its once publicly staged spectacles of violence ( torture , executions ) now largely hidden behind physical , legal , informational , political and social walls .
And so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ entities ” for donating medical equipment to Gaza , while governments arming civilian-massacring regimes like Saudi Arabia is considered “ business as usual.
” Indigenous land and climate defenders are impugned as “ eco-terrorists ” for burning tires in protest of colonial pipelines , while powerful governments and corporations torch the planet largely unchecked .
Security experts speculate about “ chemical and biological terrorists ” attacking our water supplies , while decades of government-sanctioned mercury water contamination poisons Indigenous communities like Grassy Narrows .
It is the “ terror cell , ” not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as emblematizing the terrorist threat .
As legal theorist Scott Veitch points out , there is a profound “ asymmetry between the production of suffering and establishing responsibility for it — that exists and works always as an inverse proportion : the greater the suffering caused , the less responsibility can be established for it.
” The impunity for the torture and killing of Soleiman Faqiri demonstrates , yet again , that there is little justice to be found from the criminal “ justice ” system responsible for the crime ; the system @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wiping its slate clean with the other .
Click here to learn more about and support the Justice For Soli campaign .

December 15 marks yet another anniversary in the calendar of carceral violence: the killing of Soleiman Faqiri, who was beaten to death by guards in an Ontario solitary confinement cell in 2016. This August — almost four years later — the Ontario Provincial Police announced that no one will be charged.
Faqiri, known as Soli, was 30 years old. He had studied environmental engineering at university before being diagnosed with schizophrenia following a car accident in 2004. At the time of his death, he was being held in Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, Ontario, pending trial for assault. He was placed in solitary confinement despite his diagnosis, a violation of the United Nations Convention Against Torture.
On his 10th day in solitary, Faqiri was “viciously beaten to death,” in the words of an eyewitness, by a group of guards sent into his cell to pacify his agitation and distress. The coroner’s post-mortem report found over 50 “blunt impact trauma” injuries covering almost every area of his body. Guards had pepper-sprayed Faqiri in the face and then covered his head with a spit hood, trapping the irritant in his airways, and allegedly held him down with a knee to his neck: practices linked to deaths by asphyxiation in police custody, including recently those of George Floyd and Daniel Prude in the United States.
The brutalization of Faqiri was a manifestation of the violence endemic in Canada’s carceral system, while the state’s “investigation” exemplifies the fortress of impunity placed around it — much as in the U.S. criminal legal system.
Even such basic details as the number of officers who participated in the beating — somewhere between six and 20 — remain unknown. Police failed to interview the eyewitness, quoted above, who came forward; it fell to the media to uncover his testimony. The coroner’s report, despite finding the massive extent of injury, somehow still concluded that the cause of death was “unascertained.”
The outcome of this whole Potemkin process — the refusal of the state to hold anyone to criminal account — is hardly any surprise. Reportedly, the official reason given to the Faqiri family is that no one can be charged because it is impossible to determine which participant in the mass beating struck the fatal blow.
The Anatomy of Impunity
This conflicts directly with the case law established for non-state perpetrators of violence. In the 2011 case of R. v. Ball, the British Columbia Court of Appeal confirmed that, “where co-perpetrators engage in a deadly assault, the Crown need not prove which of the attackers struck the fatal blow or blows…. This principle has been pithily stated in concrete terms that ‘the blow of one is, in law, the blow of all of them.’”
The net of culpability is cast even wider in areas of law reserved primarily for criminalizing the racialized and marginalized. For example, terrorism prosecutions under Canadian law — 98 percent of which have been against Muslims — can proceed preemptively, even when no violence has been anywhere close to occurring at all.
With non-state “terrorism,” the blows of none are converted into the guilt of the many. When it comes to the state, the blows of the many are vaporized into the guilt of none.
Indeed, only two out of the 54 completed terrorism prosecutions in Canada so far have involved any actual act of violence, and neither of those caused any deaths or significant injuries. (White supremacist massacres like the 2017 Quebec mosque shooting haven’t been charged as terrorism.) On the other hand, many of these terrorism prosecutions have involved state informants central to manufacturing the prosecuted plots; and as in the United States, those identified as vulnerable due to mental illness have been favorite targets for elaborate and expensive stings.
This logic of mass incrimination is the exact inversion of the logic of mass exculpation applied to state violence. With non-state “terrorism,” the blows of none are converted into the guilt of the many. At the opposite pole of absurdity, when it comes to the state, the blows of the many are vaporized into the guilt of none.
“There is a fragmentation of the total human act,” as psychologist Stanley Milgram wrote in Obedience to Authority, on his (in)famous experiments showing subjects’ willingness to inflict electroshock torture when instructed by an experimenter. “No one man decides to carry out the evil act and is confronted with its consequences. The person who assumes full responsibility for the act has evaporated. Perhaps this is the most common characteristic of socially organized evil in modern society.”
Attempting to hold this strategically disaggregated entity accountable is like fighting not a windmill but the wind itself: pervasive, powerful and ungraspable.
The provincial ombudsman received 350 complaints about excessive use of force in Ontario jails between 2010 and 2013, but only four jail staff members were criminally charged. Since then, the number of complaints has further increased, reaching record levels in 2020.
According to the ombudsman’s investigation, correctional employees “conspir[e] to lie, destroy, and falsify records” to protect their co-workers. While brutality is coordinated and collaborative, accountability is fragmented. It is impossible to even know exactly how many people have died in Ontario’s jails: at least 150 over the last decade, but different agencies counting according to different legal definitions come to different results.
In the rare instances when the violence occurring behind carceral walls does come to light, the division and stratification of power provides each level with an alibi. In response to a civil lawsuit filed by the Faqiris, for instance, the individual guards blame the province for “inadequate training,” and the province blames the guards for acting “outside the course and scope of their duties” (while also contradictorily maintaining that no “unauthorized force” was used).
While “it is commonly understood that in its focus on rights and obligations law is centrally concerned with organizing responsibility … legal institutions are [in fact] centrally involved in organizing irresponsibility,” argues legal theorist Scott Veitch. “Particularly with respect to the production of large-scale harms — including extensive human rights violations, forms of colonialism, or environmental or nuclear devastation … legal institutions operate to facilitate dispersals and disavowals of responsibility, and they do so in consistent and patterned ways.”
In the rare instances when the violence occurring behind carceral walls does come to light, the division and stratification of power provides each level with an alibi.
Responsibility is instead projected back onto the sufferers of state violence. In Faqiri’s case, the coroner’s post-mortem report fixates extensively on a possible “genetic mutation affecting the heart or blood vessels that may have contributed to this death” — despite finding only “slight” evidence of any cardiac abnormality. The report even begins by suggesting that the entire Faqiri family should get medically tested, as recommended “when a family member has died from one of these conditions.” Desperately seeking answers regarding the death of their son and brother after being viciously beaten in state “care,” the Faqiris are redirected to look instead within their own allegedly faulty hearts (and DNA).
This is the same vein in which deaths in police or prison custody are blamed on Black people’s “excitable” nervous systems, not the tasers that electrocuted them; or on Indigenous people’s “failing” internal organs, not the police boots that pulverized them. Such deflections echo the colonial medical officials of centuries past, who explained away the high Indigenous death rates in Canada’s prisons with the claim that “the Indians cannot bear confinement as well as whites or Chinese.” The subjects of Milgram’s experiments also managed to justify the torture they believed they were dispensing, by denigrating those on the receiving end as “stupid,” “stubborn” and “deserving” what they got.
The Colonial Roots of Mass Incarceration
With these sleights of hand, the violence lying at the heart of the states’ own legal and carceral systems is concealed.
“Legal interpretation takes place in a field of pain and death,” as legal theorist Robert Cover famously reminded. In settler states like Canada, the “field of pain and death” is not just metaphorical but material: the terrain on which Canada’s police stations, courthouses, prisons and jails are constructed is colonized Indigenous land; their “right” to discipline and punish built on genocidal negation of the Indigenous sovereigns whose governance systems long pre-date Canada’s own.
Canada’s prisons and jails are part of a vast and shape-shifting carceral archipelago, which perpetually finds new ways to enforce the dominant rule.
Residential schools are now shuttered and declared “national historic sites , ” but Indigenous children continue to be seized en masse by child welfare — at higher rates than at the height of the residential schools — while the “new residential schools” of the prison system confine and torture ever-growing numbers of Indigenous people behind bars. Enslavement was officially outlawed in Canada by the British Empire in 1834, but the widespread indentureship of Black and Brown “temporary migrant workers” from the Global South endures, while incarcerated laborers toil in prison work programs for the typical “wage” of 30 cents an hour. The Ontario government has finally apologized — without accepting criminal liability — to those who suffered decades of torture, rape and abuse in asylums like the Huronia Regional Centre, originally called the Orillia Asylum for Idiots; but the institutional terrorization of those deemed mentally ill, like Faqiri, persists.
The role once performed by asylums has largely now been taken over by prisons and jails: like Faqiri, one-third of those incarcerated in Ontario last year had a mental health alert on file, up from 7 percent two decades ago.
Also like Faqiri, more than 70 percent of all people jailed in Ontario are “legally innocent,” on remand awaiting trial. The ranks of the legally innocent incarcerated — and dying — in provincial jails continue to swell, even as government-reported crime rates decline.
Mass incarceration is structured to not only target mental illness but to intensify it.
Imprisonment is increasingly untethered from the official justification of punishing legally-ascribed “guilt.” This exposes even more nakedly mass incarceration’s “[ideological function] as an abstract site into which undesirables are deposited, relieving us of thinking about real issues afflicting those communities from which prisoners are drawn in such disproportionate numbers,” as renowned scholar and dissenter Angela Davis writes. “The prison has become a black hole into which the detritus of contemporary capitalism is deposited.”
Mass incarceration is structured to not only target mental illness but to intensify it. This is exemplified by the pervasive use of solitary confinement, “the hole” within the “black hole,” identified as one of the “predominant methods of psychological torture” by the UN special rapporteur on torture.
Solitary confinement produces discernable disruptions to brain patterns, similar to those caused by physical brain injury, after only a few days. Hallucinations, delusions and perceptual distortions are common: the mind’s response to the alternative reality of the solitary cell. Individuals in solitary have gouged their eyes, stuck objects through their skin, tried to strangle themselves and set themselves on fire: an externalization of the internal anguish solitary engenders. Prisoners describe isolation as an “entombment” and a “living death.”
According to the CIA, psychological torture is often more devastating (or, from their perspective, effective) than physical torture: “whereas pain inflicted on a person from outside himself may actually focus or intensify his will to resist, his resistance is likelier to be sapped by pain which he seems to inflict upon himself.”
Three years before Faqiri was killed at Central East, another prisoner, Lawrence Prindible, died by suicide in a segregation cell at the same jail. In both cases, psycho-social death by solitary was a prelude to biological death.
As with incarceration in general, the particular tortures of solitary are systematically visited disproportionately on some: Indigenous people, Black people and people diagnosed with mental illness. In some situations — U.S. counterterrorism prosecutions, for instance — solitary confinement is used deliberately as a coercion tactic, to extract guilty pleas by turning the psychological screws. In other situations, equally grotesquely, the torture is simply a by-product of mass incarceration’s human warehousing function.
Even supposed care may end up being torture in another guise.
“Many of those in segregation simply should not be there,” Ontario’s Independent Corrections Reform Advisor Howard Sapers has found. “In most institutions, segregation is the default tool to manage individuals with mental health needs; those at risk of self-harm or suicide; the disabled and elderly who need mobility assistance devices; critically ill patients requiring close medical supervision; individuals who feel unsafe when left alone in general population units; and transgender inmates before in-depth placement and needs assessments can be completed.”
Even supposed care may end up being torture in another guise. In the name of containing the coronavirus pandemic, hundreds of federal prisoners (including many testing negative) were locked up incommunicado in solitary cells for almost 24 hours a day, without access to showers, fresh air, family members, lawyers or phones.
Yet the Canadian federal government claims, in response to legal challenges, that it no longer practices solitary confinement at all. Instead, the same old segregation cells have been rechristened as “structured intervention units,” little more than solitary by another name. Aliases for solitary confinement proliferate: “administrative segregation,” “special handling,” “special needs,” “therapeutic range” and now “structured intervention unit” — while the underlying reality remains largely unchanged.
In Ontario’s jails, meanwhile, the number and length of detentions in solitary have continued to rise, even in the wake of damning reports by official investigators. Segregation placements, defined as 22 hours per day in isolation, are meant to be periodically reviewed. But this requirement is circumvented by “restarting the clock” every time an individual is transferred to a different facility or allowed 121 minutes (exactly one minute over the threshold) outside the isolation cage.
As in Faqiri’s case, the fragmentation of the total system of violence — between different actors, labels, locations and time periods — enables the perpetration of injury without accountability.
As in Faqiri’s case, the fragmentation of the total system of violence enables the perpetration of injury without accountability.
Even the most progressive judicial decisions on solitary confinement in Canada restrict themselves to refining its administration, instead of abolishing it. For example, the common standard of a 15-day time limit — endorsed recently by the Ontario and British Columbia Courts of Appeal — would have done little to help someone like Faqiri, who was in solitary for “only” 10 days before he died. Perversely, “many attempts to improve conditions of confinement in solitary, or to limit its imposition on some vulnerable groups, have been reformist efforts, ultimately bolstering the legitimacy of the existing system,” criminologist Keramet Reiter warns.
Courts castigate some of the “cruel and unusual” excesses of mass incarceration, while the all too usual cruelties proceed unabated behind carceral walls.
State of Terror
What differentiates this highly organized system of terrorization from what is commonly called “terrorism,” represented as the paradigmatic category of illegitimate violence? Many of the features cited to distinguish terrorism from state violence in fact testify to the state’s far greater capacity to inflict harm.
“Terrorism” is criminalized in expansive and absolute terms; state violence is perpetrated in the name of the law.
“Terrorism” is defined as violence against civilians for political or ideological purpose; state violence, including mass incarceration, exalts and obscures itself as apparently apolitical and nonideological, a part of the seemingly natural order of the world.
“Terrorists” are depicted as extremist individuals; state violence is committed through a vast and complex network of actors and institutions, so structurally entrenched their brutality appears banal or even benevolent.
The eminent political scientist Charles Tilly described state-making as a “quintessential” form of “organized crime” — but one that operates “with the advantage of legitimacy” (self-conferred). While the term “terrorism” was originally coined in the 18th century to denounce the atrocities of the state, the concept of state terrorism has now all but disappeared, its once publicly staged spectacles of violence (torture, executions) now largely hidden behind physical, legal, informational, political and social walls.
Courts castigate some of the “cruel and unusual” excesses of mass incarceration, while the all too usual cruelties proceed unabated behind carceral walls.
And so, charities are listed as “terrorist entities” for donating medical equipment to Gaza, while governments arming civilian-massacring regimes like Saudi Arabia is considered “business as usual.” Indigenous land and climate defenders are impugned as “eco-terrorists” for burning tires in protest of colonial pipelines, while powerful governments and corporations torch the planet largely unchecked. Security experts speculate about “chemical and biological terrorists” attacking our water supplies, while decades of government-sanctioned mercury water contamination poisons Indigenous communities like Grassy Narrows. It is the “terror cell,” not the prison cell, that is imagined as emblematizing the terrorist threat.
As legal theorist Scott Veitch points out, there is a profound “asymmetry between the production of suffering and establishing responsibility for it — that exists and works always as an inverse proportion: the greater the suffering caused, the less responsibility can be established for it.”
The impunity for the torture and killing of Soleiman Faqiri demonstrates, yet again, that there is little justice to be found from the criminal “justice” system responsible for the crime; the system that inscribes terror with one hand while wiping its slate clean with the other.
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