Waiting For The Next One...

"Public Health Agency of Canada maintains agreements to secure timely access to pandemic influenza vaccines for the entire Canadian population should an influenza pandemic occur."

"[Those agreements are meant to protect against risk of vaccine embargoes, border closures and transportation and shipping delays] as recently witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic."

"As influenza viruses constantly change and cases in livestock increase opportunity for changes leading to mammalian adaptation, continued surveillance and preparedness are critical."

Nicholas Janveau, spokesperson, PHAC

"We are all taught about this [risk of mutations that could potentially allow the virus to successfully jump to humans] in epidemiology school."

"For twenty years now, flu watchers like myself have been warning about avian flu making the leap [to humans]."

"[H5N1 has pandemic potential] but many things have pandemic potential. [Canada should begin producing vaccines now]."

"Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it."

Raywat Deonandan, epidemiologist, professor, University of Ottawa

A worker moves crates of eggs at the Sunrise Farms processing plant in Petaluma, Calif., on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024, which had an outbreak of avian flu earlier this year. Photo by Terry Chea /AP

People are being urged by health experts to refrain from drinking raw, unpasteurized milk, and to make certain that meat is cooked thoroughly. The real potential risk from bird flu they say with some assurance is not from food intake, but the possibility that alterations to the H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus stems from the possibility it might make the leap from animals to humans, creating a potential influenza pandemic, since human immunity to the virus is expected to be minimal.

In the event of a pandemic declaration, the Public Health Agency of Canada may begin to assess options to produce pr-pandemic vaccines against H5N1 that could be in place should a pandemic declaration become reality. The risks of H5N1, however, is being actively assessed so that PHAC can switch annual influenza vaccine production from seasonal influenza vaccine to pandemic influenza vaccine. Stockpiles of anti-viral medications are maintained as well, by federal and provincial and territorial governments.

American Health officials have latterly reported outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in some 33 dairy herds, along with poultry and wild birds. Wide-spread reports have emerged of barn cats falling ill and dying. Remnants of the H5N1 bird flu virus in 20 percent of retail milk samples tested in the US. has been discovered, the cause of growing concern that livestock outbreaks are more widespread than thought. Although the virus fragments were not live, posing no risk, their presence suggests that more cows are infected than have been reported. 

 

A situation that increases the risk of mutations with the potential of allowing the virus to leap to humans.

Dr. Deonandan points out that though avian bird flu has been decades in circulation, the leap to humans that might allow widespread human-to-human transmission has not occurred. There have been 26  human cases globally, associated with the strain of H5N1 in circulation, yet human cases primarily resulted from close contact with infected birds or animals. "There is a lot of good news here", he remarked.

Unlike with COVID-19, vaccines, explained Dr. Deonandan, will be available, although they would be in high demand, and antivirals would also be readily available. Even so, the situation would likely be hard on the elderly and children. In the meanwhile, he urged people to take precautions such as rejecting raw milk and cooking food well, along with avoiding dead birds and other wild animals.

Raquel Kolof is a beef cattle farmer who owns Hough Heritage Farms in Gibsons, B.C. No cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza have shown up in Canadian cattle yet, but she's concerned watching outbreaks in the U.S. (Submitted by Raquel Kolof)

"[Human-to-human transmission is unlikely right now without further genetic changes in the virus, but since the viruses constantly evolve, the WHO called on countries to increase their surveillance]."

"As these viruses are constantly evolving and spreading in animal populations, and with an increased risk of exposure for humans, there is a continuous need to reassess the risks as the situation evolves and when more information becomes available."

World Health Organization assessment

Female Medical Practitioners' Special Touch

Getty Images

"Male and female physicians] practise medicine differently, and these differences have a meaningful impact on patients' health outcomes."

"Further research on the underlying mechanisms linking physician gender with patient outcomes, and why the benefit of receiving the treatment from female physicians is larger for female patients, has the potential to improve patient outcomes across the board."

Researcher Yusuke Tsugawa

A new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine reached the conclusion that patients gain a small, yet significant boost to survival should their doctor happen to be female, according to researchers at the University of California Los Angeles. The researchers studied insurance claims data for 485,100 female patients and 318,800 males, determining how many of these patients died or were re-admitted within 30 days of seeing a doctor.

 

"Patients have lower mortality and re-admission rates when treated by female physicians", for both male and female genders, the study found. Their results indicated that while 8.15 percent of female patients died treated by a female doctors, mortality rate when a male doctor was seen turned out to be a "clinically significant" 8.38 percent, a difference that may appear negligible (out of every 1,000 patients) but it meant that two more patients survived who were treated by a female physician.

 

04-24-2024

 

The researchers speculated that the difference could be the result of female doctors being more accomplished in communicating with female patients since female patients who were seen by female doctors also were less likely to be readmitted; 15.23 percent, compared to 16.71 percent. "The benefit of receiving treatments from female physicians is larger for female patients than for male patients"; the difference in death rates, however, remained present for males.

imtm/photostock-adobe

With female physicians in attendance, male patients experienced a 10.15 percent mortality rate in comparison to a male doctor's 10.23 percent mortality rate; one fewer death per 1,000 patients. 

 

According to 2022 figures from the Canadian Institute of Health Information, in Canada, 49.7 percent of family doctors, and 40.2 percent of specialist doctors were female practitioners.

Probing UNRWA's Neutrality

"[There have been] instances of staff publicly expressing political views [and] host countries with problematic content being used in some UNRWA schools."

"[UNRWA itself admits to finding in a review of textbooks] issues of concern to UN values, guidance, or position on the conflict. Even if marginal, these issues constitute a grave violation of neutrality."

"Among the various issues, recurrent ones were the use of historical maps in a non-historical context; e.g., without labelling Israel; naming Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine; naming cities in Israel as Palestinian cities; the use of the word Zionist, [e.g., 'Zionist occupation' referring to Israel]."

"The presence of even a small fraction of problematic content in textbooks, supplemental material and teaching content remains a serious issue. More work needs to be undertaken between UNRWA and the Palestinian Authority to pursue the replacement of problematic content and to avoid the promotion of discrimination and incitement to hatred and violence and the spreading of antisemitic views that contradict UN values and UNESCO standards."

United Nations investigation of UNRWA connections to Hamas

UN Sec/Gen Antonio Guterres speaks on special report presentation April 14, 2024  AP

The United Nations report on its investigation carried out by a specially-appointed review group into the United Nations Relief Works Agency neutrality during the terrorist assault in southern Israel when proof emerged that Israel's long-held suspicions that UNRWA had become an agency-arm of Hamas  by permitting its infrastructure to be abused by terrorists did not definitively find that Israel's accusations were misplaced. Israel had charged that a dozen UNRWA staff members had directly involved themselves in the October 7 terrorist attack, while many others supported the bloodbath,

 

The UN report managed to sidestep the critical issue of direct involvement of UNRWA employees, focusing instead on recommendations to improve the aid organization's neutrality. After the report's release, much of legacy media selected portions of the report to vindicate UNRWA. The headlines that drew public attention were those portions that reprimanded Israel for its decision not to cooperate with the investigation, and to provide evidence of UNRWA staff participation in the massacre in southern Israel. Similar past UN investigations gave Israel ample reason to withhold its participation.

The discovery by Israel of Hamas using UNRWA facilities that included its headquarters and its schools as bases of operations and for military storage centres was proven by their very existence. That alone should be recognized as ample proof, but UNRWA staff have held to their denials of having had any knowledge of such collaboration with Hamas, despite the tunnels that were dug under the facilities where they operated the UN mission. Electric cables running from beneath their building? Rockets stored below school classrooms? No idea...

That discovery that under UNRWA headquarters a massive Hamas data centre existed? How utterly amazing; how did that happen? Somehow, the international media managed to overlook the UN report's wan agreement, though equivocating, that the advisory committee believed oversight and] stronger governance structures [are critical for UNRWA to meet full neutrality protocols, along with support from the international community.

People walk past the damaged Gaza City headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) on February 15, 2024. (AFP)

 "UNRWA's facilities have sometimes been misused for political or military gains, undermining its neutrality."

"If the prevention of and response to the political misuse of UNRWA installations has been efficient, the agency has had more difficulty appropriately addressing the use of its installations for military purposes."

"Preventive measures, enhanced monitoring, and transparent reporting are necessary to address this issue effectively."

United Nations internal investigation of UNRWA participation in Hamas operations

 

Corrupting the Function of Unions

"I put up my hand, and I said I would like to speak to the fact that what you're wearing is a political statement, and it makes me feel very uncomfortable."

"And then, before I really could get any [more] words out, she mutes me."

Unidentified union member, fearful of repercussions

"Part of Israel's military occupation, apartheid and genocide ...is the erasing of cultural symbols such as the keffiyeh."

"Intimidating and harassing individuals for wearing traditional cultural clothing is a form of racism ... we do not tolerate racism in union meetings."

"Without resistance there is no union. A union is about caring for each other and struggling together for better. When you stand up to injustice I want to be there with you, because together we have the courage to never back down. I hope to serve as your Member At Large. And, let's never forget -- free Palestine!"

"Yes, I believe that Palestinians should be free from occupation, free from living under apartheid, and free from genocide and I will always stand for that. Being a union leader, when you are seeing people being massacred, that is a time when you need to open up your mouth and speak and say that is wrong -- just like I stand with the rights of workers -- I will always stand by the rights of oppressed people."

Canadian Union of Public Employees Toronto chapter union 905 president Katherine Grzejszczak

 

"Our union president speaks of inclusive spaces, but without Jewish perspectives."

"When the person who was supposed to represent us all wears clothing that has roots linked with terrorism, we do not feel safe or represented."

"Her personal views should not represent our union views."

Unidentified Union member, fearful of repercussions

In this screenshot from a video meeting, Katherine Grzejszczak’s laptop can be seen adorned with a large Palestinian flag sticker.

Toronto area CUPE 905 representing 6,000 municipal government and library workers across York Region held a video conference on remote-work policies on April 17. They were greeted with an unusual sight. Union president Katherine Grzejszczak's laptop facing the audience had a large Palestinian flag sticker facing the audience. One member responded by altering their own display picture with an Israeli flag. In the video Grzejszczak is first seen wearing a black T-shirt, then changing to a flowing red keffiyeh.

Upon which when one union member protested the sight of the union president swaddled in the keffiyeh, she responded: "We're not allowed to talk about anything political." The protester responded: "By you putting on that scarf, you're making it political". The response from the union president was to mute the protester. "We're all very afraid of the repercussions", one union member confessed in a journal interview.

Later at a follow-up meeting Grzejszczak brought forward a motion to fund her candidacy for another position with the union. Her campaign emphasized the concept of "resistance". CUPE 905 members who wee taken aback by the situation said that after the October 7 atrocities committed by Hamas they are still awaiting any reference by her to the hostages taken by Hamas, on the terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians, much less steadily rising antisemitism in Canada. "I don't feel it's a safe place for Jewish people", a source stated.

 

A woman wears a keffiyeh during a rally in support of Palestinians. The scarf's ubiquity in anti-Israel protests since Hamas’s October 7 attacks has made it a divisive symbol for many of Israel’s supporters. Photo by Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images

A female participant at the meeting who was herself wearing a black keffiyeh pledged her support for the president's candidacy, elaborating at some length on the importance of Free Palestine and the history of the conflict, as she saw it. "I was silenced for this topic. She is being political. Why is she not being muted?" asked the union member who had protested and had been muted as a result. She was thereupon once again muted. 

Additional members of the union expressed their own feelings of frustration over a labour forum purportedly dedicated to public-sector workers in York Region being diverted by its president for personal political reasons, to focus on a conflict occurring thousands of miles distance from Canada. "It's so bad that  you can't even concentrate on labour because this is ongoing, all the time", another union member reported.

 

Grzejszczak’s pitch to members centres on the concept of “resistance.”

 

"What we did in the Ontario legislature was make sure that our Jewish members and our Jewish constituents feel safe and able to debate with merit rather than props [when the Speaker of the Legislature banned the keffiyeh's presence in the chamber]."

"I would suggest that, given the class action lawsuits that I've seen crop up against the province as a result of antisemitism in some of the unions, union leaders should be more cognizant of the harm that they may be doing to people's mental health."

Ontario MPP Lisa McLeod

Atrocity Alert: Sudan's Darfur Attacks Redux

"All under the false pretext of targeting rebels [government forces and Janjaweed militias began attacking non-Arab villages, burning entire villages, engaging in systematic killings, extensive rape and sexual violence]."

"These attacks were also designed to destroy these groups' [Ethnic Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa communities] means of survival and essential infrastructure."

"[The 153 states that have signed the Geneva Convention must] take immediate action to end any complicity in the form of support for the RSF [Rapid Support Forces] and use all means reasonable available to prevent and halt the genocide."

Report, Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights

Families escaping Ardamata in West Darfur cross into Adre, Chad, after a wave of ethnic violence, November 7, 2023. Survivors recounted executions and looting in Ardamata, which they said were carried out by RSF and allied Arab militias. 2023 REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig

In Darfur, Sudan, 80 different tribes and ethnic groups live traditional lives as farmers and pastoralists. In the last number of decades, tensions have strained the non-Arab farming communities' relations between Arab herders. Land is at a premium, leaving the farmers and the herders at odds between grazing cattle and farming the land. Government bodies appointed by the Sudanese government in the mid-1980s favoured the rights of the Arab communities, leading to mass violence, when Arab herders attacked non-Arab, Black farming communities.

Primary groups targeted by the current situation, with the rebirth of mass killings, displacement, rape and land grabs are the Masalit, Fur, Zaghawa, Bargo, Tunjor and other non-Arab tribes in the West, South, North East, and Central Darfur States. Eventually non-Arab groups -- Masalit, Fur and Zaghawa -- responded by forming their own militias, the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement, both labelled rebels by the government of Sudan. 

In the late 1980s and beyond fighting between the Arab and non-Arab communities intensified. Chaos reigned when President Omar al-Bashi aligned the country's military with the Janjaweed militia (Arab horsemen) who persecuted and conducted murderous raids on Darfur's farming communities. Between 2003 and 2005, 300,000 people were murdered and countless others were made homeless."Counter-insurgency" campaigns resulted between 2015 and 2016. By 2019 President Omar al-Bashir was overthrown after having been indicted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court.

The feared and hated Janjaweed since transformed into the Rapid Support Forces, now in conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces in a power struggle. The conflict, seemingly ignored by a world bored with constant African Continent strife has caused 17.7 million people to face food insecurity, while another 25 million are left in need of humanitarian assistance. In a city in West Darfur, El Geneina, the RSF rounded up Masalit men for execution, where they were held in detention without food or water.

According to the UN Security Council Panel of Experts on the Sudan, between 10,000 and 15,000 people were killed in that attack. The Darfur Bar Association described the situation in El Geneina as a "full-scale genocide". The Raoul Wallenberg Centre report cited genocidal and dehumanizing language: Arab militiamen killing boys as young as six months, claiming "the boys will grow up and they will kill us. ... so we must destroy them now".

 

Bodies are strewn near houses in the West Darfur capital El Geneina, June 16, 2023. Up to 15,000 people were killed in the city last year in ethnic violence, according to a United Nations report seen by Reuters

Beijing, Leading the World Around by Its COVID-Susceptible Nose

"[Chinese officials ... were] looking at what was on sale in the [Wuhan] market, whether all the vendors have licenses [and] if there was any illegal [wildlife] trade."

"[The probe was] not routine [and WHO would] try to figure out what happened."

Peter Ven Embarek, top virus expert, World Health Organization

AP Photo/Ng Han Guan   Peter Ben Embarek of the WHO saying farewell to Liang Wannian, at the end of their collaboration in investigating the origins of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China in 2021.

An Associated Press investigation has concluded that the Beijing government took definite steps to freeze any enquiries of substance to trace origins of the coronavirus pandemic. In public China consistently spoke of its support of an open scientific inquiry. Thousands of pages of undisclosed emails and documents, leaked recordings, and dozens of interviews were perused throughout the period of the investigation revealing that the information freeze was initiated earlier than presumed -- in fact, in the first weeks of the outbreak, involving political and scientific infighting in China, along with international finger-pointing.

 

Bureaucrats in Wuhan attempting to avoid blame hindered critical initial efforts, misleading the central government which in turn silenced Chinese scientists, later subjecting visiting UN officials to tours that were stage-managed to ensure that nothing would be 'discovered' that China had no intention of revealing to the world at large. As to the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, it was to have remained unknown, given the clouds of secrecy surrounding the topic. Unclear as well is the date of the first searches by Chinese authorities for the origins of the virus.

December 31, 2019 was the date that Chinese Center for Disease Control scientists visited the Wuhan market, according to Beijing, where most early COVID-19 cases first surfaced. Yet WHO officials had knowledge of an inspection on December 25, 2019, reflected in a recording of a confidential WHO meeting. During the course of the AP investigation WHO stated it was "not aware" of  any December 25 investigation while other experts opined that any visit to the market on that day would be significant if animal samples were taken, viewed as crucial evidence of COVID-19's leap to infect humans.

Early in the emerging pandemic, yet confined to China, politicians took command to silence Chinese scientists. In early 2020, while the WHO negotiated for a mission to investigate COVID-19, China's Foreign Ministry decided the terms. A visa for Embarek, the WHO's leading virus expert was refused, and all items linked to an origins search were dropped from the itinerary. Liang Wannian, an epidemiologist with close links to elite Chinese officials was given charge of the WHO visit.

People interviewed but unnamed testified that the party line was dominant, science-backed policies taking a back seat, by political decree. Liang ordered that the Wuhan market was to be disinfected before the collection of samples proceeded, promoting at the same time the implausible theory that frozen food imported into China originated COVID-19. Liang lobbied WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to praise China's helpful and responsible response to the viral outbreak.

At the time the WHO led another visit in January 2021 to Wuhan, the hunt for an origin had been highly politicized, with Liang organizing Market workers to inform WHO experts that no live wildlife had been sold at the Wuhan Market, and simultaneously recent photographs of wildlife for sale at the Market were excised from the report. 

AP Photo/Ng Han Guan    Farewell event of medical workers who arrived from outside Wuhan to help the city during the coronavirus outbreak.

The Transgender Phenomenon Puzzle

"Peer influence during this stage of life is very powerful. As well as the influence of social media, the review has heard accounts of female students forming intense friendships with other gender-questioning or transgender students at school and then identifying as trans themselves."

"[In later childhood and into early puberty], online experience may have an effect on sense of self and expectations of puberty."

"[The challenges autistic children face, despite being articulate and intelligent] can sometimes  make it hard for these young people to express how they are feeling about their internal sensations, their gender identity and their sexual identity." 

"[Gen Zs and younger Millennials have different beliefs about the] fluidity and mutability of gender than older generations. Attitudes have changed at speed."

Cass Report, U.K. review of child and adolescent gender care

Trans, Gender Non-Conforming, Lesbian, Gay, Bi, and Two Spirit organizations and allies gathered at Washington Square Park for the 15th Annual Trans Day of Action on June 28, 2019.  Erik Mcgregor/LightRocket via Getty Images

The Report is neutral in the sense that it supports neither the current 'social contagion' debate, nor the insistence of trans-specific lobbyists that children's rising uncertainty about their birth gender designation must be respected and interpreted as a need for such children to be offered transition therapy. The recently published and disseminated Cass Report led by British pediatrician Hilary Cass simply presented its findings, most of which would displease those who accept at face value the blase attitudes of groups who unquestioningly accept the need to transition children to improve their health and future prospects.

The surge within today's society seeing gender-distressed children referred to gender clinics is alarming to many, all the more so that medical societies and specialists appear to have accepted the arguments of trans-supportive groups that it is wrong to question children, their motives and their wishes. The contentious impression that many young people identify as trans as a result of "social contagion" in peer groups and promoted through social media sites is infuriating to committed transgender support groups.

This Report of recent vintage concluded that the rapid increase in numbers of children committed to transitioning their gender identities and the acceptance of their choices cannot be attributed to peer pressure and social media influence alone, for the rapid increase or why gender dysphoria has become so strikingly common a presentation when predominately biological males transition to biological females, a phenomenon that "is unlike that in any prior historical period".

The Report researchers noted that gender-distressed minors and their parents discussed with them issues about online information that describes normal adolescent discomfort as a possible sign of being trans and that particular influencers have had a "substantial impact on their child's belief and understanding of their gender". The term "social contagion" is disliked within the trans community. "Simplistic explanations of either kind (all trans people are born that way/it's all social contagion) do not consider the wide range of factors that can lead young people to present with gender-related distress and undervalues their experiences."

On the other hand, "de-transitioners" have described on social media, in blogs and published studies, being influenced by Tumblr, YouTube videos and online communities into transitioning. Another argument is that no evidence exists to support "transness" can be socially contagious, or a TikTok video can "totally destabilize" the gender identity of a child. Unless, of course, it is the sheer volume of the push toward acceptance of transitioning coming from a myriad of sources, all of which young people pay heed to.

Neurodiversity represents conditions like autism spectrum disorder and ADHD, with studies suggesting trans and gender-diverse people are three to six times likelier to be autistic than cisgenders. According to a Canadian study of 174 youth aged 15 and under referred for puberty blockers to any one of ten gender clinics operating in Canada, 81 percent were born female. Two thirds of the referrals had at minimum one other comorbidity diagnosis beyond gender dysphoria, such as anxiety, depression, ADHD or autism.

There were reports from some parents of natal girls that "their children had been through a period of trans identification", later recognizing they were not trans after all, but same-sex-attracted females. Speaking at a focus group, a gender-diverse youth made the observation that "a lot of trans people make YouTube videos which I think is a (major) informational source for a lot of people". Biological factors have not changed in the last ten years yet the disproportionate number of birth-registered females now identifying as trans or gender-diverse presents as a puzzling social/biological phenomenon.

Transgender pride flag. Angela Weiss Getty Image

"[The Cass report didn't surprise] thoughtful professionals who provide this care. Since 2014, we've noticed this upward trend in overall referrals and from certain demographics, namely biological females and those who are neurodivergent."

"We have to avoid extremes -- 'all these youth are transgender and will continue to identify as another gender for the rest of their life', or 'it's all due to social influence'."

"[Many young people have benefited from social, medical or surgical transitioning, but an increasing number of others] have not only stopped their transition but have also regretted it as well."

"Many of these youth will say they have been harmed, [that social factors influenced their reasons for transitioning."

Dr. Joey Bonifacio, Toronto pediatrician, expert in gender medicine, specialist in adolescent medicine, St.Michael's Hospital

Moral/Immoral Business Disputes -- And Consequences -- Company Rules Rule

"These protests were part of a longstanding campaign by a group of organizations and people who largely don’t work at Google. A small number of employee protesters entered and disrupted a few of our locations."

"Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior. After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety.”

"[We carried out] individual investigations that resulted in the termination of employment for 28 employees, and will continue to investigate and take action as needed."

Google spokesperson

Image Credits: Justice Speaks

 

The tech company's cloud computing contract with the government of Israel is in deep disfavour with some among the legion of people that Google employs; so much so that some of these employees have been planning and staging vigorous protests in the name of (selective) human rights. Leading to the arrest of nine workers who held sit-ins at Google's offices in California and New York, protesting the $1.2 billion contract their employer signed with Israel for the provision of custom tools meant for the use of the Israel Defense Forces.

The additional fallout of the protest and those engaged in it, refusing to vacate their illegal occupation of their employer's worksites was the identification and work disengagement of 28 staffers. No Tech for Apartheid, the group behind the protests is adamant that Google's version of events does not reflect reality, in that they claim the company fired workers who did not directly engage with the protest which the company identifies as part of a long-standing campaign by groups and "people who largely don't work at Google".

Videos and photos were posted on social media by No Tech for Apartheid in which workers in Google offices were shown holding placards and sitting on the floor, chanting slogans. A letter-writing campaign was organized by the group which has staged protests against Google's agreement to provide technology to Israel, since 2021. The cloud-computing contract, referred to as 'Nimbus' evidently caused further tension among Google employees as well as at Amazon.

The situation of  worker-disagreement has risen substantially since the initiation in October of the Israel-Gaza conflict. Critics of the project claim the contract will have the effect of aiding the Israeli government's surveillance of Palestinians, leading to further displacement and discrimination. Evidently none among them appears concerned over the hideous rapes and mass murders inflicted on Israeli citizens by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the PLO and ordinary Palestinian civilians, which led to the conflict.

Locked out of their workplaces and devices Tuesday evening, learning of their termination through email that very morning, the 28 fired employees complain of having suffered shock and anger by the decision of the company. One of the fired employees who was involved in organizing the sit-in without direct participation made no secret of his impotent rage at the outcome of his free-agency-choice to oppose his employer's decision-making.

"I'm furious. This is a wildly disproportionate response to workers standing up for morality and for holding Google accountable for its own promises."

"Firing people associated with an event they don't like -- it's unbelievable."

Fired Google employee

 A banner hangs during the sit-in at Google’s New York office.

(No Tech for Apartheid)

Trust in the Veracity and Neutrality of the United Nations?

"It is important for that international body [United Nations] to ensure that in many of the key partners and its deliberations, particularly our neighbour to the south, it retains and fosters trust. Otherwise, its capacity to effect change will risk being affected."

"On [the left] end of the [political] spectrum, there seems to be more symmetry between having that positive view of the institution and that it's making a strong effort to achieve those goals."

"What was interesting about this [poll] outcome was the incongruence between positive opinion and trust."

"They're not as aligned or as symmetrical as they normally are in other types of research in this area."

Jack Jedwab, president of ACS (Association for Canadian Studies) and the Metropolis Institute 

The United Nations headquarters in New York. According to the poll, only 38 per cent of Canadians and 30 per cent of Americans trust the UN. Photo by Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images

 

A new Leger poll was recently released after it surveyed 1,590 Canadians and 1,005 Americans between the dates of February 23 and 26 through an online enquiry panel. According to the poll results, the majority of Canadians and Americans both, have no trust in the United Nations. The Leger survey conducted for the Association for Canadian Studies and the Metropolis Institute took place some four months following the attack by the terrorist Palestinian group Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023.

 

The performance of the United Nations and its member bodies since then, has been highly criticized for its response to the attack, as well as for the UN agency UNRWA's cited connections to the Hamas terrorists. The conclusion reached by the survey was that only 38 percent of Canadians and 30 percent of Americans trust the United Nations, an obvious minority in each of the countries. And, as Mr. Jedwab observed, the long-term impact of countries losing trust in the UN becomes seriously concerning in the current atmosphere of the Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine conflicts, among others.

 

Views in both the U.S. and Canada differ by political affiliation. 53.7 percent of left-identifying respondents and 23.5 percent of right-identifying respondents, with 41 percent of centre-identifying respondents in Canada had trust in the United Nations. For the United States it was 54 percent for left-identifying, 13.2 percent for right-identifying and 38.1 percent for centre-identifying expressing trust. 

Accordingly it seemed that the far sides of both the left and right political spectrums have a tendency to indicate the most correlation between a positive view of the UN and the belief that they're making a credible effort to "do the best they can".  Still, according to Mr. Jedwab, the results failed to show a relationship between positive feelings toward the UN and trust in it.

The poll took place following Israel's revelation and the presentation of evidence that a dozen employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) actively took part in the October 7 terrorist attacks in southern Israel where a murderous rampage of mass rape, and pride-filled videos taken by the terrorists as they marauded -- sweeping through farming villages, burning families alive in their homes, shooting at people in their cars, waiting at bus stops and finally hostage-taking of children, women and the elderly, leaving 1,200 civilians dead in their wake.

After several attempts to pass a resolution for a ceasefire were vetoed, the UN Security Council proceeded to pass a ceasefire resolution which the United States abstained from. Canadians and Americans were queried about how optimistic they are that peace between Israelis and Palestinians can eventually occur. Canadians were less optimistic (11 percent) than Americans (24 percent), with just under 12 percent of Canadians identifying as being on the left, optimistic compared to 7 percent of those on the right.

Mr. Jedwab felt that Americans could be influenced in their attitudes of how they view the possibility of peace between Israelis and Palestinians, believing their nation could have an impact on such global crises. The majority of both Canadians and Americans, nonetheless, are pessimistic about peace being eventually achievable.

The United Nations headquarters building, in New York City  (Daniel Slim/AFP).

The Merits of Minimum Exercising

"We wondered, if we chose a very low threshold of exercise what would we see?"

"It was surprising and encouraging [to see these effects, that a larger frontal parietal and occipital lobes resulted from exercising, signalling a healthy robust brain]."

"Exercise, in effect appears to aid in building and backing a] structural brain reserve [acting as a buffer of additional cells and matter with the potential to protect from inevitable decline in brain size and function that occurs with age]."

Cyrus A. Raji, associate professor of radiology and neurology, Washington University, St.Louis, Missouri

 

A mere 25 minutes weekly, which comes to four minutes daily has the potential to bulk up brains, improving the capacity to think as people become older. A new study found that those who walked, swam, cycled or otherwise worked out moderately for 25 minutes weekly had larger brains than those who did not, of any age. The equation of bigger brains is brains that are healthier. The study scientists scanned the brains of over ten thousand healthy men and women, aged 18 to 97.

"This is an exciting finding and gives us more fuel for the idea that being physically active can help maintain brain volume across the life span", enthused professor of biological sciences and anthropology at the University of Southern California, David Raichlen. Although he was not involved in the new study, he is involved in studies of brain health.

The researchers found that differences between the study subjects were most pronounced in areas of the brain identified with thinking and memory functions, both of which often tend to shrink with age, contributing to cognitive decline and dementia risks. Dr. Raji and his colleagues were aware that older people who remain physically active are much less likely than those who are sedentary to develop Alzheimer's disease, or other kinds of cognitive decline and memory loss.

 

With the understanding that most people as they age tend to avoid exercise, the thought occurred; would less -- significantly less even -- exercise still be involved in helping to build healthier brains? In most formal exercise guidelines 150 minutes weekly is recommended to achieve optimum mental and physical health. Would 25 minutes of weekly exercise a week help to do the same, even though it would represent a sixth of the exercise guidelines?

Silke Woweries/Getty Images

 

Seeking an answer to an intriguing and potentially very useful bit of knowledge, he and his colleagues studied brain scans for 10,125 mostly healthy adults of all age groups who had taken diagnostic tests at the university medical centre and had provided information relating to their medical histories; how often and how strenuously they had exercised in the past several weeks. For the study's purposes the patients' records were divided into those who had exercise for at least 25 minutes weekly, and those who had not.

Scans were then compared with the assistance of artificial intelligence, searching out differences in brain volume, or how much space a brain and its constituent parts take up, knowing that greater volume is desirable generally. Although the differences that were found weren't huge, according to Dr. Raji they had significance in the pattern that emerged where men and woman of any age who exercised for at least 25 minutes weekly had for the most part greater brain volume than those who did not.

In every type of brain tissue including grey matter made up of neurons and white matter, the researchers found that exercisers possessed greater volume throughout the brain's wiring infrastructure which supports and connects thinking cells. Exercisers tended to possess a larger hippocampus, that portion of the brain essential to memory and thinking, which usually shrinks with age, affecting the ability to reason and recall.

How it is that exercise might be altering brains is not addressed in the study, but given the number of scans studied along with the wide age range, Dr. Raji is of the firm opinion that the effects of exercise were real and direct. Those involved in the study believe exercise reduces inflammation in the brain, encouraging the release of neurochemicals promoting the creation of new brain cells and blood vessels.

Seniors exercise at the Kiwanis Seniors' Centre in London, Ont. (Celine Moreau / CTV London)

And So, Canada, Were You Invaded?

"Yemen, Yemen, make us proud! turn another ship around!"

"Gaza called, Yemen answered. All Israeli ships are cancelled." 

Canadian anti-Israel rallies

"Why is it always the non-Iranians who support the terrorist Islamic Regime in Iran?"

"As an Iranian-Canadian, it makes me sick to my stomach to see my fellow Canadians openly supporting a terrorist Islamofascist dictatorship that murders innocent Iranians."

"This is not the Canada my parents immigrated to in order to escape persecution by the terrorist Islamofascist Ayatollahs."

MPP Goldie Ghamari

Palestinians and supporters congregated at Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square two days after the October 7 massacre by Hamas in southern Israel. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

Cities in Canada saw wild scenes of open celebration even before news emerged of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Islamic Republican Guards Corp having launched a prolonged direct air attack on Israel. There is little doubt that many Iranians living in Tehran and detesting their ruling Ayatollahs viewed this event with sorrow. In Canada, the majority of the Iranian diaspora who arrived post-Iranian Revolution were anything but pleased. Which didn't stop the abundant presence of Palestinians, Syrians and other Middle East diaspora-Canadian-Arabs from jubilantly celebrating the event.

Keffiyeh-wearing demonstrators were seen in one circulated video cheering, banging drums, and sending up celebratory smoke bombs, while a speaker declared the wonderful news that "the Islamic Republic of Iran has just sent tens of drones toward Israel"; a 44-second video posted by Caryma Sa'd, Toronto lawyer who often documents such events taking place in Toronto. "Protesters react to breaking news of Iran launching drones at Israel in retaliatory attack for a strike which killed a top Iranian commander", he captioned.

 

 

This was April 14 when the IRGC air division launched over 300 drones and ballistic missiles into Israeli airspace. Israel and its regional and international supporters were prepared; forewarned of an imminent attack, they had their warjets on standby and reacted according to plan, knowing it would take up to seven hours for any of the missiles and 'suicide' drones to reach Israel. Israel, the United States, Britain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all had a hand in ensuring that none of the deadly projectiles reached their intended goal.

One can only imagine the dejection and disappointment of the celebrants of Iran's attack must have felt when it was announced by the Israel Defense Forces than the upshot of the Saturday/Sunday declaration of war turned out that 99 percent of the weapons were shot down. A 7-year-old Bedouin child in Israel was the sole unfortunate casualty when detritus from a destroyed missile fell on her family home, as was a lightly-impacted northern-Israel air base, which continued operations afterward.

 

People carry a Palestinian flag during a rally in front of City Hall in Toronto, October 9, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/Kyaw Soe Oo)

 

The Canadian celebrabrants were not to be put off by reality, continuing into Sunday. On the Instagram account of Ottawa4Palestine a speaker in Ottawa sang an improvised ditty to the tune of Yankee Doodle with the phrase: "leave Palestine alone and Jews go back to Europe". Another video of a Montreal rally featured demonstrators changing "put the bullet in the house of fire ... we are your men, Sinwar", referring to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a chief architect of October 7's bloodthirsty savagery in southern Israel.

An Iranian exile in Calgary -- Bahar Bahari, long a vocal critic of Iran's theocracy, and a frequent attendee at pro-Israel demonstrations had posted the Montreal video. The Jerusalem Post took note of the celebrations in Canada, publishing the headline "Toronto protesters cheer as Iran fires drones at Israel", even while Israeli counter-batteries just completed the last of the incoming missiles being shot down.

The burgeoning anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian movement has been defiantly open with their hate messages against Israel, their threats against Canadian Jews, and their masked presence, disrupting traffic, blocking bridges, issuing insults against Canadian police forces, harassing Jewish business owners and Synagogue congregants, although their actions and activities defy Canadian hate law. Issues of violence perpetrated on Jewish parochial schools, Jewish social centres and Synagogues remain unsolved.

Key organizers of the hate-fests against the Jewish state are well known for their activities, bordering on and often substantially illegal criminal acts; Toronto4Palestine, Samidoun and the Palestinian Youth Movement who organized joyful rallies within hours of the ghastly October 7 mass rapes and massacres. Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea have also been matters of organized celebrations thanks to these organizers, all of whom if the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau was the least bit interested in security and following their own laws against terrorism would join Canada's list of terror groups.

Two rallies were held in Halifax on Thanksgiving Monday — one in support of Israel, the other in support of the Palestinian territories. (Jeorge Sadi/CBC)

Everyone Love a Party, Though Some Execrate Them

"But if we think there are risks, depending on our analysis of the context, we have fallback scenarios. There are Plan Bs and Plan Cs."

"[Organizers could decide to shorten the itinerary of the parade on the Seine, and even to] repatriate the ceremony to the Stade de France".

"It's a world first. We can do it and we will do it."

"We want to work towards an Olympic truce and I think it is an occasion for me to engage with a lot of our partners."

French President Emmanuel Macron

President Macron visiting the Grand Palais, which will host some of the Games  Getty Images

France feels it is prepared to deal with the very real possibility of a terrorist attack during the Paris Olympics. It has, after all, experienced a number of such devastating attacks by Muslim terrorists in the past. The show must go on. In Munich, Germany, the host country of the 1972 Olympic Games, it was unlikely that their intelligence service picked up the potential for a terrorist attack; that Black September of the extreme branch of the extremist Islamist PLO would plan an attack leading to the deaths of 11 Israeli Olympians. A half-century has passed but not the danger inherent in the rank hatred of Islamists murderers wreaking mayhem and havoc.

 

The Israeli Olympic delegation parades during the opening of the Munich Olympic Games on Aug. 26, 1972. West German organizers wanted to give the Games a light atmosphere, trying to break from Germany's prior Olympics under the Nazis in 1936.  AFP via Getty Images

Of course it is not only Israel and Jews that excite the hatred and deathly malice of Islamists. Jews first, perhaps, but their focus also turns to the West, and any who spurn their version of Islam, including other Muslims. They reserve the right of their entitlement to martyrdom and the gift of the dead to Islam's rigorous calls to  jihad, their zeal in promoting the benefits of both earning them the loathing fear and terror of those unwilling to become another statistic in the volumes of their lethal exploits.

So, ahead of the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, France is of necessity on high security alert. Millions of visitors are expected to be drawn to Paris to glory in the international sportsmanship of competition, but not the gore of slaughter. The unique opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics sees the River Seine the locale of the opening ceremonies. As many as 600,000 spectators were originally envisioned to witness from the riverbanks the 10,500 athletes parading on boats along the Seine, the route to end in front of the Trocadero in the heart of Paris on July 26.

 

Still from video: paris-olympics-splashy-river-seine-curtain-raiser-faces-security-transport-challenges

 

This exceptional opening ceremony involving boats carrying athletes along the Seine on a six-kilometre parade with a huge crowd watching from the embankments has understandably excited security concerns to a  high pitch. France's president has addressed the issue, assuring both his citizens and the world community that law enforcement forces in France will be mobilized to ensure security of the opening event, at a level of alert exceptionality set to match the level of the event itself.

The organizers' ambitious original plans -- in the interests of logistical concerns linked to security -- have been reluctantly and progressively scaled back. Overall number of spectators reduced to 300,000. Despite which, President Macron insists that plans for the opening ceremony remain the same, at least for the present. Repeatedly struck by deadly Islamic State attacks, the most deadly of which was the Bataclan theatre massacre of 2015 when terrorists opened fire on concertgoers, holding some as hostages for hours, is never far from the mind of authorities determined to protect from another like it.

Countdown clock reading 100 days before the Olympics opening in Paris. AP Photo