Mali Seizes 3 Tons Of Gold From Canadian Company Barrick Amid Dispute Over Share Of Revenue

Barrick Gold Corporation President and CEO Mark Bristow visits the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange after ringing the opening bell, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

BY WILSON MCMAKIN AND BABA AHMED

DAKAR, SENEGAL (AP) — Mali’s military government has started seizing gold stocks of the Canadian mining company Barrick as part of a legal battle over the share of revenue owed to the West African state, according to an internal Barrick letter seen by The Associated Press.

The letter from CEO Mark Bristow to the Malian Mining Minister, dated Monday, says Barrick is “awaiting official confirmation of the proper receipt by the Malian Solidarity Bank,” a government entity.

The seizure follows a warning letter to Barrick earlier this month from Mali’s senior investigating judge, Boubacar Moussa Diarra, saying three tons of gold would be seized.

On Monday, a senior Barrick manager confirmed that three tons had been seized by the military government and placed in the capital, Bamako. The manager spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

According to the senior manager, the gold was taken from a mine near Kayes in the west and transported by plane and truck to the capital late Saturday.

The Malian authorities did not immediately respond for comment.

Valued at around $180 million, the gold seizure is part of the dispute over revenues owed to the state.

In December, Mali issued an arrest warrant for Bristow for charges of money laundering, without giving evidence, and ordered the seizure of Barrick’s gold reserves. The company has offered to pay $370 million.

Mali’s military government previously arrested four senior executives of the Canadian mining company as part of the dispute. They are still being held.

Mali is one of Africa’s leading gold producers, but it has struggled for years with jihadi violence and high levels of poverty and hunger. The military seized power in 2020, and the government has placed foreign mining companies under growing pressure as it seeks to shore up revenues.

In November, the CEO of Australian company Resolute Mining and two employees were arrested in Bamako. They were released after the company paid $80 million to Malian authorities to resolve a tax dispute and promised to pay a further $80 million in the coming months.

Ahmed reported from Bamako, Mali.

Canada Announces Public Inquiry Into Whether China, Russia And Others Interfered In Elections

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc speaks at a news conference on the appointment of Quebec Court of Appeal Judge Marie-Josee Hogue for the inquiry into foreign interference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)

TORONTO (AP) — Canada announced Wednesday that a judge would lead a public inquiry into whether China, Russia and other countries interfered in Canadian federal elections in 2019 and 2021 that re-elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.

Opposition Conservative lawmakers have demanded a full public inquiry into alleged Chinese interference since reports surfaced earlier this year citing intelligence sources saying China worked to support the Liberals and to defeat Conservative politicians considered unfriendly to Beijing.

The opposition New Democrat party later pushed to expand any inquiry to include Russia, Iran and India.

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Thursday that Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Marie-Josée Hogue would lead the broad-ranging inquiry and that her appointment had the support of opposition parties.

“Foreign interference in Canadian democratic institutions is unacceptable,” LeBlanc said. “China is not the only foreign actor that seeks to undermine democratic institutions in Canada or other Western democracies. This challenge is not unique to Canada.”



A Trudeau appointee earlier this year had rejected holding a public inquiry into the leaked intelligence on alleged China interference, drawing allegations of a cover-up from the Conservative opposition. That appointee, former Governor General David Johnston, stepped down from his role in June, citing the highly partisan atmosphere around his work.

The government then indicated it was open to calling a possible public inquiry, and invited all parties into talks over the summer on the shape of such an inquiry.

LeBlanc, who is also the minister for democratic institutions, said the inquiry will study allegations related to China, Russia, Iran and India linked to the 2019 and 2021 federal elections and report by the end of next year. He said the inquiry will also examine the flow of foreign-interference assessments to senior government decision makers.

Earlier this year, Canada expelled a Chinese diplomat whom Canada’s spy agency alleged was involved in a plot to intimidate an opposition Conservative lawmaker and his relatives in Hong Kong after the Conservative lawmaker criticized Beijing’s human rights record. China then announced the expulsion of a Canadian diplomat in retaliation this month.

China regularly uses threats against family members to intimidate critics in the Chinese diaspora.

China-Canada relations nosedived in 2018 after China detained former diplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor, shortly after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of telecoms giant Huawei and the daughter of the company’s founder, at the behest of U.S. authorities who accused her of fraud.

How An African Collection Of Art In Canada Is Celebrated With Care And Community

BY QUANITA LILLA, 

ASSOCIATE CURATOR ARTS OF AFRICA, 

AGNES ETHERINGTON ART CEDNTER, 

QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY, ONTARIO, CANADA

A significant collection of traditional African art has had a home in Canada for almost a hundred years.

At Agnes Etherington Art Centre, we are working on new, more hospitable practices of care for this collection. This means that we are attentive to the unmet needs of the collection and are taking responsibility for responding to these in ways that encourages community access and inclusion.

We are located at Queen’s University, in Kingston, Ont., on the territories of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee and Huron-Wendat, in a city where over 7,000 people identify as First Nations, Inuit or Métis.

The African art collection, named after donors Justin and Elisabeth Lang, consists of approximately 600 three-dimensional pieces that originate from 19 West African countries.

This collection is part of a cluster of similar collections in North America that made their way via European art markets. In 1938, Elisabeth Lang (nee Von Taussig), fleeing from Nazi-occupied Vienna, started the collection with a Baule figure from Ivory Coast that she purchased in an Amsterdam junk shop.

European market in African art

The European market in African art had boomed in the 1920s and 1930s. European enthusiasm for African art was partly due to its influence on modernist artists, such as Picasso, Cézanne and Gauguin.

From the early 1900s, cultural belongings from West Africa were placed on the art market directly from European, mainly French, colonies. Buyers and sellers were colonial officials, missionaries or in the military. This commercial network remained intact as the appreciation of African art shifted dramatically from an ethnographic bias where African objects were studied as materials of a specific people, to becoming African “art” for aesthetic contemplation.

Both these frameworks for studying African material had a colonial bias. As scientific specimens, objects from Africa were often used as evidence of racial and cultural difference. The term “primitive” art demonstrates this racism.

As art, these objects were used to qualify Africa as mysterious and incomprehensible to the western mind. The establishment of an African art market therefore had direct ties to European colonial projects and imperial commercial networks that reinforced colonial violences.

At least four lives of the collection

The Lang family donated the collection to Agnes in 1984. At the time, it was the largest collection of African art at a Canadian university. As a body, the collection has had at least four lives: one within Africa as an active part of everyday life, another in Europe as part of a thriving art market, in Canada as a private art collection and now as a museum holding on a university campus.

But our records of these lives are sparse. We know very little about the contexts in which the individual pieces were produced, bought and sold in Africa, from as far south as Angola to as far north as Mauritania.

Instead, museum records and databases focus on other things: place of origin, material make up and physical size. These kinds of records were made for institutions, not communities.

‘You are holding communities’

Decolonising Cultural Spaces: The Living Cultures Project, is an initiative with a short film at its heart about uniting Indigenous communities across borders, to celebrate and protect their cultures.

In this film, Samwel Nangiria, Maasai community leader, notes:

“You are not holding artifacts, you are holding communities … museums need to be a place of people, not a place of artifacts. When we see these objects we see our parents, we see our ancestors.”

As curator of the Lang collection, I am rethinking its future role. How do we adjust our practices to respond to a colonial past and to the gaps in our understanding? Considering voices like Nangiria’s in restitution debates, I believe that while the collection resides with us, we have the responsibility to respond to new questions:

What does it mean to think of the collection as living, and of needing to be in relation to communities?

How does a museum meet these evolving needs, and practise better care?

How do we respond to a complex history proactively, highlight absences and enable alternatives?

New curatorial approaches

Agnes’s 2022 exhibition With Opened Mouths drew on sculptural elements from contemporary art and incorporated the work of Nigerian Canadian artist Oluseye Ogunlesi.

This exhibition was conceived under pandemic lockdown in Cape Town. I was confronting isolation, impending economic migration to Canada and the start of curatorial work at Agnes and Queen’s University. I felt compelled to find new ways to enliven a collection that inhabited an awkward silence in the museum.

Then the dance craze, “Jerusamela,” by Master KG and Nomcebo, became a global phenomenon. Mobilizing the world, it presented another view of Africa: action, aliveness and contemporaneity.

‘With Opened Mouths’

For the Agnes exhibit With Opened Mouths, we discarded the glass display cases often used in museums and instead used labelling that echoed contemporary African signage. To open spaces outside the museum, a podcast ran alongside the exhibition, and currently continues into a second season. With Opened Mouths: The Podcast is a digital safe space where I interview racialized creatives to discuss their practice.

The podcast not only reflects on the journeys of artists but also the crucial value of artistic communities.

Moving out of the vault

On July 15, the Lang Collection makes its next journey. The collection will move to a temporary home on campus in preparation for renovations at Agnes. These renovations are not only about expanding Agnes’s space, but also about decolonizing Agnes’s curatorial practices.

The move of the African collection out of the vault is momentous. Although portions of the collection have been on display before, this is the first time the entire collection has been brought above ground to once again be part of the living world.

To honour the liveliness of beings and history both seen and unseen, on July 15 we are holding a ceremonial procession, Vulindlela! Out the Gates, named after South African music icon Brenda Fassie’s post-apartheid hit music single.

Celebration of presence, welcome, care

Agnes staff and community members will celebrate with music, poetry and dance, and we will launch the poetry bundle eleven metal tongues written by award-winning poet Otoniya J. Okot Bitek. The project emerged after Bitek’s first visit to the vaults.

Bitek’s poetry evokes a deep sense of being in the collection’s presence, of the uneasy fit of written descriptions in collection databases with the quivering reality before us, the inadequacies of language and suppressed stories. Vulindlela! will be a moment of hope, welcome and care. It marks a renewed commitment to reconsider the living significance of these belongings.

In essence, these curatorial practices seek to acknowledge the African communities and artists who have, unknowingly, built up the collection at Agnes.

The hearts, hands and minds of those who remain unnamed need their labour celebrated, and their voices heard.

Why Canada Banned Nigerians, Other Foreigners From Buying Estate Property

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

BY BIODUN BUSARI

Canadian government has banned non-Canadians from buying homes in the country following surged prices in the real estate market.

The North American country passed the law after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic but it took effect from Sunday, January 1, 2023.

Canada took this decision that will last only two years when some politicians believed that buyers were behind the skyrocketed prices jerking up the supply of homes as investments.

According to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party last year, the desirability of Canadian homes is attracting profiteers, wealthy corporations, and foreign investors.

In late December, Ottawa also explained that the prohibition would apply only to city dwellings and not to recreational properties such as summer cottages.

This temporary two-year measure was proposed by Trudeau during the 2021 election campaign when soaring prices put home ownership beyond the reach of many Canadians.

According to the campaign site, “This is leading to a real problem of underused and vacant housing, rampant speculation, and skyrocketing prices. Homes are for people, not investors.”

Following their 2021 election victory, the Liberals quietly introduced the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act.

Major markets such as Vancouver and Toronto have also introduced taxes on non-residents and empty homes, as per Associated Press report.

However, in the law, an exception has been made for the immigrants and permanent residents of Canada who are not citizens, as per reports from the country.

--------------VANGUARD

Historic biodiversity agreement reached at UN conference

Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the Conference of Biological Diversity, left to right, Huang Runqiu President of the COP 15 and Minister of Ecology and Environment of China listens as Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada, speaks during a press conference at the COP 15 summit on biodiversity, in Montreal, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022. (Peter McCabe /The Canadian Press via AP)

BY MICHAEL CASEY

MONTREAL (AP) — Negotiators reached a historic deal at a U.N. biodiversity conference early Monday that would represent the most significant effort to protect the world’s lands and oceans and provide critical financing to save biodiversity in the developing world.

The global framework comes on the day the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, or COP15, is set to end in Montreal. China, which holds the presidency at this conference, released a new draft on Sunday that gave the sometimes contentious talks much-needed momentum.

“We have in our hands a package which I think can guide us as we all work together to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and put biodiversity on the path to recovery for the benefit of all people in the world,” Chinese Environment Minister Huang Runqiu told delegates before the package was adopted to rapturous applause just before dawn. “We can be truly proud.”

The most significant part of the agreement is a commitment to protect 30% of land and water considered important for biodiversity by 2030, known as 30 by 30. Currently, 17% of terrestrial and 10% of marine areas are protected.

The deal also calls for raising $200 billion by 2030 for biodiversity from a range of sources and working to phase out or reform subsidies that could provide another $500 billion for nature. As part of the financing package, the framework asks for increasing to at least $20 billion annually by 2025 the money that goes to poor countries. That number would increase to $30 billion each year by 2030.

Financing emerged late in the talks and risked derailing an agreement. Several African countries held up the final deal for almost nine hours. They wanted the creation of a new fund for biodiversity but agreed to the creation of one under the pre-existing Global Environmental Facility.

“Creating a fund under the GEF is the best way to obtain something immediate and efficient,” said Christophe Béchu, France’s minister for ecological transition who headed its delegation, adding that a completely new fund would have taken several years to establish and deprived developing countries of immediate cash for biodiversity.

Then as the agreement was about to be adopted, Congo stood up and said it opposed the deal because it didn’t set up that special biodiversity fund to provide developing countries with $100 billion by 2030.

Huang swept aside the opposition and the documents that make up the framework were adopted. The convention’s legal expert ruled Congo never formally objected to the document. Several other African countries, including Cameroon and Uganda, sided to no avail with Congo and said they would lodge a complaint.

“Many of us wanted more things in the text and more ambition but we got an ambitious package,” Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault said. “We have 30 by 30. Six months ago, who would have thought we could 30 by 30 in Montreal? We have an agreement to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, to work on restoration, to reduce the use of pesticides. This is tremendous progress.”

France’s Béchu called it a “historical deal.”

“It’s not a small deal. It’s a deal with very precise and quantified objectives on pesticides, on reduction of loss of species, on eliminating bad subsidies,” he said. “We double until 2025 and triple 2030 the finance for biodiversity.”

The ministers and government officials from about 190 countries have mostly agreed that protecting biodiversity has to be a priority, with many comparing those efforts to climate talks that wrapped up last month in Egypt.

Climate change coupled with habitat loss, pollution and development have hammered the world’s biodiversity, with one estimate in 2019 warning that a million plant and animal species face extinction within decades — a rate of loss 1,000 times greater than expected. Humans use about 50,000 wild species routinely, and 1 out of 5 people of the world’s 8 billion population depend on those species for food and income, the report said.

But they struggled for nearly two weeks to agree on what that protection looks like and who will pay for it.

The financing has been among the most contentious issues, with delegates from 70 African, South American and Asian countries walking out of negotiations Wednesday. They returned several hours later.

Brazil, speaking for developing countries during the week, said in a statement that a new funding mechanism dedicated to biodiversity should be established and that developed countries provide $100 billion annually in financial grants to emerging economies until 2030.

“All the elements are in there for a balance of unhappiness which is the secret to achieving agreement in U.N. bodies,” Pierre du Plessis, a negotiator from Namibia who is helping coordinate the African group, told The Associated Press before the vote. “Everyone got a bit of what they wanted, not necessarily everything they wanted.”

There were supporters of the framework who said it fell short in several areas.

The Wildlife Conservation Society and other environmental groups were concerned that the deal puts off until 2050 a goal of preventing the extinction of species, preserving the integrity of ecosystems and maintaining the genetic diversity within populations. They fear that timeline is not ambitions enough.

Some advocates also wanted tougher language around subsidies that make food and fuel so cheap in many parts of the world. The document only calls for identifying subsidies by 2025 that can be reformed or phased out and working to reduce them by 2030.

“The new text is a mixed bag,” Andrew Deutz, director of global policy, institutions and conservation finance for The Nature Conservancy, said. “It contains some strong signals on finance and biodiversity but it fails to advance beyond the targets of 10 years ago in terms of addressing drivers of biodiversity loss in productive sectors like agriculture, fisheries, and infrastructure and thus still risks being fully transformational.”

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Masai Ujiri And Pascal Siakam Are Taking Giants Of Africa To New Heights

Masai Ujiri via Toronto Star

BY GILBERT NGABO

TORONTO, CANADA (TORONTO STAR) -- Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri became a little emotional while recounting an incident from his childhood, in which his mother questioned the overuse of his shoes and wondered whether sports was ever going to feed him.

“It’s feeding a whole

lot of people now,” said Ujiri on Monday while addressing the audience at the United Nations’ Unstoppable Africa Conference.

Ujiri was leading the discussions about moving sports forward. He and Raptors star Pascal Siakam were among high-profile panellists who reiterated a commitment to grow the game of basketball and sports in general on the African continent.

“Sports is here to stay and we are the definition of unstoppable,” said Ujiri. “We should no longer see sports as a recreation alone. Sports is a business. It creates incredible opportunity for all of us.”

Giants of Africa, which Ujiri co-founded in 2003, has for years helped several high-level basketball talents from Africa to reach the NBA. Now the program wants to ensure sports can benefit Africa as a whole through job creation, youth and women empowerment and a pathway to sustainable peace and prosperity.

Ujiri was instrumental in the creation and launch of Basketball Africa League, which held its inaugural tournament in 2021 in Kigali, Rwanda. The league consists of 12 teams representing their respective countries, competing in two conferences with the four best teams in each conference qualifying for the post-season.

Across the continent, Ujiri and Giants of Africa have been working to increase access to the game of basketball, building courts in different countries and holding summer camps to encourage young people to get into organized sports.

Ujiri takes pride in acknowledging the fact that NBA stars like Siakam, Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo have African heritage. He has no doubt the continent can produce even more such big names and showcase them on the global stage.

“I can tell you this: there’s a thousand of each one of them walking around the continent,” he told the audience.

BAL president Amadou Fall said his league is taking all the steps necessary to bring the fundamentals of the game to the youth of Africa on a larger scale. As the tournament grows both in size and popularity, so will financial opportunities associated with it.

“Africa needs to cease being an exporter of talent,” he said. “We want to create an entertainment platform right here on the continent.”

Few people know about the importance of growing the sport of basketball on African continent more than Siakam, who came to the NBA after participating in the Basketball Without Borders camps that were hosted by former NBA player Luc Mbah a Moute.

The Raptors power forward has started hosting his own summer camps through his PS43 Foundation, with the goal of introducing basketball skills to kids while they are still young.

“I started playing basketball when I was like 17, which is super crazy,” Siakam told the audience Monday. As “a scrawny kid from Cameroon” it was motivating for him to see other Africans succeeding in the NBA, and now he wants to pay it forward.

“I hope I’m part of these people who inspire other young Africans to dream big,” he said, noting he wants to contribute in building schools and community centres for kids in Africa. “Education is the most important thing. My dad believed in it and so do I.”

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the work being done by Giants of Africa goes beyond building infrastructure and discovering high-level talents to join professional sports. He praised the program for teaching kids moral values, life skills and how to be productive in society.

“I would include myself as one of those people,” he said, noting he never had a chance to play professionally but playing sports taught him how to be disciplined and work hard.

He said the NBA is now at a level where about 10 per cent of current players were born in Africa, which gives other children from Africa something to aspire to.

Speaking at a panel that included Patrice Motsepe, president of the Confederation of African Football, Silver said both sports can coexist and advance the industry collectively.

“We’re not Coke and Pepsi,” he said. “Whether you shoot it or kick it, we can work hand in hand.”

Canadian Police Arrest 2nd Suspect In Stabbing Rampage

FILE - This combination of images shown during a press conference at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police "F" Division headquarters in Regina, Saskatchewan, on Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022, shows Damien Sanderson, left, and his brother Myles Sanderson. Canadian police said Monday, Sept. 5 Damien Sanderson, one of the suspects in the killing of multiple people in a series of stabbings has been found dead, and his injuries are not self inflicted. They said his brother, also a suspect, may be injured and remains on the run. (Royal Canadian Mounted Police via AP, File)

BY ROB GILLIES AND ROBERT BUMSTED

JAMES SMITH CREE NATION, SASKATCHEWAN (AP) — Canadian police arrested the second suspect Wednesday in the stabbing deaths of 10 people in Saskatchewan after a three-day manhunt that also yielded the body of his brother.

Myles Sanderson, 32, was found near the town of Rosthern, after officers responded to a report of a stolen vehicle being driven by a man armed with a knife, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

An official familiar with the matter said officers rammed Sanderson’s vehicle and he surrendered. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as the person was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

Video and photos from the scene showed a white SUV off to the side of the road with police cars all around.

Some family members of the victims arrived at the scene and thanked police, including Brian Burns, whose wife and son were killed.

“Now we can start to heal. The healing begins today, now,” he said.

Another of Burns’ sons was wounded and “hopefully can sleep at night now knowing he’s behind bars,” Burns said.

The fugitive’s brother and fellow suspect, 30-year-old Damien Sanderson, was found dead Monday near the stabbing sites. Police are investigating whether Myles Sanderson killed his brother.

The stabbing rampage raised questions of why Myles Sanderson — an ex-con with 59 convictions and a long history of shocking violence — was out on the streets in the first place.

He was released by a parole board in February while serving a sentence of over four years on charges that included assault and robbery. But he had been wanted by police since May, apparently for violating the terms of his release, though the details were not immediately clear.

His long and lurid rap sheet also showed that seven years ago, he attacked and stabbed one of the victims killed in the weekend rampage, according to court records.

Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said there will be an investigation into the parole board’s assessment of Sanderson.

“I want to know the reasons behind the decision” to release him, Mendicino said. “I’m extremely concerned with what occurred here. A community has been left reeling.”

Investigators have not given a motive for the bloodshed.

The Saskatchewan Coroner’s Service said nine of those killed were from the James Smith Cree Nation: Thomas Burns, 23; Carol Burns, 46; Gregory Burns, 28; Lydia Gloria Burns, 61; Bonnie Burns, 48; Earl Burns, 66; Lana Head, 49; Christian Head, 54; and Robert Sanderson, 49, One was from Weldon, 78-year-old Wesley Patterson.

Authorities would not say how the victims might be related.

Mark Arcand said his half sister Bonnie and her son Gregory were killed.

“Her son was lying there already deceased. My sister went out and tried to help her son, and she was stabbed two times, and she died right beside him,” he said. “Right outside of her home she was killed by senseless acts. She was protecting her son. She was protecting three little boys. This is why she is a hero.”

Arcand rushed to the reserve the morning of the rampage. After that, he said, “I woke up in the middle of the night just screaming and yelling. What I saw that day I can’t get out of my head.”

As for what set off the violence, Arcand said: “We’re all looking for those same answers. We don’t know what happened. Maybe we’ll never know. That’s the hardest part of this.”

Court documents said Sanderson attacked his in-laws Earl Burns and Joyce Burns in 2015, knifing Earl Jones repeatedly and wounding Joyce Burns. He later pleaded guilty to assault and threatening Earl Burns’ life.

Many of Sanderson’s crimes were committed when he was intoxicated, according to court records. He told parole officials at one point that substance use made him out of his mind. Records showed he repeatedly violated court orders barring him from drinking or using drugs.

Canada’s Indigenous communities are plagued by drugs and alcohol.

“The drug problem and the alcohol problem on these reserves is way out of hand,” said Ivor Wayne Burns, whose sister was killed in the weekend attacks. “We have dead people, and we asked before for something to be done.”

Myles Sanderson’s childhood was marked by violence, neglect and substance abuse, court records show. Sanderson, who is Indigenous and was raised on the Cree reserve, population 1,900, started drinking and smoking marijuana at around 12, and cocaine followed soon after.

In 2017, he barged into his ex-girlfriend’s home, punched a hole in the door of a bathroom while his two children were hiding in a bathtub and threw a cement block at a vehicle parked outside, according to parole documents.

He got into a fight a few days later at a store, threatening to kill an employee and burn down his parents’ home, documents said.

That November he threatened an accomplice into robbing a fast-food restaurant by clubbing him with a gun and stomping on his head. He then stood watch during the holdup.

In 2018, he stabbed two men with a fork while drinking and beat someone unconscious.

When he was released in February, the parole board set conditions on his contact with his partner and children and also said he should not enter into relationships with women without written permission from his parole officer.

In granting Sanderson “statutory release,” parole authorities said: “It is the Board’s opinion that you will not present an undue risk to society.”

Canadian law grants prisoners statutory release after they serve two-thirds of their sentence. But the parole board can impose conditions on that freedom, and inmates who violate them — as Sanderson did more than once — can be ordered back to prison.

Sharna Sugarman, who was organizing a GoFundMe for the victims, questioned the parole board for releasing him and wondered why Sanderson was still on the loose so many months after he was deemed “unlawfully at large.”

“That’s just egregious to me,” said Sugarman, a counselor who counted one of the stabbing victims as a client. “If they claim that they’ve been looking for him, well, you weren’t looking that hard.”

___

Associated Press Writer Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City contributed to this report.

University Of Toronto Makes History With Launch Of New Degree In Black Health

 

Roberta Timothy, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Image: Toronto Star

BY OLIVIA BOWDEN

U of T is starting a Master of Public Health in Black Health to specifically train students entering health-care fields on how to improve the system and provide better care.

Racism has harmed the health of Black people for generations, and its impact on Canada’s health-care system has often led to worse outcomes.

That’s why the University of Toronto is launching a Master of Public Health in Black Health to specifically train students entering health-care fields on how to improve the system and provide better care, said Roberta Timothy, an assistant professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at U of T.

“This is something that’s not only life-changing, but really critical for our community to have, to work differently with Black folks and really address not only anti-Black racism, but wellness and healing in our communities,” she said.

Black communities deserve health care that accounts for their diverse identities, incorporates cultural knowledge and practices, works to dismantle anti-Black racism and ultimately cares for their well-being, said Timothy, who created the program and is the Black health lead at the school.

And since the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected racialized people, it’s clear that inequities in health care that Black communities have faced for many decades must be confronted by the health system, as those communities require continued investment and improved care to combat historical anti-Black racism perpetuates harm, she said.

The two-year program will welcome its first cohort of 10 students in the fall of 2023. Timothy submitted a proposal to the university at the end of 2021 after consulting communities.

Some of the core competencies of the program include students developing understandings of the social and historical contexts that have led to a health crisis in the Black community that stems from anti-Black racism.

For many years, Black communities have been outspoken about mistreatment in the health system, including not being believed about their pain or feeling that they were left to die.

A 2021 article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal calls on medicine as a field to tackle anti-Black racism, including stereotyping from health providers and the lack of Black physicians.

Students will also learn about how institutional public health practices can perpetuate anti-Black racism and why those practices needed to be dismantled. As well, they will learn about African Indigenous health-care methods and how to incorporate them.

“We’re going to be addressing African Black epistemologies, so ways of knowing and doing,” she said. “It’s an important piece to show there are Black folks who bring knowledge to health, and particularly public health.

“We’re going to be using scholars who have done the work in the community and outside of the community, using an African-centred lens,” she said. For instance, examples that could be discussed is why there is mistrust of the health-care system and sometimes vaccines, due to discrimination and being mistreated by public health, she said.

There is a significant history of Black people being exploited and abused within medical studies, including a U.S. study from the 1930s that specifically withheld widely available lifesaving syphilis treatment from Black men without their knowledge, leaving them to suffer.

“And then there’s a whole history of what African folks have done to support public health,” said Timothy.

Scientific concepts like inoculation have their origins in West Africa, Dr. Akwatu Khenti, a scientist at CAMH and an assistant professor with the Dalla Lana School, told the Star in February. But they weren’t given credit.

Timothy hopes that the creation of the program, which she said is the first in the world, will influence other schools to do the same.

She is also optimistic that funding will be gained to incorporate the concepts from the Master of Public Health in Black Health into other health-related degrees, including offering more classes and workshops in the future.

“One program cannot sustain the histories and current experiences of anti-Black racism and colonization and the impact on our health,” she said. “We need to train generations of practitioners.”

READ ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE

They’ve lost 14 years as they’ve fought to be together in Canada — anguish compounded by the deaths of two infant sons in West Africa

 THE TORONTO STAR

They’ve lost 14 years as they’ve fought to be together in Canada — anguish compounded by the deaths of two infant sons in West Africa.....

Togolese-Canadian Bernadin Kossi Ben Djikounou has been trying to reunite with his wife, but they’ve been stymied by a sluggish immigration bureaucracy that a judge found misled them.

.............................READ MORE

CANADA: Is There A Doctor In The House? Siblings Choose Careers As Surgeons, Land At Southlake

F(L-R)
From left, Dr. Oluwafemi Ayeni and his children, Dr. Buki Ayeni, Dr. Omodele Ayeni and Dr. Bimpe Ayeni.Supplied photo/Southlake Regional Health Centre Foundation

BY MICHELE WEISZ

ONTARIO, CANADA (BARRIE TODAY) - If you're a patient at Newmarket's Southlake Regional Health Centre and you ask to speak with Dr. Ayeni, the response might be "which one?"

That's because on any given day, there may be three Dr. Ayenis to choose from and all three are plastic surgeons.

Of five Ayeni siblings, four are surgeons and three practise at the York Region hospital. The fourth is academic head of orthopedic surgery at McMaster University in Hamilton.

Bimpe Ayeni, head of plastic surgery at Southlake, is the middle child and the first to practise at Southlake. When she arrived in 2011, the position was meant to be temporary to cover for someone on leave, but she never left.

Younger brothers Omodele and Buki eventually followed Ayeni to Southlake.

"One by one, we all just kind of found Southlake and loved it," she says.

Prior to the pandemic, before he retired, Femi, the patriarch of the family, assisted his kids during surgery. (For those keeping count, that's four Dr. Ayenis at Southlake.)

"They have met so many people who still remember them and I think that speaks to who they are as people and the impression that they leave... they're just really lovely people," says Claire Jones, manager of marketing and communications for Southlake Regional Health Centre Foundation.

Ayeni said her parents never pushed their kids to follow in their dad's footsteps and pursue careers in medicine. Education was non-negotiable, she says, but the only rule was that each child obtain at least one degree.

"No matter what you do, you just really have to work hard at whatever it is you're interested in," she says. "It's just funny that one by one we picked medicine."

The Ayenis arrived to Montreal from Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria in 1973 so Femi could study medicine at McGill University.

According to Ayeni, as a university-level teacher of linguistics and French, her mother, Titi, thought being in the French-speaking province was a "wonderful" opportunity.

After completing his studies, the family returned to Nigeria. Femi helped create a medical school and Titi taught, but after seven years, due to instability in the West African nation, the Ayenis decide to return to Canada, settling in Kapuskasing, Ont.

Montreal-born Bimpe was just a year old when the family left Canada, so the move back was a difficult adjustment on many levels, she says, because the northern Ontario town was the polar opposite of the big city she was used to — "Plus 40 C, minus 40 C; sun, snow; big city, small town."

And then came winter.

"We were like, 'Whoa, this stuff doesn't stop coming down'."

Though the family were the only West Africans in town, the residents of Kapaskasing could not have been nicer, Ayeni says, and they went out of their way to welcome the family and make their transition as seamless as possible.

"The folks in Kap were wonderful because they knew it was all new to us... they just were so accommodating because they knew everything was being seen for the first time. So that was wonderful."

Ayeni remembers the respect and admiration given to her dad as the only surgeon in town and the "important community role" he had.

"We thought 'we could have a job where we have this level of satisfaction that everybody seems so appreciative? That sounds pretty amazing, to have an opportunity to have a positive impact and influence on people's lives.'"

Those memories of a childhood spent in a small community left an indelible mark on Ayeni. Having trained in major cities like New York and Boston, it was shadowing her dad during his practice that she loved the most.

"There's something special about small communities... something in the back of my mind always liked the idea of having a community-based practice and when that opportunity came up, I jumped at it," she says of the position at Southlake.

Ayeni says it's unusual that most of her siblings chose to pursue medicine because they all have such different personalities and interests, but they all get along and she loves working "just down the hall" from her two brothers.

Growing up, whenever the siblings would fight, Titi would say, 'You know, you guys, all you have is each other and one day you're going to look back and miss the time you spent together.' Now I look back and think 'yup, she was right'."

Their shared experiences growing up helped all the siblings appreciate one another and think of themselves as a team and while she may be the middle child in the family, at Southlake she is the eldest — a fact she doesn't allow her younger brothers to forget.

"I'll remind them every so often, 'Hey I'm the oldest one here, which makes me the boss'."

Rights Group: Canada Blocking Return Of Citizens From Syria

FILE - Kimberly Gwen Polman, a Canadian national, poses for a portrait at camp Roj in Syria, April 3, 2019. Canadian authorities are preventing Polman and a child under age 12, who is not related to Polman, who are detained in a camp in Syria from returning home for life-saving medical treatment, contradicting policies that allow such repatriations, Human Rights Watch, a prominent rights group said Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)

BY ZEINA KARAM

BEIRUT (AP) — Canadian authorities are preventing a Canadian woman and a child detained in a camp in Syria from returning home to get life-saving medical treatment, contradicting policies that allow such repatriations, a prominent rights group said Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch identified the two “gravely ill” Canadians as Kimberly Polman, 49, and a child under age 12. It withheld further details about the child, who is not related to Polman, including the name and medical condition, to protect their privacy.

There are nearly 50 Canadian nationals stuck in camps in northeastern Syria. Some of them have been held since even before the Islamic State group lost the last sliver of land in its self-declared caliphate in March 2019. More than half of the Canadians are children, most under age 7, HRW said.

They are among tens of thousands of women and children from about 60 countries being held by U.S.-backed Kurdish-led fighters in the camps. Many of them are wives, widows and children of IS fighters,

A few countries have agreed to repatriate their citizens but many others, including Canada, have refused to do so.

The Associated Press met with Polman earlier this month at Roj Camp, where she has been for three years. She looked tired and said she was suffering from kidney disease, high blood pressure and other problems. She said there is one doctor for almost 1,000 women and 3,000 children and no facilities to deal with specific illnesses.

“Women walk around here with conditions that would normally be hospitalized,” she said. “You just get used to being sick here all the time and you just kind of keep going with life, because it’s either that or a huge depression.”

“One day you will come into my tent (and) I will be rocking in a corner … and I am trying not to do that,” she said.

HRW said a former American ambassador who has taken several foreigners out of northeast Syria on behalf of their home countries told the rights group that in days of exchanges ending on Feb. 15, Canadian authorities refused his offer to escort Polman and the child to a Canadian consulate in neighboring Iraq.

“How close to death do Canadians have to be for their government to decide they qualify for repatriation?” said Letta Tayler, associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch.

A message seeking comment from Canada’s embassy in Beirut was not immediately returned.

The families of the two Canadians have repeatedly implored government authorities to repatriate the woman and child and have sent them medical records attesting to their need for life-saving care.

“Canada should be helping its citizens unlawfully held in northeast Syria, not obstructing their ability to get life-saving health care,” Tayler said.

Despite the fact that Kurdish-led authorities in northeast Syria have called on countries to repatriate their citizens, Canada considers the repatriation of its nationals from Syria a security threat.

However, the Canadian government has said that if its citizens reach a consulate, it will assist them, including if they request repatriation, HRW said.

On Feb. 10, more than a dozen U.N. independent experts called on Canada to urgently repatriate Polman to treat life-threatening illnesses, including hepatitis, kidney disease, and an autoimmune disorder, HRW said.

Polman told the AP she contracted hepatitis four times while in the camp, as well as pneumonia, adding that her kidney disease was probably a result of dirty water.

___

Associated Press writer Samya Kullab contributed from Hassakeh, Syria.

Killer To Serve 15 Years Before Parole Eligibility For Random Attack In Calgary

 

BY BILL GRAVELAND

CALGARY (THE CANADIAN PRESS) - A man who randomly killed a Nigerian nursing student in a brutal attack will have to serve 15 years in prison before he is eligible to apply for parole.

Keeton Gagnon, 43, was found guilty in September of second-degree murder for an unprovoked knife attack on Nicholas Nwonye on a Calgary light-rail transit platform in June 2017.

Nwonye, 46, had just finished his nursing classes at a downtown college when he was stabbed.

Gagnon then walked away and boarded another train where he was arrested.

Before delivering her sentence, Justice Michele Hollins of Court of Queen’s Bench said the crime took place among innocent people who were trying to use public transit, “which should be a safe thing to do.” She said the public danger Gagnon created was of grave concern.

“Perhaps the most egregious part of this offence was its senselessness, specifically the random and apparently arbitrary choice of Mr. Nwonye as the victim,” Hollins said Tuesday.

“There is absolutely no motive or reason available to us for this act and more importantly to Mr. Nwonye’s family.”

Hollins said Gagnon’s tragic and abusive upbringing did lower his moral blameworthiness. He began drinking at age 10, used drugs when he was 13 or 14 and had 42 criminal convictions between 1997 and 2017.

“Certainly this is an offender who has not only been traumatized and abused as a child, but perhaps more devastatingly was completely, emotionally abandoned. He has had none of the love, protection, attention and feeling of safety that all children should have,” she said.

“Mr. Gagnon could fairly be characterized as a person whose path was largely determined for him, a person who had little choice about how to deal with such despairing circumstances.”

The Crown was seeking a parole ineligibility period of between 15 and 17 years on the automatic life sentence, while the defence suggested 12 years would be sufficient.

“This was a brutal crime. The depth of the stab wounds indicated a great deal of force. It is also clear from the video evidence that Mr. Nwonye had no idea this was coming,” Hollins said.

“Taking into consideration the truly horrible circumstances of your life to date, but also the truly horrible circumstances of a violent offence that ended the life of a completely innocent bystander — and deprived his family of their husband, father, son and brother — I am increasing the period of parole ineligibility for you to 15 years.”

Gagnon addressed the court immediately after his sentencing.

“Can I file my appeal now?”

One Of Calgary's Top Lawyers Charles Osuji Recipient Of Prestigious Awards In 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Charles Osuji. Image courtesy of Charles Osuji

CALGARY, AB, DECEMBER 30, 2021 (24-7 PRESS RELEASE) — Osuji’s acclaim began in 2016 when he was nominated as the 2016 Professional of the Year by Obsidian, Alberta. The next year, he was rated one of the Top 3 Employment Lawyers in Calgary, Alberta for 2017 – an award he’s won every year since then.

2021 Awards & Recognition for Charles Osuji

This winning trend continues today. In 2021, Osuji added many awards and recognitions to his already lengthy list of accomplishments, including being named “one of the best lawyers in Canada.”

Lexpert Rising Star: 2021 Leading Lawyers Under 40, Canada

Every year, Lexpert selects lawyers who are “at the top of their professional game while still dedicated to giving back.” This year, Lexpert named Charles Osuji a 2021 Rising Star in Canada’s Leading Lawyers Under 40 category.

Osuji has risen in the Canadian legal community “fast and furiously” while maintaining his humility, kindness, and generosity with his time and professional talent. “His unique combination of high intellect, tireless work ethic and business acumen fuels this rising star, but Osuji remains grounded by his role as a model citizen for all young professionals.”

Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Canada, 2022

Charles Osuji was recognized and chosen by peer review as a Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Canada, 2022, for his outstanding professional excellence in private practice. For Osuji, this award is “yet another confirmation that there’s a place for you at the table if you consistently put in the work and keep a good name while surrounded by a tribe of supporters…There are no limits!”

2021 Avenue Calgary Top 40 Under 40

Avenue Calgary recognized Osuji as a Top 40 Under 40 this year for his ability to “champion diversity at his law firm and mentor other immigrants to succeed in business. Osuji says, “Excellence in diversity – that’s the story I want to tell.” And he tells it well by inspiring, hiring, and mentoring locally and internationally trained lawyers from a range of cultural heritages.

2021 Power of Inclusion Community Award

The Council of Nigerian Professionals, an organization that empowers people to enrich our community with a focus on Canada’s socio-economic and political needs, recognized Osuji’s contributions to the community with the Power of Inclusion Community Award.

The Power of Inclusion Award is given to “individuals, leaders and community members working tirelessly within their sphere of influence to be inclusive of others irrespective of culture, creed, beliefs, social class, sexual orientation and more.”

2021 Top 25 DEI Persons of the Year Award

The Canadian Multicultural Group named Charles Osuji one of the Top 25 DEI Persons of the Year in 2021. The Group recognized Osuji’s unique approach to law and leadership, and highlighted the prominence of diversity in his practice.

Evidence of this diversity is in the multilingual staff at Osuji & Smith, who speak English, Igbo, Bengali, Edo, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, French, Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, and Urdu.

Top 3 Lawyers in Calgary, Alberta

Besides all this national recognition, Osuji was recognized as one of the Top 3 Employment Lawyers in Calgary, Alberta by ThreeBestRated for the fifth year in a row. He was also named one of the Top 3 Business Lawyers in Calgary, Alberta for the third year in a row, and one of the Top 3 Divorce Lawyers in Calgary, Top 3 Estate Planning Lawyers in Calgary, and Top 3 Civil Litigation Lawyers in Calgary, Alberta for the second year in a row.

2021 Nominations

The accolades don’t end there for Charles Osuji in 2021. In addition to the awards, he was nominated for the Black Excellence Award by Calgary Black Chambers, the 2021 Les Prix Canie Awards’ Black Entrepreneur Award, and the 2021 Torch Awards by Better Business Bureau.

Ongoing Nominations & Awards for Charles Osuji

The acclamation of 2021 followed increasing recognition in 2020, including being named a Young Influencer by Canadian Magazine in their list of Canada’s Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers, and the 2020 Immigrant of Distinction (Achievement Under 35) Award by Immigrant Services Calgary.

Osuji was also nominated for the 2020 Employer Awards for Newcomer Employment by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the 2020 Canadian Bar Association’s Douglas Miller Rising Star Award.

Awards Osuji won in 2019 included the 2019 Hope Awards by Aspen Family and Community Network Society, the 2019 Entrepreneur of the Year (Afro Canadians) Award by Diversity Magazine, and the 2019 CY Ekwulugo Award for Volunteering and Community Service, courtesy of the Igbo Cultural Association of Calgary, Alberta.

Influential & Award-Winning Lawyer Charles Osuji

Despite all this attention, Osuji remains dedicated to giving back to the community in various ways while leading his own law firm with excellence. His entrepreneurial, multicultural, and holistic approach to the practice of law makes him a role model for diversity and the legal profession in general.

Besides running a free legal clinic primarily for Calgary’s newcomer population, and mentoring Canadian immigrants through the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society, Osuji continues to offer his expertise with:

– Alberta Legal Aid,
– the Alberta Law Society Lawyer Referral Service,
– Igbo Cultural Association of Calgary,
– the Mustard Seed,
– Habitat for Humanity, and
– his church, where he plays piano.

Osuji’s law firm Osuji & Smith Lawyers has won awards and recognitions as well, including:

– Top Choice of Business Law Services of 2021 in Calgary
– 2021 Best Business in Canada by Canadian Business Review Board
– Best Employment Lawyers in Calgary
– Best Real Estate Lawyers in Calgary
– Best Family Lawyers in Calgary
– Best Divorce Lawyers in Calgary

Osuji & Smith Lawyers provides services in various areas of law including employment and labour law, family, real estate, wills and estate, corporate commercial and business, personal injury, civil litigation, and immigration law.

Contact Lawyer Charles Osuji, one of Calgary’s top lawyers, at 403-283-8018 or by email at info@osujismith.ca.

Founded in 1980, Osuji & Smith: Calgary Employment, Business & Family Lawyers is a diverse, fast-growing, award-winning Calgary full-service law firm with a focus on Employment Law, Civil Litigation, Real Estate, Family & Divorce, Personal Injury, Immigration, Business and Corporate, Wills and Estate.

Ripple Effect On Canadian Immigration Likely From Trump's New Visa Restrictions

President Donald Trump

THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA, CANADA — U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to slap visa restrictions on six new countries could affect immigration flows to Canada, if history is any indication, as those caught up in the changes find new reasons to come here.

Past U.S. immigration policy moves on Haiti and Iran saw asylum claims and student visa applications for Canada jump, and now Trump is targeting Nigeria, Sudan and Eritrea, already among the largest sources of refugee claims lodged by people crossing irregularly into Canada from the U.S.

Later this month, citizens of those and three other countries will be largely restricted from obtaining permanent residency in the U.S., though some will still be able to qualify for tourist and business visas.

Past internal government analysis of the border crossers found many hold U.S. visas, sometimes obtaining them expressly to travel to Canada to claim refugee status.

Now, with the door slamming shut on permanent residency in the U.S., more people could eye Canada, suggested Robert Falconer, an immigration researcher at the University of Calgary policy school.

“One of the potentially negative impacts is that I think we will see a reversal in the decline of (refugee) claims, especially from Nigeria,” he said.

“You could see people who thought they might be able to obtain a green card in the United States instead shift their prospects to Canada.”

Not all may seek asylum.

In 2017, Trump sharply restricted immigration from several countries, including Iran. The year before, 2,437 Iranians applied to Canada for a study permit. In the first 11 months of 2019, 13,277 people applied.

With Nigeria’s booming middle class, there could be a similar positive impact, said Falconer.

“We’re likely to see an increase in high-skilled individuals moving their prospects to Canada,” he said.

Still, Nigeria is currently the largest source country for border crossers, making up 14,621 of the 50,635 claims lodged between February 2017 and September 2019, the most recently available data.

Those crossing between formal border points do so because of the Safe Third Country Agreement, a deal prohibiting people from requesting asylum at land border offices.

Though people have always skirted the deal by crossing at unmarked border points, the problem began to escalate the year Trump took office.

In 2016, the RCMP intercepted 2,464 people crossing irregularly into Canada. In 2017, 20,593 were stopped. The Liberal government has repeatedly said modernizing the agreement is a priority, but briefing notes for the federal immigration minister have suggested little real work is getting done.

That’s not surprising, said Sharry Aiken, an expert on immigration and refugee law at Queen’s University.

“In an election year, would Trump agree that the Safe Third Country Agreement should be modernized so that more refugees should stay in the United States at a time when Trump is doing his level best to ensure more refugees stay out of the United States?”

“It’s hard to imagine.”

When asked what impact, if any, Trump’s new restrictions could have, a spokeswoman for Public Safety Minister Bill Blair did not directly answer the question.

“While there are ebbs and flows in the number of monthly arrivals of irregular migrants, we remain prepared for these fluctuations,” Mary-Liz Power said in an email.

Canada was nearly caught off guard in the early days of Trump’s hard line on immigration.

A 2017 decision to signal the end of program giving Haitians a reprieve from deportation prompted thousands to seek asylum in Canada, with sometimes hundreds crossing in a single day.

Among other things, the surge prompted the Liberals to launch multiple campaigns to thwart the crossings, including sending MPs to Haitian communities to warn against crossing the border irregularly to request asylum.

Statistics suggest there was an effect. In 2017, 8,286 Haitians sought asylum in Canada, according to the Immigration and Refugee Board. In 2018, that number was 1,496.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 3, 2020.

The Migration Driven By Developed Countries

BY EROMO EGBEJULE

LAGOS (THE ATLANTIC)--Migration can be driven both by a richer country’s doing, as well as a poorer one’s undoing. LAGOS—About a year ago, Dolapo Oni appeared to have it all. He was the head of energy research for a pan-African bank in Nigeria’s biggest city, had a healthy (and growing) amount of savings and investments, and ran an e-commerce business on the side. He even liked his local gym.

Then he resigned and moved with his family to Canada, eventually getting a job as an investment associate in a wealth-management firm in Calgary. His previous employer in Lagos promoted someone to replace him soon after, but, like Oni, he quit and moved to Calgary. This time, rather than search for another replacement, the bank disbanded the energy-research team.

In some ways, Oni’s story (and that of his successor in Lagos) is not unusual: a skilled professional leaves a job at home in search of work in wealthier parts of the world, betting that the short-term instability of uprooting an established life will be worth it in the long term. The Onis are part of an ongoing exodus of middle-class Nigerians to Canada in particular—Nigeria ranks in the top 10 in terms of the number of skilled workers leaving for Canada over the past four years. The sparsely populated North American country has long been a favored destination of immigrants around the world because it offers economic opportunities, a strong social safety net, and a diverse population.

More recently, the Nigeria-to-Canada route has had another driver, one that is propelled both by Ottawa’s doing and Abuja’s undoing—whereas the political and economic situation in Nigeria has not improved, many of these immigrants have mostly been drawn by a tweak to Canadian immigration rules.

In 2015, Canada implemented a new system for taking in skilled immigrants, using a points-based calculation in which applicants are scored on the basis of their age, work experience, education level, and language skills. It aims to prioritize those who are most skilled and ease their entry into the country, while encouraging applicants to settle in less populated parts of Canada. Australia and New Zealand use similar systems, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, fresh off an electoral victory in December, has said he wants to implement one, too.

Canada’s, however, is the most advanced. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the country has “the most elaborate and longest-standing skilled labour migration system” of its member states, and 60 percent of its foreign-born population is “highly educated”—the highest proportion in the organization.

Now Canada is expanding its effort: the immigration minister, Ahmed Hussen—who himself moved to Canada in 1993 as a refugee from Somalia—announced in 2018 that the country wanted to attract more than 1 million people from 2019 to 2021, equivalent to nearly 3 percent of the overall population.

The transparency of the system—Canadian-government websites outline how many points are awarded for specific skills, experience, or other criteria—lets potential immigrants see whether they could make the cut. Oni told me that once he had decided to emigrate, he had wanted to move to Britain, Canada, or the U.S., in that order, but prioritized Canada because the visa terms were less stringent (and added that he was dissuaded from the U.S. because of persistent reports of gun violence and police shootings of black men).

Here in Nigeria, to say that the middle class has caught Canada fever would be an understatement. The subject of moving overseas has become a conversational icebreaker in Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Abuja. (The best place to have a heart attack in Toronto, one joke here goes, is in a taxi—because the driver is likely an immigrant doctor.) An entire economic system has emerged to help applicants navigate the bureaucracy: Online marketplaces are well stocked with used furniture and cars being sold by those making the move. In terms of emotional support, family WhatsApp groups are filled with relocation tips and prayers for those applying. When I started taking French lessons a couple of years ago (to help navigate West Africa, not to move to Canada), many of my classmates had signed up in order to garner additional points to bolster their applications, and to improve their chances of securing a job in Quebec, where French is the dominant language. All of this reached a crescendo in April 2019, when a news website claimed that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had asked Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to send 1 million Nigerians to Canada. The story, which was false, went viral.

In effect, then, thanks to a tweak to an immigration system in a richer country, a developing one has suffered serious consequences, losing skilled professionals—many of whom are highly educated and would be expected to make outsize contributions to a state’s economy, tax income, and society more broadly. In Nigeria, the conveyor belt of young talent that is supposed to replace those who are emigrating is whirring slowly, and the impact is apparent: The country’s educational institutions groan under the weight of frequent strikes by underpaid staff protesting poor funding and outdated infrastructure; medical procedures are regularly delayed because of a shortage of specialists; and companies—like Oni’s bank—are closing down entire departments to cope with staff exits.

Middle-class Nigerians, much like citizens of other developing countries, argue that they are leaving to give their families more options and greater security rather than waiting for their own country to realize its potential. It is a familiar story—what is now Africa’s largest economy is no stranger to the departure of its best talents. In the 1970s and ’80s, skilled and semi-skilled Nigerians left the country, mostly for the United States, Britain, and elsewhere in Europe, fleeing the rule of successive military juntas and economic mismanagement. A 2010 report by the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.–based think tank, found that by the late 1970s, about 30,000 Nigerian professionals had graduated from universities and colleges in the United Kingdom but never returned to Africa; by the mid-’80s, 10,000 Nigerians were in the United States, many of them highly skilled. That brain drain had a knock-on effect, opening a route for these immigrants’ relatives to leave Nigeria as well.

Nigerians today face similar challenges. Though the country is now a democracy, it is still smarting from a 15-month recession in the early years of Buhari’s presidency. Insecurity is also rife: Northeastern Nigeria is grappling with a decade-long insurgency, while a kidnapping epidemic is under way in the northwest and the Niger Delta.

The Nigerian government itself appears unperturbed by the outbound migration of its professionals: The labor minister, Chris Ngige, told journalists last year that the country was exporting its best minds because it had a surplus of talent and, in any case, “when they go abroad, they earn money and send [it] back home here.”

“Canada gets skilled workers who are productive and contribute more to economic activities than they consume,” Nonso Obikili, the chief economist at Nigeria’s BusinessDay newspaper, told me. And he reiterated that Nigerians abroad were sending remittances to relatives back home, a crucial source of revenue for the country. “All these skilled workers are not totally cutting off links with Nigeria.”

'This Is For Real' - Journeyman Aliu Sparks Hockey Reckoning

In this April 7, 2012, file photo, Calgary Flames' Akim Aliu, a Nigerian-born Canadian, celebrates his goal during first period NHL hockey action against the Anaheim Ducks, in Calgary, Alberta. Calgary Flames general manager Brad Treliving said the team is looking into an accusation that head coach Bill Peters directed racial slurs toward a Nigerian-born hockey player a decade ago in the minor leagues, then arranged for the player’s demotion when he complained. Akim Aliu tweeted Monday, Nov. 25, 2019, that Peters “dropped the N bomb several times towards me in the dressing room in my rookie year because he didn’t like my choice of music.” (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh, File)

BY JOHN WAWROW

VAUGHAN, ONTARIO (AP) — There was no breaking point or seminal moment that prompted Akim Aliu to post two tweets less than a minute apart that would rock the NHL in a matter of hours.

Aliu was scrolling through the timeline on his phone when he saw a report of how just-fired Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock had mistreated Mitch Marner, his prized rookie forward.

”It was a spur of the moment kind of thing,” Aliu explained during an interview this past week at a gym near Toronto. A few highway exits from his home, this is where the 30-year-old works out to stay in shape in case some team gives him one more shot at playing.

”I sent it out and didn’t even think anything of it, and just went into the steam room for 20 minutes,” he said. ”I did a couple of hot-cold rounds in the shower and when I came out it was crazy.”

The tweets went viral, and missed calls and text messages were piling up when Aliu returned.

”I was like, ‘Woah, like this is for real,”’ he said.

The posts sent Nov. 25 were thunder claps heard around hockey, alleging coach Bill Peters had directed racist slurs at him when the two were in the minors a decade ago and then tried to make sure he’d be demoted.

Racism is of course not unheard of in hockey, but Aliu was taking aim at a veteran coach. And it was an extraordinary public accusation in perhaps the most private of professional sports in North America, where the idea that dirty laundry is always best kept behind closed doors is sacrosanct.

Almost overnight, Aliu’s allegations proved true and prompted Peters’ resignation as coach of the Calgary Flames. Over the past month, other claims have cropped up and the NHL has swiftly moved to strengthen its personal conduct policies regarding racism and bullying; it put every team official – from president to equipment manager – on notice that any similar incident must immediately be reported to league headquarters.

Suddenly, Aliu was no longer just a long-forgotten defenseman who’s played for 21 teams in seven leagues and six countries over the past 10 years. He was an agent of change coming hard on the heels of two incidents that hover, still, over the first half of the NHL season.

Long-time Canadian broadcaster Don Cherry was let go last month after calling immigrants ”you people” during his Hockey Night in Canada segment. Then came Babcock’s firing and word he had embarrassed Marner by revealing a list he asked the player to write that ranked Leafs players by work ethic.

With hockey already buzzing, Aliu kicked things up a notch by accusing Peters, a Babcock protoge, of openly using the ‘N word’ in questioning Aliu’s choice of music in a locker room all those years ago. It was later revealed Peters had kicked and punched his own players during his four years as coach in Carolina.

Aliu’s allegations also led to Chicago Blackhawks assistant coach Marc Crawford being suspended for physically and verbally abusing his players at past stops as a head coach. Crawford will return Jan. 2 after an investigation found he sought counseling in 2010 and continues to undergo therapy.

Aliu’s timing turned out to be perfect in sparking a much-needed discussion about issues long suppressed amid lingering nostalgia for the sport’s rough and tumble, and sometimes hateful, past.

”My parents have always told me that things happen at the time they’re supposed to happen, not when you hope they would happen,” Aliu said. ”I kind of dealt with both of those things. So I kind of combined them. And I feel like I have a voice because of that.”

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has used the uproar to call for change in a sport long made up of mostly white players and one always eager to diversify and grow. .

”The world is changing for the better,” Bettman said following a recent board of governors meeting in California. ”This is an opportunity and a moment for positive change, and this evolution should be expedited for the benefit of everyone associated with the game we love.”

But is it truly a reckoning in a sport that has fewer than three dozen black players and banned a handful of fans for racist taunts less than two years ago?

”It seems different,” said Anson Carter, a former player and broadcaster. ”It really does because it has the NHL’s attention.”

”Is it going to change overnight? No,” added Carter, who is black. ”Are we going to totally, completely eliminate it 100%? No. It exists in society. We would be ignorant to think that there wouldn’t be some instances that might pop up.”

West Virginians Head To Canada To Find Affordable Insulin

MONDAY, DEC. 09, 2019

MORGANTOWN, W.VA. (AP) — A group of West Virginians left the country Sunday in search of affordable insulin — they went to Canada, where insulin prices are reported to be about a tenth of what it costs people in the United States.

Across the border, no prescription is even necessary to purchase the life-saving medication, The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports. State data says about 15% of West Virginians rely on insulin. The nonprofit Health Care Cost Institute says insulin cost a person with Type 1 diabetes about $6,000 in 2016, and prices have only increased since then, making it difficult for even insured people to afford it.

“Insulin isn’t something you can go without, or skip when you can’t afford it,” said Tammy Owen, a volunteer with the West Virginia Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and whose son lives with Type 1 diabetes. “For someone with diabetes, it’s like air. Like water. It’s a basic need, and there are barriers in place that make it inaccessible for many.”

The trip from Morgantown was organized by state health care activists and supported by delegates Barbara Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, and Jordan Hill, R-Nicholas. Fleischauer said their caravan has held news conferences around the state, where they’ve heard about ever-increasing copays for insulin prescriptions.

“It is really shocking how much some people, especially Type 1 diabetics, are having to pay for life-saving medicine. I do not use the word shocking often, but hearing these personal stories has really affected me,” Fleischauer said in an email.

She plans to introduce a bill next year to cap insulin prescription copays. Such legislation already has passed in Colorado. This isn’t the first such excursion to find affordable medication and showcase the failings of the U.S. health care system. Each seat on this trip cost $100, though individuals with diabetes didn’t have to pay, thanks to donations and scholarships.