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As the Paralympic Games come to an end with the closing ceremony, it’s an opportune moment to reflect back on the messaging behind the event. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) promoted the Games as an inclusive event that enhances opportunities for people who experience disability globally.

At a recent United Nations conference on inclusion, held just prior to the start of the Paris 2024 Games, IPC President Andrew Parsons stated:

“We have the perfect platform to bring the important decision-makers and persons of influence to the table for the first time to really leverage the incredible power of the Paralympics to create a more inclusive world.”

But while striving for inclusivity is an admiral goal, actually achieving it is not a straightforward task. While the Paralympic Games are more inclusive than the Olympics, para sport’s classification system does not allow for all people who experience disabilities to participate.

As a result, some athletes with disabilities are excluded from the Paralympics. For example, athletes who are deaf but physically able are excluded from the Paralympics. Instead, they might compete in the Deaflympics, an event that is 100 years old this year, but doesn’t receive the same level of visibility or media coverage as the Paralympics.

The IPC’s strategy of using inclusivity as a marketing tool has undoubtedly increased the visibility and profile of the Paralympics and brought more attention to the achievements of athletes with disabilities. But its claims of inclusivity are false and may ultimately become a problem in the future.

President of the IPC Andrew Parsons, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, his wife Brigitte Macron, French President of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Organising Committee Tony Estanguet and Paris’ mayor Anne Hidalgo attend the 2024 Paralympics Opening Ceremony at the Place de la Concorde in Paris, on Aug. 28, 2024.
(Julien De Rosa/Pool Photo via AP)

Inherently exclusionary

Parasport is exclusionary on two fronts. Firstly, the classification system — a cornerstone of para sport — is inherently exclusionary because not all athletes who experience disability are eligible. Because the system categorizes athletes based on specific impairments, some are inevitably left out.

Secondly, even for those who are eligible to compete, the opportunity to participate can be limited by the sport-specific classification systems. In others words, some sports within the para sport system are themselves exclusionary.

The larger problem at play is that marketing para sport as inclusive can be damaging to the status of Paralympic athletes. The Paralympics, like other elite sports events, are exclusionary by nature, and not everyone makes the cut.

Read more:
Why sport must be (re)imagined in ways that make it more accessible for all disabled athletes

Factors like injuries or the ever-increasing high qualification standards can prevent even the most talented athletes from competing. This includes a pressure on athlete numbers imposed by the agreement between the International Olympic Committee and the IPC that controls how big the Paralympic Games can be.

Selling the Paralympics as inclusive devalues the achievements of the most highly gifted athletes who fit within the classification system. Suggesting that anyone can compete diminishes the prestige of the event, making it seem no more significant than winning a casual race at a community event.

If the Paralympic Games were truly inclusive, it would mean there are no performance criteria for athletes with qualifying impairments, allowing anyone to participate. In reality, the Paralympic Games are not fully inclusive, and labelling them as such is misleading.

Overshadowing grassroot sports

At the 2021 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, the IPC jointly launched the #Wethe15 movement, a campaign raising awareness about people with disabilities. Selling the Paralympics as inclusive sport aligns with the IPC’s long-standing mission to be recognized as a high-performance sports organization — something that has been part of its agenda since at least 1992.

While the goal of inclusion is commendable, it can lead to unrealistic expectations about parasport, especially for those who aren’t familiar with the field. The Paralympic Games dominate the media landscape and overshadow other types of disability sport, creating a skewed perception of the broader disability sports landscape.

Disability sport is much broader than parasport; international events like the Special Olympics and the Deaflympics are both large disability sporting events that fall outside the IPC’s influence and deserve just as much attention.

An athlete celebrates after scoring during a Powerchair Football training session in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2013.
(AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

The increased media focus every two years on the Olympic and Paralympic Games often causes people to overlook grassroots disability sport. These grassroot sports are incredibly diverse and serve a wide range of abilities and needs, but they are also underdeveloped and less visible compared to the Paralympics.

Powerchair soccer, for example, has seen international growth in recent years, while the track discipline of frame running caters to athletes with high support needs.

While sentiments about inclusivity are well-meaning, the way inclusivity is portrayed through high-profile events like the Paralympics is misleading. Like the IPC, the mission of Canadian Paralympic Committee also states:

“Guided by the vision of creating a more inclusive world, we work tirelessly to prepare our athletes for excellence in competition and to foster communities where inclusivity is not just encouraged — it’s celebrated.”

The so-called profound impact of the Paralympic Games is largely based on a false understanding of the culture and potential of high-performance disability sport.

The para sport movement, both in Canada and internationally, needs to get back to championing their virtue as a high-performance sporting practice that should be seen as equal to, yet distinct from, the Olympics. It doesn’t need to rely on misleading claims of inclusivity to gain recognition. Läs mer…

Interpreting corporate reports on carbon emissions can be challenging. The current, adhoc approach to how businesses share this information makes it difficult to see whether they have set the right targets, have realistic plans to meet them or are being transparent about their progress.

While there are frameworks for reporting climate and sustainability data, there are still big differences in the way the data is being disclosed.

We developed the Climate Action Tracker Aotearoa (CATA) to address these issues. Based on the global Net Zero Tracker, CATA evaluates company reports and climate plans to share and explain their climate action.

Using the tracker, we analysed 21 companies in Aotearoa New Zealand, focusing on the top emitters and companies in the energy, retail, agriculture and transport sectors, as well as the banking sector.

We evaluated three aspects – targets, plans and reporting – by reading through publicly available information provided by the company. These three aspects help make sense of what a company is doing and going to do to mitigate climate change.

Here is what we found.

Setting targets

While the majority of companies have 2030 targets (86%) and absolute targets (81%), only five companies of the 21 (25%) have targets that have been verified by the Science-based Targets Initiative.

All but two companies include scope one (emissions the company creates directly) and scope two (emissions created indirectly from, for example electricity or energy it buys for heating and cooling buildings) – the areas companies have the most control and ownership over. But when it comes to scope three emissions, which come from company travel in planes, trains and taxis, and the supply chain, far fewer companies have set such targets.

Scope three targets are difficult to set due as they involve a large number of supply chain partners. But understanding the full impact of a company’s emissions is an important factor towards meeting the Paris Agreement targets.

It can be difficult for businesses to track emissions along their supply train. But it is important to gain the full picture.
1933bkk/Getty Images

Making plans

It is in the planning that there starts to be a divergence in the results across the companies. It would seem that it is easier to set a target than provide detailed plans on how to reach it.

Some companies do this very well, laying out a transparent and plausible climate map (Meridian Energy, for example). But many companies have failed to provide enough detail to be able to understand just how the reductions might occur.

It is even harder to understand how companies plan to use carbon offsets and credits.

Carbon offsetting involves a reduction or avoidance of emissions that can be used to compensate for emissions elsewhere. For example, offset projects could include renewable energy projects or energy efficiency improvements.

We found that just over half of the companies were offsetting or intending to, with only two stating they will only offset hard-to-abate emissions.

According to the University of Oxford Offsetting Principles, the best practice is to reduce as much as possible and use offsetting closer to the net zero date (2050) for those residual emissions.

It is not great to be seeing offsetting already in use.

We also found companies are not always transparent about their policy for using offsets. The majority either did not specify conditions for offsetting or just didn’t have any conditions to begin with.

The majority of companies were unspecified in their approach to carbon removals (the process of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere).

The carbon removal measures that were mentioned were nature-based (such as planting a mixture of exotic and native trees) and carbon capture and storage (CCS). These tended to be from companies that also operated overseas.

Results from our analysis on whether or not companies pan to us carbon removals.
Author provided

The World Economic Forum outlined the best practice for voluntary carbon removals last year.

Carbon removals were seen as necessary for the hard to reduce emissions, to reverse the build up of historical emissions, and deal with feedback loops in natural processes such as forest fires.

In 2022, the Ministry for the Environment also published a set of principles around carbon removals. These principles included that information needs to be transparent, clearly stated and publicly available.

We found the minority of companies adhered to such standards. Therefore, more transparency is needed on both offsetting and removals in their reporting.

Reporting climate action

The majority of companies are reporting carbon emissions and providing some level of detail on the emissions to an international standard.

But at the same time, many companies are making it very difficult to find and piece together the data needed to clearly see what climate action they are undertaking.

We know that voluntary disclosing on social and environmental impacts can be a result of pressure from stakeholders. But it can also be used as a way to conform to these societal expectations without giving sufficient information.

Throughout our research, we found a mixture of conformity and diversion. Some companies provided vast amounts of positive information about some of their impacts, some provided multiple reports with information scattered between them, and then some were straightforward with the required information.

Companies should use CATA as a tool to benchmark themselves and their reporting to be able to provide a sufficient and transparent level of information to stakeholders, partners, investors and consumers.

This will allow consistency across industry, the implementation of science-based targets, the development of detailed action plans and easy access to comprehensive, clear and concise reports.

The authors acknowledge the contributions of their fellow researchers on this project: Lucy Mitchell, Pii-Tuulia Nikula and Limi Prestwood-Smith. Läs mer…

The British Columbia forestry policing services (officially known as the Compliance and Enforcement Branch (CEB) is the province’s primary environmental policing service. Like other Canadian provinces’ environmental policing services, the officers in B.C. are tasked with investigating wildfire causes, forestry offences and other violations of laws designed to protect water and heritage sites.

Unfortunately, however, the forestry policing service in B.C. is facing critical challenges. Staffing is at historic lows, while officers are ill-equipped to do their jobs and are poorly supported.

The issues facing B.C. forestry policing also come at a time when recent revelations about “secret” forestry maps in the province point to the prioritization of industry interests and the flouting of the B.C.’s own forestry rules — all while severe forest fires grow ever more commonplace.

Read more:
The 2024 Jasper Fire is a grim reminder of the urgency of adopting a Canadian national wildfire strategy

I previously worked as a provincial constable in B.C. both as a senior forestry investigator and an armed conservation officer. I have also provided testimony in the legislature, with my work published. In my current academic role, I study environmental policing systems and lecture in the legal aspects of environmental management and legal philosophy.

In my view, the hobbling of forestry policing services and timber management laws raises the important question: who polices the government itself?

General Order #5

In 2023, the B.C. government’s CEB executive issued a document titled General Order 5. General orders are internal agency directives issued to policing personnel and form the basis of operating procedures. They are not normally released publicly, unless requested. A copy of General Order #5 was provided to me in mid-May 2024 by a senior government official who requested to remain anonymous.

In essence, General Order #5 is an instruction to the forestry policing service that the B.C. government would prefer the service not to conduct investigations into any potential government wrongdoing. In one particularly revealing statement, the order declares that:

“Pursuing enforcement action against government bodies creates a legal risk for government and it is an inefficient use of CEB resources that should be allocated to other high priority legislative investigations.”

What exactly constitutes the alternative “high priority” investigations is never explicitly defined.

General Order #5 was issued without public consultation on the apparent advice of the Attorney General’s Office — a highly unusual situation because it has no authority to direct the actions of provincial policing services.

If government wrongdoing is found, the order includes direction to “communicate the incident to the responsible government entity” and to “provide the responsible government entity with all appropriate documentation related to the alleged issue” — potentially disclosing sensitive investigative materials to those personnel under investigation.

The remains of a logged forest is seen in the background with a destroyed car in the foreground in the Fairy Creek logging area near Port Renfrew, B.C., in October 2021.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Meanwhile, two B.C. government investigations I led in 2018 as a senior compliance and enforcement specialist with the province found worrying evidence of the systemic flouting of forestry rules by B.C. Timber Sales, the government-owned and controlled entity responsible for managing 20 per cent of the annual allowable cut and other logging-related authorizations for industry. These matters were later confirmed by the Forest Practices Board.

I contacted media relations at the RCMP’s E Division Headquarters to ask about the status of the federal Forest Crimes Unit in B.C. In an email response from the RCMP in May, they confirmed the B.C. branch of the RCMP forest crimes unit was shut down in 2021. This move has left the compliance and enforcement branch as the only remaining forestry policing service in the province, a concerning matter as General Order #5 restricts investigative authorities.

Flouting international standards

When the B.C. Great Bear Rainforest protection agreement was signed in 2016, it was heralded as an effective and modern approach to balancing timber harvesting with conservation objectives. Yet loopholes in policy remained and many old-growth areas of the rainforest were still subject to clear-cutting activities.

Another troubling example of forestry mismanagement can be seen in Fairy Creek, an area the B.C. government opened up to old-growth logging. Timber practices in Fairy Creek and the resultant protests have been described as one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in Canadian history, with more than 1,000 people arrested, including the deputy leader of the federal Green Party.

‘Land Defenders’ sing a song as they guard an area of a logging cut block called ‘Heli Camp’ in the Fairy Creek logging area near Port Renfrew, B.C., in October 2021. The group was protesting the logging of the areas old growth forest.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Members of the public had expressed concerns with the B.C. government’s approval process for the Fairy Creek logging operations and many charges against the protesters were later withdrawn. At least one RCMP officer quit in the wake of the Fairy Creek scandal as enforcement actions against protesters continued into 2023.

Read more:
Why people are risking arrest to join old-growth logging protests on Vancouver Island

If policing services are being disbanded and directed not to investigate government wrongdoing, how can the public be sure industry and government actions are lawful?

I reached out to the B.C. Government, Communications, Public Engagement team and asked if provincial forestry officers are investigating allegations of government wrongdoing in the forest sector. In May, a branch director at the CEB responded in writing and confirmed that provincial officers “do not investigate government non-compliances as that is not the current mandate.”

Setting a poor example

General Order #5 is an unprecedented move that undermines constabulary independence and the abilities of police services to apply the rule of law fairly and without fear or favour. Moreover, its stipulations that investigating officers hand over files and investigative information to parties under investigation presents troubling implications for transparent governmental oversight.

B.C. forests are in crisis and in this era of climate change and wildfires, it is essential the province ensures its timber laws are applied equally to all, especially in recently announced old-growth conservancies.

Read more:
The Jasper fire highlights the risks climate change poses to Canada’s world heritage sites

The practical effect of General Order #5 is to handcuff our forestry officers. An accountable forestry industry cannot exist without a robust and properly equipped enforcement service that acts independently from government under its constabulary authorities. Läs mer…

One of the big ideas of the 21st century, “smart cities” promised a new world of connected, data-driven and sustainable urbanism. Pervasive digital infrastructures would monitor flows from sewage to traffic to criminal activities, providing information in real time and anticipating and preventing risks.

However, in practice, smart cities have been disappointing. Schemes like Alphabet’s failed “city built from the Internet, up” was criticized for being opportunistic data grabs. And many other smart city projects have been fragmented and unimpressive

But smart cities have not gone away. A new generation of “AI cities,” or what I call “platform cities,” is emerging. Platform corporations like Amazon, Alphabet and Huawei are already transforming cities by exploiting people and places through data extraction and surveillance. Now, they want to build and manage cities.

Eric Schmidt, former chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc., asked people to imagine “all of these things that we could do if someone would just give us a city and put us in charge.” Corporations want control of cities, and following the example of Singapore, the world’s only smart nation, many platform cities want to be something more like city-states.

There are multiple plans for these new smart settlements as public-private partnerships (PPPs) or entirely private entities. One proposal, which contained many of the common features of platform cities, emerged in 2021. The state of Nevada considered a proposal that would have allowed companies owning 78 square miles (202 square kilometres) of land to become innovation zones (IZs). These zones would have had the legislative powers held by counties, including raising taxes and running school districts, courts and police forces.

While the proposal did not pass, it continues to be studied by the state. Other similar efforts are emerging, including the Solano County development in California, and the proposed Telosa, developed by the ex-CEO of Walmart.

New political systems

Platform cities share several core elements. The first is separation from the surrounding political environment. For example, according to its charter, Próspera in Honduras would be allowed to operate its own intelligence services and to call on external military assistance.

The second is a new kind of entrepreneurial citizenship, which favours low taxes and property rights over democracy and human rights. Again, in Próspera’s charter, property ownership determines the number of votes.

Insider News takes a look at Prospéra, a city-state being constructed in Honduras.

The third is ubiquitous data collection and surveillance. For example, marketing material for the desert city of NEOM in Saudi Arabia claimed that the city would collect 90 per cent of all data in order to support lifestyle improvements for residents.

Read more:
The scaling back of Saudi Arabia’s proposed urban mega-project sends a clear warning to other would-be utopias

Fourth, platform cities share a bland globalist outlook with common esthetic and design features generated by famous architectural firms like Zaha Hadid Partners, BIG and Norman Foster (an original member of the NEOM advisory board).

In a more sinister way, these cities also emphasize the social and political homogeneity of proposed residents. While there are frequent references to “multiculturalism,” for cities in Majority World countries, this seems to mean whiter than the surrounding populations.

This links to the fifth and final commonality: a highly exclusionary outlook, favouring protection of residents over the welfare of humanity as a whole. The design of these cities often hide distributed and networked technologies of surveillance, in which ubiquitous surveillance as part of a luxury lifestyle also secures residents from outside threats.

Political context

For Próspera, an overt form of neo-colonialism was envisioned: the first project was proposed on the island of Roatán. Existing poor and Indigenous residents were to be integrated as minimum-waged service workers, although the platform only presented this as development.

Like Arizona’s IZs, Próspera’s Roatán development has been shelved, but the company continues legal battles with the Honduran government. Telosa remains on the drawing board.

Manipulating the popular imagination of new technologies like AI allows longstanding elite fantasies of separate government to become acceptable and mainstream. The political environments favoured by platform city developers seem to be either strong authoritarian governments that can override objections — as with NEOM — or relatively impoverished and weak governments seen as easy to manipulate, as with Próspera.

Proposed AI cities assume or aspire towards governance models that are independent from the surrounding political context.
(Shutterstock)

It might appear contradictory that neoliberal, even libertarian, tech CEOs would support either authoritarian regimes or developments. However, as contemporary historian Quinn Slobodian has shown, neoliberal thinking supports democracy only as long as it is not a hazard to the free market.

There is also the growing ideological influence of what computer scientist Timnit Gebru and philosopher Emilé P. Torres have described as “TESCREAL:” transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, (modern) cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism and longtermism. This is an increasingly coherent bundle of beliefs advocating for the survival of a select elite of technologically savvy people over environmental and social justice for all people.

AI-based platform cities are being sold as innovative projects for a common future. But they look more like exclusive communities to protect the rich from future catastrophes. In these protected, inwardly secure and sustainable cities, a technologically enhanced elite would survive and prosper, while the rest of humanity would be forced to fend for itself. Läs mer…

As the climate crisis gets worse, global fossil fuel production is growing and oil and gas companies are making record profits.

While the powerful influence of the fossil fuel industry’s lobbying on climate policy is increasingly acknowledged, our new research also shows how oil and gas companies are influencing universities.

We are researchers with combined expertise on just energy transitions and climate justice and the university (the title of Jennie Stephens’s forthcoming book). With international colleagues we undertook the first comprehensive review of academic and civil society investigations into fossil fuel industries’ ties to higher education in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

In all four countries, the research shows multiple ways oil and gas companies have been investing in universities.

Fossil fuel production is growing. Enbridge president and CEO Al Monaco addresses the company’s annual meeting in Calgary in 2019.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Broad range of tactics

Some of this research demonstrates how providing funding for research on fossil fuels and fossil fuel technologies orients university research toward fossil fuel friendly approaches to addressing the climate crisis — and detracts attention away from more transformative approaches.

In Canada, for example, one researcher found that 238 large fossil fuel companies and 21 industry associations were deeply embedded in 34 university and government institutes researching technologies intended to “green” fossil fuel production.

Another mechanism for fossil fuel influence is incentivizing industry representatives to donate to universities and serve in university posts and governing boards.

In the United States, for example, a former executive at ExxonMobil who is now the vice chair of the Board of Trustees at Northeastern University explained context around reconnecting with the university as an alumnus, saying his company, Exxon, offered its employees a generous matching gifts program. In the context of growing recognition about the power of big donors, our research shows big oil has been encouraging philanthropy to universities for some time.

Industry-friendly curricula

Fossil fuel companies have also been engaging in university curriculum design that promotes fossil fuel futures. In Australia, for example, dozens of fossil fuel industry representatives were involved in developing and teaching the undergraduate program at the School of Oil and Gas Engineering at the University of Western Australia.

In the U.K., an investigation revealed BP, Shell and Equinor advised university institutions on running engineering and geoscience degrees. Universities including Oxford, Edinburgh and University College London admitted they took advice on degree courses from fossil fuel companies.

A demonstrator holds a protest sign in Berkeley, Calif., in 2010. BP’s catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico fuelled opposition to a research partnership with the oil giant.
(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

Providing funding for endowed professorships and scholarships as well as supporting public lectures and conferences are additional ways the fossil fuel industry partners with universities. In Canada, ConocoPhillips and Enbridge have funded professorships at the Universities of Alberta and Calgary, and in the U.S. Shell Oil donated $2 million to Colorado State University for an endowed chair.

In the U.K., each year Oxford University students can apply for Oxford’s BP Scholarships which provides £3000 (about C$1600) to support their studies.

Oil and gas companies also make their presence known at universities by naming buildings, hosting career recruitment events on campus and training fossil fuel industry employees.

Read more:
The renaming of universities and campus buildings reflects changing attitudes and values

‘Climate obstruction’

We also reviewed what is known about why oil and gas companies invest in universities.

Climate obstruction is the term used to describe intentional efforts to block climate action.

Research on how the fossil fuel industry has been obstructing climate action and lying about climate science to deny climate change and delay climate policies has identified a sophisticated, long-term strategic industry-wide effort.

A full picture of how the fossil fuel industry has leveraged higher education to block climate action and advance their interests has been less well understood.

A flare stack lights the sky from the Imperial Oil refinery in Edmonton in 2018.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

One study found university research funded by the fossil fuel industry is more favourable to natural gas and more negative on renewable energy than research that isn’t industry funded.

Just as funding from the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries has influenced science to favour industry, fossil fuel funding of university research has legitimized continued fossil fuel reliance.

Because universities are assumed to be conducting independent research, fossil fuel companies have been leveraging higher education to enhance their credibility, influence policy and prolong a fossil fuel future.

As just one example, a 2017 internal memo presented to BP by a public relations firm suggested the company target Princeton University as a “partner” capable of “authenticating BP’s commitment to low carbon.”

The industry has leveraged universities to make the case to weaken regulations, reduce taxation and ensure fossil fuels are part of the mix in a low-carbon transition.

Promoting technological fixes

Our study also found industry funding in universities has focused academic climate research toward narrow technological fixes and “false” non-transformative solutions. This draws attention, time and resources away from more systemic and structural social and economic changes that would phase out fossil fuels.

Quest carbon capture and storage facility in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., in 2015.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

For example, industry has supported academic research on fossil fuel technologies such as carbon capture and storage and fracking. These technologies not only prolong fossil fuel reliance but they have also contributed to increases in energy consumption and fossil fuel production.

Read more:
‘Transformative change’: idea will be key in fight for climate and wildlife

Disclose and sever ties

Our study highlights the importance of universities disclosing their financial and contractual ties with fossil fuel companies.

Many universities have refused to disclose funding sources even when freedom of information requests have been made, citing the need to maintain confidentiality for reasons of proprietary information and competition.

If universities are to prioritize the public good, severing ties with fossil fuel companies and other extractive industries is important. More than 950 academics have called on U.K. and U.S. universities to do this in an open letter.

Physician-scientist Dr. Tim Takaro protests the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, in Burnaby, B.C., suspended in tress, in August 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

The integrity of universities

When academics and their institutions become “captured,” or strategically used by fossil fuel industries, academics’ professional interests become entangled with those of the industry. Our research shows universities are lending academic credibility to fossil fuel futures and guiding public discourse toward the industry’s preferred climate change “solutions.”

The fossil fuel industry’s capture of academia compromises the public trust and integrity of universities. When higher education institutions accept fossil fuel funding, they are also inadvertently supporting and endorsing ecological destruction and human suffering.

With worsening climate instability and deepening climate injustices, humanity is in need of independent higher education institutions that are publicly funded to advance knowledge that contributes to a more healthy, stable and equitable future. Läs mer…

On Aug. 24, Canada’s federal labour board ordered the Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPK) railways, along with more than 9,000 workers, to return to work and enter binding arbitration to produce a new contract. The Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) acted on the government’s referral when making the decision.

However, CIRB has not designated railways as an “essential service,” a status that would give legal standing for the government to force staff back to work.

As a result, the Teamsters union has filed appeals with the Federal Court of Appeal, challenging the government’s referrals and CIRB’s binding arbitration order, arguing they violate workers’ rights to collectively bargain and strike.

Bruce Curran, a labour specialist at the University of Manitoba’s law faculty, warned that:

“Ordering the workers back to work may in fact present Charter problems with respect to the workers’ constitutionally protected right to strike and right to collectively bargain, such that the [board] may have some legal concerns.”

Typically, the chosen arbitrator is mutually agreed upon by both parties in a dispute. Case management conferences among the parties are currently underway.

A decision is expected soon, given the seriousness of the dispute, but if no agreement is reached, the arbitration board will impose a contract.

Passengers wait outside the Cooksville GO Station after the Milton GO line had disruptions caused by the nationwide railway stoppage in Toronto on Aug. 26, 2024.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paige Taylor White

Safety oversight

A major issue in the ongoing negotiations is fatigue safety. According to the union, the railway companies are seeking to weaken protections around rest periods, shift length and scheduling.

The companies are also targeting work-rest provisions. Teamsters say CN wants to implement relocation provisions, requiring workers to move long distances to fill labour shortages.

Then CP Rail CEO Hunter Harrison addresses the company’s annual meeting in Calgary in 2014.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Over the past decade, working conditions have become more dangerous due to staff cuts and the implementation of the precision scheduled railroading model, which has resulted in longer and heavier trains.

Precision scheduled railroading was pioneered in Canada by Hunter Harrison, the CEO of Canadian Pacific Railway (CPKC’s predecessor) at the time of the Lac-Mégantic disaster in 2013. As a result, the volume of dangerous goods transported by rail rose by 70 per cent between 2011 and 2019.

Railway safety oversight systems, known as safety management systems, were introduced by Transport Canada in 2001. The Auditor General noted in its 2021 report on railway safety that Transport Canada is still not effectively assessing whether safety management systems improve safety by reducing the risk of accidents.

The report recommended that railway companies mandate science-based fatigue management practices for workers. Companies have long resisted installing such practices, with Transport Canada being largely deferential to their demands. Fatigue was deemed a contributing factor to the Lac-Mégantic disaster.

Safety management systems remain on the Transportation Safety Board’s watchlist. On the board’s website, it states:

“The TSB has determined that railway companies’ safety management systems are not yet effectively identifying hazards and mitigating risks in rail transportation.”

Fatigue management regulations

In May 2023, the Commons Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities issued a report on railway safety. The report made several recommendations, including:

that Transport Canada strengthen fatigue management rules for operators based on the latest science to protect workers and reduce the risk of disasters in communities across the country;
that Transport Canada develop legislative and/or regulatory structures to ensure predictable scheduling for rail workers that reflect best practices for fatigue management;
and that Transport Canada establish adequate standards for away-from-home rest facilities used by rail employees to ensure proper rest between shifts.

I appeared before the committee’s review of Bill C-33, the Strengthening the Port System and Railway Safety in Canada Act, in late October 2023. I supported the bill’s recommendations on rail safety and assessed Transport Canada’s proposed legislation to amend the Railway Safety Act and the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act.

However, past practice suggests it’s unlikely that Transport Canada will implement the necessary safety regulations anytime soon.

Teamsters Canada Rail Conference members picket outside the CPK headquarters in Calgary on Aug. 23, 2024.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Regulatory capture

The power relationship between Transport Canada and the railway corporations clearly fits within the bounds of regulatory capture theory. Under regulatory capture, corporations have the ability to shape policy, legislation and, ultimately, regulations that govern their operations.

Corporations regularly block or delay new regulations and exert pressure to remove or dilute existing regulations, which they frame as “red tape” that allegedly makes them less competitive or is detrimental to job and wealth creation.

It’s important to note that most civil servants at Transport Canada are conscientious and work to uphold the public interest. The capture relationship generally applies at the leadership level.

Corporate-government interactions are largely shielded from public view. Political agendas are set in private meetings with cabinet ministers, committee chairs and senior bureaucrats, among other lobbying activities. When compared to international legislation, Canada’s access-to-information laws and whistleblower protections rank at or near the weakest.

While the odds of overcoming the status quo are challenging, there are ways the corporate-government power relationship in Canada can be rebalanced, as discussed in my book, Corporate Rules. These measures would minimize vulnerabilities to corporate capture and make regulations more resistant to capture.

Additionally, some experts have convincingly argued that allowing vital national infrastructure like railways to be owned by powerful corporations, rather than the government, is contrary to the public interest. Instead, Canada should consider nationalizing its railways. Läs mer…

Tariff wars are a recurring feature in the global trading system, and tensions between China and Canada have been ongoing for years. These tariff wars are largely driven by geopolitical tensions.

In 2019, for instance, China banned Canadian meat imports following the detention of Huawei’s chief executive officer, Meng Wanzhou. Although China cited the use of banned feed additives in Canadian meat as the reason, many viewed it as a diplomatic response to the rift between Ottawa and Beijing.

Now, China is threatening to investigate Canada for potential dumping of canola into its market. In international trade, dumping is a type of price discrimination where a product is sold at different prices in domestic and export markets. Essentially, it involves selling a product in a foreign market at a price lower than its normal value in the home country.

This decision came after Canada imposed a 100 per cent tariff on electric vehicles and a 25 per cent tariff on steel and aluminium from China effective Oct. 1, 2024. It’s clear this move by China is a direct retaliation for the tariffs on electric vehicles.

Trade tensions between countries can severely disrupt international trade. My previous research demonstrated how trade tensions between Canada and the United States during Donald Trump’s presidency negatively impacted trade between the two countries, particularly in the agri-food sector.

The mere threat of an anti-dumping duty can discourage imports, making anti-dumping laws a form of non-tariff barrier, even when the duty is not actually imposed. Although China has only announced a dumping investigation, the prices of canola oil futures are already being impacted.

A canola plant in full bloom is pictured near Cremona, Alta., in July 2024.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Anti-dumping procedures

As members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), both Canada and China are required to ensure their trade policies comply with its regulations.

Under the WTO framework, members can take action against dumping to protect their domestic markets. However, such actions must follow the established WTO protocols, including filing complaints through the organization’s dispute settlement mechanism.

The WTO’s Anti-Dumping Agreement outlines how countries can respond to dumping. In this case, China would need to prove that Canada is dumping canola, quantify the extent of the dumping and demonstrate that it is causing or threatening harm to Chinese canola farmers.

If China’s investigation uncovers evidence of dumping, it has the right to impose anti-dumping duties. These duties are applied when dumping is proven and shown to have harmed the domestic industry.

The threat or imposition of such duties could significantly disrupt Canada’s canola exports to China, which would have serious implications for Canadian farmers who rely heavily on global markets to sell their products.

Canada’s canola export to China

Canada exports 90 per cent of its total canola production, with exports of canola seed, oil and meal amounting to $15.8 billion in 2023. China is Canada’s second-largest importer of canola, after the U.S., with imports totalling $5 billion in 2023.

This means China accounted for nearly one-third of Canada’s total canola export value that year. Notably, China is the largest market for canola seed, while the U.S. is the largest market for canola oil and meal.

Canola is predominantly exported to China in its primary form (seed) rather than as processed products (oil and meal). The data shows there were stable exports to China from 2014 to 2018, but there was a sharp decline in canola seed exports starting in 2019, which persisted until 2023.

The quantity of Canadian canola products imported by China over the years.
(Canola Council of Canada)

This drop coincides with a period of diplomatic tension between Canada and China, suggesting that trade disputes can have a significant negative impact on bilateral trade. Thus, signalling the current trade war could have devastating effect for canola farmers, especially as China accounts for about 65 per cent of Canada’s canola seed export.

Additionally, Canada’s canola exports have shown limited diversification, relying heavily on just four countries: the U.S., China, Mexico and Japan. Together, these countries accounted for 98 per cent of Canada’s total export value in 2023.

The U.S. led with imports worth $8.6 billion, representing 54 per cent of Canada’s total exports, followed by China with $5 billion (32 per cent), Mexico with $1 billion (six per cent), and Japan with $883 million (5.6 per cent).

Canada’s canola exports heavily rely on the U.S., China, Mexico and Japan.
(Canola Council of Canada)

This heavy reliance on few markets heightens Canada’s vulnerability to trade disruptions. If China imposes anti-dumping tariffs, this could make Canadian canola not competitive in the Chinese market, Canada could risk losing 30 per cent of its canola export value to other potential suppliers. The Canola Council of Canada has acknowledged China as an important and valued market for Canada’s canola.

What’s the way forward?

A canola grower checks on his storage bins full of last year’s crop of canola seed on his farm near Cremona, Alta., in 2019.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Like many advanced economies, Canada seeks to shield its domestic market from the influx of low-cost Chinese products, such as electric vehicles. However, Canada must exercise caution, particularly when adopting trade policies from larger economies like the U.S. and the European Union.

These larger economies hold greater leverage in international trade negotiations, unlike Canada, a small open economy that faces greater risks in engaging in a trade war with China.

Moreover, to support a swift transition to a green economy and help Canada meet its climate target of achieving 100 per cent zero-emission vehicle sales by 2035, it is essential that electric vehicles become more affordable for the average Canadian.

Instead of escalating trade tensions with China, Canada should explore alternative measures such as safeguards or tariff rate quotas on Chinese electric cars. Those approaches could be mutually beneficial and less likely to provoke a tit-for-tat retaliation.

Imposing a prohibitive tariff on electric vehicles from China would come at the expense of other Canadian sectors that rely on Chinese buyers. Canada must tread carefully to avoid sacrificing jobs in the agricultural sector while trying to protect those in the automobile industry.

Canola farmers, in particular, would likely bear the cost of Canada’s unilateral tariff on China. Numerous other sectors could also be targeted, as China would likely retaliate by matching the impact on its own exports.

Canada must strive to minimize diplomatic tensions and avoid trade wars with major global market players, as such conflicts are becoming increasingly frequent. Recent trade disputes, including those with the U.S. during the NAFTA renegotiation, Saudi Arabia over human rights issues and China following the detention of a Huawei executive, can significantly undermine Canada’s export competitiveness. Läs mer…

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has distanced himself from the strident attack his one-time boss Wayne Swan launched on the Reserve Bank, which the former treasurer accused of “putting economic dogma over rational decision-making”.

Swan, who is national president of the Labor Party and was treasurer in the Rudd and Gillard governments, said on Friday the Reserve Bank’s stance was “counterproductive and it’s not good policy”.

“If you look at markets, they’re all forecasting rate drops,” he said. “They’re going down around the world.”

The Reserve Bank continues to reiterate that it is not intending to bring down rates any time soon.

Chalmers, who was accused of shifting blame to the bank when he said a week ago that rate rises were “smashing” the economy, said Swan had gone “much further than I have”.

“I’m making a factual point borne out by the national accounts [of last Wednesday],” he told the ABC on Sunday.

“I don’t second guess the Reserve Bank in the way that Wayne has. My focus is on working with Governor Bullock.

”I’ve got a lot of respect for Governor Bullock. Our objectives are actually aligned to get on top of this inflation challenge, and we need to do that without ignoring the risks to growth,” he said.

Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock has been particularly blunt in saying the bank will do whatever is needed to reduce inflation to the 2-3% target range, including hiking rates again if necessary. Inflation was 3.8% in the June quarter.

Bullock has been equally forthright in spelling out the implications for some home buyers of the present fight against inflation.

She said last week that about 5% of owner-occupiers with variable-rate loans were in “a particularly challenging situation”.

These people had to make “quite painful adjustments to avoid falling behind on their mortgage repayments.

”This includes things like cutting back on their spending to the more essential items, trading down to lower-quality goods and services, dipping into their savings and working extra hours.

”Some may ultimately make the difficult decision to sell their homes,” she said. Lower-income borrowers were “over-represented in the group of people who are really struggling”.

The latest GDP figures, showing the economy crawling, has added fuel to the controversy over the Reserve Banks’s hardline stand.

Chalmers off to China

Meanwhile, Chalmers on Sunday confirmed he will visit China later this month for the Strategic Economic Dialogue. This will be the first visit by an Australian treasurer in seven years.

For Chalmers it will be a fact-finding visit, especially to get an assessment of the growth prospects of the Chinese economy, which have significant implications for Australia.

There is general doubt over the viability of China’s 5% growth target, and the iron ore price has fallen sharply over the course of this year.

Chalmers said his department had modelled a scenario in which a sustained drop in the price of key commodities cost the budget “something like $4.5 billion”.

The relationship with China was “full of complexity, but also full of opportunity, and I want to help the government maximise that opportunity for the Australian people, workers, businesses, employers, investors”.

Chalmers said the talks gave an opportunity to work through issues like foreign investment and trade restrictions and compare notes on how the two countries saw the global economy.

China has lifted most trade restrictions on Australia, although they remain on lobster. Läs mer…

World renowned South African poet James Matthews has died at 95. His was the last great voice of an era of writers who worked against South Africa’s repressive and racist system of apartheid, which resulted in him being relentlessly harassed, detained by police and his work banned.

Schooled in District Six, an area of Cape Town where black people were forcibly removed to make way for white development, he was most famous for his poems. But he was also a journalist, cultural worker, short story writer, novelist, proponent of the Black Consciousness movement and a one-man cultural institution who never stopped speaking truth to power, even after the country’s first democratic elections in 1994.

Hein Willemse is an esteemed literature scholar who was a friend of Matthews and who wrote a book on him. He explains why the death of this remarkable man is such a great loss.

Who was James Matthews?

James was born on 24 May 1929 in the Bo-Kaap district of Cape Town, the eldest of six children. He attended school in District Six.

He worked various menial jobs. One was as a messenger running errands, what was called an “office boy”. He was later employed as an editorial clerk and telephonist at the Cape Times newspaper. He also worked as a reporter for the legendary black South African newspaper Golden City Post in Johannesburg, and later wrote for Muslim News, under the editorship of Imam Abdullah Haron, one of the first anti-apartheid activists to have died in police custody in 1969.

Even as a young boy, James was always interested in writing. Some of his teachers noted his talent and even encouraged him. Even though he left school prematurely, midway through high school, his passion endured. Matthews published his first story in a Cape Town newspaper, The Sun, at the age of 17 and from then on there was no turning back.

Initially, he wrote short stories and published these in various magazines such as Hi-Note and Drum, as well as in a collection called Quartet(1963), edited by celebrated South African writer Richard Rive. His collection of short stories Azikwelwa (1962) was published overseas. It was later republished locally as The Park and other stories (1983). He published an autobiographical novel, The Party is Over (1997), initially published in 1986 in German.

From the 1970s onwards, James almost exclusively concentrated on writing poetry. Today he is known mostly as the poet who published collections such as Cry Rage (1972), Pass me a Meatball, Jones (1977), No Time for Dreams (1981) and Poisoned Wells and Other Delights (1990). Dissidence and political militancy, infused with the self-awareness of Black Consciousness characterise his earlier poetry.

Today we think of James Matthews as an important politically committed writer, especially during the time of political and social oppression in South Africa. His was the persistent voice of political liberation, and freedom of expression. He did not want to be hamstrung by authoritarian political forces, and he abhorred apartheid intensely.

What forces shaped his career?

I think the most important force in his writing career must have been the apartheid strictures forced on black people. One must remember that apartheid not only divided people into social groupings, limiting their potential. It also forced them from their land and homes, impoverished them, and destroyed their neighbourhoods, creating the fiction of them as lesser people. Matthews almost intuitively confronted this inhumanity.

In the late-1960s he found the liberation movement and philosophy Black Consciousness very attractive, especially its core tenets of self-reliance, self-worth and its stress on the commonality of all oppressed people in the country.

His words and his opposition to apartheid landed him in the cross hairs of the apartheid government. For some time he could not travel internationally. The government banned his books and he was detained for extended periods on several occasions.

His post-1994 poetry focuses primarily on the social issues that concerned him: poverty, exclusion, the unfulfilled dreams and the politics of racial and social exclusion practiced by the new government, its excesses, xenophobia. And, inevitably, ageing and death, as evidenced in his Flames and Flowers (2000), Age is a Beautiful Phase (2008) and Gently Stirs my Soul (2015).

What works or achievements particularly stand out for you?

James was an extraordinary, driven person, a non-conformist who would not allow restrictive norms to hem him in. That trait often landed him in hot water even among his friends. When used positively it led to significant cultural moments. For instance he established the first black-owned art gallery in Cape Town, in the suburb of Athlone.

His publishing house Blac published his own work and that of other writers. In old age he often presented poetry writing classes to learners and university students around the country.

I think one must view James’ work as a writer’s perspective on a particular environment and each of his works, his collections of poetry, speaks to a South African historical moment. I prefer to look at the whole, the impact of his oeuvre.

He was recognised internationally quite early on in his career. In the US he was awarded the Woza Afrika Award (1978)link, drafted onto the Kwaza Honours List (1979)link, and awarded a Fellowship in Writing to the University of Iowa in the US. In Germany he received the Freedom of two cities – Lehrte and Nuremberg.

But only in the democratic era did he receive honorary doctorates and awards in South Africa. In 2004 he was awarded the National Order of Ikhamanga for:

his excellent achievements in literature, contributing to journalism, and his inspirational commitment to the struggle for a non-racial South Africa.

In 2022 the Department of Arts and Culture recognised him as “A Living Human Legend”.

How should Matthews be remembered?

Culturally, his death represents the end of an era. James has been a literary and cultural institution in Cape Town, an icon. There is even a mural commemorating his presence in one of the main throughfares in the city.

In South African literature he is part of a generation of pioneering black writers who truly established a tradition of resistance writing in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. His works were among the first to be banned by the apartheid government, and he was an important voice of dissidence during a very difficult time in the country.

Internationally he has been recognised as a person of extraordinary courage and honoured for his consistent commitment to the values of justice and humanity. Läs mer…

A spate of demolitions radically transformed one of the oldest parts of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, in early 2024. The city is home to an estimated 4 million people.

These demolitions were concentrated in the city’s historical Piassa neighbourhood – established over 100 years ago. Thousands of households were displaced in the span of a few weeks, some with as little as five days’ notice.

The demolitions in Piassa drew international attention because of the destruction of numerous historical buildings. However, demolitions in Addis Ababa have become commonplace under Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed’s urban agenda.

This agenda prioritises grand projects designed to attract foreign direct investment to Ethiopia. The projects include sprawling urban parks, real estate developments and a new palace.

Abiy’s urban agenda is ostensibly designed to transform Addis Ababa – which has a population nearly 10 times larger than Ethiopia’s second-largest city – into a city that’s “clean, green and conducive to residents’ wellbeing”.

The projects under this plan, however, have caused the displacement of tens of thousands of the city’s residents.

In my research, I study the implications of large-scale urban projects on Addis Ababa’s residents. My findings show that such projects are often framed in developmental terms. However, this narrative often conceals the displacement, dispossession and forced relocation they cause. This, in turn, exacerbates economic inequality and contributes to instability.

A changing city

Addis Ababa has been changing over the past three decades. The city has expanded in area and population. In recent years, real estate developments, hotels and shopping malls have transformed its façade.

Since Abiy’s rise to power in 2018, this urban transformation has accelerated. The prime minister’s urban renewal agenda seeks to imitate the look of cities in the Gulf.

Read more:
Megaprojects in Addis Ababa raise questions about spatial justice

In February 2024, the Addis Ababa city cabinet approved five road corridor projects designed to improve vehicle and pedestrian infrastructure across the city. Meanwhile, construction continues on the Yeka Hills project, an opulent palace complex occupying over 500 hectares, to serve as the prime minister’s official residence.

The downsides

The projects under Ethiopia’s urban plan are often portrayed as beneficial to all residents of Addis Ababa. This conceals their highly uneven impacts and enormous costs.

The projects currently underway in Addis Ababa are resulting in the demolition of homes and the displacement of people from their neighbourhoods and communities.

In interviews I conducted in 2023, a former employee at an urban planning agency described how the state speaks of development.

You destroy one’s house in anticipation of better houses. It’s (portrayed as) development, it’s an improvement. You take someone’s property and give it (as) an economic opportunity for the other one. What happened to the displaced person, what does he get? Nothing, a very small amount of money.

The road corridor project, for instance, will require the demolition of homes and businesses in several parts of the city.

Similarly, some of the land for the Yeka Hills palace was obtained through the mass eviction of farmers and other residents. People who resisted eviction were forcibly and violently pushed off their land. They faced assault at the hands of state security forces.

Amid this widespread dispossession and displacement, many urban households are being denied any form of compensation because they don’t have the required paperwork to demonstrate ownership of or residence in their homes.

Luckier households receive replacement options. Others are forced to move into shelters that may be inadequate. They are also forced out of their neighbourhoods and communities, which removes the informal support systems many households rely on.

My research notes the multi-generational impact of such displacement and resettlement. As one respondent put it:

… future generations will go to perpetual poverty .. families are destroyed and all sorts of destruction happens for those who are dislocated.

The new urban futures envisioned by the political elite in Ethiopia, therefore, look set to worsen existing economic inequalities because the government doesn’t have mechanisms to protect the interests of the city’s marginalised residents.

Read more:
Ethiopia has one of Africa’s most ambitious housing policies – but the lottery-based system is pulling communities apart

Abiy is far from the first African leader to adopt this model of urban development, which is primarily designed to attract private and foreign capital.

In partnership with private actors and multinational corporations, political and economic elites across the continent are devising plans to construct “shiny new cities”. These spaces are characterised by glittery malls, global fast-food outlets, gated communities and upscale hotels.

These projects look set to widen the wealth gap in the continent as the land that urban residents are living on becomes a prime target for private investment.

Addressing the risks

Political leaders and policy experts can do three things to mitigate these risks.

The most important step is for political leaders to better balance the interests of the city’s residents with the desire to attract foreign private capital. The Ethiopian governmnet’s current approach focuses primarily on the latter and fails to protect residents’ right to the city. Political leaders must prioritise protecting the interests of Addis Ababa’s residents to create a just and equitable city.

Second, policymakers need to help establish stronger legislation that protects residents and smallholder farmers landholding rights. Currently, Ethiopia’s laws on expropriation – which refers to the state taking private property for public use – allow the government to take over land with limited warning and for nearly any reason.

Third, Ethiopia needs policies that force state agencies to consult with affected communities. This would give local people a platform to table their interests in decision-making processes. Läs mer…