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BORDER CHECKPOINT

Quezon City Police District personnel check a public utility jeepney from San Mateo, Rizal, and Marikina City along the Batasan-San Mateo Bridge at a quarantine control point on Tuesday (March 23,
2021). The national government imposed additional restrictions in Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal under general community quarantine status from March 22 to
April 4, 2021, to curb the rising number of coronavirus infections. JOEY O. RAZON/PNA

Vaccine aid, Julian 16

Felipe Reef swarming

‘unrelated’: Locsin
BY JOYCE ANN L. ROCAMORA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – Foreign Affairs Secretary
Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Wednesday said
China’s vaccine aid and the swarming of
Chinese fishing vessels at the Julian Fe-
lipe Reef are two “unrelated” subjects.
The statement came following con-
cerns that the donations could be Bei-
UN chief profoundly
concerned over rising
violence vs. Asians
jing’s way of “softening the blow” of the
unauthorized presence of over 200 Chi-
nese ships on the Philippine exclusive 29
economic zone this month.
“No, it is not. Unrelated. Any diminu-
tion of commitment to the totality of our #Bossbabe: Living the
rights in the West and South China Sea
would disobey President Rodrigo Dute-
Cinty Y Lifestyle
rte’s United Nations declaration and is Wonderful Wooded Stays to
PAGE 22 Celebrate the International
❱❱ PAGE 6 Vaccine aid, Julian Day of Forests

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FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021
Palace wants probe of Tacloban mayor’s
inoculation vs. Covid-19
BY RUTH ABBEY GITA-CARLOS
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – Malacañang on Tuesday
sought an investigation into the sup-
posed administration of a coronavirus
disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine to Ta-
cloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez.
This, after Romualdez uploaded on
his official Facebook page several pho-
tos and a video of him getting inoculated
with CoronaVac vaccine manufactured
by China’s Sinovac Biotech.
In a virtual presser, Presidential
Spokesperson Harry Roque said he
would ask the Department of the Inte-
rior and Local Government (DILG) to
look into Romualdez’s case.
“Of course, we regret this incident but I
will refer the matter to the DILG for prop-
er action dahil kinakailangan po talag-
ang imbestigahan ito (because this really
needs to be investigated),” Roque said.
Romualdez, a Covid-19 survivor, an-
nounced in his Facebook post that the
first CoronaVac vaccine was adminis-
tered to him by a nurse from the Depart-
ment of Health who is deployed at the
City Health Office.
Probe unauthorized inoculation of ‘child of celebrity’: PRRD
BY RUTH ABBEY GITA-CARLOS
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte
on Wednesday directed the Department
of Health (DOH) to conduct an inquiry
into the supposedly unauthorized inocu-
lation of a “child of a celebrity.”
In a pre-recorded speech delivered
Wednesday night, Duterte refused to
divulge the identity of the person who
received the coronavirus disease 2019
(Covid-19) vaccine jab despite not being
on the government’s priority list.
Duterte, however, hinted that the inci-
dent happened in Parañaque.
Dismayed by the report that a “fa-
vored” person jumped the queue to get the
Covid-19 vaccine shot, Duterte advised
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to
elevate the case to the Office of the Om-
budsman.
“Ikaw na ang bahala. Ayoko na lang
magpangalan ng tao. It happened sa
Parañaque. So, anak ito ng artista. Kayo
na ang bahalang mag-imbestiga nito then
kung matapos na ito, let your legal office
handle the… Or i-derecho mo na lang,
make that report out of the incident.
I-derecho mo na lang sa Ombudsman. Mas
mabuti (It’s now up to you. I do not want to
name anyone. It happened in Parañaque.
Based on the photos and the video
uploaded on his Facebook account, Ro-
mualdez is getting inoculated without
face mask and face shield.
Under the government’s national vac-
cination plan, healthcare front-liners top
the priority list of individuals who must
receive the first Covid-19 vaccine jabs.
On Monday, Roque announced that
local officials have been reclassified as
“essential workers” and are now fourth
in line to receive the Covid-19 vaccines.
Roque said official local government
units (LGUs) are now part of the “A4”
priority with other front-line person-
nel in essential sectors, including uni-
formed personnel.
To date, there are 1,634 provincial gov-
ernors and city and municipal mayors and
42,046 village chairpersons nationwide.
Roque, in his latest announcement,
clarified that LGU officials are not yet
allowed to receive the first vaccine shots.
He reiterated that medical front-lin-
ers should be given priority in vaccina-
tion against Covid-19.
“Hindi pa nababago po ang ating
prayoridad. Dapat medical front-liners
pa lang po sa ngayon (Our priority has
not changed. Medical front-liners are
So, it is a child of a celebrity. Investigate
and let your legal office handle the [case]
or make the report out of the incident and
bring it to the Ombudsman),” he said.
Duterte’s statement came after the De-
partment of the Interior and Local Gov-
ernment (DILG) confirmed that actor
Mark Anthony Fernandez got vaccinated
against Covid-19 despite not being a med-
ical front-liner.
Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez,
however, defended Fernandez’ inocula-
tion, saying the actor is eligible to be prior-
itized for Covid-19 vaccination because he
has “comorbidities.”
Olivarez also explained that the local
government had already finished vacci-
nating all the healthcare workers, making
Fernandez qualified to be given priority
for vaccination against the coronavirus.
‘Grey area’ in inoculation of local execs
Meantime, Duterte also said some local
executives have already been ordered to
explain their alleged move to jump the pri-
ority line for Covid-19 vaccination.
He was referring to Mayors Alfred Ro-
mualdez (Tacloban City, Leyte), Dibu
Tuan (T’boli, South Cotabato), Sulpicio
Villalobos (Sto Niño, South Cotabato),
Noel Rosal (Legazpi, Albay), and Abraham
Ibba (Bataraza, Palawan) who were issued
show-cause orders for jumping the queue
to get their coronavirus vaccine shots.
www.canadianinquirer.net
Philippine News
the only ones who can receive the vac-
cine shots),” Roque said.
Roque also warned that future deliv-
eries of vaccines through the Vaccines
Global Access (COVAX) Facility would
be affected if similar incident happens
again.
“So again po, uulitin natin, hindi po pu-
puwedeng magpabakuna muna ang hindi
medical front-liners dahil kung susuway
po tayo dito sa order of priority na ito,
maapektuhan po yung ating future deliv-
eries galing sa COVAX Facility (So again,
I repeat, non-medical front-liners are not
yet allowed to be vaccinated because if we
violate the order of priority, the future
deliveries of vaccines through COVAX
Facility would be affected),” he said.
Duterte added that apart from the five
local officials, Mayors Elanito Peña (Min-
glanilla, Cebu), Victoriano Torres III (Ali-
cia, Bohol), Virgilio Mendez (San Miguel,
Bohol), and Arturo Piollo II (Lila, Bohol)
also received Covid-19 vaccine jabs ahead
of other prioritized groups.
He admitted that there was a “grey
area” in the inoculation of the local chief
executives.
“Well, ako, medyo grey area iyan na
dapat talaga ang mauna, whether or not
they jumped the Covid-19 line of vaccina-
tion, would require a certain amount of
legal study. So ‘yun lang po. Sila ‘yung may
show-cause order bakit sila ang nauna
instead of following, seeing to it the list is
followed religiously at hindi nasunod (For
me, there’s a grey area there, hence, identi-
fying people who should be given priority,
whether or not they jumped the Covid-19
line of vaccination, would require a cer-
tain amount of legal study. So that’s it.
They were issued show-cause orders be-
cause instead of following, seeing to it the
list is followed religiously, they already got
vaccinated),” Duterte said.
Duterte made the admission, as he ac-
knowledged the “universal excuse” of
the local officials that they decided to get
inoculated to boost public confidence in
Covid-19 vaccines.
“Ang rason nila, I think it’s the universal
3
ALFRED ROMUALDEZ/FACEBOOK
The Department of Health (DOH)
also echoed Roque’s remarks.
“The DOH once again emphasizes
that because our vaccines are limited,
these doses should first be given to our
healthcare workers who most need and
deserve it,” Health Undersecretary Ma-
ria Rosario Vergeire said in a message to
reporters.
Vergeire also called on government
officials to wait for their turn and follow
the approved prioritization framework
in the vaccination drive employed by the
national government.
The Philippines targets to inoculate
up to 70 million Filipinos within the
year. (with report from Teresa Monte-
mayor/PNA) ■
excuse na para hindi matakot ‘yung mga
constituent (Their reason, I think it’s the
universal excuse to allay fears of their con-
stituents),” he said.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry
Roque announced Monday that local of-
ficials have been reclassified as “essential
workers” and are now fourth in line to re-
ceive the Covid-19 vaccines.
Roque said official local government
units (LGUs) are now part of the “A4”
priority with other front-line personnel
in essential sectors, including uniformed
personnel.
There are currently 1,634 provincial
governors and city and municipal may-
ors and 42,046 village chairpersons all
throughout the country.
Duterte warned that the Philippines
might lose Covid-19 vaccines that it is
expected to receive through the World
Health Organization (WHO)-led Vaccines
Global Access (COVAX) Facility.
“Dapat sundin natin kasi sinabi sa atin
ng country representative ng WHO, ‘If you
do not follow the list of priority, you might
lose the assistance of the WHO.’ ‘Yun ang
pagkasabi (We have to follow [the priority
list] because the WHO country represen-
tative had told us, ‘If you do not follow the
list of priority, you might lose the assis-
tance of the WHO.’ That’s what we were
told),” he said. ■
4 Philippine News MARCH 26, 2021 FRIDAY

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BY RUTH ABBEY GITA-CARLOS Sobejana said around 183 vessels be-

Philippine News Agency
MANILA– President Rodrigo Duter-
te has intended to hold a dialogue with
Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines
Huang Xilian to discuss the presence
of the alleged Chinese maritime mili-
tia vessels in the West Philippine Sea’s
(WPS) Julian Felipe Reef (Union Reefs),
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issues in the WPS.
The Chinese Embassy in the Philip-

Malacañang said on Tuesday.
Duterte wants to resolve the issue
with China, which he considers as a
close ally of the Philippines, through
PRRD questions
pines clarified Monday that the spotted
boats were fishing vessels taking shelter
near Julian Felipe Reef “due to rough
sea conditions.”

a diplomatic approach, Presidential
Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a vir-
tual press briefing.
“Sabi kahapon ni Presidente, kakau-
sapin niya ang Chinese ambassador
tungkol sa isyung ito. Sabi naman niya
wala namang hindi napapag-usapan sa
panig ng mga magkakaibigan (The Pres-
ident said yesterday that he would raise
the issue to the Chinese ambassador. He
said the issue would be settled between
two friends),” Roque said.
In a Twitter post on Sunday, Foreign
Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. an-
nounced that the Philippines has filed
a diplomatic protest against China over
the presence of Chinese maritime mili-
tia vessels in Julian Felipe Reef, which
is within the Philippines’ exclusive eco-
nomic zone (EEZ).
The Armed Forces of the Philippines
(AFP) confirmed Monday that Chinese
militia boats were spotted within coun-
try’s EEZ and continental shelf.
AFP chief-of-staff Lt. Gen. Cirilito
Pres. Rodrigo Roa Duterte and Chinese Pres. Xi Jinping on April 25, 2019.
The Chine embassy added that the spec-
ulation only causes “unnecessary irritation.”
Julian Felipe Reef is a large boomer-
ang-shaped, shallow coral reef at the
northeast of Pagkakaisa Banks and Reefs
(Union Reefs) located approximately 175
nautical miles west of Bataraza, Palawan.
The National Task Force for the West
Philippine Sea earlier raised worry over
the Philippine Coast Guard report that
around 220 Chinese fishing vessels be-
lieved to be manned by Chinese mar-
itime militia personal were sighted in
line formation at the Julian Felipe Reef
on March 7.
China claims nearly the entire re-
source-rich South China Sea. It has
competing claims with the Philippines,
Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
On July 12, 2016, the Permanent Court
of Arbitration in The Hague, Nether-
lands ruled in favor of the Philippines’
petition against China’s supposedly his-
toric rights over almost the entire dis-
puted South China Sea..■
KING RODRIGUEZ/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO
indemnity clause
in vaccine contracts
BY AZER PARROCHA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – President Rodrigo Duter-
te on Monday questioned the demand of
vaccine manufacturers for the national
government to shoulder liability for ad-
verse effects of Covid-19 vaccines pro-
cured by the private sector.
Duterte, a lawyer and former prosecu-
tor, said he found “holes” under the in-
demnity clause in vaccine procurement
contracts that require government to
assume liability for private sector-pro-
cured vaccines.
“The government cannot guarantee
much less give you an immune status na
(that) you are freed of any and all liabil-
ity. I think we cannot even do that even
if we wanted to yung assumption of lia-
bility,” he said in a pre-recorded public
address.
He said his reason for raising reserva-
tions is because the government would
be prevented from going after vaccine
manufacturers.
“In the first place hindi atin ‘yan,
ngayon kung nagka letse letse ‘yan (it’s
not ours so if there are problems like)
mishandling or for whatever reason it is
not as effective as advertised then they
will go after against whom? Ang gusto ng
mga manufacturers na ang private sec-
tor magbili, ang gobyerno mag assume
ng liaibility. Hindi ho puwede yung ga-
nun. May malaking butas diyan actually
(Manufacturers want the private sector
to buy them and government to assume
liability. That cannot be the case. There’s
a huge hole there). Assumption of liabili-
ty na ganun (like that),” he added.
Duterte said the indemnity clause in
vaccine procurement contracts could
even be “illegal”.
“We are not allowed to sign any agree-
ment to that effect na nandiyan naka-
latag lahat (with those conditions) they
are the buyers of such and such tapos
nandun yung payment tapos nandun
yung indemnification na gobyerno mag-
bayad (and the payment is there and the
government assumes liability)? I do not
think that it will be legal,” he said.
An act of Congress, he said, may be
needed to resolve the questionable in-
demnity clause.
“Ang makagawa lang ‘yan is Congress,
wala nang iba (Only the Congress can
take action, no one else),” he said.
On February 26, Duterte signed into
law the Covid-19 Vaccination Program
Act of 2021 that aims to fast-track the
administration of Covid-19 vaccines and
establish a PHP500-million indemnifi-
cation fund for those who may show ad-
verse side effects after getting the shot.
The fund will be sourced from the
2021 national budget’s Contingent Fund
and administered by the Philippine
Health Insurance Corp.
The law also allows local government
units (LGUs) and the private sector to
purchase Covid-19 vaccines. ■
FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021 5

www.canadianinquirer.net
 6 Philippine News MARCH 26, 2021 FRIDAY

Pinoys urged to observe double

masking vs. Covid-19
BY RUTH ABBEY GITA-
CARLOS
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – Chief Presiden-
tial Legal Counsel Salvador
Panelo on Wednesday urged
his fellow Filipinos to wear two
face masks to protect them-
selves against the coronavirus
disease 2019 (Covid-19).
In his commentary show
“Counterpoint,” Panelo said
doctors have recommended the
practice of double masking to
give people additional protec-
tion against the new and more
transmissible coronavirus vari-
ants.
“Kung maaari lang po, tayo
ay maging conscious in wear-
ing our face mask. Doble na po
ang mga mask natin sapagkat
sabi ng mga doctor po, kailan-
gan mag-doble ka na kasi ang
mga variant na iyan eh matin-
di. Baka meron kang mask na
isa, eh makapasok pa (Let us be
more conscious in wearing our
face mask. Let’s observe dou-
ble masking because doctors
have said we need to double our
masks because the new variants
are more infectious),” Panelo
said.
Panelo made the call amid the
continuing spike in Covid-19
infections in the country.
On Wednesday, the Depart-
ment of Health (DOH) logged
6,666 new confirmed cases,
increasing the total active
Covid-19 cases to 91,754. It
also recorded 1,072 new recov-
eries and 47 deaths, bringing
the overall tally of recoveries
to 579,518 and the death toll to
13,039.
To curb the spread of the
coronavirus nationwide, Pan-
elo reiterated his call on the
public to observe two-meter
physical distancing, wash their
hands regularly, avoid touching
their face, eat nutritious food,
drink plenty of water, and have
enough sleep.
“Be sure you have a healthy
body,” he said. “Iyan lang
naman po ang solusyon sa surge
sa coronavirus (That is the only
solution to stop the surge in
coronavirus cases).”
The Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention (CDC),
in its official website, has pro-
posed adding more layers to a
face mask to stop the further
transmission of Covid-19.
The CDC has advised the
public to wear a disposable
mask underneath a cloth mask.
It has discouraged them from
combining two disposable face
masks, as well as combining
a KN95 mask with any other
mask.
Panelo expressed dismay
that despite the government’s
repeated reminders, Filipinos
tend to forget to follow the min-
imum public health standards.
He said the public’s apparent
defiance contributed to the up-
ward trend in coronavirus in-
fections in the country.
“Nagkakalimutan kaya we
make it a point we keep on re-
peating kahit na nayayamot
na akong mapakinggan ‘yung
sarili kong inuulit ko. We have
to repeat it like yung paggamit
ng face mask. Eh hindi ho kasi
natutupad yun (They forget so
we make it a point we keep on
repeating the reminders even if
it is already annoying. We have
to repeat it, like the wearing of arestuhin pa tayo dahil nagiging of curfew hours in Metro Ma-
face mask because it is not be- masyado na tayong makulit (Let nila.
ing fully implemented),” Pane- us not wait for that moment Due to a spike in Covid-19
lo said. that we will either be warned cases in the country, Presi-
Panelo also warned that or apprehended because we are dent Rodrigo Duterte was also
quarantine violators would face disobeying the rules),” he said. forced to approve the recom-
arrest. The Philippine National Po- mendation to impose addition-
“Huwag na tayong magh- lice has arrested a total of 1,449 al restrictions in Metro Manila,
intay sa pagkakataon na ma- violators on March 15, the first Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and
pagsabihan pa tayo o kaya baka day of the re-implementation Rizal until April 4. ■

Vaccine aid, Julian...

❰❰ 1 tantamount to disloy-
alty to the Republic,”
Locsin said on Twitter.
A total of 400,000 doses of
CoronaVac vaccines arrived in
Manila on Wednesday morn-
ing, bringing to one million the
total Covid-19 jabs Beijing do-
nated to the country.
In an interview on the side-
lines of its arrival, Chinese
Ambassador Huang Xilian
described the aid as an act of
goodwill to help a neighbor bet-
ter respond to the pandemic.
“As neighbors, we are helping
each other in trying times, this
is another joint effort which
shows the kind of closer friend-
ship and partnership between
our two countries,” he said.
Concerns were raised follow-
ing a Monday confirmation by
the Armed Forces of the Phil-
ippines that about 183 Chinese
fishing vessels still linger in the
vicinity of Julian Felipe Reef af-
ter the Department of Foreign
Affairs (DFA) on Sunday issued
a diplomatic protest against the
presence of the ships on Philip-
pine waters.
‘Twitter spat’
The United States immedi-
ately backed Manila, with oth-
er countries, such as Australia,
the United Kingdom, and Japan
also raising concerns on the re-
gion’s situation-- a majority of
whom relayed their positions
over Twitter.
The Chinese Embassy in
Manila responded to Tokyo
by quote-retweeting Japanese
Ambassador to Manila Koshi-
kawa Kazuhiko that “China as a
littoral state of the South China
Sea is committed to managing
differences through bilateral
consultations”.
Apparently alluding to Japan,
the Embassy said: “It is a pity
that some Asian country, which
has disputes with China in the
East China Sea and is driven by
the selfish aim to check China’s
DFA Sec. Teodoro Locsin, Jr.
@DFA/PHL/TWITTER
revitalization, willingly stoops
to acting as a strategic vassal of
the US.”
“Such despicable behavior is
inviting the wolf into the house,
betraying the collective inter-
ests of the whole region and
doomed to fail,” it added.
Australia was among the lat-
est foreign government to air
its side on the South China Sea
situation, saying it remains con-
cerned about “destabilizing ac-
tions” that could provoke an es-
calation of tension in the region.
“Australia supports an In-
do-Pacific region which is se-
cure, open, and inclusive. The
South China Sea-- a crucial in-
ternational waterway-- is gov-
erned by international rules
and norms, particularly UN-
CLOS [United Nations Con-
vention on the Law of the Sea].
We remain concerned about
destabilizing actions that could
provoke escalation,” Australian
Ambassador Steven Robinson
said in a tweet Wednesday. ■

www.canadianinquirer.net
FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021
PH receives another batch of
China-donated Covid-19 vaccine
BY JOYCE ANN L.
ROCAMORA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – A total of 400,000
vaccine doses of Chinese-do-
nated CoronaVac arrived in
Manila on Wednesday morn-
ing, securing enough doses
for about 200,000 medical
front-liners in the Philippines.
The Philippine Airlines flight
carrying the second batch of
donations landed at the Ninoy
Aquino International Airport
Terminal 2 around 7:23 a.m.
In a statement, Chinese Am-
bassador Huang Xilian said this
latest aid brings to 1 million
the total jabs donated by Bei-
jing, which reflects the “closer
friendship and partnership” be-
tween the two nations.
“We hope we will continue to
speed up the mass vaccination
in this country so that you will
win over the war against the vi-
rus and allow the economic re-
covery at an early date,” he told
reporters in an interview.
Health Secretary Francis-
3rd stimulus package much-needed
lifeline for Pinoys: Velasco
BY FILANE MIKEE
CERVANTES
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – Speaker Lord
Allan Velasco on Wednesday
said a third economic stimu-
lus package would provide the
“much-needed lifeline” for im-
pacted households and busi-
nesses amid the upsurge in
coronavirus disease (Covid-19)
cases in the country.
Velasco said another round
of economic stimulus package
worth PHP420 billion under
his proposed “Bayanihan to
Arise As One Act” (Bayanihan
3) is necessary as more areas
were placed under localized
lockdowns and some business-
es were again forced to shut
down due to the upward trend
in the number of new cases, es-
pecially in the National Capital
VACCINE ARRIVAL. A personnel wearing personal protective equipment disin-
fects the boxes of 400,000 doses of China-donated Sinovac vaccine before they
are transferred to a cold delivery truck at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport
(NAIA) Terminal 2 in Pasay City on Wednesday (March 24, 2021).
co Duque III, Covid-19 testing
czar and National Task Force
(NTF) deputy chief implement-
Region.
“There are a lot of Filipinos
who are suffering financial-
ly and are in dire need of help
now,” Velasco said. “A third
economic stimulus package will
provide a much-needed lifeline
to individuals, families, and
businesses severely affected by
the pandemic.”
It proposes to allocate
PHP108 billion for additional
social amelioration to impacted
households, PHP100 billion for
capacity-building for impacted
sectors, PHP52 billion for wage
subsidies, PHP70 billion for ca-
pacity-building for agricultural
producers, PHP30 billion for
internet allowances to students
and teachers, PHP30 billion for
assistance to displaced work-
ers, PHP25 billion for Covid-19
treatment and vaccines, and
PHP5 billion for the rehabilita-
tion of areas impacted by recent
AVITO C. DALAN/PNA
er Secretary Vince Dizon, and
Senator Christopher Lawrence
Go witnessed the arrival and
floods and typhoons.
Under the measure, each
household member will receive
PHP1,000 regardless of their
economic status. On top of this,
a PHP1,000 allowance will be
provided to each student and
teacher and PHP8,000 for ev-
ery displaced worker.
Velasco said he got an assur-
ance from Finance Secretary
Carlos Dominguez III that ef-
forts are being made to identify
funding sources for the Bayani-
han 3.
“It’s a matter of finding rev-
enues to be able to fund those
programs. Secretary Domin-
guez did not actually shoot
down Bayanihan 3,” Velasco
said.
Velasco said a third stimu-
lus package is necessary in the
wake of a Philippine Statistics
Authority report that around 4
million adult Filipinos, repre-
www.canadianinquirer.net
Philippine News
collectively extended gratitude
to China on behalf of the Philip-
pine government.
Both Duque and Go said
the aid would benefit medi-
cal front-liners who need the
immediate immunization the
most.
“It would go a long way in
giving protection to our people
in general and our healthcare
workers in particular. It’s going
to help us because the health-
care workers are the ones tak-
ing care of the patients and
cases, which has increased over
the last month so the priority is
them,” Duque said.
Duque underscored the need
to maintain the growing confi-
dence for the CoronaVac vac-
cines, which he said has “im-
proved tremendously” since
the first batch’s arrival.
“We have to maintain that
confidence, that growing confi-
dence for the Sinovac vaccines
so we are appreciative of these
vaccines. We’ll consume as
quickly as possible these vac-
cines,” he said.
“The arrival of these vac-
senting 8.7 percent of the labor
force, lost their jobs in the first
Speaker Lord Allan Velsco
7
cines could not have occurred
at a more opportune time con-
sidering the continued rise in
cases, which in turn increas-
es the need to inoculate more
high-risk individuals as soon as
possible,” Duque said in a news
release.
Go, meanwhile, said the gov-
ernment’s first procurement
will arrive on March 29, to be
received by President Rodrigo
Duterte himself.
Dizon said most of the new-
ly-arrived CoronaVac doses
will be allocated for Metro Ma-
nila and the provinces of Lagu-
na, Bulacan, Cavite, and Rizal
where surges in cases have been
recorded.
After disinfection at the
NAIA, the crates carrying the
vaccines were transported to
the Metropac Movers, Inc. in
Marikina City for storage.
The country is expected to
receive almost 2 million vac-
cine doses -- one million are
procured from Sinovac and
979,200 AstraZeneca doses
from COVAX Facility by the end
of the month. ■
month of the year even as the
economy further reopens. ■
AVITO DALAN/PNA
8 Philippine News
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Member
MARCH 26, 2021 FRIDAY
Private companies can
purchase Covid-19
vaccines: Palace
BY AZER PARROCHA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – Malacañang on Monday
announced that all private companies,
including cigarette firms, are allowed
to purchase Covid-19 vaccines provided
they enter into tripartite agreements
with the national government and the
manufacturers.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry
Roque made this clarification after law-
makers questioned a supposed draft
administrative order (AO) prohibit-
ing private companies from importing
Covid-19 vaccines for their employees,
even describing the document as “ille-
gal.”
Under the supposed draft AO, the
Department of Health and the National
Task Force Against Covid-19 (NTF) will
review requests of private companies
to purchase vaccines “to ensure that
private entities who will be part of the
agreement are not in any way related to
the tobacco industry, products covered
under EO 51 series of 1986 or the ‘Na-
tional Code of Marketing of Breastmilk
Substitutes, Breastmilk Supplement and
Other Related Products’ or other prod-
ucts in conflict with public health.” wede nang bumili ang lahat ng kump- cines under a tripartite agreement only
However, Roque said the implement- anya para sa kanilang mga empleyado if 50 percent of the supply will be donat-
ing rules and regulations (IRR) of Re- e wala pa po tayong mga commercially ed to the government.
public Act 11525 or the Covid-19 Vacci- available na mga bakuna (The tripar- “Napansin ko po ‘yan na sa batas wala
nation Law has been amended to allow tite agreement cannot be avoided since pong provision na 50 percent ido-do-
private companies to procure Covid-19 there is no commercially available vac- nate, pero sa tripartite agreement po na-
vaccines for their employees. cine available yet),” he said. kasulat po ‘yan. So sa tingin ko po kung
The Covid-19 Vaccination Law pro- Roque also pointed out that all ang gagamitin pong dokumento ay yung
vides a legal framework for the vaccina- Covid-19 vaccines have only been ap- tripartite agreement, e meron pa rin
tion program, including the participa- proved for emergency use. pong donasyon sa gobyerno but I could
tion of private entities in that effort. “Lahat po ng mga bakuna sa ngayon ay be wrong kasi pupuwede na maamy-
“Puwede na pong bumili ng baku- sakop lamang ng emergency use autho- endahan na yung tripartite agreement,
na ang lahat ng pribadong kumpanya rization kaya kinakailangan pa rin po na yung model form, as a result of the pas-
kasama ang cigarette companies ayon pumasok ang gobyerno sa pagbili ng mga sage of the law (I noticed that in the law
ho sa amended implementing rules and bakunang ito sa pamamagitan nga po there’s no provision that 50 percent
regulations (IRR) ng RA 11525 or the ng tripartite agreements (All of the vac- should be donated to government but
Covid-19 Vaccination Law subject pa rin cines are under emergency use authori- in the tripartite agreement it’s stated
po sa tripartite agreement kasama ng zation that’s why the government needs there. So, I think if we use the tripartite
pribadong sektor (Private firms, includ- to enter into a tripartite agreement),” he agreement, the donation is required but
ing cigarette companies can purchase added. I could be wrong because the tripartite
vaccines according to the amended IRR The DOH on Sunday explained that agreement could also be amended as a
or RA 11525 or the Covid-19 Vaccination it was still finalizing the draft AO which result of the passage of the law),” he said.
Law subject to tripartite agreement),” would contain the IRR for the Covid-19 Business groups have urged the gov-
he said in a virtual press briefing. Vaccination Law. ernment to allow the private sector to
He noted that private firms must en- In a statement, the DOH said it is buy Covid-19 vaccines directly without
ter into tripartite agreements with the “still in the process of reconciling the restrictions or conditions to avoid get-
vaccine manufacturers and the national proposed provisions with other existing ting left behind by neighbors.
government because Covid-19 vaccines laws and guidelines.” The private sector was previously able
are not yet commercially available in the Meanwhile, Roque said he would clar- to buy AstraZeneca vaccines, but only
market. ify with vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. under the condition that 50 percent of
“Hindi po pupuwedeng mawala ang the supposed condition allowing private the doses would be donated to the gov-
tripartite agreement kasi bagamat pu- companies to purchase Covid-19 vac- ernment. ■
www.canadianinquirer.net
FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021
Senate resolution calls for protection
of judges, lawyers
BY Philippine News Agency
MANILA – The Senate on
Wednesday adopted a resolu-
tion condemning the rampant
killings and acts of violence
against members of the legal
profession and urging Presi-
dent Rodrigo Roa Duterte to
take the necessary steps to en-
sure their safety and protection.
Senate Resolution No. 691
was introduced by Senate Mi-
nority Leader Franklin Drilon
and Senators Juan Edgardo
“Sonny” Angara, Pia Cayeta-
no, Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan,
Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III
and Francis “Tol” Tolentino. All
senators were made co-authors
of the resolution.
“We condemn, in the stron-
gest sense, the killings of and
acts of violence against mem-
bers of the bar and bench. To
not act nor speak will be an act
Senate approves DITO franchise
BY Philippine News Agency
MANILA – On the last day
of the session before the Holy
Week recess, the Senate on
Monday approved the fran-
chises of DITO Telecommunity
Corp., another telecommunica-
tions company, and four broad-
cast firms.
Senator Grace Poe, the chair-
person of the Committee on
Public Services, steered the
passage of the measures.
The franchise of DITO Tele-
community Corp got the ap-
proval of 17 senators, with
Senators Risa Hontiveros and
Francis Pangilinan voting
against it and Senator Panfilo
Lacson abstaining.
Previously, the telecommu-
nications sector was being dom-
inated by SMART/Philippine
Long Distance Company and
Globe Telecommunications.
Poe said the entry of DITO
Telecommunity as a new major
player in the Philippine tele-
communications market would
spur the competition for more
affordable and better internet
and mobile services available to
of cowardice,” Drilon said in his
sponsorship speech.
“We further urge the Presi-
dent to undertake the necessary
steps in ensuring the safety and
protection of the judges, prose-
cutors and lawyers. We ask that
he lays out definitive solutions
and actions to address the ram-
pant and unspeakable violence
and killings. We petition for
prompt, impartial and efficient
investigation and prosecution
of the cases. We seek justice for
our slain colleagues,” he added.
Drilon said in the last 20 years,
100 lawyers were murdered.
He cited a Department of Jus-
tice (DOJ) data which showed
that 54 members of the legal
profession had been killed since
2016. Of that number, he said 13
were prosecutors and eight were
judges. The DOJ data showed
that only five of the cases had ac-
tually reached the courts.
He said the Free Legal As-
more Filipinos.
House Bill 7332 seeks to re-
new DITO’s franchise for an-
other 25 years. DITO holds a
congressional franchise via
Mindanao Islamic Telephone
Company, Inc., which is set to
expire in 2023.
DITO, which was launched
commercially last March 8 in
various areas in Visayas and
Mindanao, was selected as the
new major player in the Phil-
ippine telecommunications
market. It was given a five-year
network rollout to realize its
commitment to provide at least
55 mbps (megabits per second)
of mobile data connectivity to
at least 84 percent of the coun-
try’s population.
The Senate also approved on
third and final reading House
Bill 7615, under Committee
Report No. 207, which seeks to
grant the franchise of Instant
Data Inc.
Other approved on third
reading were four broadcast
franchise applications. These
are:
-- House Bill 7488, under
Committee Report No. 212,
seeks to grant the franchise of
Philippine News 9
sistance Group (FLAG) had nation of prompt and efficient stop to this madness.”
pegged deaths at an even higher investigation, and impartial Drilon said the failure to
number at 61. prosecution,” Drilon said. “This condemn, investigate and pros-
Aside from the ecute the brazen
killings, Drilon said killings against the
there were also legal community
threats, harass- and bring the per-
ments, intimida- petrators to justice
tions, surveillance We further urge the President is an act of injustice
and some other in itself.
forms of attacks, to undertake the necessary He said lawyers,
such as the rapid es- steps in ensuring the safety prosecutors and
calation of red-tag- judges play a crucial
ging against lawyers. and protection of the judges, role in the adminis-
He said the le- tration of justice in
gal community was
prosecutors and lawyers. the country, espe-
shaken early this cially in represent-
month by a request ing the most mar-
from a police lieu- ginalized members
tenant from Cal- of the community.
bayog City asking “They should be
the Calbayog Regional Trial horrendous pattern of taking able to exercise their sworn
Court for a list of lawyers who lives and violence, impunity, duties and represent their cli-
represent terrorist/communist lack of accountability and apa- ents or dispense justice without
group personalities. thy are symptoms of a govern- threats, persecution and fear
“The situation is made worse ment run by the rule of men and for their safety and their lives,”
by the lack of general condem- not by rule of law. We must put a he added. ■
Davao City Radio Broadcast- cacy campaigns, as well as the University of the Philippines
ing Station. In light of the pri- city’s programs and projects. which airs in Mega Manila,
ority agenda of the Davao City -- House Bill 7616, taking into Central Luzon, and Southern
government on disaster risk consideration Senate Bill 1462, Tagalog. Its radio programs are
reduction, they plan to set up a under Committee Report No. the collaborative effort of the
community radio for emergen- 214, seeks to renew the fran- different colleges and units of
cy response and preparedness. chise of the University of the the University.
The broadcast station will also Philippines System. DZUP 1602 --House Bill 8553, under
be used to disseminate advo- is the official radio station of the Committee Report No. 217,
seeks to renew the franchise of
Palawan Broadcasting Corp. At
present, Palawan Broadcasting
Corp. has radio stations in Tay-
tay and Coron, Palawan, and in
Catbalogan, Samar. In its ear-
ly days, the company operates
specifically for urgent personal
messages known as ‘panawa-
gan.’ After being shut down
during martial law, it continued
its broadcast services in 1986
and has been incorporating
news, education, and entertain-
ment formats.
-- And House Bill 8860, taking
into consideration Senate Bill
2059 under Committee Report
No. 221, seeks to grant the fran-
chise of Highland Broadcasting
Network Corp. which will pro-
vide broadcast services in North-
ern Mindanao, in unserved and
underserved areas specifically
SENATE OF THE PHILIPPINES/FACEBOOK the agricultural towns. ■
www.canadianinquirer.net
10 Philippine News MARCH 26, 2021 FRIDAY

Loans for Covid-19 vaccines still with

multilateral lenders
BY AZER PARROCHA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – President Rodri-
go Duterte on Monday reiter-
ated that the approved loans
made by the Philippines to pur-
chase Covid-19 vaccines are still
with multilateral lenders.
This, after Senators Panfilo
“Ping” Lacson and Risa Honti-
centavo” from the borrowed
funds because they have yet to
receive doses of the Covid-19
vaccines they purchased.
“Ang buong akala kasi nila
yung pera na bilyon bilyon na
ibinigay nila nandiyan na ka-
may natin (They must have
thought that the billions they
gave us are in our hands), that
is cold cash. Sinasabi na na-
tin (We keep saying) time and
again that the money is with the
VAX facility, the World Health
Organization’s (WHO) global
vaccine sharing scheme.
Duterte said the Sino-
vac-made CoronaVac Covid-19
vaccines that will be arriving
this week are the ones pur-
chased by the government and
that it would be the time that
the bank will pay the vaccine
manufacturer.
“It’s the bank who will pay President Rodrigo Roa Duterte on March 22, 2021.
upon our advice na nadeliv- KING RODRIGUEZ/ PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

veros questioned where the funds
for the Covid-19 vaccines are.
Duterte defended the gov-
ernment’s financing scheme
for vaccines, noting that they
had to borrow funds from mul-
tilateral lenders — World Bank,
Asian Development Bank, and
the Asian Infrastructure In-
vestment Bank (AIIB) — to be
able pay for vaccines.
He explained that the gov-
ernment has not used “a single
lending bank still so we have
not used any single centavo be-
cause as a matter of fact about
the vaccines that we are going
to buy pero donated ito lahat sa
ngayon (but what we have now
is all donated),” he said.
For its initial vaccination
rollout that started on March
1, the government is using
600,000 doses donated vac-
cines from Chinese drugmaker
Sinovac and 525,600 from CO-
er na yung bakuna. Hindi tayo
ang magpunta, sila through
paperwork (that the vaccines
have been delivered. We won’t
pay for them, it’s them paying
through paperwork),” he added.
He, meanwhile, allayed con-
cerns that the government’s fi-
nancing scheme for Covid-19 vac-
cines is tainted with corruption.
“If you are afraid of cor-
ruption let your mind go easy
because these things are not
susceptible to anything. The
money is in the hands of the
bank and they collect, yung
nagpabili sa’tin ng bakuna (the
vaccine manufacturers collect),
from the bank. Hindi sa atin
na pumunta ‘yan kay [Finance
Secretary] Sonny Dominguez
na bubuksan niya yung draw-
er tapos sasabihin niya ‘Eto na
yung pambayad.’ Hindi ho (It
doesn’t pass through us or Son-
ny Dominguez where he can
just open his drawer and say
‘Here’s the payment.’ It’s not
like that),” he said.
Dominguez, for his part, ex-
plained that vaccine financing
only amounts to PHP82.5 bil-
lion, not trillions of pesos.
He added that borrowing
funds from multilateral lenders
is a form of taking advantage of
lower interest rates. ■

Japan: SCS issues ‘directly related’ to

regional peace, stability
BY JOYCE ANN L.
ROCAMORA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – The Japanese
Embassy in Manila on Tuesday
chimed in on the current sit-
uation in the South China Sea
(SCS), hours after the United
States expressed its concern
over the swarming of some 200
Chinese vessels at the Julian
Felipe Reef in the Philippines’
exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
In a statement, Japanese Am-
bassador Koshikawa Kazuhiko
said issues related to the strate-
gic waters are “directly related”
to the region’s stability.
“The South China Sea issues
are directly related to peace
and stability and a concern for
all. Japan strongly opposes any
action that heightens tensions,”
Kazuhiko said on Twitter. “We
support the enforcement of
rule of law in the sea and work
with the international commu-
nity to protect the free, open,
and peaceful seas.”
The Armed Forces of the
Philippines confirmed on Mon-
day that about 183 vessels be-
lieved to be Chinese maritime
militia were sighted by a Philip-
pine maritime air patrol in Ju-
lian Felipe Reef, also known as
Whitsun Reef, about 175 nauti-
cal miles off Palawan.
The US, the country’s de-
fense ally, said it stands with
the Philippines as it expressed
concern over this unauthorized
and lingering presence of Chi-
nese fishing vessels on Philip-
pine waters.
In response, the Chinese Em-
bassy in Manila took to Twitter
and even tagged the official
handle of the US Embassy in
OIMAX/FLICKR, CC BY 2.0
the Philippines to tell Washing-
ton to stay out of the South Chi-
na Sea issue. the regional peace and stabili- sues through bilateral channels.”
“The US is not a party to the ty,” it said. The Philippine government,
South China Sea issue. Fanning It added that both China and through the Department of For-
flames and provoking confron- the Philippines are sovereign eign Affairs, told China to im-
tation in the region will only and independent countries and mediately withdraw its fishing
serve selfish interests of indi- “have the will, wisdom, and abil- vessels on the country’s waters
vidual country and undermine ity to properly handle relevant is- in the West Philippine Sea. ■

www.canadianinquirer.net
FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021
Canada News
Canada needs a university-based,
domestic vaccine-making capability
BY LESLIE BOEHM, GREGORY P.
MARCHILDON
Policy Options
Canada lost its edge in the ’70s when
Connaught Laboratories was sold. Time
to invest and ensure that vaccines will
once again be produced here.
There has been considerable contro-
versy about the rollout of vaccines. In
some nations and the European Union,
this has led to the sequestering of vac-
cines produced within their jurisdic-
tions. Countries like Canada, without
domestic vaccine production capacity,
inevitably face slower rollouts. In fact,
as of March 2021, Canada is one of the
poorest performers among high-income
countries in its vaccination rollout, as
the lack of secure supply early in 2021
triggered hesitancy among numerous
provincial and territorial governments.
The truth is that we no longer have the
university-based research, development
and manufacturing base we need to dis-
cover and produce these needed vac-
cines.
Sadly, Canada once had such capacity
– Connaught Laboratories at the Uni-
versity of Toronto’s School of Hygiene
was one of the world’s premier vaccine
companies until it was privatized in the
1980s. In the last great pandemic a cen-
tury ago, Connaught not only produced
all of our domestic supply of vaccines, it
exported vaccines to the United States
and the United Kingdom. However,
the trend toward neoliberalism and
cost-cutting in universities that began in
the 1970s and culminated in the privat-
ization of non-profit enterprises such as
Connaught in the 1980s means that Can-
ada is now reliant on foreign markets for
what it used to produce itself.
The pandemic has made many coun-
tries realize that the production of vac-
cines constitutes a strategic national
asset. The Council on Foreign Relations,
in a special COVID report, has said that
there is a need to recognize the threat
that infectious diseases pose and that
the United States should “make pan-
demic preparedness a national security
priority on par with national defense,
and organize and invest accordingly.”
The story of how we once had this
capacity may be known but the “secret
sauce” that made this university-based,
non-profit vaccine manufacturer a ma-
jor success is not as well understood.
The ingredients to Connaught’s achieve-
ment are highly salient to today’s pan-
demic and provide some important
policy lessons on how we might create
vaccine capacity domestically to prepare
for the future.
Connaught Laboratories
Established in 1917 by Dr. J.G. Fitz-
Gerald of the University of Toronto’s
School of Hygiene, Connaught Labora-
tories was a pharmaceutical enterprise
specializing in research and the produc-
tion (and sale) of vaccines and insulin.
FitzGerald was motivated by the fact
that Canada was the only country of its
size in the world at the time without
such a facility.
In contrast to the private pharma-
ceutical manufacturers, Connaught
emphasized basic research, combining
the bench strength of research scien-
tists along with a deep desire to address
public health issues including infectious
epidemics. Connaught also benefited
from the school’s solid contacts with
provincial public health agencies across
Canada. The labs’ subsequent success
demonstrated the power of linking re-
search and education to public service.
Connaught provided vaccines and in-
sulin to the public at cost and worked
closely with local, provincial and na-
tional public health agencies. When
required, the labs exported vaccines to
other countries at a cost well below the
prices charged by private pharmaceu-
tical companies. Connaught and the
www.canadianinquirer.net
school were doing major research and
development long before research and
development (R&D) existed as a cor-
porate catchphrase. In its heyday, Con-
naught made Canada almost completely
self-sufficient for its domestic vaccine
needs.
Connaught’s key advantage was that
it was based in a university, specifically
in a school of public health. This made
it very aware of, and responsive to, pub-
lic health needs in Canada and beyond,
driving the labs’ research agenda. For
most of its history the director of the
School of Hygiene was the director of
Connaught. Making its products avail-
able was paramount, and Connaught
sold vaccines as close as possible to cost
while constantly working to drive down
its own cost of production. Connaught
worked closely with the provincial gov-
ernments enabling them to make vac-
cines accessible to their residents.
Connaught became an important na-
tional resource, playing a pivotal role
in combatting every major infectious
disease and meeting every major health-
care need from 1917 onward, including
the infections contracted in the trench-
es of the First World War, the diphtheria
epidemics of the 1910s and 1920s (mak-
ing Toronto and Hamilton the first cities
in the world to be diphtheria-free), hep-
arin in the 1930s, tetanus and typhus in
the Second World War, and polio in the
1950s. Such was its contribution to the
polio epidemic that its director was giv-
en the prestigious Lasker Award in 1955,
11
one of only three Canadians to ever re-
ceive this international award in the last
75 years. In the 1960s, Connaught was
so trusted as a producer of high-quality
and low-cost vaccines that it was called
upon by the World Health Organization
(WHO) to help it launch its global effort
to eliminate smallpox and improve stan-
dards for vaccine productions through-
out the Americas.
In its specialty areas, Connaught
grew into one of the world’s largest and
most reputable pharmaceutical and vac-
cine-making manufacturing facilities.
It was also self-sustaining. Not drawing
on the resources of the university or tax-
payers, it actually contributed research
funds to scientists engaged in vaccine
research at the university. Connaught
had a mandate that could be compared
to equivalent research arm of the Center
for Disease Control (CDC) in the United
States or the Lister, Pasteur and Koch
institutes in Britain, France and Ger-
many. However, Connaught went a step
further by producing vaccine, insulin
and pharmaceuticals.
As a focal point for public health re-
sponse to infectious disease, Connaught
was instrumental in the establishment of
the Dominion Council of Health, which
brought together the federal and provin-
cial deputy ministers of health plus the
School of Hygiene director. A majority of
the deputy ministers of health in Canada
were grads of the school.
Sale and privatization of Connaught
In 1972, the University of Toronto
sold Connaught Laboratories to a fed-
eral Crown corporation, the Canada
Development Corporation (CDC). The
chair of the University of Toronto’s
Connaught Committee recommended
that the university divest itself of Con-
naught. Despite its success, then-uni-
versity president John Evans saw that
Connaught required significant invest-
ment to update its facilities. He decid-
ed that it was not the role of the uni-
versity to provide the funding. Evans’s
judgment at the time should have been
vigorously debated given the fact that
Connaught had dramatically scaled-up
in each of the two world wars out of its
own or government resources. However,
his decision was accepted with little ar-
gument by the university board.
Mandated to develop and maintain
❱❱ PAGE 14 Canada needs a
12
Chrystia Freeland must pick a lane with next
budget – climate change or oil and gas?
BY MITCHELL BEER
Policy Options
When she tables a much-an-
ticipated federal budget later
this year, Finance Minister
Chrystia Freeland mustn’t pass
up the opportunity to revisit
and rethink a bedrock assump-
tion of Canadian economic
strategy: that the country’s
prosperity stands or falls on the
fortunes of its oil and gas in-
dustry. It’s time for the federal
government to stop trying to do
two things at once, and instead
pick a lane.
With the global economy
transforming and decarbon-
izing at a stunning pace and
the climate crisis deepening,
an emerging body of research
shows the country is far less de-
pendent on fossil-fuel produc-
tion than policy-makers might
assume.
That means the Trudeau gov-
ernment can finally abandon a
complex, self-defeating strategy
of trying to have it both ways. It
introduces annual carbon tax in-
creases and pledges to legislate
net-zero emissions on one hand,
buys taxpayers a dangerous
68-year-old pipeline on the other
while tripling fossil fuel subsidies
in the midst of an economic crisis
and succeeds at convincing no
one that the two sets of policies
can support each other.
The deadline to do better is
looming. With the European
Union committed to a pandemic
recovery package leading toward
a 55 per cent carbon reduction
this decade, China pledging to
peak its emissions before 2030,
and the Biden administration
putting climate action at the
centre of its economic agenda,
Canada is on the verge of being
left behind in the race to a pros-
perous, clean tech future.
A declining industry loses
clout
Pop quiz: if you had to name
an industry that accounts for
less than one per cent of Can-
ada’s direct employment, pro-
duces just one job-per-million-
dollars invested compared with
as many as 8.6 across the econ-
omy, is a significant job creator
in just 18 of the country’s 152
communities, and could be
comfortably phased out over a
Canada News
20-year span…would you pick
oil and gas?
Turns out you could, and
probably should.
In mid-January, former
Unifor economist Jim Stan-
ford reported that payroll em-
ployment in fossil fuels fell by
33,000, or 17 per cent, between
2014 and 2019. Over that time
span, other sectors created 42
new jobs for each one the fos-
sil industry offloaded, showing
that “normal churn in the job
market swamps changes in fos-
sil fuel jobs.”
The industry dropped an-
other 17,500 positions in the
12 months concluding last
September due to cratering oil
prices and the economic paral-
ysis of the pandemic.
But “unlike other sectors,”
said Stanford, director of the
Vancouver-based Centre for
Future Work, “few of those lost
fossil fuel jobs will ever come
back – even after health restric-
tions are eased.”
This might sound like news,
but it’s actually a sequel to a
story the industry has been tell-
ing for years. In February 2015,
Steve Laut, then-president of
Canadian Natural Resources
Ltd., told a Chamber of Com-
merce audience his industry
faced a “death spiral” unless
producers could get a break on
the “made in Fort McMurray
cost” of doing business. Since
2017, the industry has been in-
tent on “de-manning” its oper-
ations as fast as it can. In other
words, using artificial intelli-
gence including robots to do the
work once done by humans.
The industry is losing ground
so fast that government reve-
nues from oil and gas account-
ed only for 0.3 per cent of GDP
between 2015 and 2019, the
U.K.-based Carbon Tracker
Initiative reported last month.
Canada didn’t even make Car-
bon Tracker’s list of the 40
countries most vulnerable to
lost taxes and royalties as de-
carbonization accelerates and
the fossil industry declines.
Canadian governments do
stand to lose more than half of
their oil and gas-related income
through 2040, and nearly nine-
tenths of what the fossil lobby
claims they’ll collect. But the
economy is already diversified
enough that those losses repre-
sent “such a small share of the
total,” said Carbon Tracker an-
alyst Axel Dalman.
“Wandering into a mine-
field, blindfolded”
The industry’s decline should
open political space for Free-
land to write a budget that takes
the country where most Cana-
dians want it to go. The throne
speech last fall pointed in that
direction.
But Ottawa won’t do the
best job it can of building a
new, prosperous, decarbonized
economy if it remains fixated
on keeping the old one on life
support. Every dollar wasted on
emerging fossil fuel technolo-
gies is a dollar that could have
been productively allocated to
genuine green solutions that
are already practical, affordable
and surging in other countries.
Yet much of the govern-
ment’s time, attention and po-
litical capital is still devoted to
the fossil economy, drawing fo-
cus away from the investments
the country actually needs.
• A report in February
showed Canadian fossil fuel
subsidies more than tripling
last year. Beyond the $1.9 bil-
lion they could quantify, re-
searchers cited nine non-tax
subsidies for which no cost fig-
ures were available.
• Ottawa set aside $320
million in subsidies for East
Coast oil and gas projects, even
as the industry curtails its own
investment plans.
• The government is un-
der sustained pressure to open
up a new fossil fuel tax credit
that would help companies use
carbon-capture technology to
extract more oil from depleted
wells. The technology is mar-
ginal, serving mostly to support
overheated claims that fossil
fuel burning can be “net-nega-
tive” for carbon.
All of this is happening with
governments around the world
on a tight deadline to cut glob-
al greenhouse gas emissions 45
per cent by 2030. At the end of
February, the United Nations
reported that the effort is not
going well, with the most recent
round of climate action pledges
pointing to just a 0.5 per cent
reduction this decade.
UN Secretary-General Antó-
www.canadianinquirer.net
nio Guterres called it a “red alert
for our planet,” putting govern-
ments “nowhere close to the
level of ambition needed to limit
climate change to 1.5 degrees.”
“The message is extreme-
ly clear,” agreed UN climate
executive secretary Patricia
Espinosa. “We are collective-
ly wandering into a minefield,
blindfolded. The next step
would mean disaster.”
Canada’s contribution so far
has been to triumphantly re-
place its Harper-era commit-
ment to a 30 per cent carbon
cut with a promise of fraction-
ally more than 31 per cent. (Is
anyone cheering yet?)
Charting a new future
Canada’s transition out of
fossil fuels won’t be easy, and it
won’t happen overnight.
But charting a different fu-
ture begins with seeing that it
might be achievable. For feder-
al decision-makers, that begins
with recognizing that the walls
won’t cave in if the fossil indus-
try goes into a managed decline
because the wider economy
isn’t nearly as dependent on
oil and gas as they might have
thought.
The details in Stanford’s
analysis add important texture
to the national numbers. There
are 18 communities in Canada,
12 of them in Alberta, that de-
pend on oil and gas for at least 5
MARCH 26, 2021 FRIDAY
CHRYSTIA FREELAND/FACEBOOK
per cent of their direct employ-
ment. If Ottawa is serious about
a transition that leaves no one
behind, the budget should focus
on industries that are already
bringing new job options to the
table but may not survive in a
province that is far more intent
on diversifying its fossil fuel
product lines.
And here’s another number
that should fuel some creative
thinking at the Department of
Finance: surprisingly, Stanford
reported that 56 per cent of oil
and gas jobs are located in cit-
ies. That means a large slice of
the fossilwork force will have
access to a wider menu of well-
paid jobs than they would in a
single-industry resource town.
Particularly if governments
step up with training and tran-
sition funding.
But stepping up means mak-
ing a choice.
For half a decade, the
Trudeau government has tried
mightily to sustain a climate
and energy strategy that drives
down both sides of the road.
Now, the two lanes are begin-
ning to diverge. The budget
gives Freeland an opportunity
to pick the right one. ■
This article first appeared
on Policy Options and is repub-
lished here under a Creative
Commons license.
FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021
Make way! Creating space for
change in Canadian politics
BY CELINA CAESAR-
CHAVANNES, Queen’s
University, Ontario, ALEX
MARLAND, Memorial
University of Newfoundland
The Conversation
There are many ways politi-
cians and bureaucrats can show
leadership in response to calls to
democratize Canadian politics.
Specifically, there are a lot of
things men can do, particularly
heterosexual white men.
As the largest demographic
in Parliament, they can lead the
way by stepping back or step-
ping aside, in order to create
meaningful opportunities to en-
gage more women, Indigenous,
Black and marginalized peoples.
Let’s face it, if we are to trans-
form the culture of Canadian
political institutions, we must
take immediate, deliberate and
intentional action.
As co-authors, one of us is
the only Black woman MP who
served in the 42nd Parliament
(2015-19) and is a champion of
diversity, equity and inclusiv-
ity. The other has interviewed
more than 100 Canadian pol-
iticians and political staff for
a book about party discipline.
We met as part of that research,
and share a deep concern about
the need for the political elite to
make room for diverse voices in
the House of Commons.
Representation matters
When interacting with poli-
ticians, it becomes clear that at
different points in their careers
they approach politics with dis-
tinct philosophies about repre-
sentation.
Some elected officials take a
principled stand on big picture
issues. Some believe that voters
trust them to figure things out,
while others feel a duty to follow
the wishes of constituents. Far
too many Canadian politicians
are guided by loyalty to their po-
litical party and leader, whereas
some are motivated to champi-
on the concerns of people who
share similar identities or simi-
lar experiences.
Prioritizing the composition
of legislatures and looking at
public policy through the lens
of gender, Indigeneity, race or
other identity characteristic is
sometimes known as “descrip-
tive representation,” a term
coined by American political sci-
entist Hanna Pitkin in her land-
mark book The Concept of Rep-
resentation. In it, Pitkin dissects
what the contested concept
of representation means. She
makes a compelling argument
that a democratic legislature
must be a forum to hear from a
diversity of people’s voices. This
is important because otherwise
these voices are excluded from
political debate and from public
policy decision-making.
But in what tangible ways can
diversity improve democracy?
Identity and intersectionality
Diversity is necessary for cit-
izens to see themselves repre-
sented. Since 1867, and before,
generations of white, land-own-
ing men were the beacon of
political leadership. Since the
Second World War, they have
increasingly toed the party line,
as have others, recruited into a
political system that values con-
formity over diversity. In today’s
world, it is important to remem-
ber that we are each the product
of a variety of different identities
that intersect to make us who
we are. For some, their different
identities add layers of oppres-
sion in politics.
Studies have argued that de-
scriptive representation can
fundamentally support the
principles of democracy. This
extends beyond reshaping the
composition of legislatures:
listening and receiving input
from diverse voices can result
in better governance and bet-
ter policy. A good example is
research showing that women
leaders have been rated sig-
nificantly more positively than
men during the COVID-19 pan-
demic. In particular, women are
thought to have exhibited better
interpersonal skills in managing
the crisis.
Listening to marginalized
voices is needed to help shape
Parliamentary decisions. Delib-
erations around medical assis-
tance in dying legislation (Bill
C-7) would have benefited from
improved listening to disability
groups and racialized commu-
nities.
Diversify legislatures
More diverse legislatures can
transform Canadian politics in
a profound way: challenging the
dogma of party discipline that
keeps politics organized but cor-
rodes representation. In Ottawa
and the provinces, political par-
ties have an iron grip over poli-
ticians, and group conformity is
expected.
Why is it normal in Canada
that a politician jeopardizes
their parliamentary career by
taking a public stand different
from the party leader? Don’t we
want politicians who feel that
they can speak truth to power?
Homogeneity in party politics
might work for partisans, but
does it work for constituents?
Even MPs become frustrated
with democratic institutions
when they are reduced to robots,
encouraged to vote along party
lines and repeat talking points.
Electing a broader array of
Canadians can help break down
party silos and soften polariza-
❱❱ PAGE 14 Make way! Creating
www.canadianinquirer.net
Canada News
The search for a
new governor
general is tough in
a disparate nation
like Canada
BY THOMAS KLASSEN, York
University Canada
The Conversation
The federal government has
kicked off its efforts to choose a
new governor general to succeed
Julie Payette, who resigned in
the face of allegations she created
a toxic workplace at Rideau Hall.
The long delay in appointing
Payette’s replacement illus-
trates how difficult it is to fill the
job. Whoever is ultimately se-
lected by Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau must represent Cana-
da’s past, especially its linkage
to a monarchy that’s currently
in a state of crisis following re-
cent allegations by the Duke and
Duchess of Sussex. But the new
governor general must also ex-
emplify its future.
Even more importantly, the
individual must grasp Canada’s
difficult and in some ways acci-
dental road to nationhood.
In rejecting the siren call of
the War of Independence in
1776, the northern colonies that
became Canada cemented their
allegiance to the British Crown.
British oversight
Over the next century, the Brit-
ish offered protection against the
expansion of the United States.
Even after Confederation in
1867, the interests of the British
Empire guided Canada’s foreign
policy for decades.
The political culture and tra-
ditions inherited from Britain
— a parliamentary system of
government (House of Com-
mons and Senate), common law,
a strong degree of conservatism
and emphasis on collective re-
sponsibility — have shaped con-
temporary Canada.
The very position of governor
general, inherited from Great
Britain when Canada was but a
collection of independent colo-
nies, is one of the features that
differentiates Canada from oth-
er large countries settled by Eu-
ropean powers in the Americas.
13
American influence
Although Canadians rejected
the allure of republicanism, poli-
ticians over the centuries have felt
free to borrow from their Ameri-
can counterparts. Canada pirat-
ed federalism (strong regional
governments, namely provinces)
and a reliance on a written consti-
tution, with the Canadian Charter
of Rights and Freedoms’ empha-
sis on individual rights.
At the same time, the U.S. has
been useful as a model of what
to avoid: a presidential system
of government, slavery, an aver-
sion to gun control and too great
a reliance on the free market.
Québec culture
The defeat of France by Brit-
ain that resulted in Québec
becoming an English colony is
a defining event in Canadian
history. However, the decision
by the victors to guarantee the
French their traditional rights
and customs, and the political
means to protect their culture,
was just as important to Cana-
da’s future.
This approach resulted in bi-
lingualism and biculturalism, ul-
timately becoming multicultur-
alism, and it distinguishes Canada
from many other nations.
But Québec has had histori-
cal grievances against the rest of
Canada, leading to the 1995 sov-
ereignty referendum that came
within a few thousand votes of
tearing Canada apart.
Québec separatism, even
when in decline as it appears to
be now, is an existential threat
that surely features prominent-
ly in the darkest nightmares of
every prime minister — and the
governor general.
Indigenous population
Life for Indigenous people in
what is now called North Amer-
ica has drastically changed since
settlers appeared and did ev-
erything in their power to wipe
them out, including with long-
standing colonial policies like
❱❱ PAGE 14 The search for
 14
Make way! Creating...
❰❰ 13 tion. In workplaces,
more heterogeneity
can stir internal con-
flict and rattle group norms. But
injecting different perspectives
also enriches the ability of a
group to come up with creative
and innovative solutions. The
same is true in politics.
The more diverse the voic-
es that occupy seats in legisla-
tures, the more political parties
can benefit from better policy
which, in turn, benefits the pub-
lic. Sadly, there is little evidence
that partisans are open to listen-
ing to people willing to rebuff
the “team player” mentality that
dominates Canadian Parlia-
ment. A good way to help change
that is to change who is being
elected.
This can include white men
not seeking re-election in order
to create space for others, en-
couraging people to run for po-
litical office, and also helping the
newest members thrive when
they get there.
Taking proactive steps toward
Canada needs a...
❰❰ 11 Canadian-controlled
companies in the pri-
vate sector, this sale
brought in private investment
and an increase in the price of
the labs’ products, triggering
allegations of mismanagement
and deteriorating product qual-
ity. By 1986, the federal govern-
ment’s ownership of Connaught
had been completely sold to the
private sector as the CDC was
dismantled, part of the Mul-
roney government’s program of
privatization.
The sale and privatization
of Connaught was a strategic
error. Why did it even hap-
pen? Connaught’s penchant
for always driving prices down
did not endear it to the major
pharma companies. With the
sale, the Canadian government
lost an important capability.
In Connaught’s history the Ca-
nadian government had called
upon it to provide assistance
in urgent situations of nation-
al health. Canada lost a world-
class vaccine-making facility
and the research expertise and
critical mass that came with it.
Connaught invested a much
higher proportion of its reve-
nues in R&D than private firms
did. During much of this time
this research funding was par-
ticularly important as this was
before the establishment of
Canada News
fewer white men in politics in
order to create an opening for
others has worked in British
Columbia. In 2011, the B.C. NDP
introduced a radical policy that
when a male legislator vacates
a seat, the party must nominate
a woman, racialized person or
someone from other underrep-
resented groups in Canadian
politics.
In the 2020 provincial elec-
tion, the B.C. NDP won a major-
ity of seats, and for the first time
in Canadian history a governing
party’s caucus has more women
than men, as well as more peo-
ple of colour serving than any
B.C. caucus ever elected before.
Diversity in Premier John Hor-
gan’s caucus meant that he had
more choices to assemble a di-
verse cabinet. The party’s policy
of affirmative action has trans-
lated into meaningful, profound
change in both the legislative
and executive branches of gov-
ernment. Bold action like this is
needed to achieve the ideals of
descriptive representation.
government-funded research
councils such as the Medical
Research Council (a precursor
to the Canadian Institutes of
Health Research).
The university’s School of
Hygiene lost an important rev-
enue source that it could use
to support basic research on
vaccines, including the sup-
port Connaught provided to
the work by Frederick Banting
and Charles Best on insulin in
the 1920s. And the country lost
a critical mass of research ca-
pacity in both basic and applied
vaccines research.
We now face a situation in
which the countries of the Eu-
ropean Union and the United
States have taken steps to pro-
tect their domestic supply of
vaccines and prevent compa-
nies from exporting to nations
such as Canada without a do-
mestic supply.
The Trudeau government’s
NRC-Novavax initiative and
what should be done instead
The COVID-19 pandemic has
made the Trudeau government
realize the extreme vulnera-
bility of not having a domestic
vaccine production capacity.
The country is has recently wo-
ken up to our deficiency. How-
ever, its solution – pumping a
huge amount of public money
into a National Research Coun-
Ensuring democracy thrives
The principles of diversity, eq-
uity and inclusivity are import-
ant, and taking action so that
Canadian politics are not domi-
nated by one segment of society
is necessary to democratize our
institutions. Regardless of party
affiliation, or political ideology,
the urgency of now demands
that those with power choose to
challenge the status quo.
To ensure democracy thrives
in Canada, politicians need to
listen to the voices of those who
are often on the margins of our
political ecosystem and act ac-
cordingly. Gaining knowledge is
a necessary first step, and men in
positions of authority can help
create a thriving democratic
landscape by opening opportu-
nities to people who are differ-
ent than them.
A good place to start is for
men to listen.■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
cil-owned facility to produce
tens of millions COVID-19
doses produced by U.S.-based
Novavax – is poor public policy.
It would be far better to place
this enormous investment into
a non-profit, university-based
enterprise that has the essential
elements for success. Invest-
ing in basic research combined
with production and a public
health mandate of providing
as much vaccine as possible at
the cost of production makes
sense. Strong arguments can be
made that the curiosity-driv-
en research coming out of the
public universities, not just in
Canada, is what really fuels the
pipeline for new therapeutics.
Rockefeller University (26 No-
bel Prizes, 24 Lasker Awards)
is the outstanding example and
interestingly it had its origins
in infectious diseases just as
Connaught and the School of
Hygiene.
In effect, this would be an
investment in a public health
ecosystem, something that is
missing in Canada today. The
scientists involved in such a
venture would be part of a rich
research network involving a
school of public health, a facul-
ty of medicine, hospital-based
research institutes and aca-
demic health sciences centres
along with their international
www.canadianinquirer.net
The search for...
❰❰ 13 residential schools, the
‘60s Scoop and numer-
ous cases of land dis-
possession in the 19th and 20th
centuries.
Starting in the 1970s, court
decisions, changes in federal
government policy and deter-
mined efforts by First Nations,
Métis and Inuit communities
and individuals have slowly en-
larged the political influence of
Indigenous Peoples.
Defining events included In-
digenous activist Elijah Harper’s
opposition to the Meech Lake
Accord in Manitoba,
and the Oka crisis, a 78-day
standoff over the proposed ex-
pansion of a golf course and devel-
opment of townhouses on a Mo-
hawk burial ground in Québec.
More recently, federal gov-
ernment policy has shifted to-
ward reconciliation with Indige-
nous people, exemplified by the
Truth and Reconciliation Com-
mission and the national inqui-
ry into Missing and Murdered
Indigenous Women and Girls.
research collaborations and
networks. No private pharma-
ceutical company can replicate
such an ecosystem.
A successful vaccine produc-
tion capacity also requires a ba-
sic research and curiosity-driv-
en pipeline. At the same time, as
demonstrated by Connaught, a
university-based enterprise
can also deliver the applied re-
search, including the clinical
base of the university-affili-
ated health sciences centres
for clinical trials as well as the
tech-transfer and commercial-
ization components.
So, how might this be done?
Using the Canadian Founda-
tion for Innovation or some
other vehicle, proposals should
be solicited immediately from
Canadian universities and their
partners for a national facility.
Submissions need to come from
research-intensive universities
that have both faculties of pub-
lic health and medicine. Prox-
imity to a research park with
biomedical activities would be
an asset.
Looking ahead
The potential of such a
non-profit, university-based
initiative represents more than
just vaccines. Specifically, in a
future pandemic event a por-
tion of the laboratory space of a
vaccine lab, along with academ-
MARCH 26, 2021 FRIDAY
Although most policy is
largely symbolic, such as land
acknowledgements, efforts are
being made to improve the liv-
ing conditions in many First
Nations communities. The fed-
eral government, while missing
the March 2021 goal of ending
drinking water advisories that
last more than a year, has made a
dent in providing some commu-
nities with safe drinking water.
Yet Indigenous people make
up only a small strand in nation-
al politics, culture and power
structures. Only in Nunavut,
with a population of 40,000, do
Inuit comprise a majority that
allows them to enact laws to pro-
tect, sustain and advance their
culture and interests.
The new governor general will
have to fuse the British, French,
American and Indigenous ele-
ments of Canada that together
are at the core of the country.
It is not an easy job, especially
given the position is mostly cer-
emonial and one that not all Ca-
nadians see as even necessary. ■
ic lab space, could be temporar-
ily used to process surveillance
tests. This is what happened
with the Francis Crick Institute
in London. Its director, Sir Paul
Nurse, noted how one of its
labs had been transformed into
high-throughput testing lab.
The laboratory facilities of
a Canadian facility could also
be used for fundamental re-
search into the basic biology of
any threatening virus. Were we
to re-establish such capability
within this we would be deploy-
ing the best brains that could
be used as part of any pan-Ca-
nadian pandemic preparedness
strategy.
The time has come for this
country to up its game. We
were warned. The 2003 Naylor
report, Learning from SARS,
warned of “emerging infectious
diseases… increasing in inci-
dence or geographic range.” We
should have taken note then,
but the COVID-19 pandemic
drives the point home that we
need to ensure the critical re-
search and production capac-
ity that will ensure the future
production of vaccines in this
country. ■
This article first appeared
on Policy Options and is repub-
lished here under a Creative
Commons license.
FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021
US has a long history of violence
against Asian women
BY KAREN LEONG, Associate
Professor of Women and Gender
Studies and Asian Pacific
American Studies Arizona
State University, KAREN
KUO, Associate Professor of
Asian Pacific American Studies
Arizona State University
The Conversation
Asian American women
understand that the alleged
murderer of eight people in
Atlanta was acting in keeping
with a culture filled with ra-
cialized and sexualized views
of Asian women. Of the people
murdered, four women were of
Korean descent and two of Chi-
nese heritage.
The shooter himself, Robert
Long, has said he was motivat-
ed to act violently because of
his self-proclaimed “sex addic-
tion.” He allegedly told inves-
tigators that the businesses he
attacked represented “a temp-
tation for him that he wanted to
eliminate.”
Long sought to eliminate the
objects of his sexual tempta-
tions, Asian women. In doing
so, he drew on the U.S.‘s long
history of sexualizing Asian
American women.
A long history of stereo-
types
Harmful stereotypes of Asian
women in American popular
culture date back to at least the
19th century. Back then, Amer-
ican missionaries and military
personnel in Asia viewed the
women they met there as exotic
and submissive.
These stereotypes influenced
the first U.S. immigration law
based on race, the 1875 Page
Act, which prevented Chinese
women from entering the Unit-
ed States. The official assump-
tion was that, unless proven
otherwise, Chinese women
seeking to enter the United
States lacked moral character
and were prostitutes. In fact,
many were wives seeking to re-
unite with their husbands who
had already come to the U.S.
Around the same time, Chi-
nese women in San Francisco
also were scapegoated by lo-
cal public health officials who
feared they would spread sex-
ually transmitted diseases to
white men, who would then
spread it to their wives.
In the mid-20th century,
U.S. wars and military bases in
China, Japan, the Philippines,
Korea and Vietnam resulted in
increased interracial contact
between American soldiers and
Asian women. The GIs’ restrict-
ed interactions with the larger
Asian population meant that
they met Asian women that
worked on or near the military
bases: on-base service workers
who cleaned or cooked, or sex
workers in the surrounding
communities.
Some soldiers married Asian
women and brought them home
as war brides, while others pri-
marily viewed Asian women as
sexual objects. Both approach-
es perpetuated stereotypes of
Asian women as sexually sub-
missive, either as ideal wives or
sexually exotic prostitutes.
These stereotypes are evi-
dent throughout U.S. popular
culture in the form of novels
and movies, including “The
Teahouse of the August Moon”
and James Michener’s “The
Bridges at Toko-Ri,” which fea-
ture romances between GIs and
Asian women. Vietnam War-
era films like “Full Metal Jack-
et” and “Platoon” depict graph-
ic sexual violence committed by
American GIs against Vietnam-
ese women.
Violence against Asian
American women
In online digital pornogra-
phy, Asian women are dispro-
portionately presented as vic-
tims of rape, compared to white
women or women of other ra-
cial backgrounds. Asian Ameri-
can feminist and activist Helen
Zia has argued that there is a
connection between the por-
trayals of Asian women in por-
nography and violence against
Asian American women.
Rosalind Chou, a sociologist,
describes how in 2000, a group
of white men kidnapped five
Japanese female exchange stu-
dents in Spokane, Washington,
www.canadianinquirer.net
World News
to fulfill their sexual fantasies
of Asian female bondage, a sub-
genre of pornography.
Sexual attacks targeting
Asian American women are
more likely to come from non-
Asians. Though most attacks
on white or Black women come
from men of the same ethnic
background, Asian American
women – and Native American
women – are more likely to be
sexually assaulted by males of a
different ethnicity.
The most recent high-profile
example of this dynamic is the
2015 rape of a woman by white
Stanford student Brock Turner.
Not until 2019 did the wom-
an, Chanel Miller, reveal her
name and identity as an Asian
American woman. At that point
many Asian American women
understood another element of
what had already been a trou-
bling case of white male sexual
aggression: Turner likely felt
entitled to use and abuse Mill-
er’s unconscious body not just
because she is a woman, but be-
cause of her Asian heritage.
Targeted attacks
In March 2020, Asian Ameri-
can and Pacific Islander commu-
nity organizations joined with
15
San Francisco State University’s
Asian American Studies Pro-
gram to document incidents
of anti-Asian racism occurring
across the country during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The group they formed,
called StopAAPIHate, has re-
corded an average of 11 an-
ti-Asian hate incidents in the
U.S. each day since its creation,
including in-person and online
verbal harassment, civil rights
violations and physical assaults.
The group has found that
Asian women report hate in-
cidents 2.3 times as often as
Asian men. The data doesn’t
distinguish between sexual as-
saults or harassment and other
types of physical attacks and
harassment, but it nevertheless
emphasizes the vulnerability of
being Asian and being female.
Oppression of women of
color
Asian women are not the only
targets of racial and sexual vio-
lence. Any non-white woman
has a greater risk of these perils
than white women do.
One day after the white male
shooter in Georgia killed six
Asian women, an armed white
man was detained outside Vice
President Kamala Harris’ offi-
cial residence in Washington,
D.C. As a mixed-race South
Asian and Black woman, Harris
is not exempt from this culture
that racializes and sexualizes
Asian women and all women of
color. None of us is. ■
Karen Leong, Associate Profes-
sor of Women and Gender Stud-
ies, and Asian Pacific American
Studies, Arizona State University
and Karen Kuo, Associate Pro-
fessor of Asian Pacific American
Studies, Arizona State University
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
16 World News MARCH 26, 2021 FRIDAY

Police and civilians

disagree on when body
camera footage should
be made public
BY DAN BROMBERG,
University of New Hampshire,
ÉTIENNE CHARBONNEAU,
École nationale
d’administration publique
(ENAP)
The Conversation
Many police chiefs and reg-
ular American civilians agree
that officers’ body camera foot-
age should be released to the
public after police shoot some-
one dead.
They differ, though, on when
the images should be made pub-
lic. This complicates achieving
accountability, which is often
the reason officers wear cam-
eras.
That’s the finding of our new
research, published by Cam-
bridge University Press. We
surveyed 4,000 U.S. residents
– 1,000 across the nation as a
son or a reason why they could
not view that footage and then
asked them whether, how and
when the footage should be
made public.
We found very little geo-
graphical variation in citizens’
expectations for police behav-
ior and trust in police to use
force appropriately. But we
found that regular people and
police chiefs differed in some of
their views about body camera
recordings.
People from all across the
country, including in the three
cities we focused on, generally
wanted the footage to be made
public. More than 9 in 10 re-
spondents thought so. And the
vast majority of police chiefs –
just under 9 in 10 – agreed.
But beyond that, there were
noteworthy differences in peo-
ple’s views about when and how
the video should be released. A
nal investigation to wrap up be-
fore seeing the footage.
For citizens, the next most
preferred method of seeing the
footage was a release of the raw
video immediately after the
event, with between one-quar-
ter and one-third of people
seeking that. Only about one in
five citizens preferred to see ed-
ited video that was cut and nar-
rated to help explain to viewers
what the police officers were
doing. But the idea of an edited
video appealed to police chiefs,
who far preferred that over an
immediate release of unedited
footage.
If body cameras are going to
UN chief
help improve police account-
ability, then it is important
that police chiefs and the pub-
profoundly
concerned over
lic agree on how and when the
footage will be released. ■
Dan Bromberg, Associate Pro-

whole and 1,000 in each of three
cities – Los Angeles, Seattle and
Charlotte – which are often
cited as having different poli-
cies for releasing body camera
footage. We asked participants
whether they identified them-
selves as white, Black, Hispan-
ic or Asian. We also surveyed
1,000 police chiefs across the
country.
In June 2020, weeks after the
death of George Floyd while in
the custody of Minneapolis po-
lice, the Pew Research Center
reported that “78% of Ameri-
cans overall – but a far smaller
share of black Americans (56%)
– said they had at least a fair
amount of confidence in police
officers to act in the best inter-
ests of the public.”
Those findings are consistent
with other research also reveal-
ing that race is a factor that in-
fluences whether Americans
trust police.
We randomly showed police
chiefs body camera footage and
smartphone footage of a fatal
shooting. We randomly showed
the 4,000 people we surveyed
either body camera footage of
a police officer shooting a per-
plurality of every group – na-
tionwide, and in each city, and
when separated by race – was
content to wait to see the raw
footage until after an internal
police investigation was com-
plete.
Overall, on average 39% of
the 4,000 citizens felt that way.
Nearly half of police chiefs –
48.7% – did. Nonwhites were
less willing to wait for an inter-
rising violence
fessor of Public Administration
and Political Science, University
of New Hampshire and Étienne
Charbonneau, Associate Profes-
sor and Canada Research Chair
in Comparative Public Manage-
ment, École nationale d’admin-
istration publique (ENAP)
vs. Asians
BY Xinhua, Philippine News
Agency
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license. UNITED NATIONS – United
Nations Secretary-General An-
tonio Guterres on Monday ex-
pressed his profound concern
over the rise in violence against
Asians and people of Asian de-
scent during the Covid-19 pan-
demic.
The world has witnessed hor-
rific deadly attacks, verbal and
physical harassment, bullying
in schools, workplace discrimi-
nation, incitement to hatred in
the media and on social media
platforms, and incendiary lan-
guage by those in positions of
power, said Farhan Haq, deputy
spokesman for Guterres, in a
statement.
In some countries, Asian
women have been specifically
targeted for attack, adding mi-
sogyny to the toxic mix of ha-
tred. Thousands of incidents
across the past year have per-
petuated a centuries-long his-
tory of intolerance, stereotyp-
ing, scapegoating, exploitation
and abuse, the statement said.
Guterres expressed his full
support for the victims and
families and stood in solidarity
with all those facing racism and
other assaults on their human
rights.
“This moment of challenge
for all must be a time to uphold
dignity for all,” the UN chief
said.
Eight people, six of whom
were Asians, were killed in
three shooting incidents in
massage parlors in the Atlanta
area by a suspect on March 16.
The attacks came amid a
troubling spike in violence
against the Asian American
community during the corona-
virus pandemic. ■

www.canadianinquirer.net
FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021
The Atlanta attacks were not just racist and
misogynist, they painfully reflect
the society we live in
BY JAMIE CHAI YUN LIEW,
L’Université d’Ottawa/University of
Ottawa
The Conversation
I am heartbroken but I’m not sur-
prised.
The targeted killing of eight women in
Atlanta, six of them Asian, is a brutal result
of decades-long exclusion and oppression,
legitimized in law and colonial reverber-
ations, that allow a white-dominated set-
tler society to thrive, justifying differential
treatment of racialized migrants.
Let’s unpack this a bit
Many blame former U.S. president
Donald Trump for calling COVID-19
the “Asian flu,” “Kung Flu” and “Chi-
na Virus,” among other terms, for this
increase in violent attacks and harass-
ment. And while it’s certainly contrib-
uted, these violent attacks, harassment
and hate expressed against people of
Asian descent did not begin with Trump
or the pandemic.
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Here is where the toolkit built by crit-
ical race and feminist theorists can help
us understand that the tragic deaths of
these women are not new, not isolated,
but represent racist, misogynist vio-
lence and are reflective of the society we
live in.
Those who were killed were targeted
not only because of their race and gen-
der but also because of their perceived
work and immigration status.
In other words, they were targeted be-
cause of their intersectional identities.
The intersectionality of identities
Women were killed. It is undeniable
that violence against women is one of
the leading causes of death of women
around the world. The Canadian Fem-
icide Observatory recently confirmed
that 160 women and girls were killed by
violence in Canada in 2020, with 90 per
cent of the incidents involving a male ac-
cused.
Six of the eight women in Atlanta were
Asian. We’ve seen a significant increase
in violence against Asians during the
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World News
pandemic. In the United States, accord-
ing to Stop AAPI Hate, 3,800 incidents
were reported during the pandemic,
with 68 per cent of them being reported
by women.
This is a 150 per cent increase in the
number of hate incidents against Asians
— and Canada is not immune. Per capi-
ta, Canada has a greater number of inci-
dents reported than the United States.
According to Fight COVID Racism, there
have been 928 incidents of violence due
to discrimination against Asians since
the pandemic began.
Perceived immigration and citi-
zenship status
Tied to this is the perceived immi-
gration or citizenship status of Asians
in North America. Immigration status
has long been used as a way to separate
and exclude racialized people in the
post-colonial project of preserving a
white-dominated settler society.
The 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act was
designed to keep racialized persons
from settling in Canada. It was also de-
signed to keep the “Yellow Peril” out,
and for 24 years provided a mechanism
to conduct health examinations based
on misunderstandings that such per-
sons were contagions.
This early identification of “foreign-
ers with disease” has framed our current
discourse.
While history tells us how North
Americans may have come to fear Asian
people and how Asians have been and
still are perceived as vectors of disease,
our current laws continue to justify
differential treatment of racialized mi-
grants.
Migrant workers
Migrant essential workers in agri-
culture, caregiving, health care, meat
processing and other sectors come to
Canada with temporary residence status
without their families. Because of their
precarious immigration status, they are
subject to abuse, long working hours and
the withholding of pay, all with little le-
gal protection or recourse.
During the pandemic, they have been
blamed for COVID-19 outbreaks despite
and sick and to put food on our tables.
These migrant workers are predomi-
nantly racialized and are given different
treatment than other “higher” skilled
workers in industries where permanent
residence and family reunification are
available.
Criminalized and precarious
Finally, we should not ignore the per-
ception that the women killed are being
seen as sex workers. Although lawmak-
ers in Atlanta say there is no evidence
17
that those killed were sex workers, the
shooter — and in turn, some media out-
lets — perceive them to be. Sex work has
long been viewed, in North America, as
immoral, unclean and dangerous, and
laws were enacted to criminalize it.
In Canada, as the Supreme Court
recognized the harms and unconstitu-
tionality of laws that criminalize sex
workers and their workplaces, the fed-
eral government introduced new laws
purported to target women assumed to
be exploited. Current policy and legal
approaches focus on police and law en-
forcement to conduct raids and investi-
gation of sex work establishments in the
name of anti-trafficking — subjecting
sex workers to surveillance, harassment,
detention and deportation.
Migrant sex workers are therefore
not only criminalized, but subject to
precarious immigration status because
sex work is not recognized as work that
one could obtain a work permit for. It
can also be identified as a reason to ren-
der someone inadmissible to Canada on
criminal grounds.
Weave this in with the fetishization of
Asian women and how they are viewed
as disposable objects and the normative
message our laws send. All this allows
people to think it is OK to treat migrant
sex workers violently and inhumanely.
More than anti-Asian hate
In trying to make sense of what hap-
pened, it’s important to see the tragedy
as more than just violence against wom-
en and anti-Asian hate.
If you think this is confined to the U.S.,
think again. One need only look at our
farms, health-care facilities, places of
worship, borders and prisons to see how
racialized people suffer because of their
perceived immigration status, religion,
race, gender and work.
Don’t let the model minority myth that
Asians are the “desirable … non-threat-
ening person of colour” be used to hide
the systemic racism that is experienced
by Asians and other marginalized people
in our community.
If you are feeling powerless, there is
something you can do. Support grass-
like SWANVancouver, Butterfly: Asian
and migrant sex workers network, Asian
Canadian Women’s Alliance and the Mi-
grant Workers Alliance for Change. ■
Jamie Chai Yun Liew, Associate Pro-
fessor, Faculty of Law, L’Université d’Ot-
tawa/University of Ottawa
This article is republished from The
Conversation under a Creative Commons
license.
18
Entertainment
Netflix Makes Room for More Marie
Kondo, ‘Get Organized with The Home
Edit’ and ‘Dream Home Makeover’
BY Netflix
Like so many of our members, the
2019 premiere of Tidying Up inspired me
to “spark joy” and declutter my home.
When I went to Goodwill to donate sev-
eral bags of clothing (that I had loving-
ly “thanked”), the employee asked me,
“Did you watch that Marie Kondo show
on Netflix?” She excitedly informed me
about the surge in donations following
the show’s debut. For me personally,
it was gratifying to see the widespread
positive impact of Marie’s methods, and
the series in general.
Since then, we’ve continued to see
how home organization and design
shows can motivate our members to im-
prove their surroundings and their lives.
That’s why we’re very proud to part-
ner with the leading names in home
transformation for new seasons of Get
Organized with The Home Edit and
Dream Home Makeover, plus the new
series Sparking Joy with Marie Kondo
coming soon to Netflix.
If you’re looking for immediate inspi-
ration, check out the earlier seasons of
these shows -- including Tidying Up -- or
our new series Marriage or Mortgage, in
which couples decide between planning
a wedding or buying and designing their
dream home.
Get Organized with The Home Edit is
returning for a second season:
• Synopsis: Clea Shearer and Jo-
anna Teplin, the master organizers and
bestselling authors behind the innova-
tive home organization company The
Home Edit, are back to conquer clutter
with their unique brand of interior styl-
ing, practicality and humor, dramatical-
ly transforming the lives of their clients.
This season, viewers will take a closer
look into Clea and Joanna’s ground-
breaking business - featuring even big-
ger organization projects, along with
several celebrities surprising deserving
friends and family members with make-
overs.
• Executive Producers: Clea
Shearer and Joanna Teplin; Hello Sun-
shine’s Reese Witherspoon, Sara Rea
www.canadianinquirer.net
NETFLIX
and Sue Kinkead; Critical Content’s Tom
Forman, Jenny Daly, and Jon Beyer; and
Molly Sims
• Showrunner: Omid Kahangi
• Production Companies: Hello
Sunshine and Critical Content
Dream Home Makeover has been re-
newed for a third season:
• Synopsis: Dream Home Make-
over follows the lives of Syd and Shea
McGee as they run their successful
MARCH 26, 2021 FRIDAY
home design business and raise their
two daughters (and one baby on the
way). Episodes feature design projects
that range from one-room designs to full
home builds and renovations, effortless-
ly applying the same set of principles to
every project, creating jaw-dropping in-
teriors that are unfussy, accessible, and
breathtakingly simple at any level of the
budget ladder.
• Executive Producers: Rich Bye,
Shea McGee and Syd McGee
• Production Company: Goodbye
Pictures
Sparking Joy with Marie Kondo will
premiere this summer:
• Synopsis: Global organization
icon and best-selling author Marie Kon-
do takes her signature approach to tidy-
ing up a step further in her new, trans-
formational Netflix series, Sparking Joy.
Marie shows us how the fundamentals
of her method can affect our business-
es, relationships and communities. The
impacts of tidying are surprising, emo-
tional and transformative in the lives of
the people Marie meets. Throughout the
process, viewers will also step into Ma-
rie’s own home, meet her family, and get
a glimpse into how she sparks joy in her
daily life!
• Showrunner and Executive
Producer: Rachelle Mendez
• Executive Producers: Jane
Lipsitz, Dan Cutforth, Dan Volpe, Nan
Strait, Rachelle Mendez and Grace
Lee-Toumanidis serve as executive pro-
ducers for Alfred Street. Marie Kondo
and Takumi Kawahara serve as execu-
tive producers for KonMari Media Inc.
• Production Company: Alfred
Street Industries and KonMari Media
Inc. ■
FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021
To help insects, make them welcome
in your garden – here’s how
BY BRIAN LOVETT, West
Virginia University
The Conversation
As winter phases into spring
across the U.S., gardeners are
laying in supplies and making
plans. Meanwhile, as the weath-
er warms, common garden in-
sects such as bees, beetles and
butterflies will emerge from
underground burrows or nests
within or on plants.
Most gardeners know how
beneficial insects can be for
their plots. Flies pollinate flow-
ers. Predatory bugs, such as the
spined shoulder bug, eat pest
insects that otherwise would
tuck into garden plants.
As a scientist whose research
involves insects and as a gar-
dener, I know that many bene-
ficial insect species are declin-
ing and need humans’ help. If
you’re a gardener looking for
a new challenge this year, con-
sider revamping all or part of
your yard to support beneficial
insects.
Lawns are insect food deserts
Some gardeners choose na-
tive plants to attract and sup-
port helpful insects. Often,
however, those native plants
are surrounded by vast expans-
es of lawn.
The vast majority of insect
species find blades of grass as
unappetizing as we do. Yet,
lawns sprawl out across many
public and private spaces.
NASA estimated in 2005 that
lawns covered at least 50,000
square miles (128,000 square
kilometers) of the U.S. – about
the size of the entire state of
Mississippi.
A well-manicured lawn is a
sure sign that humanity has im-
posed its will on nature. Lawns
provide an accessible and famil-
iar landscape, but they come at
a cost for our six-legged neigh-
bors. Grasses grown as turf
provide very few places for in-
sects to safely tuck themselves
away, because homeowners and
19
Lifestyle
groundskeepers cut them short
– before they send up flowering
spikes – and apply fertilizers
and pesticides to keep them
green.
Entomologists have a
recomendation: Dig up some
fraction of your lawn and con-
vert it into a meadow by replac-
ing grass with native wildflow-
ers. Wildflowers provide pollen
and nectar that feed and attract
a variety of insects like ants, na-
tive bees and butterflies. Just
as you may have a favorite lo-
cal restaurant, insects that live
around you have a taste for the
flowers that are native to their
areas.
This bold choice will not just
benefit insects. Healthier in-
sects support local birds, and
meadows require fewer chemi-
An insect-friendly wildflower swath at California State University, Fullerton’s arboretum.
cal inputs and less mowing than
TDLUCAS5000/FLICKR, CC BY
lawns. The amount of attention
lawns demand from us, even
if we outsource the work to a the growing season, you can which interfere with many in- growing meadows with specific
landscaping company, is a sign provide for a diverse assort- sects’ feeding and breeding instructions and resources for
of their precarity. ment of local insects. And mow- patterns. White lights also lure their areas. Gardening stores
A meadow is a wilder, more ing and fertilizing less will leave insects into swarms, where they often have experience and carry
resilient option. Resilient eco- you more time to appreciate are vulnerable to predators. selections of local plants.
systems are better able to re- wildlife of all sizes. Yellow bulbs or warm-hued You may find established
spond to and recover from dis- There are many different LEDs don’t have these effects. communities of enthusiasts
turbances. types of meadows, and every [Get facts about coronavirus for local plants and seeds, or
Entomologist Ryan Gott, in- wildflower species has different and the latest research. Sign up your journey could be the start
tegrated pest management and preferences for soil type and for The Conversation’s newslet- of such a group. Part of the fun
quality control specialist at conditions. Meadows thrive ter.] of gardening is learning what
Maitri Genetics in Pittsburgh, in full sunlight, which is also Another easy project is using plants need to be healthy, and a
describes lawns and meadows where lawns typically do well. scrap wood and packing mate- new endeavor like entoscaping
as two opposite ends of a resil- Making insects feel at home rials to create simple “hotels” will provide fresh challenges.
iency spectrum. “As far as basic Not every yard can support for bees or ladybugs, making In my view, humans all too
ecological functions go, a lawn a meadow, but there are other sure to carefully sanitize them often see ourselves as separate
does not have many. A lawn ways to be a better, more consid- between seasons. Easiest of from nature, which leads us to
mainly extracts nutrition and erate neighbor to insects. If you all, provide water for insects relegate biodiversity to desig-
water, usually receiving outside have a shady yard, consider mod- to drink – they’re adorable nated parks. In fact, however,
inputs of fertilizer and irriga- eling your garden after natural to watch as they sip. Replace we are an important part of the
tion to stay alive, and returns landscapes like woodlands that standing water at least weekly natural world, and we need in-
very little to the system,” he are shady and support insects. to prevent mosquitoes from de- sects just as much as they need
told me. What’s important in land- veloping. us. As ecologist Douglas Talla-
Native flowers, by definition, scaping with insects in mind, A refuge in every yard my argues in his book, “Nature’s
will grow well in your climate, or “entoscaping,” is considering Many resources across the Best Hope,” the best way to pro-
although some areas will have insects early and often when U.S. offer advice on converting tect biodiversity is for people to
more choices than others and you visit the garden store. With your lawn or making your yard plant native plants and promote
growing seasons vary. Native a few pots or window boxes, more insect-friendly. conservation in every yard. ■
plants also provide a palette of even a balcony can be converted The Xerces Society for Insect
colors and variety that lawns into a cozy insect oasis. Conservation publishes a guide This article is republished
sorely lack. By planting them as If you’re gardenless, you can to establishing meadows to sus- from The Conversation under a
a meadow, with many different still support insect health. Try tain insects. Local university Creative Commons license.
flowers emerging throughout replacing white outdoor lights, extension offices post tips on
www.canadianinquirer.net
20
Your brain thinks – but how?
BY TYLER DANIEL
ANDERSON-SIEG, University
of South Carolina
The Conversation
How does your brain un-
derstand things?
- Shubhra S., age 8
A roaring sound fills the air
and a small object zips through
the sky. People in a crowd look
up, and three voices shout,
“Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird!”
“It’s a plane!” “It’s Superman!”
It’s the same object, the same
sky. It’s even the same roar. So
why do three people witnessing
the same event reach different
conclusions?
The answer to this question
lies in how our brains are hard-
wired to think. We experience
and interpret the world around
us based on what we already
know, even though sometimes
what we know is flawed.
The thinking problem
The world is a confusing and
busy place. Our brains must
make sense of it by processing
a never-ending stream of in-
formation. Ideally – because it
would be most accurate – our
brains would analyze every-
thing thoroughly. However,
they cannot, because it is too
impractical.
Thinking takes time, and our
decisions must often be fast.
Climate change drove ethnic tribes to
Philippines: study
BY Philippine News Agency
MANILA - A landmark study
has revealed the complex
shared origins, inter-related-
ness, and genetic diversity of
the Filipino people.
Taking advantage of the lat-
est advances in genomics and
computational biology, a team
of researchers investigated into
the Filipino DNA (deoxyribo-
nucleic acid).
They looked into 2.3 million
molecular DNA markers that
were known to differ between
various populations.
The markers from more than
1,000 individuals, representing
115 Philippine cultural commu-
nities, were comprehensively
analyzed.
Lifestyle
You must immediately know to
cross a road quickly – even run
– when you hear a car rapidly
approaching.
Thinking also uses energy –
or brain power – and our brains
have only a limited supply. Ana-
lyzing everything would quick-
ly deplete our energy stores.
These limitations represent
a thinking problem: Our brains
simply do not have enough
resources to understand the
world without taking some
mental shortcuts.
Our smart, lazy brains
Our brains find shortcuts to
overcome the thinking problem
by relying on thoughts already
stored in our minds, called
schemas. Schemas do the pro-
cessing for the brain, like au-
to-fill, but for thinking.
Using schemas is more effi-
cient than analyzing every as-
pect of every moment. They al-
low our brains to process more
information with less effort,
saving brain power for other
important thinking and prob-
lem-solving.
Our brains as libraries
Schemas are the building
blocks of our knowledge about
the world. Our brains rely on
different types of schemas to
understand different types of
situations.
Schemas are like books in
your mind telling you what dif-
“This finally gives us a clearer
picture of who we are as Filipi-
nos, where we came from, and
our sense of relatedness.” Carlo
Ebeo, Board of Trustee member
of the National Museum that
was involved in the study, said.
It was revealed that, through
time, the Philippines was in-
habited by at least five major
waves of human migration,
starting with Northern and
Southern Negritos as the first
Filipinos, then followed by
Manobo, Sama, and Cordille-
ran-related populations.
It was previously thought
that the search for new arable
lands by expanding farmer pop-
ulations was the main reason
for driving population migra-
tions, such as the dispersal Aus-
tronesian-speaking groups into
ferent objects are and what they
do. A bird schema, for example,
might say that birds are “small
animals,” “have wings” and “can
fly.” Together, all the objects
you know form a collection of
books that fill the shelves of a
library in your mind.
Our brains trust what these
books or schemas tell us when
we try to understand objects in
our environment. Doing so is
much quicker and easier than
analyzing their features anew,
and the conclusion is usually –
but not always – the same.
Do I see things differently
than you do?
Whether our judgments are
accurate depends on the sche-
mas or books available in our
mental libraries.
When our brains try to un-
derstand unfamiliar objects,
they must rely on a schema for
a different but similar object
because the correct schema is
unavailable. If the object and
chosen schema closely match,
our brains effortlessly – but in-
accurately – assume the two ob-
jects are the same.
A person who has never seen
a bat might assume a bat is a
bird because the features of
the bat and their schema for a
bird are similar: Both are small
animals with wings and can fly.
Our brains accept occasional
inaccuracies.
the Philippines.
Role of climate change
However, Sweden-based Fil-
ipino scientist Dr. Maximilian
Larena, who co-led the
study, challenged this
view.
“Our findings suggest
that instead of farming,
climate change may have
played a more important
role in driving the mass
movement of popula-
tions in various direc-
tions,” he said.
The significant geo-
graphic changes may
have prompted the migration
of Manobo and Sama-related
ancestral groups from Borneo
into southern Philippines and
Cordilleran-related ancestral
groups from southern Chi-
www.canadianinquirer.net
For the two people who
thought Superman was a bird
or a plane, neither had seen Su-
perman before, so neither had a
Superman schema available to
rely on. Their brains effortless-
ly chose schemas for a bird and
plane instead because those
schemas were the closest match
to the object in the sky.
Their brains made quick as-
sumptions based on imperfect
knowledge. The human brain
“thought” it saw one thing
but, in the interest of thinking
quickly and efficiently, it made
a mistake. There is no harm in
thinking Superman is a bird or
na-Taiwan area into the various
islands of the Philippines.
The arrival of Manobo, Sama,
and Cordilleran-related groups
This finally gives us a
clearer picture of who
we are as Filipinos
resulted in interbreeding with
resident Negritos.
Interestingly, some Cordil-
lerans remained to be the only
Filipino ethnic group that did
not show evidence of historical
MARCH 26, 2021 FRIDAY
a plane, even though he is not. It
only takes one encounter with
Superman to create a new sche-
ma and change your thinking
forever. ■
Hello, curious kids! Do you
have a question you’d like an
expert to answer? Ask an adult
to send your question to Curi-
ousKidsUS@theconversation.
com. Please tell us your name,
age and the city where you live.
And since curiosity has no age
limit – adults, let us know what
you’re wondering, too. We won’t
be able to answer every question,
but we will do our best.
interbreeding with Negritos.
They are the only ones in the
world who remained to be the
unadmixed descendants of Bas-
al East Asians, the study
showed.
“This affirms that Cor-
dillerans were isolat-
ed for quite some time,
which is evident on the
retention of distinct in-
digenous cultural prac-
tices and presence of
immense linguistic di-
versity in the region,” Dr.
Adrian Albano, a Kalan-
guya Cordilleran from
Ifugao State University and
co-author of the study, said.
Additional minor genetic
signals were also detected in
❱❱ PAGE 21 Climate change drove
FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021
Why don’t we have a cure
for Alzheimer’s disease?
BY DONALD WEAVER,
University of Toronto
The Conversation
As a researcher who studies
Alzheimer’s disease and a neu-
rologist who cares for people
with Alzheimer’s, I share in the
frustration, indeed anger, of
people and families when I tell
them that I have no cure to offer.
Over the past year, scien-
tists have tackled COVID-19,
a previously unknown disease
and within months developed
effective new vaccines. Over
that same time frame, the list of
Alzheimer’s treatment failures
got longer. Currently, the only
approved drugs for Alzheimer’s
merely alleviate some of the
symptoms — partially and tem-
porarily — but do not stop the
disease from progressing.
Although it was first officially
described 115 years ago, and of
course existed long before that,
we still do not have a cure for
this devastating disease. Why?
Let’s start by following the
money. For years, patient advo-
cates have pointed to the esca-
lating toll and ballooning costs
of Alzheimer’s as the world’s
population ages. Alzheimer’s is
severely underfunded in com-
parison to cancer, heart disease,
HIV/AIDS and even COVID-19.
Sadly, the mistaken belief
that Alzheimer’s only affects
older people is a contributing
factor to this underfunding.
However, five to 10 per cent of
people with Alzheimer’s are
under 65 years of age; some are
Climate change drove...
❰❰ 20 some Filipino ethnic
groups, including Pap-
uan, South Asian, and
European genetic ancestry.
The Papuan-related ances-
try is found among the coastal
ethnic groups of southeastern
Philippines. This likely reflects
a westward migration or gene
flow of Papuan-related ances-
try from Papua New Guinea or
the Bismarck’s archipelago into
eastern Indonesia and subse-
quently into southeastern Phil-
ippines.
The South Asian or Indi-
an-related genetic signal was
even in their 40s. Alzheimer’s is
also a disease of the entire fam-
ily, causing anxiety, depression
and exhaustion in caregivers
and loved ones, exacting a dis-
proportionately high socio-eco-
nomic cost.
Conflicting theories
Funding is not the only issue
here. The human brain is ex-
tremely complex, and Alzhei-
mer’s disease is the most com-
plex disease of the brain. The
challenges that arise from this
collision of complexities are re-
flected by the many competing
theories of Alzheimer’s.
The most time-honoured
theory is that Alzheimer’s is
caused by misfolded proteins
that aggregate or clump, killing
brain cells and giving rise to the
symptoms of memory loss and
reduced cognition. Initially, the
culprit in this misfolding story
was a protein called beta-am-
yloid. More recently, another
protein, tau, has emerged as a
possible contributor.
Although a wealth of re-
search data have supported
this protein misfolding theo-
ry, referred to as the amyloid
hypothesis, multiple drugs de-
signed to block the brain’s toxic
protein misfolding processes
have failed in human trials, re-
peatedly. In fact, in the past two
years, several major clinical tri-
als based on the field’s leading
hypothesis — that reducing the
level of aggregated beta-amy-
loid that riddles the brains of
Alzheimer’s patients would halt
disease progression — have dra-
matically failed.
detected among the Sama
Dilaut and other coastal Sama
ethnic groups of southwestern
Philippines.
The signal was dated to 500
to 1000 years ago, coinciding
with the time when there was
increased maritime trading ac-
tivity between Island Southeast
Asia and India.
The European genetic sig-
nal was only detected in one
percent of all individuals in-
vestigated, indicating a limited
genetic legacy of the Spanish
Colonial Period.
Groundbreaking study
And so there are many oth-
er theories. A new heavyweight
contender is the neuroinflam-
mation theory of Alzheimer’s
which suggests that the disease
arises from an excessive release
of toxic inflammatory chemicals
from immune cells in the brain
called microglia. Drugs designed
to address this theory are fun-
damentally different from those
addressing the amyloid hypoth-
esis, and are still early in the de-
velopmental process.
A different theory claims that
Alzheimer’s is a disease of syn-
apses, which are the junctions
between brain cells, and yet an-
other suggests that Alzheimer’s
is a disease of mitochondria, a
structure central to energy pro-
duction in every brain cell.
Challenges to finding a cure
The path towards a cure is not
going to be easy, and even if these
theories do lead to the develop-
ment of drugs, these drugs may
fail for a host of other reasons.
Alzheimer’s is a very long,
chronic disease, probably pres-
ent 20 to 30 years before the
first symptoms become obvi-
The study was made possi-
ble through the partnership
between Uppsala University of
Sweden, led by Prof. Mattias
Jakobsson and Larena, and
the National Commission for
Culture and the Arts (NCCA),
through the office of then chair-
person Felipe Mendoza de
Leon.
“This is a groundbreak-
ing study that the commis-
sion heartily endorsed, and
we should be thankful for this
collaboration as it sheds some
light on the longstanding ques-
tion of our origins. It will cer-
www.canadianinquirer.net
Lifestyle
ous. Giving the drug when a per-
son becomes symptomatic may
be too late for it to make any dif-
ference. But we do not have the
ability to diagnose it 30 years
before the first symptoms, and
even if we could, we would need
to consider the ethics of giving
a potentially toxic drug long-
term to someone who may or
may not get a disease in three
decades.
Also, unlike developing anti-
biotics in which the research-
ers know within days if the
drug works, the chronic nature
of Alzheimer’s requires long,
expensive trials — years in du-
ration — before an answer can
be attained. Such time and ex-
pense is a further impediment
to drug development.
One final problem is that
Alzheimer’s may not simply be
one disease. It may in fact be a
collection of similar diseases.
A 52-year-old with early on-
set Alzheimer’s certainly has a
clinical course distinct and dif-
ferent from an 82-year-old with
late onset Alzheimer’s. Will a
drug that works in an 82-year-
tainly revise our understanding
and appreciate that the story of
the peopling of the Philippines
from three waves of migration
as proposed by Otley Beyer is
not supported by archeological,
genetic, or historical evidence,”
says Prof. Felipe Mendoza de
Leon of the NCCA.
Aside from the extensive
network of cultural workers
provided by the NCCA, the
scientific endeavor was also
implemented in collaboration
with indigenous cultural com-
munities, local universities, lo-
cal government units, non-gov-
21
old also work in a 52-year-old
person’s disease? Maybe, or
maybe not.
Thankfully, despite these
many hurdles, a wealth of fas-
cinating and encouraging re-
search is taking place in lab-
oratories around the world.
The successes of science and
the pharmaceutical industry
against many other diseases
over the past century have often
arisen from picking low-hang-
ing fruit. Alzheimer’s disease is
not a low-hanging fruit, but the
apple at the very top of the tree,
and scientists are going to have
to climb a lot of branches —
many of which have never been
trodden upon — on the way to a
cure. But we’ll get there. ■
Donald Weaver, Professor of
Chemistry and Director of Krem-
bil Research Institute, Universi-
ty Health Network, University of
Toronto
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
ernmental organizations, and
regional offices of the National
Commission for Indigenous
Peoples.
“We are proud to be part of
this historical research. It re-
vealed how interconnected we
are to each other after all, and
that we share a common an-
cestry. Recognizing this fact
will hopefully carry a message
of unity and peace among var-
ious ethnic groups, regardless
of beliefs,” says Waway Saway
of the Talaandig ethnic group of
Bukidnon that was involved in
the study. ■
22 MARCH 26, 2021 FRIDAY

#Bossbabe: Living the

Cinty Y Lifestyle
BY MATTE LAUREL
This article is super close to
this writer’s heart. I am writ-
ing about a woman whom I’ve
personally known for decades
and a former colleague at The
Peninsula Manila. I have long
admired Cinty Yñiguez and
this petite stunner has always
been larger than life! When she
enters a room, everyone turns
around and looks at her; she
illuminates the room with her
beauty and joie de vivre. What
I admire most about Cinty
are her calm demeanour, her
love for life, and her kindness.
Combined those traits with her
fierce business acumen as an
innovative womanpreneur, a
successful career as a hotelier,
and being Manila’s best yoga
guru — Cinty is one #Bossbabe,
a triple threat for sure!
Cinty earned her Bachelor’s
degree of Science, Hotel and
Restaurant Business Manage-
ment at the University of the
Philippines. She started her ca-
with Hong Kong Disneyland,
Cinty moved on to become the
Director of Sales and Marketing
for the Sicogon Island Tourism
Estate where she successfully
managed the rebranding of Air-
Swift airlines.
At present, Cinty is connect-
ed with the Ayala Land Hotels
and Resorts Corp., as the Di-
rector of Sales and Marketing
for the Seda Verdis North —
managing a strong staff of 20
for sales, banquets/events, PR
& marketing communications,
and reservations departments,
with overall mentorship of all
department leaders to develop
effective revenue strategies and
innovative marketing initia-
tives for 438 rooms, 10 banquet
rooms, and three restaurants
and a bar.
On top of her being a hotelier,
Cinty is the CEO and Founder
of Naked Foods by Cinty. She
started the plant-based brand
in 2017. Naked Foods by Cinty
offers preservative-free meat
alternatives food products with-
out sacrificing tastes and fla-
was more fluid, flexible and even
stronger in my practice. The
healthier I ate; the more plant-
based I became, the stronger I
became.”
What inspired you?
“Cooking was always part of
growing up and I will always be
grateful for having grown up in
a home where ‘eating together’
is a family tradition; gathering
around family meals connected
us and brought us closer togeth-
er. My Mom, Aunt and sisters
were great cooks, and I couldn’t
have been more inspired to do the
same, this time probably a little
healthier.
I started with a plot of land
with 5 beds of vegetables. I start-
ed carrying home baskets of kale,
and green leafy vegetables. Then
my experimenting began with
drinking green juice every single
day for years; my kids got into
the same healthy eating habits
(and we never got sick, touch on
wood). Healthy eating became
a family staple; then I brought
it to the office — a 5-star deluxe
hotel (The Peninsula Manila) — PHOTO COURTESY OF CINTY YÑIGUEZ

reer as a Sales Manager at The
Peninsula Manila in 1991. At The
Pen, Cinty managed and super-
vised ten sales staff. She was a
consistent top Sales Manager for
the hotel. Cinty concentrated on
handling the corporate account
management of top producing
and large-scale multinational
companies and overseas mar-
kets, which included Hong Kong
and Singapore. One happy client
was my uncle, Eddie Sia (hus-
band of my aunt from my mater-
nal side), former head of DuPont
Philippines.
From her stint at The Pen-
insula Manila, Cinty went on
to become an Associate Direc-
tor of Sales for Ritz Carlton in
Singapore for two years. Af-
ter Singapore, Cinty became a
part of the pre-opening team
of the Sales and Marketing In-
ternational team of Hong Kong
Disneyland where she led and
managed the regional teams in
India, Indonesia, Philippines,
Australia, Europe, and the U.S.
in improving productivity, ef-
fectiveness and operational
efficiency of the sales and mar-
keting division. After ten years
vour! You can savour Gourmet
foods like the popular “Facon “
— a nutrient-dense Filipino and
Italian sausage filled with herbal
flavours. You can also enjoy clas-
sic favourites such as Sweet Pork
Bites, Pulled Pork, Beef Strips,
Vegetable Bouillon Powder, and
Char Siu Pork.
Let’s get to know how one be-
comes a successful #Bossbabe
and how to live the “Cinty Y
Lifestyle!”
Tell us more about your busi-
ness and how you started it.
“It all started with yoga,
shortly after my second daugh-
ter, Alexandra was born back
in 2001. I wanted to get into a
health regimen that I had to be
realistic about in sustaining for
life. Something that was only
going to have a positive impact
physically and mentally; a kind,
and gentle yet strong, stable, and
grounding active lifestyle. I got
into deeper yoga practice, then
saw the effects of what I was eat-
ing in my practice. The deeper
and more advanced in practice I
wanted to get, the more mindful I
was about eating, realizing that
whenever I ate less or no meat, I
where I first worked and intro-
duced this healthy eating menu
in their coffee shop. Eventually,
this healthy lifestyle became an
active choice.”
How were you able to es-
tablish it?
“Through further studies —
Clinical Nutrition (and I am
planning to further my educa-
tion in Plant-based Nutrition).
I strive to nourish my well-being
not just through yoga, but by
focusing on the healing, medi-
tative practice of creating good,
home-cooked meals, and exper-
imenting with plant-based food
alternatives. My aim is to be able
to share this inspiration with
others, to help enrich lives by
creating and enabling healthier,
sustainable lifestyles through
the teachings of yoga and good
nutrition.”
At a certain age, a wom-
an accepts this fact: life is
about accepting challenges
and choosing to keep mov-
ing onwards. What are the
daily challenges you face as a
womanpreneur?
“I have always been a dili-
gent, meticulous and an orga-
nized person even as a child.
Time management and big-time
multi-tasking skills were some-
thing I learned at a young age.
It really is no different today,
when I have to manage my time
most effectively and enjoyably
between my corporate life and
my personal life. And outside
of work, it would mean wear-
ing many different hats as the
founder of Naked Foods, as a
yoga teacher, and as a nutrition-
ist — all rolled into one.
My primary focus, of course,
is work. During weekdays, and
if I’m lucky, I try to squeeze in
a 20-30-minute yoga practice. I
spend my nights, weekends, and
holidays dedicated to getting
creative in my ‘woman-cave’ or
‘she-shed’ or what I fondly call
my ‘passion pantry’. My ‘wom-
an cave’ is where I do some yoga
self-practice, continuously gain
more knowledge on plant-based
nutrition, and learn more on
how to have a well-rounded and
holistic lifestyle approach.”
“Yoga, nutrition, curated
plant-based creations are all
passion projects that fuel and
nourish me every day. Every day
is different and brings forth a
myriad of different challenges
and opportunities. Our most im-
portant resources — TIME and
ENERGY and how we use and
prioritize these — allow us to be
able to sustain and inspire us to
move through (with focus, agil-
ity, fluidity, and purpose) on the
everyday changes and challeng-
es in our daily lives.”
We all know that en route
to success, we can’t help but
pass by failures. What and
how did you learn from your
failures? How do you push
through your worst times?
“When I think of the worst
times — both personally and
professionally, I try and remem-
ber to always set boundaries for
myself and know exactly what I
value in life; what matters most
at the end of the day. I inculcate
the best way I can and know
— the values of GRIT, FORTI-
TUDE, OPTIMISM, and our
favorite (and most used) word of
2020 — RESILIENCE. We real-
ly need to see beyond and under-
stand that your thoughts today

www.canadianinquirer.net
FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021
may seem the worst day of your
life, but there is always a better
and brighter tomorrow, with re-
newed faith, love and hope.
Hardships, obstacles, chal-
lenges, difficulties and even for
some of us, trauma, are tempo-
rary, but they certainly build your
character and make you stronger
(hopefully, wiser) each time.
The worst times only help
you to propel and accelerate
you, your life, your goals to ex-
cellence. Just keep moving and
flowing and know that tomorrow
will always be better.”
What is the most import-
ant to you and why at this
point in your life?
“What is most important to me
right now is a holistic approach
and attitude towards wellness. I
find the need to sustain the nour-
ishment of my physical, mental,
emotional and spiritual being
so that I have more than enough
to give others. Notwithstand-
ing, the true gift of family and a
handful of authentic people in
my life are the people that mat-
ter most to me. When we take
care of ourselves, we can show up
and be more present for others.”
“Our mission is to encourage
more people to nourish them-
selves with healthy and nutri-
tious, handcrafted plant-based
food that are stripped of all the
preservatives, yielding healthier
results for the mind, body and
soul. Our vision is to be the voice
and advocate of change and in-
novation for adoption of a more
plant forward eating as a “gate-
way diet” to a healthier lifestyle.
We believe that the journey to
a healthier lifestyle starts with
a few easy steps, transforming
local and international staple
favourites into guilt-free alter-
natives that taste just as good, if
not better!”
What do you do for encour-
agement or to be motivated?
“GRIT. Find the courage, stay
strong and persevere in the face
of adversities. Do your best to see
opportunities in chaos. The light
will always glimmer; the candle
flickers; Life presents you with
many choices. Be mindful, con-
scientious and vigilant in choos-
ing the one you feel best at that
moment. Be passionate about
yourself and life is the best gift
you can give yourself. Follow and
PHOTO COURTESY OF CINTY YÑIGUEZ
Maria in Vancouver
live your BLISS. Keep stokin’
that fire, baby!
Find your TRIBE. LOVE them
hard. The universe will (mag-
ically) always conspire to give
you what you need. Have faith.
Trust yourself the most and be
kind and compassionate to your-
self. Set boundaries and give
love to yourself so that you have
enough love to give to others.
And this starts with taking care
of yourselves first.”
Sometimes success means
having the right idea in the
right place at the right time.
How did you know when you
had the right idea?
“I discovered the amazing im-
pact both yoga and good, healthy
nutrition had on my body and
mind. We can only trust and are
solely responsible for ourselves.
This means loving, accepting and
embracing our body. It is the most
amazing thing you’ll ever own.
And if we don’t take care of our-
selves; of our body, then who will?
These are words that resonated in
my head and heart when I started
my passion in yoga and ‘eating
clean’ so-to-speak in my wellness
journey some 20 +years ago.
People have been focused on
health for so many years. Since
the beginning of time, we’ve been
looking for ways to feel better
and live longer. We are constant-
ly exploring and evolving to find
better (and not necessarily the
best) ways to nourish ourselves
– physically, mentally, emotion-
ally and even spiritually. Some-
times, we look for a healthy, safe,
and sustainable path that will
heal and propel us as the reali-
ties of life start to set-in (such as
uncontrollable toxins in the en-
vironment, illness, age and other
factors).”
“I have found that self-care;
taking care of our bodies as me-
diums have the greatest and
most profound impact on our
well-being. Knowing that what
we put in our bodies is what will
be reflected on the outside. I gen-
uinely believe in the old adage,
“we are what we eat.”
“The practice of Yoga and
Eating Clean or Good Nutrition
(leaning towards a more plant-
based lifestyle) have a lot in com-
mon. Both teach us to respect our
bodies. We all age over time; we
can’t escape that. Some are old-
er; some are more limber; stron-
ger; more flexible now than the
others, but we will all get to the
same destination some day. But
as we do, we can get there grace-
fully and mindfully (hopefully,
www.canadianinquirer.net
with less visits to the doctor; less
medicines).”
What podcasts do you lis-
ten to inspire or learn from?
“I listen a lot to all kinds of
TED talks — about life, rela-
tionships, science, nutrition,
food, yoga, business, technology,
farming and a long list of cook-
ing channels.”
Women have certainly
come a long way — we no lon-
ger choose to be victims; we
prefer to be the heroines in
our lives. Which womanpre-
neur inspires you and why?
“There is a long list of female
entrepreneurs, both local and
international, that I admire and
inspired by — for their advocacy,
commitment, tenacity and suc-
cess (however you define it).
But to zero-in on some of them
are the following:
• Rissa Mananquil Trillo is
the co-founder of Happy Skin,
a popular cosmetics and beau-
ty product brand. The brand is
known for its dynamic makeup
lines that take care of the cus-
tomer’s skin. Happy Skin boasts
13 stores and almost 100 beauty
kiosks in the Philippines. It has
also garnered 30 beauty awards,
such as the Most Promising New
Cosmetic Brand from Watsons
Philippines. I have had a chance
to have a few exchanges with her
to explore an opportunity for a
collaboration ( for work). I feel
we share the same sentiments
and values about “good values”
- how we should develop and
nurture them, and at any time of
compromise, stick to your guns;
stand your ground. Know who
you are.
• Briohny Smith is a renowned
yoga teacher. I had the oppor-
tunity of attending her Teacher
Training Course in HK. Her en-
ergy was soothing, yet strong.
• Rinat Perlman is a yoga
teacher in HK (GOOD Yoga). I
took countless classes with her
and had my most amazing jour-
ney in yoga getting “beat” by her.
I have profound love and respect
for what I learned from her class-
es. And to all my co-teaching
faculty in the yoga scene (as me
teachers, mentors and sources of
constant inspiration) — they are
all amazing women who I know
are always striving, thriving
to be the best and give the most
from their genuine hearts.
• My Aspiring Partners in Na-
ked Foods (Real Food PH, The
Vegan Grocer, Only Vegan Store
Cebu, and just a newby partner,
Very Vegan Negrense).
23
• My daughter, Krissa Lud-
vigsen (Dharma Approach)
— she is an Oslo-based Yoga
Teacher, Digital Marketer, An
Advocate for Mindful Living
and because she is my daughter.
Seriously, because and for her, I
stoked my fire at a young age.”
Behind every successful
woman is a tribe of other suc-
cessful women who have her
back. What advice would you
give young aspiring women-
preneurs?
“I live by the following ad-
age that apply to every area in
my life – work, yoga and good,
healthy nutrition:
Self-love is the greatest med-
icine. Our life gets better when
we give love to ourselves; our
body, and treat it with kindness,
mindfully. We just need to keep
working at it, and the rest will
follow. Because really, the body
achieves what the mind believes.
We just need to practice patience
and mindfulness, because noth-
ing in life ever blooms all year.
We reap the rewards over time,
not instantaneously, so as long
as we are mindful and consistent
in what we do and know exact-
ly why we are doing it; knowing
the “why”; the ‘purpose’, we will
eventually get there. We are al-
ready halfway there, when the
intentions in our hearts and
minds are clear and clean. We
need to create healthy habits, not
restrictions. And we really need
to listen to our bodies; allow it to
whisper to us, so we don’t have to
hear it scream.
Let not the mind limit us to do
what is good for us in the short
and long run. Embrace and love
your body. It is the most amazing
thing you’ll ever own. Let eating
clean be a priority; a constant,
joyous and adventurous journey
and a gift we give to ourselves
and the people we love.”
Hey ladies, what are we all
waiting for? Let’s start living
the “Cinty Y” Lifestyle — let’s
start taking care of ourselves!
Indeed, we are what we eat so
let’s not eat junk, fast, fattening,
and processed foods. Our bod-
ies are our homes — let’s keep
our homes clean! ■
Matte Laure is a former restau-
rateur and hotelier, a mother, a
partner, healthy and wellness
aficionado, food and wine enthu-
siast, a dog-lover, and lifestyle
columnist (Maria in Vancouver!)
exclusively for Philippine Canadi-
an Inquirer (PCI).
24
San Juan’s LeBron out indefinitely
Wilson named with right ankle injury
MPBL MVP
BY IVAN STEWART
SALDAJENO
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – San Juan’s John
Wilson has been named the
Most Valuable Player of the
MPBL Lakan Season.
Wilson received his award
prior to Game 4 of the national
finals at the Subic Bay Gymna-
sium on Sunday
The 34-year-old former Jose
Rizal University star and Phil-
ippine Basketball Association
veteran played vintage basket-
ball for the entire season, aver-
aging 20.2 points, 6.3 rebounds,
2.6 assists, and 2.3 steals a game.
He set history during the reg-
ular season when he became
the first player in league history
to reach 1,000 points.
He also dropped 44 points, an
all-time single game scoring re-
cord, to lead San Juan to a huge
win against Pampanga on Sept.
17, 2019.
Sports
“I worked a lot for this award.
I spent more time working than
with my family. I spend six
times a week for training. De-
serve ko talaga ito (I really de-
serve this),” Wilson said.
Joining him in the All-MPBL
First Team are fellow Knight
Mike Ayonayon, Davao Occiden-
tal’s Mark Yee, Pasig’s Jeric Teng,
and Makati’s Jeckster Apinan.
Yee was named the Defensive
Player of the Year after posting
averages of 11.9 rebounds, 0.8
block, and 0.8 steal a game on
top of his 14.96-point average.
Last season’s MVP Gab Ba-
nal headlines the All-MPBL
Second Team, joining Manila’s
Chris Bitoon and Aris Dionisio,
GenSan’s Pamboy Raymundo,
and Pasay’s Dhon Reverente.
Billy Robles was handed the
Sportsmanship Award, while
Nueva Ecija team owner Bong
Cuevas, who had a hand in or-
ganizing the MPBL bubble in
Subic, was named the Executive
of the Year. ■
@JOHNWIL_18/INSTAGRAM
MARCH 26, 2021 FRIDAY
BY Anadolu. Philippine
News Agency
ANKARA – National Bas-
ketball Association (NBA)
superstar LeBron James was
announced to be “out indefi-
nitely” after sustaining a high
ankle sprain on Saturday night.
The Los Angeles Lakers
said on their website that
the 36-year-old forward left
the second quarter of a game
against the Atlanta Hawks after
he injured his right ankle.
The Lakers said James was
diagnosed with a high ankle
sprain injury and that his re-
turn remained uncertain.
“Nothing angers and saddens
me more than not being avail-
able to and for my teammates!
I’m hurt inside and out right
now,” James said on Twitter.
“The road back from recov-
ery begins now. Back soon like I
ERIK DROST/FLICKR, CC BY 2.0
never left,” he added.
Without James, the Lakers
lost to the Hawks 99-94 in Los averaging 25.4 points, 7.9 re- winning titles with the Miami
Angeles on Saturday. He scored bounds and 7.9 assists per game. Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers, and
10 points in 11 minutes. He is a four-time NBA cham- the Lakers, whom he joined in
This season, James has been pion (2012, 2013, 2016, 2020), 2018. ■
Filipino karateka De Los
Santos captures 10th gold
BY IVAN STEWART the gold medal match, giving De naught.
SALDAJENO Los Santos, whose video per- Meanwhile, De Los Santos,
Philippine News Agency formance was who got a first
accepted, the round bye and
forfeiture win. edged world
MANILA – Filipino karateka The veto number two
James De Los Santos is once brought Cero- Matias Do-
again a winner for the 10th time ne-Biagioni’s mont of Swit-
this year as he took the gold in effort to make
Nowhere to go zerland in the
the E-Karate World Series Edi- the final, in but forward! semis, vows to
tion 2. which he beat continue on
De Los Santos, however, won Kevin Pfan- with the fight
the final against South Africa’s Sil- nenstiel of to solidify his
vio Cerone-Biagioni in the man- Germany in world number
ner no one wanted to happen. the first round one ranking.
The judges did not approve and Vasilakis Konstantinos of “Nowhere to go but forward!”
Cerone-Biagioni’s routine for Greece in the semifinals, into he said on Monday. ■
www.canadianinquirer.net
FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021
Closing biz again would spell
disaster for PH: Duterte
BY AZER PARROCHA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – President Rodri-
go Duterte on Monday admitted
that closing businesses amid a
spike in Covid-19 cases nation-
wide would spell “disaster” for
the Philippine economy.
In a pre-recorded public ad-
dress, Duterte made the state-
ment after he approved placing
Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite,
Laguna, and Rizal under a gen-
eral community quarantine
(GCQ) bubble until April 4 to
curb the spread of Covid-19.
He acknowledged that the
surge in Covid-19 cases could be
due to the fact that many areas in
Metro Manila are “heavily laden”
with people, including Divisoria,
Manila’s famous flea market.
“Nanonood ako ng TV (I
watch TV) and every time
Covid is being discussed they
play a certain footage dun sa
(in) Divisoria. How can you
control the people there? It’s
such a small place, there are so
many thousands there trying to
wriggle in and out of…’yan ang
mahirap because of the space
na wala kasi tapos dumating
PH banks fined billions for non-compliance
with Agri-Agra law
BY JOANN VILLANUEVA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – Local banks have
paid billions in penalties for
non-compliance with the Agri-
Agra Reform Credit Act of 2009.
“On average, banks pay
around PHP2 billion in penal-
ties every year,” Maria Cynthia
Sison, Bangko Sentral ng Pili-
pinas (BSP) Supervisory Poli-
cy and Research Department
deputy director, said in a virtual
briefing Thursday.
During the same briefing, BSP
Business
itong pandemya dito tayo na-
hirapan (that’s what makes it
difficult because of the lack of
space and then this pandemic
happened that’s why we’re hav-
ing problems),” he said.
Duterte, however, said he
could not impose another lock-
down since people’s source of
livelihood would be affected.
“Kung sarahan mo naman
‘yan lahat medyo tagilid na ang
ekonomiya (If you close it all our
economy is not in good shape)
and that’s a problem. Kung sara-
han mo talaga lahat (If you close
it all), it would be disaster for
the country. So balance balance
nalang tayo (So we have to main-
tain a balance),” he added.
Duterte also defended his de-
cision to impose additional re-
strictions in Metro Manila and
four nearby provinces, stress-
ing that the state can control
the movement of the people
especially under a prevailing
health crisis.
“The curtailment of your
freedom to travel is always sub-
ject to the power of the state to
control the movement of its cit-
izens especially if there is a pan-
demic. The state has that kind
of power although hindi ‘yan
Governor Benjamin Diokno said
banks have extended a total of
PHP713.6 billion in agri-agra
credit as of end-December 2020.
“Even with such an amount,
banks were still unable to com-
ply with the mandatory agri-
agra credit,” he said.
Of the total loans extended by
banks, PHP642.4 billion is ac-
counted for by agricultural credit.
This amount, however, is
about 9 percent of the com-
pliance ratio and is below the
15-percent requirement.
Agrarian reform credit ex-
tended by banks to date amounts
sa (it’s not) martial law. It’s just
putting you in the right places
at this time,” he said.
On Sunday, Duterte approved
additional restrictions in Metro
Manila and four nearby prov-
inces for two weeks to cut by 25
percent the number of Covid-19
cases nationwide.
Currently, operational capac-
ities of essential and non-es-
sential services/industries will
be maintained subject to mini-
mum health standards.
Gyms and fitness centers
inside the GCQ bubble are al-
lowed to operate up to 75 per-
cent of their capacity while spas
are allowed to operate up to 50
percent capacity.
The operation of gyms, fitness
centers, and spas is subject to ad-
herence to safety protocols and
minimum public health stan-
dards, particularly in the prohi-
bition of aggregation in commu-
nal areas such as pantries and
canteens, among others.
These establishments will
only be allowed to operate de-
pending on the local govern-
ment units (LGUs). Quezon
City has prohibited the opera-
tion of these establishments.
In restaurants, only outdoor
to PHP71.2 billion, a mere 1 per-
cent compliance ratio vis-à-vis
the 10-percent requirement un-
der the Agri-Agra law.
Diokno attributed the low
compliance to processing
time-related to securities ac-
creditation, borrowers’ difficul-
ties in securing agrarian reform
credits, limited availability of
agri-agra complaint debt pa-
pers, and lack of visible bank-
able agricultural projects.
The BSP has teamed-up with
the Department of Agriculture
(DA), Department of Agrari-
an Reform (DAR), Agricultural
www.canadianinquirer.net
Pres. Rodrigo Duterte
dining will be allowed at 50
percent operational capacity
provided that engineering and
administrative controls are in
place like acrylic or small di-
viders, limiting to two persons
per table, among other. Indoor
dining in restaurants, cafes, and
similar establishments will be
limited to delivery and take-out.
Operations of driving schools,
traditional cinemas and video
and interactive game arcades,
libraries, archives, museums,
and cultural centers, limited
social events at accredited tour-
ism establishments and limit-
Credit Policy Council, and sev-
eral other government agencies
to push for the amendments in
the Agri-Agra law since last Feb-
ruary amid these challenges.
The amendments in the im-
plementing rules and regulations
(IRR) of the law include expand-
ing the modes of compliance, re-
moval of accreditation require-
ment for debt securities to be
considered as agri-agra eligible,
allowing investments in shares
of stock companies that are pri-
marily engaged in qualified ag-
ricultural activities as eligible
mode of alternative compliance,
25
KING RODRIGUEZ/ PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO
ed tourism attractions will be
temporarily suspended except
open-air tourism attractions.
All public gatherings includ-
ing religious gatherings are pro-
hibited while face-to-face meet-
ings are discouraged. Weddings,
baptisms, and funeral services
will be limited to 10 persons.
There will a be a common
curfew imposed from 10 p.m. to
5 a.m. However, workers, cargo
vehicles, and public transporta-
tion will not be restricted by the
said curfew.
Public transportation will
also retain current capacity. ■
and promoting special lending
arrangements that consider the
holistic requirements of agricul-
tural borrowers like agricultural
value chain financing.
Prior to the amendment,
debt securities are required to
be accredited by the Agricultur-
al Credit Policy Council.
Diokno said these amendments
“consider the requirements of the
broader agricultural ecosystem.”
“These are also envisioned to
strengthen rural development
and improve (the) well-being of
agricultural and rural commu-
nity beneficiaries,” he added. ■
26
Journalism jobs are precarious,
financially insecure and
require family support
BY ERIN REID, McMaster University,
FARNAZ GHAEDIPOUR, McMaster
University
The Conversation
HuffPost recently laid off dozens of
Canadian journalists and closed its news
site. Bell Media Inc. has also laid off hun-
dreds of journalists.
Journalism is a notoriously precari-
ous profession. Downsizing and layoffs
are almost routine, and many journalists
find themselves bouncing between news
organizations and periods of freelance
work during their careers. Yet journal-
ism is not the only precarious profes-
sion — for decades, scholars have been
documenting the increasing precarity of
employment.
There has been a rise in freelance and
gig work in low-skilled jobs such as care
work, domestic services, trade work, de-
livery services and transportation. And
there has been a recent increase in gig
work in higher-skilled fields such as in-
formation technology and creative work
as well. People in these precarious fields
of work describe their work as intense
and demanding, but at the same time,
unstable and insecure.
Navigating instability
As scholars of work and organiza-
tions, we wanted to understand how
people in fields offering mainly precari-
ous employment handle the day-to-day
demands of their work as they navigate
this instability. We analyzed in-depth
interviews gathered from more than 100
journalists — some employed full time,
others working as freelancers — about
their careers and work experiences.
Our interviewees described their
work hours as unpredictable and dic-
tated by the news cycle or editors’ de-
mands. Journalists also described being
expected by editors to be geographical-
ly mobile for their work, either within
a given job to report a particular story,
or between contracts in order to move
Business
upward or to simply remain in the occu-
pation. Many were concerned that not
being amenable to such demands might
result in them being perceived to have
“lost their legs,” marking them as some-
one to be laid off.
These demands echo what scholars
have termed the ideal worker norm: ex-
pectations that good workers will dedi-
cate themselves to their tasks and place
their work ahead of other parts of their
life. In exchange for this dedication,
workers traditionally received rewards,
in the form of steady employment, pro-
motions and pay raises. Yet, for journal-
ists, these rewards were mostly absent
or lasted only until the next news orga-
nization downsized.
Most of the people we interviewed de-
scribed persistent financial insecurity
and anxiety about the stability of their
jobs. Nearly all participants had been
laid off — in most cases, multiple times.
Recalled one: “I was laid off in a phone
call. And, with no reason really. I mean
they had laid off a lot of people.”
The journalists we studied were caught
between intense demands from employ-
ers for near-total commitment and per-
sistent anxiety and financial insecurity
rooted in the precarious conditions of
their work. We find that they make peace
between these different pressures by, for
the most part, making themselves fully
available for their work, and leaning on
their families to make up the gaps.
Family as support system
In our sample, journalists with fami-
lies relied heavily on them for logistical
support to meet the occupation’s de-
mands, as well as financial support nec-
essary to weather financial insecurity.
Many relied on their spouses or ex-
tended family members for household
labour, including child care and house-
work, so they could meet the occupation’s
demands for availability and mobility.
Some also leaned on their spouses’ work
to provide a financial cushion for the un-
predictability of their own income.
www.canadianinquirer.net
One, speaking of the importance of
her spouse’s steady income to her abil-
ity to work in journalism, admitted, “I
could not do what I’m doing now if [my
spouse] were not footing the bills.”
Some journalists also described rely-
ing on extended family members, such
as their parents, for ongoing financial
support, child care and other logistical
help. One told us, “I think even more
than gender, race and socio-economics
dictate whether you even go into this
field, because … I’ve always known that I
have a safety net of my parents. I always
know that I have a financial and residen-
tial safety net should I ever lose my job
or have a problem.”
Yet not all journalists had families.
Many in our sample described sacrific-
ing family life entirely — not having chil-
dren or a long-term partner — due to the
demands of the job. For some, these de-
cisions were conscious, for others, it was
an outcome of the demands of the work.
When asked about combining work and
personal life, one participant who worked
in the profession for 30 years admitted he
did not really have a personal life and that
his life outside of work was limited to meet-
up groups and Saturday night entertain-
ment when he “could afford it” financially.
He shared: “There’s so much em-
phasis and so much focus on career ad-
vancement at the expense of everything
else, both suffer … when I work a Tues-
day-to-Saturday schedule, it’s hard to
have a personal life, especially when
you’re on call, like when I was covering
breaking news.”
MARCH 26, 2021 FRIDAY
Precarity is a reality
Amid the undeniable growth of the
gig economy that is predicted to accel-
erate even more in the aftermath of
the COVID-19 pandemic, precarity has
become the reality of the working lives
of both professionals and low-skilled
workers. The current thinking on the
implications of this economy has mostly
focused on implications for the workers
themselves.
Our work suggests that the gig econ-
omy imposes costs not only upon the
workers, but also upon their families
of origin, the families they create and
the families they choose not to create.
Governments and labour market pol-
icy-makers must take these spiralling
implications of the gig economy into ac-
count as they work to create new policy
regulations and solutions for workers
and families.
Furthermore, organizations that em-
ploy freelance workers must be aware
that in a precarious occupation, they’re
likely to do everything they can to meet
the employer’s demands. That’s a devo-
tion that could result in significant nega-
tive emotional and mental health-relat-
ed consequences. ■
Erin Reid, Associate professor, Human
Resources & Management, McMaster Uni-
versity and Farnaz Ghaedipour, PhD Can-
didate, Business, McMaster University
This article is republished from The
Conversation under a Creative Commons
license.
FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021
Solar technologies can speed up
vaccine rollout in Africa. Here’s how
BY CYRUS SINAI, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, ROB FETTER,
Duke University
The Conversation
There’s hope that some industrialised
countries will achieve near-universal
vaccination against COVID-19 in the
coming months. Yet the effort to vacci-
nate even the most essential workers
in developing countries has only just
begun. By current estimates, achieving
herd immunity (to current strains) will
require at least 75% of the world’s popu-
lation to be vaccinated. Some developing
countries haven’t reached that level of
coverage even for common vaccine-pre-
ventable diseases like measles and polio.
Many low-income countries will soon
get vaccine access through the COVAX
initiative. The first doses distributed in
sub-Saharan Africa under COVAX were
injected at the end of February. Around
30 million more doses are expected to
arrive in March 2021.
But the success of national distribu-
tion efforts depends on a functional cold
chain. This is an uninterrupted system
of storage, transport and delivery of vac-
cines at low temperatures all the way
from national warehouses to local clin-
ics and into the arms of people.
Most vaccines must be stored be-
tween 2°C and 8°C. This is the case for
polio and measles vaccines as well as
the COVID-19 vaccines from Johnson
& Johnson and AstraZeneca-Oxford.
Others have temperature requirements
that are notoriously more difficult to
maintain. The COVID-19 vaccines from
Moderna must be stored at between
-25°C and -15°C. The Pfizer-BioNTech
requires -70°C, but can be kept between
-25°C and -15°C for up to two weeks.
Got WhatsApp? Subscribe to get our
COVID-19 updates.
Subscribe
Keeping vaccines seamlessly refriger-
ated is an especially daunting challenge
where electricity is unavailable or unre-
liable. A 2013 review spanning 11 African
countries found that just 28% of clinics
and hospitals had reliable electricity,
and 26% had no electricity access at all.
Updated data on energy access in health
facilities is scattered and sparse, but we
are working on a new comprehensive re-
view.
Technology
Unreliable power is extremely costly
for vaccination efforts. Each year, near-
ly 50% of freeze-dried and 25% of liquid
vaccines are wasted. This is in large part
due to cold chain electricity disruptions.
Thus, to deliver COVID-19 vaccines at
the required scale, the problem of ener-
gy access at health facilities must be con-
fronted. But realistically, entire national
grids can’t be overhauled overnight to
provide universal, uninterrupted power.
So what can be done?
Solar as a solution
In many cases, the answer may be to
go solar. Solar photovoltaic solutions,
like other decentralised renewable en-
ergy systems, come in countless config-
urations. These typically include battery
storage and can be used along with exist-
ing electricity sources like the national
grid or a diesel generator.
This flexibility means that photovol-
taic systems can be deployed rapidly and
modularly to provide health facilities
with power, often more reliably than the
grid. Electricity is essential for vaccine
cold chain and other services needed
during a pandemic.
Health facilities in areas with limited
electricity have long relied on gas-pow-
ered “absorption type” refrigerators.
Solar-powered refrigerators are more
www.canadianinquirer.net
reliable and efficient. Photovoltaic re-
frigerators with batteries store energy
from solar panels for later use. In this
way power is available even on cloudy
days or at night, or (for grid-connected
clinics) during a power outage.
Other photovoltaic refrigerators do
not use batteries at all. Solar direct drive
refrigerators use solar energy to directly
freeze water into an ice wall. This keeps
the storage container cold for days, even
when solar energy isn’t available.
Solar direct drive refrigerators have
had a profound impact in “last-mile”
settings. These include rural parts of the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),
where it’s hard for health facilities to get
fuel and batteries and they are far from
the national grid. In 2020, Gavi, the vac-
cine alliance, supported a massive roll-
out of solar direct drive refrigerators.
It led to a 50% increase in monthly im-
munisation sessions in the nine poor-
est provinces of the DRC just in the last
year. These refrigerators have been in-
strumental in boosting the proportion of
health facilities in the DRC with working
cold chain equipment, from 16% in 2016
to nearly 80% today.
Subzero storage solutions
Most solar refrigerators are equipped
to store vaccines only at standard tem-
27
peratures (between 2°C and 8°C). So-
lar-powered solutions for subzero stor-
age and transport are available, though
not yet at wide scale. For example, the
MOTE vaccine cooler, developed by Ni-
gerian startup Gricd, has solar-powered
batteries that can maintain stable inter-
nal temperatures as cold as -20°C for up
to 24 hours.
For the time being, however, the most
widely used subzero storage and trans-
portation devices forgo electricity alto-
gether. They use passive cooling instead,
essentially functioning as giant, highly
insulated “super-Thermoses”.
Solar power can also help with an-
other essential electricity-dependent
component of vaccine delivery systems:
information and communication tech-
nologies. These enable national health
programmes to monitor vaccine stocks
and refrigerator temperatures in re-
mote, rural health facilities in real time,
and alert them when deviations occur
that may compromise their integrity.
In rural areas that are far from the grid,
cellular and internet connections are of-
ten more difficult to access. But in recent
years, solar-powered cell towers have
strengthened and expanded telecommu-
nications networks in areas with unreli-
able power in countries such as Guinea,
the DRC and Mali. Off-grid cell towers
have also been used to power vaccine re-
frigerators in settings such as Zimbabwe.
These refrigerators also rely on the cellu-
lar network to relay monitored tempera-
ture data to health facility staff.
Solar-powered cold chain technolo-
gies can be game-changers in the fight
against COVID-19 in resource-limited
settings in sub-Saharan Africa and be-
yond. As the COVAX initiative scales up
across the continent, governments and
development partners should consider
how solar-based solutions can aid vac-
cine delivery. They are invaluable tools –
perhaps even equal in importance to the
vaccines themselves. ■
Benson Kibiti from the non-profit or-
ganisation Power for All contributed to
this article. We also thank Jonathan Parr
and Michael Emch (UNC) for their feed-
back and comments.
This article is republished from The
Conversation under a Creative Commons
license.
28
Apps that help parents protect kids
from cybercrime may
be unsafe too
BY LUCI PANGRAZIO,
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Deakin University
The Conversation
Children, like adults, are
spending more time online. At
home and school pre-schoolers
now use an array of apps and
platforms to learn, play and be
entertained. While there are re-
ported benefits, including learn-
ing through exploration, many
parents are still concerned
about screen time, cybersafety
and internet addiction.
An increasingly popular tech-
nical solution is parental con-
trol apps. These enable parents
to monitor, filter and restrict
children’s online interactions
and experiences. Parental con-
trol apps that work by blocking
dangerous or explicit content
can be marketed as “taking the
battle out of screen time” and
giving parents “peace of mind”.
But such a quick fix is inade-
quate when addressing the com-
plicated reasons behind screen
time. Much worse though, the
apps expose users to privacy and
other safety issues most people
aren’t aware of.
What apps do parents use?
Research by Australia’s eS-
afety Commission shows 4%
of preschoolers’ parents use
parental control apps. This in-
creases to 7% of parents with
older children and 8% of par-
ents with teenagers. Global
trends suggest these figures are
bound to rise.
Parents download paren-
tal control apps onto a child’s
mobile phone, laptop or tab-
let. Most parental control apps
enable parents to monitor or
restrict inappropriate online
content from wherever they
are. They provide parents with
insights into which sites their
child has visited and for how
long, as well as who they have
interacted with.
Qustudio, for example,
claims to keep children “safer
from cyber threats” by filtering
inappropriate content, setting
time limits on use and even
monitoring text messages.
Technology
Boomerang, another popular
parental control app, enables
parents to set time limits per
day, per app.
Why they may not be safe
Parental control apps need
many permissions to access par-
ticular systems and functions on
devices. 80% of parental control
apps request access to location,
contacts and storage.
While these permissions
help the apps carry out detailed
monitoring, some of them may
not be necessary for the app to
function as described. For in-
stance, several apps designed
to monitor children’s online
activity ask for permissions
such as “read calendar”, “read
contacts” and “record audio”
— none of which are justified in
the app description or the pri-
vacy policy.
Many are considered “dan-
gerous permissions”, which
means they are used to access
information that could affect
the user’s privacy and make
their device more vulnerable to
attack.
For example, Boomerang
requests more than 91 permis-
sions, 16 of which are consid-
ered “dangerous”. The per-
mission “access fine location”
for instance, allows the app to
access the precise geographic
location of the user. The “read
phone state” allows the app to
know your phone number, net-
work information and status of
outgoing calls.
It’s not just the apps that
get that information. Many of
these apps embed data hungry
third-party software develop-
ment kits (SDKs). SDKs are a
set of software tools and pro-
grams used by developers to
save them from tedious coding.
However, some SDKs can make
the app developers money from
collecting personally identifi-
able information, such as name,
location and contacts from chil-
dren and parents.
Because third-party SDKs
are developed by a company
separate from the original app,
they have different protocols
around data sharing and priva-
cy. Yet any permissions sought
by the host app are also inherit-
ed by third-party SDKs.
The Google Play Store, which
is used for Android phones,
does not force developers to
explain to users whether it has
embedded third-party SDKs, so
users cannot make an informed
decision when they consent to
the terms and conditions.
Apple’s App Store is more
transparent. Developers must
state if their apps use third-par-
ty code and whether the in-
formation collected is used to
track them or is linked to their
identity or device. Apple has
removed a number of parental
control apps from the App Store
due to their invasive features.
Many popular parental con-
trol apps in the Google Play
Store have extensive security
and privacy vulnerabilities due
to SDKs. For example, SDKs
for Google Ads, Google Fire-
base and Google Analytics are
present in over 50% of parental
control apps in the Google Play
Store, while the Facebook SDK
is present in 43%.
A US study focusing on
whether parental control apps
complied with laws to protect
the personal data of children
under 13 found roughly 57% of
these apps were in violation of
the law.
Not all parental control apps
request dangerous permissions.
The Safer Kid app, for example,
www.canadianinquirer.net
does not request any dangerous
permissions but costs US$200
per year.
Why should I worry?
Personal data has become a
valuable commodity in the dig-
ital economy. Huge volumes
of data are generated from our
digital engagements and trad-
ed by data brokers (who collect
information about users to sell
to other companies and/or in-
dividuals) and tech companies.
The value is not in a singu-
lar data point, but the creation
of huge datasets that can be
processed to make predictions
about individual behaviours.
While this is a problem for all
users, it is particularly prob-
lematic for children. Children
are thought to be more vulner-
able to online threats and per-
suasion than adults due to more
limited digital skills and less
awareness of online risks.
Data-driven advertising es-
tablishes habits and taste pref-
erences in young children, po-
sitioning them as consumers
by exploiting insecurities and
using peer influence.
Parental control apps have
also been targeted by attackers
due to their insecurities, expos-
ing children’s personal infor-
mation.
There are better ways to
reduce screen time
It is also questionable wheth-
er parental control apps are
MARCH 26, 2021 FRIDAY
worthwhile. Research sug-
gests issues of screen time
and cybercrime are best man-
aged through helping children
self-regulate and reflect on
their online behaviour.
Rather than policing time
limits for screen use, parents
could focus on the content,
context and connections their
child is making. Parents could
encourage their children to talk
to them about what happens
online, to help make them more
aware of risk and what to do
about it.
Restrictive approaches also
reduce opportunities for kids’
growth and beneficial online
activity. Unsurprisingly, chil-
dren report parental control
apps are overly invasive, nega-
tively impacting their relation-
ships with parents.
Instead of a technical “quick-
fix,” we need an educational
response that is ethical, sus-
tainable and builds young peo-
ple’s digital agency. Children
will not be under their parents’
surveillance forever, so we need
to help them prepare for online
challenges and risks. ■
Luci Pangrazio, Postdoctoral
Research Fellow, Deakin Uni-
versity
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021
Wonderful Wooded Stays to Celebrate
the International Day of Forests
BY Booking.com
With all the extra time spent in-
doors over the past year, we’ve seen a
noticeable increase in endorsements
from Booking.com travelers for hiking
(+94%), clean air (+50%) and nature
(+44%) since the start of the pandem-
ic*. Considering this renewed passion
to reconnect with the great outdoors
and in honor of the International Day of
Forests on March 21st, we have delved
into our more than 28 million listings
in over 153,000 destinations around the
world and more than 204 million veri-
fied reviews from real guests to present
six breathtaking wooded stays in the US.
From fantastic treehouse escapes to glo-
rious glamping getaways and log cabin
retreats, these beautiful properties are
sure to inspire the nearly three out of
four US travelers (73%)** wanting to ap-
preciate more simple experiences, such
as spending time outdoors on vacation,
when the time is right to travel again.
The Mohicans, Glenmont, Ohio
No matter the age, spending the night
among the treetops is sure to rekindle
fond childhood memories, ignite the
imagination and help travelers recon-
nect with nature. The Mohicans is a great
place to stay for those looking for a se-
cluded getaway in Glenmont, Ohio. Sur-
rounded by a pristine forest in the middle
of the state, and only an hour and a half
away from both Cleveland and Colum-
bus, this beautiful resort offers treehous-
es and cabins with plenty of space to host
the whole family or a group of friends.
“The accommodations were amazing.
The solitude and beauty were rejuvenat-
ing. I mean when was the last time I slept
in a tree house, maybe when I was 10 years
old!” - Brad, USA
The Grand Treehouse Resort, Eu-
reka Springs, Arkansas
Located just outside the small town of
Eureka Springs in northwest Arkansas’
Ozarks Mountains, The Grand Tree-
house Resort is perfect for escaping the
everyday hustle and bustle and relax-
ing amidst the tranquility of the forest
canopy. The treehouses provide all of
the necessities to ensure an authentic,
yet comfortable experience, with guests
being able to enjoy a wide range of out-
door activities in the surrounding area,
like hiking, cycling and the famous hot
springs the town is named for.
Travel
“As a kid I dreamed of having a tree-
house, today as an adult I still yearn for
a treehouse. This cute treehouse resort
was perfect for my girlfriend and I this
past weekend. The employees were very
helpful and kind. I loved the fireplace,
windows, jacuzzi, bed, back deck/porch.
Everything was an awesome experience.”
- John, USA
Evergreen Lodge at Yosemite, Ma-
ther, California
Nestled in the woods bordering Yosem-
ite National Park in central California,
the Evergreen Lodge at Yosemite offers
beautiful cabins spread across a gorgeous
20-acre property, ideal for those craving a
dramatic change of scenery. Adventurous
guests can enjoy one of the many trails
through Yosemite Valley or a little rafting
along Tuolumne River, depending on the
time of year. Whether seeking some se-
renity surrounded by nature or looking
to reconnect with friends and loved ones
after a challenging year, this unique stay
is great for both couples or larger groups
looking for some much-needed R&R in
the great outdoors.
“We woke up to deer in front of our cab-
in. The grounds were beautiful as well.” -
Jina, USA
Lone Mountain Ranch, Big Sky,
Montana
Just 18 miles outside the northwest
border of Yellowstone National Park,
the Lone Mountain Ranch will thrill na-
ture-loving travelers with a passion for
food. Featuring a wide range of rustic
cabins built from lodgepole pines with
porches overlooking the wilderness,
the vistas are sure to please even the
www.canadianinquirer.net
most discerning of visitors. After a day
of horseback riding or fly fishing - which
is available year round - guests can wet
their whistle at the on-site saloon and
tickle their taste buds with the enticing
selection from the diverse menu, includ-
ing a mix of old Western favorites and
original modern fare.
“Lone Mountain Ranch was a dream,
seriously it was such a beautiful relaxing
property full of horses, hikes, outdoor and
adventure plus the restaurant on site is the
best...loved the fire pits. We went horse-
back riding one day and had the best time!
The hotel accommodated us by putting to-
gether a picnic for us!” - Anthony, USA
Jackson Hole Hideout, Wilson,
Wyoming
Nestled among soaring evergreen trees
outside the popular ski resort, the Jack-
son Hole Hideout is a relaxing lodge-style
getaway with loads of cozy spaces to chill
out and relax. Guests who are looking for
a secluded woodland break will love the
giant windows, panoramic views, wood
beamed ceilings and private patios. The
grand stone fireplace in the main lounge
is a great place to kick back after a day
on the slopes in nearby Jackson Hole
(15-minute drive away) or exploring the
epic peaks of Grand Teton National Park
(just a 30-minute drive away).
“This was one of our favorite B&Bs !
It was the perfect location (between the
town of Jackson and Teton Village), the
house was spectacular, the hosts were
amazing, and no stone was left unturned!
Even before we arrived, the hosts were
helping us with selecting our daily activ-
ities so we would get the most out of the
29
area. Once there, it was obvious they to-
tally love their home and what they do...
there is even a shared outside balcony
with a welcoming fire pit area and great
serene views of the area. - Stacey, USA”
Huttopia Southern Maine, Maine
Whether it’s a stay in one of their se-
cluded tents, a modern chalet or a fam-
ily bungalow, Huttopia Southern Maine
is a truly unique glamping utopia in the
coastal town of Sanford in Maine, less
than an hour southwest of Portland. In
a peaceful woodland setting, this se-
cluded, rustic escape, offers plenty of
fresh air and activities throughout the
day to keep everyone fully occupied. In
the summertime, guests can follow a
trail down to a local swimming hole for
a quick, refreshing dip, or relax in the
property’s heated pool.
“What an awesome camping experi-
ence with outstanding accommodations
and location for beach or sight seeing.
Also loved just hanging around the tent!
Staff was extremely friendly and the facil-
ities were very clean! Can’t wait to come
back!” - Jeffrey, USA ■
*Based on endorsements left on Book-
ing.com as part of post-stay reviews. In-
sight based on endorsements that saw
the biggest increase in monthly usage be-
tween 1st April 2020 and 11th September
2020, compared to the average monthly
endorsements between January 2019 and
February 2020.
**Research commissioned by Booking.
com and conducted among a sample of
adults who have traveled for business or
leisure in the past 12 months, and must be
planning to travel in the next 12 months
(if/once travel restrictions are lifted). In
total 20,934 respondents across 28 coun-
tries and territories were polled (includ-
ing 999 from USA, 496 from Canada,
497 from Mexico, 997 from Colombia,
999 from Brazil, 499 from Argentina,
995 from Australia, 499 from New Zea-
land, 999 from Spain, 996 from Italy, 996
from France, 999 from UK, 996 from Ger-
many, 498 from Netherlands, 499 from
Denmark, 499 from Sweden, 498 from
Croatia, 1001 from Russia, 498 from Isra-
el, 997 from India, 994 from China, 499
from Hong Kong, 497 from Thailand, 496
from Singapore, 499 from Taiwan, 997
from South Korea, 500 from Vietnam and
995 from Japan). Respondents completed
an online survey in July 2020.
 MARCH 26,2020
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FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2021 31

How Cabo Verde indigenous beans
could boost food security
BY ANYSE SOFIA
FERNANDES PEREIRA
ESSOH, Nova School of
Business and Economics
With just over half a mil-
lion inhabitants, Cabo Verde is
heavily dependent on food im-
ports. It spent $65 million im-
porting food products in 2018.
This dependence on food im-
ports puts the country in a vul-
nerable situation when it comes
to food security. According to
Food and Agricultural Organi-
sation, Cabo Verde has not yet
eradicated hunger, with about
5.3% of its population suffering
from food insecurity.
There are other challenges
too. Cabo Verde is located in
the Sahelian arid and semiar-
id region which means there is
sporadic rainfall. Agriculture in
the archipelago is highly depen-
dent on rainfall. Poor soil and
limited water resources make
the situation even more crit-
ical. Limited agro-industrial
production with outdated and
noncompetitive manufacturing
industry are factors too.
The COVID-19 pandemic has
accentuated this vulnerability,
primarily by the big impact it
had on the issues of employ-
ment and household income.
The archipelago depends heav-
ily on tourism
Agriculture on the islands is
anchored in staple foods, such
Food
high macro and micronutrients
content, high fibre, high versa-
tility and very long shelf life.
The study also highlighted
pulses’ agronomic value, as
they occupy most of the agri-
cultural area of Cabo Verde and
are highly traded in national
markets.
An important outcome of the
study is a checklist of legumes
used as food. We also collected
new data on their native distri-
bution (archipelago and world-
wide), common names, and
other uses. Added to this is an
assessment on which legume
species are consumed and trad-
ed in Santiago Island, the larg-
est and most populated Cabo
Verdean island.
The information will con-
tribute to improving the knowl-
edge of plant genetic resources
in Cabo Verde. It will also help
to design new strategies and in-
vestments to conserve the agro-
nomic value and plant genetic
resources of such crops.
Our research findings
We focused on the main le-
gume species in Cabo Verde:
Cajanus cajan Huth, Lablab
purpureus Sweet, Phaseolus
vulgaris, Phaseolus lunatus and
Vigna unguiculata Walp.
Our results showed that 15
Leguminosae species are rec-
ognised as food plants in Cabo
Verde. Eleven are non-native
and four are native species.
About 47% are used in tradi-
plant parts in Cabo Verde and
are an excellent, yet relatively
inexpensive, source of essential
nutrients and minerals. They
also have enormous potential to
combat malnutrition and food
insecurity on these islands.
This data is in accordance with
findings on the importance of
pulses in ensuring food securi-
ty in other island states such as
Maluku Islands, Pacific Islands
and Solomon Islands.
This makes pulses very im-
portant especially in many
households where people do
not have easy access to a wide
variety of nutrient sources.
Lablab purpureus, one of the
relatively most neglected spe-
cies, showed greater nutritional
potential associated with greater
climate resilience. This concerns
adaptation to drought, a signifi-
cant fact in terms of sustainability.
Another important finding
was the possibility of including
bean leaves in Caboverdean
diet as a valuable source of an-
tioxidant compounds, phenols
and other beneficial elements.
Despite being commonly used
in other parts of Africa as a food
source, in Cabo Verde they are
only used in animal feeding.
Including these plant parts in
Caboverdean diet could be a
valuable addition especially in
a country where food shortage
and malnutrition still prevails.
Beans have great economic Lablab purpureus
and social importance and con- PAUL HENJUM/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, PUBLIC DOMAIN

as corn and beans. Also, to a mi-
nor extent, pumpkin, cassava,
sugar cane, tomatoes and sweet
potatoes. The diet of the popu-
lation mainly relies on cereals
- maize, rice, and wheat - vege-
tables, starchy roots, and fish.
Our research looked at how
legumes could help prevent and
combat food insecurity. We con-
cluded that legumes grown on
the island are an excellent, yet
relatively inexpensive, source
of essential nutrients and min-
erals. Dry beans are low cost,
low fat, low cholesterol and low
maintenance - balanced with
tional medical practice and
53% as forage.
Among the cultivated spe-
cies, only three are native to
these islands, meaning that
those species occur naturally
and are part of the ecological
basis of the country. They also
represent less in terms of ag-
riculture related expenditure
and are much easier to culti-
vate as they are extremely well
adapted to local environmental
conditions, and are often more
nutritious that some intro-
duced crops.
Seeds are the most consumed
tribute to food security. They do
this both as food and as a source
of family income, especially in
rural households. This is be-
cause of their drought-resistant
ability, high nutritional value,
and remarkable shelf-stability.
What next
Our research presents le-
gumes in a new light, under-
lining the fact that they receive
little attention from public de-
cision-makers, who have done
little to promote their use. They
have also failed to include these
species in conservation pro-
grammes. Consumers also, as
they are increasingly replacing
beans with less nutritious and
functional foods.
Public decision-makers
could include some of these un-
der utilised but nutritious seeds
in the National Agricultural
Development Program, provide
support for farmers through
seeds distribution initiatives.
They can also create a National
Germplasm Bank and foster op-
portunities for national univer-
sities and research centres to
have more resources to finance
research to characterise, evalu-
ate, enhance and preserve these
crops.
Some action could also be
taken to promote and heighten
the general populations con-
sumption of pulses. This could
include native bean species in
the Scholar Canteens Program,
and public awareness cam-
paigns on the nutritional and
functional value of beans seeds
and leaves. ■
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.

www.canadianinquirer.net
32
Seafood: most Europeans struggle
to identify the fish they eat – new study
BY STEFANO MARIANI,
Professor of Marine
Biodiversity Liverpool John
Moores University, MARINE
CUSA, Research Assistant
at Liverpool John Moores
University & PhD Candidate in
Seafood Traceability University
of Salford
The Conversation
How well do you know the
fish you buy? Could you identi-
fy the species before it’s a fillet
that you pick up in the super-
market aisle? If so, according to
our new research, you’re actu-
ally more knowledgeable than
most European consumers.
You can test yourself by trying to
name these six commonly eaten fish:
Once you’re done – no cheat-
ing – check the answers at the
bottom of the article. If you man-
aged to identify at least two spe-
cies correctly, then you’re already
ahead of most British and Belgian
participants in our study and on
par with the European average. If
you named more than three, you
scored higher than most of the
people we interviewed.
So why are people so es-
tranged from the food they eat?
Well, it doesn’t help that sea-
food sold as a particular species
might be something else. New
scientific tools for determining
the genetic origins of produce,
such as DNA barcoding, have
‘Taste of Negros’ creations enrich Negrense cuisine
BY NANETTE
GUADALQUIVER
Philippine News Agency
BACOLOD CITY – Two Ne-
grense food experts have created
special recipes using ingredients
from a well-loved brand for a
campaign called “Taste of Negros”
launched at the Casa A. Gamboa
in Silay City, Negros Occidental
on Wednesday afternoon.
Homegrown Victorias Foods
Corp. (VFC) partnered with
chef Don Angelo Colmenares
and foodie Doreen “Reena”
Gamboa in coming up with ex-
citing creations using its prod-
ucts such as the Spanish Style
Bangus (milkfish), Sardines
in Soya Oil, Cooked Ham, and
Food
Answers at the bottom of the article.
revealed that seafood mislabel-
ling is rampant worldwide. A
recent review found that well
over one-third of seafood sam-
ples from restaurants, shops
and fishmongers in more than
30 countries belonged to differ-
ent species than the ones they
were labelled as. It wasn’t until
we discovered over 60 different
species of fish were being sold
globally under the name “snap-
per” that we suspected some-
thing was off. It seems the vast
majority of people buying snap-
per wouldn’t know such a fish if
it bit them on the thumb.
We reasoned that this was prob-
ably true for a lot of other popular
fish species. But no research had
ever estimated the average per-
son’s knowledge of the fish they
buy and eat. So, we set out to deter-
mine the level of seafood literacy
among consumers in Eurovpe.
Smoked Bacon to enrich the list
of popular Negrense cuisine.
“The movement for support-
ing Filipino is getting stron-
ger. It has to start with us, Ne-
grenses. We should promote
our own. This is literally right
here in Negros. It would be nice
to campaign first to our fellow
Negrenses to appreciate Ne-
gros products. When it comes
to food, it’s not just sugar here,”
Gamboa said.
During the cookout, the man-
aging director of Casa A. Gam-
boa came up with the Tortilla
de Patata con Jamon con Toci-
no and the Bangus Dip.
“Since I opened Casa A. Gam-
boa, part of the excitement is
creating something new, creat-
ing a menu. That’s my bonding
All at sea
We asked 720 people from
the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Spain,
Italy and Greece to identify six
commercial fish species from
photos. People from Spain per-
formed the best, with an average
accuracy score of 38% and a little
over two species guessed correct-
ly. UK respondents did the worst,
with an average accuracy score
of 18% and just over one species
correctly identified on average.
Most of the participants in
our study struggled to identify
even cod and salmon, and in a
few cases threw out wild guess-
es, such as goldfish, stickleback,
piranha and tiger shark.
This isn’t too surprising –
most of us are detached from the
sources of the food we eat, and
fish don’t tend to roam our parks
and gardens. But it may not bode
well for the seafood industry or
with my mom. Being the niece
of (noted food writer) Doreen
Gamboa-Fernandez, you’re
also exposed to so much and
of course, the influences come
in. The idea of Tortilla de Pa-
tata came from my experience
abroad when I spent a month-
long vacation with my friend
in Spain. When I thought of the
ham and the bacon, it was to
add a little something to change
its taste,” she added.
Gamboa was involved in the
publication of two cookbooks,
including the “Slow Food Negros
Heritage Cooking”, and “Adobo
Chronicles” which features ado-
bo recipes of celebrities and win-
ners of the annual Adobo Festival
in Silay sponsored by the Negros
Cultural Foundation.
www.canadianinquirer.net
MARIANI & CUSA (2021), AUTHOR PROVIDED
fish stocks. Previous studies have
shown that people are more like-
ly to care for a common species if
they can identify it.
A glimmer of hope
Amid generally poor fish liter-
acy, there were some encourag-
ing geographic patterns. People
from more northern countries,
such as the UK, Ireland and Bel-
gium, had an easier time identi-
fying cod and salmon, because
these fishes have long been a
mainstay of their markets. Like-
wise, people from Spain, Italy
and Greece were better at identi-
fying anchovy, sole and sea bass.
Despite increasingly global-
ised supply chains – which en-
sure, for instance, that seabass
farmed in the Mediterranean is
stocked in supermarkets across
northern Europe – European
consumers still seem to show the
legacy of an earlier era, when sea-
Meanwhile, Colmenares
whipped up the Bangus Em-
panada and the Pasta di Sarde.
The young chef said the Ne-
grense taste is very unique, even
describing it as “not so adventur-
ous and they really stick to what
they know or what’s familiar”.
“It’s always the classic taste
(that’s preferred) in Negros. For
the recipes we came up with for
Victorias Foods, we thought of
making something that is very
familiar,” he added.
Colmenares said that when
it comes to bangus, Negrenses
would usually prefer the “rel-
leno style”, and would also like
something in “empanada style”.
“So we merged the two fla-
vors together and came up with
a style of empanada, using the
MARCH 26, 2021 FRIDAY
food was sourced from the clos-
est coast. This suggests that peo-
ple haven’t become completely
detached from the food they con-
sume, and instead retain some
awareness of regional sea foods.
A public education campaign
could build on this and reconnect
more people with the species
that form an important part of
their diets. More knowledgeable
consumers could in turn be bet-
ter at making informed choices
in shops and restaurants, and be-
come less vulnerable to seafood
mislabelling and fraud.
Knowing more about the
seafood we eat could also equip
people with a better under-
standing of the conservation
challenges in each fishery – an
important step towards safe-
guarding a sustainable sea-
food industry for generations
to come. Now then, how many
species did you guess?
a) Mackerel, b) Sea bass, c)
Common sole, d) Anchovy, e)
Salmon and f ) Atlantic cod. ■
Stefano Mariani, Professor of
Marine Biodiversity, Liverpool
John Moores University and Ma-
rine Cusa, Research Assistant at
Liverpool John Moores Univer-
sity & PhD Candidate in Seafood
Traceability, University of Salford
This article is republished
from The Conversation under a
Creative Commons license.
bangus coming from Victorias
and utilizing the ingredients
you can find in a relleno. It’s
very familiar, easy to appreci-
ate, but still something differ-
ent,” he said.
Colmenares also said it is
very easy to think of a recipe us-
ing pasta and sardines, but for a
twist, he added a lemon squeeze
for a refreshing taste and put
queso de bola on top, instead of
the usual parmesan cheese, to
make it more Filipino and more
savory as well.
The Negrense chef, who owns
the Bacolod-based restaurant
Berbeza Bistro est. 2018, studied
Culinary Arts at Enderun Col-
leges and had an apprenticeship
at the 2-Michelin Star Moulin de
la Gorce, Lemoges in France. ■