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CanadianInquirer CANADA’S FIRST AND ONLY NATIONWIDE FILIPINO-CANADIAN NEWSPAPER
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@PhilCanInquirer AUGUST 9, 2019 www.canadianinquirer.net VOL. 8 NO. 383

VISIT TO DENGUE PATIENTS

Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III (in blue vest) checks the condition of one of the victims of dengue admitted at the General Emilio T. Aguinaldo Memorial Hospital in Trece
Martires, Cavite, on Monday (August 5, 2019). According to the Provincial Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit, there were 27 deaths and a total of 6,232 dengue cases recorded from January 1 to August 5,
2019, which is 99 percent higher than that of the same period last year, which was 3,127 cases.
HOTO COURTESY OF GLEN S. RAMOS/DOH CALABARZON

DOH declares 13

national dengue
epidemic ‘I will never declare martial
law, except in Mindanao’:
Duterte

19
BY PRIAM NEPOMUCENO The declaration took place shortly af-
Philippine News Agency ter a full council meeting at the National
Disaster Risk Reduction and Manage-
ment Council (NDRRMC) in Camp Agu- For the first time, Julia
MANILA — Department of Health inaldo, Quezon City. Barretto breaks silence
(DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III In a press briefing at the NDRRMC, on Bea-Gerald breakup
on Tuesday declared a National Dengue Duque said the reported cases are 98 controversy
Epidemic in the wake of 146,062 cases percent higher compared to the same Trump vows urgent action
recorded since January to July 20 this ❱❱ PAGE 23 after shootings,
year. ❱❱ PAGE 9 DOH declares offers few details

Get the latest

news & updates
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2 AUGUST 9, 2019 FRIDAY

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FRIDAY AUGUST 9, 2019 3

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4 Philippine News AUGUST 9, 2019 FRIDAY

Comelec cancels Cardema’s

Duterte Youth nomination
BY FERDINAND PATINIO
Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The First Division
of the Commission on Elec-
tions (Comelec) has canceled
the nomination of former
National Youth Commission
(NYC) chairman Ronald Car-
dema as representative of the
Duterte Youth Party-list group.
“We are happy to announce
that the Come-
lec First Division
has granted our
the move of Cardema to rep- more than 30 years old on elec-
resent the organization com- tion day is not qualified to be a
posed of Filipino youths in theparty-list nominee of the youth
House of Representatives. sector. Cardema himself has
“With the vote of 2-0, the admitted that he is already 34
First Division ruled that Re- years old.
spondent Ronald Gian L. Car- “For having been found in-
dema is not eligible for nomina-
eligible, the overage Cardema
tion to represent Duterte Youthwill not be issued a Certificate
in the House of Representa- of Proclamation by Comelec
tives,” Marañon said. and, consequently, cannot sit as
Commissioners Ma. Rowena Member of the House of Repre-
Amelia Guanzon and Marlon sentatives,” Marañon said.
“ H o p e f u l l y,
this decision will Former National Youth Commission (NYC) chairman Ronald Cardema.
be the first step NATIONAL YOUTH COMMISSION/FACEBOOK

consolidated pe- towards the re-

titions seeking Under Sec. 9 of Republic Act No. form of the par- pursued this case, namely: Cardema replaced his wife,
the cancellation 7941, a candidate who is more than ty-list system, Aunell Ross Angcos, Cyra Au- Ducielle Marie Suarez.
of the nomina- 30 years old on election day is not that is, to bring it relio, Hannah Navarroza, Raai- The first petition was filed by
tion of Ronald qualified to be a party-list nominee back it to the tru- nah Punzalan, Raoul Daniel Raoul Danniel Manuel of the
Gian Cardema as of the youth sector. ly marginalized Manuel and Sabrine Janer. My National Union of Students of
the First Nomi- and underrepre- collaborating counsels for the the Philippines, Paula Sabrine
nee of the sented sectors,” two cases are Sixto Brillantes, Janer of the College Editors
Duterte Youth he added. Jr., Romulo Macalintal and Guild of the Philippines, and
Party-List,” said lawyer Emil Casquejo voted to cancel the Marañon, likewise, expressed Kristian Jacob Lora,” he added. Raainah Punzalan of the Youth
Marañon III, legal counsel for nomination while presiding gratitude to the petitioners, The case against Cardema Act Now Against Tyranny;
the petitioners, in a statement Commissioner Al Parreño was as well as to his collaborating stemmed from the two peti- while the second group of pe-
on Monday. on official business. counsels. tions filed before the poll body titioners is composed of Aunell
Voting 2-0, the three-mem- Under Sec. 9 of Republic Act “We would like to thank the questioning the substitution of Ross Angcos, Cyra Aurelio, and
ber First Division ruled to deny No. 7941, a candidate who is “real”youth who passionately the party-list’s first nominee. Hannah Navarroza. ■

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FRIDAY AUGUST 9, 2019 5

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6 Philippine News
Duterte reminds new gov’t
appointees to resist temptation
BY AZER PARROCHA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte
on Monday reminded new government
appointees that they have his full sup-
port as long as they resist the temptation
to engage in corrupt practices.
During the oath-taking ceremony
of newly-appointed officials, Duterte
mentioned how Filipinos have “long
suffered” from both corruption and
red tape in the bureaucracy and that
it was their job to regain the people’s
trust.
“Our people have long suffered from
the scourge of corruption and red tape
in the bureaucracy. As you assume your
respective offices, I expect you to help
me in the task of regaining our people’s
trust in government by pursuing neces-
sary bureaucratic reforms that will en-
able us to address the needs of those we
serve,” Duterte said in his speech.
“Know that you will always have my
complete support as long as you resist
any temptation that will taint your char-
acter and reputation as public servants,”
he added.
Duterte urged the new appointees to
cooperate to help institute the neces-
sary reforms so that the government
may effectively stamp out criminality, il-
legal drugs, terrorism and the country’s
other ills.
He challenged them to help him steer
the course towards lasting peace and
greater development.
“Let us carry out our shared duty of
building a stronger and more progres-
sive Philippines that we can all leave
behind for future generations of Filipi-
nos,” Duterte said.
Duterte reminded them of their re-
sponsibilities to uphold integrity, ac-
countability and transparency in the
institutions they serve.
In closing, he also warned them that
they will be dealt with severely if they
are involved in any form of corruption.
Duterte officiated the oath of about
100 newly-appointed officials includ-
ing judges, directors, administrators,
assistant secretaries, and undersecre-
taries. ■
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Duterte says ‘time has come’
to invoke ‘arbitral ruling’
BY AZER PARROCHA cussion between Duterte and Xi.
Philippine News Agency He pointed out that the two leaders
both agreed to meet in China.
“I asked the President last night like
MANILA — President Rodrigo will final- you were asking me, under whose initia-
ly invoke the Hague-based Permanent tive? And I asked him, sabi ko, ang sagot
Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruling won niya sa’kin, ‘That was our agreement
by the Philippines against China during with the President of China,’” Panelo
his next visit to China by the end of Au- said.
gust, Malacañang said on Tuesday. Asked if there would be an agreement
After temporarily shelving the arbi- to be signed between Philippines and
tral ruling in 2016 to give way to friend- China on the joint oil exploration, Pan-
lier relations between Philippines and elo said: “Let’s see. Whatever agreement
China, Presidential Spokesperson Sal- they enter into, that will be reduced into
vador Panelo said Duterte felt that it was writing.”
about time to do so during the middle of Despite Xi’s earlier warning to Duterte
his six-year term. that there would be “trouble” if the Phil-
“He (Duterte) said, ‘Remember that ippines would undertake oil explora-
I said before that there will be a time tions in the disputed sea, Panelo said
when I will invoke the arbitral ruling? Duterte is ready to face it.
This is the time that’s why I’m going “Ibig sabihin, ready na siyang huma-
there,’” Panelo said in a Palace briefing. rap (That means, he’s ready to face it),”
“He precisely said that that is pur- Panelo said.
suant to what he said the first time we On July 12, 2016, the PCA released its
visited China and he said ‘There will verdict on the Philippines’ arbitration
be a time that I will raise this issue and case filed against China in 2013.
talk about it but not now…the time has The arbitral ruling nullified a nine-
come,’” he added. dash line being used by China for the
Panelo also bared that Duterte is also claims of nearly the entire WPS or South
interested to bring up the 60-40 shar- China Sea including part of the Philip-
ing arrangement on the proposed joint pines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
exploration for oil and gas in the West The PCA concluded that there was “no
Philippine Sea in his upcoming ‘one-on- legal basis” for China to claim historic
one- meeting with Chinese President Xi rights to resources within the sea areas
Jinping. falling within the ‘nine-dash line.”
Earlier, Panelo assured that govern- It also found that China had violated
ment will always consider what is ben- the Philippines’ sovereign rights in its
eficial to the Philippines in so far as the EEZ by interfering with Philippine fish-
terms of reference on the proposed joint ing and petroleum exploration, con-
oil exploration. structing artificial islands and failing to
Duterte will also raise the June 9 prevent Chinese fishermen from fishing
Recto Bank (Reed Bank) maritime in- in the zone.
cident where a Chinese vessel allegedly China did not participate throughout
rammed and abandoned a Philippine the proceedings as it refused to recog-
fishing boat at sea, Panelo said. nize the case. ■
Panelo said it will be a one-on-one dis-
FRIDAY AUGUST 9, 2019
EU provides P5.7-M to PH to help Filipino nabbed during
dengue-affected communities
BY JOANNA BELLE DEALA
Philippine Canadian Inquirer
A €100,000 or around P5.7-
million in humanitarian aid was
donated by the European Union
(EU) to the Philippines to help
its communities most affected
by the dengue outbreak.
In a statement on Friday,
August 2, the EU said some
300,000 Filipinos in Cavite, La-
guna, Batangas, Rizal, and Que-
zon (CALABARZON), Central
Luzon, Central Visayas, Metro
Manila, and Western Visayas
will benefit from it.
The assistance, it added, is
part of its overall contribution
to the Disaster Relief Emer-
gency Fund (DREF) of the In-
ternational Federation of Red
Cross and Red Crescent Societ-
ies (IFRC).
“This EU-funding supports
the Philippine Red Cross (PRC)
in delivering crucial assistance
through the strengthening of
public health services, such as
the establishment of dengue
emergency medical units or
hospital extension wards at lo-
cal government hospitals, and
the provision of nursing staff to
respond to overwhelming den-
PRRD defends suspension of STL,
Keno, Peryahan ng Bayan anew
BY AZER PARROCHA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA — President Rodrigo
Duterte on Monday defended
anew his decision to suspend
some gaming activities under
the Philippine Charity Sweep-
stakes Office (PCSO) noting
that was the only way to stop
massive corruption within the
charity agency.
Last week, Duterte lifted the
suspension order on PCSO’s
Lotto operations but kept the
suspension on Small-Town Lot-
tery (STL), Keno, and Peryahan
ng Bayan (PNB) pending the
investigation on corrupt prac-
tices.
“STL, Peryahan ng Bayan.
P***** — puro nakaw. Ang i-
Hong Kong protest
PRC’s Dengue Care Units in Balasan, Iloilo. PHILIPPINE RED CROSS/TWITTER
gue cases,” the EU said.
The funding will also be used
to clean water and treat mos-
quito breeding grounds with
a “biological control agent” to
eliminate mosquito larvae and
enhance public awareness and
information dissemination to
prevent and reduce new dengue
cases.
The EU’s statement came af-
ter the Department of Health
(DOH) declared a National
Dengue Alert on July 15 due to
the growing number of dengue
cases in several regions in the
country.
The Health department said
106,630 dengue cases were re-
remit nila minus ‘yung kinuku-
nan na nila (they’re all stolen
money. What they remit mi-
nus what they pocket). So I had
to stop it,” Duterte said in his
speech during the oath-taking
of newly-appointed officials in
Malacañan Palace.
Duterte reiterated that his
frustration over being unable to
curb corruption in government
sometimes made him consider
stepping down as President.
“Have you ever heard me say
that gusto ko nang mag-resign
kasi hindi ko mahabol ang (I
want to resign because I can’t
run after) corruption. I thought
I could, but you know corrup-
tion has permitted government
itself. Sinabi ko (I said) it’s cor-
rupt to the core and it is right
now,” Duterte said.
corded nationwide from Janu-
ary 1 to June 29, 2019. This
was 85 percent higher than the
57,564 cases reported from the
same period in 2018.
Most of the cases were from
Western Visayas, followed by
CALABARZON, Central Vi-
sayas, SOCCSKSARGEN, and
Northern Mindanao.
The DOH advised the pub-
lic to observe the 4S strategy
which, it said, is the most ef-
fective way to prevent dengue:
search and destroy mosquito
breeding sites, self-protective
measures, seek early consulta-
tion, and say yes to selective
fogging. ■
Earlier, Duterte said he will
soon be naming around 10
PCSO officials involved in a
multibillion-peso corruption
scandal.
PCSO general manager Roy-
ina Garma has also bared her
concerns on alleged anomalies
in the agency’s STL operations.
Meanwhile, Duterte also
mentioned corruption within
the Bureau of Customs (BOC)
wherein he fired 64 employees
from the agency.
“I just fired 64, but if I could
get away with the 100 more,
I think we’ll have a cleaner, a
better Customs, BIR (Bureau
of Immigration). Pero sigu-
rado itong 64 talagang tatang-
galin ko na (But for sure, these
64, I’m really going to dismiss
them),” Duterte said. ■
www.canadianinquirer.net
Philippine News
receives assistance
BY JOYCE ANN L.
ROCAMORA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The Filipino who
was detained for allegedly join-
ing the protests in Hong Kong
has already received initial as-
sistance from the Philippine
government, the Department
of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said
Monday.
The agency did not identify
the Filipino but said he is in
good condition when repre-
sentatives from the Philippine
Consulate General visited him
at the jail.
The Filipino categorically
denied that he was taking part
in the protest, and insisted that
he was just in the area to buy
food, passing through the side
streets.
“However, protesters were
also on the side street where
he was, and the former started
running as they were chased by
riot police,” the DFA, through
Assistant Secretary Emmanuel
Fernandez, shared through a
bulletin.
The Filipino was eventually
accosted by the police in the
belief that he was one of the
7
protesters. Currently, the Con-
sulate General is in close coor-
dination with authorities and
the Filipino’s lawyers to facili-
tate his release.
According to the DFA, the
Filipino is under investigation
for “unlawful assembly” in line
with his alleged participation in
the rallies.
“But the Consulate General is
making sure that his legal rights
and his assertions of innocence
are duly respected,” it stressed.
Last June, a demonstra-
tion has turned violent over an
extradition bill which critics
believe would violate the ter-
ritory’s autonomy. Since then,
widespread protests continue
to spill in the streets of Hong
Kong as pro-democracy dem-
onstrators clash with local law
enforcers.
In relation, the DFA advised
Filipinos to stay alert and avoid
areas of protest and to refrain
from wearing or carrying any-
thing that could mistakenly
identify them as part of the pro-
test action.
“The Consulate General con-
tinues to monitor the situation
in Hong Kong and is ready to
provide assistance to Filipinos
if needed,” it said. ■
STUDIO INCENDO/FLICKR, CC BY 2.0
8 Philippine News
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Member
SWS: 80% of Pinoys satisfied
with conduct of May 13 polls
BY JOANNA BELLE DEALA
Philippine Canadian Inquirer
MANY FILIPINOS said they were satis-
fied with the conduct of the May 13 polls,
the Second Quarter 2019 Social Weather
Survey released on Tuesday, August 6.
The latest survey of the Social Weath-
er Stations (SWS) revealed that 80 per-
cent of their 1,200 respondents were
“satisfied” with the conduct of the elec-
tions, while 12 percent were “dissatis-
fied.” Seven percent of them, on the
other hand, were “undecided.”
This figure, however, was five points
below the record-high “excellent” +73
recorded in June, as it obtained only a
net satisfaction rating of +68, classified
by the pollster as “very good.”
The net satisfaction of the May 2019
elections was seen highest in Mindanao
at “excellent” +77, followed by Visayas at
“excellent” +71, Balance Luzon at “very
good” +66, and Metro Manila at “very
good” +54.
Seventy-nine percent of the survey
respondents also agreed with the state-
ment, “The COMELEC (Commission on
Elections) performed its job indepen-
dently without favoring any candidate
or group.” Ten percent of them, how-
ever, disagreed with it, while 11 percent
were undecided.
This yielded a net agreement score of
“extremely strong” +70, a nine-point in-
crease from the +61 in June 2013.
The SWS noted that the net agreement
on the impartiality of the COMELEC was
extremely strong in all areas, with Vi-
sayas being the highest at +77, followed
Palace hands off Medialdea-Tulfo feud
BY AZER PARROCHA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA — Malacañang is keeping
its hands off Executive Secretary Salva-
dor Medialdea’s libel complaint against
Special Envoy for Public Diplomacy to
China and columnist Ramon Tulfo.
Presidential Spokesperson and Chief
Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador
Panelo deferred commenting on the is-
sue describing it as a “personal” feud be-
tween the two presidential appointees
noting that charges have already been
filed.
“That’s between the Executive Secre-
tary and the journalist. That is personal
between the two, so we will not inter-
fere,” Panelo said in a Palace briefing on
Monday.
www.canadianinquirer.net
Voters fill up their ballots for the Mid-Term Elections in Precinct No. 109325 at Dela Paz Elementary
School, Antipolo City.
closely by Mindanao at +76, Balance Lu-
zon at +69, and Metro Manila at +51.
May 2019 poll results ‘believable’
The same survey also revealed that 86
percent of the respondents said the re-
sults of the May 2019 polls are “believ-
able” for senators, six points below the
92 percent in June 2016.
Eighty-eight percent of them, mean-
while, said they were convinced with
the election results for members of the
House of Representatives, while 84 per-
cent said the same regarding the elec-
tion results for governors. Eighty-nine
percent also found the May 2019 elec-
tion results for mayor believable.
The number of those who believe the
May 2019 poll results for senators was
highest in Mindanao at 90 percent, fol-
lowed by Balance Luzon at 86 percent,
Visayas at 86 percent, and Metro Manila
“Since charges have been filed, we
cannot comment on the validity of the
charges. So, we will wait,” he added.
The issue stemmed from a July 25 col-
umn in The Manila Times in which Tulfo
accused Medialdea of sitting on an ap-
peal by Felicito Mejorado for the claim
of millions worth of reward money.
Mejorado had supposedly given the
tip on a smuggling operation in Mariv-
eles, Bataan in 1997.
Tulfo also accused Medialdea of ask-
ing for money for the release of the tip
through a certain Vianney D. Garol.
Medialdea has denied the allegations
saying the appeal has not been pending
with the Office of the President (OP) for
a year but only for three months. The OP
received the appeal on April 5, 2019.
Medialdea said the OP has already act-
ed on the appeal and has asked the De-
AUGUST 9, 2019 FRIDAY
RICO BORJA/PNA
at 81 percent. For the lawmakers in the
lower chamber, it was highest in Mind-
anao at 91 percent; followed by Balance
Luzon at 89 percent, Visayas at 88 per-
cent, and Metro Manila at 80 percent.
In regards to the those who believe the
election results of the governors, it was
highest in Balance Luzon at 91 percent,
then Mindanao at 76 percent, and Vi-
sayas at 76 percent. Meanwhile, many of
those who believe in the election results
for the mayors were in Balance Luzon
at 91 percent, then Mindanao at 90 per-
cent, Visayas at 88 percent, and Metro
Manila at 81 percent.
The latest survey was done from June
22-26 using face-to-face interviews of its
respondents. It has sampling error mar-
gins of plus or minus three percent for
national percentages and plus or minus
six percent each for Metro Manila, Bal-
ance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. ■
partment of Finance, which had initially
denied Mejorada’s claim, to forward all
records of the case.
The National Bureau of Investigation
has also been asked “to verify the in-
volvement” of Garol and other person-
alities.
Medialdea said he never knew Garol.
He noted that based on Malacañang
Records Office, Garol was appointed as
project development officer II under the
Office of External Affairs-Davao on Au-
gust 1, 2005 but stopped operations on
December 31, 2005.
He said the second libel complaint
against Tulfo will be filed next week.
Medialdea first filed a libel complaint
against Tulfo after the columnist ac-
cused him of being Sandra Cam’s “bene-
factor.” ■
FRIDAY AUGUST 9, 2019
DOH declares...
❰❰ 1 period in 2018.
There are also 622
dengue deaths re-
corded this year.
“It is important that a Na-
tional Epidemic be declared to
identify if a localized response
is needed, and to enable the
local government units to use
their Quick Response Fund to
address the epidemic situa-
tion,” Duque said.
Meanwhile, Defense Sec-
retary Delfin Lorenzana, as
NDRRMC chair, issued a
memorandum to all disaster re-
sponse units across the country
for the strict implementation of
the national dengue epidemic
declaration.
“In connection with today’s
full NDRRMC council meet-
ing, I, as the chairman of the
NDRRMC, issued a memoran-
dum circular subject, enjoining
all member agencies to sup-
port the nationwide dengue
epidemic response. Ibig sabihin
nito lahat ng mga member ng
NDRRMC na agencies (This
means all member agencies of
NDRRMC) will now support
the efforts of the DOH to stop
this epidemic, or eliminate this
epidemic once and for all,” he
said.
Based on the DOH Dengue
Surveillance Report, Region 6
(Western Visayas) has the most
number of cases at 23,330 fol-
lowed by Region 4-A (Calabar-
zon) with 16,515; Region 9 (Zam-
boanga Peninsula) with 12,317;
Region 10 (Northern Mindanao)
with 11,455 and Region 12 (Socc-
sksargen) with 11,083.
Meanwhile, seven out of the
17 regions have exceeded the
epidemic threshold of dengue
for the past three consecutive
weeks.
These regions are Calabar-
zon with 16,515; Mimaropa
with 4,254; Region 5 (Bicol)
with 3,470; Western Visayas
with 23,330; Region 8 (East-
ern Visayas) with 7,199; Zam-
boanga Peninsula with 12,317;
and Northern Mindanao with
11,455 cases.
Other regions exceeded the
alert threshold level like Re-
gion 1 (Ilocos) with 4,396 cases;
Region 7 (Central Visayas) with
10,728; and the Bangsamoro
Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao with 2,301.
Duque said the total number
of cases nationwide for the 29th
Morbidity Week alone (July 14
to 20) is at 10,502, or 71 percent
higher compared to the same
period in 2018.
With National Dengue Epi-
demic declaration, the DOH,
together with other govern-
ment agencies, local govern-
ment units (LGUs), schools,
offices, and communities will
be conducting the “Sabayang
4-o’clock Habit para Deng-
Get Out,” campaign to destroy
breeding sites of the disease
carrying mosquitoes. ■
Philippine News 9
Duterte, Xi may clarify extent
of fishing deal in next meeting
BY AZER PARROCHA tong pumunta siya or inimbitah- ing international verbal agree-
Philippine News Agency an siya (if he wanted to go or ifments with other states for and
he was invited),” Panelo said. on behalf of the Philippines”
However, Panelo clarified that without the approval of the
MANILA — The next meeting he has yet to confirm whether Senate.
between President Rodrigo the fishing deal will indeed be “Di naman lahat ng execu-
Duterte and Chinese President among the topics for discussion tive agreement kailangang nasa
Xi Jinping may be an oppor- during their meeting. papel (Not all executive agree-
tunity for the two leaders to “Since they will be talking ments have to be on paper),”
clarify the extent and duration this time, e di mas magiging said Panelo who is also the Chief
of the verbal fishing deal they klaro ang usapan (then their Presidential Legal Counsel.
arrived at back in 2016. discussions can be clarified). In Duterte’s upcoming fifth
Presidential Spokesperson (But) we don’t know whether working visit to China, Panelo
Salvador Panelo bared this that will be tackled. Let’s wait,”
said Duterte and Xi are expect-
after confirm- ed to discuss is-
ing that Duterte sues of conflict,
may make a cooperation, and
working visit to support includ-
China again this What I know is there will be a ing terrorism,
year, the fifth China visit but the dates are not yet fighting illegal
time since he as- confirmed. drugs, people to
sumed office in people exchang-
2016. es, and financing.
“What I know Asked if the
is there will be a China visit but Panelo said. West Philippine Sea would also
the dates are not yet confirmed. It may be recalled that the be brought up, Panelo said:
It’s a working visit,” Panelo said 2016 fishing verbal agreement “That could be part of the dis-
in a Palace briefing. between Duterte and Xi al- cussion.”
Panelo said the President lowed Chinese to fish within Panelo has yet to confirm Sen-
mentioned his plan to revisit the Philippines’ 200-nauti- ator Christopher “Bong” Go’s
China again in one of his many cal mile EEZ if China allowed announcement that the chief
speeches but did not elaborate Filipinos to fish in the Panatag executive might also watch Gilas
whether the chief executive will (Scarborough) Shoal. Pilipinas game in the 2019 FIBA
be going there upon Xi’s invita- Panelo backed Senator Fran- World Cup slated from August
tion. cis Tolentino’s privilege speech 31 to September 15.
“He mentioned it pero (but) saying that the President can “There is no confirmation on
he didn’t say kung siya ang gus- “validly enter into legally bind- that,” Panelo said. ■
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10
Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez. AVITO C. DALAN/PNA
Comelec sees 2-M new
voters as registration
period begins
BY FERDINAND PATINIO
Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The Commission
on Elections (Comelec) sees
an additional 2 million voters
as registration in its offices re-
sumed on Thursday.
Comelec spokesperson
James Jimenez said they are
also looking to register another
1.2 million voters aged 15 to 17
years old for the May 2020 Ba-
rangay and Sangguniang Ka-
bataan (SK) polls.
Jimenez said they were sur-
prised by the long queues in lo-
cal Comelec offices on the first
day of the two-month voter reg-
istration period.
“I guess this is a sign that the
Filipino people are now more
politically active and aware,” he
said in a press briefing.
“Yes, it is still surprising to
me seeing the first day num-
bers. But it is a good surprise,”
Jimenez added.
Philippine News
The voter registration period
will run from August 1 to Sep-
tember 30, 2019.
Applications may be filed
from Mondays to Saturdays,
including holidays from 8 a.m.
to 5 p.m. at the Office of the
Election Officer or any satellite
registration site in the locality
where the applicant resides.
Applicants to be accepted are
those applying for registration,
transfer of registration record,
change/correction of entries,
reactivation of registration re-
cord, inclusion of registration
record, and reinstatement of
name in the list of voters.
Qualified to register as a reg-
ular voter are those who will be
at least fifteen (15) years of age
on May 11, 2020, and residing
in the barangay for at least six
months on or before Election
Day.
Those who will be at least 15
but not more than 30 years of
age on Election Day may enlist
themselves for the youth polls. ■
First batch of SAF troops
now in NegOr: PNP
BY CHRISTOPHER LLOYD
CALIWAN
Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The first batch of
Special Action Force (SAF)
troops assigned to help the local
police in anti-criminality and
internal security operations,
following the spate of killings in
Negros Oriental, has arrived in
the province.
“A part of the SAF contin-
gent is already there, that is
one company or around 60 to
80 members. They are now in
Negros Oriental and additional
troops will be deployed,” Phil-
ippine National Police (PNP)
spokesperson Brig. Gen. Ber-
nard Banac told reporters in a
press conference in Camp Cra-
me on Monday.
Banac said the PNP main-
tains its stand that placing the
said province under martial law
is not necessary.
“On the part of the PNP, we
continue our enforcement of
the law as well as maintenance
of peace and order. For now,
everything is going back to nor-
mal, including the situation in
Negros Oriental. Our police of-
ficers continue to secure the
area but assessment of the local
executives may say otherwise,”
Banac said.
“For now, we cannot say or
recommend the declaration of
martial law because we know
that we are in control of the sit-
uation. The assessment of the
political leaders there, though,
maybe different. We are just
basing everything on our data
and based on this, we are in con-
trol of the situation,” he added.
Banac said PNP chief, Gen.
Oscar Albayalde awaits for the
report from the Directorate
for Investigation and Detective
Management (DIDM) which
conducted an investigation on
www.canadianinquirer.net
the killings.
Meanwhile, six members
of the communist rebels, who
were allegedly involved in the
killing of the four cops in Ayun-
gon in Negros Oriental, have
been arrested.
Those arrested were identi-
fied as Victoriano Bangala Ana-
don Jr., Edmar Acibo Amaro,
Jojo Torres Ogatis, Danny Har-
old Tancinco, Ronnie Herebias
and Marlon Basalo.
According to sacked Negros
Oriental Police chief Colonel
Raul Tacaca, Anadon was ar-
rested in the said town on July
19, a day after Police Corporal
Relebert Beronio, Patrolman
Raffy Callao, Patrolman Ruel
Cabellon, and Patrolman Mar-
quino de Leon were tortured
and killed in front of the resi-
dents in Barangay Mabato.
Anadon was among the six
identified persons, along with
Jonathan Baldivino, Ren-
gie Anadon Baluhabo, Gelie
Anadon Ebedo, Joseph Tor-
res Ogates, Jelly Anadon Eb-
edo who were charged of four
counts of murder and theft in
connection to the killing of the
policemen.
The others implicated in the
said charges were identified as
John Does.
The charges stemmed from
the information coming from
the witnesses—the residents
present during the killing.
On July 31, Tancinco, Here-
bias and Basalo were arrested
after their motorized banca
docked in Badian town in Cebu.
Police Regional Office (PRO)
7 Chief Brig. Gen. Debold Sinas
said the three, who admitted in-
volvement in the execution of
the policemen, went to Cebu to
hide.
They were charged with ille-
gal possession of firearms and
explosives after they yielded .38
caliber revolver with four live
AUGUST 9, 2019 FRIDAY
ammunition, two rifle grenades
one .45 caliber firearm, one .38
revolver, 10 live ammunition,
two 40MM M203 ammuni-
tion and a hand grenade during
their arrest.
On August 3, Ogatis and Am-
aro were arrested in a joint po-
lice-military operation in Sitio
Yamot and Sitio Sook, both in
Barangay Mabato, respectively.
Sinas said cases have already
been filed and persons of inter-
ests have been identified in the
recent series of shooting inci-
dents.
“Just like in any other cases
outside the province, crimes
are committed, that’s why the
police are investigating and
gathering pieces of evidence
for the filing of charges in court
and that is what we are doing. I
don’t know why the same is be-
ing presented as a very big crisis
when the situation is very man-
ageable on the point of view of
the police,” he stressed.
While Sinas said there is
nothing extraordinary in the
shooting incidents in Negros
Oriental, the recent spate of
killings include the summary
execution of the four police-
men, the killing of ex-Ayungon
Mayor Edsel Enardecido, the
two Bayawa siblings, the kill-
ing of the barangay captains in
Buenavista, Guihulngan City
and Panubigan in Canlaon City,
and that of Canlaon City Coun-
cilor Ramon Jalandoni.
He said police authorities are
doing everything in responding
to these situations, such as ran-
dom checkpoints conducted,
implementation of municipal
and city ordinances, and the
imposition of a curfew on mi-
nors, among others. ■
FRIDAY AUGUST 9, 2019
Federalism still on Duterte’s Duterte OKs P4.1-T
agenda: Palace 2020 nat’l budget
BY AZER PARROCHA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA — President Rodrigo
Duterte is still keeping fed-
eralism on his agenda but it
is up to Congress to propose
what method should be used
in amending the Constitution,
Malacañang said on Tuesday.
Presidential Spokesperson
Salvador Panelo made this re-
mark after Presidential Legisla-
tive Liaison Office (PLLO) chief
Adelino Sitoy bared that feder-
alism was not discussed during
the pre-Legislative Executive
Development Advisory Coun-
cil (Ledac) meeting on Monday
(August 5) night.
“Ang federalism palagi na-
mang nasa agenda ni Presidente
iyon (Federalism has always
been in the President’s agen-
da),” Panelo said in a Palace
briefing.
“But as I repeatedly said, ang
bola nasa Kongreso eh (the ball
is in the Congress), federalism
will entail an amendment to the
Constitution,” he added.
Panelo further said the two
chambers of Congress should
first agree on a method of
amending the Constitution - ei-
ther by Constituent Assembly
(Con-Ass) or Constitutional
Convention (Con-Con).
“Hindi proposed legislation
ang federalism (Federalism is
not a proposed legislation).
That is an amendment to the
Constitution, you will change
BI to deport Jordanian linked to Bin Laden’s bro-in-law
BY AZER PARROCHA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA – The Bureau of Im-
migration (BI) is set to deport a
Jordanian national who report-
edly worked with a brother-in-
law of the late Al-Qaeda terror
group leader Osama bin Laden
who was arrested in Mindanao
early last month.
Immigration Commissioner
Jaime Morente on Thursday
said 51-year-old Mahmoud Afif
Abdeljalil is now under the cus-
tody of the government after
his arrest by joint operatives
Pres. Spokesperson Salvador Panelo. YANCY LIM/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTOS
the charter eh,” Panelo said.
“Kaya kailangan iyong dalawa
mag-agree muna sila (So the two
should first agree) how to pro-
pose amendments to the Consti-
tution by calling itself as a Con-
stituent Assembly,” he added.
Panelo, however, admitted
that if Congress would fail to
agree on amending the Consti-
tution, there is also the option
of changing the government
code.
“There have been some is-
sues raised relative to the in-
stallation of a federal form of
government. Some quarters are
saying that we don’t even have
to do that, because the Local
Government Code would suf-
fice, there’s only a need for cer-
tain refinements and amend-
ment to the same,” Panelo said.
“I suppose members of Con-
of the BI, Armed Forces of the
Philippines and Philippine
National Police in Zamboanga
City last July 4.
The BI chief issued the mis-
sion order that led to the arrest
of the foreigner, who will be de-
ported for illegally entering the
country.
“We are going to deport him
for being an illegal entrant as
he has no record of arrival, after
he was arrested and deported in
2003 for being an undesirable
alien,” Morente said in a state-
ment.
He added that Abdeljalil as-
sumed a fictitious name and
gress would be looking at that
angle. If they cannot agree on
amending the Constitution,
then they can—that’s a fall back,
they look at the government
code and see what is need to be
done,” he added.
Earlier, Panelo rejected
claims that Duterte had aban-
doned his push for a shift to a
federal system of government
since he did not mention it in
his fourth state of the nation
address (SONA) on July 22.
“Sinabi niya bang ano, suko
na siya? Hindi. (Did he say he
was giving up? He didn’t),” Pan-
elo said.
“Ang sinabi niya mukhang
hindi na makukuha sa kaniyang
term (What he said is that he is
aware that it may not be real-
ized during his term),” he add-
ed. ■
resorted to misrepresentation
and falsification of public docu-
ments which enabled him to re-
side in the country.
It was learned that authori-
ties started monitoring the Jor-
danian’s activities in the coun-
try when he and his Algerian
companion were flagged down
at a military checkpoint in
Zamboanga in August last year.
After months of intensive
surveillance and case buildup,
it was confirmed that the alien
has been unlawfully staying in
the country.
During questioning, Abdel-
jalil claimed that he returned
www.canadianinquirer.net
Philippine News
BY AZER PARROCHA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA — President Rodrigo
R. Duterte has approved the
proposed national budget for
2020 worth PHP4.1 trillion,
Malacañang said on Tuesday.
Presidential Spokesperson
Salvador Panelo said Duterte
approved the proposed 2020
cash-based national budget
during the Cabinet meeting
that started Monday (Aug. 5)
night.
The PHP4.1-trillion budget is
12 percent more than this year’s
PHP3.7-trillion expenditure
program.
Last year, Duterte submitted
the proposed PHP3.7-trillion
national budget for 2019 to
Congress, on the same day he
delivered his third State of the
Nation Address (SONA).
However, the government
operated on a reenacted budget
since January 1 this year after
lawmakers failed to pass the bill
on time due to a budget impasse
in Congress.
Duterte finally signed the
2019 budget but vetoed several
provisions on April 15, 2019.
Malacañang has yet to an-
nounce when it will be trans-
mitting the budget proposal to
the Congress but has 30 days
from his fourth SONA to do so
or until August 22.
In a statement, Panelo de-
scribed the budget proposal as
one that would “respond to the
to the country in 2007 and ad-
mitted that he was previously
arrested and deported by the BI
in 2003 for having an expired
visa and involvement in clan-
destine terrorist activities as
a Palestinian under the name
Mahmood Afif.
When he was earlier arrested,
authorities said the Jordanian
served as the point man of Mo-
hammed Jamal Khalifa, a Saudi
businessman and Bin Laden’s
brother-in-law, in managing
several charity organizations in
Mindanao that funneled money
to Al Qaeda and the Abu Sayyaf
Group.
11
needs” of majority of Filipinos.
“This budget proposal is de-
signed to respond to the needs
of the majority of our country-
men longing to be uprooted
from the decades of: want of
basic necessities, inadequate
supply of basic services, lack
of infrastructures required
to spur economic growth, ab-
sence of accountability on
government coffers, vexing bu-
reaucratic rigmarole, deprived
education and unchanged
poverty, and geared to achieve
a more peaceful and progres-
sive Philippines where the liv-
ing standards of Filipinos are
raised,” Panelo said.
Panelo assured the public
that the budget’s biggest slice
will be allotted to education,
followed by public works, trans-
portation, and health.
Moreover, he said the budget
will be spent “wisely to reach a
state of vibrant economy that
will be felt by the citizenry.”
The Palace has expressed
hope that the 2020 budget
would be approved without any
delays. ■
Three years after he was de-
ported, the Bangko Sentral
ng Pilipinas reportedly froze
Khalifa’s bank accounts and fi-
nancial assets to prevent funds
from being laundered further
to the said terrorist groups.
Authorities also alleged that
even after Khalifa was killed
in 2007, Abdeljalil continued
to extend financial support to
the Abu Sayyaf using as fronts
several mosques and Madrasah
schools that he built in Mind-
anao that received Al-Qaeda
funding from abroad.
12 Philippine News AUGUST 9, 2019 FRIDAY

Marikina awards land titles to 1.5K informal

settler families
BY CHRISTOPHER LLOYD
CALIWAN
Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The city govern-
ment of Marikina has awarded
land titles to more than 1,500
Informal Settler Families
(ISFs).
Marikina Mayor Marcelino
Teodoro said Monday that
while the city does not have a
housing program, he wants all
families in the city to have their
own lots.
“We do not have housing
program in Marikina because
financially it will constrain,
burden the government funds
mortgage scheme.
According to Teodoro,
Marikina LGU has 248 settle-
ment areas that have about
20,000 residents.
The mayor said that they are
making sure that all settlement
areas are safe in Marikina, say-
ing safety of people is always
their top priority.
“All constructions, even in
settlement areas, have a build-
ing permit requirement. This is
not about tightening rules but
ensuring safety in construc-
tions. This is free for settle-
ment areas. No regulatory fees
as long as standard settings are
applied,” the local chief execu-
tive noted.
vey and tilting to about 2, 500
families.
Nena V. Tiglao, Marikina
City Land Management and
Community Relations Division
chief, said the land distribution
was intensified in their city in
compliance with the mayor’s
order.
“Mayor Teodoro ordered to
intensify the land distribution
in Marikina City. He wants all
ISFs here to have dignity by
owning their own lands,” she
said.
“Compared to other mayors,
Mayor Teodoro made the land
distribution to ISF residents
his top priority.”
Tiglao said beneficiaries Marikina Mayor Marcelino Teodoro. MARIKINA PIO / FACEBOOK

so what we did is tenureship on
lots. We are working on titles
as these are more secure,’’ the
mayor said in a statement.
Teodoro said the city is do-
ing this by buying some pri-
vate properties while some are
being put under a community
Because of their LGU’s ef-
fective programs, Teodoro said
that Marikina is now “illegal-
settler-free.”
To date, the local govern-
ment, through the Titulo Para
sa Bawat Tahanan Program, has
given financial subsidy for sur-
of the program pay around
PHP200 to PHP680 per month,
with 6 percent interest for 25
years, depending on how the big
is their lot.
Tiglao said that beneficia-
ries who availed of local gov-
ernment lands will pay about
PHP200 to PHP800 per month
for 10 to 15 years, with only 3
percent interest.
“They will pay at the City Hall
for 10 to 15 years, with 3 percent
interest. It varies depending on
the size of their lots,” she said.
The Marikina City Land
Management and Community
Relations Division head said
Teodoro wants to make com-
munities in Marikina City simi-
lar to subdivisions. ■

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FRIDAY AUGUST 9, 2019 Philippine News 13

Poll shows freedom of

speech very strong in PH
BY CHRISTINE CUDIS cent agree, 23 percent are un- Freedom of speech has been
Philippine News Agency decided, and 10 percent dis- probed 40 times from 1985 to
agree. the present. Its net score av-
“Mass media in the Philip- eraged +33 during the admin-
MANILA — While some sec- pines have freedom of speech, istration of Corazon Aquino,
tors say that freedom of speech of expression and of the press,”+38 in the time of Fidel Ra-
is not exercised in the Philip- for a very strong net agreement mos, +41 in the time of Jo-
pines, a survey from poll firm of +57,” SWS statement said. seph Estrada, +34 in the time
Social Weather Stations (SWS) of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,
reveal that Filipinos think oth- Surveys of freedom of speech and +32 in the time of Benigno
erwise. The poll firm first tested this Aquino III.
In its survey “In the five
results released times it was
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the oath-taking on Saturday, surveyed under
ceremony of the newly elected officers of the League of Provinces of the the SWS said the Duterte ad-
Philippines at the Malacañan Palace on August 6, 2019. 59 percent of ministration, it
RICHARD MADELO/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO Filipinos agree Mass media in the Philippines have ranged from a
while 18 percent freedom of speech, of expression moderate +23

‘I will never declare disagree

“they are free
that

to say anything
and of the press. to a strong +41,”
the SWS release
read.

martial law, except in openly without

fear even if it is
against the administration.”
The recent
survey debunks
type of survey in July 1985, assumptions of online media

Mindanao’: Duterte The survey, conducted from during the Marcos regime, and agency Rappler who has earlier
June 22-26 this year, showed found only 33 percent agreed, argued their freedom of speech
that 23 percent are undecided while 29 percent disagreed, for is being challenged as the news
about the matter. a record-low net agreement of a outlet projects itself as a fierce
BY AZER PARROCHA Duterte downplayed the dec- It also revealed that 67 per- neutral +3. critic of the administration. ■
Philippine News Agency laration of martial law as “just a
proclamation.”

MANILA — President Rodrigo

Duterte said he has no inten-
tion of declaring martial law in
Negros Island despite the spate
of killings there.
“Let us make it clear. I will
never declare martial law ex-
cept in Mindanao,” Duterte said
in his speech during the mass
oath-taking of newly elected
city and barangay officials in
Malacañan Palace.
Duterte, however, said he has
to impose drastic action like de-
ploying more soldiers to quell
lawless violence in Negros.
“You have a ruckus there in
Negros. Ang sinabi kong (What
I said) drastic action was that
punuin ko ng sundalo (I will
deploy more soldiers) just like
Jolo. I have one division, ta-
pos magpadala pa ako ng dag-
dag (then I will deploy more).
You know, life is not really that
good, that comfortable, espe-
cially with so many military
around and so many check-
points,” Duterte said.
“There will never be a time
that I will declare martial law.
What I said was that I would
take drastic action. Martial law
pati kung lagyan mo lang ng mga
tropa diyan (if you add troops
there) is the same,” he added.
“It has nothing to do with…
you do not go after innocent
people. Martial law, you go after
the lawless elements. So why do
you have to declare it? Why do I
have to tell Congress?” Duterte
said.
He, however, said he may
opt to declare “another thing”
but did not elaborate what he
meant.
“Now, if it is really some-
thing which gumaganon ang
bayan (will create ruckus in the
country) well I might declare
another thing and that is for
you to guess what would it be,”
Duterte said.
Meanwhile, Duterte defend-
ed anew his decision to impose
martial law in Mindanao fol-
lowing attacks launched by the
ISIS-inspired Maute Group in
Marawi City in 2017.
“Talagang kailangan (There
is really a need), because
there was already a rebellion,”
Duterte said.
“Remember that ruckus in
Marawi started not as an open
rebellion to say that they are
separating from the Republic.
It was none of that. It took place
because the police were there
to serve a warrant of arrest in
connection with a drug case. It
was only drugs,” Duterte said. ■
Duterte admits praying PH
is spared from ISIS attacks
BY AZER PARROCHA
Philippine News Agency
MANILA — President Rodrigo
Duterte on Monday admitted
that he continues to pray to
God to spare the Philippines
from possible attacks by the
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
(ISIS).
“Meron po akong ISIS and
ito ‘yung nagbibigay sa akin ng
kaba talaga (I have ISIS and
this is really making me feel
nervous),” Duterte said in a
speech during the oath-taking
of newly-appointed officials in
Malacañan Palace.
“I am not a person easily
swayed by itong mga dito (ter-
rorists here) but ’yung putok
(but the bombing attack) you
are not — you are spectators
of the international scene,” he
added.
Duterte said what he feared
the most is seeing scores of in-
nocent people killed just like in
Iraq and Syria.
“Ang tinatakutan ko ‘yung
just like Iraq, Syria na maram-
ing inosenteng taong nadadale
(What I’m really afraid of is just
like in Iraq, Syria, there will be
many innocent people killed),”
Duterte said.
“I’m praying, I really pray,
talagang lumuluhod ako sa Di-
yos na (I really kneel to God)
to spare us the kind of brutal-
ity and cruelty in our country
because it will really be bloody,
bloody as it can ever be,” he
added.
Meanwhile, Duterte men-
tioned of “sparks” that would
derail the transition period
to the establishment of the
Bangsamoro parliamentary
government in 2022.
“As it is ’yung (the) Bangsam-
oro Law, there are already a sort
of medyo (some) sparks there
that would tend to maybe de-
rail the smooth transition for
the Bangsamoro people. That
is territorial, ’yung kay (the
one by) Murad, MILF,” Duterte
said.
Duterte was referring to
Bangsamoro Transition Au-
thority (BTA) interim chief
minister and Moro Islamic Lib-
eration Front (MILF) Al-Hajj
Murad Ebrahim.
He also expressed hope that
Moro National Liberation
Front (MNLF) founding chair-
man Nur Misuari would ac-
cept “the same arrangement”
he gave the MILF which led to
the creation of the Bangsamoro
Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao (BARMM).
“Meron tayong (We have)
MNLF that is the Sulu up to
Tawi-Tawi area, Basilan, I am
praying to God that Nur Misu-
ari will be enlightened and will
be able to accept maybe the
same terms that we have ex-
tended to Murad,” Duterte said.
“That is the only way really
without a breakage in our soci-
ety,” he added.
Last June, Duterte bared that
he was trying to set up another
meeting with Misuari. ■

www.canadianinquirer.net
14

Trudeau kept ‘back pocket’ G7 summit statement
to guard against Trump
BY MIKE BLANCHFIELD
The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau kept a “back
pocket” closing statement at
last year’s stormy G7 summit
in case U.S. President Donald
Trump blocked the usual unit-
ed communique, the top Cana-
dian organizer has revealed.
Sen. Peter Boehm was
Trudeau’s sherpa, the senior
public servant who organized
the Canadian-hosted G7 lead-
ers’ meeting at Charlevoix,
Que., and describes the un-
precedented efforts to manage
Trump’s potential disruption at
the meeting in an article for the
French foreign policy journal,
“politique etrangere.”
Boehm retired from the pub-
Canada News
essay of the need for a success-
ful G7 to tackle global problems
with a united consensus among
its member countries that in-
cludes Britain, Germany, Japan
and Italy.
“The single greatest down-
side of using this method in a
body like the G7 is that one un-
co-operative member can spoil
desired outcomes worked to-
ward and advocated for by the
rest,” he writes.
Ordinarily, the final commu-
nique, a statement that sherpas
carefully craft for their leaders,
is the main way for the G7 to
show “unity and leadership to
the world,” says Boehm.
But Canada was taking noth-
ing for granted at last year’s
summit.
“The choice for the Cana-
dian summit at Charlevoix was
ter.”
Eventually, the decision
was taken to forge on with a
communique, but with what
amounted to a Plan B.
“It was decided among sher-
pas, and agreed to by Prime
Minister Trudeau as host, that
an effort at negotiating a com-
munique should be undertak-
en, with the issuance of a chair’s
summary being a fallback posi-
tion should the search for con-
sensus prove futile. The Cana-
dians did keep a ‘back pocket’
chair’s statement on hand —
just in case.”
The leaders mounted a deci-
sive final effort, alongside their
sherpas, and after a marathon
overnight session, “a solidly
substantive communique (with
an expected division on climate Canadian PM Justin Trudeau and US Pres. Donald Trump.
change) was agreed to,” says JUSTIN TRUDEAU / FACEBOOK

lic service three months after
the summit, which ended with
Trump unleashing a tirade of
Twitter insults at Trudeau and
his withdrawal of support for
the summit’s final communi-
que.
Last September, Trudeau ap-
pointed Boehm to the Senate as
an independent after a long ca-
reer as a diplomat that included
ambassadorships and deputy
minister level offices in Ottawa.
It was no secret in the lead-
up to last year’s G7 that the gov-
ernment fretted that Trump
would be a disruptive force.
Trudeau is expected to attend
this year’s leaders meeting later
this month in France, and French
officials are scrambling to have
a successful summit — with or
without Trump’s co-operation.
Boehm argues in his 11-page
whether to undertake the effort
of negotiating a communique at
all,” says Boehm.
That’s because there were
“deep differences” between
the Americans — Boehm never
names Trump directly — the
other six countries and the Eu-
ropean Union (also a G7 mem-
ber) on several issues, he says.
Among the issues were climate
change, the international rules-
based order, protectionism in
trade, and the nuclear deal be-
tween Iran and the Western
powers, which Trump has since
pulled the U.S. out of.
Because of those differences,
Boehm says, “the concern was
that a communique could have
resulted in a ‘lowest common
denominator’ consensual ef-
fort that would have not meant
much nor passed public mus-
Boehm.
The hard work unravelled
after Trump, who left early,
tweeted from Air Force One
that Trudeau was “very dishon-
est and weak” after the prime
minister reitirated his criti-
cism of U.S. steel and aluminum
tariffs during his closing press
conference. Trump also said he
was withdrawing his support
for the communique.
“Attempting to break consen-
sus, ex post facto following the
release of the Charlevoix Sum-
mit documents by using Twitter
to demonstrate pique directed
at the host was also a new, not
to mention unwelcome, phe-
nomenon,” writes Boehm.
John Kirton, a University
of Toronto expert on G7 sum-
mitry, said he doesn’t expect
Trump to pose the same threat
to French President Emmanuel
Macron in Biarrritz, France
this month.
There will be no consensus
on climate change because Ma-
cron, as host, won’t agree to any
watering down of support on
the Paris climate accord that
Trump has disavowed, Kirton
said. The U.S. and the rest of the
G7 will simply have to agree to
disagree, he said.
But Trump may be more con-
ciliatory on other topics so he
has allies ready to help him deal
with the nuclear crises involv-
ing Iran and North Korea, as
well as his trade war with Chi-
na, said Kirton.
Moreover, the United States
will be assuming the presiden-
cy of the G7 in 2020 and Kirton
said he’s encouraged by recent
reports Trump is considering
hosting the gathering at Trump
National Doral, his luxury golf
resort in Miami.
Kirton expects Trump to
move the G7 up to the spring,
perhaps May, to get ahead of
the Republican and Democrat-
ic national conventions in the
summer as the U.S. presidential
election campaign heats up.
“I think he wants to be seen
leading the world at home, and,
of course, I predict that in the
mind of Donald Trump it will
be the best G7 summit in world
history,” said Kirton.
“He’s got an incentive to
make it a success. You can’t
trash Macron and expect him to
make your summit next year a
success. You’ve got that kind of
reciprocity at work already.” ■

www.canadianinquirer.net
FRIDAY AUGUST 9, 2019
Cyberbullying by vegan
activists a source of stress
for farmers: psychologists
BY STEPHANE BLAIS
The Canadian Press
MONTREAL — Cyberbullying
by vegan activists is a growing
source of stress for farmers and
agricultural producers who al-
ready face significant mental
health challenges linked to the
job, a farmer and a psychologist
working in the agriculture sec-
tor say.
Farmer Mylene Begin, who
co-owns Princy farm in Quebec’s
Abitibi-Temiscamingue region,
created an Instagram account a
few years ago to both document
daily life on the farm and com-
bat what she calls “disinforma-
tion and the negative image,” of
agriculture. Today, she describes
herself as the target of bullying
from vegan activists.
Begin recently changed the
settings on her account after
having to get up an hour early
to delete more than 100 nega-
tive messages a day — some of
which made her fear for her
safety, she said.
“There was one that took
screenshots of my photos, he
shared them on his feed after
adding knives to my face and
writing the word ‘psychopath’
on my forehead,” the 26-year-
old said. “It made me so scared.”
She said some of the messag-
es compared artificial insemi-
nation of cows to rape, while
others used the words “kidnap-
ping” and “murder” to describe
the work of cattle breeders.
The problem, she said, is that
many city people don’t under-
stand agriculture but become
severe critics nonetheless.
“It affects you psychological-
ly. It’s very heavy even if we try
not to read (the comments),”
she said. “The population has
become disconnected from ag-
riculture. We all have a grandfa-
ther who did it, but today in the
eyes of many people we’re rap-
ists and poisoners, and that’s
what hurts me the most.”
Pierrette Desrosiers, a psy-
chologist who works in the ag-
ricultural sector, said bullying
on the part of hardcore vegan
activists on social media is a
new source of stress for a grow-
ing number of farmers.
“At school, the children of
farmers start to be bullied and
treated as the children of pol-
luters, or else the kids repeat
what they see on social media
and say breeders rape the cows
(when artificially inseminat-
ing),” she said.
“It’s now a significant source
of stress for producers, and it
didn’t exist a year or two ago.”
Desrosiers, a farmer’s daugh-
ter and wife, is critical of the
communications strategy
used by certain animals rights
groups and vegan associations.
“They use words like ‘rape’
and ‘murder’ to strike the
imagination,” she said. “It’s an-
thropomorphism,” she added,
referring to the attribution of
human traits and emotions to
animals and objects.
Beginning last year, the
Standing Committee on Agri-
culture and Agri-Food spent
several months studying the
mental health challenges fac-
ing farmers, ranchers and agri-
cultural producers. The report,
completed in May, found that
farmers are vulnerable to men-
tal health problems due to “un-
certainties that put them under
significant pressure,” including
weather and environmental
challenges, market fluctua-
tions, debt, and paperwork.
“The isolation that many
farmers experience and the
stigmatization they sometimes
face, particularly on social me-
dia, amplify this stress,” the re-
port stated.
Their recommendations in-
cluded an education campaign
to combat cyberbullying and
threats against farmers, as
well as updating the Criminal
Code to include cyberbullying
against groups of Canadians
based on their job or place of
residence.
Frederic Cote-Boudreau,
who recently completed a phi-
losophy doctorate at Queen’s
University and who studies
animal ethics, said he’s a vegan
who would like to see animals
recognized as equal to humans.
However, he said, the lan-
guage used by some animal
rights defenders on social me-
dia is “counterproductive” to
the cause.
“I’ve rarely seen someone get
convinced by this kind of divi-
sive approach,” he said. “When
we’re told we’re cruel, we’re less
receptive to what the other side
is saying.”
But while he believes a
peaceful approach is a more ef-
fective way to grow the move-
ment, he said he shares the
activists’ concerns and their
strong emotions when faced
with a society that appears to
accept exploitation and vio-
lence towards animals.
His doctoral thesis defended
the idea that animals should
have the right to make choices,
including where to live, who to
develop relationships with and
how to spend their days.
“We have ample scientific
proof about the emotional life
and capacity to suffer of ani-
mals,” he said. “It’s well-dem-
onstrated that being coldly
mutilated, crammed together,
not being able to move nor-
mally, not being able to develop
healthy social relationships, we
know that it has enormous psy-
chological and physical impacts
on animals.” ■
www.canadianinquirer.net
Canada News
Scheer promises
premiers health
transfer increase in
anticipation of attacks
BY KRISTY KIRKUP
The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Conservative
Leader Andrew Scheer is put-
ting Canada’s money where his
mouth is, promising to increase
health and social transfer pay-
ments by at least three per cent
every year should he become
prime minister.
In a letter to provincial and
territorial premiers released
Thursday, Scheer said he wants
to spell out his commitment in
writing because he anticipates
his opponents will misrepre-
sent his position on health care
funding once next month’s fed-
eral election campaign gets un-
derway.
“I want you to have my word
in writing that I will maintain
and increase that funding,” he
wrote.
Millions of Canadians rely on
the public health care system,
be it for mundane check-ups
or more momentous life events
like the birth of a child, life-
saving treatments and caring
for aging parents, said Scheer,
whose party has been branded
with a reputation for embrac-
ing austerity at the expense of
social programs.
Canadians count on educa-
tion, social assistance, early
learning, child care and other
programs supported by the
Canada Social Transfer, and
Canadians need to be able to
count on stable and predictable
federal dollars, he added.
“Stable federal funding is im-
portant to ensure a quality pub-
lic health care system in your
province.”
Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau has already started
evoking the name of Ontario
Premier Doug Ford, accusing
Conservatives of being “for the
people” on the campaign trail,
but quickly turning to “cuts”
to services once elected. “For
the People” was Ford’s election
campaign slogan.
“We all know too well what
happens once they’re in office,”
he told candidates at a pre-cam-
15
paign event Wednesday. “We’ve
seen repeatedly just how far
they’re willing to go to help the
wealthiest few.”
In Ontario, Ford’s govern-
ment has been dogged by public
outrage over a raft of unpopu-
lar policy changes, including
increased class sizes, deep cuts
to legal aid spending and less
money for autism programs.
Last week, it announced a new
needs-based program for au-
tistic children after months of
backlash from angry parents.
Asked whether Scheer’s com-
mitment was aimed at neu-
tralizing the comparison with
Ford, spokesman Simon Jeffer-
ies would only say that health
is an issue that stretches across
all provinces and territories.
“We know that the Trudeau
Liberals are going to try and
fearmonger and misrepresent
our position, so we thought it
was important to put our com-
mitment down in writing to all
premiers,” Jefferies said.
Scheer can write any letter he
wants while campaigning but it
is clear he would make “harsh
cuts,” said the office of Health
Minister Ginette Petitpas Tay-
lor.
“It’s what Conservative poli-
ticians do,” said spokesman
Alexander Cohen, who noted
Ford’s electoral promises and
contrasted them to his policies
in government.
No one seriously expects to
see a Scheer government en-
hance health care in Canada,
echoed NDP health critic Don
Davies.
Health care costs increase by
more than three per cent a year,
yet neither the previous Con-
servative government nor the
current Liberal one have man-
aged to ensure federal transfers
keep up, he said. ■
16
Conservatives, if elected, would work to restore
ties with Saudi Arabia
BY ANDY BLATCHFORD
The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — A Conservative
government, if elected this fall,
would work to fix Canada’s re-
lationship with Saudi Arabia
by trying to build back rapport
with the kingdom in areas that
it considers of mutual interest.
Erin O’Toole, the Conserva-
tive critic for foreign affairs,
said in an interview they would
try to “win some trust” with
Saudi Arabia by focusing on im-
proving commercial ties and by
offering more aid, development
and refugee support in the Gulf
region.
He explained how the Con-
servatives would approach Sau-
di Arabia after being contacted
by The Canadian Press.
The Conservatives, O’Toole
said, would try to re-engage
with Riyadh even though it has
earned international condem-
nation over last fall’s killing of
journalist Jamal Khashoggi in-
side the Saudi consulate in Is-
tanbul.
“Once you have a relation-
ship, you can then work on is-
sues related to human-rights
concerns about the actions
of Saudi Arabia vis-a-vis the
Khashoggi incident, demo-
cratic reforms, all these sorts of
things,” said O’Toole.
He added a Conservative gov-
ernment would seek out com-
mon ground in a similar way
with China, India and the Phil-
ippines, with Saudi Arabia per-
haps the biggest challenge.
“If you have zero relation-
ship, we’re basically just yelling
into the wind. We’re not having
any impact on them.”
O’Toole acknowledged that
for some Canadians, re-estab-
lishing ties with Saudi Arabia
will be a tough sell following
Khashoggi’s death.
Canada News
One year ago Friday, the first
of a series of critical tweets
about Saudi Arabia’s arrest of
women’s rights activists was
posted on Canadian govern-
ment Twitter accounts, includ-
ing one belonging to Foreign
Affairs Minister Chrystia Free-
land. The messages called for
the release of the activists.
Angered by Canada’s public
rebuke, Saudi Arabia retaliated
within a few days by suspend-
ing diplomatic ties with Cana-
da, expelling the Canadian am-
bassador and recalling its own
envoy from Ottawa.
It also said it would halt new
trade and investment deals and
shut down lucrative scholar-
ships for its citizens to study in
Canada. The Saudi central bank
and state pension funds started
selling their Canadian holdings.
The Liberal government has
faced criticism from the Con-
servatives for the tweets that
set off the dispute. O’Toole
called it “immature diplomacy.”
“What we need to do is just
be professional and the more
challenging the relationship
the more we should be relying
on professional diplomats and I
think the Saudi Twitter dispute
didn’t,” he said.
And since last fall, there have
been few public signs of rap-
prochement.
Internal federal documents
show that in the weeks after the
start of the dispute, Freeland
and her Saudi counterpart were
“discussing ideas to de-escalate
… including an incremental ap-
proach which could include a
series of steps.” The informa-
tion was in a September brief-
ing note, obtained by The Cana-
dian Press under the Access to
Information Act.
But Khashoggi’s October
2018 death, which drew con-
demnation from Canada and
many others in the internation-
al community, presented a new
challenge.
Freeland has repeatedly
called for an independent in-
ternational investigation to
bring Khashoggi’s killers to jus-
tice. Canada also imposed sanc-
tions on 17 Saudis linked to the
killing, freezing their assets and
barring them from entering the
country.
Dennis Horak, the former
Canadian ambassador who was
expelled from Riyadh a year
ago, said it would probably be
very difficult for a federal gov-
ernment to openly talk about
re-building the relationship.
“I don’t think the dust has
settled from that sufficiently
that it would be easy for the
government, politically, to sud-
denly warm up to the Saudis,”
said Horak, who retired from
the public service after he was
ordered out of the kingdom.
Even with the obstacles, he
said Canada should try to repair
its strained relationship with
Saudi Arabia like other coun-
tries have done in the past, in-
cluding Germany and Sweden.
“It’s not perfect, it’s not a
straight line by any stretch of
the imagination, but there are
positive steps that have been
happening over the years and
they’re still happening,” Horak
said. “If we want this country
to change, we need to engage
them.”
Some Middle East experts, in-
cluding Horak, say the dispute
could hurt Canada’s chances of
landing a coveted United Na-
tions Security Council seat.
Ahead of next year’s vote, they
say Riyadh could pressure re-
gional allies to ignore Canada
on the ballot.
Business and institutions have
reported feeling the impacts of
the conflict in several areas —
from engineering services, to ag-
riculture, to health care.
www.canadianinquirer.net
Erin O’Toole. ERIN O’TOOLE / FACEBOOK
Andrew Padmos, CEO for
the Royal College of Physicians
and Surgeons of Canada, said
thanks to a successful, four-
decade-old program, between
20 and 25 per cent of all Saudi
physicians in the kingdom had
at least some medical training
in Canada.
After initially ordering them
to return home, Riyadh allowed
medical trainees, or residents,
already in Canada to complete
their work. It has not permitted
new students to go to Canada.
Padmos said the program has
seen many Saudi families spend
up to a decade in Canada, have
several Canadian-born chil-
dren and return to the country
with a new perspective.
“We’ll do more in this fashion
for human rights in the world
by this kind of diplomatic and
educational exchange than any
number of speeches or tweets
would ever do,” he said.
“That’s the sad part of this —
is that this one communication,
which was handled in an un-
usual way, triggered a landslide
that landed on top of us. And we
haven’t dug out of it yet.”
On Wednesday, Rocky Moun-
tain Dealerships Inc., Canada’s
largest agriculture equipment
dealer, said farmer pessimism
over ongoing trade disputes
with countries like China, India
AUGUST 9, 2019 FRIDAY
and Saudi Arabia was part of its
decision to abandon its aggres-
sive growth strategy and to trim
staff.
Scott Jolliffe, chair of the
Canada Arab Business Council,
said Canadian businesses and
institutions remain on a “black-
list” in the kingdom.
“My sources tell me that from
the Saudi perspective, until
the Canadian political climate
changes, there’s not going to be
any progress, which is most un-
fortunate,” Jolliffe said.
One recent sign that con-
ditions in Saudi Arabia have
improved came from Export
Development Canada, which
acts as a credit agency for firms
looking to do business abroad.
A few weeks ago, EDC re-
sumed offering its services on
a restricted basis for Canadian
companies in Saudi Arabia. It
had stopped providing Saudi-
related support last September
after the dispute began, but re-
opened them after initial con-
cerns subsided, EDC spokes-
woman Amy Minsky wrote in
an email.
Between July 2 and July 27,
EDC made 31 separate insur-
ance credit approvals totalling
US$7.3 million for existing poli-
cyholders that wanted to add
Saudi Arabia back into their
coverage, Minsky said. ■
FRIDAY AUGUST 9, 2019
Three federal leaders march
together at Vancouver Pride
BY BRENNA OWEN
The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER — Prime Minis-
ter Justin Trudeau extolled on
the importance of unity as he
marched in Vancouver’s annual
Pride parade with two of his po-
litical rivals on Sunday.
The prime minister took the
opportunity to offer his con-
dolences to the victims of two
mass shootings that left a com-
bined 29 people dead in Texas
and Ohio over the weekend, be-
fore he joined NDP Leader Jag-
meet Singh and Green Leader
Elizabeth May on the parade
route.
“It’s so important that we all
stand together in moments like
this,” Trudeau told reporters.
“We’re standing up for human
rights, standing up for commu-
nities who are marginalized.”
He, Singh and May walked
side-by-side for several blocks
near the beginning of the pa-
rade, surrounded by crowds
Manitoba manhunt shows lack of resources for
missing Indigenous women: advocates
BY KELLY GERALDINE
MALONE
The Canadian Press
WINNIPEG — Helicopters and
a specialized military aircraft
scoured from the air while
armed police took to the ground
over northern Manitoba in a
hunt for two suspects of mur-
ders in British Columbia.
Some advocates say it’s a
stark contrast to resources
applied to searches for miss-
ing and murdered Indigenous
women and girls.
“It is a little bit eyebrow rais-
ing because of the different
response,” says Sheila North,
a former grand chief and advo-
cate for missing and murdered
Indigenous women.
“The effort that they are go-
ing through to try and find
them ? could trigger a lot of
things for people who do their
own searches.”
The massive manhunt has
decked out in rainbow-hued
beads and glitter. Trudeau was
also joined by his wife, Sophie
Gregoire Trudeau, and their
children.
But despite the talk of unity,
the prime minister used the op-
portunity Sunday to take jabs at
Conservative Leader Andrew
Scheer, widely regarded as his
top challenger in October’s fed-
eral election.
“It’s just unfortunate that
there are still some party lead-
ers who want to be prime min-
ister, who choose to stand with
people who are intolerant
instead of standing with the
LGBT community,” he said.
“I really wish Andrew Scheer
were here today to pass that
message to kids in rural areas
who might be suffering bully-
ing, suffering challenges, that
we support them right across
the board, but I’m here with
politicians who do.”
Scheer has so far been ab-
sent from the country’s Pride
parades, and a spokesperson
gripped the country since Bry-
er Schmegelsky, 18, and Kam
McLeod, 19, were named last
week as suspects in three kill-
ings. Vancouver researcher
Leonard Dyck and Australian
Lucas Fowler and his Ameri-
can girlfriend Chynna Deese
were found dead last month in
northern B.C.
In an email Thursday, RCMP
spokesperson Sgt. Marie Da-
mian said solving the cases of
missing and murdered Indig-
enous women and girls is a pri-
ority for RCMP and officers in-
vestigate them on a daily basis.
The search in northern Mani-
toba involves a “potential im-
minent danger to Canadians at
large,” she said.
“To compare the resources
being devoted to an isolated
emergency, and those devoted
to an ongoing issue, would be
inappropriate.”
The RCMP said it’s too early
to estimate the cost of the ongo-
ing search.
previously said he didn’t have
plans to join any. A Conserva-
tive party representative did
not immediately respond to a
request for comment on Sun-
day.
May and Singh both echoed
Trudeau’s concerns about
Scheer’s absence, with the for-
mer saying that Pride celebra-
tions are an expression of some
of Canada’s core values: empa-
thy and inclusion.
“The Conservatives weren’t
there. Their complete boycott
of Pride parades is disturbing.
But I want to concentrate on
the positive,” May said. “This is
not about partisanship. This is
about who we are as a country.”
Singh added that when lead-
ers march together at Pride, it’s
a show of solidarity with Cana-
da’s queer community.
“But we need to go beyond
that to make sure policies also
celebrate people,” he added,
pointing to restrictions on
blood donations from men who
have sex with other men.
North said it’s important the
suspects are caught because
they could pose a serious risk to
the public.
But she wonders where the
same sense of urgency is when
an Indigenous woman or girl
can’t be found.
North recalls the case of Jen-
nifer Catcheway in 2008. She
was last seen in Portage la Prai-
rie, Man. on the night of her
18th birthday. When Wilfred
and Bernice Catcheway noti-
fied police their daughter was
missing, they were told she was
probably out partying, North
said.
For more than a decade, the
Catcheways have conducted
their own search of rivers,
lakes, forests and nearby First
Nations.
North says she’s also remind-
ed of 51-year-old grandmother,
Mildred Flett, who was last
seen in Winnipeg in 2010. Her
ex-husband has said it was dif-
ficult to get police to pay atten-
www.canadianinquirer.net
Canada News
The NDP have also promised
a national action plan to ban so-
called conversion therapy for
minors in Canada, according to
a statement from Singh on the
day of the parade.
tion to her case.
Flett was from the Testask-
weyak Cree Nation in Split
Lake, Man., where missing
person posters of her remain.
Schmegelsky and McLeod were
spotted in the same community
before a vehicle they were trav-
elling in was found in nearby
Gillam, leading police to focus
their search in that area.
North said there are more
than 1,200 relatives of miss-
ing and murdered Indigenous
women and girls watching as
Mounties do everything they
can to find the two murder
suspects. They may also be
wondering why they couldn’t
have received more help, she
adds.
“Families that do their own
searches are feeling a little bit
let down and not respected in
the same way as these other
families are,” she said.
Darlene Okemaysim-Sicotte
has seen many families strug-
gle to organize searches as the
17
JUSTIN TRUDEAU / FACEBOOK
Later on Sunday evening,
Trudeau was expected to ad-
dress supporters at a Liberal
fundraiser in Surrey, B.C., that
required a $500 donation to at-
tend. ■
co-chair of Iskwewuk E-wich-
iwitochik (Women Walking
Together), a grassroots group
that supports families of miss-
ing and murdered Indigenous
women in Saskatchewan.
Her cousin, Shelley Napope,
16, was murdered by serial
killer John Martin Crawford in
1992.
Okemaysim-Sicotte says
she supports efforts to find
Schmegelsky and McLeod and
that no life is worth more than
another.
But the manhunt for them
has made it clear that there is
the means, money and public
support to conduct a large-
scale search when needed, she
says.
Okemaysim-Sicotte hopes
people will remember that the
next time an Indigenous wom-
an or girl is missing.
“The world is watching it, she
says. ■
18 Canada News AUGUST 9, 2019 FRIDAY

Freeland lands meeting

OM DURGA SHAKTI with Chinese counterpart
ASTROLOGER
to talk about detainees
BY JORDAN PRESS of Kovrig and Spavor arbitrary.
The Canadian Press Freeland was quick to characterize her
conversation with Wang as evidence of
progress, albeit incremental: “The fact
OTTAWA — The diplomatic tensions we were able to speak and discuss these
between Canada and China took what issues face to face, directly with one an-
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Free- other, absolutely is a positive step.”
land styled Friday as a positive step after Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer,
she finally landed a face-to-face meet- on the other hand, assailed the Liberal

MASTER
ing with her Chinese counterpart to talk government for what he called a lack of
about two Canadians being detained in action on the file in the months since the

SAI PRAKASH
China. situation exploded — including not com-
Freeland and Wang Yi met during a plaining to the World Trade Organiza-
summit of Southeast Asian nations in tion about China’s efforts to hamstring
Bangkok, Thailand, after she had been Canadian exports to the country, or ap-
previously rebuffed in attempts to talk pointing an ambassador.
International & Special Astrologer about Canadians Michael Kovrig and “You’ll pardon me if I’m not about to
Michael Spavor, who remain impris- congratulate the minister of foreign af-
KNOW YOUR PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE oned in apparent retaliation for Cana- fairs for taking a very basic step here.
da’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng There’s far more that they should have
PALM READING - FACE READING - HOROSCOPE Wanzhou.
Freeland raised the
been doing much,
much earlier,” Scheer
He Is Specialized In Removing All Type Of Negative Energy, Black Magic, Voodoo, Obiya, Enemy Jealousy, issue of the two Ca- said during an event
Witchcraft, Buttu, Jadoo, Tona Curses, Bad Luck, Evil Things, Bad Spirits, He Gives 100% Immediate Protection nadians, and Wang in Toronto.
“expressed con- The opposition
cerns” about Meng’s parties used this
Business Work Money Love Problem Court Case extradition process, The fact we week’s rare summer
Depression Enemy Sexual Drinking Jealousy Freeland told a con- were able meeting of the House
ference call, without to speak of Commons foreign
Visa Children Problem elaborating. and discuss affairs committee to
When the meet- these issues spotlight the govern-
ing was over, she said face to face, ment’s handling of
I Solemnly Promise To Help Everyone, Who Comes To Me. Your Worries Ends Here.
the two agreed they directly the China file. The
would keep the lines with one Conservatives and
BUSINESS INVESTMENTS JOB of communication another, NDP had called for
open. absolutely the meeting in re-
HUSBAND - WIFE HOME PROTECT However, the de- is a positive sponse to allegations
EDUCATION NEGATIVITY tails of any future step. that two former am-
discussion will be bassadors to China
CHILDLESS COUPLE FUTURE LIFE largely kept behind were asked to check
FAMILY ARGUMENTS EVIL AFFECTS closed doors, she said with the government
— an echo of the gov- before making pub-
LOVED ONES SICKNESS ernment’s strategy lic statements on the
LOVE ISSUES HOROSCOPE during last year’s of- matter.
ten contentious free trade negotiations David Mulroney and Guy Saint-
between Canada, the United States and Jacques told The Globe and Mail news-

100% 100%
Mexico. paper last week they had been contacted
“Our relationship with China is com- by an official from Global Affairs Cana-
RESULT GUARANTEED REMOVE OF WITCHCRAFT, BLACK plicated at the moment and I am con- da. Mulroney said the official had asked
GIVE LIFE LONG PROTECTION MAGIC & EVIL THINGS PERMANENTLY
vinced, as I was during the NAFTA ne- him to clear future comments with
gotiations and by the NAFTA precedent, Global Affairs and that the request had
that the surest route to a successful out- come from the PMO.
ALL RELIGIONS WALK-INS come is for us not to be negotiating in Freeland said neither she, nor anyone
WELCOME WELCOME public,” Freeland said. in her office “instructed anyone to have
China detained Spavor and Kovrig late these conversations.” Trudeau has is-
OPEN 7 DAYS 10AM - 8PM last year on allegations of espionage, sued a similar statement.
shortly after the RCMP arrested Meng Freeland said that “conversations
ALL READING ARE PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition war- are sometimes misconstrued.” She said
rant. The U.S. wants to extradite Meng that neither she nor the prime minister
SPECIALIST IN BRINGING BACK LOVED ONES... and prosecute her for allegedly lying to would look to muzzle former diplomats.
CALL FOR APPOINTMENT - PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL banks to avoid U.S. sanctions on Iran. “The important thing is to be very

604-902-2149
The Trudeau government has repeat- clear as I have been with the public ser-
edly insisted Meng will be dealt with vice going forward, that … we should
fairly and transparently by an indepen- never make any effort to stifle free and
dent judiciary, and calls China’s arrests open public debate in Canada.” ■

www.canadianinquirer.net
FRIDAY AUGUST 9, 2019
Trump vows urgent action after shootings,
offers few details
BY ZEKE MILLER
AND JONATHAN LEMIRE
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Speaking out against
weekend mass shootings that rocked
a nation, President Donald Trump on
Monday called for bipartisan solutions
to the bloodshed but offered few details
and faced pointed questions from Dem-
ocrats about whether he had the moral
authority to rally a nation against the
spasm of violence and racism.
Trump, back at the White House af-
ter remaining largely out of view for
two days at his New Jersey golf club, de-
clared the shootings in Texas and Ohio
barbaric crimes “against all humanity”
and called for unity to respond to an epi-
demic of gun violence. He blamed men-
tal illness and video games but made no
mention of more limits on the firearms
that can be sold.
Trump said he wanted legislation
providing “strong background checks”
for gun users, though he has reneged on
previous promises along that line after
mass attacks. He seemed to abandon his
latest idea of linking gun control legis-
lation to immigration policy just a few
hours after proposing it.
“We vow to act with urgent resolve,”
Trump said as the death toll from the
shootings in El Paso and Dayton reached
31 late Monday. His scripted remarks in-
cluded a solitary denunciation of white
supremacy , which he has been reluctant
to criticize, and he made no mention of
the anti-immigration rhetoric found in
an online screed posted just before the
El Paso attack that mirrored his own in-
cendiary language. Detectives sought to
determine if it was written by the man
who was arrested.
Trump weighed trips to the affected
communities — the Federal Aviation
Administration advised pilots of a presi-
dential visit Wednesday to El Paso and
Dayton — though some local lawmakers
signalled opposition to his presence.
At the White House, he declared, “In
one voice, our nation must condemn
racism, bigotry and white supremacy.”
He said he had directed the FBI to
examine steps to identify and address
domestic terrorism. “These sinister ide-
ologies must be defeated. Hate has no
place in America,” he said.
In the past, the president’s calls to the
nation’s better angels, without renounc-
ing his own divisive language about im-
migrants and political opponents, have
proved fleeting. His path to the White
House was built on the politics of divi-
sion, and aides say he views his road to
reelection on again sowing discord and
unease about cultural, economic and de-
World News 19
mographic changes.
Democrats on Monday accused
Trump of fostering an environment of
hate that led to the shootings, and they
angrily renewed their calls for his defeat
next year.
“He’s been racist from day one — before
day one when he was questioning wheth-
er Barack Obama was born in the United
States,” said former Rep. Beto O’Rourke,
a 2020 presidential contender who rep-
resented El Paso. “He’s trafficked in this
stuff from the very beginning, and we are
reaping right now what he has sown and @REALDONALDTRUMP / INSTAGRAM
what his supporters in Congress have
sown. We have to put a stop to it.” larly in the GOP-controlled Senate. “very strong on background checks.”
Former President Obama posted a Trump himself has backed away from Trump claimed he would stand up to the
statement in which he called for the na- previous pledges to strengthen gun laws. gun lobby and finally get results in quell-
tion to “soundly reject language coming After other mass shootings he called ing gun violence. But he later retreated,
out of the mouths of any of our leaders for strengthening the federal back- expressing support for modest changes
that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or ground check system, and in 2018 he to the federal background check system
normalizes racist statements.” Obama signed legislation to increase federal and for arming teachers.
did not mention the president by name. data sharing. But he has resisted calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen-
Trump pointed to the media. toughen other gun control laws. ate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer
“Fake News has contributed greatly to At a February meeting with survivors said Monday that Trump should push
the anger and rage that has built up over and family members of the 2018 Park- the GOP-controlled Senate to take up
many years,” he tweeted. land, Florida, school shooting in which
He suggested early Monday on Twit- 17 people died, Trump promised to be ❱❱ PAGE 20 Trump vows
ter that a background check bill could
be paired with his long-sought effort to
toughen the nation’s immigration sys-
tem. But he didn’t say how or why he was
connecting the issues and did not elabo-
rate on that proposal during his 10-min-
ute address from the Diplomatic Recep-
tion Room.
He has frequently sought to tie his
immigration priorities — a border wall
and transforming the legal immigration Are you an
system to one that prioritizes merit over Internationally
family ties — to legislation around which
he perceives momentum to be building. Trained Professional
His latest proposals would mostly in need of financial
leave it to Congress, which is on recess,
to sort out solutions . support for your
Adhering to what has become a GOP Foreign Credential
talking point of blaming mental ill-
ness and not firearms for mass shoot- Recognition?
ings, Trump signalled he would oppose
large-scale gun control efforts pushed
For more information contact:
by Democrats, saying, “hatred pulls the
trigger, not the gun.” 778-372-6609
He called for law enforcement and globaltalentloans@issbc.org
issbc.org/globaltalentloans
social media companies to do more to
combat extremism and spot warning Global Talent Loans program
signs of violence online. He also asked is delivered in partnership with
for a reduction in the “glorification” of Funded in part by the Government
violence in American culture, including
of Canada’s Foreign Credential
Recognition Program
video games, though research does not
link their usage to shootings.
Additionally, Trump directed the De-
partment of Justice to seek and priori-
tize the enforcement of the death pen-
alty in cases of hate crimes and mass
shootings. Congress has proven unable
to pass substantial gun violence legisla-
Global Talent Loans Program
tion this session, in large part because
of resistance from Republicans, particu-
www.canadianinquirer.net
20
France ponders giving lesbians, Transcript of calls made
single women access to IVF by kidnapped Romanian
BY SYLVIE CORBET
The Associated Press
PARIS — Single women and les-
bians in France won’t have to go
abroad to have babies anymore
under a proposed new law that
would give them access to med-
ically assisted reproduction for
the first time.
French President Emmanuel
Macron’s government has pre-
sented a draft law on bioethics
that includes expanding the
eligibility for treatments such
as artificial insemination and
in vitro fertilization, or IVF.
French law currently restricts
assisted reproduction to infer-
tile heterosexual couples.
The assisted reproduction
bill is sure to prompt strong
debate next month in parlia-
ment, where Macron’s centrist
party has a majority. It comes
five years after mass protests
against same-sex marriage in
France, which was legalized,
and as Macron’s popularity has
slipped due to yellow vest pro-
tests over his economic plans.
With the proposed bill, the
French national health care
system would cover the cost
of assisted reproduction for
all women, under an age limit
yet to be set, for four rounds of
treatments for each pregnancy.
The bill also allows sperm do-
nor anonymity to be lifted on
demand by donors’ children
when they reach 18, instead
of the strict donor anonymity
that now exists in France. The
proposed law will not lift the
French ban on surrogacy.
The law would keep the ba-
bies and mothers from running
afoul of the French legal sys-
tem and give them access to the
country’s generous health care
system.
The changes were a key de-
mand of French LGBT rights
groups after France legalized
same-sex marriage in 2013.
“This simply is a measure
of equality for French female
citizens, whatever their sexual
orientation is,” the Association
of Gay and Lesbian Parents and
Future Parents said in a state-
ment.
While the French govern-
ment says it is responding to
changes in society, many con-
servative, religious or far-right
World News
activists strongly oppose the
bioethics bill. Twenty conserva-
tive groups are already calling
for a protest in October to de-
nounce the measure that they
say will create children without
fathers. They also fear it will ul-
timately lead to the legalization
of surrogate pregnancies.
The Demonstration for Ev-
eryone group, among the crit-
ics of the bill, said “it’s unfair to
allow making children who are
voluntarily deprived of a father.”
“Saying that you’re creating
new rights … while ignoring the
consequences for children on
purpose is a revolting and de-
spicable process, “said group
vice-president Alberic Du-
mont.
Medically assisted repro-
duction for lesbian couples or
single women or both is already
legal in 18 of the European
Union’s 28 countries. French
women now blocked from get-
ting assisted reproduction at
home often go to neighbouring
Spain or Belgium if they can
afford it, where a single IVF
round costs several thousand
euros (dollars).
Virginie, 36, who lives in the
southern city of Marseille, just
got married with her wife Ce-
cile in June. They decided not
to wait for the adoption of the
assisted reproduction law to
try to have a baby, fearing the
parliament debate could last
months and getting access to
the procedure could take many
more months.
Instead, they chose to use do-
nor sperm delivered from Den-
mark by mail for 1,000 euros
($1,112). The process is illegal in
France, which is why Virginie
asked not to be identified by her
last name.
“If that first try doesn’t work,
we are considering using the
new French law,” she told The
Associated Press.
Virginie, who plans to car-
ry the child, said it’s difficult
knowing they are doing some-
thing illegal. Her wife will also
face expensive legal bills after
the birth to adopt the child.
Virginie thinks the proposed
law will help many French
women but fears it could trig-
ger homophobic reactions, in-
cluding a potential reluctance
from some French medical staff
about implementing the mea-
sures.
Amandine Zevolino, 35, lives
in Montpellier in southern
France, where she has been
married to her wife Camille for
a year and a half. She first went
to Spain to try to have a baby,
but didn’t feel comfortable with
the donor anonymity there and
the commercial aspect of the
donor sperm process.
She finally decided to per-
form an at-home insemination
with the help of a friend who
agreed to be the sperm donor.
“We did a contract, even if we
know it doesn’t have any legal
value,” she said. “If it works,
the child will know how he/she
came to the world.”
She is still hesitating about
telling French medical workers
the truth. The situation “forces
us to lie,” she lamented.
Zevolino believes the parlia-
ment debate will ignite politi-
cal tensions in France but she
hopes the new law will help
French society become more
accepting of parenthood for les-
bians or single mothers.
“Usually in France on that
kind of issue, once the law is
passed, it’s definitive,” she said.
www.canadianinquirer.net
teenager released
BY JOANNA BELLE DEALA
Philippine Canadian Inquirer
THE KIN of the 15-year-old
teenage Romanian girl released
to the public the transcript of
desperate calls his niece made
to the emergency 211 the day
after she was reported missing.
Alexandru Cumpanasu, the
uncle of Alexandra Macesanu,
said her niece’s family allowed
the release of the transcript via
a Facebook post on July 30 “for
the entire country to see the
rottenness of a criminal system
and the courage of this incred-
ible child,” as translated in a re-
port by Romania Insider.
Based on the written version
of the calls, Macesanu phoned
the emergency 211 thrice to re-
port to them that she has been
kidnapped, raped, and beaten.
She first made her call on July
25 at 11:05 a.m., followed by an-
other call at 11:07 a.m.
On her third call, at 11:12 a.m.,
the victim told authorities to
“Please stay with me on the
phone, I’m afraid,” but the police
said they “can’t stay” on the line
because they have other calls.
Macesanu was told to stay
where she was at as a police
crew was on their way to find
Trump vows...
❰❰ 19 the House’s back-
ground check bills.
“It took less than
three hours for the president
to back off his call for stronger
background check legislation,”
they said in a joint statement.
“When he can’t mention guns
while talking about gun vio-
lence, it shows the president re-
mains prisoner to the gun lobby
and the NRA.”
With his Monday propos-
als, Trump responded to the
shootings with ideas that many
Republicans in Congress can
embrace — without confront-
ing the gun lobby or tackling
the issue of firearm accessibil-
ity that many view as a driver of
gun violence.
During his White House ad-
dress, he stuck to a sombre
AUGUST 9, 2019 FRIDAY
her. The authorities also told
her to “calm down” as she was
heard crying in the background.
Some international media re-
ported that they have been un-
able to verify the transcript.
Meanwhile, the suspect,
Gheorghe Dinca, admitted that
he killed Macesanu who went
missing on July 24, and another
18-year-old girl who went miss-
ing since April, according to his
legal counsel, lawyer Alexandru
Bogdan.
Macesanu’s death has sparked
public outrage, saying that the
girl could have been saved if the
authorities were able to imme-
diately respond to the phone
calls. This also caused the res-
ignation of Romania’s interior
Minister Nicolae Moga and the
sacking of chief of police and
several other officials.
Quoted as saying in a report
by the Associated Press, Presi-
dent Klaus Iohannis said, “Ro-
manian institutions failed in
their duty to protect the funda-
mental right to life.
“Those responsible will have
to face harsh punishment. Sen-
tences, however harsh, do not
bring back lost lives. We must
identify means to prevent such
tragedies from ever being re-
peated,” he added. ■
tone, but advisers acknowledge
that — as it did during following
a similar White House address
in Charlottesville’s aftermath
— the call for unity could easily
shatter if Trump were to react
negatively to cable news cover-
age or if the markets continued
to fall amid escalating trade
tensions with China.
Trump at one point in his re-
marks erroneously stated that
the Ohio shooting had taken
place in Toledo, not Dayton. It
followed an error made by for-
mer Vice-President Joe Biden
Sunday evening, when he de-
scribed shootings in “Houston”
and “Michigan” before correct-
ing himself. ■
AP writer Lisa Mascaro contrib-
uted.
FRIDAY AUGUST 9, 2019 21

www.canadianinquirer.net
22
UN report: North Korean prisoners killed
for escape attempts
BY EDITH M. LEDERER
The Associated Press
SECRETARY-GENERAL An-
tonio Guterres says in a new
report on North Korea’s grim
human rights record that pris-
oners who tried to escape or
steal have reportedly been pub-
licly executed, and detainees
have been subject to sexual vio-
lence and severely beaten with
clubs and metal rods.
The report to the General As-
sembly, obtained Friday by The
Associated Press, said guards
make detainees undress and re-
peatedly subject them to body
searches for money and con-
cealed items. They are inter-
rogated, sometimes for up to a
month or longer, and their cells
are so overcrowded they can’t
lie down, it said.
The secretary-general said
the U.N. human rights office re-
ceived and analyzed accounts
of North Koreans who had ex-
perienced detention, the vast
majority of them women who
escaped initially to China. Be-
tween September and May,
he said, the office interviewed
more than 330 individuals who
Sudanese activists, army finalize power sharing deal
BY SAMY MAGDY
The Associated Press
CAIRO — The African Union
envoy to Sudan said Saturday
the pro-democracy movement
and the ruling military council
have finalized a power-sharing
agreement.
Mohammed el-Hassan Leb-
att told reporters that the two
sides “fully agreed” on a con-
stitutional declaration outlin-
ing the division of power for a
three-year transition to elec-
tions. He did not provide fur-
ther details, but said both sides
would meet later on Saturday to
prepare for a signing ceremony.
The pro-democracy coalition
issued a statement saying they
would sign the document Sun-
day.
The military overthrew
President Omar al-Bashir in
April following months of mass
World News
left the country.
The former detainees alleged
“gross violations of the rights to
life, liberty and security of the
person” perpetrated by secu-
rity officers, Guterres said.
North Korea has repeatedly
said it does not violate human
rights. In May, the country’s
ambassador in Geneva, Han
Tae Song, said the government
made a “devoted effort for the
good of the people” and “hu-
man rights violations, in what-
ever form, are intolerable.”
But North Korea has refused
to give visas to U.N. human
rights officials, except once in
2017 to an investigator who was
looking into conditions for the
disabled.
According to Guterres, “for-
mer detainees report extremely
unsanitary conditions, and insuf-
ficient food causing malnourish-
ment, illness, and occasionally
also death of other detainees.”
Reports received by the hu-
man rights office “include cases
of sexual violence by prison of-
ficials against female detainees,
including during invasive body
searches,” the U.N. chief said.
And some guards make detain-
ees sit or kneel all day, “allow-
protests against his three-de-
cade-long authoritarian rule.
The protesters remained in
the streets, demanding a rapid
transition to a civilian govern-
ment. They have been locked
in tense negotiations with the
military for weeks while hold-
ing mass protests.
The two sides reached a pre-
liminary agreement last month
following pressure from the
United States and its Arab al-
lies , amid growing concerns
the political crisis could ignite
civil war.
That document provided for
the establishment of a joint
civilian-military sovereign
council that would rule Su-
dan for a little over three years
while elections are organized.
A military leader would head
the 11-member council for the
first 21 months, followed by a
civilian leader for the next 18.
There would also be a Cabinet
ing them to stretch their limbs
for two minutes every hour, or
less.”
Guterres said “moving with-
out permission can result in
personal or collective physical
punishment.”
During pre-trial periods, de-
tainees are provided no access
to lawyers, and “accounts re-
veal that detainees are simply
informed of their prison sen-
tences at the end of the inves-
tigation, particularly in cases
where the accused is sentenced
to up to six months in a short-
term labour camp,” he said.
When trials do take place,
Guterres said, detainees can’t
choose their defence counsel,
lawyers present no defence,
and there are no acquittals.
“Malnourishment is wide-
spread, with multiple reports of
deaths as a result of starvation,”
Guterres said. “Illnesses such
as tuberculosis, hepatitis, ty-
phoid, and pleurisy are report-
ed rife in the prison, and little
or no medical care is provided.”
The secretary-general said
“numerous interviewees re-
ported severe beatings by pris-
on guards, some resulting in the
death of prisoners.”
of technocrats chosen by the
protesters, as well as a legis-
lative council, the makeup of
which would be decided within
three months.
The Sudanese Communist
party, a key part of the pro-de-
mocracy movement since last
year, rejected the newly agreed-
upon deal for allowing the mili-
tary to be part of the sovereign
council. The party called for
continued mass protests until
the military agreed to fully hand
power to a civilian government.
The Communist Party also said
it had withdrawn its represen-
tatives from negotiations with
the military council, accusing
the protest coalition of sidelin-
ing the party.
Ebtisam Senhouri, a nego-
tiator for the protest coali-
tion, told a press conference
that the pro-democracy move-
ment would choose 67% of
the legislative body, with the
www.canadianinquirer.net
UN Secretary-General António Guterres. @ANTONIOGUTERRES / TWITTER
Prisoners are forced to work
long hours, he added, accidents
are frequent, “and there are
multiple reports of prisoners
dying as a result of work-relat-
ed accidents.”
“There are reports of public
executions of prisoners who
tried to escape, steal, or com-
mitted other offences while de-
tained,” Guterres said. “There
are also reports of prisoners
placed in solitary confinement
ultimately resulting in death.”
The secretary-general said
arrests, beatings, forced labour,
executions and other abuses
perpetrated in detention cen-
tres and prisons by officers
from the Ministry of State Se-
curity and Ministry of People’s
Security “appear to be carried
remainder chosen by political
parties that were not part of al-
Bashir’s government. The mili-
tary would select the defence
and interior ministers during
the transition.
The two sides had been di-
vided over whether military
leaders would be immune from
prosecution over recent vio-
lence against protesters. It was
not immediately clear whether
they had resolved that dispute.
The two sides came under re-
newed pressure this week after
security forces opened fire on
student protesters in the city of
Obeid, leaving six people dead.
At least nine troops from the
paramilitary Rapid Support
forces were arrested over the
killings.
In June, security forces vio-
lently dispersed the protesters’
main sit-in outside the military
headquarters in Khartoum,
killing dozens of people and
AUGUST 9, 2019 FRIDAY
out in a widespread and sys-
tematic manner.”
He said people in political
prisons, ordinary prisons, and
detention facilities are all sub-
ject to forced labour “in dan-
gerous conditions, without ad-
equate food, access to medical
care and living conditions that
meet international standards.”
Guterres said accounts doc-
umented by the U.N. human
rights office also reveal “the
prevalence of corruption” in
North Korea’s penal system.
“Bribes can be paid to avoid
arrest and detention, to miti-
gate or avoid prison sentences,
to avoid beatings, to ameliorate
the harshness of the forced la-
bour required, and to secure
family visits,” he said. ■
plunging the fragile transition
into crisis.
Protest leader Omar al-Dagir
said the agreement announced
Saturday would pave the way
for appointments to the transi-
tional bodies.
“The government will priori-
tize peace (with rebel groups)
and an independent and fair
investigation to reveal those
who killed the martyrs and hold
them accountable,” he said.
Sudan has been convulsed by
rebellions in its far-flung prov-
inces for decades. Al-Bashir,
who was jailed after being re-
moved from power, is wanted
by the International Criminal
Court on charges of genocide
stemming from the Darfur con-
flict in the early 2000s. The
military has said he will not be
extradited. Sudanese prosecu-
tors have charged him with in-
volvement in violence against
protesters. ■
 23

Entertainment
For the first time, Julia Telefilm calls on
Barretto breaks silence on Bea- industry to give female
Gerald breakup controversy directors bigger budgets
BY JOANNA BELLE DEALA THE CANADIAN PRESS By contrast, more than half of
Philippine Canadian Inquirer documentaries were by female
directors and 83 per cent had a
MONTREAL — Telefilm Cana- female producer.
KAPAMILYA ACTRESS Julia da says it’s made progress in its Telefilm’s executive direc-
Barretto has had enough of the efforts to back female-led films, tor Christa Dickenson said the
criticisms she has been receiv- but it needs the entertainment agency is doing its part to el-
ing online after she was dragged industry to help by putting evate up-and-coming female
in the breakup controversy of more women in the director’s talent.
her fellow actors, Gerald An- chair for big-budget features. For example, in a program
derson and Bea Alonzo. Numbers released Thursday designed for first-time film-
On Tuesday, August 6, Julia, suggest the federal agency is makers, women made up 43 per
for the first time, has finally making headway towards its cent of directors, 45 per cent of
broken her silence on the issue, goal of achieving gender parity writers and 68 per cent produc-
saying these past weeks have in key film roles by 2020. ers.
not been easy for her. Telefilm says 59 per cent of While men continue to domi-
“My faith, my patience, and its production funding went to nate large-budget projects,
my strength were put to the projects featuring at least one Dickenson said Telefilm has
test,” the 22-year-old said in @JULIABARRETTO / INSTAGRAM woman as a lead producer, di- made strides to reverse this
her Instagram post along with rector or writer in the last fiscal global trend since launching
an old photo of her with Bea. But since she was “brought malice into the minds of many” year. the gender-parity initiative in
“I have endured many harsh into this mess without a choice,” when she liked “harmless pho- The Crown corporation says 2017.
words hurled against me and Julia, this time, addressed Bea tos” that then resulted in the it saw greatest gains among She pointed to projects such
my family everywhere on so- on her statement, saying, “Your criticisms against her. projects with female producers, as Monia Chokri’s “La femme
cial media. It is exhausting and heartbreak should have been Julia described Bea as a reaching near parity in invest- de mon frere” (“A Brother’s
painful,” she continued. a private matter, but you have “woman of great influence and ments across its portfolio. Love”), which premiered at this
Julia cited two issues that selfishly turned it into some- following,” which, the former But Telefilm says it spent only year’s Cannes Film Festival,
made her the target of online thing of national concern.” The said, the latter can use to pro- 28 per cent of its funding on films and Miranda de Pencier’s “The
attacks. First was because she breakup rumors with Gerald mote strength and grace in directed by women and 36 per Grizzlies” as evidence of what
“cheated” on her boyfriend and sparked when Bea posted cryp- women. cent on female-scripted titles. female directors can achieve
second, she was the ”cause of tic messages on Instagram and “But instead, you’ve used This gender gap was most when given the chance.
another relationship’s break “liked” some Instagram posts that to promote social media pronounced in films that cost “I think it’s about getting
up.” irresponsibil- more than $2.5 million. In that more and more female direc-
With regard ity. That is down- category, roughly a quarter of tors in the pipeline,” said Dick-
to the allegation right bullying,” projects were directed by wom- enson. “Having those success
that she cheated she said. en and 35 per cent had female stories will bring further suc-
on her former You can play victim all you want, “You can play screenwriters. cess stories.” ■
boyfriend Josh- but I refuse to be your victim. victim all you
ua Garcia, the want, but I re-
other half of the fuse to be your
loveteam JoshL- victim,” she con-
ia, Julia made it tinued.
clear that they broke up four and comments about Gerald The 22-year-old actress
months ago and that there was along with Julia, his “Between said her latest post was “not
no third-party involved. Maybes” co-star supposed re- enough” to put in a nutshell ev-
“From now on, anything I do lationship. The three of them erything she went through.
in my private and love life is not have become the talk of the “For the longest time, I’ve al-
considered as cheating, and is town since then. ways dealt with everything in si-
none of anyone’s business,” she “Bea, you wanted to keep lence but this time, I am forced
said. your hands clean by not men- to grow up,” she said, adding, “I
Addressing the second issue, tioning me in your controver- will not be sidetracked, derailed,
Julia said Gerald has already sial post. but with a click of your and be dictated by people’s judg-
clarified that he and Bea broke finger, in your sly way, you have ments and opinions about me.”
up not because of a third party. charged everybody to destroy Marjorie Barretto, Julia’s
“I would like to disassociate me FOR YOU,” Julia told Bea. mom, had also said she will take
myself from the break up of Bea Julia slammed the 31-year- legal action against the Insta-
and Gerald. Their issues are en- old actress for encouraging “a gram user who posted a photo Telefilm Canada’s executive director, Christa Dickenson.
tirely their own,” she said. culture of hate” and “putting of her daughter and Gerald. ■ TELEFILM CANADA / FACEBOOK

www.canadianinquirer.net
24
Ryan Cayabyab named ‘Hello, Love, Goodbye’ will be first-ever
as one of 2019 Ramon Pinoy film to be screened in Jeddah
Magsaysay awardees
BY JOANNA BELLE DEALA
Philippine Canadian Inquirer
AWARD-WINNING Filipino
musician and composer Ray-
mundo “Ryan” Cayabyab was
named as one of this year’s
awardees of the prestigious Ra-
mon Magsaysay Award.
The good news was an-
nounced by the Ramon Magsay-
say Award Foundation (RMAF)
on Friday, August 2, saying that
its board of trustees recognizes
Cayabyab’s “compositions and
performances that have defined
and inspired Filipino popu-
lar music across generations;
his indomitable, undeterred
confidence to selflessly seek,
mentor, and promote young
Filipino musical genius for the
global stage; and his showing us
all that music can indeed instill
pride and joy, and unify people
across the many barriers that
divide them.”
This is the newest addition to
his long list of accolades after
he received the title of National
Artist for Music last October
2018.
Cayabyab, known as “Mr. C”
in the Philippine music scene,
got a break when his signa-
ture song “Kay Ganda ng Ating
Musika (How Beautiful is Our
Music)” won the grand prize in
Entertainment
the first Metro Manila popular
music festival in 1978 as well as
in an international song festi-
val in South Korea in the same
year. Since then, his career in
music blossomed, winning in
other competitions and per-
forming widely in the country
and abroad.
The 65-year-old musician
also acted as conductor, ar-
ranger, and composer of San
Miguel Philharmonic Orches-
tra and the San Miguel Master
Chorale. He is also an educa-
tor who served in the music
faculty of the University of
the Philippines (UP) and con-
ducted free workshops for
thousands of students across
the country.
Aside from Cayabyab, other
awardees were Kim Jong-ki of
South Korea, founder of the
Foundation for Preventing
Youth Violence (FPYV); Ko
Swe Win of Myanmar, editor-
in-chief of Myanmar Now; Rav-
ish Kumar of India, executive
director of the New Delhi Tele-
vision Network; and Angkhana
Neelapaijit of Thailand, found-
er of Justice for Peace Founda-
tion (JPF).
These five individuals will be
formally conferred the Magsay-
say Award on September 9 at
the Cultural Center of the Phil-
ippines (CCP). ■
TITOPAO / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, CC BY-SA 4.0
BY JOANNA BELLE DEALA
Philippine Canadian Inquirer
THE FIRST movie tandem of
Kapuso actor Alden Richards
and Kapamilya actress Kathryn
Bernardo is flying all the way
to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as it
claims the title of being the first
Filipino film to be shown in the
area on August 8.
The good news was an-
nounced on by The Filipino
Channel (TFC) and Star Cine-
ma on its social media posts on
Tuesday, August 6.
“Para sa inyo po ito, mga Ka-
bayan namin sa Jeddah! Tapos
na ang paghihintay ninyo (This
is for you, our fellow Filipinos
in Jeddah! Your wait is over)!”
The TFC wrote in its Facebook
post.
“Sa wakas, isang pelikulang
Pilipino ay mapapanood na na-
tin! Kaya naman yayain na ang
lahat ng Pinoy na kakilala mo
R. Kelly accused of soliciting
17 year old girl in Minnesota
BY JEFF BAENEN
The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — A Minne-
sota prosecutor charged singer
R. Kelly on Monday with pros-
titution and solicitation related
to an allegation that he invited
a 17-year-old girl to his hotel
room in 2001 and paid her $200
to dance naked with him.
Hennepin County Attor-
ney Mike Freeman said Kelly,
whose full name is Robert Syl-
vester Kelly, is accused of solic-
iting the girl after meeting her
before a concert in Minneapo-
lis.
Freeman said the girl was try-
ing to get an autograph from
Kelly, and that the R&B per-
former gave her his signature
and a phone number. When the
girl called the number, she was
invited to Kelly’s hotel. There
she was offered $200 to take
off her clothes and dance, Free-
man said. He said Kelly took his
clothes off and they danced to-
gether.
www.canadianinquirer.net
sabay-sabay po tayong manood
ng blockbuster movie na ito star-
ring Kathryn Bernardo at Alden
Richards (Finally, you will be
able to watch a Filipino film!
That’s why invite all your fellow
Filipinos to watch together this
blockbuster film starring Kath-
ryn Bernardo and Alden Rich-
ards)!” it added.
Apart from Jeddah, the ro-
mantic drama film will also be
screened in Singapore on Au-
gust 8, followed by Taiwan on
August 11, Hong Kong on Au-
gust 18, Malaysia on August 23,
Cambodia and Vietnam on Au-
gust 25, Japan on September 1,
and South Korea on September
28 and 29.
“Hello, Love, Goodbye,”
which premiered in the coun-
try last July 31, has raked in
a total of P319,429,863.44 as
of August 6, according to Star
Cinema.
Directed by Cathy Garcia-
Molina, the film tells the story
A criminal complaint said the
girl said Kelly lay on his bed and
the girl climbed on top of him
“body to body.”
“According to Victim, the de-
fendant was rubbing her body”
and fondling himself, according
to the complaint. “Victim stat-
ed that the defendant touched
all over her body.”
The complaint said the girl
attended Kelly’s concert “as a
guest who did not have to pay,”
and told her brother what had
happened in Kelly’s hotel room.
The charges are felonies, each
punishable by up to five years in
prison. Freeman said his office
investigated after getting a tip
from a Chicago tip line.
“We felt we had more than
enough to charge based on her
testimony and corroboration
from her brother,” Freeman
said. “I don’t like buying sex
from minors, and I don’t think
most other people do either.”
Kelly’s attorney Steve Green-
berg tweeted: “Give me a break.
This is beyond absurd.” He did
not immediately respond to a
AUGUST 9, 2019 FRIDAY
of two overseas Filipino work-
ers (OFWs) based in Hong
Kong, Ethan and Joy. Ethan,
played by Alden, is a bartender
who is romantically pursuing
Joy, a domestic helper played
by Kathryn.
Kathryn and Alden earlier
thanked all those who support-
ed the film and for the positive
reviews, they have been receiv-
ing.
“Gusto kong magpasala-
mat sa lahat ng nanood sa first
day ng Hello, Love, Goodbye (I
just want to thank those who
watched Hello, Love, Goodbye
on its first day). Thank you so
much,” the actress said in a vid-
eo message posted by Star Cin-
ema on Instagram.
Alden, for his part, said,
“Thank you so much from the
bottom of our hearts. Thank
you for being part of the success
of this movie.” ■
request for further comment.
The criminal complaint
didn’t name the accuser, and
her attorney, Gloria Allred, said
it would not be disclosed. She
called the woman “a child vic-
tim of Mr. Kelly” and said she
showed courage to come for-
ward.
“As this new case demon-
strates, it is not too late for
there to be justice for even
more victims of R. Kelly,” Allred
said in a statement.
The charges are the latest le-
gal problem for Kelly, who re-
mains jailed in New York after
pleading not guilty last week
in federal court to charges that
he sexually abused women and
girls who attended his concerts
there. He is accused of using his
fame to recruit young women
and girls into illegal sexual ac-
tivity.
Kelly, 52, is also charged sep-
arately in Chicago with engag-
ing in child pornography. ■
Associated Press writer Doug
Glass contributed to this report.
FRIDAY AUGUST 9, 2019 Entertainment 25

Streaming music may make cases like Katy

Perry’s more common
BY ANDREW DALTON
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — To show that Katy
Perry and the team that wrote her 2013
hit “Dark Horse” may have heard his
song and stole from it, Christian rapper
Marcus Gray’s primary evidence was
that his 2009 song, “Joyful Noise” had
plays in the millions on YouTube and
Spotify.
Plaintiffs in copyright cases like Gray,
who won a $2.78 million victory over
Perry and her co-writers on Thursday,
must prove that the artist who stole
Foster said it’s not even “required that
they actually knew of the song, but they
may have subconsciously replayed it,
even if they didn’t know or understand
they were doing that.”
“The wider spread something is,” Fos-
ter said, “the easier it is to show that they
either did or could have had access to it.”
Neither Kelber nor Foster is involved
in the Perry case.
Gray’s attorneys did make other argu-
ments for ways Perry or one of her co-
writers may have heard the song, includ-
ing some radio play, concerts in public
spaces, and the recording being played
in arenas and similar venues. KATY PERRY / FACEBOOK

from them had a reasonable opportu-
nity to hear a song that was widely dis-
seminated, a principle lawyers simply
refer to as “access.”
But does access have any meaning in
a streaming era when almost everyone
has access to almost everything?
The question, as other issues at Per-
ry’s high-profile trial did, suggested that
technology may be outpacing copyright
law, and that more David vs. Goliath vic-
tories for relatively obscure artists like
Gray over superstars like Perry may be
the result.
“The law around it is a two-pronged
test, access and substantial similarity,”
Michael Kelber, a Chicago attorney who
The album the song was on was even
nominated for a Grammy, though not in
a category that makes the show on tele-
vision.
And they often pointed out in court
that Perry’s own career began as a Chris-
tian artist, though she testified during
the trial that she listened almost exclu-
sively to secular music even then.
Perry’s team called the decision “trav-
esty of justice,” saying it’s dangerous to
music and creativity for such cases to
prevail on such thin evidence.
“We’ve been receiving outcry from
people all over the world, including mu-
sicologists,” Lepera said.
They have already filed a motion for
that Gray heard on MySpace and bought
from a man who would later be listed as
a co-writer.
In the past it has often taken a super-
star to take down a superstar for song
theft, and in those cases those who sued
could blast right past the question of ac-
cess.
In a trial over another 2013 megahit,
“Blurred Lines” songwriters Pharrell
Williams openly said they tried to evoke
the feeling of a song they loved, Marvin
Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up.” A jury ruled
against them, and they were ordered to
pay Gaye’s children nearly $7.4 million.
The amount was reduced to about $5
million on appeal.
Artists far less prominent than Gaye
may be having their moment now, and
suits such as Gray’s could be coming in
waves.
“If these cases keep coming down
against these pop stars,” Kelber said,
“the record companies and such may
end up making deals, and not trying to
litigate against them.” ■

specializes in intellectual property and
technology, told The Associated Press
on Friday. “The fact that the access
prong is so much easier to show, that can
PSYCHIC
the trial judge to throw out the verdict
that will get a hearing, and they will al-
most certainly appeal to a higher court
where the broad decision made by the

be some potent evidence for a jury.”
Kelber said the Perry decision may
show that “the floodgates are starting to
open on these cases.”
“It’s not hard to get thousands of
watches and likes,” he said.
Perry’s attorney Christine Lepera said
after the decision that Gray’s team had
shown “no evidence of access” as she
vowed to vigorously fight the verdict.
Courts have long seen a steady stream
of similar lawsuits filed by minor artists
against major ones alleging song theft.
Traditionally many of them have been
thrown out simply because the plaintiff
had no way of proving the artist heard
their song, unless they had given them a
tape, opened for them in concert or had
some similar proof.
“Whereas 20 years ago, where every-
thing was controlled by the music indus-
try, now anybody who wants a song can
hear it, or stumble across it somehow,”
said Timothy Foster, a New York attor-
ney who works on copyright cases in-
cluding a current lawsuit where a singer
FAITH
jury could be severely tested.
Gray’s attorney Michael A. Kahn said
after court that he would be happy to
fight for a decision that was “fair and
just,” though the award fell well short of
the nearly $20 million he sought for his
clients.
The case centred on a brief, simple in-
strumental beat and riff of a few notes
Reader, Healer and Adviser
that repeats throughout “Joyful Noise”
and, Gray’s attorneys said, plays through TELL PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE
45% of “Dark Horse.”
Perry’s attorneys argued throughout
that it was an extremely basic musical specializes on removing all types negative
element that by no means should be energy, bad luck and evil influences
copyrightable.
“The only matter in common is an un-
protectable C and a B note,” Lepera said. helps in all life problems such
Technology could prove challenging as love life, business matters,
here too, with thousands of amateur
musicians creating machine-made beats immigration and family issues
that can proliferate online, making coin-
cidental copying common. A l l i n P r i v a t e a n d C o n fi d e n t i a l
“There are so many people out there
creating basic rhythms and uploading Call today for a better tomorrow
them for people to license and to listen

778-379-4070
is suing Carrie Underwood over her to,” Kelber said. “The chances that any 99% OVER
“Sunday Night Football” song. “It’s eas- one of those three- or four-note pro-
ier to argue that they could have. Maybe gressions resemble something famous is ACCURATE 30 YRS EXP
Pandora played it for them on one of much greater.”
their random playlists one day.” “Joyful Noise” itself began with a beat

www.canadianinquirer.net
26
World mourns the death of
Nobel laureate Toni Morrison
BY LEE REICH
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Nobel laure-
ate Toni Morrison, a pioneer
and reigning giant of modern
literature whose imaginative
power in “Beloved,” “Song of
Solomon” and other works
transformed American letters
by dramatizing the pursuit of
freedom within the boundaries
of race, has died at age 88.
Publisher Alfred A. Knopf
announced that Morrison died
Monday night at Montefiore
Medical Center in New York.
Morrison’s family issued a
statement through Knopf say-
ing she died after a brief illness.
“Toni Morrison passed away
peacefully last night surround-
ed by family and friends,” the
family announced. “The con-
summate writer who treasured
the written word, whether her
own, her students or others, she
read voraciously and was most
at home when writing.”
Few authors rose in such rap-
id, spectacular style. She was
nearly 40 when her first novel,
“The Bluest Eye,” was pub-
lished. By her early 60s, after
just six novels, she had become
the first black woman to re-
ceive the Nobel literature prize,
praised in 1993 by the Swed-
ish academy for her “visionary
force” and for her delving into
“language itself, a language she
wants to liberate” from catego-
ries of black and white. In 2012,
Barack Obama awarded her a
Presidential Medal of Freedom.
“Her writing was not just
beautiful but meaningful — a
Lifestyle
challenge to our conscience
and a call to greater empathy,”
Obama wrote Tuesday on his
Facebook page. “She was as
good a storyteller, as captivat-
ing, in person as she was on the
page.”
Morrison helped raise Amer-
ican multiculturalism to the
world stage and helped uncen-
sor her country’s past, unearth-
ing the lives of the unknown
and the unwanted, those she
would call “the unfree at the
heart of the democratic experi-
ment.” In her novels, history —
black history — was a trove of
poetry, tragedy, love, adventure
and good old gossip, whether in
small-town Ohio in “Sula” or
big-city Harlem in “Jazz.” She
regarded race as a social con-
struct and through language
founded the better world her
characters suffered to attain.
Morrison wove everything
from African literature and
slave folklore to the Bible and
Gabriel Garcia Marquez into
the most diverse, yet harmoni-
ous, of literary communities.
“Narrative has never been
merely entertainment for me,”
she said in her Nobel lecture.
“It is, I believe, one of the prin-
cipal ways in which we absorb
knowledge.”
Winner of the 1988 Pulitzer
Prize for “Beloved,” she was
one of the book world’s most re-
gal presences, with her expanse
of graying dreadlocks; her dark,
discerning eyes; and warm, the-
atrical voice, able to lower itself
to a mysterious growl or rise
to a humorous falsetto. “That
handsome and perceptive lady,”
James Baldwin called her.
Her admirers were count-
less — from fellow authors,
college students and working
people to Obama and fellow
former President Bill Clinton;
to Oprah Winfrey, who idolized
Morrison and helped greatly
expand her readership. Morri-
son shared those high opinions,
repeatedly labeling one of her
novels, “Love,” as “perfect” and
rejecting the idea that artistic
achievement called for quiet
acceptance.
“Maya Angelou helped me
without her knowing it,” Mor-
rison told The Associated Press
during a 1998 interview. “When
she was writing her first book,
‘I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings,’ I was an editor at Ran-
dom House. She was having
such a good time, and she never
said, ‘Who me? My little book?’
“I decided that ... winning the
(Nobel) prize was fabulous,”
Morrison added. “Nobody was
going to take that and make it
into something else. I felt rep-
resentational. I felt American.
I felt Ohioan. I felt blacker than
ever. I felt more woman than
ever. I felt all of that, and put all
of that together and went out
and had a good time.”
The second of four children
of a welder and a domestic
worker, Morrison was born
Chloe Ardelia Wofford in Lo-
rain, Ohio, a steel town outside
of Cleveland. She was encour-
aged by her parents to read and
to think, and was unimpressed
by the white kids in her com-
munity. Recalling how she felt
like an “aristocrat,” Morrison
believed she was smarter and
took it for granted she was wis-
www.canadianinquirer.net
Toni Morrison. ANGELA RADULESCU, CC BY-SA 2.0
er. She was an honours student
in high a school, and attended
Howard University because she
dreamed of life spent among
black intellectuals.
At Howard, she spent much
of her free time in the theatre
(she had a laugh that could eas-
ily reach the back row), later
taught there and also met and
married a Jamaican architect,
Harold Morrison, whom she
divorced in 1964. They had two
children, Harold and Slade.
But although she went on
to teach there, Howard dis-
appointed her. Campus life
seemed closer to a finishing
school than to an institution
of learning. Protesters, among
them former Morrison student
Stokely Carmichael, were de-
manding equality. Morrison
wanted that, too, but wondered
what kind.
“I thought they wanted to in-
tegrate for nefarious purposes,”
she said. “I thought they should
demand money in those black
schools. That was the prob-
lem — the resources, the better
equipment, the better teachers,
the buildings that were falling
apart — not being in some high
school next to some white kids.”
In 1964, she answered an ad
to work in the textbook division
of Random House. Over the
next 15 years, she would have
an impact as a book editor, and
as one of the few black women
in publishing, that alone would
have ensured her legacy. She
championed emerging fiction
authors such as Gayl Jones and
Toni Cade Bambara, helped
introduce U.S. readers to such
African writers as Nobel laure-
ate Wole Soyinka, worked on a
memoir by Muhammad Ali and
topical books by such activists
as Angela Davis and Black Pan-
ther Huey Newton. A special
project was editing “The Black
Book,” a collection of every-
thing from newspaper adver-
tisements to song lyrics that
anticipated her immersion in
❱❱ PAGE 38 World mourns
FRIDAY AUGUST 9, 2019 Lifestyle 27

MassKara Festival dancers conquer Disneyland

in US
BY NANETTE
GUADALQUIVER
Philippine News Agency

BACOLOD CITY — In another

first for Bacolod City, the Mass-
Kara Festival dancers have
conquered the “happiest place
on earth,” with a performance
at the Disneyland Park in
Anaheim, California, over the
weekend. MassKara Festival dancers in Disneyland. EM LEGASPI ANG / FACEBOOK

It was a well-applauded per-

formance, said former council-
or Em Ang, who heads the Ba-
colod City Trade and Tourism
Mission to USA 2019.
The MassKara team was the
first Filipino group to perform
in the Disneyland Performing
Arts at the California Adven-
ture Land on Friday evening.
The 10-member dance group,
mentored by Segundo Jesus
“Panoy” Cabalcar, included
Joedem Casabuena, John Rey
Alulod, Richard Lopez, Mark
Philip Lamirez, Argie Tacadao,
Airick Bayking, Joenel Bue-
naventura, Nestle Ramirez,
Alvin Cardiente and Junel
Caagoy-Yap. Five dancers from
Long Beach joined them during
the performance.
“We are very happy to per-
form in Disneyland. This is his-
toric since we were the first Fil-
ipino group to perform here,”
Casabuena said in a statement
furnished by the Bacolod City
Public Information Office.
The Disneyland show was
one of the engagements of the
MassKara dancers in Califor-
nia, where the city’s trade and
tourism group promoted the
MassKara Festival. Held every
October, it will mark its 40th
edition this year.
The dance team also per-
formed at the San Francisco
Filipino Cultural Center in San
Francisco. They were the first
group from outside the US to
perform at the center after its
re-opening.
On August 2, they were featured
in the Gala Night of the “MassKa-
ra Festival in Long Beach” at the
Marriott Hotel, and at the Trade,
Travel and Consumer Expo,
hosted by the Asian Journal Pub-
lications, in SouthBay Pavilion of
Carson City on August 3.
On August 4 (US time), they
are scheduled for three perfor-
mances at the “MassKara Festi-
val in Long Beach” in Bandshell
at the Recreation Park in Long
Beach.
In June this year, the Mass-
Kara Festival dancers also
made history as the first-ever
foreign performing group to
have graced the Maduhee Fes-
tival in Ulsan City, South Korea.
The delegation from Bacolod
was the only foreign performer
in the 2019 edition of the festival.
A month before, during the
Daegu Colorful Festival, the
MassKara Dance Team was de-
clared Best Foreign Group after
besting 21 other groups in the
foreign category, which was one
of the five categories of the fes-
tival in Daegu City, South Ko-
rea. ■

One child a year dies after being stuck

in hot car on average, Canadian study says
BY NICOLE THOMPSON
The Canadian Press
ACCIDENTS IN which chil-
dren die while stranded in hot
cars may be more common than
people realize, but the authors
of a study probing the issue
said there are numerous practi-
cal habits parents can adopt to
ward off such tragedies.
The study from the Hospital
for Sick Children concluded
an average of one child a year
dies across Canada after being
trapped in an overheated ve-
hicle, usually because a parent
or caregiver forgot they were
inside.
Forgetfulness played a role in
four of the six deaths recorded
between 2013 and 2018, accord-
ing to the research published
last month in Pediatrics and
Child Health. The circumstanc-
es around a case too recent to
be included in the research —
the death in May of a 16-month-
old in Burnaby, B.C. — are still
under police investigation. Court heard the woman had pectedly absent. ents about child development
Study co-author Dr. Joelene collected her grandson from She also suggested parents and safety.
Huber said such accidents can his mother’s home, but mistak- implement a few habits meant Bystanders have a role to
happen to anyone, but stressed enly drove home after working to guard against forgetfulness, play, too, Huber said, noting
that adopting new routines a night shift without dropping such as placing their cellphones people who spot children alone
could prevent disaster. him off at daycare as planned. in the back seat of the car when- in hot cars should call 911 im-
“Never leave a child unat- She ultimately pleaded guilty ever a child is sitting there. mediately even if the child
tended in a motor vehicle, even to failing to provide the neces- “You have to get your cell- seems alright.
for a minute,” phone at some Huber said a “greenhouse ef-
she said. “That point, usually, so fect” takes place inside cars and
should be a rule that’s a good way can send the internal tempera-
that you make to remember,” ture soaring to deadly levels
for yourself: The majority of the deaths she said. even when the outside temper-
even if I forgot researchers studied involved Huber also ature is a relatively cool 21 or 22
something in the incidents where a caregiver forgot urged parents to degrees Celsius.
house, I need to to drop a child off at daycare. adopt the man- The impact is especially dan-
run back in the tra of “look be- gerous for children, whose bod-
house with the fore you lock” ies are ill-equipped to regulate
child.” and get in the temperature and can quickly
The majority habit of check- find themselves in danger if ex-
of the deaths researchers stud- sities of life and received a sus- ing the back seat whenever they posed to excess heat. Huber said
ied involved incidents where a pended sentence plus two years leave their vehicle regardless of children often experience de-
caregiver forgot to drop a child of probation at the joint recom- whether they have a child with lirium and then seizures before
off at daycare. mendation of both the Crown them at the time. slipping into a coma or dying.
This included the 2013 death and defence lawyers. But she said the onus isn’t all “If the child is in distress,
of Maximus Huyskens, a Mil- To avoid similar tragedies, on the parents. The study sug- we’ve talked to the police about
ton, Ont., toddler who died in Huber said parents should ar- gests adding a section on the this and they would recom-
the back seat of his grandmoth- range to have child-care pro- perils of hot cars to the Rourke mend that you do whatever you
er’s car one month shy of his viders call and sound the alarm Baby Record, which doctors re- can to get the child out of that
second birthday. if one of their charges is unex- fer to when teaching new par- car,” Huber said. ■

www.canadianinquirer.net
28
Topiary tips:
When you want shrubs to double as sculpture
BY LEE REICH
The Associated Press
TOPIARY IS the art of grow-
ing trees and shrubs as living
sculptures — cubes, spheres,
obelisks, animal shapes or com-
binations of these.
The tradition has flourished
in various places at different
times, but in modern gardens,
topiary is rare, unless you
count our foundation plantings
of clipped yews and junipers —
“gumdrop” or “dot-dash” land-
scaping along home founda-
tions.
Suggested plants
Only certain plants are suit-
able for pruned topiary. (Topi-
aries created with wire frames
“plugged” with hens-and-
chicks plants or embraced by
vining plants are a different sto-
ry, for another time.) The ideal
topiary plant is slow-growing,
tolerant of repeated pruning,
and able to re-sprout from old-
er wood. Especially for smaller
topiaries viewed at close range,
small leaves are needed to cre-
ate a surface with a crisp edge.
If possible, select a species or
variety whose natural shape ap-
proximates its intended shape:
Densa yew for a low sphere, or
Pinoy veteran of 3 wars still strong at 97
BY BEN CAL
Philippine News Agency
MANILA — At 97, retired Maj.
Maximo Young, one of the few,
if not the only living Filipino
veteran of three wars – World
War 2, Korea and Vietnam – re-
mains strong and healthy de-
spite nearing the century mark.
Young celebrated his 97th
birthday with vigor by walking
around, smiling and shaking
hands with visitors who attend-
ed his natal day celebration
at the Officers Clubhouse in
Camp Aguinaldo on Saturday.
A thanksgiving mass preced-
ed the grand birthday celebra-
tion.
During the singing of a birth-
day song for him, his wife, Mer-
cedes, 68, hugged him to the de-
light of friends and visitors.
Lifestyle
Pyramidalis yew for an obelisk,
as examples.
Evergreens generally are
used for topiary, but occasion-
ally a deciduous plant such as
English hawthorn or European
beech is used. A drawback to a
deciduous topiary, of course,
is that it is bare in winter (al-
though beech does not shed its
dead leaves until spring). De-
ciduous plants generally grow
more exuberantly than do ever-
greens, so also require more dil-
igence to keep growth in check.
Many species of evergreens
have been used for topiary. The
quintessential ones are yew and
boxwood. Some other suitable
plants include arborvitae, hem-
lock, holly and rosemary.
Developing your shape
In most cases, begin shaping
your plant while it is young. You
could, however, carve a shape
out of an old overgrown yew,
much as you would out of wood
or stone, because yew grows so
densely and sprouts so freely
from old wood.
Or maybe a growing plant will
suggest a form that you could
then develop. You might even
juxtapose two plants, or let one
grow up through the other to
create, for example, a pedestal
on which sits a verdant animal.
When World War II broke out
on Dec. 8, 1941, Young, a cadet
at the Philippine Military Acad-
emy (PMA,) joined the Filipino
forces to fight the Japanese,
who invaded the Philippines.
He was 19 at that time.
As a guerrilla fighter, Young
demonstrated his bravery fight-
ing the Japanese.
At one instance, Young al-
most got killed when a boat of
the guerrillas carrying supplies
was intercepted and sank by the
Japanese in the Visayan Sea.
He evaded being captured by
swimming to the shoreline.
Following the surrender of
Japanese forces in 1944, Young
continued his military career as a
lieutenant of the Philippine Army.
Six years later, when the Ko-
rean War broke out on June
25, 1950, Young volunteered to
join the Philippine Expedition-
In any case, topiary lends it-
self more to bold shapes than
to intricate designs whose de-
tails are swallowed up between
prunings. Site your topiary
so that it receives good light
on all sides, for dense growth
throughout.
Most young topiary plants
that are still in their formative
ary Force to Korea (PEFTOK)
to fight the Chinese and North
Korean communist forces who
invaded South Korea.
As a tank commander of the
10th Battalion Combat Team
(BCT) of PEFTOK, Young and
his troops fought the Chinese
and North Korea troops in a
two-day close-quarter fighting
in what is now known as the
Great Battle at Yultong, stop-
ping the enemy from entering
South Korea.
It was at Yultong that Young
and his troops showed the
Filipino gallantry in combat
against all odds.
For his heroic action Young
was awarded the “Taegeuk
Medal,” the highest military
award of South Korea given to
a soldier for bravery in combat.
Another Filipino trooper who
was awarded posthumously the
www.canadianinquirer.net
stage need nothing more than
frequent shearing or clipping
off of the ends of stems in order
to encourage dense branch-
ing. Clipping individual stems
is the preferred method for
plants with large leaves because
shearing would mangle individ-
ual leaves. Obviously, where a
stem protrudes in the direction
same medal was Capt. Conrado
Yap, who was killed during the
Battle at Yultong, after he re-
fused to leave his men and cou-
rageously fought single-hand-
edly against the Chinese and
North Korean forces.
The fighting in Korea ended
in 1953 with a divided Korea,
with the South as a democratic
country and North a commu-
nist-ruled nation to date.
The dividing line is called the
Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
In 1966 when the Vietnam
War erupted, Young found him-
self in South Vietnam as a mili-
tary advisor of the South Viet-
namese government.
Though he did not fight in
Vietnam, he witnessed at close
range the heavy fighting in that
once war-torn country.
During his 97th birthday
bash, Young thanked God for a
AUGUST 9, 2019 FRIDAY
where you want growth, leave
it.
Keeping in shape
Once a topiary is fully grown
and shaped, it needs prun-
ing at least once a year, two
or three times a year in some
cases. Where a plant needs
only once-a-year pruning and
is reliably cold-hardy, prune
just after midsummer. By then,
the spring flush of growth has
ceased, and there is less chance
that pruning will stimulate re-
growth before the following
spring.
Cut freehand, or use a guide
to make sure your topiary is not
gradually changing shape over
the years. A guide is also use-
ful when you have more than
one matching topiary. If you cut
freehand, step back frequently
to check and admire your work.
What is to be done with a
neglected topiary? Severe cuts
may be needed to stimulate
growth within the plant. Re-
pair a leafless hole by widen-
ing it, cutting old wood around
the hole back to healthy wood.
If severe cuts are needed, reno-
vation is possible only if the
plant is one capable of sprout-
ing from old, perhaps leafless,
wood. Otherwise, start again
with a new plant. ■
long life, surviving World War
II, Korean War and the Viet-
nam War without injury.
At age 97, Young looks young-
er at 70 as he walks without a
cane, reads without reading
glasses and most of all, plays
badminton regularly to keep
him fit and young, connoting
his family name.
He and his wife are blessed
with eight children with the
same number of in-laws and 27
grandchildren.
In greeting Young, retired Lt.
Gen. Nesty G. Carolina, admin-
istrator of the Philippine Veter-
ans Affairs Office (PVAO), said
that he will pray that Young
would reach the age of not only
100 but 123 years old.
With his good health, Young
may reach that age with God’s
blessings, nothing is impos-
sible. ■

AP SOURCE:
Carter returning to Hawks
for 22nd NBA season
BY PAUL NEWBERRY
The Associated Press
ATLANTA — Vince Carter is
putting off retirement for at
least one more season.
With that, he’ll claim the lon-
gest career in NBA history all to
himself.
A person familiar with the
situation confirmed that Cart-
er has agreed to terms on a
one-year contract to return to
the Atlanta Hawks for his re-
cord 22nd season. The person
spoke to The Associated Press
on condition of anonymity be-
cause the deal has not been an-
nounced.
The 42-year-old Carter never
wavered in his desire to play
with someone this season. He is
tied with Robert Parish, Kevin
Garnett, Kevin Willis and re-
cently retired Dirk Nowitzki
— all of whom played for 21 sea-
sons — for the longest career in
NBA history.
“Just waiting for the right op-
portunity,” he said on a recent
conference call to discuss the
upcoming Jr. NBA Global Cham-
pionship, when questioned by a
reporter from the Atlanta Jour-
nal-Constitution. “Nothing has
changed as far as that goal and
that dream of mine.”
The deal was first reported by
ESPN.
Essentially an extra coach
during his first season with the
Hawks, Carter served as a men-
tor to some of the NBA’s most
promising young talent, includ-
ing point guard Trae Young and
forward John Collins.
This year, the Hawks add-
ed first-round picks D’Andre
Hunter and Cam Reddish, giv-
ing the team two more players
who will surely benefit from
Carter’s experience and leader-
ship.
Carter also showed last sea-
son that he’s still got some hoop
skills. He was a valuable mem-
ber of the playing rotation on a
rebuilding team, playing in 76
Sports
It's official! Atlanta Hawks (Taken in 2018) VINCE CARTER/FACEBOOK
games with nine starts, averag-
ing 17.5 minutes and 7.4 points
per contest.
While Carter is likely to get
less playing time after the ad-
ditions of Hunter and Reddish,
the Hawks wanted him back
and finish off what is expected
to be a 14-man roster this sea-
son.
Carter entered the league in
1998 — the same year Young
was born — as the fifth overall
pick out of North Carolina. He
sparked a wave of “Vinsanity”
in Toronto, where his high-fly-
ing style made him one of the
league’s top players. He began
a run of 10 straight seasons
where he was selected to the
All-Star Game appearances and
averaged more than 20 points a
game.
Carter was dealt to New Jer-
sey in a blockbuster trade early
in the 2004-05 and spent near-
ly five seasons with the Nets.
Since then, he bounced around
to Orlando, Phoenix, Dallas,
Memphis and Sacramento be-
fore landing in Atlanta last sea-
son.
The only blemish on his re-
sume is the lack of an NBA title,
which isn’t likely to change in
Atlanta. The Hawks, who are in
the midst of a total roster make-
over focused on young talent,
went 29-53 last season and are
again pegged as a longshot to
make the playoffs in the East-
ern Conference.
After reporting for train-
ing camp a year ago in Atlanta,
Carter said he still feels like a
20-something when a new sea-
son rolls around.
“This is like I’m in my third,
fourth, fifth year,” he said. “I’m
excited about the opportunity.
I’m excited about playing. I still
love playing. I still love compet-
ing. I still enjoy the travelling,
the ups and downs of the league.
That’s what it’s all about. It’s
hard to let go.”
Coach Lloyd Pierce, who is
heading into his second season
with the Hawks, loved having
Carter around to give players
such as Young and Collins an
extra shoulder to lean on dur-
ing their transition to the NBA.
Pierce is only eight months
older than Carter.
“When we have our locker
room and on-the-bus debates
and conversations, he’s on our
side,” Pierce joked. “He can re-
late a little closer to the coach-
ing staff than he can with the
players.” ■
www.canadianinquirer.net
PH eyes first table tennis
gold in 30th SEA Games
PHILIPPINE NEWS
AGENCY
MANILA – The Philippines
hopes to make history by win-
ning its first-ever gold medal in
table tennis in the 30th South-
east Asian Games in Manila on
Nov. 30-Dec. 11.
With the proper motivation
and extensive training here and
abroad, Philippine Table Ten-
nis Federation, Inc. (PTTFI)
President Ting Ledesma be-
lieves it can be done.
And judging from the recent
success of the national team
mainly due to the all-out support
by the Philippine Sports Com-
mission (PSC), Ledesma has ev-
ery reason to feel optimistic.
“We will be very happy to win
a silver or even a bronze medal in
the coming SEA Games, but we
are definitely going for the gold,”
said Ledesma during the 33rd
“Usapang Sports” by the Tabloids
Organization in Philippine Sports
(TOPS) at the National Press Club
in Intramuros last Aug. 1.
“We really want to win that
first-ever table tennis gold
medal in the SEA Games, espe-
cially since we are the host and
we will be playing in front of our
countrymen,” added Ledesma
during the weekly public ser-
vice program supported by the
PSC, National Press Club, PAG-
COR, Community Basketball
Association, and HG Guyabano
Tea Leaf Drinks.
Under Ledesma, the country
has already won a silver and a
bronze medal courtesy of Rich-
ard Gonzales in the SEA Games
since he assumed office in 2013.
“Under my watch, PTTFI also
produced the country’s first-ever
table tennis Olympian — the late
Ian Lariba. And also, the coun-
try’s first Youth Olympian, Jann
Mari Nayre,” Ledesma said.
Ledesma said the long and
extensive training of the na-
tional team members largely
due to the timely financial as-
sistance extended by the PSC
is now reaping its dividends in
terms of performances abroad.
29
He said Korean coach Kwon
Mi Sook is doing a very good job
in the training of national team
members.
Ledesma also reported the
country’s recent success in ta-
ble tennis.
“I am very happy to report
that we just won the title in
Division 3 in the Singapore
National Table Tennis League
(SNTTL) held last July 27-28
in Singapore,” said Ledesma, an
active player himself.
The Filipino team, which was
composed of several national
team standouts and expats,
won over players from different
Asian countries.
Right now, Ledesma said the
national team composed of five
male and five female players
and two coaches are now in Ko-
rea for a two-month and 11-day
training with various Korean
universities.
“Nakatutuwa dahil this is the
first time na nagkaroon ng ganit-
ing mahabang training ang ating
mga table tennis players. Yun
ang pangarap naming (We’re
happy because this is the first
time that we got this long prepa-
ration of our players). As a play-
er, I trained in China for almost
one month at kulang talaga (and
it’s not enough),” said Ledesma.
“Pagbalik nila sa (When they
come back on) Sept. 11, they will
be going to Indonesia for the
Asian Table Tennis Champion-
ship on Sept. 15-22. Tapos balik
uli para sa (Then return again
to) Indonesia Open on Nov. 13-
17,” he added.
Ledesma said the support of
the PSC, headed by Chairman
William “Butch” Ranirez, made
everything possible.
“Malaking tulong talaga
ang PSC kaya nagpapasalamat
kami kay Chairman Ramirez at
sa iba pang mga commission-
ers aa kanilang suporta (The
PSC is helping us a lot and we
would like to thank Chairman
Ramirez and other commis-
sioners for their support),” add-
ed Ledesma, who used to spend
his own money to finance the
training of the players. ■
30
Angkas sorry for ‘inappropriate DTI goes to poor
tweet’ following backlash communities,
BY RAYMOND CARL DELA
CRUZ
Philippine News Agency
MANILA — Motorcycle ride-
sharing company Angkas on
Thursday morning released a
statement following backlash
from the Philippine National
Police (PNP), Department of
Transportation (DOTr) and
others from the online commu-
nity for a racy promo message
they posted on Twitter for first-
time Angkas users.
Angeline Tham, Angkas chief
executive officer (CEO), admit-
ted a “misstep” on posting the
tweet and apologized.
“We are deeply sorry for this,
and would like to reassure ev-
eryone that we are committed
to the safety of our passengers,
above all else,” Tham said.
Before it was deleted, the
tweet read, “Angkas is like sex.
It’s scary the first time pero ma-
sarap na ulit-ulitin (but feels
good to repeat over and over).”
The tweet went viral after the
PNP’s reply saying Angkas is
scaring its own users and does
not promote safety in public
transport.
DOTr Assistant Secretary for
Communications Goddes Hope
Libiran in a message sent to re-
porters said she has approached
Angkas for their tweet’s inap-
PH economy likely grew 6% in Q2
BY LESLIE GATPOLINTAN
Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The Philippine
economy likely expanded by 6
percent in the second quarter
and is poised to accelerate fur-
ther all the way until yearend,
supported by strong consumer,
government, and investment
spending.
A joint report by the First
Metro Investment Corp.
(FMIC) and the University of
Business
propriate content before it was
deleted.
“I approached them last night
and told them that we think
their post is inappropriate.
They deleted the post already,”
Libiran said.
The ride-sharing CEO em-
phasized the safety of their ser-
vice and clarified their playful
tweet only meant they can be
trusted once tried.
“Angkas is a service you can
trust once you’ve tried it. If
nothing else, our 99.997 per-
cent safety record is a testa-
ment to the quality of our ser-
vice,” Tham said.
Asia and the Pacific (UA&P)
said the “tri-star domestic de-
mand engines” are positioned
to “speed up the Philippine
economic machine” starting
April to June, boosted by plung-
ing inflation and the national
government’s (NG) catch-up
spending plan.
In the latest issue of the
Market Call, FMIC and UA&P
pointed out they expect a re-
newed sharp fall in headline
inflation to below 2 percent
by August, and even below 1.5
developing more
entrepreneurs
BY LEILANIE ADRIANO only one village, to conduct in-
Philippine News Agency formation and education drive
as well as the launch of the pio-
neering NSB in the village.
LAOAG CITY — Representa- “We, at the DTI-Ilocos
tives of the Department of Norte bring closer our services
Trade and Industry are reach- through the NSB. Adams is one
ing out to underserved commu- of the municipalities which
nities to help residents become is rich in raw materials, and
entrepreneurs. through this launching, we will
As starting a business is quite boost the entrepreneurs here
challenging, DTI Acting Pro- to develop the area to a better
vincial Director m a r k e t p l a c e ,”
Rosario Quodala Quodala told
@ANGKAS / TWITTER said Monday some 50 small
that the Nego- and would-be
She has also apologized to syo Serbisyo sa entrepreneurs
their bikers for casting them in Barangay (NSB) who attended
an unfair light. program is be- the launching.
“Our biker-partners have ing rolled out in NSB aims She hopes that
been trained to respect their various parts of to see small the program will
riders and make them as com- the province par- businesses in serve as a bridge
fortable as possible. And no ticularly in vil- the Barangay for them to scale
tweet can change that fact,” lages under the to go up their opera-
Tham said. 4th, 5th and 6th mainstream tions.
Tham added that while they income classifi- and be “We are thank-
believe sex should be discussed cation munici- empowered. ful for all these
maturely and openly, it must be palities. government ser-
treated more desirably. Since July 26, vices now being
“Sex should never be used to Quodala report- brought close to
create shame, fear, or disgust, ed the agency our doors. We
and certainly not used lightly has been coor- don’t need to
for the sake of some buzz,” dinating with travel far just to
Tham said. ■ officials in the access these ser-
towns of Adams, Carasi, Curri- vices anymore,” said Dr. Biel-
mao, Bangui, Paoay and Banna maju Waley, a winemaker and
in Ilocos Norte province for the food processor in Adams.
launching of the NSB. To date, the DTI continues
“NSB aims to see small busi- to establish Negosyo Centers
nesses in the Barangay to go in communities to make their
percent especially with base mainstream and be empow- services more accessible to the
effects, due to lower rice and ered,” said Quodala, citing cur- public as well as identify the
other food prices. rent DTI programs, services micro, small, and medium en-
“The 13 consecutive months and plans are being brought terprises operating within ba-
of over-20 percent growth in to the barangays to increase rangays and conduct business
infrastructure spending (from people’s access to trade and development assistance and
October 2017 to November industry promotion and devel- services in identified commu-
2018) should constitute suffi- opment. Some of the on-site nities.
cient evidence that the NG can services offered are business The program also intends to
ramp up spending for the rest of registration assistance and ad- develop 200,000 new enterpris-
2019,” it added. visories on product develop- es that are expected to provide
The country’s gross domestic ment. more than half a million new
product (GDP) slowed down to Last Friday, Quodala led the jobs by 2022 in support of DTI’s
DTI team to Adams, the small- goals under the MSME Devel-
❱❱ PAGE 37 PH economy est town in the province with opment Plan 2017-2022. ■
www.canadianinquirer.net
FRIDAY AUGUST 9, 2019
Bulacan airport, SMC’s ‘biggest investment’
in PH: Ang
BY RAYMOND CARL DELA
CRUZ
Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The New Manila
International Airport (NMIA)
in Bulacan set to be built by
San Miguel Holdings Corpora-
tion (SMHC) this year will be
the company’s “single biggest
investment” in the Philippines.
In a statement released on
Wednesday, SMHC president
and chief operating officer Ra-
mon Ang said the NMIA, with
a build-operate-maintain con-
tract worth PHP735.6 billion,
is a “landmark Filipino project”
with all costs shouldered by the
firm.
“It is a landmark Filipino
project that will be built at no
cost to government and with no
subsidies or guarantees of any
kind,” Ang said.
The airport is seen as a long-
term solution to the country’s
PhilMech shifts to ‘needs-based’ strategy in farm mechanization
BY LILYBETH ISON
Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The Philippine
Center for Postharvest Devel-
opment and Mechanization
(PHilMech) is shifting its strat-
egy to “needs-based” approach
to make rice farms more pro-
ductive.
PhilMech chief science re-
search specialist Rod Estigo, in
a media interview on Thursday,
said that through this approach,
“it will be the farmers who will
tell what machinery they need
— it’s the farmer’s choice.”
PhilMech earlier created six
clusters in the rice producing
provinces of the country that
would facilitate the implemen-
tation of the farm mechaniza-
tion component of the Rice
Competitiveness Enhance-
ment Program (RCEP).
PhilMech Director Dr. Bald-
win G. Jallorina said the six
clusters would each be admin-
istered by a group that will be
headed and staffed by profes-
sionals from the agency.
Under each cluster are the
Farmer Cooperatives and As-
air and land traffic woes.
“What we hope to build is a
long-term solution—a sustain-
able and world-class Philippine
gateway with enough runways
and facilities to meet current
and future needs,” Ang said.
Part of the NMIA’s contract
is an 8.4-kilometer tollway con-
necting the airport to the North
Luzon Expressway (NLEX) in
Marilao, Bulacan, which would
link the airport to Metro Ma-
nila with ease.
Aside from providing thou-
sands of jobs, the project was
said to boost the local econo-
mies of Bulacan and neighbor-
ing provinces, as well as the
country’s status as an invest-
ment and tourism destination.
“It will raise our country’s pro-
file and competitiveness as an
investment and tourism destina-
tion, and help boost our local and
export industries,” Ang said.
The NMIA is said to be oper-
ational within four to six years
sociations (FCAs) that would
be the beneficiaries of the farm
equipment that PhilMech will
distribute under RCEP’s mech-
anization component.
“The country will be divided
into six clusters to implement
the project. Clusters will be
headed by a senior PhilMech
staff. They will be assigned as
Cluster Coordinators. Each
cluster shall compose of region-
al teams that will be organized
composed of at least six to eight
staff,” Jallorina said.
FCAs are the rice farmers co-
operatives, associations duly
registered with appropriate
government agencies and which
are composed primarily of ag-
ricultural producers, farmers,
farm workers, agrarian reform
beneficiaries who voluntarily
join together to form business
enterprises or non-business or-
ganizations which themselves
own, control, and patronize.
PhilMech will also be seek-
ing collaborators and coopera-
tors to implement the mecha-
nization component of RCEP,
particularly the Department of
Agriculture-Regional Field Of-
fices (DA-RFOs) and local gov-
New Manila International Airport. DOTR
from the start of its construc-
tion this year.
“We still have a long way
to go, but with the continued
support of government and ev-
eryone, we hope to get started
working right away,” Ang said.
ernment units (LGUs).
A memorandum of agree-
ment shall be forged with each
DA-RFO and LGU to formalize
the agreement and as a mani-
festation of their commitment
in the implementation of the
program.
Jallorina said there is an ur-
gent need to increase the level
of mechanization and improve
the post-harvest systems of the
country’s rice industry.
Based on studies by Phil-
Mech, rice farming in the
country has negligible levels
of mechanization in planting,
weeding, spraying, and harvest-
ing in some regions. Notably,
mechanical power is applied
mostly in harvesting and land
preparation, while manual
transplanting is widely used as
the method of planting.
Furthermore, sun drying is
still preferred by farmers, prob-
ably from available solar power
and high prices of mechanical
dyers, which underscores the
need to provide mechanical
dryers to farmers to dry their
palay (unmilled) harvests.
Surveys by the agency also
show a low adoption rate
www.canadianinquirer.net
Business
The Swiss challenge for the
airport was concluded yester-
day (July 31, 2019) and the no-
tice of award is set to be given
to SMHC after no other bidders
sent a proposal to challenge the
original proponent.
among Filipino farmers for
four-wheel tractors, mechani-
cal transplanters and combine
harvesters.
However, the use of mechani-
cal transplanters in Thailand
and Vietnam is also low as most
farmers there use the direct
seeding technology, which is
seen to be more efficient and
less costly than the transplant-
ing method widely used in the
Philippines.
The survey also showed the
Philippines has high adoption
on thresher and two-wheel
tractors, implying the adoption
of small machines by farmers is
prevalent in the country.
Jallorina said the mechaniza-
tion component of RCEP seeks
to address the gaps in farm
mechanization in the coun-
try’s rice farms, as it includes
the distribution of larger farm
equipment.
Under the Rice Tariffica-
tion Law, the mechanization
component of RCEP will be
getting PHP5 billion per year
in the next six years or up to
2024 — PHP3 billion would be
allocated for the propagation
and distribution of high-yield-
31
Designed to have a capacity
of 100 million passengers per
year, the NMIA can later be
expanded to 200 million and is
projected to have 240 aircraft
movements per hour using its
four parallel runways. ■
ing seeds, training and capac-
ity building of rice farmers, and
PHP1 billion for credit support.
According to PhilMech, high
investment cost appears to be
a prime influence in the acqui-
sition of farm equipment. As
such, there is high ownership
among Filipino farmers for
low-cost items such as plow,
harrow, cultivator, hand tractor
and threshers.
In addition, most of the big
dryers and rice mills are domi-
nantly owned by private traders
and processors while a small
portion are owned by the fam-
ers’ cooperatives/associations
through grant or soft loan from
the government, it added.
Jallorina said the wide dis-
tribution of machines to rice
farmers under RCEP would
make them competitive against
their counterparts in Thailand
and Vietnam, which are the
leading rice exporters today.
“Through increased mecha-
nization, the cost of producing
palay can be reduced by PHP2
to PHP3 per kilo and additional
cost reductions can be made if
rice farmers adopt higher-yield-
ing rice varieties,” he said. ■
32
Data collected by governments can be useful to
researchers, but only when accessed carefully
BY JACK TENG
Project Manager for Public
Engagement University of
British Columbia,
KIERAN C O’DOHERTY
Associate Professor of
Psychology University of
Guelph, AND KIMBERLYN
MCGRAIL
Professor of Health Services
and Policy Research University
of British Columbia, Michael
Burgess Professor of Applied
Philosophy University of British
Columbia, The Canadian Press
DATA ARE generated every
time we make a purchase or
receive other services such as
health care. This has always
been the case, but over the past
20 years, data collection has be-
come increasingly automated,
with data collected and stored
in digital (rather than paper)
formats.
Data collected during the
provision of government ser-
vices are known as administra-
tive data (for example, applying
for a driver’s license or updat-
ing health card information).
These data are particularly
powerful for researchers be-
cause they contain a wide range
of information about whole
populations. These large data
sets can then be studied to de-
rive important findings that are
clinically or socially meaning-
ful.
Digital storage increases the
potential for the use of data,
and increased computing pow-
er makes it easier to study the
data and find actionable in-
sights. Personal data are being
Technology
used to make decisions in the
public and private sectors. Pub-
lic concerns over how data are
used, stored and who has access
to them is forcing government
agencies to take a new look at
the data they collect and what
they do with it.
Our recent research, pub-
lished in the International
Journal of Population Data Sci-
ence, reports the recommen-
dations made by 24 members
of the public during a public
deliberation — a kind of public
engagement event. This event
was held in Vancouver, B.C., and
was hosted by Population Data
BC, an organization at the Uni-
versity of British Columbia that
facilitates data sharing for re-
search and provides education
and training on data use.
Digital information production
There are both potential risks
and benefits to the digital soci-
ety in which we currently live.
The risks include possibilities
for surveillance, loss of privacy,
discrimination and loss of rep-
utation and autonomy.
On the other hand, benefits
include the use of data for re-
search, leading to new insights
about health, diseases and ef-
fective services to promote and
support the flourishing of indi-
viduals and communities. How
data are used may also have im-
portant ramifications for par-
ticular groups of people or com-
munities, as well as individuals.
For example, an analysis of
data might inform decisions
about health-care delivery; for
example, a decision that group
X is not likely to benefit from a
particular service and therefore
should not be eligible for that
service. In fact, when public
impacts such as these have not
been considered or when the
public has not been consulted
about them, data sharing proj-
ects may fail.
There are strict government
rules surrounding how admin-
istrative data can be shared
with researchers. These rules
protect data, sometimes at the
expense of research, when they
make data either slow or im-
possible to acquire.
Managing access to data
Most forms of data are not
held together in one huge da-
tabase in one location, nor are
they controlled by one orga-
nization. Instead, each agency
— for example, a health minis-
try — or a department within a
large agency, manages its data.
www.canadianinquirer.net
In most cases, there is a des-
ignated data steward or pri-
vacy officer who approves or
denies data access requests.
Each individual may have dif-
ferent interpretations of pri-
vacy regulations or they may
disagree on what to share with
the researchers; this can result
in delays for the researchers to
receive the data and start their
research.
Privacy legislation and other
rules help set some boundar-
ies for data use, but the data
landscape is changing rapidly
as academic and government
researchers require for greater
access. The big questions then
are: What role do we want big
data to have in our society?
How can the risks and benefits
of data use be balanced?
There is no obvious answer to
these questions as they involve
consideration of conflicting
values such as differences be-
tween the importance of main-
taining privacy and the impor-
tance of conducting research
for the public benefit. The best
balance may be assessed differ-
ently by different groups and
individuals. As such, it is impor-
tant to involve the public in es-
tablishing norms and guidance
for data use.
Public input on data
management
Public deliberations are dis-
tinguished from surveys, fo-
cus groups or other types of
engagement by their focus on
producing collective and civic-
minded responses to policy
issues. This requires time for
the participants to meet and
engage with each other, receive
and understand technical in-
formation and understand the
diversity of social perspectives
with regard to their opinions
about data sharing.
In our study, participants
received an information book-
let and then met for four days
over two non-consecutive
weekends. During this time,
they heard presentations from
five experts on various topics
related to data sharing such
as privacy legislation, patient
concerns and researcher data
needs. Participants then delib-
erated on the issues. Partici-
pants were selected to reflect
B.C. demographics in terms of
factors such as age, ethnicity,
income and geographic loca-
tion, as much as possible.
Participants developed and
❱❱ PAGE 37 Data collected
FRIDAY AUGUST 9, 2019
Youth have a love-hate relationship with tech
in the digital age
BY KATE C. TILLECZEK
Professor and Canada Research
Chair Young Lives Education
and Global Good York
University, Canada,
The Canadian Press
YOUNG PEOPLE are now fully
ensconced in the digital age as it
whirls around and within them.
This is the epoch of the An-
thropocene — the age of hu-
mans, wherein a technological
worldview and human tools
hold the central place in re-
shaping the earth and its peo-
ple. It’s also a time when 1.8 bil-
lion youth make up the largest
generation of 10 to 24 year olds
in human history with 50 per
cent of the world’s population
under 30 years of age.
I have investigated the lives
of young people for nearly three
decades. I am interested in how
young people are living today
when our planet has been driv-
en to fragility by consumption
trends intimately related to the
rise of mass production made
possible through technologies.
Digital technologies have
been too frequently adopt-
ed into schools with use and
guideline policies that haven’t
considered long-term environ-
mental, health or ethical im-
pacts: today, equity concerns
have moved beyond worrying
that poorer children don’t have
devices to grappling with what
it means if wealthy developers
are raising children tech-free.
Researchers focused on the
Global South have highlighted
how access to technology has
been driven by commercial
interests and data about out-
comes is generated by people
who stand to profit. Those who
care for youth must find new
ways to determine if there are
any potential benefits for youth
when living immersed in digi-
tal technology — particularly
because interventions to dis-
tribute more technology can
compound rather than remove
existing inequalities.
With my Young Lives Re-
search Lab team based at York
University, I conducted a five-
year study of youth and the
digital age by analyzing 185 nar-
rative accounts we collected
from young people (ages 16-24)
in Canada, Australia and Scot-
Technology 33
land. From these ac-
counts, it’s clear
to me they don’t
think technol-
ogy is the pana-
cea for well-
being it was
once argued
to be.
Left to their
own devices
Today,
when digital
surveillance
is higher
than ever,
there is a hol-
lowing out
of learning, a
shallowness
that comes
with abuses
of privacy and
surveillance
and from a loss
of cherished
human con-
tact.
Young people
say that digi-
tal tools and ways of living are freedom and focus and having line connection. how digital media affects all
morphing beyond recognition. a chance to consider ethical One person said living with- aspects of their lives in which
They live a deep modern tech- and moral problems of living on out their phone was “like the well-being is measured such as
no-paradox and are left to their mobile phones, apps and media. Earth stood still.” health, education and social re-
own devices (pardon the pun) One comment was typical: lationships.
to sort it out. They worry about “My mom thought it was Upgrades to people More interesting is that they
what digital media is doing to great that I did not have my In both the “no-phone exper- said new analyses about the
the children they observe. phone because I paid more at- iment” and the other in-depth depth and paradox of young
Naomi, one youth particia- tention to her while she was interviews, youth expressed digital lives is required if we are
pant, highlighted a feeling of talking.” both a deeply ingrained and to fully understand youth well-
vulnerability: One youth noticed that sim- taken-for-granted connection ness.
“Most of their apps and so- ply walking “by strangers in the to their phones, while simulta- As one result of what I heard
cial media apps are geared to- hallway or when I passed them neously feeling despair about a from the youth in our study, I
wards our age group because I on the street” caused almost ev- foreboding sense of technology am now involved in a global re-
feel like you can do the most … eryone to take “out their phone taking over human lives. search network concerned with
I don’t know why, it feels like right before I could gain eye As Easton stated: youth and the Anthropocene.
they want to make us do dam- contact with them.” “I think humans are going to This network is investigating
age. I don’t know who ‘they’ Several youth suggested that become the new technology, what it’s like to be young now
even is, but I feel like we’re without the phone, they lacked and companies are going to be and how young people navigate
just the most vulnerable crowd the confidence to solve basic selling upgrades to people.” wellness in this fragile time.
for them to zone in on, and for problems or feared for their Or, as Piper recounted: Researchers in this network
them to get as much as they safety: “It’s good that technology is have connected with the help
possibly can out of us for their “Believe it or not I had to walk advancing fast because then of digital media — while raising
benefit.” up to a stranger and ask what maybe it will help some for concerns about the technologi-
time it was. It honestly took me a good cause. But also then cal and capitalistic worldview
Earth stood still a lot of guts and confidence to there’s the downside of … how from within which these tools
As part of our youth study, ask someone.” do you control it?” are born.
my collaborator Ron Srigley de- “Another thing I didn’t like It is time to ask whether
signed and analyzed an inquiry about not having a cellphone Digital lives and wellness and how societies will support
whereby youth lived without that made me kind of scared at Have we lost sight of the emo- youth wellness in the Anthro-
their phones for a week. Ron’s times was if someone were to tional, spiritual and physical pocene and digital age. To do
chapter in Youth in the Digital attack me or kidnap me … I re- well-being of youth? this well, we must engage and
Age: Paradox, Promise, Pre- ally wouldn’t be in any position Young people in our research listen to young people. ■
dicament reported the findings to get help for myself …” asked that adults better attend
from this empirical inquiry. Youth reported a heightened to the myriad ways in which This article is republished from
Youth described a loss of awareness of a sense of acute the digital age affects the well- The Conversation under a Cre-
human contact, finding more conflict of missing instant on- being of youth. They showed ative Commons license.
www.canadianinquirer.net
 AUGUST 9, 2019 34

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Universal says doubling Orlando
resort size with 4th park
BY MIKE SCHNEIDER
The Associated Press
ORLANDO, FLA. — Universal
Orlando officials said Thurs-
day that the resort is doubling
in size with plans for an “epic”
fourth theme park, but they of-
fered almost no information on
when the new park will open,
what it will hold or how much
they are spending.
The secretive nature of the
new park is “because of com-
petitive pressure,” Universal
Parks & Resorts CEO Tom Wil-
liams said at a news conference
with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
and his boss, Comcast CEO Bri-
an Roberts.
“You are aware of the com-
petitive nature of this Orlando
marketplace,” Williams said.
“We’re all battling for the time
of visiting guests to come to our
location and to share details of
what we have in mind with the
Parks puts up toilet etiquette signs to help
international tourists use outhouses
BY COLETTE DERWORIZ
The Canadian Press
YOHO NATIONAL PARK, B.C.
— Some new signs are popping
up in the Canadian Rockies to
show international visitors how
to properly use outhouses.
Staff at Lake O’Hara in Brit-
ish Columbia’s Yoho National
Park installed toilet etiquette
signs, which ask users to sit
rather than stand on toilet
seats, in bathroom facilities in
June.
“We’ve noticed that some
visitors who aren’t used to
Western-style toilets — they
may attempt to stand up on the
seats when using the toilet,”
said Jed Cochrane, an acting
visitor experience manager in
Banff, Yoho and Kootenay na-
Travel
competition is something we
have no interest in doing.”
The announcement is the lat-
est salvo in the war for domi-
nance between Walt Disney
World and Universal Orlando
in America’s theme park capi-
tal.
Despite the lack of details,
officials with the theme park
resort promised the new park
would be epic. To that end,
they’re calling the new park
Universal’s Epic Universe.
“Last I heard, a universe is
bigger than a world,” said Wil-
liams, making a dig at Disney
World.
The new park will be located
on a 750-acre site separated by
a few miles from the current
Universal Orlando property
that is home to the Universal
Studios and Islands of Adven-
ture parks, as well as the Vol-
cano Bay water park.
More than 14,000 workers
will be hired on top of the exist-
tional parks.
“Because the toilet is not de-
signed for that, it ultimately
creates problems with cleanli-
ness.”
Standing on a toilet, he said,
can also lead to a broken seat
or a broken seal at the bottom
of the toilet because weight is
higher up than it should be.
“And there’s always the risk
of falling, which no one wants
to do,” added Cochrane.
Some public toilets in Asian
countries and the Middle East
are pit latrines, which require
users to squat over an open
hole.
Signs that show people how
to use seat toilets can also be
found in other tourist locations,
including the Swiss Alps and
parts of the United Kingdom.
Cochrane said Canada’s
ing 25,000-person labour force
in Orlando. They will be paid a
starting minimum wage of $15
an hour, officials said.
The company also has theme
parks in California, China, Ja-
pan and Singapore.
Comcast purchased NBCU-
niversal almost a decade ago.
During that time, Comcast has
put more money into theme
parks than any other part of the
company, Roberts said Thurs-
day. That investment had paid
for Harry Potter-themed lands
and rides based on other fran-
chises, such as “Fast & Furious.”
The fourth park will be the
biggest investment the Com-
cast NBCUniversal has made in
its theme park business, Robert
said. It will have a park, hotels,
restaurants and shops, and
more details will be released as
the project gets under way, of-
ficials said.
“I don’t think there’s been an-
nouncement like this in over 20
mountain parks have started
seeing an increase in interna-
tional visitors over the past de-
cade.
“We are seeing more and
more people coming from
countries all over the world,”
he said. “In some places, we are
just seeing more visitors that
aren’t used to this style of toi-
let.”
Jia Wang, deputy director of
the China Institute at the Uni-
versity of Alberta, said there are
cultural differences in how toi-
lets are used.
“It’s more of an Asia thing,
but not just Asia,” she said. “A
lot of other countries have this
as well.”
Wang said seat toilets are
becoming more common in
homes in Asia, but squat toilets
are still commonly used in pub-
www.canadianinquirer.net
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS ORLANDO, FLORIDA. / FACEBOOK
years here when you hear the
scale,” Roberts said.
Universal recently had been
acquiring hundreds of acres of
land near Orlando’s convention
centre in its aim to topple Walt
Disney World’s dominance in
Orlando.
Universal’s announcement
comes weeks ahead of the
lic spaces.
“For a lot of people, their ar-
gument is: ‘I don’t find it sani-
tary to be sitting on the seat,”‘
she said.
Still, Wang said there’s no
excuse for standing on a toilet
seat.
“By offering alternatives
or seat covers, some tourists
would be more comfortable us-
ing it,” she said.
“It’s not like most people
don’t know what to do with
those toilets. It’s just that they
are used to the other kind of
toilets when they were growing
up and, more likely, it’s because
of the sanitary reasons.”
Wang noted that many air-
ports and airplanes provide
seat covers in consideration of
international tourists.
Officials with Parks Canada
35
planned opening of a Star Wars
land at rival Walt Disney World.
An identical attraction opened
earlier this summer at sister
park Disneyland in California
Earlier this summer, Uni-
versal also debuted a new ride
based on the Harry Potter char-
acter, Hagrid, which had fans
waiting for hours to ride it. ■
said they are considering toilet
etiquette signs in other busy
locations, including Lake Lou-
ise in Alberta’s Banff National
Park, and have started adding
more signs with pictures rather
than words to better help tour-
ists who can’t speak English or
French.
The signs, said Wang, are fine
as long as they are coming from
a good place.
“We don’t want to be seen as
discriminating,” she said. “It’s
more like for your information.
“We don’t want to acciden-
tally offend people just because
of what we assume. We want to
welcome tourists from all over
the world — it doesn’t matter
where. It’s good for our econ-
omy and it’s good for a lot of
things here.” ■
36 Travel
100% GUARANTEED 100% GUARANTEED 100% GUARANTEED Baguio to convert former
dumpsite into eco-park
BY LIZA AGOOT
Philippine News Agency
BAGUIO CITY — The city government
is starting to convert the closed 60-year-
old open dump facility to an ecological
park, transforming its location in Baran-
gay Irisan to a forest park, Mayor Benja-
min Magalong said on Friday.
“Our initial estimate, we will be able
to turn this to an eco-park by 2021 but
by the rate things are going, we hope
that it will already be done by the fourth
quarter of 2020,” Mayor Benjamin Mag-
along said in a press conference at the
former Irisan dumpsite, where the En-
vironment Recycling System (ERS) or
PANDIT : SRI SAI RAM
the city’s bio-composting facility is also
located.
He said there is already a layout of the
in Surrey
plan of the site, where the trash slide
happened about a decade ago, convert-
ing it to a park.
Magalong said some PHP15 million
has been allotted for the project, which
Pandit: SRI SAI RAM, Born in Astrologer’s Family. was approved during the Executive-
Legislative planning session earlier this
He Can Tell Your Past,Present & Future. week.
He Is Expert In Palm Reading, Face Reading, Horoscope “Our structural engineers are on it,”
the mayor said, noting that government
& Numerology, Vastu Shastra, Lucky Numbers And Gems. workers are maintaining the site’s sta-
bility to prevent further erosion.
Magalong said the vision is to convert
the area similar to the Mount Trash-
more Park in Virginia Beach, Virginia,
which used to be a dump facility but con-
verted to a park.
“It will be fixed, cleaned and main-
tained and will not in any way look like
a dump area. The foul smell that used to
be irritating to the nostrils is also slowly
being addressed with the application of
an inoculant,” Magalong said.
There will be no sun-drying of com-
post and what will come out will be com-
posted in sacks, ready for transport to
the buyers.
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AUGUST 9, 2019 FRIDAY
Rapport Innovations, the consultant
company that operates the ERS, is giv-
ing the city PHP3 per kilo of compost
produced.
“It will not just save the city of the an-
nual PHP18 million expense to operate
the nine-year-old facility but will also
earn from the sale of compost fertilizer,”
Magalong said.
“We are now producing compost. The
ERS is operating well after its rehabili-
tation. The compost we make is of good
quality and is 90 percent efficient based
on the study conducted by the Fertilizer
and Pesticide Authority,” he said.
Meanwhile, City General Services Of-
fice (GSO) chief Eugene Buyucan said
the park will be culturally-inspired hav-
ing a “dap-ay” and will be planted with
bougainvillea to create a scenic view.
There will be several flowering plants,
“eugenia” tree, which has leaves that
have different colors, and bamboos as
an added feature to prevent soil erosion,
Buyucan said.
“Bamboos have been proven (for)
good soil retention, but we need to iden-
tify what species are best grown in the
area,” he said.
The dap-ay is part of the region’s cul-
ture where old people meet to discuss
and resolve community or tribe issues.
Once completed, Buyucan said the
people in the area can enjoy a good view
of the sunset in La Union while enjoying
a park lined with plants and flowers.
Buyucan said at present, the city pro-
duces at least 12 tons of compost fertil-
izer daily from the 50 tons of biodegrad-
able waste collected mostly at the city
market.
He said the production can even go
higher, especially with food waste com-
ing in.
In June, the Department of Environ-
ment and Natural Resources (DENR)
has ordered the closure of the ERS facil-
ity due to violations. ■

Lots of new lunchboxes to
kick off the new school year
BY KATIE WORKMAN
The Associated Press
A NEW lunchbox is one of the
more fun back-to-school pur-
chases you can make, and a cool
one can be a bright spot in your
kid’s day.
These days, there are loads
of choices, some simple, some
with lots of bells and whistles.
“There are so many more op-
tions for insulation than there
were even a few years ago,
which means parents have a lot
more possibilities for what they
can pack,” says Cori Snyder
Schuman, founder of the Fam-
ily Food Fest event. “Since my
daughter doesn’t eat sandwich-
es, and prefers hot food, this has
made my life much easier.”
Lisa Freedman, lifestyle di-
rector at thekitchn.com, says
lunchboxes “have so many
smart features these days — like
walls packed with gel that stays
cool for hours, special compart-
ments that are truly leakproof,
expandable sections and more.”
From bags to boxes, from
high tech to organic fabric, you
and your kid will have fun ex-
ploring the options.
Just some of the latest from
lunchbox designers:
Data collected...
❰❰ 32 voted on 19 recom-
mendations for con-
sideration by policy
makers to improve B.C.’s exist-
ing data sharing system. These
recommendations started by
acknowledging clear support for
research uses of administrative
data and an equal expectation
that data would be kept safe and
secure both in general and dur-
ing the research process.
Participants also wanted the
data sharing system to be ef-
ficient. Several of their recom-
mendations suggested possible
improvements in system effi-
ciencies, including standardiz-
Food
Vaya Life Tyffyn Lunchbox
These are sleek little num-
bers with many different looks;
an ombre pink finish, a flow-
er-studded Bloom version, or
whimsical unicorns prancing
all around, to name a few. Each
vacuum-insulated lunchbox
has metal inner walls and two
containers that keep warm food
warm and cold food cold. (You
do have to pick a lane — both
containers need to be work-
ing on warm or cold together.)
There is an insert to separate
foods within the containers.
The whole thing snaps closed
with metal latches to prevent
leakage, and will keep your food
at the desired and safe temper-
ature for several hours. The in-
ner containers are dishwasher
safe. And each one comes with
a colorful insulated bag mat
which acts as a wipe-able place-
mat. A cute way to send your
kid to school with a hot lunch.
Takenaka Bento Boxes
This Japanese line of boxes
has sleek, clean lines and a bright
array of colours from which to
choose. They come in a variety
of shapes, including round and
rectangular. Some have divid-
ers to keep foods separate, some
have clip locks, and some have
a thick elastic band to keep the
ing the policies and procedures
that data stewards follow when
assessing data sharing requests.
They suggested different ways
of achieving this, such as devel-
oping training and certification
programs for data stewards.
Participants made it clear
that research is important, but
that does not mean that all re-
search requests should be auto-
matically granted. Researchers
were seen to have responsibili-
ties as well, including transpar-
ency about how the data are
collected and used, especially
with the communities and
vulnerable populations from
container closed. The bottoms
are microwavable and they are
all dishwasher-safe. A modern
and simple choice for younger
and older kids.
OmieBox
This chunky square contain-
er in bright primary colours is
an insulated, leak-proof bento
box designed especially for
younger kids. It has two tem-
perature zones to keep foods
hot or cold. The hot-food in-
sert has a clever, screwable lid
with a handle designed for little
hands, though if you want to
remove the insert you can. The
OmieBox itself is not heatable
or freezable.
Planet Box
Planet Box comes in three
sizes: small (Shuttle), medium
(Rover) and large (Launch).
Each industrial-looking metal
box has several compartments
inside and one or two “Dippers”
— inserts designed to contain
wet foods without leakage (a
dip for carrots for instance, or
some orange slices). Decorative
magnets are available so your
kid can customize the lunch-
box. Once you’ve chosen your
box, you then select a carrying
bag from an array of colour and
pattern choices. Lots of mix and
which the data derive.
Clear support for adminis-
trative data for research in this
deliberation is consistent with
other similar public delibera-
tions around the world. Partici-
pants’ recommendations pro-
vide helpful insight into what
is important to them when it
comes to sharing data — this
type of information is critical
to help design data sharing sys-
tems that are acceptable and
worthy of public trust. ■
This article is republished from
The Conversation under a Cre-
ative Commons license.
www.canadianinquirer.net
match combos. Cold foods only.
Built
Built makes many lunch-
toting options. There are cute
lunch backpacks for little kids;
bento boxes with three com-
partments, silverware and
small containers for dressings;
a prime lunch bag with stacked
zippered insulated compart-
ments; machine-washable
flower lunch totes; an insulated
lunch bag with freezable gel
inserts that converts in size;
and insulated thermoses. Pat-
terns, florals, solids, glass, BPA-
free plastic — there are tons of
choices.
Bento Heaven
These compact, rectangular
boxes are leak-proof, micro-
wave-, freezer- and dishwash-
er-safe, and come with their
PH economy...
❰❰ 30 5.6 percent in the first
quarter, which the
FMIC and UA&P con-
sidered a “blip” as it was mainly
driven by the decline in public
construction due to the delay in
the 2019 national government
budget approval.
“Private investments look
robust as well with major Pub-
lic-Private Partnership (PPP)
projects in full swing, and bond
yields (and interest rates) mov-
ing down to 4.5 percent should
renew residential construction
and durable goods spending,”
they added.
The report further said lower
37
own cutlery in a little top com-
partment — knife, spoon and
fork, plus chopsticks. The de-
sign is simple, appealing to old-
er kids, with bamboo accents
and a choice of white or black.
Plus, the website offers sweet,
printable little “cheer up notes”
to pack along with the food to
perk up your teen’s lunch.
Fluf
These 100% organic cotton
canvas bags are adorable and
modern-feeling at the same
time. Machine-washable, with
a tested food-safe lining, they
come in a variety of sizes and
styles. Offerings include the
zip lunch bag with an interior
pocket for an ice pack or water
bottle; a little snack pack/sand-
wich bag; or a tote that simply
states “Lunch,” or “Girl Power,”
or a picture of a cool shark. ■
interest rates and the slight
improvement in the external
trade data should likewise fur-
ther drive growth to a higher
trajectory.
FMIC and UA&P expected a
minimum 25 basis points (bps)
cut in United States Fed’s policy
rate in July.
The additional trimming of
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’
policy rate by 50 bps and the
required reserve ratio (RRR)
by 200 bps in second half of the
year will “add fuel to growth —
in the real economy and finan-
cial markets,” they said. ■
38
World mourns...
❰❰ 26 the everyday lives of
the past.
By the late ‘60s,
she was a single mother and
a determined writer who had
been pushed by her future edi-
tor, Robert Gottlieb of Alfred A.
Knopf, into deciding whether
she’d write or edit. Seated at her
kitchen table, she fleshed out
a story based on a childhood
memory of a black girl in Lorain
— raped by her father — who de-
sired blue eyes. She called the
novel “The Bluest Eye.”
Morrison prided herself on
the gift of applying “invisible
ink,” making a point and leav-
ing it to the reader to discover
it, such as her decision to with-
hold the skin colour of her
characters in “Paradise.” Her
debut as an author came at the
height of the Black Arts Move-
ment and calls for literature as
political and social protest. But
Morrison criticized by indirec-
tion; she was political because
of what she didn’t say. Rac-
ism and sexism were assumed;
she wrote about their effects,
whether in “The Bluest Eye” or
in “Sula,” a story of friendship
and betrayal between two black
women.
“The writers who affected me
the most were novelists who
were writing in Africa: Chinua
Achebe, ‘Things Fall Apart,’ was
a major education for me,” Mor-
rison, who had studied William
Faulkner and Virginia Woolf as
a graduate student, told the AP
in 1998.
“They took their black world
for granted. No black writer (in
America) had done that except
for Jean Toomer with ‘Cane.’
Everybody else had some con-
frontation with white people,
which was not to say that Afri-
cans didn’t, but there was lin-
guistically an assumption. The
language was the language of
the centre of the world, which
was them.
“So that made it possible for
me to write ‘The Bluest Eye’
and not explain anything. That
was wholly new! It was like a
step into an absolutely brand
new world. It was liberating in a
way nothing had been before!”
She had no agent and was
rejected by several publish-
ers before reaching a deal with
Holt, Rhinehart and Winston
(now Henry Holt and Compa-
AUGUST 9, 2019 FRIDAY
ny), which released the novel viewing “Song of Solomon,” rison (who died of cancer in
in 1970. Sales were modest, but author Reynolds Price chided 2010). In November 2016, she
her book made a deep impres- Morrison for “the understand- wrote a highly cited New York
sion on The New York Times’ able but weakening omission essay about the election of Don-
John Leonard, an early and of active white characters.” ald Trump, calling his ascen-
ongoing champion of her writ- (He later recanted.) When “Be- sion to the presidency a mark of
ing, which he called “so precise, loved” was overlooked for a Na- what whites would settle for to
so faithful to speech and so tional Book Award, a letter of hold on to their status.
charged with pain and wonder protest from 48 black writers, “So scary are the conse-
that the novel becomes poetry.” including Angelou and Amiri quences of a collapse of white
Setting her stories in segre- Baraka, was published in The privilege that many Ameri-
gated communities, where in- New York Times Book Review, cans have flocked to a politi-
cest and suicide were no more noting that Morrison had never cal platform that supports and
outrageous than a sign which won a major literary prize. translates violence against the
reads “COLORED ONLY,” “Beloved” went on to win the defenceless as strength. These
Morrison wrote of dreamers Pulitzer and Morrison soon people are not so much angry as
for whom the price was often ascended to the very top of the terrified, with the kind of terror
death, whether the mother’s literary world, winning the No- that makes knees tremble,” she
tragic choice to murder her bel and presiding as unofficial wrote.
baby girl — and “William
save it from slav- Faulkner under-
ery — in “Be- stood this better
loved,” or the than almost any
black communi- Nobody was going to take that and other American
ty that implodes make it into something else. I felt writer. In ‘Absa-
in “Paradise.” representational. I felt American. lom, Absalom,’
Like Faulkner, I felt Ohioan. I felt blacker than incest is less of a
her characters ever. I felt more woman than ever. taboo for an up-
are burdened by I felt all of that, and put all of that per-class South-
the legacy, and together and went out and had a ern family than
ongoing tragedy, good time. acknowledging
of slavery and the one drop of
separation. For black blood that
Faulkner’s white would clearly
Southerners, losers of the Civil laureate of Winfrey’s book club, soil the family line. Rather
War, the price is guilt, rage and founded in 1996. Winfrey chose than lose its “whiteness” (once
madness; for Morrison’s slaves “Song of Solomon,” “The Blu- again), the family chooses mur-
and their descendants, suppos- est Eye,” “Paradise” and “Sula” der.”
edly liberated, history follows over the years and would list all She taught for years at Princ-
like the most unrelenting posse. of Morrison’s works as among eton University, from which
“The future was sunset; the her favourites. Winfrey also she retired in 2006, but also
past something to leave be- starred in and helped produce had an apartment in downtown
hind,” Morrison wrote in “Be- the 1998 film version of “Be- Manhattan and a riverfront
loved,” in which the ghost of the loved.” house in New York’s Rockland
slain daughter returns to haunt As with so many other lau- County that burned down in
and obsess her mother. reates, Morrison’s post-Nobel 1993, destroying manuscripts,
“And if it didn’t stay behind, fiction was viewed less favour- first editions of Faulkner and
well, you might have to stomp ably than her earlier work. other writers and numerous
it out. Slave life; freed life — ev- Morrison received no major family mementoes. She had the
ery day was a test and a trial. competitive awards after the house rebuilt and continued to
Nothing could be counted on Nobel and was criticized for live and work there.
in a world where even when awkward plotting and preten- “When I’m not thinking
you were a solution you were a tious language in “Love” and about a novel, or not actually
problem.” “Paradise.” But a novel pub- writing it, it’s not very good; the
Morrison’s breakthrough lished in 2008, “A Mercy,” was 21st century is not a very nice
came in 1977 with “Song of Sol- highly praised. “Home,” a brief place. I need it (writing) to just
omon,” her third novel and the novel about a young Korean stay steady, emotionally,” she
story of young Milkman Dead’s War veteran, came out in 2012 told the AP in 2012.
sexual, social and ancestral and was followed three years “When I finished ‘The Bluest
education. It was the first work later by a contemporary drama, Eye’ ... I was not pleased. I re-
by a black writer since Richard “God Help the Child.” Morrison member feeling sad. And then
Wright’s “Native Son” to be a herself was the subject of an I thought, ‘Oh, you know, ev-
full Book-of-the-Month selec- acclaimed documentary, “Toni erybody’s talking about “sister-
tion and won the National Book Morrison: The Pieces I Am,” hood,’” I wanted to write about
Critics Circle award. It was also which came out this year. what women friends are really
Morrison’s first book to centre Morrison’s other works in- like. (The inspiration for ‘Sula’).
on a male character, a novel cluded “Playing in the Dark,” a All of a sudden the whole world
that enabled her “get out of the collection of essays; “Dream- was a real interesting place. Ev-
house, to de-domesticate the ing Emmett,” a play about the erything in it was something
landscape.” slain teenager Emmett Till; and I could use or discard. It had
But the mainstream was an- several children’s books co-au- shape. The thing is — that’s how
other kind of education. Re- thored with her son, Slade Mor- I live here.” ■
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