Latest news with #AsItHappens
01-08-2025
- Health
Trump administration to burn $13M worth of female contraceptives, despite NGO's offer to take them
The U.S. State Department plans to incinerate roughly $13.2 million worth of women's contraceptives despite offers from multiple aid agencies to distribute the supplies at no cost. The supplies, which include various forms of birth control, were intended for family planning programs in low-income African nations. Instead, they've been sitting in a warehouse in Belgium for months after President Donald Trump's administration froze most foreign aid in January. MSI Reproductive Choices, a U.K.-based global reproductive health organization, says it offered to take the supplies and distribute them to those in need at no cost to the government, but their offer was rebuked. To me that sends a really clear signal that this is an ideological position, Sarah Shaw, MSI's director of advocacy, told As It Happens guest host Paul Hunter. This is just another front on the war on women that we're currently seeing coming out of the U.S., both domestically and internationally. Shaw says MSI was told through an intermediary that the government wants to sell the products at market value, which the charity could not afford to do. The United Nations' sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, offered to buy the contraceptives outright, also to no avail, according to Reuters (new window) . The U.S. State Department did not respond to questions from CBC. But spokesperson Tommy Pigott told reporters on Thursday the government is still in the process of determining the pathway forward. Belgium calls it a 'regrettable outcome' The supplies, valued at $9.7 million US, once belonged to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which the Trump administration has shut down. (new window) During a press briefing on Thursday (new window) , Pigott said the supplies do not include condoms or HIV medication, but rather select products purchased under the previous administration that could potentially be abortifacients, meaning products that induce abortion. But aid agencies and media organizations say the supplies slated for destruction are designed to prevent unwanted pregnancies, not terminate them. Reuters, citing seven confidential sources close to the story, reports the warehouse contains contraceptive pills and implants, as well as intrauterine devices, all of which are forms of birth control. Enlarge image (new window) Former U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator Samantha Power hugs a person after laid-off USAID workers cleared out their desks and collected personal belongings in Washington, D.C., in February. Photo: Reuters / Nathan Howard Pigott said the products could be in contravention of the Kemp-Kasten amendment, which prevents the government from supporting programs that engage in coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization, as well as the Mexico City policy, a pact that prohibits the U.S. government from contributing to or working with organizations that provide abortion-related services or information. The latter could explain why the U.S. declined MSI's offer, says Shaw. Her organization refuses to comply with the Mexico City policy, which she and other aid organizations refer to as the global gag order. But it doesn't explain why they've rejected similar overtures from others trying to prevent the contraceptives from going to waste at taxpayer expense, she said. The Belgian foreign ministry said Brussels had held talks with U.S. authorities and explored all possible options to prevent the destruction, including temporary relocation. Despite these efforts, and with full respect for our partners, no viable alternative could be secured. Nevertheless, Belgium continues to actively seek solutions to avoid this regrettable outcome, it said in a statement. Sexual and reproductive health must not be subject to ideological constraints. Uproar in France The State Department previously confirmed it will spend $167,000 US ($228,000 Cdn) to incinerate the contraceptives at a facility in France that handles medical waste. That news is not sitting well in France, where lawmakers, reproductive health organizations and feminist groups are calling on the government to call it off. We are following this situation closely and we support the will of the Belgian authorities to find a solution to avoid the destruction of contraceptives, France's foreign ministry said in a statement published by the Guardian (new window) The defence of sexual health and reproductive rights is a foreign policy priority for France. WATCH | Global health funding in a state of crisis: Shaw says she's grateful to the people in France who are championing this cause. Even if we can't stop the destruction we're not going to let this go quietly, she said. If this happens on French soil under a government that has a feminist foreign policy, I think that would be a great shame, a great shame. Doctors Without Borders calls plan 'reckless and harmful' Avril Benoît, the CEO of Doctors Without Borders in the U.S., called the plan a reckless and harmful act against women and girls everywhere. Contraceptives are essential and lifesaving health products, she said in a press release (new window) . [Our organization] has seen first-hand the positive health benefits when women and girls can freely make their own health decisions by choosing to prevent or delay pregnancy — and the dangerous consequences when they cannot. Shaw agrees. She says the U.S. has made a big deal about finding government efficiencies as it slashes global aid and its own civil service. But every dollar spent on reproductive health, she says, leads to much greater savings down the road. It makes no sense to me. If they really want efficiency, investing in family planning is the best investment you can make for development, she said. "You keep girls in schools. You break generational cycles of poverty. You create opportunity for a new generation of young women. It's a no-brainer. So it was a completely political act, and African women are going to pay the price for this. With files from Reuters. Interview with Sarah Shaw produced by Chris Harbord
CBC
29-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
This man read 3,599 books in his life. His hand-written reading list is inspiring others
Dan Pelzer's nose was always in a book. The U.S. Marine Corps veteran and retired social worker made it his personal goal to read at least 100 pages every day, and he kept a list of every book he'd ever read since 1962, spanning almost any genre you can think of, totalling 3,599. "That's how he passed the time — probably too much time," his daughter, Marci Pelzer, told As It Happens guest host Paul Hunter. "We know he was sometimes reading at work. But he also read on the bus and everywhere he went. He always had a book open, a book in his hand. And it stimulated great conversations with all kinds of people." Dan Pelzer died on July 1 in Columbus, Ohio, at the age of 92, but his reading list is still sparking conversations. To honour his legacy, his family posted his entire list online at Marci says the list's reach has extended beyond her father's friends and family, and is inspiring others to read, think and talk about books. "It means the world to us," she said. Too long to print Dan's family initially planned to hand out printed copies of the booklist at his funeral, but at more than 100 pages, it just wasn't feasible. So, instead, they built a website, where people can flip through scanned copies of the yellowed pages, organised in chronological order by year, some hand-written, others typed. Beginning with Alan Moorehead's The Blue Nile in 1962, and ending with Charles Dickens' David Copperfield in 2023, the list spans almost any genre or era of literature you can think of, from the literary cannon to pulpy page-turners. There's fiction and non-fiction, politics, biographies, and dense tomes on history and religion. And almost all of them, Marci said, were library books. To honour Dan's reading prowess, the Columbus Metropolitan Library has posted a 98-page PDF of the list in alphabetical order, as well as a searchable database of 2,091 of the titles and counting. Compiling it all was no easy feat. Members of the library's information and technology team scanned the physical pages and put it through a transcription software to digitize the text. But because of the quality of the scans, that only churned out about 500 titles. After that, they manually compiled the list, adding subtitles, book covers and other useful information. "He was definitely a Renaissance guy from the standpoint of the variety of titles," said Maria Armitage, the library's manager of enterprise systems and data analytics, who helped create the digitized collection. "He read everything from, like, theologic theory to a lot of history, but then also popular fiction and had some pretty diverse tastes, overall." The library's Whitehall Branch, a place Dan visited often, has also put up a physical display in his honour, called What Dan Read. Marci says she's grateful for the library's work digitizing her father's collection. "I think he'd love to see the library getting the attention, and he's so grateful to what public institutions like libraries have done for the community," Marci said. Preferred John Grisham over James Joyce While he read prolifically, Marci says her father definitely had his preferences. "Sometimes he would talk about books being a slog. Other times he'd talk about loving them," she said. The greatest slog, in Dan's opinion, was Ulysses, the famously hard-to-read modernist novel by Irish writer James Joyce. He was a devout Catholic, and some of his favourite books were novels by Christian authors. He also loved to gobble up mysteries ands thrillers by bestselling authors. "He loved a real page-turner," Marci said. "I'm sure if you flip through like I did, you saw John Grisham all through the years." But he always finished any book he started. And if someone recommended a book to him, he would read it. The second-last book on his list is Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, a 2022 coming-of-age novel by Gabrielle Zevin that Marci recommended. "It made me happy to see that that was one of the last books he read," she said. "The ones that are special are the ones he read because I read them." 'A great comfort' Marci says her father read to connect to people, and because he was a spiritual, deep-thinking and meditative person. It was also, she says, a source of solace in later years. "I think it was a great comfort to him to go stay with my mom, who was in a nursing home the last three years, spend some time with her, and then go home to his empty apartment and read," she said. Dan's wife of 52 years, Mary Lou Pelzer, died in 2024. Marci says her dad didn't keep the list to brag or keep score. "It was just a list of the books he read that he kept personally so he could remember and think about them," she said. "It wasn't for anybody else, and most people didn't know he had it." Still, she believes he would be pleased at all the attention it's receiving.
CBC
24-07-2025
- Sport
- CBC
Hockey Canada trial outcome a 'crushing day' for sexual assault survivors, says prof
The woman at the heart of the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial may not have gotten the outcome she was hoping for, but her testimony has opened up much-needed conversations about consent and hockey culture, says an Ottawa lawyer. A judge on Thursday found all five former members of Canada's 2018 world junior hockey team not guilty of sexually assaulting a woman named E.M. in a London, Ont., hotel room seven years ago. Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia said prosecutors could not meet the onus of proof for the charges against Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote. In her ruling, Carroccia said E.M. was repeatedly inconsistent in her testimony, failed to prove the sexual encounters were not consensual, and didn't appear on surveillance footage to be as intoxicated as she claimed on the night in question. After the decision, lawyers for all five plaintiffs took turns addressing reporters. Hart's lawyer Megan Savard called the ruling "both gratifying and unsurprising." David Humphrey, lawyer for Michael McLeod, called it "a resounding vindication." But Karen Bellehumeur, E.M.'s lawyer, called it disappointing. She credited her client for enduring nine days of testimony and cross-examination that she characterized as "insulting, unfair, mocking and disrespectful." "She is a remarkable person and truly a hero," Bellehumeur said of E.M. "Despite her feeling like this was the hardest thing she's ever had to do, she chose to persevere and continue with the process." Daphne Gilbert, a law professor at the University of Ottawa who researches violence in sports, called the verdict a "crushing day" for sexual assault survivors, and worries it will make victims think twice about coming forward. Here is part of her conversation with As It Happens guest host Megan Williams about the trial and its impact. What do you think about the trial outcome? I'm not surprised that there were acquittals. This is an excellent judge who has an excellent reputation, and I could see a pathway to acquittal. It was just not the pathway that she chose that I would have agreed with. To me, the evidence was clear that E.M. did not consent to what was happening in that room. And so what I was hoping is that the judge would take that and say, "But did the men have an honest, but mistaken, belief that she was consenting?" That would have allowed her to dig deeper into what the men were doing, and how they were behaving, and whether they actually took any reasonable steps to make sure she was affirmatively consenting without intimidation or coercion or intoxication. Justice Maria Carroccia said that she found E.M., in fact, did consent, "not vitiated by fear." What does that wording say to you about how Justice Carroccia came to this decision? It says to me, quite frankly, that she did not see up to 10 men in a room with a naked woman, where they all know each other and she doesn't know them, and many of them don't even know her name, that she didn't perceive that as an intimidating situation. And I think that just defies common sense and logic. A big part of the trial was around two videos that defendant Michael McLeod took of E.M. in the hotel room, one in which she's only wearing a towel, where she says that she is OK with what has happened to her. Justice Carroccia said E. M. did not display any signs of intoxication and had no difficulty speaking. How much do you think these videos played into the decision? I certainly do not think that Justice Carroccia relied on them as evidence of consent. She didn't say that because we had these videos, we can assume she was consenting. That would have been an error in law. There's no such thing as after-the-fact consent. It seemed to me that the justice was referring to the videos to say that she wasn't as intoxicated as she had claimed that she was. The videos were taken at the end of the night, several hours after she had consumed the alcohol, and perhaps it's true she didn't appear intoxicated. But the Crown wasn't arguing that she was intoxicated to the point of incapacity, so I'm not sure why that needed to be mentioned. WATCH | E.M.'s lawyer reacts to the trial's outcome: 'We can marvel at E.M.'s courage,' says lawyer for Hockey Canada trial complainant 2 hours ago Lawyer Karen Bellehumeur says her client, E.M., whose identity is protected under a standard publication ban, faced 'insulting mocking and unfair treatment' during cross-examination at the sexual assault trial of five former world junior hockey players who have all been found not guilty. How do you think this kind of ruling will affect consent going forward, and particularly in the world of sports? The only good thing, I think — and it's at a credible cost to E.M. — but she has provoked conversations across the country about consent and about appropriate behaviour and about bystander intervention and about right and wrong. Those conversations in families with young men and boys, I think, is where we have to start in terms of changing especially hockey culture. Families will be talking about hockey players and and saying, I think, "This is not how I want you to be behaving."
CBC
14-07-2025
- CBC
Australian woman walking 'the length of the Earth' will soon arrive in Canada
When Lucy Barnard crosses the U.S. border into Canada next week, it'll have been a journey eight years in the making. The Australian writer, filmmaker and adventurer is on a mission to become the first woman to walk "the length of the Earth" — or, more specifically from the southernmost city in Argentina to the northernmost town in Alaska. She first set off from Ushuaia in 2017. Now, more than 200,000 kilometres, 22 pairs of shoes, 12 countries and one global pandemic later, she's arrived at East Glacier Park, Mont., just 150 kilometres from the Canadian border in Alberta. "It's really overwhelming, actually, just to look back at how far I've come," Barnard told As It Happen s host Nil Kӧksal. "It's been a really long time, and I've been through a lot of life changes while on this journey. And so it's exciting and nerve-wracking all in one." Field science and scenic vistas Barnard says she took this challenge to move the benchmark for women adventurers. As far as she is aware, only three people have walked the length of the Americas, and all of them have been men. And only one man — British adventurer George Meegan — is recorded to have walked from the southernmost to northernmost cities in the Americas, a feat that took him seven years to complete in 1983. "I think it's quite an Australian trait to just give things a go for the fun of it and see how far you get," Barnard said. "That is really truly the attitude that I started with." And the trip has, indeed, been fun. In the early days of her journey, she kayaked past dolphins, whales and elephant seals — a dizzying diversity of wildlife unlike anything she's seen before. She describes encountering rare or endangered species, making connections with locals who make her feel welcome, crossing through landscapes "that are completely open and where the air seems to be extra sweet," gazing upon vistas of "trails that span across mountain after mountain," and travelling along 500-year-old Inca road. She's connected with researchers along the way, using her science background to locate and track leatherback turtles and collect water samples near glaciated areas. "I have been really enriched from being able to walk this trail," she said. Bouts of illness and forced hiatuses But it hasn't been without obstacles. She was in Columbia in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic sparked lockdowns around the world, and she had to head home for two years. She then had to take another temporary pause back home over Christmas 2024 to renew her U.S. visa. She's encountered difficulties on the trail, too. There was the time she had to be dewormed after food poisoning led to an amoeba infection, or when she suffered a bout of "trench foot," a condition caused by prolonged exposure to cold or wet conditions. But she says she's received tremendous support from loved ones back home, followers online and, most of all, people she's met in the countries she's visited. "It's just from the generosity of people who've supported me along the way, especially in small communities, that I've been able to keep going," she said. That, and just a dash of spite. Early on in her trip, she says she encountered a group of hikers, all men, decked out in the finest adventuring gear, who scoffed when she told them her goal, and laughingly told her she'd never make it past the first 1,000 kilometres. "That actually did fuel me to push through some very hard days to at least get to that point," she said. The privilege of travelling for fun Barnard says her travel woes are nothing compared to those of the people she's encountered who were making their way north to the U.S., not for fun, but out of necessity. "It's very difficult for me to reconcile that I've chosen to walk the length of the Earth and … it's something that's very extravagant," she said. "And then I am meeting people who have no choice, who don't have the right shoes or equipment, often who are carrying babies with them and don't know where they're going to sleep or where they're gonna get their next meal." When she meets migrants, she says, she'll often share a skill, like how to clean water, or a resource, like food or a piece of gear. "I do what I can to just show the kindness that people have shown me as I pass through their land," she said. Barnard still has a long journey ahead before she reaches her destination of Utqiagvik, Alaska. But already, she's hit a number of milestones. According to her website, she became the first woman to walk the Southern Hemisphere entirely on foot in 2019, and the first woman to walk the length of South America from Argentina to Columbia in 2022. Earlier this year, the Australian Geographic Society named her the 2024 Adventurer of the Yea r. Her dog — a blue heeler named Wombat — was named Canine Adventurer of the Year. Canada will be her 13th and final country before crossing back into the U.S. for the final leg. She expects to cross through Glacier National Park in Montana to Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta within two weeks. "I'm excited for it," she said. "I feel like I'm as prepared as I can be. But, of course, I'm always really eager to chat to people who have done something similar before me and learn from their lessons, so that I don't have to learn them myself."
10-07-2025
- Health
Trump stopped the global fight against HIV/AIDS in its tracks. Canada can help fix it
Winnie Byanyima is trying to hold onto hope in the face of what she calls unbelievable cruelty. She is the director of UNAIDS, the United Nations agency that, until recently, was on track to meet its target of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. But now, as President Donald Trump's second administration rapidly and dramatically scales back U.S. foreign aid contributions (new window) , UNAIDS is instead predicting in a new report that there will be six million new HIV infections and four million additional deaths within the next four years alone. It's just so cruel, Byanyima told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. "It was not necessary to withdraw funding for life-saving services so suddenly." But these dire predictions, she says, are not set in stone. The fight against HIV/AIDS can get back on track if the international community, including Canada, steps up. Canada should lead the way, doctors say In February, the U.S. abruptly severed ties with UNAIDS (new window) effectively halting two-thirds of all international financing for HIV prevention in low- and middle-income countries. The latest report from UNAIDS — AIDS, Crisis and the Power to Transform (new window) — outlines how many of the countries impacted by those cuts have responded by increasing their own domestic HIV/AIDS treatment budgets and folding what was once the work of global charities into their local health-care systems. They're all finding innovative ways of plugging the hole, but the hole is big, Byanyima said. Let's not make mistakes about it. We do need all the countries of the world to maintain their support to fight and end this disease. Public health experts in this country say Canada should lead the way. A child is treated at the Tudun Gambo Primary Health Care Center in Bauchi State, Nigeria, one of many clinics that is reliant on U.S. aid. Photo: Reuters / Sodiq Adelakun Dr. Eric Arts is the Canada Research Chair in viral control at Western University in London, Ont., where he also heads up the school's partnership with the Joint Clinical Research Centre, a Ugandan research institute and health clinic. Through that work, he's seen first-hand the impact of the U.S. funding freeze: Mass layoffs, financial uncertainty, patients stopping and starting their treatment haphazardly based on the whims of faraway bureaucrats. Still, he says it's time to look inward, not outward. There's always too much emphasis on blaming the U.S., Arts told CBC. I mean, yes, they're the root of the problem now. But we have a solution. And the solution is easy. Canada, he says, should double its funding to the Global Fund (new window) — the international organization that distributes funds worldwide to combat HIV, tuberculosis and malaria — and push other G7 countries to do the same. In 2022, Canada increased Global Fund contributions by 30 per cent, pledged $1.21 billion for 2023 to 2025. But it's still a drop in the bucket compared to the roughly $8 bllion the U.S. pledged at the same time (new window) , and which is unlikely to be renewed. WATCH | B.C. doctor predicts millions of deaths because of U.S. aid cuts: Début du widget Widget. Passer le widget ? Fin du widget Widget. Retourner au début du widget ? 'An act of criminal negligence' Dr. Julio Montaner, executive director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, agrees. He was one of the people who helped develop the multi-drug cocktail of antiretrovirals that have become the gold standard for HIV treatment, and he helped establish the criteria the UN uses for its 2030 target. For a long time, he says, that made in Canada strategy was working worldwide. Fewer people were contracting HIV, and thanks to antiretrovirals, people living with HIV were not transmitting it. A huge part of that, he says, was because of the funding from the President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR), which has financed about 70 per cent of the global AIDS response since it was founded in 2003 by former president George W. Bush. PEPFAR is also on the U.S. chopping block (new window) . Walking away from that commitment on a short notice and without a plan is an act of criminal negligence, Montaner said. I demand that my country actually raises the flag and demonstrates that we can do it in Canada, and support the world. Because, in four years, the Americans are going to wake up. And if we don't cover for the absence, the world is going to be much, much worse than it is today. Trump himself has called on other countries to pick up the slack from his cuts, which he described as devastating. The United States always gets the request for money, he said in May. (new window) Nobody else helps. A global disease needs a global solution: UN director It's not solely a matter of helping people in other countries, says Arts. If Canada or any other G7 country or G20 country thinks that we can do this and not have it reach our borders, then they're crazy, he said. This will be another global pandemic if we can't, we don't, provide treatment. Global Affairs Canada was unable to respond to a request for comment before deadline. Byanyima, meanwhile, is currently in South Africa, which she says has boosted its domestic budget for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment in the face of U.S. cuts, and is working to establish a chronic medicine dispensing and distribution system. Seeing that response, she says, gives her hope. But it's not enough. This is a global disease. It is not a disease of one country, she said. A global problem needs a global solution. Interview with Winnie Byanyima produced by Sarah Jackson
