“Today, inspired by a summer of rebellion and anti-racist protest, a diverse coalition of young activists take it upon themselves to act where the city has failed,” read the flier.
“We offer this action in solidarity with the Indigenous peoples of Tio’tia:ke, Turtle Island and across the globe, and all those fighting against colonialism and anti-blackness in the struggle for a better world.”
Story continues below advertisement
The statue — which has long been at the centre of a debate over how it symbolizes Canada’s colonial past — was unbolted, pulled to the ground and sprayed with graffiti earlier Saturday afternoon, according to images of the incident posted to social media.
The statue was removed at the end of a peaceful protest where an estimated 200 people marched, according to The Canadian Press. No arrests were made.
Protests have also taken place in Toronto and others are expected to happen in Fredericton, Moncton and Calgary on Saturday.
The demonstrations are calling for money allocated to police forces to be reinvested into community organizations that work to address systemic racism and save the lives of BIPOC Canadians.
Story continues below advertisement
“This event, it’s been organized by groups and organizations from all across the country. We all got together and decided we needed to stage something bigger to get more people’s attention and to try and get people to understand that we’re not just going to take this lying down,” Gal Harper, member, organizer, and lead activist with Black Lives Matter London told Global News.
“Things need to change and it needs to happen now,” Harper said.
In Toronto, demonstrators gathered at Downsview Park for a march beginning at 11 a.m. ET, according to the Coalition for BIPOC Liberation.
By 12:30 p.m. ET, dozens of protesters had gathered on Sheppard Avenue.
Dozens have gathered on Sheppard Avenue in support of the Coalition for BIPOC Liberation during a nationwide day of action. Demonstrations are taking part in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Moncton. @globalnewstopic.twitter.com/yJDtEJQBr9
A second march is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. ET at Christie Pits Park.
4:58 Jacob Blake’s family delivers powerful message to protesters: “You must fight with self-love”
Jacob Blake’s family delivers powerful message to protesters: “You must fight with self-love”
In a Facebook post Saturday morning, the coalition outlined its demands.
“We demand our basic human right to live peacefully with the equitable opportunity to live our best lives, take care of our families and support our communities,” the statement reads.
The coalition says without the removal of the laws of colonialism, the liberation of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour will “cease to exist.”
“Invest in people, not police,” the statement says. “Reallocation Committees will ensure funding divested from police forces will be reallocated back to community-based initiatives.”
In a press release issued on Thursday, Black Trans Lives Matter, DefundYYC and Idle No More — who have organized the demonstration in downtown Calgary — asked protesters to gather at Sien Lok Park.
That march is slated to begin at 2 p.m.
In the release, organizers said the world is “changing fast,” and that systems in place are “not evolving at the same pace as humanity.”
“We must keep putting pressure on those in power to make swift change that immobilizes racism at every interaction to alleviate ALL oppressions,” the release reads. “We believe ALL Black lives matter and will amplify Trans voices as well as other folx on the LBGTQ2S+ spectrum.”
1:14 Kenosha police chief confirms 2 people killed, 1 injured during Jacob Blake protests
Kenosha police chief confirms 2 people killed, 1 injured during Jacob Blake protests
However, opponents of the defund the police movement claim doing so could have dangerous implications for society.
Story continues below advertisement
U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed calls to defund forces are an attempt to “take away” police.
The Radical Left Democrats: First they try to take away your guns. Then they try to take away your police!
The survey found 51 per cent of Canadians support the idea of defunding the police and redirecting the funds to other local government services.
Of those respndents, 19 per cent said they “strongly” agree, 32 per cent said they “somewhat” agree.
However, 49 per cent of Canadians said they do not support the idea of defunding the police.
Story continues below advertisement
The protests in Canada come less than a week after Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was tasered and shot seven times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Sunday.
The incident was caught on camera by bystanders and has been shared widely on social media.
1:10 UN human rights office calls Jacob Blake shooting “excessive”
UN human rights office calls Jacob Blake shooting “excessive”
Blake was shot as he opened the door to his vehicle. Three of his children were present at the time of the incident.
In an interview with the Chicago Sun Times, Blake’s father — also named Jacob Blake — told the paper that his son, who was rushed to hospital after the shooting, is now paralyzed from the waist down.
Wisconsin’s Department of Justice is investigating the shooting, and all three officers involved have since been put on administrative leave.
Story continues below advertisement
The shooting sparked days of protests in Kenosha. On Friday, a candlelight vigil was held for Blake in the city.
A number of pro sports games were postponed after players took a stand against racial inequality following Blake’s shooting.
The NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks were the first franchise to postpone a game.
The decision caused a domino effect within the NBA and across several pro sports leagues with athletes in the WNBA, MLB, NHL, NFL, MLS and ATP choosing to stand with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Blake’s shooting follows months of unrest across the U.S. and around the world over police brutality and racial injustice.
Those protests began after George Floyd — a 46-year-old Black man from Minnesota — died after a police officer in Minneapolis knelt on his neck for more than seven minutes during an arrest.
–With files from Global News’ David Lao, Chris Jancelewicz, Jacquelyn LeBel and The Canadian Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Teen smoking hit an all-time low in the U.S. this year, part of a big drop in the youth use of tobacco overall, the government reported Thursday.
There was a 20% drop in the estimated number of middle and high school students who recently used at least one tobacco product, including cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, nicotine pouches and hookahs. The number went from 2.8 million last year to 2.25 million this year — the lowest since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s key survey began in 1999.
“Reaching a 25-year low for youth tobacco product use is an extraordinary milestone for public health,” said Deirdre Lawrence Kittner, director of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, in a statement. However, “our mission is far from complete.”
A previously reported drop in vaping largely explains the overall decline in tobacco use from 10% to about 8% of students, health officials said.
The youth e-cigarette rate fell to under 6% this year, down from 7.7% last year — the lowest at any point in the last decade. E-cigarettes are the most commonly used tobacco products among teens, followed by nicotine pouches.
Use of other products has been dropping, too.
Twenty-five years ago, nearly 30% of high school students smoked. This year, it was just 1.7%, down from the 1.9%. That one-year decline is so small it is not considered statistically significant, but marks the lowest since the survey began 25 years ago. The middle school rate also is at its lowest mark.
Recent use of hookahs also dropped, from 1.1% to 0.7%.
The results come from an annual CDC survey, which included nearly 30,000 middle and high school students at 283 schools. The response rate this year was about 33%.
Officials attribute the declines to a number of measures, ranging from price increases and public health education campaigns to age restrictions and more aggressive enforcement against retailers and manufacturers selling products to kids.
Among high school students, use of any tobacco product dropped to 10%, from nearly 13% and e-cigarette use dipped under 8%, from 10%. But there was no change reported for middle school students, who less commonly vape or smoke or use other products,
Current use of tobacco fell among girls and Hispanic students, but rose among American Indian or Alaska Native students. And current use of nicotine pouches increased among white kids.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An Alabama man was arrested Thursday for his alleged role in the January hack of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission social media account that led the price of bitcoin to spike, the Justice Department said.
Eric Council Jr., 25, of Athens, is accused of helping to break into the SEC’s account on X, formerly known as Twitter, allowing the hackers to prematurely announce the approval of long-awaited bitcoin exchange-traded funds.
The price of bitcoin briefly spiked more than $1,000 after the post claimed “The SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchanges.”
But soon after the initial post appeared, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said on his personal account that the SEC’s account was compromised. “The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products,” Gensler wrote, calling the post unauthorized without providing further explanation.
Authorities say Council carried out what’s known as a “SIM swap,” using a fake ID to impersonate someone with access to the SEC’s X account and convince a cellphone store to give him a SIM card linked to the person’s phone. Council was able to take over the person’s cellphone number and get access codes to the SEC’s X account, which he shared with others who broke into the account and sent the post, the Justice Department says.
Prosecutors say after Council returned the iPhone he used for the SIM swap, his online searches included: “What are the signs that you are under investigation by law enforcement or the FBI even if you have not been contacted by them.”
An email seeking comment was sent Thursday to an attorney for Council, who is charged in Washington’s federal court with conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud.
The price of bitcoin swung from about $46,730 to just below $48,000 after the unauthorized post hit on Jan. 9 and then dropped to around $45,200 after the SEC’s denial. The SEC officially approved the first exchange-traded funds that hold bitcoin the following day.
Google, Meta and TikTok have removed social media accounts belonging to an industrial plant in Russia’s Tatarstan region aimed at recruiting young foreign women to make drones for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Posts on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok were taken down following an investigation by The Associated Press published Oct. 10 that detailed working conditions in the drone factory in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, which is under U.S. and British sanctions.
Videos and other posts on the social media platforms promised the young women, who are largely from Africa, a free plane ticket to Russia and a salary of more than $500 a month following their recruitment via the program called “Alabuga Start.”
But instead of a work-study program in areas like hospitality and catering, some of them said they learned only arriving in the Tatarstan region that they would be toiling in a factory to make weapons of war, assembling thousands of Iranian-designed attack drones to be launched into Ukraine.
In interviews with AP, some of the women who worked in the complex complained of long hours under constant surveillance, of broken promises about wages and areas of study, and of working with caustic chemicals that left their skin pockmarked and itching. AP did not identify them by name or nationality out of concern for their safety.
The tech companies also removed accounts for Alabuga Polytechnic, a vocational boarding school for Russians aged 16-18 and Central Asians aged 18-22 that bills its graduates as experts in drone production.
The accounts collectively had at least 158,344 followers while one page on TikTok had more than a million likes.
In a statement, YouTube said its parent company Google is committed to sanctions and trade compliance and “after review and consistent with our policies, we terminated channels associated with Alabuga Special Economic Zone.”
Meta said it removed accounts on Facebook and Instagram that “violate our policies.” The company said it was committed to complying with sanctions laws and said it recognized that human exploitation is a serious problem which required a multifaceted approach, including at Meta.
It said it had teams dedicated to anti-trafficking efforts and aimed to remove those seeking to abuse its platforms.
TikTok said it removed videos and accounts which violated its community guidelines, which state it does not allow content that is used for the recruitment of victims, coordination of their transport, and their exploitation using force, fraud, coercion, or deception.
The women aged 18-22 were recruited to fill an urgent labor shortage in wartime Russia. They are from places like Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, South Sudan, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, as well as the South Asian country of Sri Lanka. The drive also is expanding to elsewhere in Asia as well as Latin America.
Accounts affiliated to Alabuga with tens of thousands of followers are still accessible on Telegram, which did not reply to a request for comment. The plant’s management also did not respond to AP.
The Alabuga Start recruiting drive used a robust social media campaign of slickly edited videos with upbeat music that show African women smiling while cleaning floors, wearing hard hats while directing cranes, and donning protective equipment to apply paint or chemicals.
Videos also showed them enjoying Tatarstan’s cultural sites or playing sports. None of the videos made it clear the women would be working in a drone manufacturing complex.
Online, Alabuga promoted visits to the industrial area by foreign dignitaries, including some from Brazil, Sri Lanka and Burkina Faso.
In a since-deleted Instagram post, a Turkish diplomat who visited the plant had compared Alabuga Polytechnic to colleges in Turkey and pronounced it “much more developed and high-tech.”
According to Russian investigative outlets Protokol and Razvorot, some pupils at Alabuga Polytechnic are as young as 15 and have complained of poor working conditions.
Videos previously on the platforms showed the vocational school students in team-building exercises such as “military-patriotic” paintball matches and recreating historic Soviet battles while wearing camouflage.
Last month, Alabuga Start said on Telegram its “audience has grown significantly!”
That could be due to its hiring of influencers, who promoted the site on TikTok and Instagram as an easy way for young women to make money after leaving school.
TikTok removed two videos promoting Alabuga after publication of the AP investigation.
Experts told AP that about 90% of the women recruited via the Alabuga Start program work in drone manufacturing.
