Tony Huidrom, a Toronto-based medical professional, was visiting family in India’s eastern state of Manipur for a month, during which time he had no way of contacting his family in Toronto due to internet blackouts.
“Once I entered Manipur, I was in the dark for seven days,” he said. Now that he’s back in Canada, Huidrom says he has to muddle his way through to connect with his 90-year-old father, who’s still in India.
The sparsely populated state is reeling from ethnic violence that’s affected tens of thousands of people. Amid the ongoing violence, Manipur remains under a government-authorized internet shutdown that has lasted for more than a month, leaving diaspora communities in Canada scrambling to reach families back home. Notwithstanding expensive international calling, the internet is the only way for many here to connect with friends and relatives.
Security forces patrol streets amid violence in Manipur
Officials in India’s eastern state of Manipur deployed police and security forces, as seen in this video from the city of Imphal on June 14, amid incidents of violence and arson dating back to early May.
Huidrom’s brother works in a government office in India, one of the few places where the internet still works. Huidrom, mindful of the nine and a half hour time difference, calls his brother’s office every day.
“When I miss the timing of my brother’s office hours, I cannot communicate,” he said, calling the government’s move to ban the internet inhumane and unacceptable.
“That’s the crudest form of punishment to the public, showing their naked failure to control the violence, and this is not the only time we’ve had something like this,” Huidrom said.
Part of a consistent trend
Manipur is the latest addition to a long list of internet shutdowns in India. According to Access Now, an internet advocacy watchdog, India has topped the yearly count of internet shutdowns across the world for five straight years.
Since 2018, India has shut down the internet more often than any other country in the world. One Access Now estimate says India was responsible for the most shutdowns in 2022 — with 84 out of 187 global shutdowns.
CBC News reached out to the High Commission of India in Ottawa about the internet shutdowns and how they are impacting people trying to reach relatives back home, but did not receive comment by publication time.
Members of the All Assam Students’ Union and North East Students’ Organisation take part in a candlelight vigil in the district of Guwahati on June 28. The vigil was promoting the restoration of peace amid ongoing ethnic violence in India’s north-eastern Manipur state. (Biju Boro/AFP via Getty Images)
Vancouver-resident Lienlaltheng Gangte’s ancestral home in Manipur was burned down at the beginning of the conflict. His 80-year-old father is currently one of nearly 60,000 people who are out of their homes.
Manipur is teetering on what many believe is the brink of a civil war. Ethnic clashes between two communities — the Kukis and the majority Meitei — have left more than 100 dead and over 400 wounded.
Gangte is the founding member of North American Manipur Tribal Association, formed as a response to the conflict. In a little more than a month, it has gained more than 150 members from across the country.
With the internet blackout, Gangte says, the government has made the conflict worse.
Different groups take part in a solidarity prayer meet at a school in Guwahati for the restoration of peace in Manipur during recent ethnic violence, on June 24 in India. The violence between two warring communities in the state has left more than 100 people dead and nearly 40,000 displaced. (Biju Boro/AFP via Getty Images)
“The most personal and immediate issue now is to be able to talk to friends and family to see how they are doing, and that itself, is severely limited now,” he said.
He has written to the High Commission of India in Ottawa to get them to address the crisis, but hasn’t received any response yet.
A report by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) titled No Internet Means No Work, No Pay, No Food and released on June 14 found that internet shutdowns in India are often unwarranted, unaccounted for and deny basic rights to marginalized people and those living in poverty.
“HRW and IFF call upon the Indian central and state governments to end broad, indiscriminate shutdowns,” the report reads.
Outward calm of India-controlled Kashmir hides a simmering anger
As India hosts a G20 summit on tourism in Kashmir, the country is keen to project an image of stability and peace in the part of the region it controls. But on the ground, CBC’s India correspondent Salima Shivji hears a simmering anger from Kashmiris unable to speak openly, fearing retribution from security services.
Shutdowns undemocratic, expert says
Jonathan Penney, a legal scholar and social scientist at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, believes blockades to communication channels are not a sign of a healthy democracy.
“When you shut down critical communications infrastructure like the internet, citizens suffer,” said Penney, who has research and teaching expertise in law, technology and human rights.
“Fundamental rights, like rights of free expression, association and the right to seek, receive and impart information are seriously crippled, with serious implications for the long-term health of Indian democracy.”
In August 2019, the government completely blocked all communication networks in India-controlled Kashmir for an unprecedented length of time. The complete blackout lasted for more than five months, becoming one of the longest internet shutdowns in a democratic country, according to Access Now.
The authorities shut down the internet in an effort to prevent Kashmiris from organizing protests after the government revoked the state’s constitutional autonomous status, splitting it into two separate, federally governed territories.
Some services were gradually restored, but mobile 4G internet access remained effectively down for more than 500 days, until February 2021.
During that lengthy shutdown in India-controlled Kashmir, the Indian Supreme Court — the country’s highest judicial body — issued a landmark ruling in 2020, finding that internet suspensions are “drastic” measures that can only be used if they are necessary and unavoidable and if there are no less intrusive options.
Journalists hold signs during a protest against restrictions of internet and mobile networks at the Kashmir Press Club during a lockdown in Srinagar on Oct. 3, 2019, in India. (Tauseef Mustafa/AFP via Getty Images)
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, at a media briefing in the U.S. last year, addressed concerns around internet shutdowns in the country.
“The big song and dance about the internet being cut,” he said. “Now, if you’ve reached a stage where you say that an internet cut is more dangerous than loss of human lives, then what can I say?”
The Indian government relies on provisions in India’s Telegraph Act of 1885 to justify the shutdowns — a statute enacted during British colonial times. It was part of broader legal infrastructure that Britain relied on not only for telegraph censorship and surveillance in India, but also around the world.
“It is a cruel irony that today, this British Colonial Act is being abused by the Indian government to enforce draconian internet measures that undermine human rights and Indian democracy,” Penney said.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
