OTTAWA — Wide-scale destruction of nature is raising the risk of future pandemics and is making climate change worse, the heads of the United Nations biodiversity office cautioned Thursday.
Their warnings come just before a major global conference on biodiversity loss scheduled for next month in Montreal, where governments are trying to sign a new global agreement to end the loss of biodiversity.
Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, the executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, said it’s a critical point for the world to elevate biodiversity destruction to the same level of concern we have for climate change.
“The scientists have been very clear: our planet is in crisis,” she said in a briefing with reporters Thursday.
In Paris in 2015, almost every country in the world agreed to accelerate efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming.
Maruma said in Montreal, the hope is to get an agreement from most countries to take actions that will end the decline in both species and habitats by the end of this decade, and recover much of what has already been lost by 2050.
“It is estimated that … at least 90 per cent of the ecosystems worldwide have been altered to date,” she said. “Over a million species are currently threatened with extinction.”
David Cooper, the deputy executive secretary of the convention, said the ramifications of that are far-reaching, including for human health and safety.
Extreme weather events are made worse by the degradation of natural protections such as coastal marshes that help reduce the energy of storm surge during a hurricane.
“The pandemic has also emphasized and raised the profile of the importance of protecting the natural environment,” he said. “People understand that something is not right in our relationship with nature when we have this increasing risk of pandemics. And we know, in fact, that the more we destroy nature, the greater the risk of the emergence of new diseases.”
Studies have shown that as human development encroaches on wildlife habitats, there are more interactions between people and animals, raising the risk that more animal-borne viruses will make the jump to humans.
Cooper said he believes the world’s population is finally ready to do something about the loss of habitats.
“This is the moment, perhaps, that nature, biodiversity, is put on the same footing as climate change in the policy area, probably catching up with public opinion in many respects,” he said.
Canada’s Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, who is in Egypt for the annual UN climate talks about implementing promises from the Paris accord, is in full agreement.
“I think for a long time nature protection didn’t get the attention it needed,” said Guilbeault. “I really think this is changing and I think we will have very concrete proof of that in Montreal in just a couple of weeks.”
There are nearly two dozen targets in the draft biodiversity agreement on the negotiating table for the Montreal conference. They include protecting 30 per cent of the world’s land from development by 2030 and cutting in half the establishment of invasive species.
Others include reducing the use of pesticides, eliminating plastic pollution and eliminating or reforming government subsidies that harm biodiversity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2022.
FERGUS FALLS – The jury at a human smuggling trial has seen phone records the prosecution says show the two men accused were carrying out plans to sneak people across the Canada-U.S. border between Manitoba and Minnesota.
Steve Shand and Harshkumar Patel are accused of participating in several smuggling operations in December 2021 and January 2022.
One of the trips saw a family of four from India freeze to death in a blizzard on Jan. 19, 2022, the day Shand was arrested in a van just south of the border.
A cellular analyst with the Federal Bureau of Investigation testified about records related to phones the prosecution says belonged to the accused men.
The records track two phones the prosecution says belonged to Shand travelling, on multiple occasions, from his hometown in Florida to Minnesota then to an area near the border.
FBI special agent Nicole Lopez says during those trips there were many calls to and from phones the prosecution says belonged to Patel.
Under cross-examination by Shand’s lawyer, Lopez said cell records, which are based on towers used, offer a general location and cannot offer pinpoint accuracy.
Lopez also said the records show who the phones are registered to not who is using them at any given time.
The trial in Fergus Falls, Minn., also heard Thursday from two forensic pathologists, who testified the family found dead in the snow died from hypothermia.
One also said the autopsies were done after a few days because the bodies were too frozen.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2024.
MONTREAL – Quebec’s auditor general says the province has taken little action in the past two decades to help Indigenous students in Quebec, whose graduation rates lag behind those of Indigenous students in other provinces.
In her report published Wednesday, Guylaine Leclerc says the Quebec government knew about a major gap in the success rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students since at least 2005, but failed to seriously address the issue.
She says that as of 2021, Quebec had the highest rate among the provinces of Indigenous people between the ages of 25 and 34 without a diploma or certificate.
The report also finds that Indigenous students in Quebec are given insufficient support, such as French-language training, when they transfer from schools in their communities to the province’s education system.
Leclerc’s recommendations include that Quebec education officials define and implement indicators to improve Indigenous students’ success rates; train school staff on Indigenous realities; and develop culturally relevant learning environments.
Neither the Quebec Education Department nor the Quebec minister responsible for First Nations and Inuit relations was immediately available for comment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2024.
OTTAWA – A former police officer involved in the case of an Ottawa man who died after a violent arrest and the lawyer representing the man’s family had several testy exchanges today at a coroner’s inquest into the death.
Former Const. David Weir is among those testifying at the inquest examining the circumstances of 38-year-old Abdirahman Abdi’s July 2016 death.
Abdi died after police responded to a 911 call reporting that a man was groping women outside a coffee shop in Ottawa’s Hintonburg neighbourhood.
The inquest has heard that Abdi appeared to be in a mental health crisis at the time.
Lawrence Greenspon, the lawyer for Abdi’s family, and Weir clashed over descriptions of that day’s events during Greenspon’s cross-examination, with the presiding coroner warning Weir to refrain from arguing.
At one point, Weir accused the lawyer of trivializing what he experienced, with Greenspon denying that claim.
Weir also disputed Greenspon’s assertion that he didn’t try to de-escalate the situation during Abdi’s arrest.
Weir said his commands to Abdi were “not an effort to de-escalate, not an effort to escalate … they were a clear, concise order.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2024.
