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Profits trump COVID-19 protections for migrant seafood workers in Atlantic Canada

Debates about public safety and temporary foreign workers continue without input from those whose health is most affected. Migrant workers themselves are largely invisible amid discussions about risk.

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The health and well-being of temporary foreign workers in the seafood industry in Atlantic Canada are disregarded in favour of business and economic concerns. (Paul Einerhand/Unsplash)

Canada’s federal government recently imposed new air travel restrictions in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19. The government and four major airlines agreed to temporarily stop all incoming flights from Mexico and the Caribbean, and closed the Halifax and Moncton airports to international arrivals.

Maritime farming and seafood-processing industries, typically reliant on foreign labour, will be hit hard by the ban, with Mexico and Jamaica among the top source countries of temporary foreign workers. In media reports, spokespeople for those industries worried that the regulations would disrupt their labour supply or potentially lead to increased costs.

Temporary foreign workers have historically provided significant labour to Maritime food industries. In 2019, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia employed 1,178; 1,963 and 2,824 such workers respectively. However, in 2020 these numbers declined by 18 per cent, leaving the Canadian farm and seafood-processing industries fearful of the impacts of further cuts to the program for the 2021 season.

Travel ban poses big problems

With the travel ban restricting access to temporary foreign workers, employers considered lobbying the federal government to allow airlines to fly in foreign labour to Maritime airports. Other employers suggested they themselves would need to absorb the costs of chartered flights.

Charter flights have been used since the onset of the pandemic. In the spring of 2020, Germany and the United Kingdom used chartered flights to fly in eastern European workers to meet national farming demands.

Scholars and activists have been critical of this practice, asserting that these flights provide inadequate COVID-19 protections for the workers.

The risks were vividly illustrated by images of thousands of workers crowded together, without abiding by social distancing rules, at an airport in northern Romania waiting for their charter flights to Germany.

Academic research on the topic has documented the precarity and marginalization of temporary foreign workers, highlighting the fact that they frequently lack adequate access to health care and other government-related benefits.


Read more: COVID-19's impact on migrant workers adds urgency to calls for permanent status


They are also vulnerable to abusive occupational practices, including ineligibility for overtime pay and even dismissal and repatriation. Media accounts have also long documented unsafe occupational and substandard living conditions for migrant workers.

Such issues have been compounded during the pandemic, when the potential of contracting COVID-19, especially at work, has increased.

Overcrowding, inadequate housing

Our team is collecting interview data with temporary foreign workers in the Maritimes through our research partnership, Migrant Workers in the Canadian Maritimes — co-ordinated by Dalhousie University, St. Thomas University, Cooper Institute, the Filipino-Canadian CommUNITY of New Brunswick, as well as the national offices of KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

Our preliminary findings, drawn from interviews with participants in Prince Edward Island, indicate that COVID-19 protective measures have been inconsistently implemented for temporary foreign workers.

Migrant workers still frequently experience overcrowding and inadequate housing conditions. Many workers contend with precarious health and occupational conditions. And some experience illegal recruitment and employment practices, where much of the costs of employment are downloaded to the workers.

Workers tend to trees in a fruit orchard.
Migrant workers tend to fruit trees in Pereaux, N.S., in April 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

This is not the first time temporary foreign workers have been restricted from entering Canada during the pandemic. In April 2020, the New Brunswick government banned the entry of migrant workers into the province. Provincial officials framed the measure as protective, fearing for safety of the province’s residents.

Like the 2020 New Brunswick ban, the issue with January’s travel restrictions is twofold.

First, temporary foreign workers are uncritically positioned as a threat to national populations. Second, arguments against the travel ban are framed solely from a business perspective, prioritizing the concerns of farmers and seafood-manufacturing companies over the health and well-being of the workers.


Read more: Migrant worker segregation doesn't work: COVID-19 lessons from Southeast Asia


Steep price has been paid

Debates about public safety and temporary foreign workers continue largely without input from those whose health is likely to be most impacted. Migrant workers themselves are largely invisible amid abstract discussions about public risk. The narrative about the largely Black and brown people who work to put food on our tables paints them as risky, and ignores the steep price they’ve paid to work in Canada during the pandemic.

A glaring example is the outbreak at the Cargill meat-packing plant in Alberta and the experiences of personal support workers.

Protesters stand on the side of the road carrying a Lives Before Profits sign
Protesters stand on the side of the road as workers return to the Cargill beef processing plant in High River, Alta., that was closed for two weeks in May 2020 because of a deadly COVID-19 outbreak. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Government travel restrictions are used to protect the health and safety of some while potentially ignoring the health and safety of others. More specifically, while some argue for closing the borders to protect Canadians, others assert that migrant workers should be able to freely cross these boundaries, protecting Canadian food supplies while simultaneously putting their health at risk.

These notions about who can and should move demonstrates that some people are more valuable than others. Citizens are protected at home. Others are labouring at farms, putting themselves at greater risk of being infected.

Profits trump concerns about worker health

It would be a different story if the opposition to the travel restrictions was based on the fact that migrant workers are unable to make a living back home. That would place the workers’ concerns at the heart of these debates.

But that’s not the case. The industry is asking for travel exemptions so that the agricultural and fishing season can unfold as usual and profits can be made. The interests of workers are obscured while public attention centres on the industry’s interests.

Click here to listen to Don’t Call Me Resilient

Workers are caught between a rock and a hard place. Either they’re allowed to work and expose themselves to the risk of COVID-19 infection, or they’re prohibited, through travel restrictions, from entering the country and deprived from making a living.

Temporary foreign workers continue to be the pandemic’s collateral victims, put in harm’s way so Canadians don’t get infected while relishing the fruits of migrant workers’ labour at their dinner tables.

Raluca Bejan receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for the research project titled COVID-19 and the Health and Safety of Migrant Workers in Maritime Canada.

Kristi Allain receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

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US Spent More Than Double What It Collected In February, As 2024 Deficit Is Second Highest Ever… And Debt Explodes

US Spent More Than Double What It Collected In February, As 2024 Deficit Is Second Highest Ever… And Debt Explodes

Earlier today, CNBC’s…

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US Spent More Than Double What It Collected In February, As 2024 Deficit Is Second Highest Ever... And Debt Explodes

Earlier today, CNBC's Brian Sullivan took a horse dose of Red Pills when, about six months after our readers, he learned that the US is issuing $1 trillion in debt every 100 days, which prompted him to rage tweet, (or rageX, not sure what the proper term is here) the following:

We’ve added 60% to national debt since 2018. Germany - a country with major economic woes - added ‘just’ 32%.   

Maybe it will never matter.   Maybe MMT is real.   Maybe we just cancel or inflate it out. Maybe career real estate borrowers or career politicians aren’t the answer.

I have no idea.  Only time will tell.   But it’s going to be fascinating to watch it play out.

He is right: it will be fascinating, and the latest budget deficit data simply confirmed that the day of reckoning will come very soon, certainly sooner than the two years that One River's Eric Peters predicted this weekend for the coming "US debt sustainability crisis."

According to the US Treasury, in February, the US collected $271 billion in various tax receipts, and spent $567 billion, more than double what it collected.

The two charts below show the divergence in US tax receipts which have flatlined (on a trailing 6M basis) since the covid pandemic in 2020 (with occasional stimmy-driven surges)...

... and spending which is about 50% higher compared to where it was in 2020.

The end result is that in February, the budget deficit rose to $296.3 billion, up 12.9% from a year prior, and the second highest February deficit on record.

And the punchline: on a cumulative basis, the budget deficit in fiscal 2024 which began on October 1, 2023 is now $828 billion, the second largest cumulative deficit through February on record, surpassed only by the peak covid year of 2021.

But wait there's more: because in a world where the US is spending more than twice what it is collecting, the endgame is clear: debt collapse, and while it won't be tomorrow, or the week after, it is coming... and it's also why the US is now selling $1 trillion in debt every 100 days just to keep operating (and absorbing all those millions of illegal immigrants who will keep voting democrat to preserve the socialist system of the US, so beloved by the Soros clan).

And it gets even worse, because we are now in the ponzi finance stage of the Minsky cycle, with total interest on the debt annualizing well above $1 trillion, and rising every day

... having already surpassed total US defense spending and soon to surpass total health spending and, finally all social security spending, the largest spending category of all, which means that US debt will now rise exponentially higher until the inevitable moment when the US dollar loses its reserve status and it all comes crashing down.

We conclude with another observation by CNBC's Brian Sullivan, who quotes an email by a DC strategist...

.. which lays out the proposed Biden budget as follows:

The budget deficit will growth another $16 TRILLION over next 10 years. Thats *with* the proposed massive tax hikes.

Without them the deficit will grow $19 trillion.

That's why you will hear the "deficit is being reduced by $3 trillion" over the decade.

No family budget or business could exist with this kind of math.

Of course, in the long run, neither can the US... and since neither party will ever cut the spending which everyone by now is so addicted to, the best anyone can do is start planning for the endgame.

Tyler Durden Tue, 03/12/2024 - 18:40

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Buried Project Veritas Recording Shows Top Pfizer Scientists Suppressed Concerns Over COVID-19 Boosters, MRNA Tech

Buried Project Veritas Recording Shows Top Pfizer Scientists Suppressed Concerns Over COVID-19 Boosters, MRNA Tech

Submitted by Liam Cosgrove

Former…

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Buried Project Veritas Recording Shows Top Pfizer Scientists Suppressed Concerns Over COVID-19 Boosters, MRNA Tech

Submitted by Liam Cosgrove

Former Project Veritas & O’Keefe Media Group operative and Pfizer formulation analyst scientist Justin Leslie revealed previously unpublished recordings showing Pfizer’s top vaccine researchers discussing major concerns surrounding COVID-19 vaccines. Leslie delivered these recordings to Veritas in late 2021, but they were never published:

Featured in Leslie’s footage is Kanwal Gill, a principal scientist at Pfizer. Gill was weary of MRNA technology given its long research history yet lack of approved commercial products. She called the vaccines “sneaky,” suggesting latent side effects could emerge in time.

Gill goes on to illustrate how the vaccine formulation process was dramatically rushed under the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization and adds that profit incentives likely played a role:

"It’s going to affect my heart, and I’m going to die. And nobody’s talking about that."

Leslie recorded another colleague, Pfizer’s pharmaceutical formulation scientist Ramin Darvari, who raised the since-validated concern that repeat booster intake could damage the cardiovascular system:

None of these claims will be shocking to hear in 2024, but it is telling that high-level Pfizer researchers were discussing these topics in private while the company assured the public of “no serious safety concerns” upon the jab’s release:

Vaccine for Children is a Different Formulation

Leslie sent me a little-known FDA-Pfizer conference — a 7-hour Zoom meeting published in tandem with the approval of the vaccine for 5 – 11 year-olds — during which Pfizer’s vice presidents of vaccine research and development, Nicholas Warne and William Gruber, discussed a last-minute change to the vaccine’s “buffer” — from “PBS” to “Tris” — to improve its shelf life. For about 30 seconds of these 7 hours, Gruber acknowledged that the new formula was NOT the one used in clinical trials (emphasis mine):


“The studies were done using the same volume… but contained the PBS buffer. We obviously had extensive consultations with the FDA and it was determined that the clinical studies were not required because, again, the LNP and the MRNA are the same and the behavior — in terms of reactogenicity and efficacy — are expected to be the same.

According to Leslie, the tweaked “buffer” dramatically changed the temperature needed for storage: “Before they changed this last step of the formulation, the formula was to be kept at -80 degrees Celsius. After they changed the last step, we kept them at 2 to 8 degrees celsius,” Leslie told me.

The claims are backed up in the referenced video presentation:

I’m no vaccinologist but an 80-degree temperature delta — and a 5x shelf-life in a warmer climate — seems like a significant change that might warrant clinical trials before commercial release.

Despite this information technically being public, there has been virtually no media scrutiny or even coverage — and in fact, most were told the vaccine for children was the same formula but just a smaller dose — which is perhaps due to a combination of the information being buried within a 7-hour jargon-filled presentation and our media being totally dysfunctional.

Bohemian Grove?

Leslie’s 2-hour long documentary on his experience at both Pfizer and O’Keefe’s companies concludes on an interesting note: James O’Keefe attended an outing at the Bohemian Grove.

Leslie offers this photo of James’ Bohemian Grove “GATE” slip as evidence, left on his work desk atop a copy of his book, “American Muckraker”:

My thoughts on the Bohemian Grove: my good friend’s dad was its general manager for several decades. From what I have gathered through that connection, the Bohemian Grove is not some version of the Illuminati, at least not in the institutional sense.

Do powerful elites hangout there? Absolutely. Do they discuss their plans for the world while hanging out there? I’m sure it has happened. Do they have a weird ritual with a giant owl? Yep, Alex Jones showed that to the world.

My perspective is based on conversations with my friend and my belief that his father is not lying to him. I could be wrong and am open to evidence — like if boxer Ryan Garcia decides to produce evidence regarding his rape claims — and I do find it a bit strange the club would invite O’Keefe who is notorious for covertly filming, but Occam’s razor would lead me to believe the club is — as it was under my friend’s dad — run by boomer conservatives the extent of whose politics include disliking wokeness, immigration, and Biden (common subjects of O’Keefe’s work).

Therefore, I don’t find O’Keefe’s visit to the club indicative that he is some sort of Operation Mockingbird asset as Leslie tries to depict (however Mockingbird is a 100% legitimate conspiracy). I have also met James several times and even came close to joining OMG. While I disagreed with James on the significance of many of his stories — finding some to be overhyped and showy — I never doubted his conviction in them.

As for why Leslie’s story was squashed… all my sources told me it was to avoid jail time for Veritas executives.

Feel free to watch Leslie’s full documentary here and decide for yourself.

Fun fact — Justin Leslie was also the operative behind this mega-viral Project Veritas story where Pfizer’s director of R&D claimed the company was privately mutating COVID-19 behind closed doors:

Tyler Durden Tue, 03/12/2024 - 13:40

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Association of prenatal vitamins and metals with epigenetic aging at birth and in childhood

“[…] our findings support the hypothesis that the intrauterine environment, particularly essential and non-essential metals, affect epigenetic aging…

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“[…] our findings support the hypothesis that the intrauterine environment, particularly essential and non-essential metals, affect epigenetic aging biomarkers across the life course.”

Credit: 2024 Bozack et al.

“[…] our findings support the hypothesis that the intrauterine environment, particularly essential and non-essential metals, affect epigenetic aging biomarkers across the life course.”

BUFFALO, NY- March 12, 2024 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as “Aging (Albany NY)” and “Aging-US” by Web of Science) Volume 16, Issue 4, entitled, “Associations of prenatal one-carbon metabolism nutrients and metals with epigenetic aging biomarkers at birth and in childhood in a US cohort.”

Epigenetic gestational age acceleration (EGAA) at birth and epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) in childhood may be biomarkers of the intrauterine environment. In this new study, researchers Anne K. Bozack, Sheryl L. Rifas-Shiman, Andrea A. Baccarelli, Robert O. Wright, Diane R. Gold, Emily Oken, Marie-France Hivert, and Andres Cardenas from Stanford University School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Columbia University, and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai investigated the extent to which first-trimester folate, B12, 5 essential and 7 non-essential metals in maternal circulation are associated with EGAA and EAA in early life. 

“[…] we hypothesized that OCM [one-carbon metabolism] nutrients and essential metals would be positively associated with EGAA and non-essential metals would be negatively associated with EGAA. We also investigated nonlinear associations and associations with mixtures of micronutrients and metals.”

Bohlin EGAA and Horvath pan-tissue and skin and blood EAA were calculated using DNA methylation measured in cord blood (N=351) and mid-childhood blood (N=326; median age = 7.7 years) in the Project Viva pre-birth cohort. A one standard deviation increase in individual essential metals (copper, manganese, and zinc) was associated with 0.94-1.2 weeks lower Horvath EAA at birth, and patterns of exposures identified by exploratory factor analysis suggested that a common source of essential metals was associated with Horvath EAA. The researchers also observed evidence of nonlinear associations of zinc with Bohlin EGAA, magnesium and lead with Horvath EAA, and cesium with skin and blood EAA at birth. Overall, associations at birth did not persist in mid-childhood; however, arsenic was associated with greater EAA at birth and in childhood. 

“Prenatal metals, including essential metals and arsenic, are associated with epigenetic aging in early life, which might be associated with future health.”

 

Read the full paper: DOI: https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.205602 

Corresponding Author: Andres Cardenas

Corresponding Email: andres.cardenas@stanford.edu 

Keywords: epigenetic age acceleration, metals, folate, B12, prenatal exposures

Click here to sign up for free Altmetric alerts about this article.

 

About Aging:

Launched in 2009, Aging publishes papers of general interest and biological significance in all fields of aging research and age-related diseases, including cancer—and now, with a special focus on COVID-19 vulnerability as an age-dependent syndrome. Topics in Aging go beyond traditional gerontology, including, but not limited to, cellular and molecular biology, human age-related diseases, pathology in model organisms, signal transduction pathways (e.g., p53, sirtuins, and PI-3K/AKT/mTOR, among others), and approaches to modulating these signaling pathways.

Please visit our website at www.Aging-US.com​​ and connect with us:

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Click here to subscribe to Aging publication updates.

For media inquiries, please contact media@impactjournals.com.

 

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