Risk to Health and Longevity? A Hospital Environment: Beware

"[Victims are frequently denied] a full and robust explanation."

"Very, very seldom will a family leave a hospital after a loved one passes knowing that a medical error has even occurred."

"Nothing the nurses or doctors tell [investigators] about what happened that day will ever be made public."

"[Not every preventable harm warrants an investigation] but there's a total lack of transparency in the system."

Patient safety expert Darrell Horn"

"[Drs. Ross Baker and Peter Norton referred to a seminal American report published in 1999 that estimated as many as 98,000 Americans died each year as a result of preventable medical errors, calling for sweeping changes to make hospitals safer]. We realized -- and it's hard to believe this -- that people thought, 'well, this is just another flaw in the American system and we [in Canada] don't have to worry about that."

"[There's less transparency in Canada], I don't think politicians want to see this."

"One of the downsides of a publicly funded, publicly administered system is that there's a political element to it -- politicians feel they'll be beaten up [metaphorically] if there are too many reports about problems in the system."

"Nothing provides an incentive for change than to be involved in an event that turns out to have been preventable. It's heart rending. But if people don't feel that they have to report these events, and if they feel they're going to be blamed without a full investigation of all the causes, then you can't make progress on this."

Dr. Ross Baker

"There are areas where we have made fundamental changes in patient safety that influence our lives."

"The risk that I would be infected if I had the same surgery [her grandmother was infected with liver-destroying hepatitis through a blood transfusion before Canada began screening blood] today is fundamentally different."

"The folks in hospital now tend to have chronic conditions, tend to be older, and those are risk factors for harm."

"If  you're on ten medications, the chances that there's going to be a medication mix-up is higher than if  you're on one."

Jennifer Zelmer, president, Healthcare Excellence Canada

 

"It might all seem terribly unfair to hospitals But to a patient who trusts his life and well-being to a hospital, having a foreign object left in her body after surgery can result in pain, additional treatment and even death."

"And doesn't that seem -- what's the word -- unfair?"

David Goldhill, author, Catastrophic Care: Why Everything We Think We Know about Health Care is Wrong

Unintentional harm occurs to tens of thousands of people annually in hospitals throughout Canada, though most provinces and territories do not report publicly on "patient safety incidents". Some of which can include life-threatening medication errors, clamps, sponges or other "foreign bodies" erroneously overlooked and left in people following surgery; fatal bed sores caused by not mobilizing or turning patients that eat away at the underlying tissue. 

Several decades following a watershed report, it has been estimated that up to 23,750 individuals experience an adverse event and subsequently die in hospitals in Canada every year, from preventable errors, mishaps and "clinical misadventures" as they are called occasionally. Harm to patients hospitalized remains a deadly threat. Primum non nocere: "above all do no harm", an enduring medical ethic that is recognized and respected, but will not necessarily be guaranteed with each and every hospital admission.

Paramedics transfer patients to the emergency room triage at Toronto’s Humber River Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic, but must leave them in the hallway due to full capacity. Photo by Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press/

 

One in 17 hospitalizations in 2021/22 amounting to roughly 140,000 hospital stays out of 2.4 million in total hospitalizations, resulted in someone having a harmful event sufficiently significant to require treatment, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Harms in emergency rooms are not catalogued, and neither are "near misses", or harm due to a misdiagnosis, harms in rehabilitation or mental care, or harms that begin in hospital but detected once the person arrives back home.

Laws of legal privilege intended to encourage hospital staff involved in critical incidents to speak freely during investigations without fear what they say will be used against them, provide a formidable blanket of secrecy, according to claims made by patient safety advocates. Hospitals are obliged to disclose an error, but there's confusion around what "facts" should be given to families, or even what constitutes preventable harm. There is no consensus "on the terminology, categorization or tracking" of events across Canada.

Although some people have sued for botched surgeries or for example, the misdiagnosis of a life-altering stroke in a 40-year-old, as vertigo -- the financial or emotional wherewithal to challenge hospital insurers or the Canadian Medical Protective Association, a defence fund for doctors whose membership premiums are subsidized heavily by taxpayers -- remains a deterrent for most people. In defending doctors, CMPA lawyers pursue a "scorched earth policy" when their clients are accused of negligent medical care.

 

In an effort to reduce errors, protocols such as surgical checklists, a series of steps operated by surgical teams to ensure the right person is on the gurney, the right side of the body to be operated on has been identified, the area has been clipped to prevent bacterial infections in surgical incisions, are followed. Not all adverse events are preventable; slightly over a third are judged preventable in the Baker-Norton report. Even excellent hospitals can have bad outcomes. 

 

Yet critical incidents that should never occur under any circumstance keep happening in every jurisdiction in the country. According to Ontario's auditor general, between 2014 and 2019, ten of 15 "never events" (events so egregious they should have have occurred) occurred at least 214 times at six of the 13 hospitals auditors reviewed. People make mistakes. Serious or deadly mishaps are caused most often by a flawed system rather than the actions of one single person. 

 

Hospital secrets: One in 17 Canadian patients harmed by mistakes that sometimes turn deadly

The Approaching Reality of All-Electric-Vehicles

"[I'm standing up for a] silent majority [in the auto industry that] is wondering whether EVs are really OK to have as a single option [for car buyers]."

"Certain groups seek to use the name of the environment but what I'm preaching is based on the reality of users in a number of markets."

Akio Toyoda, President, Toyota Motors

 

"If this … EV market share requirement is implemented, within the proposed time frame, it will impact every aspect of the auto industry in the form of lost jobs and dramatic price hikes for both EVs and gasoline models."

"These increases will either drive the price of new vehicles beyond the average American’s budget or put multiple global automakers in financial peril. Likely both, in that order."

Karl Brauer, executive analyst, iSeeCars, Boston area car-search website

An Electrify America Charging Station for vehicles is seen at Westfield Old Orchard shopping center in Skokie, Illinois, Jan. 29, 2023. Consumer concerns about electric vehicles include reduced driving range in cold weather.  Nam Y. Huh/AP

Polls in the U.S. and Canada suggest concerns relating to range anxiety and doubts with respect to limited charging infrastructure and the capacity of the electricity grid to deliver a massive transformation are genuine. Including concerns surrounding affordability of EVs, 'green' subsidies aside. Attitudes expressed negatively on EVs in Canada are more so than in the United States, with its absence of carbon tax. 

Companies such as Honda and General Motors have gone so far as to set dates for the time their lineups will represent EV exclusively; similarly, governments in Canada and the United States have set their own arbitrary dates for like action; the latter informing the former. Toyota's president, grandson of the founder of the company, has a preference for his company to offer a variety of environmentally friendly, hybrid-electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles as well as traditional gas-powered automobiles.

His plan is to serve clients in world regions where charging infrastructure is inadequate and where electricity is generated by carbon-emitting fossil fuels. For Mr. Toyoda his recognized reality runs against the messages clamoured by climate evangelists. His expressed market opinion attracted attacks from regulators, environmental groups and shareholders in Scandinavia, New York and California.

The reaction to his unacceptable market-client-oriented take on EVs and still-conventional vehicles was that several American and European ESG-induced funds made an effort to remove Toyoda from his board seat, citing governance issues and the role he played in preventing Toyota from exclusively accepting electric vehicle production. The response was retention of his seat of authority with an 85 percent majority.

Akio Toyoda faced a "one-size-fits-all" bureaucratic mentality when he assumed leadership in 2009 of the family business. He made his mark expeditiously by adapting production to variant regional needs, including an affordable truck for emerging markets; expanding Toyota's global footprint which turned the company back to profit soon afterward. Toyota has grown consistently since then to the point of becoming the world's largest automaker through vehicle sales.

Now chairman, Mr. Toyoda's decision to moderate the company away from an exclusive focus on EV production presents as an example of compelling common sense. While not abandoning EV production, Toyota recently claimed its intention to produce a solid-state battery with a 1,200-kilometre range, able to charge in ten minutes or less; a major game-changer, addressing serious reservations with respect to current EV models.

J.D. Power in March found that 21 percent of new vehicle shoppers in the United States to be "very unlikely" to consider n EV purchase, up from 18.9 percent the month before. About 26.9 percent stated themselves to be "very likely" to consider an EV purchase. In Canada, a similar J.D. Power survey revealed a majority (66 percent) were either "very unlikely" or "somewhat unlikely" to consider an EV purchase, up from 53 percent in 2022.

According to Gallup, public sentiment in the U.S. is sharply split, with 43 percent saying they "might consider" buying an EV in the future; 41 percent  unequivocally saying they "would not". Only four percent of Americans own an EV, while 21 percent are "seriously considering" a purchase. Unmentioned for the most part in the EV debate is the threat posed to the environment by EVs powered by liquid-state, lithium-ion batteries; as well the extent to which any charging facilities are powered by fossil fuels.

 

Rivian Automotive's electric vehicle factory in Normal, Illinois. Reuters

 

Since EV assembly requires 30 to 40 percent less labour, North American autoworker unions worry about a loss of employment. The negative effect of the EV transition on auto parts manufacturers is yet another troubling issue politically. The largest lobbying organization in the U.S., the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, is openly challenging the Biden administration's proposal requiring two-thirds of new passenger vehicles sold be "all electric" by 2032. The goal "cannot be met without substantially increasing the cost of vehicles and reducing customer choice". 

As companies flood the American market with bloated inventories of EVs, buyers remain wary, according to Axios, with supply running well ahead of demand. Long-haul truck operators and farm equipment users are being threatened with arbitrary and unrealistic standards for electrification by California and eight other states that would increase transportation costs and disrupt transportation of food, clothing and other necessities across the U.S.

Associated Press

 

Ukrainian Counteroffensive's Slow But Steady Advance

"[The defence ministry's daily intelligence update said there was a] realistic possibility [the warship] will form part of a task group to intercept commercial vessels Russia believes are heading to Ukraine."

"[At the same time, Ukraine's ministry of defence said Russian forces were] practising blocking sea areas, detecting and destroying ships."

"Obviously, the Russians are practising destroying civilian vessels that will be sent to and from the ports of Ukraine [the ministry stated]."

U.K. Ministry of Defence

 

"We're two months into the Ukrainian counteroffensive."

"It's still slow progress being made. But we're still waiting for the Ukrainians to commit a second echelon against whichever axis they depend upon."

"[Troop advances have been [very slow [and hampered by heavily fortified Russian defences and poor weather]."

Unnamed Western official 

"Ukraine has long been the bread basket not just for its neighbors in the region or for Europe, but for the world. Blockades on ports in the Black Sea are holding thousands of tons of wheat, grain and fertilizer hostage - with devastating consequences for millions already caught in growing hunger crises worldwide. These blockades must be lifted immediately."

"In places like Ethiopia, where 8.6 million are going hungry as the region is pushed into a catastrophic hunger crisis, the UN humanitarian appeals remain less than one-third funded. These millions are being doubly punished as life-saving supplies are held hostage."

"The war in Ukraine and its knock-on effects on other humanitarian contexts cannot be underestimated, and are a tragic representation of the System Failure of the international community to address and prevent humanitarian suffering."

International Rescue Committee

According to British and Ukrainian intelligence officials, Russia is deploying naval vessels that have the potential to blockade Ukraine's ports. Aligned with that is an expectation that Russia is in preparation to attack civilian shipping. The newly commissioned Sergey Kotov, a Russian corvette, has been deployed to the southern Black Sea for the purpose of patrolling shipping between the Bosphorus and Odessa, according to the U.K. Ministry of Defence.

 

This handout photo released by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service shows a Russian navy ship during drills in the Black Sea.

 

This is a cruise missile-armed patrol ship and its movement to this new location follows less then ten days after Russia declared its intention to remove itself from an humanitarian agreement that would allow the safe passage of Ukrainian grain. Simultaneously, Moscow warned that any agencies that attempted to convey Ukrainian grain, would heretofore risk being regarded by the Russian navy as representing an enemy vessel carrying weaponry, and be bombed. Cargo ships linked to Ukraine grain would be sunk.

The Telegraph was informed by one naval source that it was not clear whether Russia possessed the capability to attack international shipping, but the issuance of the threat would likely be sufficient to warn international shipping off any plans to risk misadventure by challenging Russia's serious intent. It could be assured that maritime insurers would withhold cover, effectively stopping any cargo vessels transiting the Black Sea.

 

Members of a Ukrainian military brigade of military drones carry out manoeuvres and missions during a morning in the Kherson area Credit: Hector Adolfo Quintanar Perez/Zuma Press / eyevine

 

Russia has prepared a vast array of fortifications and defences along the southern front lines which contain some of the densest minefields ever before seen by combat veterans; a mix of anti-personnel and anti-tank mines laid, reset to drastically stall possible Ukrainian advances toward the main Russian lines of defence. Kyiv's forces meanwhile, are pushing forward slowly on three main axes of attack; south out of Orikhiv in Zaporizhzhia, and Velkya Novosilka in Donetsk and on the southern and northern flanks of Bakhmut.

In their slow-going efforts and careful approach, the Ukrainian troops have frequently had little option but to dismount from their armoured vehicles to wade through the minefields by foot, taking care as they demine by hand, while gradually pressing forward.

"[Kyiv's troops have pushed forward on the southern flank of the eastern city of Bakhmut]. In the city of Bakhmut itself, shelling continues from both sides. The enemy is intensively firing, including from large caliber machine guns, ATGMs, and has deployed a surveillance system."

"The enemy is active in the Kupiansk and Lymansk directions. Today there were several attempts to advance, but failed and suffered losses."

"Fighting continues in the Avdiiv direction. The enemy is unsuccessfully trying to advance. But our defenders do not leave him any chance." 

"[In the south, in the direction of Berdyansk and Melitopol, Ukraine's soldiers are] gradually but confidently advancing."

Ukraine's deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar 

The Verdict on Canada's COVID-19 Challenge

"Beneath the surface of a general sense of satisfaction lie major pandemic failures. [A] particular disgrace [was the mass COVID outbreaks and deaths at long-term care homes; Canada leads wealthy nations for COVID-related fatalities in care homes, despite more than 100 reports and inquiries over 50 years that foreshadowed a nursing home crisis.]."

"[Overall], what saved Canada was a largely willing and conforming populace that withstood stringent public health measures and achieved among the world's highest levels of vaccination coverage."

"In other words, Canadians delivered on the pandemic response while its governments faltered."

"A disturbing COVID fallout is the growing and social political divisiveness, which is ignored at Canada's peril."  

"For health workers, the post-pandemic feeling is exacerbation -- even rage about the inertia of governments, health authorities and professional medical associations and their failure to tackle the depth of the dysfunction in Canada's health-care system."

British Medical Journal editorial

 

"[Each province and territory created its own rules for school closures, mask mandates, vaccine mandates, limits on public gatherings, curfews and lock-downs], leading to substantial variation in policy and practice across the country, widely varying hospital admission rates and public confusion."

"In the absence of a coordinated pandemic planning authority, the supporting evidence and rationale for different rules in different places were often unclear."

"As the pandemic progressed, public confusion arose from jurisdictional inconsistencies in advice and case reporting."

Tania Bubela, dean of health sciences and colleagues, Simon Fraser University 

Patients fought for their lives in Ontario ICUs in the pandemic. CBC News at Toronto’s Scarborough Health Network

 

A major review of the Canadian response to the global pandemic in enacting mandates that became harsh public health restrictions was published in the prestigious international journal, the British Medical Journal, accusing the Canadian government of squandering early leadership on vaccine research, then choosing to spend billions on the purchase off vaccines; in the final analysis becoming the most prominent of "hoarders" of the global COVID vaccine supply worldwide.

Seven linked articles were published in the Journal, painting a picture of an "ill-prepared country hampered by out-dated data systems, poor coordination and cohesion and blindness about its citizens' diverse needs", wrote the senior editors of the BMJ with their Canadian colleagues in an editorial that launched the investigative series. In the final analysis, Canada wound up with an oversupply of vaccines with tens of millions of doses expiring before they could be used.

Lacking an independent federal inquiry, which the BMJ series authors call for, "allows others to step into the frame"; one cited was the "National Citizens Inquiry" that "appears fuelled by vaccine safety misinformation and ideological concerns" linked to stringent COVID measures and is far from the full, national and public inquiry led by independent experts that Canada's pandemic performance deserves".

 

People wait in line at a COVID-19 testing facility is in Burnaby, B.C., on Aug. 12, 2020. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

 

While on the surface, compared with the "shambolic" U.K. response and the "chaos and divisiveness" of the American response, "Canada may seem to have risen to the occasion of COVID-19. We wouldn't know because no pandemic inquiry has been established by its federal governments,health authorities and professional medical associations and their failure to tackle the depth of the dysfunction in Canada's healthcare system."

"Were lives lost as a result of the broken systems? Were decisions by governments taken appropriately and equitably?These are questoins that need to be put to a public national inquiry", stated Dr. Jocalyn Clark, international editor of the BMJ who commissioned the series and wrote the lead editorial. A sense of "deja vu of a lot of things that were raised" after the SARS-CoV-1 outbreak in 2002-04, she noted, including squabbling and dysfunctional relationships between different levels of government.

"If any nation, Canada should have been prepared. This series shows they weren't sufficiently prepared." There were more long-term care home outbreaks in 2022 than 2020 and 2021 combined, according to Dr. Sharon Straus, physician-in-chief at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. Residents received less medical care, more anti-psychotic drugs and severely restricted visits from loved ones leading to devastating levels of depression and loneliness.

 

There was a lack of personal protective equipment for underpaid and undervalued staff, not enough wound care supplies and even bed linens. "Military personnel reported hearing residents crying out for help from 30 minutes to two hours, while awaiting staff response", when the Canadian Armed Forces were deployed to seven Ontario long-term care homes. Residents were not appropriately bathed or toileted. At one home alone twenty-six people died from dehydration before the military arrived to give help. 

By 2022's end, Canada had administered close to 92 million doses internally, at the same time delivering fewer than 29 million abroad for the use of less developed nations under an agreed vaccine-sharing plan administered by an arm of the United Nations. Good news? in Canada's handling of COVID, the country realized one of the lowest reported rates of cases and deaths per population compared to most other countries in the G10, becoming one of the most vaccinated in the world.

A COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Vancouver Convention Centre pictured in Vancouver on Jan. 13, 2022. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

"Pandemics are mass events from which few can escape."

"Like putting a fire out in a neighbour's yard, delivering vaccines wherever they can most effectively reduce transmission is the best use of scarce resources."

"[The distinction between national and global interests] becomes moot."

Kelley Lee, Canada research chair in global health and governance

 

"[Canada contributed to] devastating [COVID deaths by not sharing enough vaccines]."

"Canada was judiciously ungenerous and unsavvy in its global behaviour, despite repeated pledges by its prime minister to delivery global solidarity during COVID-19."

British Medical Journal editorial

The Evil That Deserves Human Rights Consideration

"I dare say that all of the people in Ontario and perhaps Canada have felt ... the revulsion of the crimes which you have committed Mr. Bernardo."

"[Crimes] of such a brutal nature as to compel the conclusion that your behaviour in the future is unlikely to be inhibited by normal standards of behavioural restraint. The behavioural restraints that you require is jail."

"You require it, in my view, for the rest of your natural life."

"You are a sexually sadistic psychopath. The likelihood of you being treated is remote in the extreme."

Judge Patrick LeSage, 1995

 

"The Parole Board of Canada also noted that other psychiatrists concurred with previous diagnosis of sexual sadism and psychopathy, thereby representing a 'significant risk for reoffending'."

"They felt that treatment would be unsuccessful given Mr. Bernardo's personality characteristics and sexual pathology'."

"Bernardo was found to be 'callous, glib, grandiose, cunning, deceptive, manipulative and a liar'. Further, the board found that Bernardo had a complete lack of understanding of the impact of his offending and violent and sadistic behaviour."

Tim Danson, lawyer for Mahaffy and French families

Canada’s prison service is now reviewing its decision to move notorious serial killer and rapist Paul Bernardo from a maximum-security prison to a medium security facility. The transfer has sparked outrage across Canada’s political landscape. Bernardo is serving a life sentence for the murders of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy in the early 1990s.  CBC

Child serial killer, serial rapist, Paul Bernardo was sentenced by Judge Patrick LeSage to life in prison. Which in Canada generally means 25 years. However, in Bernardo's case, in reflection of his horrendous crimes where others could be sentenced to a 25-year life sentence, and could appeal to a parole board; his sentence distinctly noted that he could not do so. A man utterly lacking conscience and empathy for others, his persona reveals the classic signposts of a psychopath: devious, narcissistic, utterly lacking in empathy or remorse.

 

Before he was identified and placed behind bars he admitted to at least 18 rapes, at a time when this predator had a wide geographic area transfixed with fear over a serial rapist, women forced to take precautionary measures in the hope they would not become one of his victims. Matters took a turn when he -- with his willing wife's assistance -- kidnapped Leslie Mahaffy age 14, and Kristen French, 15, torturing them, raping them and murdering them. He raped and killed the young sister of his wife Karla Homolka.

When both were arrested and police were desperate to find hard evidence, Karla Homolka struck a plea agreement with police, directing them to a light fixture in the bathroom of their house where incriminating videos of her husband's crimes could be found. Her reduced sentence in exchange for her eagerness to provide evidence was, in fact, a miscarriage of justice. She is now free, has remarried and is raising children of her own, a woman who aided and abetted her husband's unspeakable crimes for her own pleasure.

 

Karla Homolka in St. Catharines July 6, 1993. (Frank Gunn/CP)

Recently the Correctional Services of Canada revealed that the hatefully notorious child rapist/murderer was being transferred to a medium-security institution from the maximum security prisons he was installed within for the past 28 years and public opinion was instant and furious. The families of the two girls he murdered were informed of the transfer the very day it took place. The Liberal government minister responsible for public safety and the prime minister denied any knowledge of the situation.

When the public and political uproar took place the commissioner of the Correctional Services noted that the CSA was simply following the law through an amendment to the Corrections and Conditional Release Act made by the Liberal government in 2019 called the "least restrictive environment" possible that inmates must be placed in. The view is that criminals have human rights that must be upheld, irrespective of the severity of any reprehensible criminal acts they engage in; a 'progressive' view that eschews retribution.

Lawyer Tim Danson wrote to Anne Kelly, the CSC Commissioner reminding that Bernardo had demonstrated no remorse, and continued to demonstrate signs of being the "sexually sadistic psychopath" he was at his trial, even after 28 years of incarceration. In 2021 a Parole Board hearing concluded that Bernardo remained a sexual sadist with psychopathic traits; at high risk of displaying violent, sexual behaviour. "At both parole hearings, the PBC found that Bernardo showed no remorse, insight or empathy", wrote Danson to the commissioner.

Kristen French, left, was 15 and Leslie Mahaffy was 14 when they were kidnapped, tortured and killed by Bernardo. (Handout/The Canadian Press)

"This man is a monster, devoid of even a scintilla of humanity, decency, remorse or empathy."

"At the same time, he is skilfully cunning and manipulative."

Tim Danson

The Illogical Hysteria of Polarizing Ideologies

"In a society as ideologically, socially and religiously diverse as Israel, the parliamentary process is the only way to achieve compromise and modus vivendi."

"Three decades of judicial high-handedness has created clear winners and losers, and has brought the country to the boiling point."

"Judicial reform is essential to return democratic power to Israel's citizens."

Russell Avraham Shalev, lawyer/researcher, Kohelet Policy Forum

"Fulfilling the will of the voter is by no means the end of democracy, it is the essence of democracy." "[The passage of the law is] a necessary democratic move."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, is surrounded by lawmakers at a session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, Israel, Monday, July 24. Maya Alleruzzo/AP

In the Netanyahu government, the newly sworn-in justice minister Yariv Levin announced a proposal to reform the Israeli judicial system after three decades of the Supreme Court of Israel's self-entitled blatant political power grabs. In most democratic countries of the world the federal judiciary is tasked with interpreting national law and reviewing important national issues of justice. It is left to the elected government of the day to actually make new laws and uphold existing laws. 

The announcement resulted in an immediate backlash from the left-wing population of this country of diverse views and strong opinions. Large waves of dissenting protesters have taken to the streets to commit acts of civil disobedience claiming that the new government which had ushered out its left-wing predecessor government, was planning to de-democratize the nation and they wouldn't stand for it. The government stuck to its intention and the demonstrations became louder, larger and more undisciplined.

It is, in fact, the social activism of a largely left-leaning court that has unilaterally interfered with the legitimate work of duly democratically elected governments that have altered the democratic nature of the country at its fullest, when the court could demand that the government obey its decision-making, overriding the decisions made by government itself.

In essence that democratic deficit has succeeded in curtailing Israeli citizens' political rights originating from the 1990s "constitutional revolution" led by the then-Supreme Court president to the point where policy values and disagreements become resolved by judicial fiat, elected officials consigned to a secondary role. Based on the Westminster system of parliamentary supremacy, courts lack the power to strike down laws.

A small minority of Knesset members in a lame duck government in 1992 passed a narrow bill affirming Israel's commitment to human rights known as Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty; a private member's bill. Knesset members were assured by the bill's proponents it would not endow the court with power to strike down laws.

Once the bill was passed, however, the Supreme Court declared Israel had given itself a judicially created constitution, for based on the Basic Law text, the court was free to dictate Israel's immigration, security and economic policy; no field was left out of the court's domain. The result is certainly unique, for there is no parallel anywhere in the world for such a court with the power of constitutional review lacking an actual constitution.

Unique also among democratic nations, Israel's Supreme Court justices have veto over their successors; such veto prevents selection of any potential jurists who may seek to challenge the philosophy of the reigning activist justices. The most serious of institutional coups of the Israeli Supreme Court is the conferral on the attorney general of veto power over government; Israel's AG, a civil servant, is able to prohibit government policy or action.

In its planned reform proposal the Netanyahu government plans to restore badly needed balance to Israel's branches of government, in the process guaranteeing equal and consistent rules for both left and right. It has been explained in good faith to the opponents to the plan both in the Knesset and the protesting public at large from every sphere of society that the democratic nature of the nation will be enhanced, not impaired. 

 

A person stands in front of an Israeli police water cannon being used to disperse demonstrators blocking a road during a protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to overhaul the judicial system, in Jerusalem, Monday, July 24, 2023. Israeli lawmakers on Monday approved a key portion of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's divisive plan to reshape the country's justice system despite massive protests that have exposed unprecedented fissures in Israeli society. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

 

The unreasoning passion of the left will not be appeased, nor will it listen to reason or reasonable debate. Each planned protest whips up public emotions while demolishing the clarity of reason for those who are certain of the justice of their demands that the 30-year imbalance and unreasonable switch between government and the Supreme Court be left untouched in the interests of honouring Democracy. They willfully fail to realize or wish to understand they are supporting the reversal.

Western Businesses in Sanctioned Russia

"The Kremlin's approach has been as follows: If they[western companies] wish to leave, let them depart, but not before extracting a hefty toll."

"And then it shifted to a mindset of: Why should we pay? Let's simply take it."

"People have lost their capital outside Russia, but they are being compensated domestically. They can make the same money they lost in the U.K. or wherever again."

"They are making money n Russia now. They forgot about this house in France or this yacht. They will build new yachts in Turkey and buy new houses in Dubai."

Unnamed Russian oligarch/commentator 

"This is renationalization. Private property is technically owned by the state but controlled by individuals appointed by those in power."

"These mini-, midi-, and macro-oligarchs are required to share super-profits with the state and consider the interests of the ruling group."

"The beneficiaries are those who enjoy Putin's trust and deserve his gratitude, such as Kadyrov. This is a mixture of state capitalism and feudalism."

Andrei Kolesnikov, senior fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

The Danone dairy plant in Chekhov, Russia. Maxim Shipenkov / EPA / ТАСС

 

The opportunity has yet again presented itself in Russia to acquire factories and other foreign enterprises owned by western companies wishing to withdraw their investments from Russia, or simply uncertain how they wish to proceed, as a result of Moscow's 'special military operation' in Ukraine. The current situation can model itself after the dissolution of the Soviet Union when those connected to the Kremlin, the oligarchs grabbed prime assets at bargain-basement prices. 

"This is like Venezuela", observed a senior Moscow businessman. "They're giving the best to their cronies ... and then everything will go to s---t". Back then when the Soviet Union collapsed it was state enterprises that went under the directed hammer, now western assets are on offer and to take advantage of those offers prospective buyers require simply to be close to the Russian president for the rewards that privilege brings.

 

Baltika Breweries. Alexander Demyanchuk / TASS

Some western companies announced their plans to divest from Russia in the early months of last year's invasion. The result of sanctions making business more complex than the investments were worth to their owners, along with the reputational fall-out from remaining in Russia. Data from the Kyiv School of Economics state that fewer than 300 of over 3,350 large foreign companies owning assets in Russia have left, with roughly 500 in the process of withdrawing.

For those that remain -- including PepsiCo. Inc., Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris, Mars Inc., UniCredit SpA and RaiffelsenbankAS -- the situation has become more urgent. On July 16, Vladimir Putin signed an order to nationalize Russian operations of DanoneSA and CarlsbergAS; until then both companies were among the hundreds finalizing sales to local buyers, just awaiting state approval. Both now are in effect controlled by regime loyalists. 

 

Danone's business will now be run by a close relative of Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's leader. The new head of Carlsberg's Baltika brewer is now Taimuraz Bolloev, a personal friend of Mr. Putin. Already subject to stricter exit conditions than those that had immediately left Russia when the war began, in the past few months the minimum criteria for withdrawal changed. Sales must have a discount of at least 50 percent to market value while ten percent of the sales proceeds become allocated to the Russian budget.

The first to fall under this new approach, played by the Kremlin's rules was the "sale" of Nissan and Renault's Russian assets for a nominal fee of a few rubles to a state-backed research institute. A seizure of the assets of two power companies, Germany's Uniper SE and Finnish company Fortum Oyj followed by an order allowing assets of western companies considered "naughty" to be appropriated back in April, by President Putin.

Frozen Russian assets in Europe precipitated the Kremlin's attitude to western businesses operating in Russia. After a court in Leipzig rejected state oil giant Rosneft's appeal against Germany's decision to place the company's assets under the control of the regulator, the seizure of Uniper and Fortum took place. All of this enabling the Kremlin the use of western assets to buy the loyalty of the country's business elite who decided to remain in Russia because of western sanctions.

Denis Manturov, Russia's trade minister on Tuesday informed state newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta that Russia would "actively use the mechanism of introducing external management" in response to 'unethical behaviour' by western owners. Hinting that after the nationalizations of Danone and Carlsberg, other western companies' nationalization would follow.

Foreign investors are uncertain how they will be treated, since the Kremlin has set out no clear rules surrounding nationalization. "There is no system as to who gets permission to sell, even at a deep discount, and who simply loses everything. All that matters is whether the asset is valuable or wanted by someone close to Putin", one person advising on an ongoing exit, remarked.

"The second time you do something suggests it wasn’t a one-off, so everybody has to be worried now." 

"[The timing and nature of the Kremlin’s swoop could also be a response to last month’s Wagner mercenary mutiny, with Putin now] prepared to engage in flagrant violation of investor property rights in order to keep friends."

"If Russia is going to seize Western corporate assets anyway, or put them under permanent threat, then that undermines the argument that some kind of bargain can be reached between Western assets in Russia and the immobilized central bank assets held in Western financial jurisdictions."

Nigel Gould-Davies, senior fellow for Russia & Eurasia, International Institute for Strategic Studies

 

"[Danone and Carlsberg were paying the price for being too slow and indecisive over their plans to leave]."

"Both firms could have written off these assets five, 10, or 15 months ago — and enjoyed the surge of stock value where financial markets rewarded 1,050 other multinationals for their courage in doing the right thing."

"Instead, they vacillated, perhaps due to greed or cowardice … Putin seized upon this management weakness."

Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Yale School of Management

Vladimir Putin’s legislation will require all private Russian buyers of western assets to be fully Russian-held or in a process to exclude all foreign shareholders Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool/AP

 

Grain, As A Weapon of War

"Such attacks by Russian terrorists are not only affecting our country but also global stability."

"The corridor must be secure. In fact, knowing Russia, it won't be safe unless the UN starts working very clearly and firmly at the level of the secretary general."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

 

"[If Ukraine cannot export food], the population of the poorest countries will be on the brink of survival!"

"The price of grain will increase, and not all countries will be able to afford buying agricultural products, which means food prices will significantly rise: flour, cereals, meat."

Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi

A grain warehouse destroyed by a Russian drone strike is seen in a sea port, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Odesa Region, Ukraine, July 24, 2023. Press Service of the Operational Command South of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout via Reuters

This has long ago been demonstrated not to be a just or a moral war, the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the pretense that Russia was proactively protecting itself from the nefarious plans of Ukrainian 'Nazis' set on destroying Russia. The principal Nazi, a Jewish-Ukrainian president, whose family members were Nazi Holocaust victims, has pledged to the population whose welfare he represents that every inch of Ukrainian land that Moscow has stolen will be returned to Ukraine. This is what makes him a Nazi as far as Vladimir Putin is concerned.

 

The president of the Russian Federation, intent on restoring Russia to its preeminent position of Eastern Europe Hegemon with himself at its helm, is outraged that Ukraine is fighting back -- is counterattacking, is reclaiming some of the vast territory that Vladimir Putin summarily absorbed as Russian territory and as such exempt from any claims by Ukraine -- actually sending bombs and drones and expeditionary groups over the border into Russian territory to wreak there a micro-violence of the macro-violence that Russia is conducting in Ukraine.

The Russian elites have no compunction over the fact that their troops on order from the Kremlin, are attacking civilian enclaves, civilian infrastructure, bombing apartment buildings, hospitals, schools, and committing war crimes. They echo their president's rage over Ukraine's 'terrorist' attacks on Russian targets. Theirs, Putin claims, is a just cause, to rid the world of fascists, even as Russian actions are fascist to their very core.

Russia daily proves to the world at large its moral core in bombing Ukraine port cities and their grain storage facilities where in one fell swoop 60,000 tons of grain were destroyed in an attack just south of the port city of Odesa, enough to feed 270,000 people for a year in a hungry world. Russia warned the world that any maritime vessels intending to help ship Ukraine grain shipments out of Black Sea ports would be regarded as enemy ships carrying weapons to aid Ukraine, and they would be destroyed.

 

Buildings in the Black Sea port city of Odesa lie in ruins after a third successive night of bombing by Russia   AP

 "If this grain is not only stopped but [also] destroyed . . . this is going to create a huge food crisis in the world. It is a very grave situation. This consideration that any ship [is considered as] a war ship and so a target for the military activities of Russia, is a step further in order to continue preventing Ukraine from exporting their grains."

"[The] massive air attacks [showed Russia’s] barbarian attitude which will be taken into consideration by the Council [of foreign ministers] today."

"The ministers will have to discuss how to proceed, but there is only one solution: to increase the military support to Ukraine. If they are being bombed, we have to provide anti-aerial capacities."

Josep Borrell, EU foreign and defence chief

 
"Hundreds of thousands of people, not to say millions, urgently need the grain from Ukraine, which is why we are working with all our international partners so that the grain in Ukraine does not rot in silos in the next few weeks, but reaches the people of the world who urgently need it."

"Putin hasn't just blown up the Black Sea Grain Initiative; now he has hit the port city of Odesa with a hail of bombs." 

"In doing that, he is robbing the world of any hope of Ukrainian grain. Every one of his bombs also hits the world's poorest."

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock

Russia has repeatedly attacked the Ukrainian port city of Odesa in the days since it withdrew from the grain deal   Getty Images

How Goes Ukraine's Counteroffensive With Cluster Bombs?

"They are using them appropriately."

"They're using them effectively and they are actually having an impact on Russia's defensive formations and Russia's defensive manoeuvring."

"I think I can leave it at that." 

U.S. National Security Spokesman John Kirby

 

"[Ukrainian forces need the weapons to] inflict maximum damage on enemy infantry."

"We'd like to get very fast results, but in reality it's practically impossible. The more infantry who die here, the more their relatives back in Russia will ask their government 'why?'"  

"[Cluster munitions would not] solve all our problems." 

"[Their use was controversial, but]: If the Russians didn't use them, perhaps conscience would not allow us to do it too."

General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander, Ukrainian eastern operations 

A Russian bomblet fired in Kharkiv earlier in the war   Reuters

"We were filming the Ukrainian army during target practice when suddenly we heard several explosions."

"We lay down, more explosions followed, we saw people were wounded. "

"Later, the Ukrainian army confirmed that we had been fired at with cluster munitions."

DW correspondent Mathias Bölinger, Saturday, July 22, 2023

Ukraine is putting U.S.-provided cluster munitions to work against Russian forces in south-eastern Ukraine with the intention of making some headway in plans to break up the well-fortified Russian positions responsible for slowing Ukraine's summer offensive. President Joe Biden made the "difficult decision" to order delivery of the widely banned munitions, giving human rights groups, European allies and some Democrats reason to criticize the move, with the risk to civilians uppermost of concern.

 

Referring to cluster munitions, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened retaliation "if they are used against us", irrespective of the witnessed reality of Russia having previously used cluster munitions in populated areas of Ukraine on an estimated 24 occasions since the beginning of the February 24, 2022 invasion by Moscow; a number verified by the United Nations. 

 

And sure enough, a DW cameraman was injured Saturday by shrapnel from Russian cluster munitions that also killed a Ukrainian soldier and wounded several others near the town of Druzhkivka, in the eastern Donetsk region.

 

Outlawed in over 120 countries, cluster bombs explode while airborne over a target, releasing dozens to hundreds of small bomblets across a wide area. Children in particular become vulnerable when the submunitions fail to explode until a much later date when curious children come across them lying in a field and pick them up. Which is when they explode with disastrous consequences, either for the child or for an unaware farmer working in his fields.

 

The cluster munitions will likely be used near the Russian-controlled city of Bakhmut, in addition to front line positions in southeast Ukraine. For its part, Russia has densely mined its strongholds in the east and south with anti-tank and antipersonnel mines and trip wires in areas between three and ten miles in depth. Leading to successful defences, stalling Ukraine's counteroffensive, now a month in operation.

 

According to a Ukrainian official, the munitions have been fired at Russian positions for the purpose of breaking up the trenches that have been detaining Ukrainian forces from its intention to retake territory. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated that the cluster munitions were to provide a "bridging capability" to apply pressure on the Russians until such time as Western arms production picks up and further resupplies to Ukraine can once again commence.

 

The Ukrainian counter-offensive has been slower than many hoped  Magnum photos

 

Rehabilitate a Monstrous Rapist/Torturer/Murderer?

"The news that this inmate had been transferred from a maximum to a medium-security institution upset many Canadians and I know that many are looking for answers."

"I believe it is in the public interest to have a better understanding of the reasons why this specific decision was made."

"Crimes that continue to have an immeasurable impact on the victims and their families. We want justice to be served. ... We want Canadians to have confidence in our decisions."

"Hearing about this case so intensely over the past several weeks has brought up strong emotions and rightly so." 

"[The correctional system in Canada is based on the rehabilitation of offenders — even if some remain in prison for the rest of their lives — and it has to balance] public safety risks, secure and humane offender treatment, and victims' rights."

"I want to be clear that, at any point, an inmate can be returned to a higher security level, if deemed necessary, to ensure the safety of the public or our institutions."

"The fact that he is at a medium security institution does not negate the fact that he is a psychopath and that he committed horrific and unspeakable crimes."

"Despite being a medium security inmate, he is still assessed as a high risk to the safety of the public. Even after close to 30 years of incarceration he also continues to hold a dangerous offender designation, which was imposed by the court."

Anne Kelly, commissioner, Correctional Service Canada

The head of the Correctional Service of Canada, which runs the prison system, says the service followed the rules around the prison transfer of Paul Bernardo. The commissioner of the agency said Bernardo met the criteria for the transfer. However, a review committee said more could have been done to notify his victims' families. Still from video, CBC

"There were no documented incidents or behavioural concerns [reported by staff]."

"Staff at Millhaven Institution reiterated that the ongoing impediment to the offender's reclassification to medium was his failure to integrate; thus, upon integration, there were no longer grounds to warrant a maximum security classification."

85-page review of decision on moving Paul Bernardo to medium-security

 

The noxiously infamous killer, torturer and rapist Paul Bernardo whose sexual predations made him a notorious and reviled figure in the early 1990s in the area of St.Catharines, Ontario, as a violent psychopath who abducted two teen-age schoolgirls with the knowledge, assent and active participation of his then-wife Karla Homolka held the entire Toronto area in speculative suspension and fear until his identity was revealed and he was taken into custody. 

 

But not until he had frozen the security of a wide community of women, fearful of being his next victim, and not until he had murdered 15-year-old Kristen French and 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy after torturing and raping them. Following those atrocities up with the rape and murder of his own wife's younger sister Tammy -- again with his wife's active engagement in these unforgivably heinous acts perpetrated on the vulnerable within society.

Now, the commissioner of Correctional Service Canada has announced it was her personal decision, an "exceptional" move, to authorize the release of personal information on the decision to move the serial killer from the maximum security institution where he has spent the last 28 years behind bars to protect the public from his vicious criminal acts of unspeakable dread. Note that the reasons behind the decision to move this monster to a medium-security prison were withheld after a public outcry to 'protect' his 'privacy'.

Paul Bernardo is shown arriving at the courthouse in Toronto on Nov. 3, 1995. He's serving a life sentence for the kidnapping, rape and first-degree murder of two teenaged girls, and has been declared a dangerous offender. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)

 

For his crimes this malevolent rapist-child killer was sentenced to a an indeterminate life sentence. The review just released by Correctional Service Canada reveals that there were 14 instances when Bernardo's security classification was reviewed between 1999 and 2022; each time -- unbelievably -- noting that he met the criteria to be moved to a medium-security institution. A declaration that is mind-numbingly incredible. In that a lethal predator guilty of three ghastly child murders, of raping 18 women is worthy of release from high-security detention.

That although he is said to have met the criteria to be moved to an infinitely more relaxed prison environment, they were "overriden" in reflection of his personal safety risk that led to his interactions with other maximum-security offenders being carefully restricted and controlled. This focus on humanitarian empathy for the safety of a monstrous psychopath, the sensitivity to his well-being, and to his right to privacy, strikes at the very heart of meting out punishment of life incarceration for crimes too wantonly horrendous for most people to imagine.

The review committee acknowledged the shock experienced by the families of Bernardo's victims when news of his transfer was conveyed to them the very day of his transfer. The committee, states the review, "recognized that news of the transfer, including the nature of notification, caused emotional distress for victims", a rank understatement of reality. However, commissioner Anne Kelly took pains to emphasize that the Canadian correctional system is fundamentally based on the rehabilitation of offenders.

Tone-deaf to the ongoing grief of the families and victims, much less to the public mood on hearing of the 'rehabilitation' and potential release from maximum security of a man far better off dead than to be reintegrated even into prison society for actions that made him acutely unredeemable. Since Canada does not have the death penalty, the alternative is life in prison, but a sentence of life imprisonment in Canada usually equates to two decades locked away from harming the public, at the very most.

Despite the commissioner of Correctional Service Canada mouthing her and the institution she represents wish to ensure that "Canadians have confidence in our decisions", those very decisions disqualify her and the institution she serves from the confidence of the Canadian public. Her declaration that "We want justice to be served" is meaningless in the context of her contentions against the bleak background of the Bernardo incarceration imbroglio.

 

Kristen French, left, was 15 and Leslie Mahaffy was 14 when they were kidnapped, tortured and murdered by Bernardo. He was convicted in 1995. (Handout/The Canadian Press)

"Sentencing is the means by which society communicates its moral values. That equally applies to prison placement."

"Sadistic sexual psychopaths who have not exhibited any remorse, empathy or insight into their unspeakable crimes, after being incarcerated for over 28 years ... should never be transferred to a medium security prison."

Tim Danson, lawyer for Mahaffy and French families