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31 Dec 2023
#TheGrayzone Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate meticulously debunk a New York Times article purporting to demonstrate that Hamas carried out a policy of sexual assault against Israelis on October 7 and demonstrate that the Times’ Jeffrey Gettleman is guilty of journalistic malpractice and serving as a willing tool for the serially mendacious Israeli government.
From being the first nation to land on the Moon’s south pole to hosting a breakthrough G20 summit, New Delhi has scored many points this year – but has also had setbacks
https://www.rt.com/india/589897-india-history-2023-moon-g20/
Dec 30, 2023
![Unprecedented triumphs, tears of joy and grief: How 2023 saw the birth of a new superpower](https://mf.b37mrtl.ru/files/2023.12/xxs/658ef6ca85f54037a32835b2.jpg)
© RT / RT
The outgoing 2023 will be remembered in India as the year of many “proud firsts” – from emerging as the most populated country in the world (bypassing China), to becoming the first nation to land on the Moon’s south pole, to having the first female officer of the Indian Navy to take command of a warship.
Following a triumphant Moon mission and the prestigious hosting of the G20 Summit, India is poised to enter 2024 with a renewed sense of optimism for further economic expansion (it is aiming at a $5 trillion economy by 2025) and aspirations to play a bigger geopolitical role.
The nation’s allure as an investment hub remains robust, leveraging a skilled talent pool, homegrown technologies and innovations, and tailored central and state government policies to attract global companies such as Apple and Tesla. Peering into the future, the nation eyes attaining developed economy status by 2047. No wonder growth, infrastructure development, and investment have been at the center of the pitch to voters by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as the country heads into a 2024 general election.
In retrospect, 2023 was a year that witnessed pivotal moments defining India’s trajectory. Below is a quick look into key events that shaped the year for India.
Big achievements
On the cold side of the Moon
The Indian cow jumped over the Moon when its third lunar probe, Chandrayaan-3, became the first spacecraft to land on the lunar South Pole region. India joined the former Soviet Union, the US, and China as the only nations to have planted their flags on Earth’s satellite. The Moon’s south pole is thought to contain ice, so it’s a prime target for a possible lunar station and further research.
For Prime Minister Modi, it marked a moment he could declare “India is a superpower” – without other nations rolling their eyes. For Indian Space Research Organisation chief S Somnath, who had broken down in Modi’s arms when Chandrayaan-2 failed on a similar mission four years earlier, and the nation of 1.4 billion, it was a moment of supreme pride and triumph. ISRO even attempted to revive the mission in -200C temperatures at the Moon’s south pole, after the main mission’s targets were achieved, but to no avail.
By 2027, India will launch another mission to the Moon – to bring back samples from the lunar surface. Encouraged by the success of Chandrayaan and this year’s other breakthrough mission – to the Sun – Modi instructed ISRO to set up a space station by 2035 and send the first Indian to the Moon by 2040.
This handout screen grab taken and released by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on August 25, 2023, shows the Chandrayaan-3 rover as it manoeuvred from the lunar lander to the surface of the Moon. © ISRO / AFP
World’s first-ever sister-brother grandmasters
In August, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa (aka Pragg) nearly won the Chess World Cup in Baku, losing in a tiebreaker to Magnus Carlsson. Had he won, he would have become World Chess Champion; the only other Indian to achieve this was Magnus’s predecessor, Vishwanathan Anand (titleholder from 2007-13).
In December, elder sister Vaishali joined Pragg as grandmaster, when she crossed the 2,500 Elo threshold at a tournament in Spain. They became the world’s first-ever sister-brother pair to be grandmasters; there is a long list of brothers who became grandmasters, including India’s Vignesh NR and Visakh NR, who achieved this in February 2023. There are approximately 1,200 grandmasters globally, according to ‘The Chess Journal’; and India currently has a robust 82 grandmasters.
But the real star was Vaishali-Pragg’s mom, N Nagalakshmi, the modest Tamil ‘amma’ with a toothy smile who has been travelling and cooking for Pragg since he was seven. “I’m proud to hear people talk of my mother,” Vaishali said after his performance in Baku.
Rameshbabu and Vaishali Praggnanandhaa © X
The great escape in Uttarkashi
Indian authorities rescued 41 men trapped for 17 days when the Sikyara-Barkot tunnel they were constructing in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand collapsed on November 12. While reports suggested that regulations were overridden to construct the tunnel for the ‘Char Dham’ pilgrimage project – the fragile Himalayan ecosystem would have been better served with wider roads than the series of tunnels – the rescue was a tension-filled narrative with more twists and turns than a high-altitude road.
Authorities worked on six plans, the main being the use of an American Auger machine to drill six pipes through the debris to tunnel a way out for the trapped workers. The machine broke down twice. So they had to use a dangerous (and illegal) method of “rathole mining”, in which a tunnel barely wide enough for an emaciated human was dug to gain access to those trapped. Ultimately, an 80cm pipe was laid through which the trapped men crawled out. It was exemplary of Indian ‘jugaad’ (a hack) and persistence; and also a proud moment of self-belief.
Chief minister of Uttarakhand Pushkar Singh Dhami (R) embracing a contruction worker following his rescue from inside the under construction Silkyara tunnel in India’s Uttarakhand state on November 28, 2023. © Department of Information and Public Relation (DIPR) Uttarakhand / AFP
G20 presidency, India-style
Held in September, the G20 Summit was showcased as a display of Modi’s brilliance and vision. The event at India’s refurbished trade fair grounds, Pragati Maidan, was a razzle-dazzle of high technology and higher acidity food. The roads were cleared of dogs, shanties, and journalists. People were ‘encouraged’ to stay home, though not like the Hangzhou G20 Summit, where the Chinese government paid citizens to take a bus out of town for a holiday.
Modi had the deliberations end a day early with a ‘clean’ resolution, termed by many as “win for India” but also a “win for multipolarity,” as the Delhi Declaration was adopted after achieving a 100% consensus over 83 paragraphs of the final communique, including on the Ukraine conflict that had no mention of Russia – thanks to the role of India’s negotiators, and to much of disappointment of Washington and its allies.
Not just the Delhi Declaration – at the G20 summit, the Indian leader swiftly inducted the African Union as a member before the Europeans could even blink; he championed the Global South even while vigorously clasping US President Joe Biden’s hands. Yes, a triumph of the will.
India snatched away the baton for presiding over the G20 from Indonesia and reluctantly passed it on to Brazil; but during 2023 the leadership milked it for as much mileage as it could. And it was rewarded by voters in Hindi villages, who openly declared while standing in line for their free foodgrain, “Modiji did the G20.”
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (C) waves to the media representatives during his visit to the International media centre, at the G20 summit venue, in New Delhi on September 10, 2023. © Money SHARMA / AFP
It’s raining Indians
It was the end of April when India reached 1.45 billion souls, beating China to take the mantle of the most populous nation on Earth. It was around 50 years ago that the rapidly growing populations of the South were thought to be a concern for a planet whose resources were being depleted, and whose climate was perhaps changing – and not for the better. The good news is, of course, is that the planet will be around for another 4.5 billion years. The even better news is that nations like India are thinking in the direction of inhabiting the Moon and Mars, and possibly other worlds.
For India, a burgeoning population means a younger, more productive country that can challenge its neighbor to become world’s new manufacturing hub. New Delhi, however, has a bigger challenge – poverty and literacy. This year, the UN lauded India for lifting 135 million people out of poverty in the past five years. In 2022, around 15% of the Indian population was living in poverty, compared to 24.8% in 2015-16. Also, in just nine years, India managed to provide a no-frills bank account, or ‘Jan Dhan,’ to 509 million people – a staggering achievement. This scale of financial inclusion would normally take 47 years for a country to achieve, experts note.
FILE PHOTO: Crowd of religious pilgrims taking holy bath in the Ganges River, Allahabad. © Getty Images / Alison Wright
A mammoth new parliament of crows
The world’s most populous country presumably needed a newer building, never mind that the old one was number nine on the “ten most impressive parliament halls” or the “ten most beautiful parliaments”. (The Hungarian Parliament consistently ranks number one, in case you were wondering.) But it was associated with colonial architecture, and when Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the building, he said as much. “The new parliament isn’t just a building, it is the symbol of the aspiration of the 1.4 billion people of India,” he said.
But the very first “winter” session held in the new building was marked with a controversy over security arrangements. On December 13 a couple of men in their 20s jumped into the chamber, on invitation by a regime legislator, and set off non-poison, all-colorful smoke canisters. The incident came on the anniversary of the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament in which six police personnel, two parliamentary security staff, and a gardener were killed, as well as five terrorists.
The “mastermind” of the attack later surrendered, and a total of six people have been charged under India’s Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Home Ministry is also investigating the breach.The intruders now face terrorism charges, and when the opposition demanded a statement on the breach, most of its members were suspended. As the world’s largest democracy enters the new year with high aspirations over the 2024 general election, some in the political establishment felt that the new house of democracy came with a fresh approach to democracy in India, that is Bharat.
The new parliament building of India. © Wikipedia
Not-so-high lights
The small pebble in the fast-walking national shoe
A prominent TV anchor once said India’s northeast suffered the ‘tyranny of distance’ from the nation’s center of political gravity. That is no solace for the victims of group clashes between hill-dwelling Christian Kukis and plains-dwelling Hindu Meiteis in Manipur, a small state on the border with Myanmar.
It started with one group that wanted welfare benefits extended to them – which the other group objected to. The violence began on May 3 and still continues; 175 people have been killed. A video of women who were raped and paraded went viral, creating national outrage. The opposition questioned the Modi-led government and the PM himself on their month-long silence, which was broken on July 20. Modi said the incident was “shameful for any civilized nation” and vowed that “justice will be delivered.”
The Supreme Court eventually pulled up the state government. The chief minister of the state appealed for both communities to adopt the path of “forgiving and forgetting.” On December 15, there was a grim reminder of the year’s events in Manipur, during a mass burial of 87 bodies (including a month-old baby that during the evacuation from a riot zone could not receive vital hospitalization).
People wait at a temporary shelter in a military camp, after being evacuated by the Indian army, as they flee ethnic violence that has hit the northeastern Indian state of Manipur on May 7, 2023. © Arun SANKAR / AFP
Wrestling with one’s collective conscience
India was in headlines globally for a month-long protest of women wrestlers, including Olympic medallists, against the president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. They accused him of sexual harassment. The authorities seemed to be unmoved: Singh is a powerful MP from the ruling BJP, influencing a clutch of constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state, the control of which is key to national power.
Once again, the Supreme Court had to step in and force a reluctant Delhi police to file a case; despite the watered-down charges that are meant to fail in court, Singh had to step down. The last straw, however, came in December, when Singh’s right-hand man was elected as his replacement at the WFI. Champion wrestlers like Sakshi Mallik tearfully quit the sport, and male wrestler Balbir Punia returned his Padma Shri award. The government finally reacted on December 24 by suspending the WFI and sacking newly elected leaders.
Indian wrestlers Vinesh Phogat (C) with others are detained by the police while attempting to march to India’s new parliament in New Delhi on May 28, 2023. © Arun THAKUR / AFP
Targeted Diplomacy
The 1980s Khalistan movement for Punjab’s secession from India was a bloody and terrifying time that claimed the life of a sitting prime minister, the late Indira Gandhi. It was the first time that road checkpoints became part of Delhi life. The movement has died out in Punjab, but found a new home – in some Gurdwaras (Sikh temples) in the West.
In September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged – in parliament – that Indian intelligence had masterminded the killing of a Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June, outside a Gurdwara in British Columbia. While India denied allegations, Trudeau’s move sparked an unprecedented diplomatic row. The two countries expelled each other’s intelligence officers, India ordered the withdrawal of 41 diplomats and temporarily suspended visa services to Canadians.
When two months later the New York district attorney filed an indictment against Nikhil Gupta and an unnamed Indian official for attempting to kill US citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, India’s outrage was considerably dampened.
True, the US has no compunction about killing foreign citizens on foreign soil – the examples are innumerable. But the bully on the block doesn’t exempt even his new best friend; especially if that friend is doing a tightrope walk on Russia and Gaza. No wonder then, Modi told the Financial Times that “incidents” should not derail US-India bonhomie.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canada counterpart Justin Trudeau during a bilateral meeting after the G20 Summit in New Delhi on September 10, 2023. © X / JustinTrudeau
Death by cough syrup
Cough syrups manufactured in India were under scrutiny even in 2022, after the World Health Organization (WHO) issued an alert over four brands of cough syrup manufactured and exported by Indian drug maker Maiden Pharmaceuticals to The Gambia in West Africa. At least 69 children have died there from acute kidney injury that could be linked to cough and cold syrups.
The government tried to shoot down the “presumptuous” WHO for claiming that Indian cough syrups were contaminated. However, a similar case soon came to light in Uzbekistan, where the Health Ministry linked the death of dozens of children to the consumption of cough syrup manufactured by Marion Biotech of Noida in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The company had allegedly bought a chemical for its syrup – propylene glycol – from a Delhi-based trader that did not have a license to sell pharmaceutical products and only “dealt in industrial grade.” Months later, New Delhi ordered Riemann Labs in Madhya Pradesh state to cease operations following allegations that its cough syrup was linked to the death of at least six children in Cameroon in March 2023.
Pharma is a $50 billion industry in India, which labels itself the world’s pharmacy. Given the size of stakes involved, as well as India’s aspirations to lead the global South, the country’s drug regulator swung into action. It found that 50 cough syrup manufacturers failed to clear quality tests. In December, the Indian government prohibited the use of anti-cold medication combinations for children under four.
A view of Marion Biotech pharmaceuticals company after the cough syrup produced by Marion Biotech pharmaceuticals company is allegedly linked to the death of eighteen children in Uzbekistan on December 29, 2022 in Noida,Utaar Pradesh, India. © Imtiyaz Khan / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Train tragedy
Nearly 300 Indians died and 1,200 were injured – in the east India state of Odisha in June, when the high-speed Coromandel Express (Kolkata to Chennai) crashed into a goods train and its coaches derailed and collided with another high-speed train (Bengaluru-Howrah Express) coming from the opposite direction. India’s Ministry of Railways, releasing the official findings from a probe into the deadly incident, said a signal error led to the collision. The report concluded that if corrective measures had been taken after a similar failure in 2022, the tragedy could have been prevented.
The Indian railway industry is the backbone of the national economy. Over 1.4 million people are employed along its 67,850km of routes – and Indian Railways is the country’s largest employer. Ever since the British established the railways, it has been the most popular mode of transport in the country.
Gone are the days of general-class compartments and starting with Kolkata in the 1980s, city after city in India has introduced metro rail projects. The government is eagerly designing urban infrastructure projects, including the 741km Nagpur-Mumbai high-speed rail corridor, constructed at a cost of $20 billion, or PM Modi’s marquee project – the Vande Bharat hi-speed trains that “herald a new standard of rail service in the country.” But building next-century infrastructure can all be in vain if routine necessities such as track replacement, signal upgradation, and the induction of anti-crash technologies are ignored.
Rescue workers gather around damaged carriages at the accident site of a three-train collision near Balasore, about 200 km (125 miles) from the state capital Bhubaneswar in the eastern state of Odisha, on June 3, 2023. © DIBYANGSHU SARKAR / AFP
Here come the floods
No one in India denies climate change, but action has been slow, going by two ruinous flooding episodes – aside from the ‘regular’ flooding afflicting states like Bihar or Tamil Nadu. This summer, the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh saw 72 flash floods kill nearly 400 people and thousands of animals; in October, the Himalayan state of Sikkim saw flash floods that killed just under 100 people. In both cases, bridges, hotels and temples were washed away, providing mesmerizing viral videos. Yes, the world’s mightiest mountain range is a real victim of global warming.
In Himachal, the floods demonstrated the disproportionate snowmelt released by tourists and their cars, and how traditional architecture is superior to modern assembly-line houses when it comes to resisting nature’s might.
The Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) at Sikkim’s South Lhonak Lake might have been unavoidable, but there was no early warning system that scientists have been begging for, mindful of the many hydroelectric projects successive governments have been in a rush to implement. As a result, the 1200-MW Teesta dam was destroyed by the floods. Development comes with a cost.
Indian army personnel conduct a search operation for the missing soldiers in north Sikkim on October 5, 2023. © MINISTRY OF DEFENCE / AFP
https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-12-29-life-expectancy-dropping-covid-vaccine-pushes.html
![](https://www.naturalnews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/91/2023/12/Coronavirus-Covid-19-Vaccine-Vials-Close-Up.jpg)
Life expectancy has been declining in the U.S., and the timing coincides with the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines.
The average expected lifespan for Americans in 2021 was 76.4 years, which represents a drop of 0.6 from 2020. Men can expect to live an average of 73.5 years overall, while women’s life expectancy is 79.3 years.
The leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2021 was heart disease, which is something that has been connected to COVID-19 vaccines. Many of the most widely reported side effects from COVID-19 vaccines have been cardiac related, with countless people suffering from a heart attack or stroke after getting jabbed.
Reports of vaccine-related injuries continue to pile up, and most of us are all too familiar with the alarming number of stories in the news about healthy young people dying suddenly.
While some experts try to argue that people aren’t dying off due to COVID-19 vaccines, no one can dispute the rise in young people experiencing heart attacks. Although it was already ticking upward before the pandemic, it sped up dramatically post-2020.
One study by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center showed that heart attack deaths climbed for all age groups during 2020 and 2021, but the biggest jump was seen in those aged 25 to 44. The increase of 29 percent is simply too big to ignore.
Analysis shows mRNA shots could shorten lifespan by 24 years
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows just how damaging the vaccines have been. According to analysis by The Expose, men who get the mRNA shots could see as much as 24 years taken off their lifespan as a result.
In fact, they report that CDC all-cause mortality data demonstrates that each dose of a COVID-19 vaccine a person received raised their mortality by 7 percent in 2022 compared to 2021. In other words, people who got 5 doses were 35 percent more likely to die in 2022 than in 2021, while those who got just one dose had a 7 percent greater likelihood of dying in 2022 compared to 2021. For those who avoided the vaccine, their chances of dying were the same in both years.
They liken the vaccines to “slow-acting genetic poison” based on this data given the fact that people do not appear to be recovering from the damage caused by earlier vaccines when it comes to excess mortality. If the trend continues, a person who received 5 doses would be 350 percent more likely to pass away in 2031 and a shocking 700 percent more likely to die in 2041 than a person who did not get the jab.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert M. Califf characterized the dropping life expectancy for Americans as “catastrophic,” writing on X on November 30: “We are facing extraordinary headwinds in our public health with a major decline in life expectancy. The major decline in the U.S. is not just a trend. I’d describe it as catastrophic.”
Not surprisingly, he stopped short of pinning the blame on vaccines. In fact, many of those who dare to suggest vaccines are causing deaths find themselves being censored. A whistleblower who recently shared data from the New Zealand Health Agency pointing to a strong link between vaccines and excess mortality was arrested and is facing prison time. The data he shared with the public pointed to the vaccines killing more than 10 million individuals globally.
He said he shared the data because it blew his mind and he wanted experts to analyze it and make people aware of what is happening.
Sources for this article include:
The United Kingdom is inciting the Kiev regime to terrorist actions in coordination with the United States, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said
MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/. The United Kingdom is behind Ukraine’s attack on Belgorod, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS.
“Great Britain is behind the terror attack, as it, in coordination with the United States, is inciting the Kiev regime to terrorist actions as it understands that Ukraine’s counteroffensive has failed. London, as the Ukrainian presidential office representatives have recently said, has banned the Kiev regime from holding talks with the Russia side, staking on a ‘victory on the battlefield,’” she said.
“With not a single chance to improve the Ukrainian army’s deplorable situation ‘on the ground,’ the Anglo-Saxons have taken on the tactic of terror attacks on civilians,” she added.
She said that the terror attack on Belgorod will be the focus of a United Nations Security Council meeting, which has been requested by Russia.
“Responsibility for the terror attack rests on EU states, which continue to supply weapons to Kiev’s terrorists who are using cluster munitions against civilians,” she stressed.
Ukrainian troops have been shelling Belgorod and the Belgorod Region since late Friday. The latest strike was delivered on downtown Belgorod with the use of cluster munitions from Czech-made multiple rocket launchers. At least 14 people, including two children, were killed and 108 others were injured. According to the Russian defense ministry, air defense systems intercepted both missiles and most of the projectiles. Otherwise, the consequences would have been much more serious, it added.
Alberta saw 21 police shootings in 2023, marking a 90 percent increase from 2020 when there were 11
CBC
Dec 30, 2023
![Yellow police tape in front of lights from a police car.](https://i.cbc.ca/1.4500165.1694800717!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_780/stock-crime-scene-police-tape-do-not-cross-yellow-tape-forensics-investigation-generic.jpg)
The family of a woman shot by an officer in Edmonton during a wellness check said her death was unnecessary, as the number of police shootings across Canada has shown little sign of relenting over the past four years.
“I see my daughter’s death as being a result of a complete mishandling of the tools available to law enforcement in the application of dealing with mental health issues,” the family of the woman, who has not been publicly identified, said in a statement from their lawyer, Tom Engel.
Edmonton police have said officers were called for a welfare check earlier this month. There were risks the woman may harm herself, so police say officers entered the apartment. There was a confrontation and the woman was shot.
The woman’s family said that had the police approach been gradual and gentle, she would have understood the nature of the visit and would still be alive.
An upwards trend
A tally compiled by The Canadian Press found police shot at 85 people in Canada between Jan. 1 and Dec. 15 of this year — 41 fatally. Those numbers are based on available information from police, independent investigative units and reporting from The Canadian Press.
“This is a spectacularly unrelenting phenomenon,” said Temitope Oriola, a professor of criminology at the University of Alberta and president of the Canadian Sociological Association.
This year, the number of police shootings has nearly matched the total from 2022, when 94 people were shot at, 50 fatally. It remains a significant increase from four years ago when there were 61 shootings, 38 of which were fatal.
The resulting snapshot shows more officers firing their guns since 2020, when the high-profile murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis spurred global movements urging police accountability and transparency.
Criminologists say officers need more training and restraint, while the RCMP union said police have been forced to the front lines of Canada’s mental health crisis and face increasingly dangerous situations.
“No cop that I have ever dealt with wants to go down this road,” said Brian Sauve, president of the National Police Federation, which represents about 20,000 Mounties across Canada.
“And every one of them is impacted momentously by the fact that they’ve had to discharge their weapon.”
Officers have the right to safety, Oriola said, but police shootings in Canada have been trending upward for too many years. Oriola added he is particularly concerned about the number of shootings in Alberta.
“We should not be leading the country in terms of police shootings,” he said.
![A painted portrait of a man.](https://i.cbc.ca/1.5729873.1703984451!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_780/1223420039.jpg)
This year, Alberta saw 21 police shootings — a rate of 0.45 per 100,000 people — marking a 90 percent increase from 2020, when there were 11.
There were 28 police shootings in Ontario — a rate of 0.18 per 100,000 people — up from 23 the year before. There were nine in Quebec.
All Atlantic Canada saw six police shootings, up from two the year before.
There were 17 shootings in British Columbia, down from 24 in 2022. Saskatchewan and Manitoba also saw decreases.
There have been at least two shootings this month that are not included in the tally. A man was killed on the Red Earth Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. A man was also injured in a shooting in Grande Prairie, Alta.
- Police chief says more officers expected on Calgary streets next year
- Calgary police will receive $8M in funding from the province to hire 50 new officers
Young men continue to make up the majority of people shot by police. Race was identified in 18 cases and more than 60 per cent of those were Indigenous, Black or other people of colour.
The original 911 calls mainly involved a weapon, stolen vehicle or erratic driving. Six involved an active shooting.
In nearly 70 per cent of the police shootings, the person had a weapon. In 30 cases, it was a firearm or replica gun. In 20 cases, the person had a knife or other bladed weapon.
Sauve said police shootings in Canada remain rare compared to many other countries, but increasingly officers are encountering people with weapons. When there are guns or knives, he said, police must respond differently.
“Sometimes it’s Justin Bourque,” Sauve said, referring to the man who killed three Mounties in Moncton in 2014.
This year, three officers were killed in situations where they fired their weapons at someone. Another officer was shot and injured.
Sauve said police interactions have also become more confrontational because there’s been an increase in the “general disrespect for anyone in authority, whether that’s a bylaw officer giving a parking ticket or whether that’s a police officer trying to defuse and de-escalate” a situation.
Addressing mental health
Due to pressures on overburdened social programs, Sauve said officers are also being relied on to respond to mental health crises and issues with homelessness.
Six shootings started as a call about a public disturbance, five for an unwanted person. Another six were wellness checks.
Officers must make split-second decisions, Sauve said, adding the average gunfight is over in under three seconds.
Vancouver police were called to Granville Street Bridge in February because it looked as though a man, draped in a blanket, was going to kill himself.
An officer called out to the man and his demeanour changed, the Independent Investigations Office of British Columbia said in its report. The man pulled out a knife and one officer unsuccessfully used a stun gun twice, the report said. A second officer fired their gun.
The man died.
Later that month, Vancouver city council approved $2.8 million in funding for mental health services, including hiring additional mental health nurses to be teamed with police.
Sauve said these types of partnerships are becoming increasingly important, but there isn’t funding to have them deployed across the country.
He supports additional training, access to less-than-lethal weapons and better technology for police. But, Sauve adds, long-term solutions lie in a societal response to homelessness, addictions and health care.
Oriola said there are clear changes that could happen, but policing remains “incredibly resistant to change” even as calls for reform grow.
“We should not be having the sheer volume of shootings we currently have and certainly not the degree of fatality that we are seeing.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The Canadian Press
Kelly Geraldine Malone is a reporter for The Canadian Press.