Bullies in hot-seat as government, workplace whistleblowers push back

Welcome toTheNational Today newsletter, which takes a closer look at what's happening around some of the day's most notable stories. Sign up hereand it will be delivered directly to your inbox Monday to Friday.

TODAY:

• Callouts of purported government and workplace bullies are increasing as people who say they've been victimized push back
• The head of Myanmar's army has hotly denied that his soldiers have been engaging in ethnic cleansing and using sex as a weapon against Rohingya Muslims, even as fears grow over new military operations against another of the country's minorities
• Ireland is the latest country to impose a tax on sugary drinks at least, on some of them
• Missed The National last night? Watch it here

An epidemic of bullying

Newfoundland and Labrador's famously pugnacious political culture is undergoing a radical reset amidst mounting allegations of bullying and intimidation at the highest reaches of government.

Over the past few days, two ministers Eddie Joyce and Dale Kirby have been removed from Premier Dwight Ball's cabinet and the Liberal caucus over complaints about how they treated colleagues.

Now the province's former finance minister has come forward to say that she resigned, in part, because of mistreatment around the cabinet table.

In an interview with CBC Radio's St. John's Morning Show today, Cathy Bennett said she experienced "mobbing," "mild gaslighting," and all sorts of aggressive behaviour from her fellow Liberal MHAs.

"It was a real fear for me. I feared for my reputation and the work I was doing," she said of the experiences, which led her to step down from cabinet last summer.

The revelations come after the dramatic sidelining of Joyce, Newfoundland and Labrador's gruff former municipal affairs and environment minister, last Thursday, and Kirby, the minister of education, yesterday. Both men deny the allegations that they intimidated their political peers and opponents.

The recent callouts and unmaskings of purported political bullies are hardly limited to the Rock, as the fallout from the #MeToo movement emboldens complaints about all sorts of past bad behaviour.

In Ontario, two NDP members of provincial parliament are under investigation by their own party after workers in their constituency offices filed human rights complaints alleging workplace bullying.

In the U.K., a former high court judge has been named to lead an independent inquiry into the alleged bullying of House of Commons staff by members of parliament. The May government announced the investigation in the wake of several complaints against prominent MPs like John Bercow, the Speaker of the House, whose former assistant claims to now suffer from PTSD after a 10-month stint in his office.

(The British #MeToo allegations also continue, with Labour MP John Woodcock suspended yesterday pending a party investigation into claims of sexual harassment.)

Carwyn Jones, the First Minister of Wales, has said he intends to step down from his job in the fall. The announcement follows allegations of bullying within his government, and an ongoing investigation in the death of cabinet minister who committed suicide after being accused of sexual misconduct.

Charges of bullying are also being levied against all sorts of other institutions and their leaders, from a Bundesliga soccer club, to the Paris Opera Ballet, British police departments, and university swim teams.

The Trudeau government in Ottawa has introduced a bill to crack down on harassment and intimidation within federal workplaces. Bill C-65 came back to the House Human Resources Committee last week with several amendments, including a broad, new definition of what constitutes actionable behaviour.

"Harassment and violence means any action, conduct or comment, including of a sexual nature, that can reasonably be expected to cause offence, humiliation or other physical or psychological injury or illness to an employee, including any prescribed action, conduct or comment," it reads.

New warnings, old denials in Myanmar

The head of Myanmar's army has hotly denied that his soldiers have been engaging in ethnic cleansing and using sex as a weapon against Rohingya Muslims, even as fears grow over new military operations against another of the country's minorities.

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing had a closed-door meeting with members of a UN Security Council delegation in the capital Naypyidaw last night.

Afterwards, he posted an account on his official Facebook page, defending his troops and their "clearance operations" against "extremist Bengali terrorists" in Rakhine state.

"Servicemen are abiding by the Tatmadaw [Army] acts and do their tasks under the international laws, rules and regulations. And, action is exactly taken against discipline breakers under the law," the general wrote.

Allegations of sexual violence are "abominable on the ground of culture and religion of Myanmar," he told the UN delegates, adding that the Tatmadaw "severely punishes those offenders in these cases."

Although Hlaing also said that, "no sexual violence happened in the history of Myanmar Tatmadaw."

The army's campaign, launched late last summer, has driven some 700,000 Rohingya across the border to Bangladesh. There have been widespread reports of massacres, rapes, and the burning of farms and villages. Several incidents have been verified by independent investigations.

On Sunday, during a visit to refugee camps in the Cox's Bazar region of Bangladesh, the UN envoys heard harrowing tales of murder and atrocities directly from Rohingya survivors. A demonstration demanding international action against the perpetrators had to be broken up by local police.

Myanmar's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, also received the UN delegation yesterday, although it appears that she spent the meeting stressing the difficulties of implementing the rule of law after decades of military dictatorships.

Today, the Security Council delegates are scheduled to fly over parts of Rakhine in a helicopter more than a year after the organization first demanded access to the area.

The soft-pedalling of past violence comes even as the UN expresses concerns over new military operations in Myanmar's Kachin state.

A long-running government campaign against the Kachin Independence Army has picked up speed in recent weeks, with reports of air strikes, heavy shelling, and reprisals against civilians.

Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, today called for an immediate end to the fighting.

"What we are seeing in Kachin state over the past few weeks is wholly unacceptable, and must stop immediately," she said in a statement. "Innocent civilians are being killed and injured, and hundreds of families are now fleeing for their lives."

The mostly Christian Kachin people have been demanding political autonomy since the early 1960s. At least 100,000 people have been displaced from their homes since fighting erupted in 2011 after the breakdown of a 17-year ceasefire.

• Like this newsletter?Sign upand have it delivered by email.You may also like our early-morning newsletter, the Morning Briefstart the day with the news you need in one quick and concise read.Sign up here.

Adding a bitter note to sweet drinks

Ireland's Coca Cola lovers as well as those who can choke down a can of McDaids Exotic Pineapple will have to reach deeper into their pockets today, as the Republic becomes the latest country to impose a tax on sugary drinks.

The new levy adds 20 euro cents a litre to the price of drinks containing between 5 and 8 grams of sugar per 100 millilitres, and 30 cents per litre to beverages with greater amounts of sugar like Coke.

The Irish government hopes that the move will help reduce childhood obesity rates. But it will have a sizeable side benefit pulling in an estimated 40 million a year in new revenue.

World Health Organization data ranks Irish men as the eighth-heaviest in Europe, with 63.1 per cent classified as overweight or obese, just behind Poland and Romania. Irish women ranked 10th, with 48.5 per cent deemed too heavy, sandwiched between Hungary and Slovenia.

Overall, the WHO says roughly 50 per cent of men and women in Europe are overweight.

Ireland becomes the 30th nation to impose a sugar tax since Mexico blazed a trail in 2014. It joins its EU counterparts France, Finland and Hungary.

The United Kingdom introduced its own similar levy in early April, a measure that is expected to bring in an extra 520 million a year, which the government has pledged to use to fund sports in primary schools.

South Africa and Estonia will soon bring sugar taxes into force. Seven major U.S. cities, including San Francisco, Philadelphia and Seattle,have also enacted their own anti-sugar duties.

The Irish Beverage Council, the lobby group that represents soft-drink makers, is unenthusiastic about the change, calling it unnecessary since three-quarters of the sodas sold in the country fall under the 5-gram sugar threshold.

But proponents point to Mexico's experience, where pop consumption dropped 12 per cent in the first year, and Hungary, where manufacturers quickly reduced sugar levels in their drinks by 40 per cent.

The World Health Organization says that the taxes work just the same as tobacco levies, by discouraging consumption.

The are calls for a similar strike against sugary drinks here in Canada, with the Heart and Stroke Foundation estimating that a 20 per cent tax would prevent 449,000 cases of obesity and 7,800 deaths over the next 25 years. It would also bring in $29 billion in tax revenue, and provide a further $16 billion in health care savings.

Other groups, like the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, oppose such measures, calling them ineffective and saying they disproportionately target the poor and encourage cross-border shopping.

Ottawa did look at including a soda tax in the 2016 budget, but backed away.

But even if Ireland's new levy ends up helping the kids, it may not do much for the adults.

The country's signature drink, Guinness beer, which contains a whopping 18.6 grams of sugar per pint, is not affected by the tax.

Quote of the moment

"I saw love, I saw support, everybody supporting each other. I also thought of the driver. I also thought about him. And we went to the sacred fire and we prayed to the three kids that were lost and we also prayed for the driver and his family. Because a lot of people make mistakes."

- Rose Andrews on last night's vigil in Nelson, Man., to mourn the deaths of three young boys who were hit by a vehicle Saturday. A 27-year-old has been charged with impaired driving.

What The National is reading

• Tank-drilling gas bandits fuel anger in B.C. (CBC)
• Israeli spies stole half a tonne of secret Iran nuke docs in one night (Telegraph)
• Florida shooting victim's father sues officer for not entering school (CBC)
• A taxi driver took his own life, his family blames Uber (NY Times)
• Brazil high-rise collapses after catching fire, at least 1 dead (CBC)
• Former German Chancellor sued over alleged affair (Deutsche Welle)
• Is Sick Building Syndrome all in our heads? (Digg)
• China targets 'subversive' Peppa Pig in online cleanup (CNN)

Today in history

May 1, 1960: London gears up for Princess Margaret's wedding

The wedding of Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth's only sibling, to photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones was just five days away, and not-very-swinging London was preparing stoically. Catch a glimpse of the army-prepared wedding cake that tips the scales at 75 kilograms, and bell-ringing practice at Westminster Abbey. Good grandstand seats were still available for 25 guineas.

London gears up for Margaret's wedding

64 years ago

Duration 11:19

Princess Margaret's wedding is five days away, and it seems all of London is swept up in the wedding preparations.

Sign up hereand have The National Today newsletter delivered directly to your inbox Monday to Friday.

Please send your ideas, news tips, rants, and compliments tothenationaltoday@cbc.ca.