Manitoba RCMP say four more teens have been charged in connection with an out-of-control house party in East St. Paul that left neighbours scared to leave their homes and led to significant damage to the home and police vehicles.
Police responded to numerous calls on Oct. 29 about a house party involving several hundred youth at a home Saddleridge Lane.
Police have previously said partiers had spilled out onto the street by the time officers were called around 10 p.m.
They’ve said officers were swarmed by partygoers, many of whom could be seen in a viral social media video jumping on the roofs of a pair of RCMP vehicles and kicking the windshield out of one. Police from outside jurisdictions were called into help, including officers from Winnipeg.
4 charged, with more arrests to come, in viral East St. Paul party, Manitoba RCMP say
Some in attendance hurled racial slurs at visible minority officers, spit on police and launched fireworks at police and their vehicles, police have said.
Officers also intervened and stopped two males from allegedly sexually assaulting a female youth before fleeing.
In the days following the party, investigators said they would work to identify every person captured on video who was involved in the mayhem. Last week they announced mischief charges against three males and one female between the ages of 16 and 18.
All four have been charged with mischief and were released on a promise to appear in court March 7.
Manitoba RCMP say several hundred young people were at a house party that got out of control in East St. Paul Oct. 29. Instagram / @jordan_jutiz
None of the charges laid as of yet suggest an arrest has been made in relation to the alleged sexual assault, although police have said the incident is considered a priority and is still being investigated.
Police said Wednesday investigators have identified a woman in a photo released last week, but add they’re still looking to identify a man also seen in the photo.
They have previously said the pair may have important information that can help their investigation into the various offences committed that night.
Anyone with information is asked to call Red River North RCMP at 204-482-1222 or Crime Stoppers at 204-222-8477.
Manitoba RCMP vow to ‘hold people accountable’ following call to rowdy East St. Paul house party
Neighbours of the home where the party was held have described a scene of general chaos on the street around the house the night of the party.
Monica Bulacso, who had friends and family over celebrating a birthday that night, told Global News her guests were afraid to leave at the end of the night.
“They were being wild,” she said of those attending the party next door.
“We were scared because we don’t know, what if those kids come here, inside the house.”
— with files from The Canadian Press and Global’s Rosanna Hempel and Sam Thompson
Update- Over the past week #rcmpmb have made 4 more arrests. 2 females aged 15 & 16 & 2 males aged 16 & 17 are facing a charge of Mischief. We have identified the female in the photo last week, however we continue to look to identify & speak with the male. Info? Call 204-482-1222 https://t.co/9GDyDaX39Zpic.twitter.com/KtuRrgA0XN
The most effective artists of the year weren’t afraid to root around deep inside and boldly share the messiness, the complexities and the beauty of their discoveries.
Jon Pareles | Jon Caramanica | Lindsay Zoladz
Jon Pareles
A Cornucopia of Ideas
If there’s one thing that unites my favorite albums of 2022, it’s a sense of creative abundance: of ideas spilling out so fast that songs can barely contain them, and of artists ready to follow their impulses toward revelatory extremes. No need to hold back: In 2022, more was more.
1. Beyoncé, ‘Renaissance’
A disco revival gathered momentum during the pandemic years, as musicians and listeners found themselves yearning for the joys of sweaty, uninhibited communal gatherings. Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” also looks back to dance floor styles, but it goes much further. It’s not merely a nostalgic re-creation of a fondly remembered era. With leathery vocals and visceral but multileveled beats, it’s an excursion through layers of club culture, connecting with pride, pleasure and self-definition and taking no guff from anyone.
Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” is a tour through decades of dance music.Mason Poole/A.M.P.A.S. via Getty Images
2. Rosalía, ‘Motomami’
“I transform myself,” Rosalía declares in the first song on “Motomami,” and throughout the album she does just that: playfully, impulsively and very purposefully smashing together musical styles and verbal tactics. Every track morphs as it unfolds, hopping across the Americas and back to Spain, rarely giving away where it’s headed. Along the way, Rosalía presents herself as fragile at one moment and invincible the next.
3. Beth Orton, ‘Weather Alive’
Over ghostly, circling piano motifs, the songs on “Weather Alive” meditate on longing and memory, connection and solitude, nature and time. Beth Orton’s voice stays unguarded in both its delicacy and its flaws, while her production cradles it in patiently undulating arrangements, floating acoustic instruments in electronic spaces; the songs linger until they become hypnotic.
4. Sudan Archives, ‘Natural Brown Prom Queen’
Sudan Archives — the songwriter, singer and violinist Brittney Denise Parks — juggles the many conflicting pressures and aspirations of being young, Black, female, artistic, carnal, career-minded and social on “Natural Brown Prom Queen.” The music is kaleidoscopic, deploying funk, electronics, hip-hop beats, jazz, chamber-music arrangements and the African fiddle riffs that inspired Sudan Archives’ name, barely keeping up with her ambitions.
5. iLe, ‘Nacarile’
Vulnerability and courage are never far apart on “Nacarile,” which is Puerto Rican slang for “No way!” The songwriter Ileana Cabra, who records as iLe, sings about political and feminist self-assertion alongside songs about toxic and tempting romances. Each of the 11 songs conjures its own sound — acoustic bolero, orchestral ballad, Afro-Caribbean drums, gravity-defying electronics — for music that’s richly rooted but never constrained.
6. Sylvan Esso, ‘No Rules Sandy’
Sylvan Esso’s electronic pop goes gleefully haywire on “No Rules Sandy,” the fourth studio album by the duo of Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn. In songs that leap between the everyday and the metaphysical, they maintain the transparency that has always defined their music, but skew and tweak the details: moving vocals off the beat, slipping in hints of cross rhythms, always keeping serious ideas lighter than air.
Sudan Archives’ “Natural Brown Prom Queen” reflects the vastness of her aspirations and influences.Frank Hoensch/Redferns, via Getty Images
7. black midi, ‘Hellfire’
The human condition is nasty, brutish and ferociously virtuosic on the third album by the British band black midi. In songs that flaunt the complexity and dissonance of prog-rock and the bitter angularity of post-punk — while stirring in ideas from jazz, classical music, funk, salsa and flamenco — loathsome characters do odious things. But the music turns grotesquerie into exhilaration.
8. Björk, ‘Fossora’
Forget pop comforts: Björk has other plans on “Fossora,” leaning toward chamber music at one moment and blunt impact the next. Her new songs contemplate earthy fertility and the continuity of generations, using rugged electronic sounds, families of acoustic instruments and the very human passion of her voice. As Björk looks all the way back to a primordial “Ancestress,” she’s also determined for her music to move ahead.
9. Billy Woods, ‘Aethiopes’
In hip-hop that’s simultaneously grimy and cerebral, upholding a New York City legacy, the prolific Billy Woods raps about colonialism, poverty, personal memories and ruthless historical forces. The unsettling productions, by Preservation, draw on Ethiopian music (of course) as well as funk, jazz, reggae, soundtracks, Balinese gamelan and many murkier sources, and Woods is joined by equally determined guest rappers. The tracks are dense, and well worth decoding.
10. Porridge Radio, ‘Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky’
Catharsis is the agenda for Porridge Radio, the British band led by Dana Margolin. In songs that wrestle with connection and autonomy, her vocals declaim, sob and gasp; her lyrics blurt out dilemmas and demand responses that may not arrive. The arrangements sound live and jammy, harnessing post-punk and psychedelia for emotional crescendos.
Judging by these albums, it was a year of release: superstars opting to get physical, neat songs spilling over with unruly emotions, artists relinquishing familiar beliefs, singing and rapping teetering on the edge of control. Disruption is in the air — being contentedly static is no longer enough.
1. Zach Bryan, ‘American Heartbreak’
An astonishing feat of emotionally acute songwriting and shredded-artery sentiment, Zach Bryan’s mainstream breakthrough is a heavy lift, in all senses: 34 songs, and 10 times as many small details that kick you in the sternum. “Summertime Blues,” the EP he released two months later, is maybe even better — bare bones and almost harried, it’s even more evidence of a faucet that simply won’t stop spilling.
2. Rosalía, ‘Motomami’
When Rosalía first broke through, she was engaged in a tug of war between tradition and modernity. But the dissonance she’s navigating on “Motomami” is more profound: cultivating a futurist aesthetic that spans multiple genres, eras and philosophies, making for an album as radical and syncretic as any released by a global superstar in the last few years.
Zach Bryan’s “American Heartbreak” is a lengthy album that probes raw emotions.Kristin Braga Wright for The New York Times
3. Drake, ‘Honestly, Nevermind’
The better of the two Drake albums this year was the less expected one: a collection of earthen, sensual, soulful house music. In a career defined by blurring borders, this was less a plot twist than a quick spotlight on an underappreciated character: body music that keeps the heart palpitating.
4. Priscilla Block, ‘Welcome to the Block Party’
The most promising Nashville debut of the year belonged to Priscilla Block, a pop-friendly singer-songwriter with a robust grasp of country tradition. Her first album includes a few rowdy bridge-burners and a gaggle of torch songs sung in a sweet but unshakable voice.
5. Beyoncé, ‘Renaissance’
“Renaissance” is a few things that Beyoncé’s music hasn’t always been: chaotic, breathy, unrelentingly sweaty, appealingly frayed. A titanic collection of club music, it has an almost gravitational urgency, emphasizing the primal pull of the dance floor, where putting on airs is not an option.
6. Bartees Strange, ‘Farm to Table’
Bartees Strange has quite a voice, or perhaps voices. He sings with huskiness and nimbleness, plangency and viscosity — sometimes all of these at once. On his eruptive second album, he writes about growth and self-doubt, Phoebe Bridgers and George Floyd, all unified by singing that’s brimming with heart and pluck and can pivot on a dime.
7. Gulch’s final show, Sound & Fury Festival, July 31, 2022
Not an album per se, but the video of this 34-minute concert — on the StayThicc YouTube channel — is a hair-raising document of this San Jose, Calif., hardcore band at its punishing peak, the fan fervor it inspired, and the ridiculous, anticlimactic conclusion in which power to the stage was abruptly turned off.
8. 42 Dugg & EST Gee, ‘Last Ones Left’
These two, stars in their own right, have all the makings of a great rap duo — EST Gee, from Louisville, Ky., is steely and narratively vivid, his verses square-cornered and bleak. 42 Dugg, from Detroit, delivers nasal, curvy passages flecked with scars of having seen too much.
9. Asake, ‘Mr. Money With the Vibe’
The debut album from the rising Nigerian star Asake is both appealingly grounded and aiming for an astral plane. Taking in Afrobeats, fuji and amapiano, but also flickers of jazz fusion and even gospel, Asake’s music is enveloping and inspirational, mellow but assured.
10. Bad Boy Chiller Crew, ‘Disrespectful’
There’s an inherent silliness to bouncy club music, songs designed to trigger full-scale abandon. Bad Boy Chiller Crew — effectively a comedy troupe wearing the costume of a music collective — amplifies and underscores that tendency on its second album. The songs — faithful bassline and garage tunes that sound like shout-rapping over a D.J. mix — are absurd and uncanny, an invitation to dance and a metacommentary on letting loose.
11. Bad Bunny, ‘Un Verano Sin Ti’
The defining pop star of 2022, Bad Bunny is fully untethered from expectations. His fourth solo album is a sunshine beam, taking reggaeton and Latin trap as starting points and embracing styles from across the Caribbean, from mambo to dembow.
Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti” has dominated the charts in 2022.Gladys Vega/Getty Images
12. Bandmanrill, ‘Club Godfather’
Bandmanrill emerged last year from the Jersey drill scene, which takes the drill template of immediate, punchy rapping and matches it with up-tempo Jersey club music. In short order, he became one of drill’s premier songwriters, but his debut, “Club Godfather,” already shows him stretching beyond the genre’s boundaries.
13. Special Interest, ‘Endure’
The ecstatically erratic third album from the New Orleans band Special Interest is full of politically minded punk-funk. It is a howling good time, but also nervous and tense, with songs that are agitated, but more crucially, agitating.
Honorary late 2021 release: Kay Flock, “The D.O.A. Tape”
Lindsay Zoladz
Inner Lives, Shared Wide
This year I found myself drawn to records that created their own immersive worlds that reflected the bold, distinct perspective of their creators — a trick that quite a few big-budget pop albums pulled off, sure, but plenty of smaller indie records did, too, with just as much personality and flair.
1. Grace Ives, ‘Janky Star’
Small, quirky pop albums are a dime a dozen these days, but they rarely come with the wit, vision and lyrical personality of this one by Grace Ives. For the last half year, the Brooklyn musician’s sharp, frequently hilarious observations have stuck in my mind as often as her infectious, synth-driven melodies: the overdraft fee from a $100 A.T.M. withdrawal on “Loose”; the flirty way she co-opts business jargon like “circle back” on “Angel of Business.” Or how about this deadpan punchline on the jangly, crush-struck “Shelley”: “I wonder what she wants for dinner/She’s really got me looking inward.” Ives’s voice across these 10 tracks is weighty but nimble, her ear for melody idiosyncratic but always immediate and true. By the end of “Janky Star,” it’s hard not to be charmed by the warm interiority of her sound and her peculiar, canted vision of the world.
Grace Ives’s “Janky Star” is laced with small details and personal touches.Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images
2. Beyoncé, ‘Renaissance’
Along this dazzling and immaculately sequenced joyride through the history of dance music, Beyoncé celebrates her own uniqueness while also decentering herself, refracting the disco ball’s spotlight so it illuminates a long line of forebears: Grace Jones, Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer, Robin S., Moi Renee, Nile Rodgers, Big Freedia and of course her very own Uncle Jonny. Bless whoever dosed the lemonade at this party: “Renaissance” is Queen Bey at her loosest, funniest, sweatiest and — as she testifies on the sublime “Church Girl” — her most transcendently free.
3. Rosalía, ‘Motomami’
On the singular “Motomami,” one of the coolest pop stars on the planet mashes up innumerable genres and cultural influences to create her own sonic world. Rosalía combines the braggadocio of your favorite rapper (“Rosa! Sin tarjeta!”) with the emotional intensity of the flamenco legend Carmen Amaya (“G3 N15”), effortlessly pivoting between stylistic extremes that would give a less innovative talent whiplash.
4. Alex G, ‘God Save the Animals’
The Philly indie-rock everydude Alex Giannascoli reimagines the New Testament as a fanzine, sort of (“God is my designer, Jesus is my lawyer”), and the miracle is how well it actually works. The sudden jolts of sonic abrasion — a hyperpop breakdown in the middle of an acoustic ballad about the innocence of children, say — and the unbroken through line of weirdness do not diminish the radical empathy and poignant sincerity that is this record’s beating heart.
5. Florence + the Machine, ‘Dance Fever’
On her fifth, and best, studio album with her trusty Machine, Florence Welch’s imperial goddess persona comes crashing down to earth, or maybe somewhere even less dignified: “The bathroom tiles were cool against my head, I pressed my forehead to the floor and prayed for a trap door,” she sings on the gut-wrenching closer “Morning Elvis,” a painstakingly detailed depiction of a breakdown. Welch has never been sadder (“Back in Town”), more provocative (“King,” “Girls Against God”), or funnier (“And it’s good to be alive, crying into cereal at midnight”) than she is on the kaleidoscopic “Dance Fever,” an album that constantly, seamlessly moves between the macro and the micro, from an inquisitive exploration of gender and power to a blown-open window in the heart.
6. Nilüfer Yanya, ‘Painless’
London’s Nilüfer Yanya harnesses the antsy buzz of modern anxiety and transforms it into something not just manageable but actually beautiful, thanks to her elegant melodies and the lavender calm of her voice. The magnificent “Painless” is so well paced that one of the peak musical moments of the year comes at its direct center: that beat when the hitherto coiled “Midnight Sun” suddenly blooms into a reverie of guitar distortion.
Florence Welch has never been sadder or funnier than she is on her latest album, “Dance Fever.”Chris Pizzello/Invision, via Associated Press
7. Alvvays, ‘Blue Rev’
This Toronto five-piece makes — and on its third album, “Blue Rev,” perfects — a kind of inverted shoegaze: big-hearted, smeary dream-pop oriented toward the sky. Molly Rankin’s achingly sweet voice cuts through the woolly squall of distortion as she sings of the thwarted expectations and indistinguishable hope of early adulthood: “I find myself paralyzed/Knowing all too well, terrified/But I’ll find my way.”
8. Sudan Archives, ‘Natural Brown Prom Queen’
Get comfy when Sudan Archives welcomes you into her domicile on the mood-setting opener “Home Maker” — you’re going to want to stay awhile. The prismatic songwriter born Brittney Denise Parks showcases the many facets of her musical personality — singing, rapping, playing violin — on the immersive, genre-hopping “Natural Brown Prom Queen,” an 18-track song-of-self filled to the brim with smart, sensual and continuously adventurous ideas.
9. Angel Olsen, ‘Big Time’
To address some radical changes in her life — coming out as queer just before both her parents died — the indie star Angel Olsen turns, incongruously, to the traditionally minded sounds of vintage country and torch-song pop. Turns out they suit the wailing grandeur of her voice perfectly, though, and she can’t help but make them her own thanks to the fiery force of her musical personality.
10. Miranda Lambert, ‘Palomino’
Miranda Lambert’s wandering spirit is given plenty of room to roam on the majestic “Palomino,” a travelogue across not just the interstate highway system but the many musical stylings Lambert can command: honky-tonk country (“Geraldene”), Petty-esque Southern rock (“Strange”) and even some heartstring-tugging folk balladry (“Carousel”). Mamas, this is what it sounds like when you let your daughters grow up to be cowboys.
11. Amanda Shires, ‘Take It Like a Man’
Here’s the spirit of outlaw country in 2022: a fearless woman gathering all her strength and belting out her truths with a poet’s diction and a bird of prey’s voice. “Come on, I dare you, make me feel something again,” the singer/songwriter/fiddle player Amanda Shires trills at the beginning of “Take It Like a Man,” and then she spends the next 40 minutes rising to her own challenge.
12. The Weeknd, ‘Dawn FM’
If you’ve ever wondered what the finale of “All That Jazz” would sound like had it been scored by Oneohtrix Point Never, have I got the record for you. The Weeknd follows the huge success of “After Hours” with some high-concept and deeply stirring experimentation on the probing “Dawn FM,” reimagining the pop album as a kind of death dream without sacrificing the hooks.
13. Aldous Harding, ‘Warm Chris’
The New Zealand eccentric Aldous Harding is a folk-rock harlequin, clowning and mugging her way through beguilingly catchy tunes. In the weird world of her fourth album, “Warm Chris,” there’s not a lot of because, just a lot of deadpan, and glorious, is.
If the pain of inflation is already cutting into your holiday gift-giving plans, prepare to pay more to decorate, too.
The average cost of a Christmas tree is up — like everything else this year — thanks to higher fuel, fertilizer and labour costs, climate change, higher insurance rates and, according to several growers, a continent-wide shortage of trees.
"On average across Canada, you're going to see about a 10 per cent increase, and that is solely because of the expenses that it's costing the farm," said Shirley Brennan, executive director of the Canadian Christmas Trees Association.
She says the cost of fertilizer alone went up about 25 per cent in the past year. In some regions, farmers say it's up as much as 50 per cent.
The gas for the trucks that transport trees from wholesale farms to those big, box-store lots or local pop-ups costs more. So does the fuel for farm machinery, and it's more expensive to insure the farm itself.
Some farms saw their rates double, Brennan said. Others saw increases of up to 35 per cent.
Shirley Brennan, executive director of the Canadian Christmas Trees Association, says while the industry is booming, the number of trees being planted in Canada is going down. (James Dunne/CBC )
"One of my Christmas tree farmers was telling me it cost $15,000 a year for him to insure his Christmas tree farm."
All of those extra costs for the farmers mean you're paying more for your tree.
All the same, business is booming.
"There must be a shortage," said tree farmer George Powell, "because all kinds of people are phoning us, wanting trees wholesale."
Powell and his wife, Marianne, have been growing trees on their cut-your-own farm in Bowmanville, Ont., for more than 40 years.
George and Marianne Powell, seen here with their daughter Dana, left, have been running Powell's Trees in Bowmanville, Ont., for more than 40 years. (Submitted by George Powell)
They got into the business accidentally back in 1980 when they bought 75 acres of what they thought was bush land east of Toronto.
"In the spring when the snow melted, there was thousands of Christmas trees planted, and I said 'Kids, we're going to be Christmas tree growers.'"
George says the cost of seedlings has risen from 10 cents each to $1.50 over the decades. (Submitted by George Powell)
But a lot has changed over 40 years. Powell says there were 12 tree farmers in the area back then. Now they're the only ones left. Seedlings used to cost 10 cents each. Now they're $1.50.
Fewer trees being grown
Brennan says what was a $53 million industry in 2015 is now worth more than $100 million. The latest numbers from Statistics Canada put it at more than $160 million.
But the number of trees going into the ground is down.
In 2016, there were 1,872 Christmas tree farms in Canada. In 2021, there were 1,364.
Brennan says over the past decade, Canada has lost about 20,000 acres of Christmas tree-growing land — which could have grown some 30 million trees — to various factors.
Canada also exports almost half the trees it grows.
Powell says he believes the shortage can be traced to 2008, when the financial crisis took a toll on farmers. Many couldn't afford to plant as many trees that year and, given it takes 15 years to grow one from seed, those effects are playing out now.
The changing climate and extreme weather events are also taking a toll on crops.
"Drought is always a big issue with seedlings," Powell said, because his farm is irrigated only by rainfall. "There's way too many seedlings to irrigate. So we just have to take a chance."
Last year they lost about 15 per cent of their seedlings, about average.
"Some years we don't lose any and some years we lose pretty near all of them," Powell said.
A tree is moved at Powell's Trees. The number of Christmas tree farms across the country declined to just over 1,300 in 2021, according to Statistics Canada. (Submitted by George Powell)
Paul Huesken says a chronic shortage of Christmas trees in B.C. is behind rising costs in his province.
"There are a number of factors in that," the tree farmer and president of the B.C. Christmas Tree Association said, including retiring farmers, people selling their farms, the prohibitive price of farmland — and geography.
B.C., he notes, goes from "beautiful valley floors to steep mountains — and there isn't much of that marginal farmland in between like you have in Oregon or Washington."
An employee of East End Garden Centre, in Toronto, walks past cut Christmas trees on Monday. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
A beloved Christmas tree species, the noble fir, will this year cost anywhere from $16 to $19 a foot in the Vancouver area, he says. For a premium, eight-foot Nordman tree, you can expect to pay anywhere from $160 to $200.
The weather is also always an issue.
B.C. has mostly recovered from the damage of its 2021 heat dome, but was hit by massive flooding a few months later. There was damaging frost in Nova Scotia in 2018 — which affected not only young trees but the mature ones, too — and a similar late frost in eastern Ontario and western Quebec in 2020. And while this has been an unusually dry year in central Canada, it was just the opposite in Manitoba three years back.
WATCH | Storm slows down Christmas tree farmers:
N.S. Christmas tree grower dealing with Fiona aftermath
2 months ago
Duration 2:05
Some people who sell Christmas trees say the damage from the post-tropical storm could have been much worse. But as they prepare for their busiest time of the year, the cleanup is slowing them down. Matthew Moore has the story.
It was a "very wet, wet year here in Manitoba," in 2019, said Dan Friesen, owner of Timber Trails Tree Farm near Steinbach, Man..
"We went into winter extremely wet and we had quite a lot of winter kill on our farm," he said. "We lost a good percentage of our spruce tree crop."
Friesen says the loss didn't hurt him then, but it is now.
"We had a lot of trees that we lost at that point that we would be cutting now. So, and unfortunately, they're not there and it takes a long time to regrow them," he said.
Brennan says Mother Nature is the silent partner of all farmers, "and she's not so silent."
Dan Friesen, owner of Timber Trail Farms, near Steinbach, Man., says weather events from years ago are having an impact on supply in 2022. (Karen Pauls/CBC)
Her advice to buyers this year — be willing to step out of your comfort zone.
"You may not need that eight-foot tree or that 10-foot tree that you normally get," she said.
Brennan says demand for table-top trees and slender, shorter trees — more conducive to smaller living spaces — are on the rise.
Despite the challenges, Powell says buying a Christmas tree just brings out the best in people. He remembers a guy years ago who showed at 4 a.m. for a tree. Powell says by the time he got up and dressed, the tree was cut and the car was heading back down the driveway.
"When I opened the front door, there was $60 on the floor that he paid for his tree."
The Powells' granddaughter, Cosima Caloia, poses on the family farm. (Submitted by George Powell)
“The industry has come so far with respect to representation, but we’re still behind when it comes to people with disabilities.”
Shayla Brown had less than a week to prepare for the biggest audition of her life. Last year, the 19-year-old native of Midland, Ontario, found herself in the running for the role of Autje in Sarah Polley’s big-screen adaptation of Miriam Toews’s searing 2018 novel, Women Talking. (Brown sped through the book in two days flat.)
Months went by without so much as a post-tryout “thanks, but no thanks.” And then came a life-changing call. Polley was so impressed with Brown’s performance that she wrote an entirely new character into the film’s script, just for her: Helena, the granddaughter to Frances McDormand’s Scarface Janz. “I was ecstatic to play a character who’s completely original,” Brown says. When Women Talking premieres this month, moviegoers are bound to take notice of Brown’s unique talent: her keen attunement to her fellow actors and, like Polley, a depth beyond her years.
Brown’s path to stardom kicked off—as it does for many future thespians—with solo bedroom singalongs to the Annie soundtrack. “I didn’t have many friends as a kid,” Brown says. “So I sang to keep myself company.” In her early teens, Brown sharpened her skills on the local theatre circuit; her professional stage debut came in April of 2022, when she drew critical kudos for her portrayal of Rayisha in the Toronto production of George F. Walker’s Orphans for the Czar.
Brown, who was born blind, is most grateful for her first onscreen role—as a warrior in See, an Apple TV+ series about a society that has lost its sight. Visually impaired workers were involved on all sides of See’s production. There were even grooves etched into prop tables so the actors knew where to place their staffs. “The industry has come so far with respect to representation, but we’re still behind when it comes to people with disabilities,” Brown says. “We have to advocate for ourselves.”
One of Brown’s most enthusiastic mentors is Polley, from whom Brown regularly solicits advice over the phone. (“I can just text her and be like, ‘So what am I doing? How do you do this?’ ”) Polley has also encouraged Brown to direct and write characters like herself—placing their human foibles, not their blindness, at the centre of the story. “Characters written for blind actors often emphasize their vulnerability,” Brown says. “But they have great strength that deserves to be acknowledged.”
Published in the August issue of Frontiers in Psychiatry, a recent study by Wu and colleagues suggests that living alone is associated with a higher risk of depression.
Before discussing the research, an introduction to the psychology of loneliness follows.
The psychology of loneliness
We are in the middle of a loneliness epidemic. And the COVID-19 pandemic, though not the cause, has certainly contributed to this epidemic as well.
Loneliness refers to a discrepancy between desired and achieved relationships. There are two types of loneliness:
Research shows loneliness is associated with negative physical and mental health outcomes; for example, it is a risk factor for depression, increases pain sensitivity, and has been linked to premature death.
Feelings of loneliness, living alone, and depression
Loneliness correlates with living arrangements—specifically, with living by oneself.
Of course, due to COVID-19 infection and/or social distancing measures (e.g., lockdowns), many of us have had to temporarily live alone or apart from people we care about—such as a romantic partner, family, or friends. But more generally, living alone has been slowly becoming a new norm.
Indeed, these days there are a greater number of single-person households than there used to be. Whether due to never having married, separation, divorce, or widowhood, nearly 1 in 3 people residing in Western countries live by themselves.
Like feelings of loneliness, physicalsocial isolation may be a risk factor for many conditions related to physical health (e.g., cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, premature mortality) and mental health, particularly depression.
Despite all of the research on the subject, few longitudinal studies have explored loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for depression, which is why Wu et al. relied on data from longitudinal studies to explore this relationship, as summarized below.
Investigating the relationship between living alone and depression
Sample: A systematic search of Embase, Pubmed, and Cochrane databases (up to May 2022) found 2,056 studies. Of 239 full-text articles screened, seven were included in the meta-analysis. In terms of demographics, there were 123,859 participants (without a history of psychosis); 65% were female.
Analysis of data showed that “living alone was associated with a higher risk of depression than not living alone (OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.19– 1.70).” In terms of demographics, analysis of data indicated that living alone increases the risk of developing depression more for men than women, older than younger, and rural than urban people.
THE BASICS
A number of previous meta-analyses had also concluded that living alone is a risk factor for depression; however, they had used only cross-sectional studies. The present analysis, instead, used data from longitudinal studies. Yet, the results were similar. Specifically, it appears that living alone increased the risk of depressive disorders by 42%.
Source: Pexels/Pixabay
Why is social isolation linked with depression?
An important question is why living on one’s own increases the risk of depression.
There are a variety of potential explanations: Those who live alone, compared to those living with others, may be in a worse financial situation, have less social contact and social support, be in poorer physical or mental health, or have worse health habits.
Depression Essential Reads
The relationship between living alone and depression may be quite complex. For example, research suggests patients with a history of—or with current—serious diseases and disabling conditions (e.g., chronic pain) are more likely to become isolated and eventually develop depression. But depression itself is also likely to lead to or worsen patients’ quality of life and increase social isolation and feelings of loneliness.
Takeaway
The present research used data from nearly 124,000 individuals to investigate the link between living arrangements and mood disorders. It concluded that living alone, compared to living with others, increases the risk of depression by 42%.
This is concerning because depression lowers the quality of life, is a leading cause of disability, and has been linked, according to the authors’ review of previous research, to the “incidence of cardiovascular illness, stroke, coronary heart disease, gastrointestinal problems, hypertension, asthma, arthritis, disability, suicide, and self-harm.”
(Bloomberg) -- The war in Ukraine is strengthening the role of Asia and the Middle East as the world’s main providers of fuels like diesel and gasoline that are crucial to the global economy.
As Europe and the US seek to cut off their dependence on Russian petroleum products, they are facing a shortage of supplies at home. That’s opening opportunities for mega-refineries in places like China and Kuwait to flood the market with fuel.
“By turning their back on Russian oil products, Europe and the US are increasing their dependence on long-haul barrels from the Middle East and Asia,” said Eugene Lindell, head of refined products at industry consultant FGE, based in London.
Russia’s invasion is creating a greater disparity between the two regions after Western nations significantly cut refining capacity in recent years, while the other side of the world has been expanding.
Western markets including the Americas and Europe shut down a net 2.4 million barrels a day of refining capacity in the last three years, while the Middle East and Asia added 2.5 million barrels, according to FGE.
That gap is expected to widen. About 8 million barrels a day of new refining capacity is set to come online in the next three years, with Asia adding the most and Europe the least, according to estimates by Rystad Energy.
“We will see Asia and the Middle East increasingly becoming the fuel suppliers of the world,” said Mukesh Sahdev, head of downstream practice for Rystad. East-West flows of refinery products “will become more structural,” he added.
READ: The Oil Market’s Big Refining Bottleneck in Five Charts
The seismic shift in the global refining industry was hastened during the pandemic, when older plants were shut as global lockdowns decimated oil demand. China has since brought on larger and more sophisticated refineries to meet the nation’s growing need for oil, while the US and Europe have focused on transitioning away from fossil fuels.
Consumption of fuels such as gasoline and diesel in the US and Europe will mature ahead of Asia, said Victor Shum, vice president of energy consulting for S&P Global Commodity Insights based in Singapore. Many new refinery projects in Asia have also been constructed in view of the region’s growing petrochemical demand, he said.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Western nations’ subsequent sanctions on its fuel supplies took global energy markets by surprise, with fuel security concerns now taking center stage for nations without sufficient refining capacity. In this climate, any refinery outages stemming from worker strikes or unexpected closures will be even more keenly felt across markets.
“European governments and their citizens beset with massive utility bills and soaring inflation are now prioritizing the next few years rather than 2040-2050,” said FGE’s Lindell.
The West is feeling the strain of having fewer refineries. Northwest Europe’s stockpiles of diesel are dwindling, and will reach their lowest at the start of spring, according to a forecast by Wood Mackenzie Ltd., as the European Union looks to cut off seaborne imports of Russian fuel in February.
Meanwhile, rising shortages of diesel and gasoline on the US East Coast are spurring President Joe Biden to consider a mandate requiring oil companies to store more fuel within the country. The gasoline crunch is likely to worsen further toward peak summer driving season, said Rystad’s Sahdev.
Latin America’s become more reliant on imports as several refineries in the Caribbean shuttered, and facilities in Venezuela and Mexico continue to experience significant outages and low run rates, according to John Auers, managing director at RBN Energy.
Mexico is snapping up gasoline from China, where refiners are taking advantage of higher export quotas by running harder and shipping out more. Asia’s exports of transport fuels to the Americas is currently more than double that of year-ago levels, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The hauling of petroleum products westward across longer distances is sharply boosting shipping costs and driving a rally in tanker earnings. The volume of fuel transported by sea is 3% higher than averages seen in the last five years, according to Vortexa Ltd. data. That’s led by diesel from Asia and the Middle East to Europe, and volumes may expand as the latter bans Russian supplies, said Serena Huang, lead Asia analyst for Vortexa.
READ: Europe Diesel Crisis Is Lesson in Energy Security, Veteran Says
Certainly, the US is still a major exporter of diesel, and efforts to strengthen energy security may help alleviate the shortages, but analysts don’t see the capacity gap narrowing anytime soon.
“We should see a more realistic energy policy going forward, but the plans for a fossil fuel exit are still there,” said FGE’s Lindell. “It is just that the focus is on the short- to medium-term now, rather than the very long term.”
--With assistance from Jack Wittels.
(Updates with latest Asia-Americas export data in 15th paragraph. A previous version corrected data in the first chart.)
Shelves are stocked with festive products and Christmas decor is on display at many Vernon, B.C. businesses.
However, with Canadians facing rising prices for many day-to-day staples, the open question is how much will shoppers be willing to spend on the holidays this year?
“People are being a lot more cautious with their spending dollars,” said Stephlynne Wilbrink who owns Wildflower General Store, a gift shop in downtown Vernon.
“They are definitely looking around more making sure they are really certain with what they are going to buy instead of just impulse buying.”
At Polished Mercantile, another boutique across the street, the owner says business is noticeably slower than last year.
“You can’t blame people. Everything is just so expensive everywhere,” said Polished Mercantile owner Lacey O’Neill.
“It is kind of scary as an owner of a retail place.”
However, traffic is not slow everywhere. Lynella Henke said her toy store, Vernon Teach and Learn, was busy for Black Friday with people looking for deals.
“I think people are careful in how they are shopping but they are also looking for quality products and originality and things that are on the top toy list,” Henke said.
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A holiday shopping survey done for the Retail Council of Canada found around 60 per cent of Canadians said they will look for more deals this year than they have in the past.
“What consumers told Leger, when they did the study for us, is that they are going to be focused more on prices and looking for a good bargain and that they are willing to hunt or shop around for a good bargain,” said Greg Wilson, the Retail Council of Canada’s director of government relations for B.C.
However, B.C. shoppers’ holiday budgets aren’t as tight as in some other parts of Canada.
The Retail Council of Canada survey found British Columbian shoppers are planning to spend $887 this year. That’s almost $100 dollars more than the national average.
Wilson said the bigger budgets in B.C. are probably because the economy in the province is stronger.
Two other national trends could also impact local retailers this holiday season.
“This year, a little bit more than other years, there is a lot of concern about local businesses. Seventy-four per cent of survey respondents say that it is important to patronize local businesses,” Wilson said.
“The other thing is it is interesting that this year there is a very marked change towards an intention to buy food and beverage which indicates that more people are planning more holiday parties and more events. So they are planning to spend a greater proportion of their budget on food and beverage.”
Meanwhile, retail owners say they are working to adapt.
“It means we just have to curate our collection a lot more carefully and make sure we are delivering the best product we can at the best prices we can,” Wilbrink said.
“Definitely try to spend your dollars local as much as you can, it makes a big difference. We reinvest into our communities. You are giving the money to your neighbours instead of bigger corporations.”
