Parkland students return from summer break to school forever changed by mass shooting
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TODAY:
- The students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Fla., return from summer break — almost six months to the day since a mass shooter killed 17 people there.
- New Zealand is making it more difficult for foreigners to buy homes in that country.
- Nebraska became the first U.S. state to use fentanyl in executing a death-row inmate. This practice may have unintended consequences.
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A return to school and fear
Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Fla., returned to class today after their summer break.
Which wouldn't have been news a year ago, but that all changed with the Feb. 14 mass shooting that killed 17 teens and staff members, wounded dozens and traumatized much of a nation.
Around $6.5 million US has been spent on new security measures for the school, including a six-metre-high fence, additional gates and four additional guards. There are also 52 new cameras, a system that automatically locks classroom doors and a video intercom that buzzes visitors into the facility. All students must now wear photo ID badges around their necks.
Some proposed enhancements, like metal detectors at entrances, have been delayed over concerns that staff hadn't received adequate training on how to use them. Other temporary fixes, like the much-ridiculed see-through backpacks handed out to students last spring, have been abandoned.
The school has two new wellness centres, a team of counsellors and therapy dogs. None of which made the swarm of reporters gathered outside the building this morning, or the helicopters buzzing overhead, seem any more normal. Let alone the heavy police presence and German shepherds that watched over the proceedings.
Building 12, where most of the victims died, remains empty, and there are new portables to accommodate the dislocated students. The plan is to demolish it eventually, but since it is still considered a crime scene and may be needed as part of court proceedings, that could take years.
Some of the most visible and outspoken of the survivors, like Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg, have graduated to post-secondary activism. But hundreds of other Parkland students spent their summer exhorting their peers to register to vote and keep up the pressure for meaningful gun control. Their rolling "Road to Change" caravan, which made 33 stops across 25 states, finished up in Newtown, Conn. — the site of another horrific school massacre — on Sunday.
Another group of Parkland students travelled to New Zealand to share what they have learned with Kiwi activists.
The survivors hope that the coming U.S. midterm elections in November will deliver change, sweeping out politicians who have refused to act on America's gun crisis and ushering in a new era of regulation.
That's a tall order, but there are indications that the Parkland tragedy has moved the dial on gun control. Opinion polls show that Republican voters no longer consider the fight to protect the second amendment to be their prime issue, instead expressing more concern about a Donald Trump obsession — making NFL players stand for the national anthem.
And Democrats, who have often been unwilling to take on the gun lobby, seem to have found their voice on the issue. A USA Today analysis of campaign ads found that pro-gun control TV spots are now airing far more frequently than anti-regulation messages, with 18,416 pro ads purchased versus 8,897 anti ones.
This is a sharp reversal of the 2014 election cycle, when just 558 pro-gun control ads aired, versus 8,600 right-to-bear-arms ones.
Tough sell
New Zealand has become the latest country to move to limit foreigners from purchasing real estate.
The country's parliament passed a law today that stipulates that only New Zealand residents will be able to purchase homes and condos going forward.
"This government believes that New Zealanders should not be outbid by wealthier foreign buyers," said David Parker, the associate finance minister. "Whether it's a beautiful lakeside or oceanfront estate, or a modest suburban house, this law ensures that the market for our homes is set in New Zealand, not on the international market."
The move — a central campaign promise from last fall's election — is a response to a decade-long climb in real estate prices across the country, particularly in Auckland.
Statistics suggest that only about three per cent of all New Zealand residences are owned by foreigners, but in Auckland, it's now one in five homes, and the popular imagination has been gripped by tales of wealthy Chinese and Americans snapping up scenic properties.
There are some exceptions, however. Australians and citizens of Singapore will still be able to buy as much real estate as they like under existing free-trade deals. And other foreigners will still be encouraged to invest in large real estate projects like hotels and apartment complexes.
There's a debate about whether such a ban is really necessary — or productive. The market was already cooling off thanks to tighter mortgage rules. And last month, the International Monetary Fund expressed concern that the measure could end up hurting those it aims to help by discouraging foreign companies to invest in the building of new housing developments.
But such bans are good politics.
Australia has been cracking down on foreign buyers since 2015, limiting their purchases to newly constructed homes and imposing special fees on bids and sales. The government has also upped the fines for investors who skirt the rules and the real estate agents who assist them. All of which has deterred some out-of-country purchasers, but not all.
The United Kingdom brought in a huge capital gains tax hike for foreign buyers, which helped motivate a significant number of existing offshore owners to sell. But it hasn't stopped the very rich from continuing to gobble up London's most-exclusive properties.
Switzerland and Hong Kong also make it tough for foreigners to buy homes. And the Mexican constitution forbids non-residents from owning property near its borders or coasts, although banks and real estate companies long ago figured out a work-around.
It seems probable that such a ban will eventually come to Canada, too.
Andrew Weaver, the leader of the B.C. Green Party, which holds the balance of power in the provincial legislature, has been calling for one on both the purchases of homes and agricultural land.
A May opinion survey commissioned by the CBC found that 86 per cent of respondents believed that foreign real estate speculators were hurting the province, and that 58 per cent want a complete ban on overseas investors.
Vancouver was identified as the least affordable big city in North America in a study released last fall, which suggested its median housing prices are now 17 times higher than the median income. Toronto ranked 13th of 50 cities in the same survey, with prices now 7.5 times above income.
It's still not clear how many foreign buyers are in the Canadian market, but preliminary numbers released by Statistics Canada last December suggest that non-residents own 3.4 per cent of all residential properties in Toronto and 4.8 per cent of homes in Vancouver.
Which in terms of value, is an astounding amount of money — $45.2 billion of the $889.1 billion residential real estate market in the greater Vancouver area and $37.7 billion of Toronto's $1.2 trillion market.
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Killer injection
Fentanyl is now a legally sanctioned killer.
Yesterday, Nebraska became the first U.S. jurisdiction to use the synthetic opioid in an execution, injecting the powerful pain medication as part of a lethal four-drug cocktail.
Carey Dean Moore, a 60-year-old who had been on death row in a Lincoln, Neb., prison for 38 years, was pronounced dead at 10:47 a.m. local time, 23 minutes after the first of the drugs was administered, and eight minutes after the drapes were pulled over the execution chamber.
Moore had been convicted of the murders of two Omaha cab drivers in August 1979. They were both family men and Korean war veterans who he targeted because they were carrying cash.
The Omaha World-Herald reports that Moore was largely composed but appeared nervous in his final moments, and again expressed his regrets that he had allowed his then 14-year-old brother, Donnie, to accompany him on one the robberies. Donald Moore was also convicted of murder in 1980, but was paroled a decade ago.
Another brother, David — Carey Moore's twin — was among the invited witnesses to the execution, Nebraska's first since 1997.
It was the eighth time that Moore had faced a death date, but this time no stay was forthcoming. He had expressed his willingness to die, saying he was tired of prison.
The death sentence was carried out over the objections of two pharmaceutical companies who had filed suit in an effort to stop the state from using their products in its drug cocktail.
Fresenius Kabi, a German firm, argued that Nebraska didn't have the legal right to use its brands of cisatracurium besylate to paralyze Moore's muscles and potassium chloride to stop his heart. But a federal judge rejected their case and a higher court refused to hear an appeal.
Sandoz Inc., another maker of muscle relaxers, also sued to see if its drugs were being used, but a judge reserved his decision until after Moore's sentence was carried out.
Nebraska turned to lethal injection in 2009, after the state supreme court outlawed the use of the electric chair as cruel and unusual punishment.
But like other death penalty states, it has found that pharma giants are unwilling to sell them their healing products for such a controversial off-label use.
Last month, a Nevada judge delayed another execution where fentanyl was to be used in the killer cocktail, siding with New Jersey drug maker Alvogen, who had argued that the state had tricked a distributor into selling it midazolam.
Nevada had sought out the sedative after its stocks of Valium had passed their best-before date. A fentanyl maker — Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA — was also seeking intervenor status in the case.
Sourcing fatal drugs has become such a problem that death penalty states have been turning to sketchy online, overseas pharmacies, like Dream Pharma, a firm being run out the back of a London, England, driving school, or unregulated labs in India.
This opinion piece by a professor of pharmacology at the University of Washington argues that the use of fentanyl in lethal injections will only worsen America's opioids crisis, because it will create a sanctioned, underground supply chain for the painkiller, undermining efforts to fully track its use and distribution.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that at least 29,400 Americans died from synthetic opioid overdoses in 2017, more than half of the record-setting drug death toll of 49,000.
In Canada, there were 3,987 apparent opioid-related deaths in 2017, and legal or illicit fentanyl was involved in 72 per cent of those fatal overdoses, which works out to 2,870 deaths.
A few words on …
Quote of the moment
"As you get older, you don't see this long extension of your life, but you can see an extension of your art. So gradually I'm beginning to think that art is more important to me than life."
- Canadian painter Mary Pratt on her changing views of her work. She passed away at her St. John's, N.L, home on Tuesday at the age of 83.
What The National is reading
- Accused Fredericton killer Matthew Raymond had a 'short fuse,' says former co-worker (CBC)
- Taliban withdraws protection for Red Cross workers in Afghanistan (BBC)
- Saudi neighbours accuse Riyadh of politicizing hajj pilgrimage (France 24)
- Modi pledges Indian manned space mission, healthcare scheme (AFP)
- Spike in Toronto overdose deaths prompts public warning (CBC)
- Palestinian mail blocked by Israel arrives eight years late (BBC)
- Closing arguments set to begin in Manafort's fraud trial (Washington Post)
- Penn Jillette talks magic, truth and Trump's alleged Apprentice tapes (Vulture)
- The racist language of space exploration (The Outline)
Today in history
Aug. 15, 1979: Al Waxman enjoys opening day at the CNE
What could be more Canadian than the CNE? How about the King of Kensington promoting the new season of his CBC sitcom while marking opening day at the Ex? The Toronto thespian is put to work interviewing the crowd, asking visitors why they came. "I might get lucky," responds one boy of about 12. The year before, he won a draw for a free day of midway rides, he explains.
That's all for today.
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