A huge pipeline spill has released 22,000 barrels of oil and water into muskeg in the far northwest of Alberta.

The spill ranks among the largest in North America in recent years, a period that has seen a series of high-profile accidents that have undermined the energy industry’s safety record. The Enbridge Inc. pipeline rupture that leaked oil near Michigan’s Kalamazoo River, for example, spilled an estimated 19,500 barrels…

Dear Everyone,

My name is Naomi. I am Canadian. I worked for Environment Canada, our federal environmental department, for several years before our current Conservative leadership (under Stephen Harper) began decimating environmentalism in Canada. I, along with thousands and thousands of federal science employees lost any hope of future work. Their attitude towards the environment is ‘screw research that contradicts the economic growth, particularly of the oil sands’. They have openly and officially denigrated anyone that supports the environment and opposes big-money oil profit as ‘radicals’ (http://tinyurl.com/7wwf8dp).

Every day in Canada, new information about their vendetta on science and the environment becomes quietly public and keeps piling up. I have been privy to much first-hand information still because I retain friendships with my ex-colleagues (though my blood pressure hates me for it).

While I was working there, scientists were effectively muzzled from speaking to the media without prior confirmation with Harper’s media team (http://tinyurl.com/7bnsqp4) – usually denied, and when allowed, totally controlled. Scientists were threatened with job loss if they said anything in an interview that was not exactly what the media team had told them to say. This happened in 2008. The public didn’t find out for years.

During one of my contracts, I was manager of a large, public database set. Contact information for all database managers was available for anyone. I knew what was going on with the information and could answer questions immediately and personally. During this time, I noticed that the media team  started asking me “What would I say” to certain questions. I answered unwittingly. After a certain period of time, I noticed that all contact information had been removed from the internet –eliminating the opportunity for a citizen to inquire directly about these public data sets without contacting the media team. The Conservatives effectively removed another board from the bridge between science and the public, and I had inadvertently helped.

Since then, the Conservative government has been laying off thousands and thousands of full-fledged scientific employees that have been performing research for decades (http://tinyurl.com/8xtkaro), shutting down entire divisions and radically decimating environmental protection and stewardship in a matter of a couple years.

I am afraid for my country. Canada is the second largest land mass in the world – though our population is small, you can be sure that when a country that encompasses 7% of the world’s land mass, and has the largest coastline in the world says “screw it” to environmental protection, there will be massive global repercussions.

The Conservative leadership have admitted to shutting down environmental research groups on climate change because “they didn’t like the results” (http://tinyurl.com/7kpqk7d), are decimating the Species at Risk Act (our national equivalent of the IUCN Red list), are decimating habitat protection for fisheries, are getting rid of one of the most important water research facilities in the world (Experimental Lakes Area – has been operational since 1968, and allows for long-term ecosystem studies [http://tinyurl.com/cdygbdk] ), are getting rid of almost all scientists that study contaminants in the environment, have backed out of the Kyoto protocol – and the list goes on and on and on.

Entire divisions of scientific research are being eliminated. Our land, our animals, our plants, our environment are losing all the protection that has been building for decades – a contradictory stance to the rest of the world. (Please see their proposed omni-bill that basically tells the environment to go screw itself, while also being presented in an undemocratic fashion that limits debate on any of the 70+ changes [http://tinyurl.com/89ys2nf]).

David Schindler, a professor from the University of Alberta (and founder of ELA) quoted. “I think we have a government that considers science an inconvenience.”

I am writing this to implore every single person to please – look into this subject, and help us, help ourselves. Contact your MP, the Fisheries minister, Stephen Harper, anyone, everyone. I can’t sit by and just post rants on my Facebook page anymore. Share this letter, discuss, anything. Canada is an important nation environmentally, and our leadership doesn’t give a fig for science or the environment. But we do. This Conservative minority leadership was voted in on a thin string in the lowest voter election turnout in recent history, but thanks to our ridiculous voting laws, have 100% full power to do whatever they want. And in the name of short-term monetary oil profit, they have realized that progressive science and the environment are threats (obstacles) to their goals, and are doing so many things to eliminate both.

We are depressed, and frustrated, and mad, and need all the help we can get to protect the value of science and our environment. In the age of globalization, intentionally non-progressive leadership is going to affect everyone. We share our waters, air, and cycles with all of you. Science IS a candle in the dark, and we cannot let greed extinguish that flame. What happens in Canada – will happen everywhere.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

A Canadian that cares about science and the environment

When governments make a decision that is stupid, embarrassing, overly partisan, or risks causing an outcry, they tend to do so late in the day and late in the week, preferably on the eve of a holiday long weekend, when citizens – and journalists – aren’t paying much attention.

So, late Thursday, the government of Stephen Harper dropped this bombshell, as related in a brief announcement posted on the web site of the National Aboriginal Health Organization: “NAHO funding has been cut by Health Canada. It is with sadness that NAHO will wind down by June 30, 2012.”

This travesty of public policy only came to light because of feisty publications like Windspeaker and Nunatsiaq News.

Founded in 2000, NAHO oversaw many research and outreach programs, in crucial fields such as suicide prevention, tobacco cessation, housing and midwifery. It collected an invaluable series of audio and video interviews with elders recounting traditional tales and knowledge. The group also published the Journal of Aboriginal Health and was home to one of the best collections of aboriginal health research in the world.

There are many political and policy differences among aboriginal groups, but NAHO managed to bring them together at one table, with a common purpose, improving the health of the unhealthiest, most disenfranchised people in the country. It wasn’t always smooth sailing, but it was an achievement in itself.

We are destroying this asset for what reason exactly? To save a few bucks?

NAHO received $4,955,865 from Health Canada last year.

In the world of $25-billion (and counting) fighter jet contracts, that’s a pittance.

And what does it say about the federal government’s priorities?

If you want to trim the Health Canada budget – and the plan is to shed $200-million – then trim some bureaucratic fat at the Tunney’s Pasture headquarters – don’t cut grants to groups that actually do useful things.

If we want to fight a war, why not a war on poverty and health disparity in aboriginal communities?

The abysmal health status of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples is Canada’s greatest shame.

Taking an ax to an organization that highlights these health issues – and, better still, pursues solutions – is not going to make these problems go away. It is merely going to sweep them under the carpet, where they have been for far too long.

One cannot help but see this as part of the continuing attack this government has waged on information, particularly information that casts the government in a bad light.

Here’s the kind of information we need to know about the health status of Canada’s 1.2 million aboriginal people, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us:

Life expectancy: Aboriginals can expect to live, on average, a decade less than other Canadians;

Disability: Native people have higher rates of disability and live, on average, about 12 more years with a disability;

Infant mortality: Aboriginal children die at three times the rate of non-aboriginal kids, and are more likely to be born with severe birth defects and debilitating conditions such as fetal alcohol syndrome;

Injuries: Members of First Nations and Inuit communities suffer traumatic injuries at four times the rate of the general population;

Suicide: The rate is six times higher;

Chronic disease: Natives have three times the rate of diabetes; suffer more heart disease and at a younger age;

Infectious disease: Tuberculosis rates are 16 times higher in first nations than in the rest of Canada; HIV-AIDS rates are growing fastest in the native population; medieval water-borne illnesses like dysentery and shigellosis are still commonplace in native communities;

The unemployment and poverty rates are five times those in the non-aboriginal community;

Education: Only 4 per cent of natives have a university education, one-quarter the rate in mainstream society. One-third of aboriginal people do not graduate high school, three times the rate for non-aboriginals;

Housing: More than one-third of First Nations people have, in government jargon, a “core housing need,” meaning their homes do not meet the most basic standard of acceptability;

Infrastructure: Overcrowded houses, lack of running water and inadequate sewage are the norm in many native communities;

Environment: The contaminants that stalk some communities are frightening: Mercury, PCBs, toxaphene and pesticide levels are all higher in the bodies of aboriginals than non-aboriginals.

NAHO’s role is the “advancement and promotion of health and well-being of all First Nations, Inuit and Métis individuals, families and communities.

Clearly, NAHO’s work – “the advancement and promotion of health and well-being of all First Nations, Inuit and Métis individuals, families and communities” – is not done; heck, it has barely begun.

There’s a disturbing pattern here. The government has also cut funding to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. And the First Nations and Inuit Health branch at Health Canada oversees what is without question the worst health system in Canada, making every effort to slough the responsibility off onto the provinces and territories.

Jack Hicks, an Iqaluit-based suicide researcher summed it up this way: “The Conservatives want out of the aboriginal business.” Who can forget the historic apology proffered by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to survivors of the residential schools? But words are not enough, and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission is not enough.

Concrete actions need to be taken to help the 150,000 Inuit, Métis and First Nations children who were forcibly separated from their families, but action must be taken too in their broader communities, where another million or so aboriginal people, who did not go to residential school, also need help.

The healing process may take generations, true reconciliation even longer. But the ultimate goal must be healthy communities.

Closing the gap will not be easy, or quick. But it starts with small steps, the kind that can be found every day in the contributions of groups like NAHO.

Those footsteps of progress should not be silenced.

-Ottawa, Looking West, circa 1940

Today the annual federal budget was announced.

The devil in the details is still to be revealed. Over the last few weeks, the media have been ‘conditioned’ … so many would react today with ‘It could have been worse!’.

Cuts:

Over 10% to the CBC, National Film Board, Telefilm Canada.

Cuts to Agriculture, Transportation Safety, Food Safety.

Cuts to environmental review processes for bitumen sands pipelines.

Cuts to over 10,000 federal jobs, pension benefits, increase of retirement age to 67. Hikes in [Un]Employment Insurance premiums (like a tax increase that will not speak its name).

No Cuts:

Fossil fuel subsidies.

The Ever Expanding Prime Minister’s Office of Clever Partisan Spin.

Government Advertising propaganda about what a good job it’s doing.

The number of Government Ministers (this Cabinet ties the record) or their current salaries or their pensions.

(Source: djgagnon)

OTTAWA - The Harper government is planning to gut the powers in federal legislation intended to protect fish habitat, making it easier for projects such as Calgary-based Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway pipeline to B.C. to clear federal hurdles, according to a retired fisheries biologist who obtained the information from a government source.

Proposed new wording would prohibit activity that would cause an “adverse effect” on “fish of economic, cultural or ecological value,” whereas the current law bans activity that results in the “harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat,” according to the information leaked to Otto Langer.

The changes, if enacted, would result in the total re-writing of the legislation to remove habitat protection provisions that have been in place since 1976, said Langer, a federal biologist for 32 years who later worked for the David Suzuki Foundation before his retirement.

“This is a serious situation and will put Canada back to where we were in the pre-1976 period where Canada had no laws to protect fish habitat and no way to monitor the great industrial expansion that occurred in Canada, with the consequential loss of major fish habitat all across Canada,” Langer said in a statement…

“After prematurely celebrating passage of their omnibus crime bill last week, the federal Conservatives have finally managed to push the controversial piece of legislation through Parliament…

What changes with the new crime bill

The new omnibus crime law approved by Parliament on Monday will:

- Increase penalties for sexual offences against children and create two new offences related to sexual exploitation of children;

- Increase the penalties for drug crimes including the imposition of a number of mandatory minimum sentences. Possession of six marijuana plants for the purposes of trafficking, for instance, would result in a mandatory six-month term;

- Keep violent and repeat young offenders off the streets while they are awaiting trial, require courts to consider adult sentences for youths convicted of the most serious crimes, and allow the publication of the names of violent young offenders;

- Prevent judges from imposing conditional sentences for crimes involving serious personal injury, crimes which carry a maximum prison term of 14 years or more, and some other specified offences;

- Enshrine a victim’s right to participate in parole hearings;

- Extend the ineligibility periods for “record suspensions,” previously known as pardons, to five years for summary conviction offences and to ten years for indictable offences;

- Give the Minister of Public Safety more leeway when deciding whether an offender convicted in another country will be granted a transfer back to Canada;

- Allow victims of terrorism to sue individuals, organizations and foreign states for loss or damage;

- Authorize immigration officers to refuse work permits to foreign nationals when it is determined that they are at risk of humiliating or degrading treatment.

(Source: thatfilmdudekalen)

“To anyone who lives in British Columbia: PLEASE, I encourage you to write to George Abbott about Bill 22 and education in BC in general. Bill 22 is pushing to freeze teachers wages whenever they strike for better conditions in classrooms, to allow over 3 special…

Rick Mercer on Robocalls.

I don’t know what to think or who to blame, but it’s insulting that someone would think Canadians can’t smell a rat. 

(Source: poorlittlequeerboy)

ROBOCALL:

PART MAN,

PART MACHINE,

ALL CON.