Canada continues slide to being most destructive country of environment for greed and waste
Canada dead last in ranking for environmental protection
PAUL WALDIE - LONDON - The Globe and Mail - Nov. 18 2013
Canada has fallen behind in a global ranking on international development initiatives and ranks last when it comes to environmental protection.
The Washington-based Center for Global Development assesses 27 wealthy nations annually on their commitment to seven areas that impact the world's poor. Canada came 13th in this year's survey, which will be released Monday. Denmark led the list, followed by Sweden and Norway, with Japan and South Korea at the bottom.
The rankings are based on the center's "commitment to development index", or CDI, which tracks each country's performance in foreign aid, openness to trade, policies that encourage investment, openness to migration, environmental protection, promoting security and supporting technology creation. The countries were chosen because they are all members of an OECD group involved in aid and development measures. Countries such as Russia, China, India and Brazil are not included in the survey because they are not members of the OECD group.
Canada dropped from 12th place last year and did far worse in the environmental protection category, where it ranked 27th. Every other country made progress in this area except Canada, the centre said in a report on the rankings.
Canada "has the dubious honor of being the only CDI country with an environment score which has gone down since we first calculated the CDI [in 2003]," the report said. "This reflects rising fossil fuel production and its withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol, the world's only treaty governing the emissions of heat-trapping gasses. Canada has dropped below the U.S. into bottom place on the environment component."
Owen Barder, a senior fellow at the centre who prepared the index, said in an interview that the environment category has become one of the bright spots in the survey. "Environment is the one part of our index that has really seen improvement and Canada has been the only country that's fallen," he said. "My expectation would have been that Canada is environmentally friendly, Canadians all seem to take the environment seriously."
The major reasons for Canada's poor showing, he said, were pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol and having one of the highest levels of greenhouse gas production per capita. Canada also has low gasoline taxes, which don't encourage conservation, and high subsidies for fishing, which impacts fish stocks. Slovakia and Hungary came first and second in the environment category mainly because both have some of the highest gas taxes among the 27 nations and the lowest greenhouse gas emissions.
Canada scored best in trade and migration, where it finished fourth and third respectively. On trade, the centre cited Canada's low tariffs on agricultural imports as helping poorer nations. And on migration the centre said Canada is among the leaders in welcoming immigrants and students from developing countries.
Over all, Mr. Barder said this year's survey demonstrated that not much has changed in the last decade in terms of international development. "We, the rich countries, have been making promises [at Group of 20 meetings] to pursue development-friendly policies and our index doesn't pick up very much evidence that things have changed," he said. "And you would expect to see that. So this is a dog that didn't bark story. This dog should be barking by now and it's not."
He added that the environment has been a notable exception mainly because of the extraordinary compliance with the 1987 Montreal protocol on reducing chemicals that damage the ozone. The compliance rate has exceeded 98 per cent and many countries in Europe have gone beyond the protocol's requirements.
"What we've seen is actual follow through and give credit where credit is due," he said. "It has actually been implemented."
He added that despite the overall lack of progress on development issues there is room for optimism. "The optimistic part is that within these different policy areas there are some really good countries doing really good things. And that seems to be politically viable for those countries and it doesn't seem to cause them any economic or social harm," he said. "It does make you think that there is considerable room for improvement in a politically viable way."
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NB residents turn to Mi'kmaq as environmental concerns bubble to surface in wake of shale gas exploration
18. NOV, 2013 By Jorge Barrera APTN National News
ELSIPOGTOG FIRST NATION-Environmental concerns are beginning to bubble to the surface in the wake of SWN Resources Canada's shale gas exploration work and some New Brunswickers are turning to the Mi'kmaq for help.
One couple, living on the outskirts of Moncton, saw the sudden appearance of coliform bacteria in their well water after SWN's thumper trucks rumbled across their front door. Near Rogersville, a senior citizen, in his 70s, discovered water bubbling up through a seismic testing shot-hole in the bush behind his property.
Both reached out to the Mi'kmaq battling it out on the highway with SWN.
Roger Pierskalla, who lives with his wife along Hwy 126 near Moncton, said a company hired by SWN to conduct the well water tests after the thumper trucks rolled by phoned to tell them they should immediately boil their water before drinking and contact the regional health inspector's office.
Tests results showed his well water had three units of total coliform forming colonies per 100 ml, far above the Canadian Drinking Water Guidelines' maximum acceptable standard of zero. While coliform bacteria may not pose an immediate threat, it can indicate the presence of other dangerous microorganisms. The drinking water guidelines are set by a federal-provincial-territorial committee.
"I was upset, this is our lifeline, you can't live without water. In one form or another, you need water," said Pierskalla, 68.
Then he received a letter from Stantec.
"Based on this detection, we recommend you boil your drinking/cooking water or sued bottled water until the issue had been addressed," said the letter, dated July 25.
Pierskalla's water was tested twice, once in April 2012 and in the same month the following year. The tests were both conducted by Fredericton-based Stantec, which had been hired by SWN to conduct the sampling. In both those tests, Pierskalla's well water came back with zero total coliform forming colonies.
When Stantec tested the well water again on July 23, 2013, after thumper trucks had rolled across Peirskalla's front door, the results showed the presence of the bacteria. He was forced to shock chlorinate his well. He also called the regional provincial health department's regional health protection office, which did not call back to follow up.
"That never went anywhere after that. Nobody came out to check anything or do anything since," said Pierskalla.
Pierskalla's wife recently got in touch with people in Elsipogtog saying she had proof that the thumper trucks had ruined their water.
"They are part of our land here, they look after our land," said Pierskalla, who traces his ancestry to Wabanaki Confederacy chiefs. "We have proof that these things do create changes in our water, we have it here...this their testing and this is their results."
About 80 km north up and off Hwy 126 near Rogersville, a 75-year-old man was recently walking through the bush behind his property when he noticed a swamp had sprung up from nowhere. He noticed that the water was bubbling up from a hole in the ground beneath a tree tacked with a metal plate indicating it was one of SWN's exploration lines.
The hole, called a shot-hole, was drilled by SWN contractor Geokinetics as part of seismic exploration work using explosives. The company drills holes then fills them with explosives. Data is then gathered off the detonation.
The man, who did not want to be identified, reached out to his friends who knew people in the Mi'kmaq-led anti-fracking camp. Samples have since been taken to a lab for testing.
Water bubbling up through shot-hole drilled by contractor hired by SWN Resources Canada. APTN/Photo
APTN National News visited the site and water was clearly bubbling to the surface, creating a mini-swamp which had an oily sheen in some.
According to Maxime Daigle, a former oil and gas worker with experience across Western Canada and the U.S., the drill likely punctured through into an aquifer and the company failed to properly seal it.
"It's disrupting the aquifer flows that people are depending on to get their water supplies for their house," said Daigle, wearing rubber boots and standing ankle-deep in the water and muck.
He said the aquifer was now at risk of contamination.
"You pump down the bentonite and hope for the best and as you can see it's not working," said Daigle, who has been deeply involved with the Mi'kmaq in opposing shale gas exploration.
Bentonite is a type of clay used to seal shot-holes.
Pierskalla, who works at a call-centre, said he doesn't believe the risk posed by eventual shale gas extraction through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is worth the money it'll potentially bring the province.
"If we have this kind of change in my water here, this is going to affect the water from all of this province and if there is no water to drink in this province, people are going to be leaving anyway," said Pierskalla. "I don't see where there is a profit here...I only see negatives"
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Protecting Mother Earth - Fighting for the Future
17 November 2013 By James Murray
THUNDER BAY - Aboriginal - Across North America, or Turtle Island, the First Peoples are stepping up to protect the earth, and protect the environment. Often those efforts are fought by industry, government, and in many cases the media.
The words that some Aboriginal activists use, "Stolen Land", "Occupied Lands", "Genocide" "Colonialism" and "Colonists" are often frightening and disconcerting to many in our Canadian mosaic. It is not easy for many to hear the frustration, anger and determination of growing numbers of people against what has been considered our way of life in Canada.
Strong Words Reflect Realities
When you consider that during the Second World War and beyond, Aboriginal Children and Teens were the subject of medical experiments, and the abuse and lets be blunt, outright torture of Aboriginal children during the residential schools era of Canadian history there have been abuses.
It has been said that history is written by the victors.
Our Canadian history books don't talk much about what really happened to the Indigneous peoples who were here.
However it started with what today we would call genocidal war crimes in Newfoundland, to out-right kidnapping of people to take them back to Europe.
Infecting people with smallpox today would be considered an act of terrorism.
Just Get Over it?
Many people might think those issues, since they happened long ago should be something that the people should "Just Get Over it".
However there seems to be a strong contrast there with important events we celebrate to remember. Remembrance Day has a focus of "Lest We Forget". The Holocaust is to be remembered.
Focus on what happened to men, women and children right here in Canada is not seemingly that critical by comparison, it is an amazing contrast.
It is uncomfortable for many in our society to think that what happened in Canada was not all calm and peaceful.
While there have been some steps forward to apologize and make amends, there is still a lot of work to be done.
Anti Fracking - Anti Pipeline
The protests are now well understood by many across the United States, or Canada. The real story might be in the words of the people who are often on the front lines of the goals of development.
From the point of extraction to the point of refinement, the concerns are expressed in the health of the water, and the image that growing numbers of First Nations peoples are seeing as their role in our society.
From the anti-fracking protests in New Brunswick where Indigneous peoples across Canada have travelled to the region to support the efforts to halt the natural gas tracking efforts a Houston based exploration company is gaining in its support.
Forming real understandings
Forming real understandings between all of the people means taking the time to learn, listen and reflect.
Some of that is started. More needs to be done.
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Meanness is a way of life in Ottawa
The lack of civility has become a way of life in government and the civil service.
By: Linda Diebel Canada, Published on Wed Nov 20 2013
Cindy Blackstock knew something was up when officials threatened to cancel a 2009 meeting on aboriginal child welfare if she was in the room. So she dutifully sat outside the Parliament Hill office, watched by a security guard, while deliberations continued within.
Blackstock is executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, a university professor, author and recipient of awards for distinguished service over 20 years in her field. The Ontario chiefs had invited her to the meeting specifically because she is an expert in child advocacy.
Baffled by what she terms the "extreme reaction" to her presence, she filed a request under the Privacy Act and in due course received a 2,500-page file on herself.
She was astounded by the findings.
Senior officials in Justice and Aboriginal Affairs, she learned, had cast a broad surveillance net over her professional and personal life, including her Facebook and Twitter accounts. Moreover, in notes and emails to one another, they trashed her in terms that were arrogant, demeaning and sexist.
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"Our girl's on a roll," wrote one official.
Another referred to, "Our dearest friend Cindy Blackstock ... "
Officials passed around her Facebook posts and those of her friends - including baking recipes - to other bureaucrats in Justice and Aboriginal affairs.
" Baking ! What does that have to do with policy issues?" asks Blackstock.
An official sent an email to nine others about Blackstock's appearance at a public event, that said in part: "Day One opened with the Cindy Blackstock show, a tour de force that seems to fire up a ready-to-be impressed audience ... after this clever argument she rattled through some general statistics (or gave the impression of doing so) and whisked away to the airport."
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Blackstock recalls being "shocked by the level of sarcasm and the nasty tone about me by people I've never met. These are officials employed by the government acting in the context of their official duties," she says. "It was so negative and deeply personal - and nobody ever appeared to ask if it was appropriate."
When did Ottawa get this mean?
In February 2011, as the Conservatives were about to celebrate five years of minority government, the Star interviewed some 30 public officials, politicians, academics and consultants for their take on the mood in the capital. Some spoke off the record of an "us versus them" mentality under Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
At that time, Wesley Wark, an expert on national security issues, warned that a climate of fear among civil servants was having "a stifling effect that gathers momentum the further it works its way down in the system."
Today, the nastiness is deep and systemic.
Recent interviews with many of the same people show that lack of civility has become a way of life in Ottawa - from committee meetings to tribunal hearings to everyday communications in which civil servants treat groups and citizens like Blackstock in a manner that suggests they have been actively targeted for meanness.
Toronto political consultant Patrick Gossage, who worked for prime minister Pierre Trudeau, argues that society's weakest are being hurt the most: "The reduction of political dialogue (in the interests of) smaller government and saving money as the onlyways to attract votes has exposed a deep-seated meanness and lack of care for large sectors of the population that have fallen behind."
And a number of individuals said that today Ottawa can no longer be singled out as the only bully on the block.
McMaster University professor Henry Jacek sees contempt among politicians, mean tweets and inexcusable behaviour both provincially and federally. Others, inevitably, point to the turbulence at Toronto City Hall.
"In recent years, both (the provincial and federal) governments have gotten meaner and nastier," says Jacek. "When the politicians get mean and nasty, it brings out the mean and nasty in the population."
Conservative commentator Tim Powers stresses it is wrong to point to Stephen Harper as the fountainhead of mean. "It's a popular narrative generated by the Opposition to say he is mean but I think it's too simplistic." Certainly, he says, Harper is taciturn and hardly a "touchy-feely" individual. But he cautions against seeing his political style - it's all Harper's doing! - as a question of black and white.
He refers to the Prime Minister's involvement in setting up the Mental Health Commission of Canada in 2007 as "a significant gesture." His kind actions go unnoticed. The public saw the state funeral for former NDP leader Jack Layton, Powers says, but not the decisions made by the PM leading up to it.
Others disagree. An Ottawa consultant, who fears the consequences if his name were to be used, argues that Harper's stamp is all over government: "It's vicious because there always has to be a bad guy ... The government doesn't care about truth. The truth is whatever the hell they say it is."
Wark's view has hardened over the past three years. Thus, his somewhat facetious summing up: "Ottawa is not a bright and cheerful town."
He points to pending actions in the omnibus budget bill, such as the government's right to define which public servants have the right to strike, as "mean-spirited" and concludes that "there's a war brewing between the federal civil service and the government. There's a daily atmosphere of mistrust and anxiety."
And he shakes his head at the treatment of returning veterans, particularly their problems with the new Veterans Charter that, according to a study by ombudsman Guy Parent, fails many returning vets and means the most severely disabled veterans will suffer financial hardship at 65.
"It's unconscionable that Harper could ignore his obligation to the troops," says Mike Blais, who founded Canadian Veterans Advocacy. He spoke to the Star the same week the PM attended Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa - which honoured, among the war dead, the 158 Canadian Forces soldiers who have died in Afghanistan since 2002.
"There is so much frustration. More than 150 died and 1,500 were wounded under his watch and he has an obligation," said Blais. "Soldiers feel their sacrifice was not worthy."
In an email, Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino, said: "Our government is fully committed to giving veterans the support they need to lead successful lives beyond their time in uniform." On Tuesday, before the standing committee on veterans affairs that is reviewing the charter, Fantino said, "I am convinced more can and should be done."
In another area, NDP finance critic Peggy Nash says tactics are "just ugly" at Finance committee meetings discussing the omnibus budget bill three times a week. She's not happy that the government chooses to push through changes to the appointment of Supreme Court judges, health and safety laws for federal workers and public sector labour issues within the massive bill, thereby avoiding separate debate in the Commons.
"It's beyond ridiculous," she said. "Procedure gets in the way. It's just an irritant to them."
Meetings are sullied by derisive comments aimed at those perceived to be unfriendly to government. "When I see how the parliamentary budget officer (Kevin Page) is treated, I cringe," says Nash. "He's been right (on his projections) but (Conservative MPs) tell him he was wrong or he doesn't know what's he's doing. They try to imply his numbers don't make any sense. It's very condescending ... They're bully tactics."
Blackstock certainly feels officials are bullying her. Her child advocacy organization and the Assembly of First Nations filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in 2007, arguing discriminatory funding for aboriginal children across Canada. After a bumpy ride, hearings have wrapped and a decision is expected late next year.
"But that wasn't personal," says Blackstock, who was stunned to find that, apparently as a result of the complaint, officials kept personal files on her. "I didn't file the complaint as an individual."
The AFN and Blackstock's group amended the tribunal complaint on child welfare in late 2012 to include the retaliatory action taken against her by the government. Says Blackstock: "Complaints should be allowed with no fear of retaliatory action."
Why did they intrude into her life? They twice applied for and received her Indian status information (she's a member of the Gitksan Nation in B.C.), copied an entry on her Facebook page from a 12-year old aboriginal child and wrote about an event she attended in the Australian desert. By her count, a total of 189 senior officials from two ministries gathered information.
The Star asked the justice ministry why "senior officials" had repeatedly accessed her personal accounts and made derogatory remarks about her. ("Justice Canada takes Canadians' right to privacy very seriously," said a return email. "The privacy commissioner has generally accepted that the department is entitled to access publicly available documents, including Facebook, and to collect and produce relevant information in court.")
In another email, Aboriginal Affairs denied there had been retaliation against Blackstock and stressed information was reviewed as part of its due diligence where it pertained to issues before the tribunal.
Blackstock says there was a telling moment last July on the child welfare case. A justice department paralegal who had visited Blackstock's Facebook page at the instruction of the lead government lawyer was asked why she hadn't informed her subject. She blurted out: "But she's on the other team."
Blackstock would like to know: which team would that be?
But this meanness pales when compared to the sad case of Rémy Beauregard, president of the Montreal-based International Centre for Rights and Democratic Development.
Overnight, on Jan. 8, 2011, he died of a massive heart attack at age 66. The distinguished human-rights defender had finished a second long day of tense board meetings with members who had disapproved of his decision to award three grants to Palestinian groups. He returned home and told his wife, Suzanne Trépanier, he was exhausted, and went straight to bed at 9 p.m.
In an opinion piece for the Star in 2011, Trépanier wrote that the coroner stated that "his sudden death was induced by severe stress.''
She believes her husband died because he was bullied by officials, including the centre's chair, Aurel Braun, and board member Jacques Gauthier. In the Star, she called it "psychological harassment."
Dissension over the past year had centred on the grants and Beauregard's frustration that he couldn't get a copy of his own performance evaluation that had been sent to Ottawa without applying under the Freedom of Information Act. The centre, an arm's length organization, received $11 million in annual funding from the federal government.
"You've got to leave, you've got to leave," she recalls telling him that last evening. "He looked so pale and tired. He was stressed out. I told him, 'I'm afraid for you.' ''
In a telephone interview, Braun said the "unfounded accusations are unfortunate. They are completely unfair. There was no stress and he was treated with civility. I acted professionally ... I don't want to talk about a person who has passed."
The matter was scrutinized repeatedly in the months following Beauregard's death. No wrongdoing was found on his part and the standing committee on foreign affairs recommended an apology to his wife and family.
The government declined and no apology has ever been made.
In 2012, then Foreign Affairs minister John Baird announced the centre would be closed.
ldiebel@thestar.ca , @linda_diebel