Prominent Canadian Human Rights lawyer says environmentalists, and Canadians at large, have the right to advocate for environmental protection, and says there needs to be more free speech, not less, on economic development projects that threaten environmental sustainability in Canada.
Here is a collection of interviews on CBC about the changes to environmental assessment review in Canada, and the attempts to silence critics.
In 2012, the northern village of Pinehouse, Saskatchewan signed a deal with two uranium companies worth $200-million.
Briarpatch, a local magazine, doing an investigative report on the agreement asked to see more public documents about the village’s role in that deal….but the mayor refused. Global News story aired on January 28, 2014
Plaintiffs D’Arcy Hande, and Briarpatch editors Valerie Zink, and Andrew Loewen filed a statement of claim in the Court of Queen’s Bench on January 27th 2014 seeking compliance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act on the part of Mayor Mike Natomagan of the Northern Village of Pinehouse. Mayor Natomagan has refused to release documentation requested under the Act.
Help justice be done for the people of Pinehouse and neighbouring communities, for future generations, and for the land and water on which all life depends, please give what you can to help cover legal expenses.
Donations to the Committee for Future Generations: cheque to Box 155 Beauval SK, S0M 0G0 or by e-transfer to committeeforfuturegenerations@gmail.com
Upstream and The Broadbent Institute presents Saskatoon Change Makers
This exciting event will feature a variety of speakers sharing their ideas for how to create change, including presentations from the Broadbent Institute, Max FineDay of Next Up, Ryan Meili of Upstream, Erica Lee of Idle No More, and Mitch Stewart of 270 Strategies’ Battleground States Director for President Obama’s 2012 campaign.
An evening of discussion and inspiration will consider the best ways to bring about positive change in the city of Saskatoon!
Doors will open at 6:30pm with rush seating. Tickets, $10.00, available online up until the day of the event, remaining tickets at the door. Students and those for whom the ticket price is a barrier may pay a reduced rate of $5.00.
Roxy Theatre – Friday, January 31st, 2014 – 7:00pm – Tickets: via Picatic.com
We hope to see the same decision on DGR 1 in Kincardine, and in fact we hope to see the day when there are no further plans to bury nuclear waste in the Great Lakes Basin. Our work is not done:
Huron-Kinloss, South Bruce, and Brockton are too close to population centers, agricultural and recreational economies, and especially Lake Huron, to be a prudent choice for the burial of radioactive waste.
And OPG’s proposed DGR for Kincardine remains a significant threat to millions who depend on the Great Lakes for life and livelihood. We would like to thank all of those who donated their time to support us in many ways.” saveoursaugeenshores.org/
Finding safe ways of storing radioactive wastes so that they do not leak radiation into the environment has proved to be a difficult task.
The spent fuel rods from a nuclear reactor are the most radioactive of all nuclear wastes.
Harmful to the environment and our community.
Could come in contact with human population centers and wildlife, posing a great danger to them.
Nuclear power is very expensive and moreover, many alternatives are available which can reduce CO2 emissions far more effectively, for infinite time periods, and at far lower costs, such as wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, tidal, biomass etc.
Contact: creightonclc@gmail.com This committee is working towards making sure that residents’ concerns are addressed.
This time Bedford Road Collegiate in Saskatoon, to the tune of $585,000 for a program teaching technical skills to students. It seems increasingly corporations like Cameco are taking over funding obligations and curriculum development. Citizens need to be asking the public school board why science programs designed to get students “excited about mathematics and excited about science” are being funded by the nuclear industry and not the public purse. Maybe if Cameco paid its fair share of corporate taxes in the first place, public schools could be properly funded.
Cameco’s president and CEO Tim Gitzel competes in building the tallest structure out of spaghetti, tape and string at Bedford Road Collegiate on Wednesday.
Stephen Leahy theguardian.com Tuesday 14 January 2014 15.55 GMT
Canada’s carbon emissions will soar 38% by 2030 mainly due to expanding tar sands projects, according to the government’s own projections.
In a new report (pdf) to the United Nations, the Harper administration says it expects emissions of 815million tonnes of CO2 in 2030, up from 590Mt in 1990. Emissions from the fast-growing tar sands sector is projected to quadruple between 2005 and 2030, reaching 137Mt a year, more than Belgium and many other countries, the report shows.
Worse, Canada is likely under-reporting its emissions. An investigation in 2013 found that Canada’s reported emissions from its natural gas sector, the world’s third largest, could be missing as much as 212Mt in 2011 alone.
“Canada appears to have vastly underestimated fugitive emissions (leaks) from gas exploration,” possibly because of “inadequate accounting methodology ” according to the Climate Action Tracker analysis done by Germany’s Climate Analytics, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Dutch-based energy institute Ecofys.
Bill McKibben, founder of the grassroots climate campaigning organisation 350.org, told the Guardian: “Who’d have imagined that digging up the tar sands would somehow add carbon to the atmosphere? That Canada watched the Arctic melt and then responded like this will be remembered by history.”
The Harper government pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol in 2011, promising instead to meet a weaker target of cutting emissions 17% by 2020, against 2005 levels. But an Environment Canada report last autumn revealed emissions would likely be 20% higher in 2020, leading environment minister, Leona Aglukaq, to say “we’re getting results” when asked about the likely gap.
The EU, by contrast, is considering carbon cuts of around 40% by 2030.
The Canadian government has never attempted to implement the policies or slow the rapid expansion of the tar sands that could have enabled Canada to meet its 2020 target, said Mark Jaccard, an energy economist at Canada’s Simon Frasier University and former Harper government appointee.
“Now it’s too late. The government is not telling the truth to Canadians about the climate impacts of its energy policies,” Jaccard told the Guardian. “We in Canada are living an Orwellian nightmare when it comes to our government and climate.”
It is “simply irresponsible for a country like Canada, given the impacts of climate change that are already taking place,” to increase its emissions or even maintain them, said Canadian scientist Corinne Le Quéré of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and co-chair of the Global Carbon Project.
Canada has become an “outcast amongst its negotiating peers ” at recent UN climate summits, said Liz Gallagher head of the Climate Diplomacy Programme at E3G, a UK-based NGO.
“It’s a travesty that a prosperous country with such a rich history of international cooperation is now turning its back on the world,” she said.
