The latest opinion poll from Angus Reid Public Opinion shows that a new paradigm in BC politics has held and even increased in the last three months, most notably with a widening gap between the NDP, now up 2 to 42%, and the Liberals, down 3 to only 28%, which in an election held now would produce a large majority for the NDP; but also important is that support for the Conservatives went sideways, up only 1 to 19%, and for the Green Party was up 2 to only 10%.
The Norwegian salmon farming industry got a lesson in the old adage, "be careful what you wish for" this week when it learned of industry critic Don Staniford's next job. The British-born, globe-trotting salmon activist announced on his blog yesterday that following his scheduled deportation from Canada later this month he will be heading to Norway to work with that country's leading environmentalist bad boy, Kurt Oddekalv, head of the Green Warriors of Norway. The industry may have got its wish - seeing the last of Staniford in BC - but it's turning out to be a case of out of the frying pan, into the fire.
Back in 1992, when the Mulroney government was shoving the Charlottetown Accord at us, I was one of a very few people in the media that was opposed and said so with a passion. One day my “mole” in the Conservative caucus – and at the same time a national media person – told me that Mulroney was going to retaliate against me by having me face a tax audit. I went on the air the following morning and reported this on the hope that this would discourage such a threat. Whether it worked or not I cannot say – I can say that no such audit was ordered.
Written by Ray Grigg
- Wednesday, 01 February 2012
The mystery of the disappearing wild salmon may be closer to being solved due to the reconvened Cohen Commission and the extraordinary three days of hearings held in December, 2011. As earlier testimony revealed, many environmental factors affect the survival of wild salmon but imported diseases from the aquaculture industry may be the largest single cause of their decline...Evidence now confirms that government policy supports the salmon farming industry, and that the industry has been willing to exploit this advantage to win regulatory concessions for its economic gain - in the words of one Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) official, the industry seemed "to dictate" policy.
A little-known proposed gravel mine at McNab Creek in Howe Sound could soon be digging tens of millions of tonnes of gravel out of sensitive salmon and wildlife habitat, which has regional politicians and citizens of the Sunshine Coast sounding alarms. Several regional directors and councilors have recently stepped forward with concerns about the lack of local government involvement in the environmental assessment process currently being carried out under the federal Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. A local citizens' group concerned about environmental and community impacts is calling on the public to comment on the project by the end of the week, when the first comment phase closes.
This is an open letter to NDP leader Adrian Dix and his Energy Critic, John Horgan. It’s time, gentlemen, to pee or get off the pot. The issues of the proposed Enbridge Pipelines and tanker traffic on our coasts demand your immediate statement of policy...There are many who think that the Common Sense Canadian supports the NDP. We do not – we stand for a political commitment against the catastrophes I have described. That commitment cannot fairly be inferred from snippets of criticism, but only by you, Mr. Dix, declaring your firm opposition these certain pipeline/tanker disasters.
Joe Oliver, Harper’s Resources minister, is a dangerous man. Indeed so is Harper. They have flung down the gauntlet, essentially saying that violence is the inevitable consequence of BC not taking the Enbridge Pipeline, the consequent tanker traffic, increased capacity and tankers for the Kinder Morgan line - with only a grumble or two from bitching NDP types...I haven’t had a fight since about Grade VII and I lost that one but I can tell you that I’m prepared to stand in the way of that first shovel and take the consequences. And I say to you both that you’re making a mistake if you think you can do these things without very serious consequences.
The source of the infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAv) now being found in BC's wild salmon is almost certainly from imported Atlantic salmon eggs, the international trade that has provided coastal salmon farms with most of their stock. The salmon farming industry, of course, is still denying that ISAv is here, although evidence given at the Cohen Commission's extraordinary three days of hearings on December 15th, 16th and 19th essentially obliterates that defence...Documents presented at the Cohen Commission suggest that the arrival of ISAv coincides with the early importation of Atlantic salmon eggs to West Coast salmon farms.
If there’s one thing above all politicians hate it’s democracy. For God’s sake, we can’t have the rabble have a say in decisions! Let them do this once and we’ll never get to run the province again! They believe that we live in a parliamentary, representative “democracy” which means that we hire people, called representatives, to do our thinking for us and take decisions in our name...I believe there are issues of such importance that the voter must be called upon to render its opinion and I say that the Enbridge pipelines and tanker traffic are just such issues.
Written by Mark Brooks
- Thursday, 19 January 2012
This week’s humiliating budget defeat for Toronto mayor Rob Ford, which reversed $20 million in proposed spending cuts, has put new wind in the sails of those fighting to see improved transit services in Canada’s largest city. On his first day in office, Mayor Ford fulfilled a campaign promise by announcing his intention to cancel the Transit City project, a plan proposed by former Mayor David Miller and the Toronto Transit Commission in 2007 that focused on improving service to the city’s woefully underserved suburbs. Upon cancelling the project in December 2010, Mayor Ford announced that the “war on the car” was over. So just what is this transit dust-up all about and why should anyone outside of Toronto even care?
Written by Damien Gillis
- Wednesday, 18 January 2012
The BC Cancer Foundation is ready for your concerns over accepting sponsorship from Enbridge for this year's annual "Ride to Conquer Cancer". They even have a handy instruction sheet preparing their staff to deflect your tough questions and subdue your outrage. I should know - I helped draft it (well, sort of)...Readers who wish to continue supporting cancer research through a cycling activity may choose to divert their funds from the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer to the "Ride2Survive" - a BC-based charity whose proceeds go 100% to cancer research.
Listen to Damien Gillis on CHLY's A Sense of Justice from last week, discussing Enbridge and Kinder-Morgan's proposed Tar Sands pipelines through BC. Damien and host Rae Kornberger cover the National Energy Board's recently-begun hearings into the Northern Gateway Pipeline to Kitimat and the contention by fake grassroots group EthicalOil.org and the Harper Government that foreign interests are behind BC's opposition to the project. Is there any truth to these claims and what is the relationship between EthicalOil.org and the Harper Government? (41 min - from Jan. 11)
If money talks, then the geyser of financial support that has sprung in the past few days for salmon activist Don Staniford's legal defence speaks volumes. Staniford is being sued by the world's second largest farmed salmon producer, Oslo-based Cermaq, for defamation. The trial, expected to run 20 days, begins today at the BC Supreme Court in Vancouver. The company, whose biggest shareholder is the Norwegian Government, may have been banking on Staniford submitting to its demands out of court - but any chance of that happening disappeared over the past weekend when the activist raised over $20,000 in public donations for his legal battle.
The credibility of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has been compromised by its conflicting mandates of managing wild salmon and promoting salmon farming. Now we discover that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has its own conflicting mandates of suppressing pathogens while enhancing marketing opportunities for fish products. Consequently, when a viral disease is reported and the commercial value of fish is threatened, the CFIA assumes a defensive position by questioning the findings of the testing labs, by re-testing the degraded samples of infected fish with its notoriously inaccurate technology, and then recording "inconclusive" results as "negative".
Premier Clark is in one hell of a jam and it’s scarcely improved with a man whom I bet left the inner staff of Attila the Hun to join with Madam Photo-op by name of Ken Boessenkool, who amongst other clients worked as lobbyist for to Enbridge for two years! What the hell reason could she give for this kind of move? This woman is out of control. She’s in a political hotbox like President Jerry Ford was when he took over the mess Nixon left him. In fact she’s in a box Houdini couldn’t have escaped. She’s trying to distance herself from the disgraceful reign of Gordon Campbell and now finds herself in the midst of the environmental fight probably in history.
In the wake of the bogus deal Enbridge attempted to foist on the Gitxsan people of Northwest BC last month to help pave the way for its controversial proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, the community has banded together in inspiring fashion - with camcorders and the Web as their weapons of choice.
Watch this series of clips by independent filmmaker Craig Delahunt from the Cohen Commission, including a key hour of testimony from the final day of ISAv hearings and interviews with experts outside the Commission.
See how the Gitxsan are banding together in a moment of crisis, following the unauthorized deal with Enbridge signed by rogue treaty negotiator Elmer Derrick.
The Tsilhqot'in First Nations and their supporters fought for and won an injunction at the BC Supreme Court to keep Taseko Mines from commencing work on the controversial proposed Prosperity Mine.
Video from the Natural Resources Defence Council - narrated by Hollywood actor Kevin Bacon - on the battle to protect BC's iconic Spirit Bear and its habitat in the Great Bear Rainforest, from the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline and supertankers loaded with Alberta bitumen.
Damien Gillis on the proposed doubling of Deltaport and conversion of prime farmland, fish and wildlife habitat into an industrialized Foreign Trade Zone.
Several hundred concerned citizens and First Nations gathered recently in Burnaby to speak out against KinderMorgan's plans to pipe 700,000 barrels a day of Tar Sands bitumen to supertankers in Vancouver's harbour.
Part 2 of Rafe and Damien's discussion on Shaw's EVOTV. In this episode, the pair talk wild salmon and aquaculture, private power and environmental politics in BC.
Rafe Mair and Damien Gillis discuss The Common Sense Canadian and their coverage of key environmental and public policy issues in BC and Canada on Shaw's EVOTV, with host Irma Arkus.
The Musgamagw-Tsawataineuk peoples of the Broughton Archipelago recently gathered in the village of Gwayasdums in response to a serious breach of protocol by Marine Harvest. They emerged united, with renewed resolve to rid their territory of open net cage salmon farms.
Smart meters are a tax-payer rip-off and pose serious health threats to British Columbians, a crowd gathered at BC Hydro's Vancouver headquarters heard from the spokespeople of an number of organizations opposed to the provincial government-mandated program. (2 min)
Biologist and Peace Valley Environment Association representative Diane Culling discusses the enormous consequences of the proposed Site C Dam - including the flooding of prime farmland at a time when the province faces major food security challenges. (3 min)
The Wilderness Committee's Joe Foy picks apart the BC Liberal Government's faulty case for Site C Dam - discussing better alternatives to power our future needs and the enormous cost of a dam whose real purpose is to subsidize shale gas and coal mines.
