The Dominion - Hillary Bain Lindsay

Nova Scotia’s Tar Sands

hillarybain — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:13:34 +0000

“Shale gas is the fossil fuel industry’s latest suicide mission”

HALIFAX—After years of learning about climate change and oil and gas development in other parts of the world, Michael Jensen was upset, but not surprised, to learn that natural gas exploration may be coming to his backyard.

"It's indicative of a much larger pattern of environmental destruction," says Jensen. "I'm deeply worried about the climate."

In December, the Nova Scotia Department of Energy issued a call for exploration proposals for three blocks of land along the province's North Shore, from the New Brunswick border to Merigomish. Jensen's house and small market garden fall within the "Scotsburn Block." He and hundreds of others from across Nova Scotia don't trust the government’s assurance that they will “recognize the importance of the environment when considering shale gas operations,” and many have decided to fight back.

Natural gas exploration and extraction can include drilling, seismic testing and hydraulic fracturing or "fracking." Fracking involves pumping water, chemicals and sand underground at high pressure in order to fracture the shale and release the gas. Over the past several months, the practice has gained notoriety with the release of the Oscar-nominated documentary Gasland and several high-profile articles in The New York Times, which documented the production of massive amounts of toxic waste-water, the contamination of wells and the up-swell of human health complaints.

The impacts of exploration and development—from clear-cutting, to increased traffic, to water and air pollution—have many Nova Scotians concerned, but it's fracking in particular that has struck a nerve.

Tatamagouche is on the province’s North Shore and falls within the area slated for exploration. Within a week of a public screening of the movie Gasland in February, a community meeting at the Tatamagouche Centre drew 70 people, says Jensen. A slew of activity has followed: letter-writing nights; a petition; a protest at the office of the Minister of Energy, Charlie Parker; and a Halifax rally to ban fracking that drew over 100 people from across the province.

Beth Norrad would have liked to travel from her home in Penobsquis, New Brunswick to attend the rally, but she and her neighbours are tied up in a legal battle with Potash Corp, the world's leading potash producer and owner of 25 per cent of the gas wells in New Brunswick.

“We’re all broke,” she says. “A trip to Halifax just isn’t in the cards.”

Norrad has 40 gas wells within a few kilometers of her home. When asked how this has affected her quality of life, she responds,"it's ruined it."

Norrad grew up in New Brunswick but moved to Toronto, working there for 25 years. She moved to Penobsquis in 2007, seeking a higher quality of life, “totally ignorant” of the development that was underway.

Today, she would do anything to leave—except she can’t sell her house.

"The homes are worthless," she says."There's no farms left here anymore. You need water to farm."

The natural gas in the area was discovered by Potash Corp in 1999, when the company was using seismic testing to find the large body of water that was draining into their potash mine—also a few kilometers from Norrad's home. Instead, the company found gas. The first few wells went dry in 1999. The company drilled more gas wells, and did more seismic testing.

"One home right after another [lost their water] until 60 homes lost their wells," says Norrad. Residents believe the blasting created cracks in the ground that allowed the water that fed their wells to flow into the mine. "For the next six years we went off water tanks."

The town now has a municipal water supply, but Norrad believes it was put in place for Potash Corp, rather than for the 60 homes without running water. Sixty cisterns would costs $600,000, says Norrad. "But you can't run a mine and gas wells on a cistern. So the federal and provincial governments, in collusion with industry, spent $10,000,000 on a water line to provide industry with water."

Norrad says her community has been destroyed. "We basically live in an industrial park. An industrial park with no rules."

"They lie," she says. "They'll tell you anything to get gas wells on your property."

"What we have [in Cape Breton] is a company that has no real interest in what the community thinks, and a Department of Energy that cares even less," says Geoffrey May from his home in Margaree, Cape Breton, overlooking the Margaree River. May works at the local campground and has lived in the area for 35 years. He says fishing and tourism are two major sources of employment in the area, and both are under threat from oil and shale gas exploration and drilling.

PetroWorth Resources Inc. has secured the exploration and development rights to 383,000 acres of land in Cape Breton. Nova Scotia's largest lake, Lake Ainslie, is in the middle of the block of land, which is connected to the Margaree River, known for its natural beauty and salmon pools. The "Margaree-Lake Ainslie Heritage River" is a designated protected area in Nova Scotia.

"They're proposing drilling through the water table right next to Lake Ainslie," says May. "This is a poster child for inappropriate development."

“The province has received a number of letters from Nova Scotians about fracking, most of which concern protection of water,” noted an April 4 press release from the departments of Energy and Environment. As a result, it was announced that “The province will review environmental issues associated with hydraulic fracturing.”

But for May, even a ban on fracking does not go far enough. "I want to see the leases [for oil and gas exploration] withdrawn."

He says drilling for more oil and gas is not the answer to Canada's rising energy needs. "In Canada we're currently wasting half the energy we produce," says May. "What we need to increase is our conservation, not our energy supply."

"Shale gas is not a transitional fuel," he says. "It's the fossil fuel industry's latest suicide mission."

Elizabeth Marshall agrees. "Destroying water is like destroying life. For what? A few dollars? For someone else to get rich? It's insane. Once you destroy the environmental infrastructure, you destroy the community."

Marshall is Mi'kmaq, and says her people's connection to the land is not for sale.

"The big oil companies are driven by profit. How many will lay down our lives for a dollar or 10 dollars?" asks Marshall. "But where I come from, people like me, we're wiling to give up our lives for something that's sacred to us. That's the difference between a multinational company and my community. For us, it's a matter of life and death. For them, it's a matter of profit."

Marshall says Petroworth better be ready for a fight. "We know we have title and sovereignty. We'll do what we can to exercise it," she says. "It's not a hobby. It's all connected to our life...When I'm long gone, my children and grandchildren will be continuing this struggle and hope."

“Where do we go once our water is destroyed?” she asks. “We have to protect it with everything we have.”

This article was originally published by the Halifax Media Co-op.

Hillary Lindsay is Coordinator of the Halifax Media Co-op and Editor with the Dominion Newspaper.

NS Tar Sands

This Land is Still Stolen

Moira Peters — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 10:28:36 +0000

The G20 and Aboriginal rights

TORONTO—"I'm here on a personal matter," Jasmine Thomas of the Carrier Nation tells a crowd of several hundred. "I live in Saik'uz, right in the heart of BC, a community of about 600. It's along the proposed Enbridge pipeline route... The proposed pipeline is threatening the traditional medicines that my great-grandmother has preserved for me."

"Not only that," she continues, "I have family at ground zero, at the tar sands. So where my father used to hunt and fish and gather, there are now open pit mines that you can see from space.

"The world's largest energy project is destroying my peoples."

As the tear gas clears over Toronto and the corporate media's frenzy over broken windows subsides, little has changed for First Nations people.

Canada still has not signed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People; 584 Aboriginal women are still missing and murdered; and many of us still live on unceded First Nations territory—and are exploiting it. The list could go on.

On the other hand, Indigenous resistance is growing in Canada; so too are solidarity movements.

For the second time in 2010 (the first being the Vancouver Olympics), First Nations rights were at the forefront of a major convergence of social justice activists.

"No G20 on stolen Native land," chanted demonstrators throughout the week of protests leading up to G8/G20 meetings, and warrior flags were flying at all the marches—whether led by environmental justice advocates or anti-poverty organizers.

And on June 24, more than 1,000 people flooded the streets of downtown Toronto for the "Canada Can't Hide Genocide" march and rally.

The crowd did not gather on June 24 to protest the G20 so much as to reject it entirely.

"Fundamentally, we reject the G8 and G20 as decision-making bodies over our peoples," Ben Powless, a Mohawk from Six Nations, told a cheering crowd. "These are the illegitimate organizations of the colonial states that seek the further exploitation of our peoples."

Marilyn Poucachiche, an Algonquin from Barriere Lake First Nation, drove nine hours from her community to attend the rally and knows that story well.

"The government has been trying to assimilate or has been assimilating [our] people for a long time," she says.

Barriere Lake First Nation has a traditional governing system, a system that the Indian Act does not recognize. "The Canadian government have been trying to impose Section 74 in our community from the Indian Act," says Poucachiche. Section 74 would require the community to hold band elections. "It favours the Canadian policy on how we should govern and select our leaders."

"That will extinguish our Aboriginal title and treaty rights," she says. "They're trying to select their Chief according to their law. But we're saying it's our way, not your way."

Lionel Lepine, an Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, says the Canadian "way" looks a lot like cultural genocide. Lapine lives at what he calls "ground zero," or Fort Chipewyan, upstream of the Alberta tar sands.

"We are on top of the second largest deposit of oil in the world and they want every single drop at the cost of our lives," he says.

“We're seeing environmental impacts, cultural impacts, human impacts; we're seeing death,” says Lapine. “We're seeing the death of the delta, water, animals, plants, air. It's just a matter of time before everything's going to be completely wiped out."

Considering the devastation of his community and the planet, Lapine laughs at the police lining the march on all sides. "We are not the threat," he says. "The threat to this country are the people in power."

But the growing Indigenous resistance is a threat to something, says Thomas: It's a threat to the pocketbooks of big business.

"Canada, the US and Australia are avoiding signing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous people," she says. "One of the main points in that declaration is free, prior and informed consent. That means they have to respect our ability to say yes or no to development in our territories. So it's threatening their prosperity."

The prosperity of a few is coming at a serious cost, says Thomas. "We are facing food security issues, basic human rights issues; we have the highest rates of cancer, HIV aids—all these socio-economic issues that are associated with these large projects [such as the tar sands]."

Their connection to the land and also the fact that Indigenous people are literally fighting for their lives make their resistance powerful. "There's always been Indigenous people leading the struggle in terms of defending the land against these large corporations," says Arthur Manuel from the group Defenders of the Land, a network of Indigenous communities united in defense of their lands, Indigenous rights, and Mother Earth.

"Through supporting Indigenous People you're putting in place a new system of order that's based upon a more circular basis of economy, instead of the vertical economy that the system is working on...where the land isn't looked on as Mother Earth but everything is looked at as a resource base," says Manuel. "Indigenous People do not look at it from that perspective. [We] look at the Earth as part of the decision making process. We know that what we do to the planet will sooner or later impact on us."

Whether or not Canadians choose to support Indigenous struggles, the state, as Powless points out, has certain obligations.

"Fundamentally," says Powless, "Canada must live up to its international and domestic treaty obligations and respect self-determination, the right for free, prior and informed consent and the sovereignty of our peoples."

Hillary Bain Lindsay is an editor with The Dominion and a member of the Halifax Media Co-op. This article was originally published by the Toronto Media Co-op.

Never Ask Permission

Growing Farmers

Moira Peters — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:35:35 +0000

Canada needs policies to support young farmers: NFUY

HALIFAX—"Between 1991 and 2006 the number of farmers under 35 years old decreased by over 60 per cent," said Kalissa Regier, a 31-year-old organic grain farmer.

That's a trend that Regier and other young farmers, who gathered in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, over the first weekend of March, are hoping to change.

Regier, President of the National Farmers Union Youth (NFUY), flew in from her farm in Saskatchewan to join a dozen other young farmers (some aspiring, most already farming) from across the country in a NFUY workshop and training weekend.

The barriers to young farmers are huge, said Regier, and the global industrial food system makes it difficult for farmers to sell their product at a fair price. The NFUY, the youth arm of the National Farmers Union, is committed to building a different kind of food system, one that is socially just, locally focused and economically viable for family farms.

The group's Campaign for New Farmers—a focus over the weekend—aims to increase the number of farmers in Canada.

To start farming you need access to land and equipment, said Cammie Harbottle, a 28-year-old vegetable farmer and Vice President of the NFUY. She said many young farmers have difficulty finding a bank willing to lend them money for start-up costs. Harbottle, who farmed for six years in British Colombia and is entering her second season in Colchester County, is having difficulty securing capital to build the packing shed she needs in order to wash and pack her vegetables for market.

Tyrel Murray, who has been farming for three years with his brother Chad on family land in Pictou County, faces similar challenges. The Murrays need infrastructure, specifically greenhouses and barn space, but lack the capital to take their operation to the next level.

Advocating for policies that support young farmers—like policies that provide access to capital—is just one of the aims of the Campaign for New Farmers, said Harbottle.

In the meantime, and despite the odds, the young farmers who crowded into a room at the Tatamagouche Centre are choosing to farm, and to feed their communities.

Regier will return home to plant more than 1,000 acres of grain in Saskatchewan. The Murrays have started a farmers market in New Glasgow that is gaining momentum and popularity. Harbottle has begun seeding in her greenhouse and plans to expand her markets in Halifax and Tatamagouche.

When asked why she farms, Harbottle didn't hesitate.

"Because I love it and it makes sense to me," she said. "It's always made sense to me to grow food. We need to show people how to grow food and how to connect with their food at the local level."

In a profession that Murray described as "working like hell and not making much money," the feeling of optimism and enthusiasm among the young farmers is difficult to ignore.

"There's been a shift in the current," said Murray. "A shift in the thinking [about local food], enough to lead me to believe that it could be a healthy industry again."

Hillary Bain Lindsay is coordinator with the Halifax Media Co-op and a member of the National Farmers Union.

An original version of this article was published by the Halifax Media Co-op.

Young Farmers Circle

Homelessness Hits Home

Moira Peters — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 06:00:37 +0000

Volunteers provide shelter where government drops ball

HALIFAX—The opening of Out-of-the-Cold Shelter in Halifax this winter was described as both a celebration and a sad reality by shelter organizers.

"We are pleased to be providing this service but it's not really a happy occasion," said Carol Charlebois, Executive Director of Metro Non-Profit Housing Association. "We would much prefer it if we were opening longterm, supportive, affordable housing," rather than a "last resort" winter shelter.

The shelter, a community-based response to homelessness in Halifax, has provoked mixed feelings for another reason: Out-of-the-Cold is run entirely by volunteers.

"The response from the wider community has been amazing," says Fiona Traynor, a member of the organizing committee for the shelter and community legal worker at Dalhousie Legal Aid. "But the elephant in the room is that there has been no government funding of this project."

The 15-bed shelter was open for two months last winter and is open for its first full season this year. Staffed entirely by volunteers, it is open every night until April from 9pm until 8am. The shelter space has been donated by St Matthew's United Church. Everything from clean blankets to hot meals are provided by volunteers—some in their teens, some in their 70s.

"I've learned things I didn't know I didn't know," says volunteer Shannon Aulenback. Aulenback says he's had his eyes opened to the realities that people face without a home. "Whenever I work, I do the overnight shift," he says. "Some of the people like to stay up late and chat. They've always got interesting stories, although not always happy stories."

On the day of the interview he was working a full day, volunteering all night at the shelter and returning to work the next morning at 8:30am.

But according to Aulenback, the lack of sleep is not the hardest part of volunteering. The hardest part is waking people up in the morning and telling them they have to return to the streets. "We can't provide the service the whole day," he says. "You don't want to send people out in the cold at 8am. You don't want to wake someone from a warm bed. That's the tough part."

It's a cycle that frustrates Megan Leslie, New Democrat Critic for Housing and Homelessness and Halifax Member of Parliament. "It's hard to find work when you don't have a home or a phone. Never mind not being rested and having a place to relax and just be a person," she says. "The solution to homelessness is housing."

"I am a huge supporter of the shelter. I think it's wonderful and addresses a huge need in Halifax," says Leslie. "It's incredible what [volunteers] are doing. It's also completely tragic. This is not housing. This is not acceptable."

Leslie is a strong advocate of a National Housing Strategy, as put forward by bill C-304. Bill C-304 calls on Canada to work with all levels of government, Aboriginal communities, civil society and private sector stakeholders to establish a national strategy to ensure access to adequate, affordable housing.

The NDP bill is supported by the Bloc and Liberals and cleared the committee stage in December. At the time of the interview, Leslie was hoping the bill would be voted on in February. However, since the federal Conservatives have suspended parliament until March the vote will have to wait.

In the meantime, Halifax is not the only place community members are mobilizing to respond to what the Federation of Canadian Municipalities calls a national disaster.

Seven churches in the Annapolis Valley have formed teams of volunteers to staff a winter shelter one night per week. Anyone needing a place to sleep for the night must register with the RCMP who will then take them to the church that is open on that night.

John Andrew, co-director of Open Arms, which coordinates the emergency shelter says the situation is not ideal but the group had difficulty finding a permanent space for the shelter. He explains that there's lots of fear about homelessness, which is also part of the rationale behind the RCMP escort. The fear is unfortunate and unfounded, says Andrew who has been working with the homeless population in his community of Kentville for over six years. He is seeing the need for housing increasing.

This winter, Lunenburg County has launched a similar program with several churches working together to provide winter shelter for those who need it, once again staffed entirely by volunteers.

The trend is an alarming one for for some. Huge amounts of community resources are going into what many consider a band-aid solution.

With more government funding for affordable housing, argues Leslie, the payoff would be huge. "If you look at building housing, there's three possible wins," she says. "First, combating poverty. Affordable, secure shelter helps combat poverty. [Second,] if you build it sustainably, you could also lower the carbon footprint. Thirdly, it employs people to build it. This is the perfect time to build housing. You can hire the architects and builders. It creates job opportunities."

Environmental and economic arguments aside, Leslie believes that being homeless is an affront to a person's dignity. "I believe housing is a rights issue," she says.

Traynor echoed Leslie's sentiment at the opening of Out-of-the-Cold. "Housing is a human rights issue. It's not a tragedy. It's a human rights issue," she says.

"We don't have a national housing strategy. We have a shelter run by volunteers. It's good, but it's not a solution."

Hillary Lindsay is an editor at the Dominion. This article was originally published by the Halifax Media Co-op.

Homelessness Cots

Homelessness Meeting

Dominion Radio #3

Stuart Neatby — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 05:00:55 +0000

Subhead:

Vancouver's 'Stolen Land' Olympics and Broken Promises in Afghanistan

Cover Image:

radio_logo1.jpg

MP3:

http://www.dominionpaper.ca/files/dominion/audio/DominionRadio-3.mp3

Body:

Dominion Radio broadcasts grassroots news from across the country, focusing on stories and voices silenced by the mainstream media.

Episode #3:
Aired April 27th, 2007

An interview with Kanahus Pellkey, a member of the Native Youth Movement, a group that is calling for a boycott and cancellation of the 2010 Winter Olympics primarily because the games will take place on unceded Native land. (28:10)
A conversation with Chris Sands the Dominion's special correspondent in Afghanistan on what he describes as NATO’s “broken promises” in the Southern region.(25:18)

July In Review

hillarybain — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 19:20:07 +0000

Anti-Canada Day, taking corporations to court, and striving to pie Alberta's Premier

Organizers in Vancouver and Montreal held Anti-Canada Day demonstrations on the first of the month. In Vancouver, over 200 people took to the streets and blockaded train tracks. Several Canadian flags, painted with the words "No Justice on Stolen Native Land," were burned. In Montreal, demonstrators highlighted their opposition to CN's current lawsuit against three Mohawk activists at Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, and expressed their support for Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. A banner read, "When Justice Fails, Block the Rails!"

Aboriginal women from across North and South America marched through the Mohawk community of Kahnawake near Montreal to protest against Ottawa's refusal to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The declaration upholds aboriginal people's land rights and ways of life. Only one other country, Russia, has refused to support it at the Human Rights Council.

A National Day of Action was held in Australia protesting the government's plan to impose police-military control over about 70 Indigenous communities across the Northern Territory. The takeover, which the government says is a response to widespread sexual abuse, is being seen by many as a land grab that will exacerbate the shocking social conditions facing the Northern Territory’s Aboriginal population.

Chevron called the $6 billion lawsuit the US firm is battling in the Ecuadorian courts a "legal farce" and said it would challenge any ruling against the company. The class-action suit filed by 30,000 Indigenous people is for cleanup costs for the jungle region where Texaco Petroleum Co. spent three decades extracting oil before it merged with Chevron in 2001. “The environmental clean-up alone is likely to surpass $6 billion, and that does not include health and personal damages for tens of thousands of people who live in the area," said Pablo Fajardo, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. "This could dwarf any other damages claim in environmental law, as well as in any civil case that resulted in an actual judgment.” Chevron's vice president for Latin America criticized the "unfair trial and lack of due process" in Ecuador, but critics point out that the case was originally filed in New York federal court in 1993, and the company fought for years to move it to Ecuador, finally getting its wish in 2002. "Since it is losing on all the facts, it is fighting back in the only way it can, by attacking the process itself," said another lawyer for the plaintiffs, Alegandro Ponce. "Chevron should stop its misinformation campaign and pay up for the damage it has caused.”

The Ka'agee Tu First Nation in the Northwest Territories won a court case against the federal government for violating the Ka'agee Tu's right to meaningful consultation when in 2005 it approved Paramount Resources' application to drill several new oil wells in the Cameron Hills area. A lawyer representing the First Nation said "[The Canadian government] doesn't consult with the communities, it doesn't comply with its legal duties, and the regrettable result is the communities are forced to take their resources, hire lawyers, [and] go to court in order to force Canada to comply with the law."

Five thousand agricultural workers from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama have filed a lawsuit against Dole Fresh Fruit Co. and Standard Fruit Co., now a part of Dole, claiming they were left sterile after being exposed in the 1970s to the pesticide known as DBCP. The lawsuit claims Dow and Amvac knew about DBCP's toxicity as early as the 1950s but continued to use the pesticide outside the United States. The Los Angeles County Superior Court will hear the case, which legal experts say raises the issue of whether multinational companies should be held accountable in the country where they are based or where they employ workers. A verdict in favor of the workers could open the door for others to file similar claims in the U.S., where juries are known for judgments more favourable to labourers.

US Congressional Democrats introduced resolutions “condemning the President, Vice President and other administration officials for misconduct relating to the war in Iraq and for their repeated assaults on the rule of law." Critics have called the censure ineffectual; the resolutions are symbolic, and bring no legal consequences.

Anti-war leader Cindy Sheehan and several activists were arrested outside the office of Rep. John Conyers. The contingent refused to leave after Conyers said he would not pursue impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheney. Polls show that a slight majority of Americans currently support pursuing impeachment. Sheehan has said that she will run against Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House Speaker, in the next election, due to Pelosi's refusal to support impeachment. "I am committed to challenging a two party system that has kept us in a state of constant warfare for the last 60 years," said Sheehan.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert confirmed that the United States is planning a significant increase in military and defense aid to Israel, to the tune of $30 billion over the next ten years. The new package amounts to a 25% increase in military aid. Washington is also reportedly preparing a $20 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia because of its concerns over Iran's nuclear program.

Alberta's Premier Ed Stelmach narrowly missed getting pied in the face while serving up pancakes at Calgary's Annual Stampede Breakfast. The protester cried out, "I think it's pretty cozy for the Premier to be eating breakfast when people are homeless on the streets," while being dragged away by police after missing her target and hitting a security guard with the chocolate cream pie instead. The breakfast was attended by a number of advocates for the homeless as well as an individual dressed in a Batman costume who called himself "No Tar Man" and demanded an end to the development of northern Alberta's oil sands. Four years ago at the same event, then-premier Ralph Klein was hit in the face with a pie.

Alberta Premier Stelmach narrowly missed getting pied a second time, this time with a banana cream pie in Calgary. The pie thrower, Donna McPhee who also wished to draw attention to homelessness, was waiting outside a television station where Stelmach was being interviewed, but he left using another door. McPhee was left standing with a pie without a politician - until Calgary mayor walked out the door. "He was going to be on the list anyway, so why ruin the pie?" said McPhee.

Royal Dutch Shell announced it would pump $27 billion into the Alberta tarsands. The plan is consistent with Shell's vision for Canada, announced in January, to expand its oilsands business with its partners fivefold, to 770,000 barrels a day.

Chief of the State Environmental Protection Administration in China (SEPA), Zhou Shengxian, said that public discontent with pollution "has resulted in a rising number of 'mass incidents'" -- an official euphemism for riots, protests and collective petitions. This month, two hundred thousand people in the province of Jiangsu were cut off from tap water for 40 hours due to an industrial chemical spill and hundreds of farmers blocked a highway in Sichuan province demanding $1.1. million in compensation, accusing an aluminum company of leaking chemicals that contaminated grapes and other crops. Twenty-six percent of the length of the China's seven main river systems had pollution of grade 5 or worse, making it unfit for human contact. About 460,000 Chinese die prematurely each year from breathing polluted air and drinking dirty water.

South African police fired rubber bullets to break up crowds protesting against a lack of municipal services in the country's biggest black township Soweto. The protest was the latest in a string of often violent clashes between residents and police in black townships around Johannesburg and in the central Free State province. Residents are demanding better housing, faster access to electricity, clean drinking water and sewage facilities. Despite faster economic growth, wealth is still not trickling down to the poor, prompting action to uplift a "second economy" characterized by sprawling city slums and poverty that is fuelling some of the highest rates of crime in the world.

Eight protesters were shot dead in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh in India by police. The demonstration was part of a three-month campaign demanding land for the poor. Protesters were reportedly throwing stones at police as they approached the tent where the protesters were gathered.

The group "Saving Iceland" has stepped up its campaign against heavy industry, and the aluminum industry in particular, with road blockades, banner drops and a protest camp. Several arrests have been made but the group warns that they are "not through with this summer's actions." According to the group's website, 30 per cent of aluminum is produced for military use. Saving Iceland is accusing the state broadcaster of slander for allegations that activists from the group receive payment for being arrested.

A nationwide protest that that has drawn the support of education workers, construction workers, farmers and miners in Peru has resulted in the death of three people and the detention of over 100 union leaders. Demonstrators are calling for a fairer distribution of wealth and have held protests blocking roads and closing airports. Currently 44 per cent of Peruvians live poverty. Under pressure from demonstrations, the President apologized for not doing enough for the country's poor. "I would have loved to do a lot more," he said, and promised to do more in the future.

At least 12 people were injured and 59 arrested when Honduran police violently cleared several roadblocks set up by protesters demanding a new mining law. The demonstrators are demanding a law that forbids open pit mining, including the use of cyanide, mercury and other toxic substances. Among other demands, they are calling for community involvement in any decision to open a mine, and for companies to carry out measures that mitigate the impact of mining on the environment.

Opponents of Canadian mining operations in Ecuador are "facing death threats and attacks" according to a report released by Amnesty International. The report comes at a time when Canadian mining company Ascendant Copper Corp is facing controversy and resistance to a copper-molybdenum mine in an ecologically sensitive region of northwestern Ecuador. Earlier this week, Ecuador's Ministry of Energy and Mines ordered Ascendant to stop its community-relations work, saying it was "intended to divide the community." Ecuador's anti-corruption watchdog also urged the government to investigate alleged irregularities in the Ascendant land deals, saying speculators snapped up 18 properties earmarked for use as farmland, and sold them within weeks to the mine at prices 40 to 50 times higher than they had paid.

The Algonquin First Nations, occupying a proposed uranium mine site in eastern Ontario, are being sued by the mining company, Frontenac Ventures Corporation, for $77 million dollars in damages. In their Statement of Claim the company says the protests have been “threatening” and “intimidating.” Those occupying the site say the protest has been peaceful and "completely non-violent and non-threatening" from the beginning

Please email us with your story ideas for the Month In Review

Anti-Canada Day

Events in May

dru — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 22:50:46 +0000

Robin Hood pepper sprayed, foreign oil workers kidnapped, security wall for G8 leaders, and more

Prosecutors in the US are seeking "terrorism enhancements" for the sentences of 10 animal rights and environmental activists arrested for causing more than $40 million in damages to targets that included an SUV dealership, a meatpacking plant and a ski resort. "This is the first time in the history of the US that the federal government is seeking this enhancement for property crimes that did not result in injury or death to humans," said Lauren Regan of the Civil Liberties Defense Center in Eugene, Oregon. These enhancements could add up to 20 years to the existing jail sentence.

A wall 12 kilometres long and 2.5 metres high has been erected in preparation for the G8 summit to be held in Germany in June. The wall is intended to keep the expected tens of thousands of protesters away from G8 leaders when they meet in the idyllic bathing resort of Heiligendamm from June 6 to June 8. Sixteen thousand police will also be deployed to contain the protests, making it the largest security operation in Germany's history. In May, 900 police raided the homes and offices of activists all over Germany. Justified under the country's "anti-terror" law, the raids were subsequently condemned by a number of jurists and politicians who declared them to be out of proportion to any real danger to the state.

Greenpeace leaked a document showing that the US has raised serious objections to a proposed global warming declaration for next month's G8 summit, specifically mandatory emissions targets and language calling for nations to raise overall energy efficiencies by 20 per cent by 2020. According to the US document, such proposals "are fundamentally incompatible with the (US) president's approach to climate change."

Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner announced that the province will not be setting absolute targets for greenhouse gas emissions, favouring intensity targets instead. Intensity targets allow overall emissions to grow as long as the greenhouse gas producer is using energy more efficiently. A recent provincial survey found that 90 per cent of respondents think the province should move quickly to adopt absolute greenhouse gas reduction targets for industry rather than intensity targets. Those who filled out the survey also rejected the ideas of nuclear power, carbon capture and storage and clean-burning coal. If recent economic growth rates continue, by 2020 the total emissions in Alberta will rise to 72 per cent above 1990 levels.

The proposed new Irving oil refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick, which will double Irving's refining capacity in the city, will not undergo a fully comprehensive environmental impact assessment, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency announced. Irving’s current refinery in the city is already the largest in Canada, with an output that accounts for 75 per cent of Canada's gasoline exports to the US. The environmental impact assessment of the refinery will not look at greenhouse gas emissions. The Conservation Council of New Brunswick noted that Environment Minister John Baird flew to Saint John to meet with the Irvings about the project but has refused to respond to the organization’s concerns.

At least eight journalists from the Russian News Serviceresigned to protest a new policy that requires 50 per cent of stories to show the Kremlin in a positive light. Nightly news broadcasts in Russia increasingly feature lengthy footage of President Vladimir Putin speaking to officials and reports on the activities of the two deputy prime ministers seen as possible successors to the president when his term runs out next year.

Radio Caracas de Television (RCTV), a network critical of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, went off-air when its license expired on May 27. The television station was intimately involved in a military coup d'etat which suspended the Venezuelan constitution, closed down the elected national assembly and the Supreme Court, and took Hugo Chavez, the elected President, prisoner. When the government was returned to power by street demonstrations, RCTV did not report on it, cautioning people to stay at home. Thousands of people gathered in the streets for days, both opposing and celebrating the decision. RCTV's license has been handed over to TVes, a new "public" channel, which will operate with relative independence from the government.

The NewStandard, an online newspaper based out of the US is no longer in publication. The NewStandard, which published nearly 3,000 hard-hitting articles over the past three years, cited the fact that the publication "...never gained the level of support needed to provide sustainable jobs and to develop the readership it needed to thrive," as the reason for its closure. The NewStandard was founded on the belief that the dominant model and methods of profit-focussed news journalism have failed the public interests. Among the characteristics that made the publication unique was the fact that is was run by a collective of editors and journalists who refused to accept advertising or grant dollars as they believed it would detract from the paper’s independence. The NewStandard was funded 100 per cent by its readers.

Anti-poverty activists in Vancouver launched an eviction campaign against members of the Vancouver Olympics Organizing Committee. Protesters put board member Ken Dobell's belongings into boxes and threw them into the hallway outside his office. The action was carried out by members of the Anti-Poverty Committee who say that since poor people are being evicted from their homes to make room for the 2010 Olympic games, they will continue ‘evicting’ Olympic organizers from their offices.

Immigrants, refugees and their supporters took to the streets of Toronto to demand a national regularization program and a moratorium on detentions and deportations as well as access to city services regardless of status. The march was part of a week of actions for immigrants and refugees living in Canada and the US, and included actions in several American cities, Vancouver and Montreal.

Halifax anti-poverty activists dressed up as Robin Hood disrupted a Conservative Party fundraising dinner where supporters were paying $5,000 a table to eat in the company of Ralph Klein, Mike Harris, Preston Manning and John Hamm. The Robin Hoods snuck into the dining hall and disrupted the dinner with chants such as, "The cost of one table here could feed a family for a year!" The Halifax Coalition Against Poverty says police used aggressive force when attempting to evict the protesters, using pepper spray and batons, as well as punching and kicking activists.

About 150 family members and friends of missing aboriginal women held a rally in Edmonton to raise awareness of unsolved disappearances. Over the last 20 years, more than 500 aboriginal women in Canada have been murdered or have disappeared.

The federal government forced the Akaitcho Dene First Nations into not claiming areas where exploration companies want to look for uranium, says Western Arctic NDP MP Dennis Bevington. In a document obtained through access to information, dated August 11 2006, an official wrote to Northern Affairs Minister Jim Prentice, stating that the Akaitcho agreed to exclude land claims on sacred land in the Thelon Basin because "this addresses Canada's significant interest to allow the continuation of uranium exploration in the Basin." Although the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Review Board recently rejected one company's bid to look for uranium in the Thelon Basin, it is ultimately up to Prentice to decide whether to accept or reject the Review Board's recommendation.

A plan by the Australian government to force Aboriginal children to learn English is being called racist by Aboriginal leaders. Tauto Sansbury, of the Aboriginal justice advocacy committee, said the idea was insulting and would reinforce old-fashioned stereotypes. "They still want to treat Aboriginal people the way it was back in the 30s and 40s, where they're the master and we're the servant.” The number of Aboriginal languages that existed in Australia prior to colonization is estimated to be about 600. Currently there are 200 different Aboriginal dialects across Australia, with about 20 in constant use.

A group of foreign oil workers were kidnapped in Nigeria. There have been more than 100 abductions of foreign workers in the oil-producing Niger Delta this year. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), responsible for many of the abductions, says multinational oil companies are making millions off oil in the region while local people continue to live in poverty. Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer.

According to Statistics Canada’s latest census on agriculture, the average farm size has increased from 608 acres in 1996, to 676 acres in 2001, and to 728 acres in 2006. As farms get bigger, the number of farms gets smaller; there are 17,000 fewer farms in Canada today than there were in 2001. The census also found that the average age of farmers has increased.

Outspoken Afghanistan MP Malalai Joya was suspended for saying Afghanistan's parliament was worse than a stable, noting that cows provide milk and donkeys carry loads. "They are worse than cows and donkeys -- they're dragons," said Joya in a television interview seen by parliament. Joya is a feminist and staunch critic of the West for aligning itself with Northern Alliance warlords who now hold seats in parliament. She has survived four assassination attempts and reportedly never sleeps two nights in the same place.

Robin Hoods

Status For All March

Dominion Radio #2

dru — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 17:45:53 +0000

Subhead:

Climate Change, Colonialism, and Cité Soleil

Cover Image:

radio_logo1.jpg

MP3:

http://www.fairtrademedia.com/radio/dominion_radio_2.mp3

Body:

Dominion Radio broadcasts grassroots news from across the country, focusing on stories and voices silenced by the mainstream media.

Episode #2:

an interview with Pat Mooney, Executive Director of the ETC Group. Pat examines new "solutions" to climate change that are good for business, but might cause more problems than they solve. (1:15)
an excerpt from "Hoping Against Hope" the recently released documentary about the struggle against colonialism in Canada. (20:35)
an interview from Haiti with independent journalist Darren Ell about life on the ground in Cité Soleil (28:54)

Stolen Games

hillarybain — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 21:47:40 +0000

"No Olympics on stolen Native land" has become the battle cry for Indigenous resistance to the Vancouver Olympics

The official website of the 2010 Olympics touts the "historic" and "unprecedented" participation of First Nations in the Vancouver games. According to the site, the collaboration between the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) and Aboriginals will include increased opportunities to "showcase art, language, traditions, history and culture" and "promote skills development and training related to the games."

This kind of “trinket and bead exchange” is beside the point, says Kanahus Pellkey of the Secwepemc (Shuswap) Nation. "We're still fighting for our homeland."

"No Olympics on stolen Native land" has become the battle cry for Indigenous resistance to the Games -- resistance that has found allies in those angered by what they call the devastating social and environmental implications of the Olympics-- and has drawn its resonance from the fact that much of B.C. remains unceded Indigenous territory.

"Right now we're holding onto the very last of what we have," says Pellkey. The Secwepemc's traditional territory covers approximately 145,000 square kilometres in the southern interior of B.C. "Our land up there is mountains and water," says Pellkey, on the phone from Vancouver. "There's an abundance of wildlife and species. It's one of the last places in the world where there's still clean mountain water."

That land, along with an entire way of life is now under threat, says Pellkey. "By them choosing to have the Olympics here, it's going to open up our land, our sacred sites, our medicine grounds. All these big corporations are going to see the potential when they see our untouched land-base. We want investors to know our land is not for sale."

Pellkey is part of the Native Youth Movement, a group that's opposing the Olympics -- which is to take place on St'at'imc and Squamish territories -- and its inevitable ripple effects of increased tourism and development on the surrounding First Nation territories.

One of those ripple effects is the continued expansion of Sun Peaks Ski Resort. "Sun Peaks is pushing a $284 million expansion," says Pellkey. "They're [also] fighting for a road through the backcountry, to open it up to tourists from Calgary."

While tourists flock to British Columbia to experience its "untouched wilderness,” the Secwepemc still rely on the land to live. People depend on the moose, berries, roots and fresh water from underground aquifers, says Pellkey; aquifers that Sun Peaks is draining to make fake snow for skiers. "What Sun Peaks and other corporations and are doing to us is affecting our basic human right to live."

A similar situation is playing out in Vancouver, according to Angela Sterrit, a secretariat member of the International Indigenous Youth Network (IIYN) and member of the Gitxsan Nation. As the Olympics approach, property value is skyrocketing and low-income housing is disappearing. "There's construction everywhere. Everywhere you go, streets are being bulldozed," says Sterrit.

According to an IIYN press release, 512 low-income housing units were lost between June 2003 and June 2005 and almost 300 low-income housing units have been lost to rent increases in the same time period. "Homeless people are everywhere," says Sterrit. "I've lived in this city several years and I've never seen it this bad. You see them on every second corner. People don't have blankets. They don't have shelters to go to."

And as Kat Norris of the Indigenous Action Group points out, First Nations people make up 30 per cent of homeless people in the downtown eastside. The brutal history of residential schools coupled with present day racism and discrimination has meant that "a high percentage of our people rely on services in the downtown eastside of Vancouver," says Norris. Many of these services are facing funding cuts, she continues, "and we're wondering where the money is going to."

According to British Columbia's auditor general, the Games will cost Canadians $2.5 billion, as reported in the Globe and Mail last year, with $1.5 billion of that being picked up by British Columbians.

That's too high a price tag for an event that's "all about profit and collaborating with big business," says Norris. So, will resistance to the Olympics continue? "Without a doubt," she says. "There will be an escalation."

That's not good news for the VANOC. Already, opposition to the games has dogged Olympic organizers who now require visible security at every Olympic-related event along with security fencing separating dignitaries from the public. At a recent Olympic flag illumination ceremony, "The security nearly outnumbered the more than 100 protesters, who in turn outnumbered the spectators watching the ceremony," reported the Vancouver Sun on March 13. This event occurred only a week after the Olympic flag was stolen and the Native Warrior Society released a photo showing that they had it in their possession.

As reported in the same Vancouver Sun article, after an incident where the Olympic clock was defaced, John Furlong, chief executive of the VANOC, responded by saying: "It is not the Canadian way. When you do so [deface the clock], you give up the right to be listened to."

Indigenous People have a long history of “dialogue” with the Canadian government, says Pellkey, but it hasn't inspired confidence in Canada as a negotiating partner. "We have agreements and treaties that have never been upheld," she says. "They [government] go through with whatever they want to anyways."

Despite this history of disregard, in 2002, 76-year-old Secwepemc Elder Irene Billy and Ske7cis Manuel travelled to Switzerland to submit an official request to the International Olympic Committee. The submission described, "All the human rights abuses committed against Indigenous People in Canada," says Pellkey and asked that the committee not choose British Columbia for the Olympic bid. "This big organization never took into consideration what the grassroots people were saying," she says. "They chose to have the Olympics in our territory."

Today, the Indigenous resistance to the games is using other tactics to make sure their voices are heard. "We have found direct action is a way to stand up," says Pellkey. Although disrupting the Olympics and its build-up may not be Furlong's version of “the Canadian way,” according to Pellkey, it's better than letting the other “Canadian way” destroy her people's chance of survival.

"When you here about Indigenous resistance, remember that we're real people," says Pellkey. "We're mothers and aunts and wives and husbands. We have a heart and we care. That's what drives us to fight for what we have: our land, our food gathering grounds; because we care. We care about the land and our children, our great grandchildren and those yet to be born. We love them with all our heart. That's why we're doing this."

"We're not doing this to be a nuisance," says Pellkey, "but because we have love for our land and our territories and our ancestors."

Olympic Construction

Dominion Radio #1

dru — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 03:44:02 +0000

Subhead:

Lincolnville, Secret Trials, Afghanistan, Gaza

Cover Image:

radio_logo1.jpg

MP3:

http://fairtrademedia.com/radio/dominion_radio_1.mp3

Body:

In its inaugural broadcast, Dominion Radio broadcasts grassroots news from across the country, focusing on stories and voices silenced by the mainstream media.

The first show features interviews with:

Lincolnville resident Wendy Campbell. Lincolnville is a small black community in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia, that has launched a campaign against a landfill and environmental racism.
Matthew Bahrens from Toronto-based Stop Secret Trials in Canada. Matthew examines the impact of Security Certificates in this country and talks about the three men being held in "Guantanamo North" on their third month of a hunger strike.
Norine MacDonald, President and Southern Afghanistan Coordinator for the research group the Senlis Council on a new report on Canada's impact in Southern Afghanistan.
Independent journalist John Elmer, on the ground in Gaza City, examining the impacts of Canada's sanctions on Palestine.

Risky Business

hillarybain — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:23:11 +0000

Climate change “quick-fixes” are good for business, but may prove disastrous for the environment

"With the impacts of climate change becoming more evident every day and the need for action more urgent, it's likely that rich, panicky governments will gamble on quick-fixes rather than risk inconveniencing their electorate and/or offending industry." This is the warning expressed in a recent report from the Ottawa-based Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration (ETC Group).

"Every crazy idea is being brought out and dusted off to try out on policy makers," says Pat Mooney, co-author of the report and executive director of the ETC Group.

The focus of the report, entitled Gambling with Gaia, is geoengineering. Geoengineering is the intentional, large-scale manipulation of the environment by humans to bring about environmental change, particularly to counteract the undesired side-effects of other human activities.

Among the scientists covered in the report is Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen, whose controversial geoengineering essay proposes to blast particles of sulphur into the stratosphere – increasing particulate pollution – to shield the Earth from the sun's rays. Crutzen presented his findings at the UN conference on climate change in Nairobi in November 2006. An Associated Press report notes that Crutzen said he was "not enthusiastic" about the proposal, but made it to startle policymakers into realizing that "if they don't take action [on climate change] much more strongly than they have in the past, then in the end we have to do experiments like this."

Despite his intent, the Nobel Laureate noted that the reception to his idea was "more positive" than expected. The article notes that during the same week as the UN convention, NASA's Ames Research Center was hosting a closed-door, high-level workshop on Crutzen's proposal and other geoengineering ideas for fending off climate change.

Geoengineering isn't only being discussed behind closed doors. Experiments have also begun on the open ocean, reports the ETC Group. Since 1993, there have been at least 10 experiments to seed sections of the ocean's surface (from 50 to 150 square kilometres) with iron filings. The European Union and at least nine national governments – including Canada's – have supported these "iron fertilization" projects. The experiments are based on the argument that iron nurtures plankton growth -- and plankton absorbs carbon dioxide through photosynthesis.

It's not clear whether carbon dioxide absorbed by plankton will remain permanently sequestered, however. "You can't get two scientists to agree on the results," says Mooney. "Some say they see great potential in the field. Others say that the carbon dioxide may be captured temporarily, but might pop up again in a few weeks." The consensus that does exist, continues Mooney, is that this is "risky business."

After one expedition in 2002, in which three tonnes of iron particles were dumped into the ocean, the project's chief scientist, Dr. Kenneth Coale, told Popular Science: "What is still a mystery is the ripple effect on the rest of the ocean and the food chain." One fear, notes Popular Science, is that huge plankton blooms, in addition to gorging on CO2, will devour other nutrients. "A fertilization event to take care of atmospheric CO2 could have the unintended consequence of turning the oceans sterile," said Coale.

Despite the uncertainty within the science community regarding whether iron fertilization works, or if it has unintended consequences (like the sterilization of parts of the ocean), the business community is moving forward.

Planktos Inc. is a self-described "for-profit ecorestoration company" based in San Francisco with offices in Europe and British Columbia.

In 2007, Planktos will begin what its website terms: "plankton restoration, by replenishing forest-sized areas of ocean with natural iron-rich dust, just as Mother Nature does." This will provide the company with "saleable carbon credits for emerging environmental markets."

By purchasing carbon credits, companies or individuals can "buy the right to pollute" according to ETC's report, "by investing in projects that are deemed by 'experts' to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide." For example, Plaktos will "negate" your SUV's annual carbon footprint for the bargain basement price of fifty bucks.

The problem, says Mooney, is that there's no scientific proof that carbon dioxide absorbed by the plankton won't be re-released. "But companies serving the carbon market need only keep carbon dioxide out of sight for long enough to cash their cheques," says ETC's report. "If the carbon dioxide pops back up to the surface in a year or five, proving its source could be extremely difficult."

In Weyburn, Saskatchewan, home of the world's largest carbon-sequestering operation, another geoengineering experiment is already well underway – and is proving highly profitable. Oil giant Encana is compressing carbon dioxide and pumping it 1500 metres underground.

According to a February 10 article in the Globe and Mail, this system of sequestering carbon dioxide prevents the greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere and "wreaking havoc with the environment," and "is seen by some experts as the ultimate solution to global warming." Encana, however, has other reasons to pump carbon dioxide underground. Its ultimate function is to force more crude oil to the surface; the company's output has jumped from 10,000 to 30,000 barrels a day since beginning the practice.

For projects that won't profit from carbon capture and sequestration (those that won't see an increase in output), companies like Shell and Suncor are looking for Canadian government support to develop the technology. This is not where the government should be spending climate change funds, says Lindsay Telfer, director of the Sierra Club's Prairie Chapter. "We're talking about some of the wealthiest corporations in the world, there's no reason why government needs to be subsidizing this development."

Much like carbon sequestration in the oceans, it's not yet clear if carbon sequestered underground would actually stay there. Even if carbon dioxide does stay underground, "carbon capture and sequestration is a Band-Aid solution," says Telfer. "We need to be transitioning away from fossil fuels towards more renewable energy sources."

Both Telfer and Mooney recognize the value of geoengineering research and the important role technology can play in addressing climate change – they have no illusions about the immediate need for dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions – their concern, however, is that government and industry will be seduced by quick-fix technological 'solutions' that don't address root problems – and that might not even combat climate change.

"We need to look at the root problem that's driving climate change. We know it's burning of fossil fuels, but what is the system that that's happening in?" asks Telfer. "Part of that root cause is that we have a toxic economy." Our economic system promotes the idea of "infinite growth," a concept, she says, that is fundamentally unsustainable.

Humanity (primarily in the West) consumed more resources after the Second World War than all of human history before that, says Mooney. And global energy demands are expected to jump 60 per cent between 2002 and 2030. Not only is this environmentally unsustainable, he says, but a fundamental injustice.

Benefits and impacts of 'development' and technology are not equally felt, says Mooney. Right now, between 300,000 and 500,000 people die in developing countries each year due to the impacts of climate change, he says. He's concerned that geoengineering 'solutions' will also hurt those with the least money and power on the planet. "Who gets to adjust the mirrors in the stratosphere?" asks Mooney, referring to another geoengineering scheme that would place trillions of sun deflectors in the stratosphere. "And if you stop crops from burning up in the US, do you burn up the crops in Africa instead?"

Geoengineering "doesn't at all address the inequities in impacts," says Telfer. She notes that if we do manage to fend off climate change without addressing root environmental and social problems, we'll simply face a new crisis. "Next, it will be water."

"Are there root issues here that we're going to have to deal with if we're going to address climate change in an effective way?" asks Telfer. "Are we willing and ready to go there?”

“I think we need to be talking about it."

C02 Pipes

Gaining Ground

hillarybain — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 20:43:51 +0000

"A monumental year" for the people of Six Nations

On January 1, 2007, the people of Six Nations arrived at their Council House, and walked inside.

The event did not make media headlines, but the significance of the day was not lost on those crowded into the long line of cars, bearing Iroquois Confederacy and Unity flags, that lead up to the Council House.

“Even before Canada declared itself a country, we had a meeting place down here for traditional governance,” says Janie Jamison, one of the spokespeople for Six Nations. For generations, Chiefs representing the Confederacy Council gathered in the Council House to make decisions by consensus, a process often called the oldest participatory democracy on Earth.

In 1924, however, Canada instated the Indian Act and the RCMP raided the Council House, removing the traditional chiefs and clan mothers. In its place the band council system was set up, acting as an arm of the Canadian government.

For Jamison, who has never seen herself as Canadian, destroying the traditional government and imposing a new one was Canada’s way of declaring that her culture, her nation, her people “no longer existed.”

“What people don’t understand is that we weren’t defeated at that point,” says Jamison. “Our traditional government went underground.” For decades it continued to operate, unrecognized by the federal government. In 1959 an attempt was made to take back the Council House, remove the band council and reinstate the traditional governance system. The RCMP moved in again. “Men, women and children were beaten,” says Jamison. “Our people weren’t successful then.”

But on New Year’s Day, “Eighty years after being told we don’t exist,” says Jamison, “here we are.”

The people of Six Nations made their existence difficult to ignore starting February 28, 2006, when a blockade set up near Caledonia, Ontario, halted the construction of a subdivision that many said was being built on unceded Six Nations’ territory. Almost a year later, the people of Six Nations are holding their ground and, according to spokesperson Hazel Hill, making “leaps and bounds” towards the reinstatement of their traditional government.

The first leap came shortly after April 20, 2006, when the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) performed a pre-dawn raid on the blockade site. The raid, meant to clear the site of protesters, backfired when hundreds of Six Nations’ people and their supporters peacefully took back the site within a few hours. The resolve and determination of those holding the site was strengthened, and media coverage of the raid ensured that people across the country and around the world knew about the standoff.

Shortly after the police raid, the Six Nations’ band council, which had previously refused to support the blockade (though it did support the land claim), endorsed the leadership of the Confederacy Chiefs.

The move was significant. “Eighty to eighty-five per cent of [Six Nations] people support the traditional government,” says Hill. For the first time, the leadership that had always been recognized by the people of Six Nations would be the leadership that government would be forced to negotiate with.

Another leap came when – after months of calling the standoff a provincial matter – the federal government came to the table. “It’s the first time the federal government has sat down with the traditional government,” Barbara MacDougal, Canada’s representative at negotiations, told the CBC in September 2006, adding that it was a “tremendous breakthrough.”

The breakthrough may have been spurred on by Six Nations representative Doreen Silversmith when she spoke to the United Nations’ Permanent Forum on Indigenous People in Geneva, Switzerland, on May 1, 2006. Referring to the raid, Silversmith said, “Canada has clearly portrayed the message that ‘might is right.’ When a situation of ownership is challenged, their laws allow them to continue to reap the benefits of our Land, destroy our environment, and clearly ignore the truth of the Onkwehonweh [First People] … who hold title to the Land.” At the end of her speech, she called on the international community to intervene at Six Nations. “The Onkwehonweh require your assistance, with respect to our Law, our Treaties, including the Two Row Wampum, and in effect, the Authority with respect to our Land, Our Law and Our People.”

“To have the confederacy recognized at the international level for the traditional government that they are, that they always were, and always will be,” was important says Jamison. She feels that recognition from the United Nations forced Canadians to appreciate the legitimacy of their struggle. “We aren’t making these things up,” she says. “We are a government of people, a nation of sovereignty.” This, she says, is something Canada is going to have to deal with.

Jamison has been living with the legacy of Canada’s denial for too long, she says. “My family has had too many things stolen from them.” And she’s not just talking about land. “When I was three years old, I was home alone with my mom and she shot herself–. She was a victim of residential school system,” says Jamison. Her aunt was one of the thousands of native women in Canada who have gone missing; her raped and brutalized body found later. Jamison’s sister was put in an orphanage at birth and remained there until she was two. “She could have ended up on a pig farm like so many others, but somehow she made it back to us,” she says. And finally, a year and a half ago, her 17-year-old son crashed his car while he was driving drunk. “We watched him die a slow death after his car rolled. He died last April.”

Her family isn’t just the victim of bad luck, says Jamison, but of deliberate government policies that have driven so many of her people to despair and death. “That’s why I made that decision to take that stand. No more. No more to make us become something that we never will be” she says. “We need to learn truth, acceptance and understanding to be able to coexist together.”

For Jamison, that starts with “Canada finally taking responsibility for what they’ve done and starting to pay back some of the money they owe our people.” These are “not handouts” emphasizes Jamison, but payments that are owed to the Six Nations from lease agreements that were never honoured. In terms of the piece of land at the heart of the dispute today: it’s not for sale.

“We’ve always said we’re not selling that land,” says Jamison.

This doesn’t mean that those living on the land now will have to move says Hill – though she notes that her people have been forced to relocate many times in their history. “But we’re not going to do it to them,” says Hill. “There’s a lot of that land that’s undeveloped, unceded. There’s a mechanism for returning that.”

“To me, it’s about continuing what we’ve started,” she says. “This isn’t just about Six Nations or that little piece of land. This is about sovereignty and the unity of the Original People of the land that have a right to live in harmony. To have clean air and green grass where you don’t have to live with landfills and concrete everywhere you look.”

We need homes, says Hill, “but not concrete jungles. There’s a difference.”

Six Nations Blockade

Race and Waste in Nova Scotia

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 13:49:03 +0000

Accusations of 'environmental racism' take centre stage during fight against new landfill development

The landfill has become a symbol of the slow decline of the community of Lincolnville. photo: Save Lincolnville Coalition

Brian Daye wants his children to be proud of where they come from. "Who wants to take their kids to show them where they're from and there's a great big pile of garbage sitting there?" he asks.

Daye is fighting the opening of a second-generation landfill located in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia, a few kilometres from Lincolnville, the black community in which Daye was born and raised. The site was already home to a first-generation landfill (meaning it lacked the special liners designed to prevent toxic runoff) for 30 years before it was chosen to house a second dump equipped to receive waste from 17 municipalities in Nova Scotia.

What differentiates this 'not in my backyard' battle from others is that the issue of race -- rather than waste -- has taken centre stage. The opening of the second landfill has become a flashpoint in a fight against racism and oppression that residents of Lincolnville say they've been battling since the community was settled on rocky soil in 1784: the 3,000-acre land grant owed to the black loyalists who founded Lincolnville was never honoured by the Crown.

"Today our land is being threatened again by the municipal government," says Lincolnville resident James Desmond. "We have put up with a first-generation dump site for 30 years. Now they want to put a second-generation one."

The second landfill has become a symbol of the slow decline of Lincolnville that residents say is a result of lack of economic opportunity, plunging property values, poor health and the stubborn indifference of the municipality. Daye is afraid that Lincolnville might disappear altogether, taking with it a history, culture and way of life. "It's almost like we're being exterminated," he says. "If we don't do something, there's going to be nothing left except garbage."

Lincolnville is easy to miss from the highway. "It is a very small community – well, now it is," says Daye. Thirty years ago, there were 300 people living in Lincolnville; today, according to residents, there are 58. "As of now it's mostly made up of seniors. There's also the young people that are still going to school, and that's about it. As soon as they graduate, most of the students are gone. There's no employment -- there's a mega-million dollar facility in our backyard [the landfill] and no offer of jobs."

Like others his age, Daye left Lincolnville after graduating from high school in 1995. Upon learning that he was going to be a father, however, something pulled him back home. "It's where I'm from. My family and my roots are here. All my ancestors are buried down the road," explains Daye. "Everything is here."

Teen resident Cassandra Desmond feels similarly. "Lincolnville is my home. It's been my home for 15 years and it's going to be my home for another 15 more -- hopefully more than that," she says. "I learned from Lincolnville everything that I have. Everything is Lincolnville."

When it comes to tangible infrastructure, 'everything' is very little. The community has a small hall, a basketball court, and that's about it. Residents argue that they've gained no economic benefits from a landfill that brings the municipality millions. "All we see is the decline of our community. Look at the white communities around here, there's new houses built every day. It's been over 20 years since a new house was built in Lincolnville."

"You're taking away from our community. You're gaining profit by harming us, and we don't get no benefit from it." That, says Daye, is racism.

The health impacts of the first dump are unknown, though residents believe rates of cancer in the community are far above acceptable levels. According to Daye, there are two or three people in every family who have cancer or have died of the disease within the past 15 years. While he was growing up, all the industrial waste from the region ended up in the dump a few kilometres from his home. "Who knows what was dumped there?" he asks.

The brochure created for the "Save Lincolnville" campaign (which now involves groups such as the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group, Bound to Be Free and the Dalhousie Black Law Students Association, as well as individuals who have lived, or currently live, in and around Lincolnville) accuses the municipality of environmental racism, defined as: "The intentional situating of hazardous waste sites, landfills, incinerators and polluting industries in and around communities inhabited mainly by people of black descent and First Nations people, as well as the working poor."

Bringing race into the equation is "beyond cynical," according to Guysborough Warden Lloyd Hines. But, those campaigning against the dump point to the fact that before two dumps were located in Lincolnville, one was located in Sunnyville --another black community in Guysborough County. Organizations such as the Indigenous Environmental Network and the Environmental Justice & Health Union point to mounting evidence that communities of colour in North America are disproportionately affected by environmentally hazardous facilities in their communities.

This comes as no surprise to Dave Curry, a law student at Dalhousie University in Halifax, who is doing pro bono work for the Lincolnville campaign. Curry grew up in an African Nova Scotian community in the Annapolis Valley and says he knows well "the racism and oppression that go along with that." The story that's playing out in Lincolnville is a familiar one, he says; "It could just as easily be happening in any other First Nation or African Nova Scotian community. It could be a landfill or it could be something else, problems with education, access to services…"

Many of the accusations of Lincolnville residents have been echoed by other black communities in Nova Scotia and are reminiscent of the complaints by former residents of Africville, a black community formerly located in Halifax, which was destroyed by the Halifax municipality in the 1960s.

"The dump is just the outlet for the anger and outrage that the community has felt towards the municipality of Guysborough throughout the years," says Daye. "Lack of development, lack of employment. Other communities had summer grants; none of the kids from our community had summer jobs so they could save for university. It's simple little things like that. And the little things add up to one big thing."

"We've lost too much," says Lincolnville resident Wendy Campbell. "We're not going to lose no more. We're here and we're here to stay."

Those protesting the landfill "have nothing better to do," says Lincolnville resident and municipal councillor Sheila Pelly. Pelly has found herself at the centre of the landfill battle as the Councillor for District Two, which includes the communities of Lincolnville, Sunnyville and Upper Big Tracadie. Along with the municipality, Pelly supports the opening of the second landfill and says the majority of Lincolnville residents do as well.

"It's hard to put into words the outrage I feel towards the councillor and the municipality," says Daye. He says he wasn't aware of the community consultation when it took place and that Pelly and other municipal councillors have refused to attend any of the community meetings held in Lincolnville since then. This appears to be frustrating those campaigning against the dump almost as much as the dump itself. Residents feel like no one cares enough about the future of their community even to listen to their concerns.

"We've had a number of meetings where the municipality from all levels was invited to come to listen to us and try to work with us on something," says Daye. "I'm sure something could have been worked out."

"It's hard to identify it as racism 'cause it is subtle," says Curry. However, he adds, the cumulative effects are not subtle. Poverty, lower levels of education and higher rates of addiction are just some of the problems facing communities of colour in Canada.

"It's been way too long to be dealing with this kind of stuff," says Curry, but he does see some hope in Lincolnville. " I do think it's great that the community is standing up against the environmental racism that is going on because a lot of time communities just don't have the power to stand up. Especially when it's a marginalized community," he says. "It's very encouraging to me to see a community standing up."

Hillary Bain Lindsay investigates accusations of 'environmental racism' that have taken centre stage during a fight against a new landfill.

Thousands of police invade Oaxaca, protests continue

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 18:32:27 +0000

Thousands of riot police invaded Oaxaca on October 30 in order to crush an opposition movement that has held control of the southern Mexican state for several months.

On May 22, protesters began occupying the centre of the city after a list of teachers' demands -- including better pay and a series of measures to help poorer pupils -- went unanswered. The crisis escalated on June 14 when 750 police officers tried to remove the protesters, reportedly killing four.

In response to the police raid, the umbrella group, known as the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), was formed to support the teachers' movement. The APPO is made up of 365 grassroots organizations and is demanding the resignation of Governor Ruiz, whom they accuse of corruption and repressive tactics against dissenters.

Over the past several weeks, protesters have set up barricades, occupied public buildings and taken control of a dozen radio stations. Several marches have taken place including one numbering 900,000, according to organizers.

On October 27, at least three protesters were killed by those linked to the state government, including one American independent media activist Brad Will. These deaths were seized on by President Fox as a pretext for the police assault against the popular resistance.

Demonstrators have slowed police by erecting barricades, lying down in front of police vehicles and throwing sticks and stones at police contingents.

"The police can come and occupy with all their weapons and tanks. They can occupy one area, they can occupy one specific point, but they cannot control the city. They cannot take over our lives and our country," says Gustavo Esteva, founder of the Universidad de la Tierra in Oaxaca.

Reasons for anger in Oaxaca go beyond the corruption of Governor Ruez, to other factors including growing inequality, the siphoning of water resources from Indian communities to tourist industries and the collapse of corn prices.

CIDA spending in Afghanistan is private information

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 17:58:29 +0000

Canadians curious to know how development money is being spent in Afghanistan are out of luck, according to the CBC.

Amir Attaran, a professor at the University of Ottawa, filed an access to information request as part of his research on the Canadian International Development Agency's (CIDA) spending in Afghanistan. CIDA has spent almost $300 million in the country.

He was told by CIDA, however, that they could not release the information because the money is being funneled through third party agencies such as the World Bank and United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Foreign agencies running the projects must now okay any information before it is released to the Canadian public.

Alasdair Roberts, an expert on government secrecy at Syracuse University, told the CBC that Canada could demand greater transparency from the World Bank and UNDP.

"There's nothing blocking the Canadian government from saying that we want audits for programs that are being funded with Canadian money and that we intend to release those audits under Canadian access law," he said.