This is beyond bold. Harper setting aside $8 million to fight environmental groups is appalling of course and a sign that Harper’s totalitarian approach to governance is just beginning. A recent Maclean’s analysis suggests the initiative is aimed directly at Tides Canada, a registered charity which spends some of its
Continue readingTag: environment
Nobody Sings it Like The Raging Grannies
Check out this video posted back in January of the Raging Grannies, doing what they do best; singing for social and environmental justice. With the release of the Conservative Government’s 2012 Budget today we now know where the environment stands. It doesn’t. Regulations will be further cut in the name
Continue readingPacific Free Press: First Nations Constitutional Challenge Industrial Cumulative Effects & Tar Sands on Treaty Rights
Special thanks to Oemissions for updating me on this case. The following is an article from the Pacific Free Press, the only news outlet that seemed at all interested in this story today, given that the Federal government released it’s budget for 2012. Keep in mind, in this new budget,
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Send message to protect environmental reviews
Today’s budget announcements make it clear that long-standing legal protections for the environment, including environmental reviews of major industrial projects like mines and oil pipelines will soon be rolled back or eliminated. For decades, Canadians have depended on the federal government to safeguard our families and nature from pollution, toxic
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Harper Conservatives Target Registered Charities
So far, the Conservative government’s fear-mongering has targeted anti-capitalism movements, environmentalists, Aboriginal groups, activists, foreign special interest groups, so-called “issue-based terrorists” and other imaginary “enemies of the state”. Now add registered Canadian charities to the hit list. Charities registered in … Continue reading →
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Stephen Maher and Glen McGregor report that the Council of Canadians is leading the charge in challenging election results which may have been influenced by Robocon. And perhaps the most noteworthy point as to how the move may shine a spotlight on
Continue readingThings Are Good: Denmark Increases Green Energy Transition
Denmark is getting looking to have 50% of it’s energy come from wind power and are looking to further their need to import any energy at all. Not only is Denmark looking to lower the need for foreign energy they are trying to decrease the amount of energy that the
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Enbridge Pipe Dreams and Nightmares
CCPA released today a report by yours truly on the economic costs and benefits of the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline. In particular, I take aim at the outrageous claims about jobs made by the feds and Enbridge as part of their sales pitch. The report takes a closer look at the input-output
Continue readingPaulitical Satire: Who’s Tired of Double Standards?
So, as I wrote this title, I realized that this post could have been referring to just about anything, so let me clarify: I’m talking about the double standard we’re witnessing in the debate regarding environmental organizations accepting some international funding.I was talking to my friend who runs a great blog over
Continue readingwmtc: david suzuki fights back: he needs our help
If you have not already done so, please take a moment and send a letter to the Canadian Senate, calling on them to tone down their offensive rhetoric, and stop trying to marginalize and demonize Canadians who stand up for the future of the country (and the planet) by opposing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Random readings to occupy your time. – Stephen Maher and Glen McGregor are still digging into Robocon – with a focus on figuring out exactly how “Pierre Poutine” assembled lists of anti-Con voters to target. And Sixth Estate both points out that the count of affected ridings is up to
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Why I’m Voting for Nathan Cullen
Nathan Cullen has my vote. Let me begin by saying that we are at an historical moment in Canadian history. We are being besieged by an increasingly draconian corporatist, neo-conservative and neoliberal Conservative Party government which is far worse than Mulroney’s free trade corporatist “Progressive” Conservatives from a generation ago. This government is an
Continue readingThings Are Good: What’s in a Lot?
Here’s a challenge from Eran Ben-Joseph: name a great parking lot. Couldn’t do it, could you? Neither could I, and neither could Ben-Joseph. In a new book ReThinking a Lot: The Design and Culture of Parking he explores the horribleness of all that space that car drivers demand. If you
Continue readingThings Are Good: Ontario Chooses to Protect Old-Growth Forest
In northern Ontario there is a region called Temagami and it is absolutely stunning as it holds Ontario’s oldest old-growth forest and is the home to a diverse wildlife. In a tradition of profiteering, some people want to destroy the area and plans were set in motion in place to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your afternoon reading. – Linda McQuaig writes that Robocon is placing Canada at the forefront of dubious electoral results in the developed world. Which of course means it’s time to evaluate the Cons’ fraud merely as a matter of political damage control, rather than focusing on who’s
Continue readingTrashy's World: Back when Conservatives could be “progressive” too…
… there was a guy named Brian Mulroney. He was our Prime Minster. A lot of folks didn’t like the man very much. They saw him as arrogant, too pro-American and as the force behind the much-maligned GST (the ill feelings about that tax still linger today… and are completely
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Public land with full access now privatized
Liberals have been bulldozing barriers and slashing red tape for more than a decade. Who can forget: “Red Tape Reduction Task Force” of 2001 to recommend priorities for the review and elimination of regulations in BC. Rich Coleman’s 2002 announcement that red tape had been slashed by 41 per cent
Continue readingelementalpresent: What do Bruce Springsteen, KONY2012 and Occupy have to do with one another?
This is a guest blog, courtesy of Brian Foster. Now, no shells ripped the evening sky No cities burning down No army stormed the shores for which we’d die No dictators were crowned I awoke on a quiet night; I never heard a sound The marauders raided in the dark
Continue readingTrashy's World: Friday miscellany…
… O M G! The SKY is falling edition… Literally. The sky. Falling. Yup. The sun burps and we all freak out. Oh no! The GPS on my iPhone might lose some of its precision!!!! Anyhow, the solar “storm” seems to have had little impact and we can all carry
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Amy Minsky uncovers some suspicious-looking spending patterns underlying Robocon, while Postmedia also points out that election results in at least a couple of seats may plausibly be subject to challenge. Emma Pullman offers some more details on the Manning Centre’s voter suppression
Continue reading