Assorted content to end your week. – Pat Atkinson writes that governments at all levels should be setting up realistic fiscal plans to deal with a large group of retiring boomers – not artificially slashing revenues and increasing costs. And Rick Smith laments the fact that the Harper Cons are
Continue readingTag: First Nations
The Common Sense Canadian: RCMP clash with Mi’kmaq fracking protestors: Who provoked whom?
photo: Jen Choi/CBC They may call themselves the Mi’kmaq Warrior Society, but from all indications, this group of indigenous peoples was leading a peaceful protest against fracking in their territory when a platoon of heavily-armed, camouflaged RCMP officers descended upon their camp in Rexton, New Brunswick, early this morning. The officers were
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Fontaine And Farber On First Nations Genocide
Our conviction is that Canadian policy over more than 100 years can be defined as a genocide of First Nations under the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. Read it all if you can dodge the pay-wall. I have nothing particularly interesting to add except that under such circumstances it is generally
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: CHRC statement on meeting with UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya
Canadian Human Rights Commission statement on meeting with James Anaya, the visiting United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The post CHRC statement on meeting with UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Idle No More Global Day of Action October 7 2013
by: Idle No More | Press Release Idle No More protest on Parliament Hill. Dec 21, 2012. (Photo: Obert Madondo) October 7, 2013-Ottawa, Canada: Today marks the global day of action of Idle No More, the Indigenous Peoples social movement. On October 7, 1763, King George III of England signed the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Alex Himelfarb and Jordan Himelfarb comment on Canada’s dangerously distorted conversation about public revenue and the purposes it can serve: As we argue in our new book, Tax Is Not a Four-Letter Word, the Canadian tax conversation has become dangerously distorted. Any reasonable
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: First Nations energy company floats oil refinery near Prince Rupert
Eagle Spirit Energy’s Calvin Helin speaking the Vancouver Board of Trade A new energy company with partial aboriginal ownership is floating the idea of an oil refinery at Grassy Point, near Prince Rupert on BC’s north coast, according to a letter sent to members of a local First Nations band.
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: First Nation bans pipelines for BC LNG
While much has been made of partnerships between First Nations and companies proposing to build natural gas pipelines and liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals on BC’s coast, the position being taken by one particular nation could have a chilling effect on the nascent industry. Hereditary Chief Na’moks of the Wet’suwet’en
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Jordon Cooper writes about the need to understand poverty in order to discuss and address it as a matter of public policy. – John Greenwood reports on Cameco’s tax evasion which is being rightly challenged by the CRA – though it’s worth
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: First Nation upset CNRL is draining lake to contain Alberta bitumen leak
photo: Canadian Natural Resources Limited Read this Sept. 28 story from CBC on the ongoing Alberta bitumen leak crisis near Cold Lake. The Common Sense Canadian has been following the unfolding disaster for several months now and there appears to be no resolution in sight, as CNRL’s operation has spilled over 1.5 million litres
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Matt Taibbi discusses how public pension funds are being looted for the benefit of a few well-connected banksters: Hedge funds have good reason to want to keep their fees hidden: They’re insanely expensive. The typical fee structure for private hedge-fund management is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on Brad Wall’s choice to bring the Southern Strategy north with a dog-whistle appeal to prejudice against First Nations. For further reading…– Rick Perlstein puts the Southern Strategy (and Lee Atwater’s description of it) in context here. – The Saskatchewan Party ad in question is here.– The NDP’s 2011
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Mining company steps back from Sacred Headwaters standoff
A group of Tahltans and their supporters peacefully occupied Fortune’s drill in early September Fortune Minerals announced Monday it will voluntarily stand down from an escalating conflict with the local Tahltan First Nation. The Common Sense Canadian has been reporting on the standoff over a proposed mine in northwest BC’s Sacred Headwaters region
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Arrests on horizon in First Nation’s Sacred Headwaters mine protest
Tahltan elders and supporters in the Sacred Headwaters (SkeenaWatershed.com) Read this Sept. 20 story from the Vancouver Observer on the standoff over a proposed open-pit coal mine in BC’s Sacred Headwaters, which continues to escalate. The Common Sense Canadian has been reporting on the protest since it began last month. A showdown between a Tahltan
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Harper won’t succeed in bribing First Nations over pipelines
Stephen Harper meets with National AFN Chief Shawn Atleo in 2011 (Reuters) So Prime Minister Stephen Harper and members of his cabinet have been meeting with BC’s First Nations chiefs in order to get them onside with the Enbridge and Kinder Morgan pipelines. This is a gross insult and I believe
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Armine Yalnizyan points out that Canada has followed the global pattern in which income growth has disproportionately been directed toward the few people with the most to begin with: Canada’s story pales in comparison – and so does our access to comprehensive and
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Tahltan’s Sacred Headwaters defence has deep roots
The Sacred Headwaters (photo: Carr Clifton/ILCP) Few places on our planet have been unaffected by humans. Satellite images taken from hundreds of kilometres above Earth reveal a world irrevocably changed by our land use over just the past few decades. From Arctic tundra to primeval rainforest to arid desert, our
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: First Nation says CNRL up to 6 leaks in Cold Lake, Alberta
One of 6 leaks believed to be coming from CNRL’s Cold Lake operation (Chester Dawson/WSJ) COLD LAKE , Alta. – A First Nation says it is concerned about two other leaks at an oilsands project in northeastern Alberta, bringing the total in recent months to six. Chief Bernice Martial of
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Harper Govt coming to BC to push pipelines on First Nations
Read this Sept. 12 story from CBC.ca on the caravan of federal ministers and bureaucrats aimed at convincing BC’s Forst Nations to back down on their opposition to the proposed Enbridge and Kinder Morgan pipelines to the province’s coast. A parade of cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats will head to
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: First Nations occupy mining equipment in Sacred Headwaters
Watch this video from Beyond Boarding – a group of adventure filmmakers who have been following Tahltan Nation opposition to a proposed open pit coal mine in their territory, referred to as the Sacred Headwaters. The Common Sense Canadian has been reporting on the growing standoff between Tahltan members and Fortune Minerals, over
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