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
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The 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: The End of Coal?
China is coal’s last great hope – but even that may be changing by Jonathan Fahey NEW YORK – The future of coal is getting darker. Economic forces, pollution concerns and competition from cleaner fuels are slowly nudging nations around the globe away from the fuel that made the industrial
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
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: First Nations fire back at Taseko CEO’s insults
Xeni Gwetin Chief Roger William at a Vancouver court case in 2011 Read this Sept. 6 rebuttal in the Vancouver Sun by Tsilqot’in National Government Chair Joe Alphonse to an earlier op-ed by Taseko Mines’ CEO Russ Hallbauer which dismissed First Nations’ concerns about his proposed “New Prosperity Mine”. A
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: 9 year old’s plea to CEO of proposed Sacred Headwaters mine
This recent video from Beyond Boarding – a group of self-described “snowboarders making positive change” – shows 9-year-old Caden Jakesta and several other members of the Tahltan Nation in northwest BC conveying their concerns about a proposed mine in the Sacred Headwaters to the mining company’s CEO. The birthplace of three
Continue readingLeDaro: Mining and sinkholes
There is plenty of material on shale-gas fracking which causes air pollution, water pollution, gas in tap-water and all kinds of health problems. It has also caused earthquakes in certain parts of the U.S. In Louisiana, U.S. mining in general is causing sink-holes. What next? What more damage these mining
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Greeks ask Canadians to help stop Canadian mining corp Eldorado Gold
By: Mining Watch Canada | Press Release OTTAWA – The situation around Eldorado Gold Corporation’s mining projects in northern Greece is extremely tense. In the face of negative official response to social and environmental concerns from the company, Greek authorities, and even the Canadian Ambassador – a delegation from the affected
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Harper stands with mining companies, against human rights in Pacific Alliance
By: Council of Canadians | Press Release: Stephen Harper’s executive decision that Canada should try to join the Pacific Alliance political and trading bloc should be as controversial as his taking a trip to Peru and Colombia to dodge questions about overspending and lack of accountability in the Senate, says the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Yes, it’s for the best that some of Canada’s pre-eminent scientists are offering to walk Joe Oliver through the realities of climate change. But Nik Beeson’s offer of political detoxification looks like the more important step for those of us who aren’t in
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canadian Diplomacy Supported Deadly Blackfire Mining Project: Report
By: United Steelworkers (USW) | Press Release: OTTAWA and SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS – Documents released from the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) in response to a request under the access to information act reveal that Canadian authorities put public resources at the service of Calgary-based Blackfire
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: This song against the recently deceased former British prime…
This song against the recently deceased former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher is “Oxford Lady” by the Manchester-based post-punk/New Wave band The Brigade. Lyrically, it’s a bit more subtle than most of the anti-Thatcher songs I posted, but that just means you have to listen a bit more closely. As
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Algonquins of Barriere Lake Oppose Copper One’s Rivière Doré Project
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: The Algonquins of Barriere Lake are affirming their opposition to Copper One’s Rivière Doré Project “and all claim staking and mineral exploration” in their unceded territory. The following press release via Barriere Lake Solidarity: (Rapid Lake, Quebec) Today, the Algonquins of Barriere Lake are re-affirming their
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Sandy Pond Alliance court case to decide fate of lakes across Canada
By: Council of Canadians (Press Release)| Feb. 26, 2013: St. John’s, NL – The Federal Fisheries Act was intended to protect fish and fish habitat in part by prohibiting the dumping of harmful substances into fish-bearing waters. The intent of the Act was diluted by regulations that give the mining industry an
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Joseph Stiglitz discusses how the combination of increasingly concentrated wealth and deteriorating has eliminated any pretense of equal opportunity within the U.S.: It’s not that social mobility is impossible, but that the upwardly mobile American is becoming a statistical oddity. According to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Saturday reading. – Hamida Ghafour writes about the effect of tax avoidance by the world’s wealthy on the lives of the rest of the population – particularly when coupled with austerity pushed based on a lack of revenue: The OECD is a fierce defender of
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Global Mining and Tar Sands Oil Drive Canadian Foreign Policy
by Guest Blogger | Jan. 28, 2013 In the era of dictatorial Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his right-wing Conservatives, global mining and tar sands oil drive Canadian foreign policy. Canadian author, activist and political commentator, Yves Engler, argues that Harper’s right wing foreign policy protects interests of big oil and mining at home and
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: At Chinese-owned B.C. mine, no Canadian hires for four years
by BC Federation of Labour “It’s clear HD Mining is in no hurry to hire Canadians and that the province of BC and Government of Canada have been complicit all along.” Documents released today show HD Mining planned to use exclusively underpaid Temporary Foreign Workers (TFW’s) underground for 4.5 years
Continue readingearthgauge: And now a few comments on The Tyee’s new sustainable energy project…
In my post below, I recommended following a new investigative reporting series being produced by The Tyee. I commend this initiative as it is important, timely and deserves our attention. Now for some thoughts on what The Tyee is hoping to achieve with this project. First, a few words of caution
Continue readingbastard.logic: The Real Bev Oda Scandal: Politicizing (& Corporatizing) Canadian Foreign Aid
That now-infamous taxpayer-subsidized luxury hotel switcheroo in Mother London? Small potatoes. Don Cayo: [A]nalysis by Fraser Reilly-King, a policy analyst at the non-profit Canadian Council for International Co-operation, shows substantial cuts to foreign aid in last month’s federal budget are aimed mainly at the same kind of underprivileged countries [that were
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