Wet'suwet'en Land Reclamation
Over the last decade, the Unist’ot’en clan of the Wet’suwet’en nation have been re-occupying their traditional territories and defending their lands and waters from industry. We caught up with the Gidimt’en and Likht’samisyu clans who have also been building on their respective territories.
A special thanks to SAW Video for their support with production.CategoryNonprofits & ActivismLicenseCreative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)
Category: Canada
Coastal Gaslink Evicted from Unist’ot’en TerritoryJanuary 5th,…
Coastal Gaslink Evicted from Unist'ot'en Territory
January 5th, 2020
Corridors of Resistance: Stopping oil and gas pipelines
Corridors of Resistance: Stopping oil and gas pipelines
This past year we all watched the media portray a white land…
This past year we all watched the media portray a white land owner well within his right, to shoot & kill a young Aboriginal youth, for reasons the white landowner was protecting his land from a trespasser.
It’s ironic, that today the media plays out another portrayal; Aboriginal land owners, protecting ancestral, traditional land being forcibly removed by heavily armed military and tactical units. The same whites who thought it was ok that the white farmer was well within his right to kill for his land, want the government to forcibly remove, and even kill Aboriginals for protecting their land.
ONGOING Genocide in CanadaOn January 7th, 2019 a team of…
ONGOING Genocide in Canada
On January 7th, 2019 a team of tactical RCMP were deployed in Wet'suwet'en territory, where they forcibly removed Gitdum'ten people and supporters from their land in order to facilitate the construction of the TransCanada Coastal Gaslink Pipeline.
Last year when the RCMP was called out, they had permission for “lethal overwatch” (SNIPERS!).
Now they are back. This time they don’t want the eyes of the world on the RCMP. So they have a twenty km “exclusion zone” keeping reporters and citizens out.
workingclasshistory:On this day, 6 December 1989, 14 women, most…
On this day, 6 December 1989, 14 women, most of whom were training in engineering fields, were murdered in a mass shooting at the École Polytechnique in Montreal. The 25 year old shooter specifically targeted women, claimed he was “fighting feminism,” and killed himself after shooting 28 people. The victims’ names were: Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault, Annie Turcotte, and Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz. The day is commemorated annually across Canada as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. https://ift.tt/2rm0nJn
THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY
They look like the girls I went to school with.
Gazoduq Pipeline: Just Say Non!
- May 29th, 2018: Trudeau Government announced it was buying the Trans Mountain pipeline.
- On August 30th, 2018, the sale was approved by Kinder Morgan shareholders, and
- the Court Overturned the Pipeline Approval.
- June 17th, 2019, a National climate emergency was declared by House of Commons.
- June 18th, the Liberal government approves $9.3B Trans Mountain expansion project.
- October 21st, 2019 In spite of all this, the Liberals won the Election.
On Tuesday — the day after the federal election — the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada invited the public, and specifically Indigenous groups, to provide feedback on a controversial 780-kilometre natural gas pipeline between northeastern Ontario and Quebec’s Saguenay region.
The Gazoduq pipeline is a key element of a $14-billion mega-project that intends to provide a permanent path for natural gas exploited in the West to be exported in the East.
—You have three weeks to weigh in on a proposed gas pipeline
National Observer, October 23rd.
Pipelines? But It’s 2019!
The deadline has been extended to November 22, 2019, giving us a little longer to comment.
Here are the 495 comments so far. The more comments they get, the better.
https://iaac-aeic.gc.ca/050/evaluations/proj/80264?culture=en-CA
If you care about the climate, just say no! (Or non!)
Just Say NO to the Gazoduq Pipeline!
What’s it all about?
Fracked Alberta “Natural Gas” brought east through the TC Energy Pipeline (formerly known as TransCanada), will be diverted into the brand new Five Billion Dollar Gazoduc Pipeline at Kirkland Lake, Ontario.
The Gazoduc Pipeline would carry 1.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day to its customer, the planned GNL Québec Nine Billion Dollar Énergie Saguenay facility which will liquify the fossil fuel. The resulting LNG will be loaded onto massive tankers that sail through the Saguenay Fjord to the St Lawrence River enroute to hypothetical overseas markets.
The proposed 780-kilometre underground pipeline would pass near or through Indigenous territories as it carries the fossil fuel across forests, ecologically sensitive wetlands and protected provincial areas.
Promises, Promises
The Gazoduq project promises to take into account the habitats and species “likely to be designated as threatened or vulnerable.”
Which sounds good until you consider this is not a promise to do no harm. This project will introduce enormous tankers quadruple the size of the largest vessels currently using the Fjord (for whale watching).
These tankers will be sailing through the Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park, which was established to protect marine life, including the endangered beluga whale population.
The Gazoduq project promises to “set a new benchmark in the LNG industry for environmental performance.”
Which really only means it has to be less invasive than previous LNG projects. The idea here is that the Quebec hydro electricity they expect to use to liquify the fracked natural gas won’t be as nad as burning natural gas to liquify it.
Nevermind that the LNG this project produces will be burnt. Just not here.
It doesn’t matter where in the world we are adding GHGs, they all go into the same atmosphere. And let’s not forget that shipping a cargoes of fracked LNG across the ocean itself generates GHGs.
The Gazoduq project promises it “will help reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.”
Funny claim to make about an industry that exists to increase our use of fossil fuels. It seems to be based on the unproven assumption the fracked gas shipped to other parts of the world will displace coal and fuel oil.
Even if you believe these companies will try to do this, what happens when coal and fuel oil generated electricity has been eliminated? Pipelines are expected to last at least 50 years. Does anyone believe it will close its doors and go home? Especially if it’s only been operating for a decade or two.
The Gazoduq project promises it has “low potential for social and environmental impacts.”
Like “two scoops of raisins,” “low potential” could mean anything.
The construction alone will have an impact, with the introduction of problematic “man camps” as it travels near and through the territory of dozens of First Nations.
Economists don’t think much of the pipeline project’s promise of jobs. Adding insult to injury:
Remarkably, the project will be eligible for Hydro-Quebec’s electricity rebate, amounting to an indirect subsidy of at least $43 million over six years. This is $7 million more than the $36 million that Gazoduq intends to donate, over the project lifespan, to communities in Quebec and Ontario affected by the pipeline.
—An open letter on GNL Québec: A pipe dream of another Québec pipeline
The Gazoduq project promises that:
“Natural gas is not like oil. Lighter than air, it rises and then quickly disperses in the atmosphere without leaving a trace.”
Without a trace?
Tell that to the climate.
Image Credits:
Public Domain image “Saguenay Mountain Fjord” by cleprovost
Gazoduq Map:
based on Quebec province transportation and cities map by Eric Gaba released under a Creative Commons Attribution Sharalike 4.0 International License
and
Saguenay–St. Lawrence Marine Park by by Parcs Canada
and
Laughing Beluga by Steve Snodgrass released under s Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License
Elizabeth May: A Legacy of Leading the Green Party
Elizabeth May: A Legacy of Leading the Green Party:
I am very sad to see Ms May step down as the Green Party of Canada leader; I believe she would make a fabulous Prime Minister, but that was not to be. On the other hand, she’s certainly put the GPC on the map. And, for that matter, Greens. Despite the Defenders of the Status quo who’ve accused her of trying to hog the spotlight. Since becoming involved with the GPC, I can tell you nothing could have been further from the truth. Part of the reason there are 3 Green MLAs in BC, 1 MPP in Ontario, 3 MLAs in New Brunswick, and that the Official Opposition in PEI is due in part to the fact Ms May has always spared some of her prodigious energy working to help build the Green movement across Canada. The problem has not been with Ms May, but with defenders of the Status Quo number the MSM (Mainstream Media), which has generally worked hard to lock Greens out of politics. They know a strong enough Green influence will disrupt the status quo. Because Greens do politics differently. This is a great interview. Well worth a listen.
VOTE YOUR VALUESFull Disclosure: Bob Jonkman, the 2019 Green…
Laurel & Bob
Bob and our son, Willem (circa 1993)
VOTE YOUR VALUES
Full Disclosure: Bob Jonkman, the 2019 Green Party of Canada Candidate for Brantford–Brant is my husband.
I fully support Bob’s campaign (which is why my own projects are languishing until this election is over) because I believe we need Bob in Parliament.
I can tell you Bob is perhaps the smartest most ethical man I’ve ever known. If Bob is elected, I believe we will get electoral reform to Proportional Representation. This is so important because it will make it possible for Canada to begin to actually solve our problems, rather than dance political rings around them as the big parties do. We need to restore and improve our universal healthcare (and reverse the privatization!). We need a government that understands the importance of transparent governance and personal privacy. A government that understands modern technology. And a government that will restore and honour our Charter Rights. We all need votes that count. And most important: we need to get to work on Climate Change now. Canada can be a climate leader but to be that we need to elect the right politicians.
This is why I think it’s so important to elect Bob.
So I will be posting more about Bob through the remaining days of the election.
If you want to see real change in Ottawa, if you want fair voting and real Climate Action that doesn’t include additional fossil fuel pipelines and Fracking, if you want human equity and actual reconciliation, if you live in Brantford–Brant, please consider casting your vote for Bob. If you’re a Canadian who doesn’t live in Brantford–Brant you can still support Bob with a donation here:
https://bobjonkman.ca/donate/
And don’t forget to check out the candidates in your riding and
vote for what you want!
The 2019 Canadian Election is on! Check out Bob Jonkman’s…
The 2019 Canadian Election is on!
Check out Bob Jonkman’s appearance on the
Rogers Local Campaign Brantford–Brant Debate!
This is a very different election than we are accustomed to. Although 2019 is not going to be our first federal election under Proportional Representation as indicated by the #ERRE committee, because it is shaping up to be a minority government, if we elect enough Green MPs, it could actually be the last election under First Past The Post if Canadians vote for what we want.
As your Green Party MP, Bob will represent Brantford–Brant in Parliament. He won’t just deliver his party’s edicts to the riding.
One Green MP can make a real difference; with enough Green MPs sitting in Parliament, Canada will take real climate action.
Vote Your Values!