Blockades are still up and university students have called a Canada-wide strike to support the Wet’suwet’en. But CBC and other media are reporting they reached a deal this weekend. Wet’suwet’en leaders talk about the political manoeuvring of the government.
The Pembina Institute an NGO focussed on the oil patch came out with a new report on tar sands emissions last week. We speak with one of the Pembina authors, Benjamin Israel. See the site: Pembina.org.
James Hutt from theleap.org about the Green New Deal’s specific plans for transportation and transit.
Listen to the March 3 episode here:
Environment News and Links for March 3, 2020
Mohawk activists in Kahnawake, south of Montreal, will maintain their rail barricade for the time being, despite the proposed agreement that was reached Sunday between government officials and Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs in British Columbia.
“We want some more clarification from the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs before we make a decision,” said Kenneth Deer, a representative of Kahnawake’s traditional Longhouse political system who has been acting as a spokesperson for the activists at the blockade.
“It’s a big decision to decide to take down the barricade or not, and they want to make sure they have everything before they make that decision,” Deer told reporters at the barricade Sunday afternoon, where Mohawk flags flew from a tent and pointed wooden shelter protected by low concrete barriers.
Deer, who said he’s been in contact with hereditary chiefs, said good things came out of the meeting in B.C., as well as “some things that were not so good.”
He said the agreement includes discussions on who are custodians of the land, as well as a recognition of the hereditary chiefs, which he described as “significant.”
“However, the pipeline is not resolved, and that’s a very big issue, not only for the Wet’suwet’en chiefs but for everybody,” he said.
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Yet another oil train has derailed along the CN Rail line, with 30 cars off the tracks and five of them leaking crude oil near the northwestern Ontario town of Emo, near Fort Frances.
The train went off the rails last week, with no one injured, CBC News reports. Ontario Provincial Police said there was no danger to the public, but evacuated homes within an 800-metre radius. A nearby school was also closed.
Earlier in the week, Transport Minister Marc Garneau shifted the speed limits his department imposed on oil trains after a fiery derailment outside the Saskatchewan hamlet of Guernsey February 6. The new rules “raise the permissible speed for trains pulling even one car with chemicals that are toxic when inhaled or more than 20 cars loaded with dangerous goods such as oil, liquefied natural gas, or ethanol,” The Canadian Press reports.
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On February 24, Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers arrested Melissa Cox, a documentary filmmaker and U.S. Citizen, while she was covering the blockade of a train track near New Hazelton, according to Michael Toledano, a member of the documentary crew, who spoke with Committee to Protect Journalists.
The Washington DC Based Committee to Protect Journalists says Canadian authorities should not file charges against journalist and filmmaker Melissa Cox, and should ensure that the press can freely cover matters of public interest,
The RCMP said 14 individuals were arrested for refusing to leave Canadian National Railway tracks near New Hazelton.
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The City of Hamilton and Ontario climate organizations are mobilizing against a 10-kilometre pipeline that would carry fracked gas from the United States and increase the province’s reliance on carbon-heavy natural gas power plants.
Hamilton City Council, the Hamilton Conservation Authority, the Green Party of Ontario, Toronto-based Environmental Defence, and Hamilton 350 are all raising flags about the C$206-million project through rural Flamborough, the Hamilton Spectator reported last month. The Ontario Clean Air Alliance (OCAA) is out with a petition opposing the pipeline.
“The plan by Enbridge Gas to build a huge gas pipeline through a provincially significant wetland in Hamilton must be stopped,” the petition states. “This pipeline will be used to import fracked gas into Ontario in order to increase the output of our polluting gas-fired power plants by more than 300%. This will be damaging to our climate and is unnecessary.”
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Critics are warning that a bill introduced by the Alberta government to impose large fines and prison time on people participating in blockades or protests that interfere with “critical infrastructure” suppresses democracy and violates treaties.
Austin Mihkwâw, a Samson Cree activist from Treaty 6 territory, says many of the industrial megaprojects that have and would be targets for civil disobedience are already violations of legally binding treaties, which did not entail surrender of the land and only allowed for its use “to the depth of a plow,” for example.
Indigenous sovereignty and title underlie the recent surge in blockades and protests.
The bill, introduced by Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party last week stipulates that no one shall “enter on” or “interfere” with critical infrastructure “without lawful right, justification, or excuse.”
“What do you define as justification?” asks Mihkwâw. “Protecting the water? Protecting the children? Protecting the future?”
While actions like railway blockades are already illegal under federal law, the Alberta bill allows for arrest without warrant. It also adds additional penalties, such as fines of between $1,000 and $10,000 for a first offence, and up to $25,000 for each subsequent offence. On top of fines, individuals may face six months in jail.
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A claim of human rights abuse against Nevsun Resources, by three former Eritrean miners can go forward in the Canadian courts.
The Supreme Court of Canada has rejected an appeal by Nevsun, which argued that Canadian courts do not or should not have jurisdiction over alleged actions that occur outside of Canada.
In other cases against Canadian mining companies operating outside of Canada, lower courts have determined that claims against Canadian companies should be tried in the countries where the alleged crimes or abuses occurred, if there is a functional court system and a likelihood of a fair trial.
But Eritrea has been described as a “rogue state” with no real functioning civil government, constitution or reliable court system.
Given the uncertainty over the claimants receiving a fair trial, Canadian courts have ruled in favour of the Eritreans being allowed to sue Nevsun in Canada.
The claims against Nevsun are that it was complicit in human rights abuses, including”slave labour” at its Bisha mine. The Eritrean government has used military conscription to force people to work for mining companies under deplorable conditions.The use of conscripted labour in Eritrea’s mining sector was first reported by Human Rights Watch in 2013.
https://biv.com/article/2020/02/claim-against-nevsun-eritrean-miners-can-go-forward
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A carbon offset project that was developed specifically to fund protection of the Great Bear Rainforest is struggling to find buyers. In fact, the only reliable buyer is the provincial government, which set up the B.C. carbon market in the first place, reports the online magazine The Narwhal.
The papers that established the B.C. Forest Carbon Offset Protocol were signed in 2008, and the first credits went on the market in 2012.
But sales of B.C. carbon credits have not come close to expectations.
The slow sales mean the money that funds a lot of the protection of the Great Bear Rainforest — the world’s last remaining intact temperate rainforest — is under threat.
About a third of the revenue that funds activities like those of the Nuxalk Guardians comes from carbon credits, according to Brodie Guy, executive director of Coast Funds.
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Almost half of the world’s sandy beaches will have retreated significantly by the end of the century as a result of climate-driven coastal flooding and human interference, according to new research.
The sand erosion will endanger wildlife and could inflict a heavy toll on coastal settlements that will no longer have buffer zones to protect them from rising sea levels and storm surges. In addition, measures by governments to mitigate against the damage are predicted to become increasingly expensive and in some cases unsustainable.
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