All posts in category Canada

Canada’s #enemygate open for questionable business

the regina mom‘s amassed a number of links about the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline and, though other bloggers have moved on to the HarperCon’s potential attack on Old Age Security (OAS) [See Alison@Creekside], trm‘s staying on this issue a bit longer.  Now, let’s see where those links take us.

First, let’s note that this fiasco has been dubbed “EnemyGate” by none other than one of Canada’s finest wordsmiths, Margaret Atwood, according to the stream #enemygate on Twitter.  trm thinks it a very apt term.

A case in point.  Marc Jaccard is one of those environmental people the HarperCons would likely paint as an enemy.  He’s a sustainable energy researcher and over at the Vancouver Sun he points out the HarperCons promise, in 2007 and recently re-confirmed. that Canada will reduce her greenhouse gas emissions 65 per cent by 2050.  He says that in order for that statement

 

… not to be a lie, Harper cannot allow expansion of tarsands and associated pipelines, and he must require a growing market share of near-zero-emission vehicles. He knows this because his analysts are privy to the work of the world’s leading researchers. Canadians on all sides of the issue should read a 20-page report from MIT’s Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change entitled Canada’s Bitumen Industry Under CO2 Constraints … The report shows how and why the Canadian tarsands must contract as part of a global effort to prevent a 4 degree increase in temperatures and catastrophic climate change.

Is our PM banking on us not figuring this out?  On not knowing this?  On us not putting two and two together?  Jaccard concludes,

 

The facts are simple. Our political leaders are lying to us if they aid and abet the expansion of tarsands while promising to take action to prevent the imminent climate catastrophe. If you love this planet and your children, and are humble and objective in considering the findings of science, you have no choice but to battle hard to stop Gateway and other tarsands pipelines. It is time to face up to this challenge with honesty and courage.

We already know the HarperCons are dishonest and that our PM is a bully and that bullies lack courage, so is it even realistic to expect the PM to act with honesty and courage?  trm notes that the PM was not courageous enough to announce his major policy shift for Canada on Canadian soil.  Instead, he used his time at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland to announce, among the previously mentioned OAS attack, that

energy policy will be dictated by the need of the economy, not environmentalists, First Nations and other “adversaries” to development. New mines and energy projects would be expedited and regulatory red tape cut in Harper’s brave new world order.

A member of the First Nations community in Canada, Grand Council Chief Patrick Madahbee, says that’s a bunch of bullshit, that First Nations are not adversaries to development. He said it more politely, though.

Madahbee said Canada is missing out on an opportunity to be seen as a leader on the world stage. “The National Chief has told Prime Minister Harper that a comprehensive action plan would add $400 billion to the Canadian economy, and eliminate $150 billion in social costs. There are 400 million Indigenous peoples around the globe – over a million in Canada. We are the fastest growing population. We are the students and workers of the future. Why do governments constantly overlook us?

“If financial self-sufficiency of First Nations” is truly the “end-goal” of the Canadian government, they need to be talking to us about the treaty promises and resource revenue-sharing. This is the only way to create certainty for corporate projects. They can no longer expect to barge into our territories without dealing with First Nations peoples.”

Marc Lee, at the Progressive Economics Forum, has something to say about the economic side of things, too, and in some detail.  Go ahead and read the full piece; it’s very informative.  But, trm will cut to the chase:
Bottom line: the Enbridge pipeline makes odious profits and they must be weighed against the costs of GHG emissions and oil spills. Privatize gains, socialize losses. Which is why the industry and their government make no reference to either the profits to be gained or climate change. While there will be some jobs created along the way, they are very small in number. Governments get a cut, too, through royalties and taxes (though the latter are being phased out for people fortunate enough to be corporations), but these are like the royalties on export of blood diamonds.
And why are we singing to China’s tune, anyway? Terry Glavin’s been doing some damned fine research and writing on that issue.  He says we’ve been hoodwinked:

Over the past decade, Canadians have sunk more than $20-billion of mostly public money into port, rail and highway infrastructure on the West Coast, all to expand Canadian trade into Asian economies. The whole point was to diversify our markets and reduce our reliance on the United States. But none of it has worked out like we were told. We’ve been hooped.

Ten years and $20-billion later, it’s all China, all the time. China plays by its own trade rules and everybody’s let them get away with it. The result is that in 10 years the annual value of Canadian exports to Japan hasn’t budged, and last year, as a destination for Canadian exports, India (the largest country on Earth) was overtaken by Norway. As a Canadian trading partner, Taiwan is now down there with Algeria.

Canada’s collective $20-billion Pacific “gateway” investments have ended up transforming Canada’s West Coast transportation infrastructure into the portal that has enabled Beijing to flood North American markets with goods manufactured in sweatshops where they’ll chuck you in prison if you even wonder aloud what it might be like to belong to an independent labour union. As for free elections or political parties, don’t you dare even think about it.

 

The HarperCons are going against everything Canada has stood for in the global community.  As the headline writer at the Times Colonist points out, “Oil policy [is] turning good guy Canada into global bad boy.”

And we, who dare challenge their edicts are enemies of the state.  Can you say fascism?

2 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on January 30, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Alberta Tar Sands, Canada, China, environment, First Nations, oil & gas, racism, Stephen Harper
Tagged , ,

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on January 30, 2012

https://thereginamom.com/2012/01/30/canadas-enemygate-open-for-questionable-business/

Catching Up on Pipeline News and Actions

the regina mom has many links open in her browser window right now so this post could get long.  Each relates to the Northern Gateway pipeline.  The story, obviously, has legs and is running hard.  There’s this bit about the HarperCons determining that there are two types in Canada, those who are allies and those who are threats.  CBC covers the story, as well, going more in depth about the HarperCon strategy to make the tarsands look good to Europeans:

The strategy plan contains a chart where it lists its targets, influencers, allies and adversaries. First Nations are characterized as influencers, along with energy companies, academics and think tanks, and media and government.

Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Indian and Northern Affairs and the Privy Council Office, CAPP, and energy industry associations are all listed as allies while European NGOs, media and competing industries are listed as “adversaries.”

Environmental NGOs and aboriginal groups are identified as Canadian adversaries.

The documents released by Greenpeace are reproduced here.

It appears the HarperCons have decided that some organizations are threats.  In an Affadavit, former ForestEthics employee Andrew Frank describes what he learned about the Prime Minister’s Office threat to cut funding for their funder, Tides Canada, because of ForestEthic’s work around the proposed pipeline project. The co-founder of ForestEthics has corroborated Frank’s story and a campaign to get to the truth of the matter, Canadians Want the Truth, and We’re Going To Get It,  has begun on the popular “Causes” site. Please join it.

The revelation by Frank is simply confirmation that Harper’s bullying tactics continue.  As this Globe & Mail headline says, the “Environmentalist’s departure sheds light on tension felt by green groups.”

The departure of Mr. Frank reflects the fear that has been created among environmental groups nervous about federal scrutiny of their practices.

One of the groups that has received the most attention is Tides Canada, a wide-reaching foundation that supports nearly 40 organizations, including ForestEthics, an environmental organization with roots in the mid-1990s fight against clear-cut logging.

John Bennet, Executive Director of Sierra Club Canada, says it’s “a scary time for Canadian democracy”

Bennett says it calls Canada’s whole history of public debate into question—before now, he says citizens could expect the government to listen to the opposing views on a subject before making a decision.

“Instead, what we have is a government that makes ideological decisions and then goes out and attempts to stifle public debate. So this is a scary time for Canadian democracy,” said Bennett.

His fear is that the HarperCons are trying to create a justification for shutting down the National Energy Board hearings and ram through the pipeline.  It’s a realistic concern.

Carol Linnit at deSmog blog concurs:

But the hearings are built to fail. The National Energy Board (NEB), the federal body tasked with overseeing the Enbridge hearing, issued a general directive one year ago designed to exclude input from prominent environmental groups critical of the astonishingly rapid expansion of the tar sands – an expansion that only stands to increase with the proposed pipeline.

According to the NEB, information regarding the cumulative environmental impacts of the tar sands – including climate change impacts – is irrelevant to the hearing, which is intended to consider information regarding the pipeline alone.

And that’s just plain stupid!  The tarsands are directly tied to the pipeline project.  The Northern Gateway Pipeline proposal wouldn’t exist otherwise.  Even Enbridge says so!  Oh, go read the deSmog blog post in its entirety!

The economics of the project is also under question because it not only jeopardizes the environment with continued tarsands expansion but also the future of Canada’s energy security.  (trm previously made mention of the report, The Northern Gateway Pipeline: An Affront to the Public Interest and Long Term Energy Security of Canadians by David Hughes.) It is worth looking at this piece, too.

Hughes argues that such unprecedented growth is impossible given the enormous social and environmental impacts already evident from a decade of oilsands expansion.

In the event that such a high rate of expansion is achieved, it will mean that Canada will export billions of barrels of it highest quality bitumen to Asia at a time when we are running out of conventional oil, he says in his report on the pipeline.

Huge tankers filled with bitumen, an extremely corrosive substance will navigate a dangerous body of water, the Hecate Strait.  Hecate was the goddess of the underworld, of death, and the strait is named for her.  Do you think it might be named that for a reason?  So, the tankers issue is a big one for those along the BC coastline, and it should be for us all.  One spill and pfft!  We will a mess that will never be entirely cleaned up.  Take a look at this.  Then go here and sign the petition.  As many have already stated, a spill is a mathematical certainty.   Read this.

1. A rupture of the Enbridge is inevitable. We must stop calling these ruptures “risks” — they are mathematical certainties. The consequences will be calamitous.

2. A tanker catastrophe is also a certainty and the consequences unthinkable.

3. There is no way these “accidents” can be effectively managed.

And the economics of expanding the tarsands just don’t make sense when the real costs of carbon expansion are added in.  How can we ignore the environmental costs when we know a spill will happen, when mathematics tells us one will happen?  And then there’s the carbon costs, to boot!

The proposed Enbridge pipeline across B.C. would open the door for more than a billion additional tonnes of carbon to be pulled out of the tar sands and vaporized into our climate system. Whether this carbon is vaporized from a pipeline accident […] or when burned later in China, the resulting climate pollution would be the same.

Estimates of the economic damages caused by this climate pollution range from tens of billions to hundreds of billions of dollars.

Every tonne of CO2 that humans spill into the atmosphere further destabilizes our climate and acidifies our oceans. These changes cost human society, both now and into the future. Economists call the economic damages from these changes the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC).

A recent survey published by the Canadian think tank Sustainable Prosperity looked at over two hundred estimates of the Social Cost of Carbon by economists worldwide. The middle third of estimates ranged from $6 to $27 in economic damages per tonne of CO2. The mathematical mean was $42 per tonne. Ten percent of these estimates topped $95 per tonne. Environment Canada estimated $27 a few years ago. The UK government’s famous Stern Review on climate change used $25. This is similar to the current BC Carbon Tax rate of $25 that Gordon Campbell’s government legislated for BC residents and businesses. (Note: all monetary values in this article are in 2011 dollars).

Applying these values to the 8.5 billion barrels of tar sands that the proposed Enbridge “Northern Gateway Pipeline to our Atmosphere” could pump out, yields economic damages ranging from $28 billion to over $400 billion.

All this is to say that we need the world to stand up to Stephen Harper.  We need the world to Boycott Canada.

4 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on January 27, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Alberta Tar Sands, Canada, economics, environment, First Nations, oil & gas, Stephen Harper
Tagged

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on January 27, 2012

https://thereginamom.com/2012/01/27/catching-up-on-pipeline-news-and-actions/

On Ending Colonialism OR One Reason Why the Northern Gateway Pipeline Must Never Proceed

In light of the upcoming Crown-First Nations Gathering scheduled for this week — the one from which our Prime Minister will be “ducking out early” — trm thought it prudent to review some basics on Canada’s relationship with her First Peoples.  Harper’s planned early exit, the crisis at Attawapiskat and other First Nations communities, as well as the threat to Coastal First Nations in BC as posed by the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline add to the urgency of trm‘s review, despite the fact that those items are not on the ever-changing Agenda for the gathering.

An Unhealthy Relationship Between the Canadian State and Her Indigenous Peoples

The Indigenous Peoples Solidary Movement Ottawa (IPSMO) provide an excellent case study of Canada’s continued colonial and genocidal policies, the overt and covert racism, and the ongoing dishonouring of the Crown Treaties and Agreements in the case of Attawapiskat.

Since a state of emergency was declared…, instead of receiving immediate supports from both the federal and provincial governments, the community has received:

  • Jurisdictional wrangling between the federal government and Ontario on who should be responsible for the emergency, who should pay for the needs of the people
  • Blaming from the feds on their financial mismanagement, which isn’t true
  • Punishment with third-party management
  • Red tape & bureaucracy in order to have their state of emergency recognized and needed funds allocated

Of course, this isn’t anything new to our First Peoples.

Completely Unnecessary Surveillance of First Peoples

The case by IPSMO and the film, Canada:  Apartheid Nation (which trm will examine in an upcoming post), both reference Dr. Cindy Blackstock, the Executive Director of First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada.  Dr. Blackstock, a tireless advocate for First Nations children who speaking frequently at meetings and conferences across the nation and beyond is someone who sees the inequities and peacefully responds.  Yet, she has been subject to routine surveillance by the federal Aboriginal Affairs department.

Again, this is nothing new to First Peoples.  Dr. Pamela D. Palmater is a Mi’kmaw lawyer, member of the Eel River Bar First Nation in New Brunswick, professor of Indigenous law, politics and governance and head of the Centre for Indigenous Studies at Ryerson University and another peaceful advocate for equality.  In her Indigenous Nationhood blog at rabble.ca she reveals that the surveillance of Dr. Blackstock led her to file Freedom of Information request on her own activities.  Not surprisingly, there is at least one file on her.  It leads her to wonder, then, given the heartful nature of Cindy Blackstock’s work and her own peaceful activities, “[W]hat First Nation activities are NOT considered a potential threat to Canada?”  It’s a valid question, I would think.  Perhaps it is something you could ask your Member of Parliament.

The Road to Change:  Ending Colonial Practices and State Dependency

In “Colonialism and State Dependency“, as published by the Journal of Aboriginal Health V5, I2, Dr. Gerald Taiaiake Alfred of the University of Victoria’s School of Indigeous Governance explains “the fundamental roots of the psychophysical crises and dependency of First Nations upon the state.”  He examines “the effect of colonially-generated cultural disruptions that compound the effects of dispossession to create near total psychological, physical and financial dependency on the state” and “identifies a direct relationship between government laws and policies applied to Indigenous peoples and the myriad mental and physical health problems and economic deprivations.” He shows that,

Political and social institutions, such as band councils and government-funded service agencies that govern and influence life in First Nations today, have been for the most part shaped and organized to serve the interests of the Canadian state. Their structures, responsibilities, and authorities conform to the interests of Canadian governments, just as their sources of legitimacy are found in Canadian laws, not in First Nations interests or laws. These institutions are inappropriate foci for either planning or leading the cause of indigenous survival and regeneration. Reconfiguring First Nations politics and replacing current strategies, institutions and leadership structures with those rooted in and drawing legitimacy from indigenous cultures is necessary for creating renewed environments capable of supporting indigenous ways of being. Transformations begin inside each person, but decolonization starts becoming a reality when people collectively and consciously reject colonial identities and institutions that are the context of violence, dependency and discord in indigenous communities. (Emphasis mine)

His work provides detailed recommendations for change, references the work of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.  Ultimately, he says,

It is the use and occupation of lands within traditional territories, economic uses, re-establishing residences, seasonal/cyclical ceremonial use, and occupancy by families Colonialism and State Dependency and larger clan groups that will allow First Nations to rebuild their communities and reorient their cultures.

The Role of Settler Society

If we of “settler society” do not make significant changes in our personal and public lives, if we do not stand with our Indigenous Peoples to challenge our racist and colonialist governments and institutions, then we are an enormous part of the problem.  Saying and doing nothing is akin to condoning the actions of our governments, of saying yes to ongoing racism and colonialism, of perpetuating the cycles of abuse towards our First Nations peoples by our governments at all levels.  As such, each of us can challenge our internalized racism, speak out against racism in our families and communities and, on a larger scale, do our utmost to ensure that the HarperCon’s pet project, the Northern Gateway Pipeline, is a #fail.  Doing otherwise is a disservice to not only our First Peoples but also to ourselves for we are all Treaty People.

3 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on January 22, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in activism, Alberta Tar Sands, Canada, environment, First Nations, racism, Stephen Harper
Tagged , , , ,

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on January 22, 2012

https://thereginamom.com/2012/01/22/on-ending-colonialism-or-one-reason-why-the-northern-gateway-pipeline-must-never-proceed/

Round-up Ready Radicals*

I was rather charged up by the Joe (McCarthy) Oliver letter last week.  Though I don’t define myself as radical, I know some do simply because I think about and act on issues.  To me that’s engaged citizenship; to them it’s radicalism.  Says a lot about our society, doesn’t it?  Citizens become engaged and they are dismissed, written off, red-baited by their families, communities and elected officials.  Isn’t that what fascism is about, creating an Other to despise?  Would they rather I park my brain and my butt and remain silent until there is no one left to speak?

I don’t do that kind of silence.  I do love the silence of nature, which is never really silent, and the silence of meditation, which is also never really silent.  But instead of being silent on this issue of national importance, I’m going to own the radicalism with which I’ve been pegged and pass along a list of links which deepen and further the dialogue the Minister of Natural Resources has begun.

First, an article by Andrew Nikiforuk, the man who has been on the trail of the Big Oil and Gas boys for a long time.  In this piece, he offers important bits and pieces from a 30-page report on the Northern Gateway Pipeline proposal by J. David Hughes.  One observation Nikiforuk makes:

Hughes’ damning report also posits a simple question that Canada’s media routinely neglects: why does the Canadian government support a proposal to export oil to China when nearly half the country (Quebec and Atlantic Canada) is nearly 100 per cent dependent on declining or volatile reserves from the North Sea and the Middle East? (The study was funded by the author and by Forest Ethics with intervenor money for the Gateway hearing provided by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.)

Both the article and the report are well worth the read.

If you haven’t already read the connect-the-dots piece at desmogblog, you really must.  It exposes the interconnections among the ethical oil (sic) folks, the oil moneymen and the Prime Minister’s Office in one fell swoop.  Follow that up with a look at the work of the good folks at Pacific Free Press and with a very detailed look at ISPs and web developers and media managers connected to the aforementioned groups by the folks at deep climate.  It’s excellent research which, I think, warrants further investigation, perhaps by the authorities.

Finally, take a boo at what the Common Sense Canadian has to say about the recent appointment of a former HarperCon insider to the Christy Clarke inner circle in BC.  In Clark, Harper, Enbridge Taking Suicidal Risks With BC’s Future CSC says:

I don’t want to deal with economics here but simply the wilderness of the province of British Columbia.

We must understand that Enbridge has an unbelievably bad track record. Since 2002 their American subsidiaries alone racked up 170 leaks, and the company itself had a staggering 610 leaks from 1999-2008, including a 2007 explosion in Minnesota that killed two men and brought it $2.4 million in fines – this in addition to a 2003 gas pipeline explosion that killed 7 in Ontario. More recently there is the Kalamazoo River spill in July 2010 which will never be cleaned up.

I leave it thusly:

Is there any set of circumstances, other than an assurance of God Himself, under which you would approve any pipeline going through our precious wilderness?

As I’ve said elsewhere, this pipeline will go ahead over my dead body.

 

—–

* With thanks to Dave at The Galloping Beaver for inspiring the title of this post.  Are we all round-up ready now?

 

11 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on January 14, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Alberta Tar Sands, Canada, ethical oil, First Nations, Stephen Harper, The North
Tagged ,

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on January 14, 2012

https://thereginamom.com/2012/01/14/round-up-ready-radicals/

Ethical Oil? Puhleeze!

I just finished watching Inside Politics with Evan Solomon.  In this episode, he’s speaking with John Bennett of the Sierra Club and Kathryn Marshall of Ethical (sic) Oil.  I turned off the player about 8 minutes in.  Ms. Marshall was too much for me.  And I mean it. Too.  Much.  Arrogant.  Rude.  Repetitive.  As one Facebook commenter said, Clearly, she’s built so that when you pull the string that comes out of her back she says either “We’re a grassroots organization” or “This is a about foreign money.”  Talk about puppets, eh?

Interestingly, the Ottawa Citizen today revealed that Ethical Oil dial-a-quote Kathryn Marshall is married to Hamish Marshall, Harper’s former strategic planning manager.  Those rightwingers are very interconnected.  For a better rundown on that, check out this post at deepclimate.org.

Another interconnection came to my attention as I prepared this blogpost.  Former Conservative MP and Cabinet Minister, David Emerson, is currently employed by the Chinese government.  He’s working for the China Investment Corporation which, according to Reuters, purchased a 45 percent stake in oil sands properties near Peace River, Alberta … for $801 million about a year ago.  The Ottawa Citizen has more on all that.

A post over at Creekside the other day inspired me to do a bit of research on those corporations which have invested in the tarsands project.  It’s not pretty.  Their ethics are questionable, to say the least.  Their involvement in human rights abuses, the illegal arms trade and ecological destruction around the globe have been documented.  Check them out from the links below and then send a message to your MP, asking why Canada is open to doing business with these corporations:

Daewoo International
BP Canada
Total SA
Exxon Mobil Oil
Koch Industries
Sinopec

2 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on January 12, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Alberta Tar Sands, Canada, environment, ethical oil, Stephen Harper
Tagged , , , ,

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on January 12, 2012

https://thereginamom.com/2012/01/12/ethical-oil-puhleeze/

My salute to Joe Oliver

This  one’s for you, Joe Oliver, Harper Government(tm) Minister of the Environment

an image of a hand with the middle finger raised

for your determination to kill Canada’s pristine wilderness

 

1 Comment
by Bernadette Wagner on January 10, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in activism, Alberta Tar Sands, Canada, Stephen Harper
Tagged , ,

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on January 10, 2012

https://thereginamom.com/2012/01/10/my-salute-to-joe-oliver/

Shame on Canada! Shame on us all!

Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan tells an outright lie in this chance encounter on the stairs at the CBC. As if that is not bad enough, the Minister goes on to blame the MP for that area, Charlie Angus, for not informing him of the issue!  Those who follow politics, particularly the issues of First Nations communities and human rights issues, know that Charlie Angus is the guy who’s been working his ass off on this file for YEARS!

A quick search of the Google News archives reveals almost 100 instances of Mr. Angus speaking about the situation at Attawapiskat!  This includes a Hamilton Spectator story from 2005 where Mr. Angus references issues with Indian Affairs’ “boxing in” the people of Attawapiskat. And, in the scrum, Mr. Angus rattles off several instances of his attention on the growing crisis, going back to 2007.

I think Charlie is right.  This is a “willful, hard-working level of incompetence” leading to deaths, by the Government of Canada and, thereby, the People of Canada.  Shame on us for allowing this institutionalized racism to carry on for far too long!

11 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on December 1, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Canada, First Nations, racism, Stephen Harper
Tagged ,

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on December 1, 2011

https://thereginamom.com/2011/12/01/shame-on-canada-shame-on-us-all/

thereginamom dot com

the regina mom feels wealthy these days. She was fortunate enough to be a recipient of an Emerging Artists Award from the Canada Council for the Arts last spring.  There’s no scramble for contract work and there’s a bit of extra money around her house.  So she got her hubby to blow twenty bucks on the thereginamom.com domain name.  And when the rewrite of the children’s literature manuscript is completed — which had better be soon because the end of the grant period is fast approaching — thereginamom.com will get a makeover.

the regina mom has spent some time over the past few months writing and contemplating her writing life.  Blogging is one place where various pieces of her life weave together.  So she’s looking forward to again crafting blogposts.

Be forewarned, dear Reader, the regina mom likes Niki Ashton.

Later today, Niki Ashton, the Member of Parliament for Churchill, will announce her candidacy for the Leadership of the New Democratic Party of Canada!  It’d be great to have a woman from one of the Prairie provinces as Leader of the NDP — as the next Prime Minister of Canada!

Niki’s from northern Manitoba.  Take a Northern woman from a Prairie province to the House of Commons and you’ll see more than a little bit of Amazing!   Niki has demonstrated that time and again and could do it in one of four or five languages.  Unafraid of standing up to speak Truth to Power, Niki Ashton has risen in the House to challenge the Harper regime on important issues such as healthcare and housing, infrastructure and transportation, education and economic development, support for residential school survivors and the North and its People.  American film-maker, Michael Moore, noticed her work.  As did The Huffington Post.

So, ya.  A Northern woman from a Prairie province!  Niki Ashton is sure to make the NDP Leadership race an interesting one!  the regina mom is watching.

5 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on November 7, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in activism, Canada, feminism, First Nations, homophobia, NDP, Niki Ashton, Stephen Harper, The North, youth
Tagged , , ,

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on November 7, 2011

https://thereginamom.com/2011/11/07/thereginamomdotcom/

Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s Racist Campaign?

This landed in my inbox today and I thought it best to share it out.  Please note that in no way do I or have I ever supported the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

 

Dear Supporter:

How do you feel about a politician from a Native reserve of 304 people receiving a $978,468 tax free salary?  BTW … that’s equivalent to $1.8-million if they lived off-reserve and paid taxes.

Or what about a reserve politician from a community of 615 making $567,935 tax free?

If those true stories of tax dollars being spent wildly on reserves makes you sick to your stomach, then take note of the cure: Bill C-575.

It’s a private members bill in Ottawa right now that aims to give the federal government the legal authority to place reserve politicians’ salaries on the internet each year. That would bring reserve politicians in-line with all other politicians in the country who have to disclose their pay to taxpayers.

Bill C-575 was in response to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation helping band members blow the whistle on case after case of reserve politicians living high on the hog while their people suffered.

The CTF has learned that over 600 Native politicians in Canada are earning a taxable equivalent of over $100,000 to govern average reserve populations of 1,142 – yet the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs does not have the legal authority to release the names.

Bill C-575 – supported by the government – would change that.  But in order for it to pass, it must be supported by Opposition MPs.  Currently, NDP Leader Jack Layton and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff are opposed to these salaries being disclosed. Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe has yet to declare a position.

We need to send them a message:  let Natives and non-Natives see how tax dollars are being spent on reserves.  The status quo is unacceptable. Pass Bill C-575.

  1. Sign our petition and forward it to your contact list
  2. Contact Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton, and Gilles Duceppe directly

You may hear non-sense excuses about privacy matters and other gobbledygook, but at the end of the day, we’re talking about public funds – salaries should be made public, especially when those dollars are supposed to be helping on-reserve citizens.

Let’s make this happen!

— Colin, Courtenay, Troy and the rest of the CTF team

PS: The only reason that wasteful spending like this comes to light is because of your donation. If you like what the CTF is doing to blow the whistle on abuse of your tax dollars, please consider making a donation.

6 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on November 23, 2010  •  Permalink
Posted in Canada, racism

Posted by Bernadette Wagner on November 23, 2010

https://thereginamom.com/2010/11/23/canadian-taxpayers-federations-racist-campaign/

Col. Williams: Other questions lurk

The horrific crimes perpetrated by Canadian Forces‘ Colonel, Russell Williams, have forced those of us who’d rather not, to look at disturbing images which were presented as evidence in the courtroom.  You won’t find a link to those images here.  Why the media insists these images are publishable news, that this is a story of fetishism, is beyond me!  It’s sensationalist journalism, at best.  At worst, it’s abuse of the privilege and power afforded to the corporate media in this culture.   The media grabbed onto the wrong narrative.

As feminist blogger and activist, Elizabeth Pickett, points out, this story is about power and control, about the predatory behaviour of a decorated Colonel.  And the media has failed — royally — to tell that story.  Instead, they give several column inches to the Prime Minister’s defense of the Canadian Forces, where he named the Forces as victim.  Oh, yes, he did mention the direct victims, but only as an afterthought.  See what Dave, at the Galloping Beaver has to say about that!  Harper’s spin simply shows him for the misogynist he truly is.

As despicable as the PM is the police force that did not believe the crimes several female victims reported, that did not warn women that a perp was on the loose, and that took far too long to solve the case.  Antonia Zerbisias has been on the story from the get-go.  And she has been in recent conversation with one of the assault survivors who said:

I feel liked chopped liver & I can’t even comprehend how the little one is feeling. Now if I could get a message out to the masses it would be-if you survive a violent act of sex don’t report it, just run for cover & find your own protection minus the police & the system they represent.

Says a lot in a couple of sentences, doesn’t she?  The police force should be apologizing, rather than patting themselves on the back!  Their job was not well done.  Far from it!  One mainstream journalist at the Toronto Star finally got that part figured out:

Col. Russell Williams is a burglar, predator, rapist, torturer and killer. There’s nothing titillating about that and his crimes shouldn’t be viewed through the distorting prism of Tweety Bird underwear, lacy lingerie and puerile voyeurism. (Emphasis mine)

In a Facebook discussion, a friend posed another question.  Colonel Williams served our country in different parts of the world.  Predators do not become predators overnight.  Predatory behavior escalates.  So, are there women in other parts of the world who were violated by him?  Will we ever know?  Will anyone ever look?  Or, is that information already there, labeled classified, and hidden from the citizenry in the name of national security?  Could the Forces be a co-conspirator to these crimes?

So, there you go, MSM, we’ve done your thinking for you.  Now, will you dare to seek out the answers?

http://thegallopingbeaver.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-dare-you-you-mealy-mouthed-pencil.html
6 Comments
by Bernadette Wagner on October 23, 2010  •  Permalink
Posted in abusive behaviour, Canada, sexual assault, Stephen Harper, women
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Posted by Bernadette Wagner on October 23, 2010

https://thereginamom.com/2010/10/23/col-williams-other-questions-lurk/

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