MARK HUME VANCOUVER — THE GLOBE AND MAIL The Information Commissioner of Canada is being asked to launch a formal investigation into the federal government’s policy of controlling media access to scientists. The government has been under fire from a number of groups over the past few years for refusing to give
Washington is right: Canada must confront its climate neglect
TZERPORAH BERMAN Globe and Mail This article is signed by Tzeporah Berman, an environmental author and co-founder of ForestEthics; Sarah Winterton, acting Executive Director of Evironmental Defence; Steven Guilbeault, deputy director of Equiterre, and Ben West, oil-sands campaign director of ForestEthics Advocacy. U.S. President Barack Obama, through his ambassador to Canada, has every
Oilsands tailings leaking into groundwater, Joe Oliver told in memo
BY MIKE DE SOUZA, POSTMEDIA NEWS OTTAWA — Tailings ponds from oilsands production are leaking and contaminating Alberta’s groundwater, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver was told in an internal memo obtained by Postmedia News. The memo, released through access to information legislation, said that federal government scientists, including Quebec City-based research geoscientist Martine Savard, had
Senator Patrick Brazeau crashes after years of boorish behaviour: Tim Harper
It’s not 20-20 hindsight to say we all saw the Patrick Brazeau crash coming. The question is why Stephen Harper made him a Senator in the first place. Tim Harper Toronto Star Patrick Brazeau awoke one morning just before Christmas in 2008 to the news that he had won the lottery. Thursday, he
New policy gives government power to muzzle DFO scientists
By Michael Harris iPolitics “Everything has a crack in it; that’s how the light gets in.” Leonard Cohen, take a bow. Another crack has appeared in the Harper government’s surreptitious but merciless war to muzzle Canadian scientists — and just about everyone else. The light entering through this particular crack shines on a disturbing
Environment commissioner’s farewell audit screams the obvious: Tim Harper
Tim Harper Toronto Star Scott Vaughan, in his final report as environmental commissioner, calls for an “environmental boom” to match our “resources boom.” Kevin Page is taking on folk hero status in some quarters, Sheila Fraser flirted with sainthood and Michael Ferguson has already made his mark on the proposed F-35
Canada’s environmental protections lagging B.C. resource development, audit finds
BY PETER O’NEIL, VANCOUVER SUN OTTAWA – There are “serious questions” about the Harper government’s effort to ensure environmental laws and public health protection are keeping pace with the booming natural gas “fracking” sector in B.C. and with the plan to massively expand oilsand crude exports via supertankers from the West Coast, Canada’s
Harper gov’t presses on with aboriginal strategy
Postmedia News Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended his government’s aboriginal policies for a second straight day in question period as opposition leaders grilled him on the issue. Public criticism has focused on the Conservatives’ two omnibus budget bills, which have already become law. But a few of pieces of legislation are still before
How Ottawa keeps scientists on message
BY MARGARET MUNRO POSTMEDIA NEWS At first, a top Environment Canada official seemed game to discuss “unmuzzling” government scientists during an international science conference earlier this year. “I would be very interested in participating,” Karen Dodds, an assistant deputy minister, said by email to colleagues when she received an invitation to sit on
‘Smoking Gun’ Research Reveals Tar Sands Cancer Legacy
By Andy Rowell Oil Change International Chief Theresa Spence is entering what is hopefully her last week of a hunger strike. The Canadian indigenous leader, and public face for many of the Idle No More movement, has said she will finish her fast on Friday when she meets Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The Attawapiskat First Nation Chief
Canada’s Indigenous-Rights Revolution: Idle No More
by Hannah Siobhan Forman, bitchmagazine.org First Nations Attawapiskat Chief Teresa Spence has been on a hunger strike for an entire month. Apparently, this is what it takes in Canada these days to get attention from the country’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who continues to treat the chief’s desperate measure with chilly indifference. Chief Spence refuses
First Nations audit of Federal Government reveals billions in mismanaged funds
The Beaverton OTTAWA – The Canadian Government has been mismanaging funds for over 140 years according to a damaging audit commissioned by the First Nations released this morning. The audit, conducted by a private auditing firm, says the Canadian Government had difficulty maintaining satisfactory records, and cited numerous examples of questionable spending practices
Canadian PM to meet First Nations leaders after protests
Idle No More movement began as campaign by four women against changes to Indian Act and environmental deregulation Isabeau Doucet The Guardian The Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, has agreed to a meeting with First Nations leaders following indigenous protests sparked by a hunger strike. Since 10 December there have been road
Diversity is resiliency
BY DANIEL WILSON rabble.ca Those who want Indigenous people to lose this fight will tell you that we have to have only one leader for the others to talk with, one issue to talk about, and one solution. They are wrong. What began as a teach-in morphed over just a few weeks into a
Canada’s indigenous movement gains momentum
Inside Story Americas www.aljazeera.com Are the country’s First Nations groups being denied their rights and being targeted by the government? “The movement’s really been in play for a long time … but the kind of spark was this legislative initiative by the Harper government which started with Bill C-45
