Rally to Defend our Democracy.

Prime Minister Harper is trying to ram his Omnibus Budget Bill through Parliament this week. Opposition MPs are doing everything in their power to stop it, and more and more Conservative politicians are speaking out against the anti-democratic bill.

Send an urgent message to all the Conservative MPs in your province, calling on them to be one of the 13 heroes we need to stand up to Harper and defend our democracy.

Just 13 Conservative MPs can stop this Budget Bill, split it apart and start over, by simply telling Prime Minister Harper that they would deny him the majority of votes he needs to pass it.

http://www.leadnow.ca/13heroes

These MPs are isolated in a government that keeps them in the dark and discourages them from representing our voices. We need a strong show of support for principled, honest action now to give our MPs the courage they need.

The Budget Bill is becoming a symbol of the struggle to defend Canadian democracy. Many Conservative MPs have deep concerns about the bill. Now they face a real choice: will they allow this reckless bill to pass, or will they stand up to Harper and defend our democracy?

Voting on the bill starts in Parliament this week. We need your help to create a massive public outcry right now, and flood Conservative MP offices with thousands of messages calling on them to defend our democracy and stop the Budget Bill:


Click here to send an urgent message direct to the Conservative MP constituency offices in your province, calling on them to be one of the 13 heroes we need to stop this bill:

From flooding Conservative MPs with pro-democracy messages, to amplifying opposition to this bill in the media, to rallying at MP offices on Wednesday night, we have a real opportunity to bring Canadians together, from across the political spectrum, to stand up to Harper and his Ministers.

Locally citizens of all political stripes will again be gathering outside Larry Miller's Office in Owen Sound to defend our democracy. Please join in on Wed  13 June at 5:30 pm - (1131 2nd Avenue East, Suite 208, Owen Sound ON, N4K 2J1)

Shooting the Messenger

So our local Federal 'Representative' one Larry I'm Not Starving Miller thinks that Canada should withdraw from the U.N. because they say that 800,000 Canadian households are "food insecure," meaning they can't afford to feed themselves properly. "Food banks that depend on charity are not a solution: they are a symptom of failing social safety nets that the Government must address," Given that the Food bank in Owen Sound supports over 600 people each month and that this represents only a small part of the Grey Bruce riding one would think that he would instead be pushing his colleagues to protect social support instead of cutting such systems. But then most of the social support funding comes from either provincial coffers, municipal funding or from individual donations so its 'not his problem', the high unemployment rates, the changes to EI which will make it more difficult for said unemployed to feed their families, the cuts to youth employment programs and so on have no bearing on such problems. (that’s sarcasm folks)

It is clear that Mr Miller is fully in the clutches of the Conservative mind set which says that any organization or individual that disagrees with them must be withdrawn from, dismissed, defunded, investigated or otherwise insulted, ....be it a highly respected environmental organization or a world wide assembly of nations. Facts are such an inconvenience when you are trying to 'con' the voters into thinking you are the greatest regime since..........

Here are a few figures for you Mr Miller, we know your salary, try renting an apartment and feeding your family on a fraction of that. Nearly 10% of FAMILIES bring home less than $25,000. One final note before I move on, the report also says that “Since the mid-1980s, annual hours of low-wage workers fell from 1300 to 1100 hours. Those figures are Canada averages from 2007, I suspect it is much worse now and our rural area is even more challenged with low income.

The UN may not be perfect but at least they are trying to get the facts and have a conversation about such things and not wearing blinkers that only allow a narrow ideological view. Time to remove the blinkers Mr Miller.

For a slightly less restrained point of view see http://blunt-objects.blogspot.ca/2012/06/larry-miller-idiot.html

Killing Environmental Science

There has been no announcement of the devastating decision to stop studying the natural world, but the evidence is piling up that such a decision has been taken.
It is no secret that Stephen Harper is uninterested in science.  One of his first decisions was to unburden himself of the Science Advisor to the Prime Minister. Dr. Arthur Carty held the position when Harper came to power.  When his term ended, it was not continued, and the position dissolved.
Cuts to climate science have been clear for more than a year.  March 2012 marked the end of all funding, put in place in 2000 under Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien, for the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences. The Harper Conservatives announced last year there was no intention to continue the programme.  $110 million over ten years for autonomous research funding in Canada’s major universities has been spent expanding our understanding of the climate crisis in its multi-faceted disciplines of inquiry. There will be no more federal funding.
Also last year, cuts in Environment Canada seemed directed to anything with the word climate attached.  The entire group of term scientists working on research for adaptation to climate change, calculating the required changes in building codes, for example, to handle the altered climate, were laid off.  The entire Adaptation to Climate Change Research Group was disbanded. So too was the group within Natural Resources Canada maintaining work on Arctic ice cores.  An 80,000 year climate record in ice cores is to be abandoned (the minister said he hoped a university with a big freezer would take them) And the nine glaciologists who did the work are to focus on other issues.
This year, the cuts are coming thick and fast. Climate is still a target, but so also are water quality and toxicology.
The PEARL facility (the Polar Environmental and Atmospheric Research Laboratory) on Ellesemere Island is to close.  Recent investments of $10 million on state of the art equipment is to be wasted.  At 80 degrees north latitude, PEARL was the closest lab on the planet to the North Pole.  Running costs are only $1.5 million annually, but, despite having $8 million to enhance Canada Revenue Agency’s ability to audit environmental groups, there is no money to maintain critical research.  The world’s scientific community is stunned.  The loss of measurements from PEARL increase the risk that we are flying blind into climate change.
Then came the announcement that the Experimental Lakes Area near Kenora, Ontario is to close.  This facility is unique in the world.  Fifty-eight fresh water lakes 250 kilometres east of Winnipeg have been the testing ground for freshwater science research since the late 1960s.  Ground-breaking work on acid rain, the link between phosphates in detergents and eutrophication, the connection between higher UV levels and penetration at depths, with the additional factor of climate change – all of these findings were made possible because the Government of Canada maintained this real world laboratory of fresh water wilderness lakes.  Just a few years ago, when Stephen Harper was already Prime Minister, $3 million in new investments were made to upgrade the labs. The running cost per year? $600,000. In the House last Friday, the Parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Fisheries announced that it will be sold to private interests.
Next up, cuts at NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) mean that the Yukon Research Lab at Yukon College in Whitehorse is also to close.  The $2.7 million facility only opened last fall – October 2011. But the Harper 2012 budget calls for NSERC to re-focus on research that is “business-led and industry-relevant.”  So much for studying the Yukon’s changing environment.
Then there are the personnel cuts.  The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is ending its national contaminants programme. Nearly all of the DFO scientists studying marine toxicology across Canada are being laid off – 75 scientists. That includes nine marine biologists specializing in marine toxicology in the Institute for Ocean Sciences on the West Saanich Road. According to Dr. Peter Ross, recently dismissed from IOS, “The entire pollution file for the government of Canada, and marine environment in Canada’s three oceans, will be overseen by five junior biologists scattered across Canada – one of which will be in BC.”  (quoted in Times Colonist, “Ottawa sinks pollution checks,” May 20, 2012)
We do not know where the axe will fall next. The cuts are secretive and un-announced.  We learn of them one blow at a time. At the same time as we cut climate science, we are driving up greenhouse gas emissions.  As we shut down research into the effects of toxic chemicals in Arctic marine mammals, the federal government has opened up a huge area of the Beaufort Sea for leases for oil drilling.
What is clear is that the cuts are not about fighting the deficit. If you have to lay off a certain amount of staff in deficit cutting, the priority is to keep key programmes functional – to maintain operations with less.  Setting out to render ourselves deaf, dumb and blind to the impact our resource-mad mania, called the Harper economic strategy, will visit on the natural world, and our own future, is so short-sighted that language is inadequate. Words fail.
Please help spread awareness of this anti-science agenda.  Write friends and family across Canada.  Demand the cuts be reversed.
Elizabeth May is the Leader of the Green Party of Canada and Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands
http://www.greenparty.ca/blogs/7/2012-06-01/killing-environmental-science
 

Lead Now - Rally against Omnibus Budget Bill.

Since the Harper Conservatives announced their Omnibus Budget, more and more Canadians are rallying against a bill that would put a black mark on our democracy. Now, we’re writing to invite you to join a national day of action at Conservative MP offices, and supporting locations across Canada, this Saturday, June 2nd.

Even some traditional Conservative allies are now saying that the Harper Conservatives have gone too far. Last week, David Wilks, a Conservative MP, told a small group of his constituents that he, and many other Conservative MPs, were deeply troubled by the Budget Bill and that he would consider voting against it if 12 of his colleagues, enough to stop the bill, stood with him.
It’s time to stand up. This Saturday, we’ll gather at Conservative MP offices and support locations across the country to bring Canadians together in opposition to a Bill that contains a sweeping agenda to remake Canadian society. And, we’ll shine a spotlight on the Conservative MPs who can stop the bill, split it apart and start over by inviting Canadians to help them make better laws.

Join Canadians at confirmed locations across the country, or sign up to host an action in your area.

Click here to search for an event near you.
...or view the events taking place across the country at http://blackmark.leadnow.ca

Locally citizens will be gathering on Saturday 2 June at 12:00 noon - outside Larry Miller's Office in Owen Sound (1131 2nd Avenue East, Suite 208, Owen Sound ON, N4K 2J1)

Entire Marine Pollution Monitoring Program Scrapped.

The entire Department of Fisheries and Oceans contaminants programme is being axed effective April Fool's Day.   In B.C. that means the entire staff of nine marine scientists and support staff are being canned.   Across Canada, this is the firing of almost all federal employees responsible for monitoring ocean pollution.

“The entire pollution file for the government of Canada, and marine environment in Canada’s three oceans, will be overseen by five junior biologists scattered across the country — one of which will be stationed in B.C.,” said environmental toxicologist Peter Ross., a expert on marine mammals, notably killer whales.

“I cannot think of another industrialized nation that has completely excised marine pollution from its radar,” Ross said. Hired as a research scientist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada in 1999, Ross was one of the nine employees who received a letter Thursday informing him his position will be “affected as your services may no longer be required due to a lack of work or discontinuance of a function.”

Any doubt that this was a targeted hit was dispelled, totally unintentionally, by a DFO spokesperson trying to polish this turd.

“Between the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, we have found $79.3 million of savings for Canadians primarily by adjusting our internal operations and administration,” said Melanie Carkner, a spokesperson for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, in an e-mail, Friday.

“To put the impact on employees in perspective, we will be removing about 400 positions from DFO’s 11,000-strong workforce. This works out to less than 2 per cent a year over three years.”

Okay Melanie, DFO needs to trim a paltry 2% of its workforce over the next two years, we get that.  And it starts by immediately axing the entire contaminants monitoring programme?    Sorry sweetie, that's a targeted hit and you made that obvious.

Thanks to The Mound of Sound for this one.

Morning Reality Check

The following is a copy of the news headlines from Ontario News Watch for Friday May 11 2012. If the content here does not bother you, make you wonder what kind of government we have, make you wonder what else the Harper Regime is hiding and generally make you want to go out and kill something then you are either brain dead or so brainwashed by the spin machine that you need therapy. Read it and weep!

PMO letter on Helena Guergis is released The letter that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office fired off to the federal ethics commissioner that triggered Helena Guergis’ political woes was a straightforward referral of allegations that “she promised to advance private business interests.

• NDP, Liberals preview tactics on budget bill
  The NDP and Liberals today outlined some of the tactics they are considering to pick apart the government's massive budget bill in the coming weeks, including more than 20 motions at committees to study the bill in detail.

• Conservatives stifling information flow on military spending: sources
  Under fire for bungling multibillion-dollar equipment programs, the Conservative government is clamping down on the information Canadians receive about military spending, declaring previously public documents as now secret and quietly awarding a $105-million contract for 13 new armoured vehicles, then claiming the deal was for transmission parts.

True cost of Libya mission was seven times gov't. estimate: documents Amid allegations the Conservative government intentionally lowballed the price of the F-35 stealth fighter project, newly released National Defence documents indicate the full cost of last year's Libya mission was nearly $350 million - seven times what Defence Minister Peter MacKay told Canadians it cost.

• Private member’s bills cut corners on lawmaking, say critics
  The federal Conservative government is shifting the way lawmaking is done. Private member’s bills — which get less legislative analysis or parliamentary debate than government bills — are the new black.

• Internet billing records point to single culprit in robocalls investigation
  A comparison of Rogers billing records shows that “Pierre Poutine” did not use a computer in the headquarters of a Guelph Conservative candidate to launch the election-day robocalls, casting doubt on the theory that the culprit could have been any of a number of campaign workers operating out of the office.

• Auditor-General's office to cut 60 jobs, reduce number of audits
  Senators on six committees are quizzing government officials on what legislation is trying to accomplish

Former foreign affairs minister Lawrence Cannon to become ambassador to France Prime Minister Stephen Harper is naming one-time Tory cabinet minister Lawrence Cannon to be Canada’s next ambassador to France.

• Foreign donors not flocking to Canadian environmental charities
  Tax returns filed to the Canada Revenue Agency show most of the foreign money that fills the coffers of Canadian charities does not go to the environmental groups now in Tory crosshairs.

Tories overrule officials to fund project of Baird's 'dear friend' Rabbi’s grant application failed to meet criteria - only 25 of 355 submissions passed - but still emerged as one of five approved for federal funding

Environmental Regulations Gutted

The following is from Elizabeth May's press release and highlights some of the concerns with the attack upon environmental regulations contained in the Budget. It is, as Ms May points out, clear that the Harper regime cares little about protecting our natural heritage but believes that commercial activities take precedence and that the Minister and Cabinet should have overriding authority in such matters.


OTTAWA – Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party and Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands, spent most of her afternoon reading the 420 pages of Bill C-38, An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 29, 2012 and other measures.
“Most of Bill C-38 has nothing to do with fiscal matters or what a budget is supposed to do.  Instead, it attacks environmental legislation, amending the Environmental Assessment Act, the Fisheries Act, the Species at Risk Act, and repealing the Kyoto Implementation Act, along with cancelling the National Round Table on Environment and Economy,” said May.
Putting all this in the Budget Implementation Act (Bill C-38) means that none of the environmental laws being changed will ever go to the Environment Committee or be examined by environmental experts.
“This should have been called the ‘we don’t care about the environment’ act,” said May.
The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) gets the biggest wallop.
CEAA is essentially repealed.  The original 79 page Act will shrink to a 40 page Act, creating a whole new scheme for review. The scope is incredibly narrow -- only those elements of the environment under "legislative authority of Parliament" will be assessed, namely fish, aquatic species, and migratory birds.  No other species or ecosystems are included, nor are health, socio-economic effects, physical or cultural heritage or any other elements that have traditionally been part of environmental assessment.
The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency will, on receiving a complete application, within 45 days decide if ANY environmental assessment is required, with wide discretion.  Environmental reviews are no longer required for projects involving federal money.  The Minister is given very large levels of discretion to decide if there should be a panel review. Cabinet will be able to overrule both CEAA and the National Energy Board (NEB).
The new equivalency rules downloading Environmental Assessment to the provinces may turn out to be the largest problem. There are also retroactive sections, setting the clock at July 2010 for existing projects.
“Instead of a rigorous thorough process to ensure the environmental safety of projects, we are left with politicians deciding which projects should go ahead,” said May. “The checks and balances that were the strength of CEAA are now gone. It is a transparent bid to ensure that pet oil projects and pipelines are guaranteed to happen despite the potentially harmful impacts.”
C-38 also guts the Fisheries Act’s habitat provisions.  “Apparently, the only important fish are those that are ‘commercial, Aboriginal and recreational’ and, once again, the biggest problem is the creation of equivalency so that the Fisheries Act and its regulations do not apply in the provinces,” said May.
Also in C-38, the NEB absorbs the Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA) whenever a pipeline crosses navigable waters.  The NWPA is amended to say a pipeline is not a "work" within that Act. The NEB Act is also amended to put Cabinet in a superior position to over-rule its decisions.
The Species at Risk Act (SARA) is also amended to allow the NEB to permit activities that kill or harm endangered species.
“The Harper Conservatives have systematically gone after each of our environmental laws and dismantled the underpinnings of environmental protection in this country,” said May.
Environmental charities are also attacked.  The charities sections of C-38 now preclude any gifts which may result in a political activity. Foreign charities can only provide funds to Canadian charities if the Minister is satisfied the foreign organization is "carrying on relief activities in response to a disaster, providing urgent humanitarian aid, or carrying on activities in the national interest of Canada."
“I always thought protecting our natural heritage was in the national interest of Canada. I guess the Harper Conservatives disagree,” said May.

http://www.greenparty.ca/media-release/2012-04-26/budget-implementation-act-gutting-environmental-laws-disguise