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AUGUST 25 - SERIOUSLY?? ONCE AGAIN THE MOST ABUSIVE COUNTRY ON OIL-COAL BLAH BLAH BLAH OUTSIDE CHINA- ACTORS roll in2 Canada- hey fix ur own oil mess... God look what u have allowed 2 be done in the USA and a new fracking mess in California (where earthquake lines live???)- come on... DiCaprio slammed over a documentary
Canada News.Net Monday 25th August, 2014
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio has been slammed by oil industry bosses in Canada over an upcoming documentary.
The "Titanic" star recently travelled to the country's Alberta province with director Darren Aronofsky to research a film highlighting the effects of oil sands drilling.
However, local trade representatives criticised the two men, saying celebrities' interest in environmental concerns is a passing "fad", reports contactmusic.com.
"Like Canadians, we are growing tired of the fad of celebrity environmentalists coming into the region for a few hours or a few days, and offering their ideas and solutions to developing this resource," said a spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
Alberta's Energy Minister Diana MCQueen also responded to the Hollywood duo's visit, saying: "We respect people's right to their opinions. At the same time, we believe reasonable people recognise the world needs all forms of energy, including fossil fuels, developed responsibly to meet its needs.
"Aside from the economic opportunities the oil sands create for Albertans and Canadians, the taxes and royalties generated from the oil-sands development provide funding for the infrastructure and programs that contribute to Canada's high standard of living," she added.
- See more at: http://www.canadanews.net/index.php/sid/225071745#sthash.4bauaDuc.dpuf
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Greenpeace Canada changes
stance on whale hunt to focus on blocking Arctic oil development
National
Affairs Reporter
An
environmentalist organization famous for confronting and interrupting whale
hunts around the world has thrown its support behind one taking place in
northern Canada, though it may have something to do with blocking oil industry
developments, rather than an internal softening of its wildlife protection
mandate.
Greenpeace
Canada recently announced it was in full support of a traditional whale hunt
conducted by Inuit fishermen from Clyde River, Nunavut, adding that the stance
is laid out in the group's Policy on Indigenous Rights.
"Greenpeace
respects the rights of Clyde River and other Indigenous communities to
sustainable, traditional hunting and fishing,” said Greenpeace Canada’s Arctic
campaigner Farrah Khan in a statement.
But
Greenpeace’s outright approval of the whale hunt raises questions about a more
publicized issue – the international opposition to Canada’s seal hunt.
Greenpeace Canada has been at the forefront of groups that have pushed for a
ban on sealing – a stance that has brought significant financial and public
hardships to indigenous communities that held traditional hunts for the purpose
of subsistence.
It seems
on the outset that Greenpeace Canada and Nunavut’s Inuit communities would make
strange bedfellows on this issue, though it seems there are larger matters at
play.
As the National Post reported this weekend, six boats
hunted and killed a pregnant bowhead whale on Aug. 3 – the community's first
such hunt in more than a century.
Though
that may be a bit of a misnomer. It was Clyde River's first hunt in 100 years,
but northern communities have held annual bowhead whale hunts since the late
1990s, when the federal government overturned a previous ban as part of the
Nunavut and Inuvialuit Land Claim Agreements.
The Clyde
River hunt is one of three permitted this year. That the community of 900 was
given a permit is surely a big deal for them, but if it was not Clyde River it
would have been another community getting the nod.
Still, it
seems odd that the hunt for a mammal considered endangered received public
support from Greenpeace itself.
As Farrah Khan said in her statement, "Massive commercial
whale hunts depleted bowhead whale populations in Baffin Bay and distressed
many communities that rely on whales for subsistence. It has taken many years
for whale populations to begin to recover."
She went
on to state that Baffin Bay, the area where the hunt occurred, is a
"critical habitat for bowhead whales" and should be protected from
recently-approved oil and gas testing. In other words, if whale hunting in
Baffin Bay is good, then oil and gas developments are bad.
"We
urge the National Energy Board and the Federal government to protect this
region from seismic testing and oil drilling operations. It would be a tragedy
to see whale populations decimated and traditional practices devastated once
again," she said.
If
Greenpeace's position statement makes it seem they support Indigenous Rights because it benefits their anti-oil
development stance, it's because that is at least partially the case.
Greenpeace Canada's Policy on Indigenous Rights notes that point directly.
The
policy adds that the group is aware of "the great potential for environmental
justice as a result of better alliances between environmentalists (including
Greenpeace) and Indigenous Peoples". Makes sense, on that point the two
groups surely agree.
But
Greenpeace Canada has a complicated relationship with the country's northern community,
specifically its history of opposing the country's seal hunt. Their opposition
may have been focused on commercial sealing ventures but admitted damage to
traditional indigenous hunts.
"Our
campaign against commercial sealing did hurt many, both economically and
culturally. The time has come to set the record straight," Greenpeace
Canada executive director Joanna Kerr confessed in a Nunatsiaq News editorial in June.
"In
the eight months since I took on the challenging role of executive director for
Greenpeace Canada, one issue has come up again and again from staff across the
country: a deep desire to make amends with Indigenous peoples for past
mistakes, to decolonize ourselves, and to better communicate our policies and
practices going forward."
The
editorial confesses to playing an accidental role in demonizing the indigenous
seal hunt. Though as the National Post notes, northern community leaders
have been hesitant to reach out for the olive branch – reasonable considering
the hardships the international sealing opposition has caused them.
Still,
Greenpeace Canada’s sights are set on bigger fish, with the launch of a pointed
campaign against the National Energy Board's recent decision to allow oil
exploration in the northern waterway. There's no better ally for them than
Canada's Inuit communities. Even if that means publicly supporting one whale
hunt while continuing to intervene in hunts elsewhere.
Strange
bedfellows, indeed.
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IDLE NO MORE CANADA- WHAT THE F**K???- u deal with China 4 Oil???? - u betray millions and millions of Canadians who stepped up and supported u and our environment- entrusting u with our nature- some tribes will die 2 save environment- others sell out??? WTF??? CANADA'S BROKEN HEART
--------------
August 3 n 4th??
SERIOUSLY????? BELOVED IDLE NO MORE – BREAKINGR HEARTS - FIRST NATIONS GROUP OF CANADA JUST SIGNED $$$BILLION WITH CHINA...SERIOUSLY... and ya all better be Canadians...because USA worst pollutants on the planet... and EU comes close second after China...
Pipeline protest pedals into town
Aug 3 2014 — Kelly Roche — Sun Media — A 10-week cycling journey protesting a massive pipeline project ended at the Human Rights Monument Saturday. “There’s a lot of different reasons that people are upset,” said Energy East Resistance Ride coordinator Alex Guest. Among their concerns: water, land, and climate change.
http://www.ottawasun.com/2014/08/02/pipeline-protest-pedals-into-town
CANADIANS ARE POLITE-PASSIVE??? I DON'T THINK SO??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEsk8b09cQM
---------------------------
WORDPRESS BLOG:
WTF?????? – NOT USA- NOT CHINA- NOT INDIA-NOT RUSSIA ETC. …. Australia is called the worst polluting country on the planet… and Canada- shame on all of u
http://nova0000scotia.wordpress.com/2014/12/09/wtf-not-usa-not-china-not-india-not-russia-etc-australia-is-called-the-worst-polluting-country-on-the-planet-and-canada-shame-on-all-of-u/
------------------------------
NOTE: top pollunting countries on the planet- Notice Canada with only 36 Million does NOT count-darkest 2 lightest brown
Canada First Nations- Anti Fracking Protests
IDLE NO MORE- SAVE CANADA'S ENVIRONMENT
Wisdom Greed- Evil versus Good Decent and Respectful
Alberta First Nation signs
oil and gas deal with Chinese firm
Nakoda
Stoney Nation signed agreement with Hong Kong-based Huatong Petrochemical
Holdings Ltd.
July 29,
2014
by The Canadian Press
by The Canadian Press
CALGARY—A
First Nation says it has signed a deal with a Chinese company to explore and
develop oil and natural gas on its land near Calgary.
The
Nakoda Stoney Nation says it has signed an agreement with Hong Kong-based
Huatong Petrochemical Holdings Ltd.
Under
terms of the deal, Huatong is to provide the funding and Nakoda Oil & Gas
Inc. is to be the primary operator of the joint venture.
The
Stoney reserve at Morley is about 60 kilometres west of Calgary.
The First
Nation says the Jumping Pound gas field has produced significant quantities of
natural gas since 1951.
The
Nakoda Stoney Nation includes members of the Bearspaw, Chiniki and Wesley
bands.
Jul292014
Alberta’s Stoney Nakoda Agree To Massive Oil & Gas Deal With Chinese
Firm
Nakoda Oil & Gas Inc. will be the primary operator for the joint venture. Bruce Labelle, chief of the Chiniki Nation, told reporters: ”The magnitude of this new agreement between Huatong and the Stoney Nations will hopefully bring us one step closer to self-sufficiency for our nation and people.” The Chiniki are part of the Stoney Nakoda Nation.
(Written by: N. Reitmayer; Original information source: CBC http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/stoney-nakoda-first-nation-signs-huge-oil-deal-with-chinese-firm-1.2720827)
---
Alberta band signs energy deal
with Chinese firm
The Canadian Press
CALGARY – A First Nation says it has signed a deal with a Chinese company to explore and develop oil and natural gas on its land near Calgary.
The Stoney Nakoda First Nation says it has signed an agreement with Hong Kong-based Huatong Petrochemical Holdings Ltd.
Under the terms of the deal, Huatong is to provide the funding and Nakoda Oil & Gas Inc. is to be the primary operator of the joint venture.
The Stoney reserve at Morley is about 60 km west of Calgary.
The First Nation says the Jumping Pound gas field has produced significant quantities of natural gas since 1951.
The Stoney Nakoda Nation includes members of the Bearspaw, Chiniki and Wesley bands.
-----------------
Nexen Inc.
Foreign investment rules hurting oil sands, especially small players: study
-----
· Idle No More group in Akwesasne
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/idle-no-
About a dozen people from an Idle No More group based on the
Akwesasne Mohawk reserve are marching today against shale gas exploration.
· fracking at Idle No More
www.idlenomore.ca/tags/fracking Cached
DIEPPE, NEW BRUNSWICK - Yesterday, Upriver Environment Watch
called a press conference at the Super 8 motel in Dieppe, New Brunswick. Attended
by about 50 people ...
· 48 Elsipogotg Anti-Fracking Solidarity
www.idlenomore.ca/45_elsipogotg_anti_
45 Elsipogtog Anti-Fracking Actions and Events are
confirmed and many more are being organized! Check the list below or
view them all on a map on the #IdleNoMore ...
· 6 things you need to know about the
america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/fault-
Activist group Idle No More gets busy
again in Canada. Indigenous tribes of Canada plan day of protest for Monday,
vow they're just getting started
· Australia, No Fracking Way. Idle No
www.facebook.com/pages/Australia-No-
Australia, No Fracking Way. Idle No
More. 287 likes · 10 talking about this. G'day everyone..This page is
set up to show the OZ Gov that we don't want...
· Idle No More joins fracking protest out
www.calgarysun.com/2013/10/19/idle-no-
In a show of solidarity for their counterparts out east, Idle
No More took to downtown Calgary Friday evening.
· Idle No More Anti Fracking Micmac
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gUi0nqEUeY Cached
A Quick response was created to the attacks by the RCMP in
Newton, NB against peaceful protesters of the Micmak nation, who are attempting
to stop ...
· Idle No More group in Akwesasne
news.ca.msn.com/local/montreal/idle-no-
About a dozen people from an Idle No More
group based on the Akwesasne Mohawk reserve are marching today against shale
gas exploration. They blocked the Seaway ...
· New Brunswick anti-fracking clash could
ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/
Read 'New Brunswick anti-fracking clash could lead to
Idle No More’s next big moment' from our blog Daily Brew
on Yahoo News Canada. A massive clash between RCMP ...
-------------------
We’re prepared to die to
protect lands:chiefs
By Maria Babbage — CP — Jul 29 2014
TORONTO -
Aboriginal people in Ontario are prepared to lay down their lives to protect
their traditional lands from any unwanted development, a group of First Nations
chiefs said Tuesday.
Five
aboriginal chiefs served notice on the Ontario and federal governments,
developers and the public that they'll assert their treaty rights over their
traditional territory and ancestral lands.
That
includes the rights to natural resources — such as fish, trees, mines and
water— deriving benefit from those resources and the conditions under which
other groups may access or use them, which must be consistent with their
traditional laws, said Ontario Regional Chief Stan Beardy.
"All
those seeking to access or use First Nations lands and resources have, at a
minimum, a duty to engage, enquire and consult with First Nations with the
standards of free, prior and informed consent," he said.
"We
will take appropriate steps to enforce these assertions."
Tuesday's
declaration follows a Supreme Court of Canada ruling in late June which awarded
1,700 square kilometres of territory to British Columbia's Tsilhqot'in First
Nation, providing long-awaited clarification on how to prove aboriginal title.
The
ruling also formally acknowledged the legitimacy of indigenous land claims to
wider territory beyond individual settlement sites.
But in a
separate decision a few weeks later, the court upheld the Ontario government's
power to permit industrial logging on Grassy Narrows First Nation's traditional
lands. Grassy Narrows is different from the Tsilhqot'in decision because it
involves treaty land, not aboriginal title.
The court
argued that only Ottawa has the power to take up the land because treaty
promises were made with the federal Crown.
The high
court ruled that the province doesn't need the federal government's permission
to allow forestry and mining activity under an 1873 treaty that ceded large
swaths of Ontario and Manitoba to the federal government.
The
Ontario chiefs who spoke out on Tuesday said the provincial and federal
governments haven't respected the agreements their ancestors signed more than a
century ago, which gives First Nations the right to assert jurisdiction over
lands and resources.
Aboriginal
communities have seen what Canadian and Ontario laws have done to their land
over the last 147 years, Beardy said.
"The
land has become sick," he said. "We become sick. We become poor,
desperate and dying."
The
people of Grassy Narrows First Nation are still suffering from mercury
poisoning decades after the Wabigoon river around their land was contaminated
by a local paper mill, he said.
Grand
Chief of Treaty #3, Warren White, argued that Prime Minister Stephen Harper
recognizes the state of Israel, but not the lands of Canada's aboriginal peoples.
"He
needs to have the same principles that he's saying about Israel lands to Treaty
3 territory and native lands in Canada," White said.
"Clean
up your own backyard before you go and spill a lot of money into disasters in
other countries."
Grand Chief
Harvey Yesno of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation added that the province's aboriginal
people will draw a line in the stand, put a stake in the ground and tie
themselves to it if that's what it takes to protect their land from unwanted
resource development.
"We're
no longer just going to be civilly disobedient. We're going to defend our
lands, and there's a big difference there," he said.
"Our
young people are dying, our people are dying. So let's die at least defending
our land."
Aboriginal
communities don't want to harm others, said Beardy. But they'll do what they
must to stop an incursion on their lands, such as forming human blockades to
stop the clearcutting of trees, he said.
"Anything
that happens on our aboriginal homeland now, they must consult with us,"
said Roger Fobister Sr., chief of Grassy Narrows First Nation. "Even if
they're going to cut down one tree, they better ask us."
http://www.nationalnewswatch.com/2014/07/29/ontario-first-nations-prepared-to-lay-down-their-lives-to-protect-lands-chiefs/#.U9j-pEDQrPp
----
ENVIRONMENT MATTERS- BUT SO DOES INTEGRITY.... imho- in our Canada women equal men... and our gay brothers, mothers, sisters, cousins, friends mean just as much - in our Canada...... environment matters... and so do Canadians...especially our children
POINT OF ORDER- U CANNOT BE GAY.... AND CHEER 4 HAMAS AND PALESTINE, IRAN, SYRIA, LIBYA, IRAQ, AFRICAS, QATAR AND SAUDIS..... us just cannot....
The history of the people who live in Gaza is something that should infuriate.
comment:
Paul Estrin’s essay — “Why Gaza makes me sad” ---- Nailed it !
comment:
Farhad,
Regarding your comment stated above, you accuse Paul of justifying a Genocide. I know this can be a very emotional topic, but I think your emotions are getting the better of you and you are misinterpreting his words.
My interpretation of his statement is that Israel might be forced to take unfortunate military action in order to stop the constant threat of a ruthless terrorist organization (that does not even care about its own people). That is, to stop HAMAS, not the Palestinian people. Paul is not suggesting that the people of Palestine should be targeted.
However, since that Hamas hides behind innocent civilians in a cowardly, despicable, manipulative way in order to purposely endanger innocent civilians, I guess I can partly understand how you might think that taking out HAMAS would mean harming many innocent Palestinian civilians. That would be terrible. That IS currently terrible. But hopefully Israel will be able to better focus their efforts on singling out Hamas targets because Hamas just does not seem to want to negotiate any peace.
Regardless, I do not believe Paul is either suggesting or condoning a Palestinian genocide. Although some unintended victims seem to unfortunatley be unavoidable in this type of war.
I can see how people side with Israel and I can see how people feel for the Palestinans. However, anyone who sides with Hamas is on the wrong side of history.
comment:
It is also posted at the "Centre for Israel and Jewish affairs" website. (google that, plus the title of the article)
Comments allowed via Facebook.
It is a well written and spot on article in my opinion.
comment:
Paul Estrin should be congratulated for common sense.
He is exposing the loon base in the Green Party.
Arafat figured out how to get rich in the Arab world;
Do a couple of Google searches:
Arafat wealth
Gaza millionaires
Backstory: The "Anti-Zionist" mob turns its attentions to Green Party president Paul Estrin
Terry Glavin More from Terry Glavin
Published on: July 29, 2014Last Updated: July 29, 2014 4:49 PM EDT
As has been obvious for some long while now, there is a debilitating strain of “anti-Zionism” coursing through the arteries of the Canadian Left. It’s so toxic that reputable institutions like the New Democratic Party have ended up with no alternative but to resort to a policy of quarantine, and NDP leader Thomas Mulcair is to be credited for his most recent efforts to inoculate the NDP caucus and the party’s candidate list with an antidote policy: bar, isolate and marginalize.
Ever since Mulcair was elected NDP leader two years ago, erstwhile party loyalists have been whimpering that they will quit the party over their new leader’s offensively even-handed policy on the subject of Israel and Palestine. They threaten to ignore the party’s appeals for funds or to defect altogether to the Green Party, which is conventionally situated on the Left.
Green Party delegates went into their July 19-20 convention in Fredericton with a leadership-endorsed motion that was specifically intended to lure these disaffected “anti-Zionist” New Democrats.
Big mistake.
The motion itself was perfectly unobjectionable, declaring the Green Party’s opposition to the expansion of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian heartland of the West Bank. This put the Greens more or less in the same company on the subject, curiously, as the NDP, the Liberals and even the governing Conservatives. But the justification offered to the CBC by the Greens’ youth wing co-chair Ghaith El-Mohtar, the motion’s author, was that it might “win over former NDP supporters who oppose Thomas Mulcair’s unquestioning support of Israel.”
If that was the plan, Green Party president Paul Estrin wasn’t in on it, and he’s now being buried under the towering obscenities of an “anti-Zionist” dogpile over an essay he wrote last Friday on his personal weblog (hosted at the Green Party home page), titled “Why Gaza Makes Me Sad.” Estrin’s primary transgression appears to be his acknowledgement that the terrorist crime syndicate known as Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip by truncheon and firing squad, is an important reason why Gazans have been suffering so horribly in recent years.
If this poll is anything to go by, the overwhelming majority of Gazans appear to broadly agree with Estrin. But by Monday morning, on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere, dozens of vicious, unhinged denunciations were being heaped upon him, and it hasn’t let up. Estrin has been called an “IDF spokesman,” a liar, “Anti-Palestinian to the core” and worse (small samplings can be found here and here). The ipolitics columnist Andrew Mitrovica, who has lately become a champion of the “anti-Zionists” and their anti-Mulcair cause, went so far as to insinuate on Monday that in his “long diatribe,” Estrin suggested that “Palestinian children are, in part, responsible for their own deaths.”
While not quite throwing Estrin under the bus, Elizabeth May has quickly distanced herself from him. “I do not agree with him. Those are his personal opinions. Not party policy. . . His views are contrary to #GPC position. We support peace. We condemn violence,” la la la, and this is where everything gets even curiouser.
Agree with it or not, Estrin’s essay, from top to bottom, is most obviously an expression of deep and sincere sympathy for the bloodied and brutalized people of Gaza. You could say it’s sloppy. You could say it overlooks the Israeli government’s irresponsible continuation of the West Bank settlements (which are in no way an immediately relevant issue anyway). You could say a lot of things about it, but at least it doesn’t retreat into the cowardice of some half-baked “neutrality” towards Hamas.
Widespread outbreaks of pathological “anti-Zionist” hysterics tend to erupt whenever the Israeli state asserts its security interests by force of arms, as it is now doing with Operation Protective Edge, and as it did with Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012 and with Operation Cast Lead in 2008-09. It is a pattern that leaves thousands of innocent Palestinians dead, injured, homeless, and further brutalized.
It shouldn’t be controversial to notice, as Estrin does, that the cycles of this pattern tend to be set off by such neighbourly entreaties as barrages of rockets launched at innocent Israeli citizens by a Jew-hating rejectionist cult and protection racket that funds its mischief by diverting international aid intended for the Gazan masses.
That Hamas has persisted in the costly acquisition of ever more deadly missile arsenals should not be anathema to a progressive analysis of the oppression of the people of Gaza. That Hamas has robbed the Palestinian people to pay for the construction of heavily-fortified underground command bunkers and a vast underground “terror tunnel” network that has taken the lives of at least 160 child labourers, “prized for their nimble bodies” should not be unmentionable.
But these things are very controversial to speak about out loud, especially if one is an official of, say, the Green Party, so much so as to induce moral panic. That is how far the “anti-Zionist” toxin has spread. It has gotten so that the Canadian Left has lost the practical capacity for a broadly decent and legitimately progressive, pro-peace critique on the question of Israel and Palestine. The hysterics drown out everything else.
The “anti-Zionists” are right about one thing: there isn’t much in the way of a robust and defensible Oppostion critique of Ottawa’s uniquely militant and unashamedly “pro-Israel” posture towards the conflict. The NDP’s Paul Dewar has been reduced to whining that Ottawa is just “rubber stamping everything that comes from Benjamin Netanyahu,” but has nothing to offer beyond a timid insistence that Ottawa should instead be telling Netanyahu that “there are too many civilian casualties and it’s unacceptable.”
When a Green Party president merely allows himself to think out loud in an honest and harmless essay that sets out the reasons why Gaza makes him sad, and for his trouble he’s subjected to a cyberlynching, it should tell you that we’ve entered a realm of moral bedlam. It becomes a nuthouse of the kind that saw the “anti-Zionist” crank, 911 Truther and Moammar Qadaffi devotee Cynthia McKinney elected leader of the Green Party in the United States.
Canada’s Greens will have to find their own way out of this mess, but the sooner they see the merits of the NDP leadership’s interim antidote – quarantine, inoculate, bar, isolate, marginalize – the better.
http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/the-anti-zionist-mob-turns-its-attentions-to-green-party-president-paul-estrin
David Wheeler’s final report on hydraulic fracturing will be issued just days before world leaders gather at UN headquarters in New York to discuss the urgent need for action on climate change. In the first meeting of its kind, UN Secretary-General...
They concluded the status quo no longer works. Not even a little bit. The panel determined a massive overhaul of the model we know as open-net-pen fish farming is urgently required.
Forty-eight hours later after the release of this seminal report, post- tropical storm Arthur wreaked havoc throughout Nova Scotia with a particular jolt to coastal waters. Amid the power outages and disruption burdening the province, someone posed a fascinating question: Was this Mother Nature weighing in on the panel’s report? Was she suggesting, and by no means delicately: “Professors Doelle and Lahey, have you completed your study? Are you sure you have fully factored in climate change? Because this topic changes everything for generations to come ... .”
Mother Nature does not speak to me all that often, and when she does, I don’t always listen. But from my office situated all of five metres from the Atlantic Ocean on the Eastern Shore, I know what I see on a daily basis.
After 34 years of watching intently, I don’t like this picture. Storms are more frequent and much more severe when they impact us on the coast. When you look out on Shoal Bay and see the riled-up waters and wind action, it is by times a horrifying thing. When you try to imagine farm-raised salmon or trout living in cages in such conditions, crowded beyond belief and all reason, it is truly mystifying.
Observer after observer has asked me one single question: “Why haven’t the so-called sea farmers discovered land in 2014?”
That’s one question I cannot answer. I am guessing they have not been looking all that carefully — perhaps the low cost / no cost leases on the water have been a bit of a distraction. But just because something is given to fish farmers for practically nothing does not mean there aren’t huge costs borne by the rest of us. I’m assuming those “massive externalities,” as the economists like to call them, have not been factored in, ever. It is high time they were tallied up in my coastal opinion. I’ll lend them a calculator.
Adding to the irony — and, trust me, there is plenty of that to go around — lobster stakeholders discovered terra firma long ago. Over the course of the last 25 years, more and more lobster storage has transitioned from the ocean to the land.
Lobster stakeholders pioneered the on-land closed-containment facilities that are now so controversial in feedlot circles.
These on-land lobster facilities are really quite remarkable: we can control water temperature to the precise degree every hour of the day. We can control oxygen content easily and cheaply — and even waste levels with elaborate filtration equipment that is now available straight off the shelf. We can ensure the salinity never changes despite the amount of rainfall, night or day. We can even provide lobster condominiums that replicate the solitary nature of ocean circumstances in which our crustacean guests can chill out, so to speak.
Simply put, we can make our lobster inventory feel completely at home and fully safe regardless of the situation. Neither disease nor predators will ever challenge them. It is a lobster-sustainable world in more ways than one.
That stormy day during when Arthur howled and shut down half the province, there were millions of pounds of premium-quality lobster safely tucked away on land throughout Nova Scotia wondering what the fuss was about. They were absolutely oblivious to the life-threatening conditions their farm-raised-salmon brethren were facing at sea.
The differences in the circumstances of lobster and feedlot salmon and trout are really beyond belief. It is a story not widely known nor fully understood.
Are there actual lessons to be learned here before it is too late? Is it just possible that some of the applied science technology embraced by lobster could also be used for raising salmon and trout? Feedlots transitioned to land are no longer feedlots. That is the bottom line. They would avoid the harsh reality of climate change and their waste would no longer endanger the coast. I dare say it would be a good news story in every sense that we could proudly tell the world.
Yes — I concede — there would be a monthly utility bill to pay for the fish-farm operators. You can be darn sure that would come as a bit of a shock to those folks. They have a business that is first and foremost built on entitlement. Changing that mindset and culture won’t come easily if it ever comes at all. But I am guessing in the grand scheme of things, relative to the risk to our wild fisheries and the future of our coastal communities, this is a very small cost indeed.
We need a sea change in feedlot salmon, if you will. We need it yesterday. Lessons learned in lobster can be provided immediately and free of charge. If only government and those stubborn fish farmers would actually listen for a change, we in the lobster industry could actually help by finding them an on-land solution.
Stewart Lamont is managing director, Tangier Lobster Company
did u know..
In 2001, Canada became the first country in the world to sanction the medicinal use of marijuana. The new law allowed severely ill patients — with a doctor’s approval — to apply to Health Canada to grow and smoke pot
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IDLE NO MORE.... still b elieve.... there is no way youngblood Canadians would sell out environment 4 oil.... of the First Peoples 10,000 years.... just can't believe this... it's must be the old Chief's of 30 years and their Councils..... (Much like towns, cities and municipalities, provinces and feds across Canada- in for 4 years in for 20 years or 30 years...imho)
Ontario to seek probe in mercur y poisoning
MARIA BABBAGE THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — Ontario will push for a review of a board that oversees compensation for residents of two First Nations still suffering health issues from mercury poisoning that occurred five decades ago, Aboriginal Affairs Minister David Zimmer said Tuesday.
The minister said he will work with the federal government and Wabaseemoong First Nation to gain their approval for a review that would look at the level of benefits provided by the Mercury Disability Board, which has come under fire by aboriginal groups.
“I think Ontarians, First Nation memb ers and indeed all Canadians . . . feel in their hear ts that something has to be done," Zimmer said.
Ontario would also look at options for more treatment for Grassy Narrows First Nation residents in their community, he said, as they currently have to travel long distances for medical help.
Water around Grassy Narrows has b een contaminated with mercury since a lo cal pap er mill dumped an estimated 10 tonnes of neurotoxins into the system between 1962 and 1970.
Z immer said he was stirred during his three-hour talk on Sunday with former Grassy Narrows chief Steve Fobister, who suffers from the debilitating neurological effects of mercury poisoning and has b een pushing for the review.
“Hearing directly from him in a very human way what mercury poisoning is all about, it moves the soul and it moves everyone to want to do something to combat it ," he said.
Fobister said he’ll end the hunger strike that he started Monday to spur action on the issu e.
“The minister’s statement has brought some measure of comfort, but we still have work to do," he said. Fobister said he wants to s ee greater participation from both levels of government to be “seriously committed, not just to play political and legal games with the persisting problems that we’re dealing with at this time."
The Mercury Disability Board, which includes both levels of government, was formed in 1985 as part of an out-of-court settlement reached between Grassy Narrows and the Wabaseemoong Independent Nations and Ottawa, the province and two pap er companies over mercury-related claims.
The Grassy Narrows First Nation said Monday it had obtained an unreleased report that found the board’s criteria to determine whether s omeone had symptoms consistent with mercury poisoning were based on old science.
The report, which was commissioned by the board in 2009, also said there was “no doubt" people in the nor thwestern Ontario community of roughly 1,600 near Kenora suffered from mercuryrelated neurological disorders.
It found the board recognized only 38 per cent of the cases identified by other experts, noting the discrepancies “are due to different criteria used for evaluations" than those employed by Japanese experts who examined the community between 1975 and 2 004.
Zimmer said he’ll call federal officials Tuesday afternoon to get the ball rolling and travel Aug. 6 to Grassy Narrows.
“It’s appropriate after 29 years — as you would any organization — to review (the board), to bring it up to date, to get the best science that we can possibly get, to get the best advice on how the board should operate," he said.
First Nations and governments have been talking for the last 50 years about the issue and it can’t go on forever, Fobister said.
“I don’t think I have any more level of comfort to talk another 50 years," he said. I think Ontarians, First Nation members and indeed all Canadians . . . feel in their hearts that something has to be done.
David Zimmer Ontario aboriginal affairs minister
----
ENVIRONMENT MATTERS- BUT SO DOES INTEGRITY.... imho- in our Canada women equal men... and our gay brothers, mothers, sisters, cousins, friends mean just as much - in our Canada...... environment matters... and so do Canadians...especially our children
POINT OF ORDER- U CANNOT BE GAY.... AND CHEER 4 HAMAS AND PALESTINE, IRAN, SYRIA, LIBYA, IRAQ, AFRICAS, QATAR AND SAUDIS..... us just cannot....
how incredible... the bravery Of Canada’s
Green's Party President- 4 pointing 2 the disgrace that is HAMAS...... Greenie
President- Estrin may just save the Green party with a rare thing... called
integrity 2 many Canadians..... GOD KNOWS GREENPEACE IS BEING SUED AS A TERROR
ORGANIZATION...ON MANY FRONTS... BUT DELIBERATELY HUGGING HAMAS???? AREN'T
THERE ANY GAY BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF THE GREEN PARTY??? GETCHA CANADA ON WHY
DON'T YA...
When we think on how we fought 4
Elizabeth May (would never vote Green... they are way 2 disorganized and
trendy) as a woman and her party 2 be part of Canada's debate process- well
that's about as useful as titties on a bull- thank u very much Elizabeth
May.... We considered Elizabeth May on the same lines as our beloved Hilary
Rodham Clinton and her horrific betrayal by the Democratic party (and we can
all see how that's working)....
ARTICLE:
Estrin’s
post, which he stressed reflect his own personal view, is anything but neutral.
He is critical not only of Hamas, but of many people in the western world who
turn a blind eye to its actions and who jump on an anti-Israel bandwagon.
“Gaza
is giving children grenades…and asking their citizens to be sheep to the
slaughter,” wrote Estrin.
“Gazan
officials tell their people to be killed while they hide in bomb shelters.
Cowards? No, this is worse than cowardice. It is vile and ugly and they should
be put to shame. Instead, it is Israel who is put to shame.”
Estrin
wrote that Israel is threatened by Hamas and is “doing all it can with an
untenable situation.” He added that he is “sick and tired” of the “hypocrisy”
of people who focus their anger on Israel, even though larger conflicts occur
elsewhere
“Throughout
the world, injustices happen on a near-daily basis. But these same activists,
when they hear the cry of the moment, if it is anti-Israel it is an easy
band-wagon to get on, to get their anti-Israel war-paint on and join their
friends between potlucks, veggie smoothies and coffee breaks.”
Estrin’s
position — and the strong choice of words sprinkled throughout his 2,200-word
post — have infuriated some members of the Green party
Elizabeth May distances herself as Green Party
president faces backlash for strongly worded blogpost on Gaza
Mark Kennedy, Postmedia News
| July 30, 2014 10:19 AM ET
------------------------
Why Gaza makes me sad
25 July
2014 - 9:41pm Paul Estrin’s essay — “Why Gaza makes me sad
************************************************
Comment from the moderator:
Comment from the moderator:
Views
expressed on Green Party members' blogs are representative of the members
themselves and are not official party policy. The following motion was passed
by the Green Party membership at the 2014 Convention on July 20, 2014.
G14-P58
Israel – Palestine Conflict
Be it resolved that the GPC urges the immediate cessation of hostilities between Israel and Palestine. The GPC will adopt a posture of engaged neutrality, opening all available diplomatic avenues in both Palestine and Israel to press for a peaceful resolution to the conflict consistent with the GPC’s commitment to justice and custom of speaking truth to power.
Be it resolved that the GPC urges the immediate cessation of hostilities between Israel and Palestine. The GPC will adopt a posture of engaged neutrality, opening all available diplomatic avenues in both Palestine and Israel to press for a peaceful resolution to the conflict consistent with the GPC’s commitment to justice and custom of speaking truth to power.
************************************************
The history of the people who live in Gaza is something that should infuriate.
(Before I
go on, a disclaimer as seen below as well: These are my personal thoughts and
my personal perspective and do not necessarily speak to the thoughts and
persectives of the membership and direction of the Green Party of Canada.)
We could
delve into their history of the Egyptian rule over Gaza, or further back during
the rule of the Ottoman Empire, or we could even go as far back as biblical
histories of the people that lived in that same region, for which some of the
place names have stayed unchanged for millennia.
Instead,
we can just look at what has happened since Israel left Gaza. Yes, it was
occupied by Israel, from 1967 to 2005, 38 years. And then, in a decision that
rocked many people, Israel said that although it did not see a partner for
peace in Gaza, and although Israel has a very clear policy that it will trade
land for recognition and peace, Israel decided to leave, fighting its own
citizens, showing once more that it sticks to its word about the settlements
not being permanent, but instead something to be removed painfully if peace is
achievable to be had.
And then
Hamas took power. It has nearly been ten years. Since August 2005, Gazans have
been in control of their own destiny. Some might say otherwise, yet Gazans have
their own government and they are their own people: If their neighbours, Egypt
and Israel, close their borders to Gaza, one must look to a Gaza run by a
terrorist organization cum government that teaches and propagates hate, death
and destruction to understand why.
Since
then, stories of resources being used, such as concrete supposed to be used for
infrastructure for civil use instead used for purposes of terrors, or stories
of repression of the people there by its own government, or stories of how
under Hamas rule people no income or ways to support themselves … I’m reminded
of Bill Clinton’s remark “It’s the economy, stupid” … but instead of showing
openness to the world, or managing, or caring ... Gaza has instead shown that
it is not interested in peace, in building a stable economy, in a secure
future.
The Gazan
government has had ample opportunity over these past years, nearly a decade, to
alter its ways, change its mantra of death to the Jews, and become respectable
caretakers of the people in their charge.
They have
not.
Surely
they could have done more. Should have done more.
We can
forgive them for at first being overjoyed with the departure of the Israeli
forces, and them as a terrorist organization unable to initially take up the
challenge of good governance.
We can
forgive them for not immediately changing their charter. In Canada and
elsewhere, national charters protect the people. In Gaza, the first article
calls for the death of Israel and the Jew. (Let me quote just a bit: “Israel
will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as
it obliterated others before it." I would like to believe all of us in our
organization can see how atrocious such a statement is, and that we would
believe in things like the right of people to not be obliterated …)
They
said, they being the Hamas government newly in power, they needed time. They
have had nearly a decade. What is the holdup … oh, wait, the hate and desire to
obliterate.
So, let
us fast forward past a decade’s worth of battles, wars, incursions, etc.
How much
aide has Israel given Gaza? How much has the world given Gaza?
Giving
aid is worthwhile, a noble cause. But, has it gone to the people that need it?
Ten years …
So, now,
this month, what do we see:
Israel is
more threatened than even because its neighbour, instead of caring about the
welfare and well-being of its citizens, cares about the cause of killing, of
carrying the banner of martyrdom, and of watching its fellow people die.
And yet,
these are the same people who are embraced and loved by the international
community, with marches on Parliament Hill in Canada’s capital, and in cities
throughout the world, holding banners and chanting about the destruction of the
state of Israel and of death to the Jews.
Meanwhile,
Gaza uses UN locations to launch or house weapons … yet the international
community cries out, a day after the UN itself admitted this and said that this
practise puts at risk those in these facilities given that these places then
are not safe havens but rather places of war to be targeted ..
Meanwhile,
Gaza is giving children grenades … and asking their citizens to be sheep to the
slaughter.
Gazan
officials tell their people to be killed while they hide in bomb shelters.
Cowards?
No, this is worse than cowardice. It is vile and ugly and they should be put to
shame.
Instead,
it is Israel who is put to shame. It is easy enough to do.
In our
culture, often activists are against colonialism, yet forget that their
ancestors only a handful of generations ago partook in just that, enabling them
to live the secure lives they currently enjoy, and the lives the live is at the
benefit of economic colonialism …
… to
critique, is it better to know your roots and who you are, or is ignorance
better so that you can accuse the other without seeing just how similar the
other is to you?
It looks
very bad for Israel. 800+ Gazans dead. 1000s injured. Lots of destruction.
Meanwhile,
in Syria, how many hundreds of thousands of people, including so many
Palestinians, are dead or injured … where are the inflammatory protests …
Meanwhile,
throughout the world, injustices happen on a near-daily basis. But these same
activists, when they hear the cry of the moment, if it is anti-Israel it is an
easy band-wagon to get on, to get their anti-Israel war-paint on and join their
friends between potlucks, veggie smoothies and coffee breaks.
Ask them
about a warlord or abuser in another part of the world, I highly doubt they
will know .. or care .. but Netanyahu, or Sharon, those are names they know and
loath.
I always
found it interesting, the focus on such a small country .. is it because then
it is easy to know who is who, who to love, who to hate, as opposed to so many
other regions and countries many, many times larger that have atrocities of a
scale much larger than what has been seen in that one oh-so-small strip of the
Middle East known as Israel?
I am sure
that many people I know will be upset for my having the gall to write these
words.
I am
simply sick and tired of having to hear such hypocrisy and twisted logic.
I am
reminded of a seminar I attended at the University of Victoria a decade ago.
The
seminar was a group of Iranian professors who had fled Iran after the
revolution, and a central theme that repeated itself was the image of the
protests and marches in the city of Teheran.
I
remember how one of the lecturers painfully spoke about the European marchers
that were so caught up in the cause of overthrowing the Shah that they were all
chanting “Allah-hu akbar” at the tops of their lungs, and how she was looking at
these foreigners and wondering if they had any idea just what this chant was
going to mean for her country.
… That
history continues to be written, and it is a sad one.
We want
to see the world as black and white, right and wrong.
We want
to support the under-dog. Who doesn’t.
But,
terror is terror. Evil is evil.
When
Gazans are asked what they want, they want peace. They want to work in Israel.
They want security for their children and themselves. They don’t want to
live in the terror they have under Hamas … and yet the world cheers on Hamas
that spends the money and resources needed for infrastructure, housing,
hospitals, schools, and buys weapons, builds tools for terror.. I cannot help
but feel sad for this world. And we, as a green movement, should not be
supporting such a movement or government .. yes, their flag is green, but that
is where the resemblance stops. Or at least, that is where it should stop.
On the
other side of the coin, Israel is doing all it can with an untenable situation.
The world media vilifies it, to the point that when those firing missiles into
its borders and sending militias into its land need to see that they cannot do
this, it is Israel, and not Gaza, that feels the world’s hate. When al-Jazeera
does a more balanced job than CNN, and let’s not talk about here in Canada our
media, how that has been … …
Military
experts look at Israel’s military strategy: No carpet bombing, no quick
actions, but instead pinpoint strikes whilst warning the enemy in advance of
what their plans are, and slow movements.. they, military people the world
over, say that Israel’s military is the most moral of them all, above the
British, above the Americans, but at what price, when the enemy knows no
qualms, and would rather see hundreds of their own people die for a media blitz
against Israel than do all it can to save a single life. What other military
calls up the enemy on their phone to tell them that their building will be
bombed, to kindly leave, yes, you have enough time to leave, just thought it
would be the neighbourly thing to do … anyone else in war, and that is what
Hamas is calling this time in Gaza, would simply bomb, kill and destroy.
And that
is it in a nutshell: Whilst Israel does all that is in its power to protect the
lives of all its citizens and the lives of those it is attacking, Gaza does all
in its power to have all the more die.
We need
to re-examine our priorities if we are marching in the streets. Unless we want
to see another Mullah amongst us, where other religions aside from a certain
variety of Islam are not allowed, where synagogues are used as latrines and
garbage dumps and Christians are living in constant fear.
For those
of you who would say this is ridiculous, look at all the countries surrounding
Israel and read their track record. And yes, Jordan up until Jerusalem was
freed was using synagogues as garbage dumps and as latrines, it is history,
look it up and understand how Israel is different, a land where all religions
are free to practise and all its citizens are citizens … how many Palestinian
refugees are still not the citizens of their countries of residence, the
countries they were born in … But, that is a comment for another article for
another time, how the world doesn’t actually care about the Palestinians, but
rather cares about showing they care about the Palestinians. Though it is
interesting, in that it resounds so similarly to nations and people saying they
care about Jews and are appalled by anti-Semitism, but when violence occurs …
Again, another article for another time.
Priorities.
One day,
and soon, I hope that Gaza's government will act appropriately and show that
the life of every single person is precious. But I fear that our world’s
international media, international agencies and all the activists who noble
actions are grossly misplaced, although nonetheless noble, they are simply
enabling the terrorists, and so all they are having reinforced is that this is
a strategy that works.
I hope
and pray for a peace. That the borders will open. That trade starts up. That
the international airport in Gaza can be reopened. That Gazans can retake their
old jobs and through economic endeavours create and build upon a peace of
social and economic unity.
And then
maybe the other issues, such as water, air, and environment can be paid the
dire attention that is needed.
But I
feel that peace will take a miracle. Israel is losing patience, a country
cannot live in constant fear without hardliners coming to power .. oh
wait .. and then, while the world watches, Israel will be forced to conduct a
military manoeuver, one that perhaps it ought to have made years ago, to then
enable reconstruction and a manageable peace. I pray it will not come to that,
but if Gaza under Hamas continues its reign of terror, what choice will Israel
plausibly have.
Thank you
for reading.
These are
my personal thoughts and my personal perspective and do not necessarily speak
to the thoughts and persectives of the membership and direction of the Green
Party of Canada.
Sincerely,
Paul
Estrin
Edit: I
realize I initially signed this document with my name and title. I have removed
my title because I want to make it as clear as possible that my words are my
own, what I have written is my perspective.
Paul Estrin’s essay — “Why Gaza makes me sad” ---- Nailed it !
comment:
Farhad,
Regarding your comment stated above, you accuse Paul of justifying a Genocide. I know this can be a very emotional topic, but I think your emotions are getting the better of you and you are misinterpreting his words.
My interpretation of his statement is that Israel might be forced to take unfortunate military action in order to stop the constant threat of a ruthless terrorist organization (that does not even care about its own people). That is, to stop HAMAS, not the Palestinian people. Paul is not suggesting that the people of Palestine should be targeted.
However, since that Hamas hides behind innocent civilians in a cowardly, despicable, manipulative way in order to purposely endanger innocent civilians, I guess I can partly understand how you might think that taking out HAMAS would mean harming many innocent Palestinian civilians. That would be terrible. That IS currently terrible. But hopefully Israel will be able to better focus their efforts on singling out Hamas targets because Hamas just does not seem to want to negotiate any peace.
Regardless, I do not believe Paul is either suggesting or condoning a Palestinian genocide. Although some unintended victims seem to unfortunatley be unavoidable in this type of war.
I can see how people side with Israel and I can see how people feel for the Palestinans. However, anyone who sides with Hamas is on the wrong side of history.
comment:
It is also posted at the "Centre for Israel and Jewish affairs" website. (google that, plus the title of the article)
Comments allowed via Facebook.
It is a well written and spot on article in my opinion.
comment:
Paul Estrin should be congratulated for common sense.
He is exposing the loon base in the Green Party.
Arafat figured out how to get rich in the Arab world;
Do a couple of Google searches:
Arafat wealth
Gaza millionaires
AND...
Terry Glavin More from Terry Glavin
Published on: July 29, 2014Last Updated: July 29, 2014 4:49 PM EDT
As has been obvious for some long while now, there is a debilitating strain of “anti-Zionism” coursing through the arteries of the Canadian Left. It’s so toxic that reputable institutions like the New Democratic Party have ended up with no alternative but to resort to a policy of quarantine, and NDP leader Thomas Mulcair is to be credited for his most recent efforts to inoculate the NDP caucus and the party’s candidate list with an antidote policy: bar, isolate and marginalize.
Ever since Mulcair was elected NDP leader two years ago, erstwhile party loyalists have been whimpering that they will quit the party over their new leader’s offensively even-handed policy on the subject of Israel and Palestine. They threaten to ignore the party’s appeals for funds or to defect altogether to the Green Party, which is conventionally situated on the Left.
Green Party delegates went into their July 19-20 convention in Fredericton with a leadership-endorsed motion that was specifically intended to lure these disaffected “anti-Zionist” New Democrats.
Big mistake.
The motion itself was perfectly unobjectionable, declaring the Green Party’s opposition to the expansion of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian heartland of the West Bank. This put the Greens more or less in the same company on the subject, curiously, as the NDP, the Liberals and even the governing Conservatives. But the justification offered to the CBC by the Greens’ youth wing co-chair Ghaith El-Mohtar, the motion’s author, was that it might “win over former NDP supporters who oppose Thomas Mulcair’s unquestioning support of Israel.”
If that was the plan, Green Party president Paul Estrin wasn’t in on it, and he’s now being buried under the towering obscenities of an “anti-Zionist” dogpile over an essay he wrote last Friday on his personal weblog (hosted at the Green Party home page), titled “Why Gaza Makes Me Sad.” Estrin’s primary transgression appears to be his acknowledgement that the terrorist crime syndicate known as Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip by truncheon and firing squad, is an important reason why Gazans have been suffering so horribly in recent years.
If this poll is anything to go by, the overwhelming majority of Gazans appear to broadly agree with Estrin. But by Monday morning, on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere, dozens of vicious, unhinged denunciations were being heaped upon him, and it hasn’t let up. Estrin has been called an “IDF spokesman,” a liar, “Anti-Palestinian to the core” and worse (small samplings can be found here and here). The ipolitics columnist Andrew Mitrovica, who has lately become a champion of the “anti-Zionists” and their anti-Mulcair cause, went so far as to insinuate on Monday that in his “long diatribe,” Estrin suggested that “Palestinian children are, in part, responsible for their own deaths.”
While not quite throwing Estrin under the bus, Elizabeth May has quickly distanced herself from him. “I do not agree with him. Those are his personal opinions. Not party policy. . . His views are contrary to #GPC position. We support peace. We condemn violence,” la la la, and this is where everything gets even curiouser.
Agree with it or not, Estrin’s essay, from top to bottom, is most obviously an expression of deep and sincere sympathy for the bloodied and brutalized people of Gaza. You could say it’s sloppy. You could say it overlooks the Israeli government’s irresponsible continuation of the West Bank settlements (which are in no way an immediately relevant issue anyway). You could say a lot of things about it, but at least it doesn’t retreat into the cowardice of some half-baked “neutrality” towards Hamas.
Widespread outbreaks of pathological “anti-Zionist” hysterics tend to erupt whenever the Israeli state asserts its security interests by force of arms, as it is now doing with Operation Protective Edge, and as it did with Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012 and with Operation Cast Lead in 2008-09. It is a pattern that leaves thousands of innocent Palestinians dead, injured, homeless, and further brutalized.
It shouldn’t be controversial to notice, as Estrin does, that the cycles of this pattern tend to be set off by such neighbourly entreaties as barrages of rockets launched at innocent Israeli citizens by a Jew-hating rejectionist cult and protection racket that funds its mischief by diverting international aid intended for the Gazan masses.
That Hamas has persisted in the costly acquisition of ever more deadly missile arsenals should not be anathema to a progressive analysis of the oppression of the people of Gaza. That Hamas has robbed the Palestinian people to pay for the construction of heavily-fortified underground command bunkers and a vast underground “terror tunnel” network that has taken the lives of at least 160 child labourers, “prized for their nimble bodies” should not be unmentionable.
But these things are very controversial to speak about out loud, especially if one is an official of, say, the Green Party, so much so as to induce moral panic. That is how far the “anti-Zionist” toxin has spread. It has gotten so that the Canadian Left has lost the practical capacity for a broadly decent and legitimately progressive, pro-peace critique on the question of Israel and Palestine. The hysterics drown out everything else.
The “anti-Zionists” are right about one thing: there isn’t much in the way of a robust and defensible Oppostion critique of Ottawa’s uniquely militant and unashamedly “pro-Israel” posture towards the conflict. The NDP’s Paul Dewar has been reduced to whining that Ottawa is just “rubber stamping everything that comes from Benjamin Netanyahu,” but has nothing to offer beyond a timid insistence that Ottawa should instead be telling Netanyahu that “there are too many civilian casualties and it’s unacceptable.”
When a Green Party president merely allows himself to think out loud in an honest and harmless essay that sets out the reasons why Gaza makes him sad, and for his trouble he’s subjected to a cyberlynching, it should tell you that we’ve entered a realm of moral bedlam. It becomes a nuthouse of the kind that saw the “anti-Zionist” crank, 911 Truther and Moammar Qadaffi devotee Cynthia McKinney elected leader of the Green Party in the United States.
Canada’s Greens will have to find their own way out of this mess, but the sooner they see the merits of the NDP leadership’s interim antidote – quarantine, inoculate, bar, isolate, marginalize – the better.
http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/the-anti-zionist-mob-turns-its-attentions-to-green-party-president-paul-estrin
------------------
www.independent.co.uk/.../stephen-fry-hits-back-at-accusations-of-islamophobia-8793025.html - Cached - Similar
1 Sep 2013 ... Stephen Fry has spoken
of his frustration at being labelled an "Islamophobe" for criticising the violent acts ... However, he added:
"Do I believe that all Muslims want to see my civilisation destroyed? .... Calling
all fashionistas!
---------------
HERE'S REAL ENVIRONMENT IN ACTION...
Princeton
grad from Dartmouth nears 'holy grail' of green energy storage
BEVERLEY
WARE SOUTH SHORE BUREAU
Published
July 29, 2014 - 8:20pm
Last
Updated July 30, 2014 - 9:45am
Energy Minister Andrew Younger, left, Danielle
Fong, co-founder and chief scientist at LightSail Energy, and Stan Mason,
president of Watts Wind Energy, announce a project Tuesday that will test a new
way to store renewable energy. (BEVERLEY WARE / South Shore Bureau)
When
Danielle Fong was taking her PhD in plasma physics at Princeton University at
the age of 17, she wasn’t driven to be the best — she was driven by an urgency
to solve the world’s energy problem.
Though
she missed her mother’s cooking back home in Dartmouth — “My mom makes the best
omelettes” — Fong focused on her mission to make green energy a practical
reality for everyone.
“Solving
the energy problem is the problem of my generation,” she said Tuesday.
And
the 26-year-old believes she has come up with a way to do that — she just has
to prove it to the industrial sector.
Fong
believes she has cracked the problem of how to store renewable energy, like
wind power, so the resource can still be used when the wind isn’t blowing.
Think about it: storage is critical when you’re relying on resources that don’t
provide constant energy.
“Energy
storage is the holy grail in the … industry,” said Nova Scotia’s Energy
Minister Andrew Younger, and its absence has been the limiting factor in green
energy’s expansion.
If you
can develop technology to provide consistent wind or solar power you “suddenly
break the barrier of the limits of renewable energy on the grid,” Younger said.
Fong’s
technology is a “world first” and her backers include Bill Gates, France’s
Total, which is one of the world’s largest petroleum companies, and the
provincial government.
Unsurprsingly,
MIT Technology Review named Fong one of its 35 Innovators Under 35 in 2012 for
developing this technology, which uses compressed air to store energy. (She
started classes at Dalhousie University when she was 12.)
Not
only could her invention increase the uptake of green energy, but Fong said it
means Nova Scotia could be able to export more of the resource, further
shrinking our reliance on fossil fuels.
That
means instead of considering growth at the expense of the environment, society
will be able to think in terms of “growth with the environment, growth in the
environment, (and) growth harnessing the environment,” Fong said.
Her
technology will be tested at the former Bowater Mersey mill site in Brooklyn,
Queens County, which is now the site of ReNova Scotia Bioenergy Inc.
The
former mill is home to another clean energy innovator CelluFuel Inc., which
turns low-value wood fibre into renewable diesel fuel.
Fong’s
Berkeley, Calif., company LightSail Energy will work with a Dartmouth-based
firm to prove her technology over the next 20 years.
“This
is by far the coolest project I’ve ever worked on,” the president of
Dartmouth’s Watts Wind Energy said.
Stanley
Mason’s company will erect a test tower in a month about five kilometres away
from the former Bowater mill to get site-specific wind data.
Then
his company will build three wind turbines on land owned by the Department of Natural
Resources on a hill off Highway 103 outside Liverpool and erect power lines and
poles running parallel to Nova Scotia Power’s system directly to the former
mill.
There,
the unique technology will use compressed air to store energy. The idea for using
compressed air isn’t new — but Fong’s method is, allowing greater efficiency
than ever before and enabling far larger amounts of energy storage.
She
developed a system to inject very fine, yet dense, water spray into the air
during compression, which ultimately allows for higher pressure expansion and
efficiency.
The
system at Bowater will also use industrial waste heat produced by woodchips
burned at Nova Scotia Power’s Brooklyn Energy plant and used to power the
bioenergy centre.
Fong
said adding the waste stream will bring the system’s energy recovery from about
60 per cent to more than 80 per cent.
The
power produced by her innovation will feed into the community through Nova
Scotia Power’s grid.
“It
works in the lab but we haven’t shown it to work in the field in an environment
where cold weather occurs and we haven’t shown it to work where we’re
harnessing the power of waste heat energy from woodchips or any other
industrial source,” Fong said. “This will be a world first.”
The
system is expected to begin operating in 2016.
And
Fong said investment in renewable energy is already drawing “phenomenal”
interest from venture capitalists and inventors.
Her
company chose this province over California because “the utilities will work
with us, Innovacorp works with us, the economic development agencies work with
us,” she said. “What we found is it’s a great place to do business … People are
prepared to imagine a future.”
The
technology has other applications, including providing energy in undeveloped
countries and developing compressed-air vehicles. Fong said those vehicles
would recharge quickly and can easily be adapted to also take a fuel.
Mayor
Christopher Clarke said the LightSail project means a lot to the Region of
Queens.
“It’s
so exciting to have world class technology right on our doorstep,” he said.
“It’s what we dreamed of when Innovacorp came in on this site,” he said.
Clarke
said he believes such projects will help the community grow, especially seeing
a facility that supported the traditional forestry for decades transformed to
develop technology to be used around the world.
And in
a province in which nearly 25 per cent of electricity comes from renewable
energy — a figure expected to hit 40 per cent by 2020 — the energy minister
said Fong’s invention would reach beyond the Maritimes.
“This
isn’t about a small project in Nova Scotia, this is about conquering the world
when it comes to wind storage.”
NOVA SCOTIA:
David Wheeler’s final report on hydraulic fracturing will be issued just days before world leaders gather at UN headquarters in New York to discuss the urgent need for action on climate change. In the first meeting of its kind, UN Secretary-General...
BLOGGED:
Canada’s
most iconic – Lobster- Come Visit Nova Scotia – go fishing with r
fishers-church suppers- Canada’s Ocean Playground- recipies- Maritime Lobster
Panel Report- Canada’s Atlantic Nova Scotia has the most frigid waters 4
Lobster – why their shells are perfect all year round- Largest lobsters ev-a
photos/fisher videos…
AND....
CHECK
IT OUT..... SEA-LICE FAKE SALMON- FISH
FARMS...
What
open-pen salmon can learn from landlubber lobster
STEWART
LAMONT
Published
July 29, 2014 - 5:15pm
Last Updated July 29, 2014 - 5:20pm
Waves crash against rock embankments that protect the
Escuminac Road against erosion as post-tropical storm Arthur whips the New
Brunswick coast on July 5. (DIANE DOIRON / CP)
Earlier this month, the regulatory review panel (Meinhard Doelle and William
Lahey) released its draft report on
aquaculture.They concluded the status quo no longer works. Not even a little bit. The panel determined a massive overhaul of the model we know as open-net-pen fish farming is urgently required.
Forty-eight hours later after the release of this seminal report, post- tropical storm Arthur wreaked havoc throughout Nova Scotia with a particular jolt to coastal waters. Amid the power outages and disruption burdening the province, someone posed a fascinating question: Was this Mother Nature weighing in on the panel’s report? Was she suggesting, and by no means delicately: “Professors Doelle and Lahey, have you completed your study? Are you sure you have fully factored in climate change? Because this topic changes everything for generations to come ... .”
Mother Nature does not speak to me all that often, and when she does, I don’t always listen. But from my office situated all of five metres from the Atlantic Ocean on the Eastern Shore, I know what I see on a daily basis.
After 34 years of watching intently, I don’t like this picture. Storms are more frequent and much more severe when they impact us on the coast. When you look out on Shoal Bay and see the riled-up waters and wind action, it is by times a horrifying thing. When you try to imagine farm-raised salmon or trout living in cages in such conditions, crowded beyond belief and all reason, it is truly mystifying.
Observer after observer has asked me one single question: “Why haven’t the so-called sea farmers discovered land in 2014?”
That’s one question I cannot answer. I am guessing they have not been looking all that carefully — perhaps the low cost / no cost leases on the water have been a bit of a distraction. But just because something is given to fish farmers for practically nothing does not mean there aren’t huge costs borne by the rest of us. I’m assuming those “massive externalities,” as the economists like to call them, have not been factored in, ever. It is high time they were tallied up in my coastal opinion. I’ll lend them a calculator.
Adding to the irony — and, trust me, there is plenty of that to go around — lobster stakeholders discovered terra firma long ago. Over the course of the last 25 years, more and more lobster storage has transitioned from the ocean to the land.
Lobster stakeholders pioneered the on-land closed-containment facilities that are now so controversial in feedlot circles.
These on-land lobster facilities are really quite remarkable: we can control water temperature to the precise degree every hour of the day. We can control oxygen content easily and cheaply — and even waste levels with elaborate filtration equipment that is now available straight off the shelf. We can ensure the salinity never changes despite the amount of rainfall, night or day. We can even provide lobster condominiums that replicate the solitary nature of ocean circumstances in which our crustacean guests can chill out, so to speak.
Simply put, we can make our lobster inventory feel completely at home and fully safe regardless of the situation. Neither disease nor predators will ever challenge them. It is a lobster-sustainable world in more ways than one.
That stormy day during when Arthur howled and shut down half the province, there were millions of pounds of premium-quality lobster safely tucked away on land throughout Nova Scotia wondering what the fuss was about. They were absolutely oblivious to the life-threatening conditions their farm-raised-salmon brethren were facing at sea.
The differences in the circumstances of lobster and feedlot salmon and trout are really beyond belief. It is a story not widely known nor fully understood.
Are there actual lessons to be learned here before it is too late? Is it just possible that some of the applied science technology embraced by lobster could also be used for raising salmon and trout? Feedlots transitioned to land are no longer feedlots. That is the bottom line. They would avoid the harsh reality of climate change and their waste would no longer endanger the coast. I dare say it would be a good news story in every sense that we could proudly tell the world.
Yes — I concede — there would be a monthly utility bill to pay for the fish-farm operators. You can be darn sure that would come as a bit of a shock to those folks. They have a business that is first and foremost built on entitlement. Changing that mindset and culture won’t come easily if it ever comes at all. But I am guessing in the grand scheme of things, relative to the risk to our wild fisheries and the future of our coastal communities, this is a very small cost indeed.
We need a sea change in feedlot salmon, if you will. We need it yesterday. Lessons learned in lobster can be provided immediately and free of charge. If only government and those stubborn fish farmers would actually listen for a change, we in the lobster industry could actually help by finding them an on-land solution.
Stewart Lamont is managing director, Tangier Lobster Company
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BLOGGED:
Thursday,
November 7, 2013
Why is
Sea Shepherd, Greenpeace and PETA- sooooooo heavily funded???... and so
violent?- 60% world youth have no jobs, economy in tatters- 3 billion children
women starving abject poverty- u must change
-------------
JUST IN FROM DER SPEIGEL
JULY 29 2014
They've become terrorists... and
Greenpeace needs 2 care about humanity- seriously, we know they want the
world's population of children cut by about 70%.... but Greenpeace... we need u
2be humane and obey nations laws..... imho - all the good work u've done is
gone 2 sheeet in the last few years... imho
Peter Foster: Greenpeace stands
for delay, delay, delay
Financial Post | Business
Greenpeace’s lawyers claim that
the most recent decision against Greenpeace touches on “the right of non-profit
organizations such as Greenpeace to disseminate information about environmental
protection issues without being sued in the absence of a complete factual
basis.”
Told to file a defence in
Resolute case, Greenpeace instead files appeal
Greenpeace Canada continues to
squirm to avoid coming up with a defence against Resolute Forest Products’
$7-million lawsuit alleging “intentional interference with economic relations;”
that is, trying to destroy Resolute’s business by pressuring its customers
Last Friday, lawyers for
Greenpeace sought leave to appeal the decision of the Divisional Court of
Ontario (which had rejected an earlier appeal and told Greenpeace to file a
defence, plus pay costs).
The case has significant
ramifications for whether radical NGOs will be allowed to continue to spread
misinformation, trample over corporate reputations, and destroy business and
jobs. This is somewhat related to those over-ballyhooed CRA audits of
charitable institutions, although Greenpeace had its charity status removed
long ago. In fact, “intentional interference with economic relations” could
almost be Greenpeace’s mission statement.
The suit goes back to claims made
by Greenpeace about Resolute’s business practices after the radical
environmental NGO exited the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, the deeply
flawed 2010 deal under which forestry companies were persuaded that they could
buy off their radical opponents by becoming “partners” in plans to sanitize
huge swathes of Canada in the name of “environmental protection.” Screw the
people who lived there.
To everybody’s surprise, Resolute
demonstrated some rare corporate backbone and sued, which led Greenpeace to
redouble its attack both through social media, and – more significant – by
applying pressure to Resolute’s customers both directly and indirectly, aided
by radical cohorts such as ForestEthics, another CBFA signatory.
Greenpeace’s lawyers claim in
their latest leave to appeal that Resolute failed to identify anybody who had
been “interfered with.” In fact, Greenpeace has sent scores of letters to
Resolute’s customers containing thinly disguised threats, and these have been
made available to the courts. One such was sent in January to David Paterson,
the head of Verso Paper Corp., based in Memphis, Tennessee. Mr. Paterson is
significant because he was head of Resolute (then Abitibi Bowater) when it
signed the CBFA.
So now he’s reaping the
whirlwind.
The letter, from Joanna Kerr,
Executive Director of Greenpeace Canada, wanted a meeting ”to discuss
Resolute’s forest management practices and how we can help you ensure that your
customers are being supplied with the ‘sustainable’ products they prefer and
have come to expect.”
Such customer concern!
The letter noted that “Resolute
has recently come under a brighter spotlight,” but failed to record that the
spotlight had been wielded by Greenpeace. It also pointed out that three of
Resolute’s Forest Stewardship Council certificates had been suspended. Since
Greenpeace is a founder of the Forest Stewardship Council, this suspension
confirms what “social licence” is really all about: bringing corporations to
heel.
The letter declared that Resolute
had refused to adopt the Movement’s “science based conservation plans,” and,
instead of “collaborating,” had launched its $7 million lawsuit. “I suggest,”
concluded Ms. Kerr, “that customers should consider these issues closely when
assessing and/or renewing contracts with Resolute.”
Greenpeace’s lawyers claim that
the most recent decision against Greenpeace touches on “the right of non-profit
organizations such as Greenpeace to disseminate information about environmental
protection issues without being sued in the absence of a complete factual
basis.”
But the real issue is that of
disseminating job-destroying misinformation. Meanwhile, not only does the
“factual basis” appear pretty solid, but Greenpeace may have other costly legal
clouds gathering on the horizon.
In April of this year, Chief Earl
Klyne of the Seine River First Nation in Northwest Ontario wrote to Greenpeace
refuting its claims that Resolute had shown “disregard” for indigenous
communities. Indeed, he noted that the company had good relations with his
people. Chief Klyne made no bones about the fact that Greenpeace “does not
speak or represent us on anything.”
The punch line that must have
sent a chill through Greenpeace’s vast, global anti-development bureaucracy was
“We will be watching the final outcome of the [Resolute] lawsuit with interest
as it makes allegations that may form the basis for a similar lawsuit that we
could consider launching against Greenpeace should you not cease your
publishing of falsehoods regarding our rights and your unnecessary interference
in our negotiations and continuing partnership with companies such as
Resolute.”
I think Chief Klyne is accusing
Greenpeace of “intentional interference.” They have an important case to
answer. Once, that is, they have exhausted every other legal, PR and corporate
arm-twisting option.
----------------------
and first nations betray's
Canadians who stood up proudly and bravely (many of us since the 60s especially
4 First People's of Canada women.... and children and the horrific treatmen
under the Indian Act and Chiefs and Councils... )- IT'S ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT-
AND 2DA WE HAVE A FIRST NATIONS GROUP SELLING CANADA ENVIRONMENT 2 CHINA ... 4
OIL...
BLOGGED:
IDLE NO MORE CANADA- WHAT THE
F**K???- u deal with China 4 Oil???? – u betray millions and millions of
Canadians who stepped up and supported u and our environment- entrusting u with
our nature- some tribes will die 2 save environment- others sell out??? WTF???
CANADA’S BROKEN HEART
--------------
BLOGGED:
CANADA MILITARY NEWS: –
jun- No F**King Fracking Canada- USA BETRAYS ALL WITH COAL AND FRACKING- Why
lie- Obama routing coal 2 china through California
----------------------
BLOGGED:
CANADA MILITARY NEWS: One Billion
Rising- no more excuses or abuses- girls and women matter in this world- St.
Mary’s University needs 2 get with 2day’s world and human dignity – privileged
indifference does NOT work in Canada- Women equal Men in Canada- Blogs -ALWAYS
…GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS
BLOGGED:
Canada’s York University-
SHAME-SHAME ON U- women equal men in r Canada- One Billion Rising- no more
excuses
-----------------
did u know..
In 2001, Canada became the first country in the world to sanction the medicinal use of marijuana. The new law allowed severely ill patients — with a doctor’s approval — to apply to Health Canada to grow and smoke pot
-------------
IDLE NO MORE.... still b elieve.... there is no way youngblood Canadians would sell out environment 4 oil.... of the First Peoples 10,000 years.... just can't believe this... it's must be the old Chief's of 30 years and their Councils..... (Much like towns, cities and municipalities, provinces and feds across Canada- in for 4 years in for 20 years or 30 years...imho)
Ontario to seek probe in mercur y poisoning
MARIA BABBAGE THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — Ontario will push for a review of a board that oversees compensation for residents of two First Nations still suffering health issues from mercury poisoning that occurred five decades ago, Aboriginal Affairs Minister David Zimmer said Tuesday.
The minister said he will work with the federal government and Wabaseemoong First Nation to gain their approval for a review that would look at the level of benefits provided by the Mercury Disability Board, which has come under fire by aboriginal groups.
“I think Ontarians, First Nation memb ers and indeed all Canadians . . . feel in their hear ts that something has to be done," Zimmer said.
Ontario would also look at options for more treatment for Grassy Narrows First Nation residents in their community, he said, as they currently have to travel long distances for medical help.
Water around Grassy Narrows has b een contaminated with mercury since a lo cal pap er mill dumped an estimated 10 tonnes of neurotoxins into the system between 1962 and 1970.
Z immer said he was stirred during his three-hour talk on Sunday with former Grassy Narrows chief Steve Fobister, who suffers from the debilitating neurological effects of mercury poisoning and has b een pushing for the review.
“Hearing directly from him in a very human way what mercury poisoning is all about, it moves the soul and it moves everyone to want to do something to combat it ," he said.
Fobister said he’ll end the hunger strike that he started Monday to spur action on the issu e.
“The minister’s statement has brought some measure of comfort, but we still have work to do," he said. Fobister said he wants to s ee greater participation from both levels of government to be “seriously committed, not just to play political and legal games with the persisting problems that we’re dealing with at this time."
The Mercury Disability Board, which includes both levels of government, was formed in 1985 as part of an out-of-court settlement reached between Grassy Narrows and the Wabaseemoong Independent Nations and Ottawa, the province and two pap er companies over mercury-related claims.
The Grassy Narrows First Nation said Monday it had obtained an unreleased report that found the board’s criteria to determine whether s omeone had symptoms consistent with mercury poisoning were based on old science.
The report, which was commissioned by the board in 2009, also said there was “no doubt" people in the nor thwestern Ontario community of roughly 1,600 near Kenora suffered from mercuryrelated neurological disorders.
It found the board recognized only 38 per cent of the cases identified by other experts, noting the discrepancies “are due to different criteria used for evaluations" than those employed by Japanese experts who examined the community between 1975 and 2 004.
Zimmer said he’ll call federal officials Tuesday afternoon to get the ball rolling and travel Aug. 6 to Grassy Narrows.
“It’s appropriate after 29 years — as you would any organization — to review (the board), to bring it up to date, to get the best science that we can possibly get, to get the best advice on how the board should operate," he said.
First Nations and governments have been talking for the last 50 years about the issue and it can’t go on forever, Fobister said.
“I don’t think I have any more level of comfort to talk another 50 years," he said. I think Ontarians, First Nation members and indeed all Canadians . . . feel in their hearts that something has to be done.
David Zimmer Ontario aboriginal affairs minister
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