The Dominion - The Media Co-op

Transcription

Who’s afraid of lunch meat?
Green cars, dirty mines
Tar sands ooze into prairies
The Dominion
news from the grassroots
Showdown
in Elsipogtog:
Seven months of shale gas
resistance in New Brunswick
The Media
Co-op
Jan
92 Feb
2014
issue
www.mediacoop.ca
www.dominionpaper.ca
$5
Contents
3
Front Lines
4
Environment
6
8
10
12
by Media Co-op
Contributors
Tar Sands,
Saskatchewan
by Sandra Cuffe
Pipelines
Stopping the Flow
by Dan Kellar and
Rachel Avery
Midwifery
Undocumented Labour
by Rivka Cymbalist
Mining
Toyota Prius Not So
Green After All
by Claire StewartKanigan
The Dominion magazine
13
Vancouver
Media Co-op
14
COVER Story
18
20
BC Premier’s
House ‘Fracked’!
by murray bush flux photo
Showdown in
Elsipogtog
by Miles Howe
Farming
Deli Meat Raid Sparks
Real-Life Food Fight
by Sheldon Birnie
Pipelines
A Threat to Winnipeg’s
Water Supply?
by Shelagh Pizey-Allen
22
Toronto
Media Co-op
23
toronto
Media Co-op
24
Coop Média de
Montréal
25
LETTERS
Rob Ford and Harm
Reduction
by Rob Connell
Why Hasn’t Ford
Been Charged?
by TMC contributors
Opposition to Enbridge
Grows
by CMM contributors
and Arij Riahi
Back Talk
Compiled by
Moira Peters
Vancouver
Media Co-op
No Support For
Peer Support
by Ron Carten
is part of the Media Co-op, a
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The Dominion
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Member Profile
Darryl Richardson
The Media Co-op’s Board of Directors and staff are
very happy to welcome Darryl Richardson to our
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studied journalism at Sheridan College and broadcast
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2012, he joined the Editorial Collective at TMC.
Darryl’s work tends to focus on poverty, police
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2
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Front Lines
RCMP descended on an anti-shale gas encampment with guns drawn. Photo by Miles Howe.
Automated care for veterans, hashtags for
Elsipogtog, people power against Barrick Gold
by Media Co-op Contributors
On October 17, computer screens across the country lit up
with news and images of the RCMP’s aggressive intervention
in protests against shale gas exploration in Elsipogtog, New
Brunswick. Federal RCMP and tactical units from Nova Scotia,
PEI, New Brunswick and Quebec arrested at least 40 protesters.
The pre-dawn raid targeted a highway encampment that had
been preventing SWN Resources from conducting seismic testing
in the area.
As of December, four Mi’kmaq warriors arrested during the
raid were still in jail. Police repression has stepped up against
Elsipogtog elders, residents and independent journalists.
Nova Scotia’s new Liberal government has wasted no time in
opening up the province to gas development, issuing East Coast
Energy a permit for two exploratory wells in Pictou County within
its first few days in office. The province’s energy minister insisted
there will be no hydraulic fracturing.
Former Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine was
named to the board of New Brunswick Power. Fontaine is
infamous for having shared information with the RCMP in order
to monitor Indigenous protests in 2007.
A natural gas liquefaction plant may be coming to rural
Goldoboro, Nova Scotia. The province’s environmental
assessment notes that the proposed plant will have the capacity to
process and export 10 million tons of natural gas per year.
The Harper Government’s cuts to Veterans Affairs service
providers stands to leave thousands of Canadian veterans
dealing with automated phone and web-site services, rather than
real human beings. The story gained national attention in the
lead up to Remembrance Day.
Montreal’s streets filled with protesters marching “together
against the xenophobic charter.” Officially known as the Charter
of Quebec Values, proposed by the province’s Parti Québécois
government, the legislation would make it illegal for public
employees to wear overt religious symbols.
The Dominion January/ February 2014
Increasing gentrification in downtown Toronto is presenting
homeless people with a dilemma: staying close to services and
community in the downtown, or relocating to find more secure
housing.
In Vancouver, Greenpeace activists locked themselves to
equipment at the Kinder Morgan tar sands pipeline site in
protest of the company’s plan to expand its pipeline capacity and
to increase tanker traffic along BC’s coast.
October marked the one-year anniversary of the Cohen Report
on the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River. In
the year since the release of the federally commissioned report,
Fisheries and Oceans Canada has kept mum on the report’s
recommendations. Scientists across Canada are raising alarm
bells about the Harper government’s “big chill” on scientific
inquiry.
The US government shut down from October 1 to October 16,
after Congress reached a stalemate over the 2014 budget. During
the shutdown, government services were closed and government
employees furloughed (suspended without pay).
Congolese state-owned mining company Gecamines is apparently
in the advanced stages of selling off assets to a massive copper
mine. The Democratic Republic of Congo has reportedly lost
out on over $1.36 billion between 2010 and 2012 due to shady
Gecamines dealings—amounting to twice the country’s annual
spending on health and education.
A senior Israeli official has announced plans to continue
settlement building in the occupied West Bank and East
Jerusalem, alleging that Palestinians were aware of this before
peace talks recommenced in July. Settlement building is illegal
under international law.
Reeling from continuous people-powered actions, Canadian
mining company Barrick Gold is suspending activities in its
highly controversial Pascua-Lama project, a mega-mine that
straddles the Chilean-Argentinian border.
3
Environment
Tar Sands, Saskatchewan
Extreme extraction plans rejected by local residents
by Sandra Cuffe
LA LOCHE, SASKATCHEWAN—La
Loche is almost the end of the road in
northwestern Saskatchewan, 600 kilometres north of Saskatoon. Even the kids play
in Dene here. It’s one of the things other
northerners describe about the place:
some 90 per cent of the 3,500 people in
the town of La Loche and the neighbouring
Clearwater River Dene Nation still speak
their language.
Heading north through the boreal forest
on a road that leads to the Cluff Lake
uranium mine, which shut down a decade
ago, the flat lands give way to rolling hills.
Exploration work continues around the
string of lakes, but these days uranium
isn’t the only thing resource companies are
looking for. A hundred kilometres north of
La Loche, no-trespassing signs now surround the Axe Lake tar sands project.
If industry has its way, Saskatchewan’s
tar sands deposits may not remain under
the sandy forest floor for much longer. Axe
Lake is under new ownership, and two new
exploration permits have been sold off to
the highest bidder.
At an informal gathering with other
Denesuline activists, Daniel Montgrand
sits by the fire at a campsite he built near
his late father’s birthplace on the Clearwater River, between La Loche and Axe Lake.
From here, the river winds its way to Fort
McMurray, where it flows into the Athabasca. The small clearing amid the jack
pines feels like a world away, but it’s not
far to the tar sands in Alberta: as the raven
flies, it’s less than 150 kilometres from
Fort McMurray.
Montgrand, a La Loche resident, first
heard of tar sands plans for Saskatchewan
in 1998. Ten years later, in 2008, La Loche
municipal leaders signed a Memorandum
of Understanding with Calgary-based
Oilsands Quest Inc, the first owner of the
Axe Lake tar sands concession. “There was
no consultation held anywhere. They just
went into one little office there and [signed
the agreement]. They stole the land away,”
Montgrand told The Dominion. “What’s
happened in the north is they
opened up a floodgate for the companies to
come in and do whatever they want.”
Tar sands exploration in the area isn’t
entirely new. Several wells were drilled in
the 1970s, but the technologies to exploit
the bitumen that lies 185 metres underground had not yet been developed. In
June 2004, Texas company PowerMax
Energy was issued an exploration permit
for lands north of the Clearwater River
covering 570,000 hectares—a concession
the size of Prince Edward Island. Oilsands
Quest acquired the permit from Petromax
that same year.
“What’s happened in
the north is they opened
up a floodgate for the
companies.”
—Daniel Montgrand, Denesuline
activist & La Loche resident
After five years of work during which
company contractors drilled more than
300 exploratory wells, Oilsands Quest
embarked on formal application processes
to build and operate multi-well pads for
in situ production and a central processing facility. Their estimates pegged the
resources at Axe Lake at 30,000 barrels
per day for 25 years or more. Because of
the depth of the deposit, extraction is complicated and costly. Following the 2008–
2009 global market crisis, Oilsands Quest,
a junior exploration company, couldn’t get
the financing it needed to go ahead. The
company filed for bankruptcy in Alberta in
2011, and in the US the following year.
Also in 2011, investors filed a securities
fraud class-action lawsuit against Oilsands Quest and its directors, including
Canadian Senator Pamela Wallin, alleging
they intentionally overstated the value of
bitumen resources. A $10.2 million settlement was reached in August 2013. By then,
the project was already in the hands of a
bigger player with deeper pockets, much
less likely to face financing difficulties.
In October 2012, Calgary-based Cenovus
Energy bought Oilsands Quest’s remaining assets—the 34,000-hectare oil sands
permit in Saskatchewan containing the
Axe Lake project, and the Raven Ridge
and Wallace Creek leases in Alberta—for
$10 million. The three blocks are adjacent to Cenovus’ Telephone Lake project
in Alberta. According to the company, if
Telephone Lake is approved, construction
will begin in 2014.
Montgrand never did find out exactly
what was contained in the agreement La
Loche signed with industry. Even when
he later became a town councillor, he was
unable to obtain the document. “I keep
telling them until today: come out and tell
the public,” he said, as the coffee percolated over the fire.
A stone’s throw away, multi-coloured
ribbons flutter in the wind. They hang
from a small wooden structure housing
plaques dedicated to the memory of Montgrand’s parents. The memorial is the first
of many, he said, to mark important places
where the Denesuline have occupied the
territory. To this day, people use the lands
up to Axe Lake and far beyond, added
Montgrand.
Local trappers say they have also been
unsuccessful in finding out the deal’s
content, and that they were never consulted about the Axe Lake project. A gate
and fences around the project have cut off
access to their traplines.
Some 200 kilometres to the south, tar
sands exploration work is also underway.
Five oil sands special exploratory
permits north of the Primrose Lake Air
Weapons Range were on the auction block
at Saskatchewan’s December 2012 sale
of Crown petroleum, natural gas and oil
sands rights. Two of the bids with a combined value of $1 million were accepted,
and exploration permits were granted for
200,000 hectares to Scott Land & Lease
Ltd. The Calgary-based land services firm
acquires surface rights, leases and permits
on behalf of corporate clients in the extractive, energy and infrastructure sectors.
Neither the Buffalo River Dene Nation
4
Environment
(BRDN) nor the two neighbouring communities, St. George’s Hill and Michel
Village, were consulted or even notified
about the new permits. “There was no
consultation whatsoever,” BRDN Chief
Lance Byhette told The Dominion. “Due to
that fact, we decided to take the province
to court regarding this because it’s in our
traditional territory.”
On June 4, 2013, the BRDN began legal
action against the Saskatchewan government, filing a judicial review application in
the Court of Queen’s Bench. The failure to
consult violates Section 35 of the Constitution Act of 1982, according to BRDN,
since their members exercise treaty rights
within the areas covered by the oil sands
special exploratory permits.
A hearing for the application has been
set for November 12 to 13, 2013, in Saskatoon.
The lands permitted to Scott Land &
Lease include hunting, trapping and plant
harvesting grounds, as well as cabins,
trails, traditional campsites and burial
sites. The BRDN reserve is a mere 20
kilometres away. Local people don’t want
to see the region turn into what they see in
northern Alberta, said Byhette.
Neither does the Saskatchewan Environmental Society (SES). For the past five
years, the SES has been advocating for a
halt to any provincial permits or approvals for tar sands activities until a strategic
regional environmental assessment for
northwestern Saskatchewan is carried out.
“The sort of usual process of environmental assessment just looks at one
development and the particular impact
that that one development would have
on a number of features of the environment, but the strategic regional approach
is a much more comprehensive planning
tool that I think would enable us to make
better long-term decisions,” SES research
advisor Ann Coxworth told The Dominion.
A comprehensive assessment would take
the natural features, sociology, economics, culture and so forth into account as
a region, she said. SES maintains that
Tar sands extraction seeps into Saskatchewan without local consent. Illustration by Daniel Rotsztain
the impacts of tar sands extraction go far
beyond the individual projects.
A 2009 report produced by the SES, the
Pembina Institute and the Canadian Parks
and Wilderness Society found acid rain is
both a threat and a current reality in the
region. One estimate calculates 65 to 70
per cent of the acid-producing sulphur
dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions from
tar sands activity in Alberta are carried
over into Saskatchewan by the wind.
Northern Saskatchewan has some of the
most acid-sensitive soil in Canada, according to the 2009 report, citing forest soil
research produced for the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. “The
terrain in northwestern Saskatchewan [is]
very vulnerable to acid, just because of
the nature of the geology. And so if there
is an increase in acid rain, it could fairly
quickly damage forests and lakes and fish.
So I think it’s a really serious issue,” said
Coxworth. New tar sands developments in
Saskatchewan would likely compound the
problem.
Studies or no studies, BRDN members say the impacts have already begun.
“People do have concerns and the people
that are always occupying the territory,
they notice some different changes within
the territory,” said Byhette. He went out
onto the land with other BRDN members
and elders to see some of the changes,
including in the pines, for himself. Locals
suspect acid rain from Alberta’s tar sands
is largely to blame, he said.
With work at the Axe Lake project
picking up again under new ownership
and with the court challenge to the new
exploration permits, the future of the tar
sands in Saskatchewan remains uncertain.
Byhette and others vow to protect their
traditional territories. “We want to for sure
maintain that for generations to come,”
he said. “We don’t want to see that go. It
won’t, is what it boils down to.”
Sandra Cuffe is a vagabond freelance journalist. She recently spent several months in
northern Saskatchewan.
5
Pipelines
Stopping the Flow
Line 9 organizing in context
by Dan Kellar and Rachel Avery
HAUDENOSAUNEE TERRITORY
(KITCHENER)—A disquieting black hue
to the water, animals struggling to breathe
amid toxic fumes, a boom dragged across
the river’s width signaling the pipeline’s
rupture and a long, difficult clean-up
ahead. This scene, reflecting the many
pipeline failures in recent years, was
enacted by Enbridge’s emergency response
during an exercise on the Grand River in
September. A spill into the river is a tooreal possibility if the transport of diluted
bitumen (dilbit) is approved for Line 9.
The message from the emergency
response exercise is clear. If energy giant
Enbridge is allowed to transport tar sands
bitumen and fracked oil through Line
9, crossing the Grand River, a pipeline
rupture could destroy the region’s water
systems. And this is why the Waterloo
Region Coalition Against Line 9 was
formed in July 2013: to mount local opposition to Enbridge, and to form a longterm network to defend the Grand River
watershed.
The current proposal from Enbridge
that sparked the creation of the new coalition would allow the transportation of
Alberta’s tar sands bitumen and fracked
oil from North Dakota’s Bakken shale
fields, and reverse the westward flow of its
38-year-old “Line 9” pipeline eastward.
This aged pipeline runs between Sarnia
and Montreal, and transects Waterloo
Region—Six Nations territory—in the
township of North Dumfries, running
underneath the Grand River and its tributary the Nith.
“Line 9 impacts the whole region,” said
Kalin Stacey, a spokesperson for the coalition. “Since it violates treaties and poses
real environmental and economic threats,
we knew a broad base would oppose it,
and that we would need this base to effectively challenge Enbridge and the National
Energy Board’s rubber-stamping process.”
The coalition was initiated by Grand
River Indigenous Solidarity (GRIS), a local
group of settlers working toward decolonization. In building a coalition,
6 GRIS “aimed to create a longer-
lasting network of groups within Waterloo Region,” said spokesperson Kathryn
Wettlaufer, in order “to mount sustained
local resistance that engages the intersectionality of colonial land destruction and
toxic contamination wrought by industry,
focused primarily near marginalized communities.”
The coalition’s campaign included presentations to Waterloo Regional Council,
the Grand River Conservation Authority
(GRCA) and the National Energy Board
(NEB), as well as meeting with individual
councillors and local Member of Provincial
Parliament Catherine Fife.
“We certainly don’t want to
be left with a mess.”
—Rob Deutschmann, mayor of
North Dumfries
Local councillors, previously not
engaged with the project, were moved to
concern by the coalition’s efforts. In the
September 18, 2013, council meeting, Rob
Deutschmann, mayor of North Dumfries,
stated clearly, “We certainly don’t want
to be left with a mess.” Councillor Tom
Galloway commented, “We don’t have any
regulatory authority, but we certainly have
a stake, and the one that pops out at you
obviously is our water supply,” referring
to the region’s dependence on ground and
river water—80 and 20 per cent respectively.
In conjunction with these lobbying
efforts, the coalition undertook a public
education and outreach campaign, holding
speaking events, writing articles, doing
radio interviews and postering extensively
throughout the region. By mid-October,
the coalition had collected over 850 individual and 25 group and corporate signatories to the declaration, received support
from MPP Fife, and caused the Region to
issue a statement of concern and to support the Province of Ontario’s call for a $1
billion contingency fund and third-party
assessment of the pipeline.
For GRIS, the Line 9 campaign is
another step in the long-term project
of pushing the Region and the GRCA to
respect and act upon treaty obligations.
“The Canadian state and smaller levels of
government continue to disregard their
obligations to Indigenous communities,
continuing the process of colonization,”
Wettlaufer explained. “We need to centre
decolonization at the base of every campaign to challenge the colonial attitudes at
the heart of Canadian society.”
Despite the fact that Line 9 crosses 18
Indigenous communities, neither Enbridge
nor the federal government engaged in
meaningful consultation or sought free,
prior and informed consent for the project.
In documents Enbridge submitted to the
NEB, the company admitted that it has
“not reviewed any treaties as a result of
the project,” while the government has not
intervened in the matter. Within the NEB
framework, GRIS foregrounded treaty
obligations, pressing the NEB to understand and uphold its responsibilities under
these agreements.
The implementation of Enbridge’s
proposal violates numerous treaties and
agreements, including the Two Row
Wampum, the Nanfan Treaty, the Haldimand Treaty, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
and the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms. This point was made by band
councils of Kahnawake, Chippewas of the
Thames and Aamjiwnaang, and individual
presenters including Amanda Lickers (for
Rising Tide) and Carrie Lester as they
testified at the Montreal (October 10 to
12) and Toronto (October 16 to 19) NEB
hearings.
Ongoing treaty violations are a common
theme when examining existing industrial projects, built without community
consent and negatively impacting people’s
health. “The environmental racism and
the eco-genocide is part of the colonialism
the Canadian government still practices
today. Aamjiwnaang is only one of the
examples of what is happening on Turtle
Island,” said Lindsay Gray, an Anishinaabe
youth from Aamjiwnaang, an Indigenous
community at the Sarnia terminal of Line
Pipelines
9. Gray recently spoke at a coalition-organized event in Kitchener alongside youth
from Six Nations and settler organizers
from Toronto.
Aamjiwnaang is located in a region
called “chemical valley,” where the health
effects of industry are tangible throughout
the community. “Chemical Valley and Line
9 make life different for the First Nations
on this reservation, with the pollution
of everything around you, your sky, air,
soil, water and the very skin on your back
by the 63 industrial plants surrounding
the 25 kilometre radius,” said Gray. “I’m
serving my purpose as a young Anishinaabe woman to defend the Mother Earth
that provides for me, against the Harper
Government.”
NEB cancelled the final day
of the Toronto hearings and
allowed Enbridge to submit
its final response in writing.
The participation of anti-poverty, anticolonial, animal rights and environmentally focused groups allowed the coalition
to develop an intersectional analysis
informed by a range of struggles. “It was
important for me to work on this campaign because Line 9 brings the tar sands
cataclysm to my community, offering us
a chance to join in the broader struggle
against this bastion of environmental
destruction,” said Dan Lynn, of Common
Cause Kitchener Waterloo. Building
relationships has been a crucial part of the
organizing work. “I sought to strengthen
my alliance with local friends and comrades while building new relationships
and expanding on our networks for future
organizing.”
Enbridge, along with the Canadian state,
prop up a neoliberal capitalist ideology
that depends on white supremacy, patriarchy and an entrenchment of colonialism
to survive, according to Lynn. For him
and others, the Line 9 fight isn’t just about
a pipeline but represents a
struggle against these oppressive forces.
Another of the coalition’s
activities is to inform local
residents of the disastrous
impacts that a spill from Line
9 into the Grand River would
cause. The continuing effects
of Enbridge’s 2010 Line 6b
rupture into the Kalamazoo
River illustrate the magnitude
of this threat, as dilbit remains
in the river three years later.
Dilbit consists of tar sands oil
mixed with a proprietary toxic
slurry of fracked gas and other
chemicals that allow the heavy
product to be pumped through
pipelines. In Michigan,
The Waterloo Region Coalition Against Line 9 is gaining
Enbridge is failing to commomentum. Illustration by Eli Green
pensate tribal councils and
misappraisal, since a boom, central to its
municipalities that incurred
operation, only catches oil on the surface
costs in the process, and is neglecting to
of the water.
even learn from that disaster and impleEven though the NEB cancelled the
ment emergency response training geared
final day of the Toronto hearings due to
to dilbit for Line 9.
security concerns and allowed Enbridge to
Although the coalition’s focus is on
submit its final response in writing, 1,000
public education and political intervenpeople from across Ontario still converged
tion, direct action is an essential part of
on the day to mark their opposition to the
the environmental justice movement.
project. While a decision is not expected
The Climate Change Containment Unit
until January 2014, the coalition will con(CCCU) had a team on the river that
tinue to work using an intersectional and
disrupted Enbridge’s emergency response
anti-colonial analysis as it carries on with
exercise mentioned above. The CCCU
anti-tar sands organizing and watershed
is a flying squad dedicated to curtailing
protection.
climate change-inducing activities, having
“The NEB needs to focus on the security
in past years temporarily shut down gas
concerns represented by Enbridge’s danstations in Waterloo while performing
gerous Line 9 plan, and Canada’s colonial,
mock arrests of oil corporation elites and
self-destructive energy path,” said Stacey.
monitored the 2010 Olympic torch relay
“If they try to ship tar sands through the
through Kitchener.
line, we’ll be there, and by then, there will
During the exercise, Enbridge admitbe more of us.”
ted that it considers dilbit the same as
light crude, despite what was learned in
Rachel Avery and Dan Kellar (@dankellar)
Kalamazoo and in the 2013 rupture of
both organized in Waterloo Region against
Exxon’s Pegasus pipeline in Arkansas:
Line 9. Their efforts included presenting on
bitumen sinks in water as the toxic conbehalf of Grand River Indigenous Solidarity to the NEB as intervenors. More info at
densate vaporises. Enbridge’s response
http://noline9wr.ca @noline9wr #noline9
plan is inadequate due to this fundamental
7
Midwifery
Pregnant refugee and non-status women are facing growing difficulties in accessing pre- & postnatal care. Some doulas in Montreal
are helping to fix that situation. Illustration by Stephanie Law.
Undocumented Labour
Changes to refugee health care put women and babies at risk
by Rivka Cymbalist
MONTREAL—Violet worked as a secretary and raised her two teenage children
by herself. Her husband had been killed
two years previously. After his death,
Violet moved to another town and “kept
quiet” but a year later, her cousin advised
her that she was in danger, so she prepared to move to Canada and make a
refugee claim.
By the time the family arrived in
Canada, people from Mexico were no
longer eligible for extended health care.
Violet was diabetic and needed insulin.
Violet’s daughter Julia was 35 weeks
pregnant by the time Violet had saved
enough money for the flight. They arrived
in Canada and stayed with a friend.
Violet managed to navigate the process
of making a refugee claim and she had
enough money saved to get by. She had
brought a few months’ supply of insulin with her and she hoped to find some
work, but she had not budgeted for winter
clothes or her daughter’s needs.
Violet’s daughter found out that she was
not eligible for prenatal care or covered
for the cost of delivery. She went to a
free clinic for one prenatal visit. She was
referred to a volunteer doula organization
where she was assigned a doula who would
come with her to the hospital.
Julia went into labour at noon. Her
doula came to her house and told her that
because the hospital charged per day from
midnight, it was better to wait until then
to be admitted. At midnight, they went to
the hospital where Julia was offered an
epidural, which she accepted. Julia had
a baby girl and went home the day after.
The hospital stay, plus the charges for the
obstetrician and the anaesthesiologist,
came to almost $10,000. Violet agreed to
pay $300 a month and signed a contract.
When the baby was two months old,
Violet learned that she would be deported,
along with her son, her daughter and
granddaughter. Unfortunately, this kind of
story is becoming increasingly familiar
in Canada.
On June 30, 2012, changes to healthcare coverage for refugees took effect in
Canada. Since 1957 the Interim Federal
Health Program had provided interim
health-care coverage for refugees. This
program covered refugees until they
were eligible for provincial coverage, or
refused refugee claimants until they were
deported. Early in 2012, the federal government suggested that the program was
at risk. “Too many tax dollars are spent on
asylum claimants who are not in need of
protection,” said the minister then responsible, Jason Kenney.
Kenney stated in a press release that
the federal government should not “ask
Canadians to pay for benefits for protected
persons and refugee claimants that are
more generous than what they are entitled
to themselves.” The suggestion was that
there were thousands of fraudulent claims
for refugee status (and health care) that
were robbing Canadian taxpayers and their
8
Midwifery
health services.
Slashing the Interim Federal Health
Program (IFHP) was the government’s
next step. Since June 30, 2012, the IFHP
provides three types of coverage. According to the Citizenship and Immigration
Canada (CIC) website, some refugees are
still eligible for full coverage (GovernmentAssisted Refugees, who are recognized as
refugees before their arrival in Canada, or
victims of human trafficking). The second
category provides restricted health-care
coverage for some health conditions,
although it is unclear which services are
covered and at what moment.
A third category includes refused
refugee claimants and refugees from a
Designated Country of Origin (DCO)
who come from countries that have been
deemed safe by the Minister of Immigration. These claimants are only eligible for
health care for conditions that “threaten
public health and safety” such as tuberculosis, for example, or a violent psychosis.
Most European countries are on the DCO
list, including Hungary. But this list also
includes Mexico, where violence towards
women is rampant and from which pregnant women continue to flee.
Pregnant women who fall into the last
two categories are only eligible for health
care “of an urgent or essential nature.”
Since prenatal care is ongoing and does
not target an acute condition, it is not
considered essential.
According to immigration lawyer Mitchell Goldberg, these changes have “had a
devastating effect on people.” Statistics are
difficult to obtain, as we cannot estimate
how many people would have applied for
refugee status and obtained medical care
if the changes had not been made. But
according to Richard Goldman, lawyer
with the Committee to Aid Refugees, the
number of refugee claims has decreased
by 60 per cent since the changes were
made. Data from the Canadian Council
for Refugees website show 20,000 refugee
claims in 2012, which was reduced to less
than 5,000 in the first half of 2013. This
means that in 2013, there were 10,000
or more potential refugee claimants who
were trying to go to another country, who
were in Canada without papers, or who
chose to stay in their country, where their
lives could be at risk.
These changes in policy concerning
refugee claimants has also made it more
difficult for any migrant woman seeking
prenatal care or care during delivery. The
ensuing situation can be described in one
word: chaotic. According to Jos Porter,
Health Services Coordinator at Head and
Hands’ community clinic, women are now
afraid to go to clinics; no one knows what
to charge and no one is sure which case
belongs to which category. Because of
the confusion about care for refugees, all
women without resident status are now
being treated with suspicion and aggression at hospitals when they give birth.
According to a volunteer who works with
this population, women with student visas,
work visas, non-status women and women
in Canada under the Live-in Caregiver
Program are regularly harassed for cash
deposits by medical caregivers.
John Docherty, coordinator of RIVO
DCO claimants are only
eligible for health care for
conditions that “threaten
public health and safety.”
(Réseau d’intervention auprès des personnes ayant subi la violence organisée),
an organization that provides support and
therapy for survivors of torture and other
forms of organized violence, says “there is
so much confusion that no one knows who
is covered, or how, and doctors are saying
that they can’t work with this population
because they don’t know if or when or
how they will get paid. We’re all pretty
discouraged.” Amelie Waddell, a social
worker who works with pregnant refugees
and refugee claimants, says everybody is
depressed because “we are running out of
strategies.”
The plight of pregnant women refugees varies from province to province. In
Quebec, the province is attempting to fill
the gap by providing coverage for those
who need it. In Ontario, all women are
eligible for midwifery care for free, but
refugee women are often not aware of this.
Manitoba has also adopted measures to
provide coverage for those who have been
affected by the cuts. In the rest of Canada,
refugees and refugee claimants are turned
away from hospitals and clinics if they
cannot afford care.
This is “the tip of the iceberg, as women
who could be eligible for care are now
afraid of disrupting the [refugee] application process,” says Porter. She says there
is a lot of uncertainty and fear amongst
pregnant women and that there is a huge
amount of confusion amongst health-care
providers. We are not seeing the women
who choose not to go to clinics or who
choose to birth at home without adequate
care.
RIVO’s funding has decreased dramatically due to the IFHP changes, because
fewer people are eligible for this type of
support. John Docherty explains that
this population (which includes pregnant
women) have almost no access to appropriate resources any more.
According to Docherty, his organization received a letter from CIC in April
2012 and the changes went through in
June. No input from health-care or social
service providers was requested between
the time the changes were announced
and when they took effect. In May 2012,
the Wellesley Institute, based in Toronto,
designed a Health Equity Impact Assessment that would try to predict the impact
of these changes upon the refugee population. They predicted that “the health of
refugees would be negatively affected by
the changes to the IFHP and that some
populations, such as women and children,
would be disproportionately impacted.”
In October 2013, they concluded that
“…unfortunately, evidence is now mounting that these outcomes are occurring.”
The report describes several case studies:
a refugee claimant, 36 weeks pregnant,
was told by her obstetrician that the IFHP
would no longer provide insurance for her
pregnancy or delivery and that she must
bring in $3,000 for her next appointment.
A young female refugee claimant was 18
weeks pregnant as a result of a sexual
assault while being used as a sexual slave.
She had no IFHP coverage to support her
during pregnancy.
Grassroots groups across the country
that offer volunteer services for pregnant
women and their families have tried to
step in with some success, but as Docherty
says, “the cracks are so big that we don’t
know who is falling through them.”
Rivka Cymbalist is a writer and birth attendant who is director of Montreal Birth
Companions.
9
Mining
Toyota Prius Not So Green After All
Algonquin fight threats to land and water from open-pit mining project for hybrid car batteries
by Claire Stewart-Kanigan
MONTREAL—“Eco-consciousness” and
“green living” are centrepieces of product
branding for the Toyota Prius. But that
feel-good packaging has rapidly worn thin
for members of the Algonquin Nation and
residents of Kipawa, Quebec, who are now
fighting to protect traditional Algonquin
territory from devastation in the name of
hybrid car battery production.
In 2011, after nearly two years of negotiations, Matamec Explorations, a Quebecbased junior mining exploration company,
signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Toyotsu Rare Earth Canada
(TRECan), a Canadian subsidiary of
Japan-based Toyota Tsusho Corporation.
The memorandum confirmed Matamec’s
intention to become “one of the first heavy
rare earths producers outside of China.”
In pursuit of this role, the company plans
to build an open-pit Heavy Rare Earth
Elements (HREE) mine directly next to
Kipawa Lake, the geographical, ecological,
and cultural centre of Kipawa.
Rare earths are a group of 17 elements
found in the earth’s crust. They are used to
produce electronics for cell phones, wind
turbines, and car batteries. Rare earths are
notorious for their environmentally costly
extraction process, with over 90 per cent
of the mined raw materials classified as
waste.
Toyota has guaranteed purchase of 100
per cent of rare earths extracted from the
proposed Kipawa mine for use in their
hybrid car batteries, replacing a portion of
Toyota’s supply currently sourced out of
China.
Over the last seven years, China has
reduced the scale of its rare earths exports
via a series of annual tonnage export caps
and taxes, allegedly out of concern for high
cancer rates, contaminated water supply,
and significant environmental degradation. Despite China’s stated intention to
encourage manufacturers to reduce their
rare earths consumption, the US, the EU
and Japan have challenged China’s export
caps through the World Trade
Organization (WTO) and are seeking new
deposits elsewhere for exploitation. Toyota
and Matamec are seeking to make Kipawa
part of this shift.
Kipawa is a municipality located on
traditional Algonquin territory approximately 80 kilometres northeast of North
Bay, Ontario, in what is now known as
western Quebec. The primarily Indigenous
municipality is home to approximately 500
people, including members of Eagle Village
First Nation and Wolf Lake First Nation, of
the Algonquin Nation. The town of Kipawa
lies within the large Ottawa River Watershed, a wide-branching network of lakes,
rivers and wetlands. Lake Kipawa is at the
heart of the Kipawa region.
Lifelong Kipawa resident and Eagle
Village First Nation member Jamie Lee
McKenzie told The Dominion that the lake
is of “huge” importance to the people of
Kipawa. “We drink it, for one....Everyone
has camps on the lake [and] we use it on
basically a daily basis.” This water network
nourishes the richly forested surroundings
that make up the traditional hunting and
trapping grounds of the local Algonquin
peoples.
“Where the proposed mine site is,
it’s my husband’s [ancestral] trapping
grounds,” said Eagle Village organizer
Mary McKenzie, in a phone interview with
The Dominion. “This is where we hunt, we
fish, I pick berries....We just want to keep
our water.” Jamie Lee and Mary McKenzie
also emphasized the role of lake-based
tourism in Kipawa’s economy.
The Kipawa HREE project would blast
out an open-pit mine 1.5 kilometres wide
and 110 metres deep, from the summit of a
large lakeside hill. It would also establish a
nearby waste dump with a 13.3 megatonne
capacity. Rock containing the heavy rare
earth elements dysprosium and terbium
would be extracted from the pit via drilling
and explosives, processed at an on-site
grinding and magnetic separation plant,
and then transported by truck to a hydrometallurgical facility 50 kilometres away
for refining.
Matamec confirmed in its Preliminary
Economic Assessment Study that some
effluence caused by evaporation and precipitation is inevitable, especially during
the snowmelt period. A community-led
presentation argued that this could create
acid mine drainage, acidifying the lake and
poisoning the fish.
“There’s going to be five [truckloads
of sulfuric acid transported from pit to
refinery] a day....[I]n a 15-year span, that’s
27,300 truckloads of sulfuric acid,” said
Mary McKenzie. “We’re worried about
spills and the environment....They’re talking about neutralizing [the acid], when a
spill does occur, with lime. I have [sources
that say] lime is also a danger to the environment.”
In a 2013 presentation in Kipawa,
Matamec stated that while “some radioactivity [due to the presence of uranium and
thorium in waste rock] will be present in
the rare earth processing chain,” its effects
will be negligible. Yet these reassurances
ring hollow for some, who point to cancer
spikes observed in communities near rare
earths projects in China. In the project’s
economic assessment, Matamec itself
indicated that waste rock is too dangerous
for use in concrete and dikes.
“Whatever goes up in the air [from
blasting and evaporation] comes down....A
lot of those particles are radioactive,” said
Mary McKenzie. “Our animals eat this
[plant matter potentially affected by the
mine]....We depend on our moose, we
depend on our fish, so that’s a scary situation.” The refining process also uses strong
acids and bases.
While Matamec stated in the Assessment that “most” of the water used in processing will be recycled, a portion of the
post-processing solution will be directed
into the lake or tailings ponds. The mine is
intended to be operational for 13 years, but
tailings ponds would require maintenance
for generations, and leaching is always
possible. Adding to this risk, Matamec has
10
Mining
L:R Waste cylinders of test rock lie scattered in an abandoned exploration camp beside Lake Kipawa; Algonquin organizers pose with The Dominion and
Montreal activists in front of an abandoned test site in the proposed centre of the open-pit mine. Photos by Claire Stewart-Kanigan
“assumed that [certain] tailings will not
be acid generating or leachable” and will
therefore only use watertight geomembrane for a portion of the tailings ponds.
With the approval process being accelerated by both public and private factors,
production could begin as early as 2015.
Quebec’s regulations call for provincial
environmental impact assessments only
when projects have a daily metal ore
production capacity that is considerably
higher than the national standard—7,000
metric tons per day versus 3,000 in the
Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.
What’s more, by categorizing HREE in the
same regulatory group as other metals,
these tonnage minimums fail to reflect the
higher toxicity and environmental costs of
heavy rare earths extraction.
Because of this, the Kipawa project does
not trigger a provincial-level assessment.
It only requires clearance from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency
and a certificate of authorization granted
by the provincial Minister of Sustainable
Development, Environment and Parks.
On the private side, the assessment
process has been fast-tracked by a series
of multimillion-dollar payments from
TRECan to Matamec ($16M as of April
2013). According to Matamec president
André Gauthier in a July 2012 press
release, this makes Matamec “the only
rare earth exploration company to have
received funds to accelerate and complete
a feasibility study and an environmental
and social impact assessment study of a
HREE deposit.”
The chiefs of Eagle Village and Wolf
Lake First Nations have been demanding
a consent-based consultation and review
process since the project was quietly
made public in 2011—one that exceeds
“stakeholder” consultation standards and
acknowledges the traditional relationship of the Algonquin people to the land.
Residents only became widely aware of
Matamec’s plans following the company’s
community consultation session in April
2013.
Jamie Lee McKenzie has not been
impressed by Matamec’s consultations.
“They come in and they have a meeting...
and they tell us all the good things about
the mine,” McKenzie told The Dominion.
“[They say,] ‘It will give you jobs. We need
this to make batteries for green living,’ but
that’s it.”
Local organizers told The Dominion
that a Matamec-chaired community focus
group had been cancelled during the early
summer after one local participant asked
that her critical questions be included in
the group’s minutes. Following what many
residents see as the failure of Matamec
and provincial assessment agencies to
meaningfully engage with Kipawa residents, the community has taken matters
into their own hands.
In the summer of 2013, Kipawa residents began to organize, with the leadership of Eagle Village and Wolf Lake
members. Petitions containing over 2,500
signatures were sent to provincial ministers, demanding a provincial environmental assessment as well as “public hearings
to review the Mining Act...to strengthen
rare earth environmental monitoring.”
But demands have grown beyond calls
for review. “We’re not okay with the BAPE
[provincial assessment]; we’re not okay
with the mine,” said Mary McKenzie.
“We’re against the [project] 100 per cent.”
In September, McKenzie helped organize
a 100-person anti-mine protest on the
shores of Kipawa Lake. In November,
the resistance network formalized their
association as the Lake Kipawa Protection
Society, committed to stopping the mine
through regional education, local solidarity, and creative resistance strategies like a
“Tarnish Toyota” day of action.
The Kipawa HREE project, if approved,
would open doors for the numerous other
companies exploring the watershed—such
as Globex, Fieldex, Aurizon, and Hinterland Metals—as well as for heavy rare
earths mining in the rest of Canada.
“We have mining companies all over
in our area here,” said Mary McKenzie.
“Matamec is the most advanced, but it’s
not just Matamec: we want all the mining
out of our region.”
The mine is not the only project on the
fast-track: Algonquin and local resistance
efforts are picking up momentum, and
backing down on protecting the water and
land is not on the agenda.
“This is ancestral ground,” McKenzie
stressed. “We can fight this.”
Claire Stewart-Kanigan is a student, Settler,
and visitor on Haudenosaunee territory.
11
Vancouver Media Co-op
No Support for Peer Support
Vancouver Coastal Health terminates funding for grassroots
mental health network
by Ron Carten
VANCOUVER—Vancouver Coastal Health
(VCH) has terminated
the contract of the
West Coast Mental
Health Network, one of
the few peer-run mental health organizations in British Columbia.
For over twenty years, the Vancouverbased West Coast Mental Health Network,
known as “the Network” to its members,
has been providing peer support to people
who have been through the psychiatric system. During that time, it has run
close to a dozen ongoing support groups
facilitated solely by others who have been
psychiatrized. It also organizes community
events and publishes a quarterly journal,
The Networker, featuring the art and writing of individuals diagnosed with a mental
illness, and providing small honorariums
for their efforts.
Board member Donny Harrison met
with the Vancouver Media Co-op (VMC)
at the Network office, currently housed
rent-free within the office of ARA Mental
Health in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. He described the Network as “people
helping each other, with each other, for
each other.”
Breaking through the isolation faced by
many who have been hospitalized for a
mental illness has been a core part of peer
support. Many of the psychiatrized are not
comfortable going to mainstream dropin centres and related programs run by
professional staff.
“We represent two communities,” said
Adrianne Fitch, the Network’s executive director. “[One is] consumers of the
mental health system, who may have
psychiatrists or mental health teams or be
on meds.... The other population that we
represent are survivors, people who have
been possibly harmed by the mental health
system, who have been involuntarily
medicated or committed to a psych ward
or psychiatric institution. So, the survivors
are people who don’t have faith in the
mental health system.... And
12 they deserve a voice as well.”
Fitch said that the Network heard about a year
ago that every VCH program was under review. “I
thought maybe our budget
would be reduced, but we
had no warning that they
just decided to completely
terminate our contract. …
The reason that they gave
us was that they had to
focus on core services.”
Vancouver Coastal
Health’s media representative declined an
interview request, but
Fitch referred the VMC to
VCH’s responses to letters
of support from Network
members and allies. “One
of those replies said that
they wanted to put money Vancouver’s only peer support network for mental health became
into ACT Teams,” said
volunteer-run as of December. illustration by Zoran Gotsii, courtesy of
Fitch.
The Networker
ACT, or Assertive Community Treatment, is a type of community- or crisis, then the first thought that comes
to mind is the establishment of some form
based, enforced psychiatric treatment,
of managing the crisis.”
which typically involves administering
He said the Network’s approach conmedications to people in their own homes.
trasts sharply with ACT’s management
If patients refuse their medications in
framework. “The reality is that West Coast
the community, they may be sent back to
Mental Health Network’s work is mostly in
hospital against their wishes.
the area of crisis prevention. What you’re
While the Network has not taken a posidoing is building a social network, so that
tion on Assertive Community Treatment,
when people face life stressors they don’t
Network board member Richard Ingram
have to face it by themselves. So, this is
spoke in no uncertain terms. “I think that
crisis prevention. It’s not crisis manage‘assertive’ is a word that hides the use of
ment.”
what is violence. It means that the system
When asked about the impact of funding
has coercion that it can use to oblige
cuts to the Network, Fitch replied sadly,
people to take medications.”
“It’s been a devastating impact. [The VCH
Ingram was disturbed to see that, while
contract] was 95 per cent of our funding.”
several community groups have lost funding this year, “at the same time, VCH has
This article has been abridged; to read the
increased the number of its ACT Teams
full version, visit vancouver.mediacoop.ca.
from one to three.”
Peter Bazovsky, mental health advocate
Ron Carten is a consulting social worker
who recently joined the Board of Directors
and program coordinator at ARA Mental
of the West Coast Mental Health Network.
Health, characterized the increased funding for ACT as “a state-of-emergency
response. When you start to frame a
notion within the context of an emergency
Vancouver Media Co-op
Premier Christy Clark declined an invitation to celebrate hydraulic fracturing on her front lawn. Photo by murray bush - flux photo
BC Premier’s House ‘Fracked’!
Activists set up fracking rig on Christy Clark’s front lawn
by murray bush - flux photo
COAST SALISH TERRITORIES—Activists set up a “fracking
rig” on BC Premier
Christy Clark’s front
lawn in Vancouver on
a Sunday morning in early November.
The premier was at home, but declined an
invitation from the activists to join them
to “celebrate her efforts to promote more
hydraulic fracturing in BC” and sign away
her water rights.
The activists tossed around bags of
money and bottles of “wastewater.” Once
police showed up they moved the mock rig
to the front sidewalk.
“Because the premier loves fracking,
we figured we would save her the hassle of
trying to take over other people’s homes
and bring it right to her,” said Jacquelyn
Fraser, an activist with Rising Tide Van-
couver–Coast Salish Territories.
“We are just so worried about all the
water that is being used and polluted in
northeastern BC for fracking. We are sure
Premier Clark is too and we’re sure she can
share some of her own supply so that she
can see the boom in the industry she keeps
promoting,” said Fraser as ‘construction
workers’ set up the rig behind her. “She
may not end up with a lot of fresh water at
the end, but at least she has some we could
use right now.”
Rising Tide recently toured communities to talk about the impacts of fracking.
Families said that shortly after fracking
began, they were no longer able to drink
their tap water and that the water burned
their children’s skin.
Just two days after the Vancouver
action, Christy Clark and Alberta Premier Alison Redford reportedly reached
a “framework agreement” to allow new
pipelines in BC, with Clark agreeing to join
Redford’s “national energy strategy.” The
unexpected news came Tuesday, November 5, despite the premiers not meeting
face-to-face.
13
Cover Story
On June 9th, Suzanne Patles was arrested for mischief while praying in front of SWN’s seismic testing equipment. It was the third arrest of the summer.
Photo by Miles Howe
Showdown in Elsipogtog
Seven months of shale gas resistance in New Brunswick
by Miles Howe
K’JIPUKTUK (HALIFAX)—In early June,
I walked with Suzanne Patles from Eskasoni First Nation and two Mi’kmaq women
from Elsipogtog First Nation along Highway 126 near Harcourt, New Brunswick.
People told us not to go, not to approach
the seismic testing trucks; that people had
been arrested earlier in the day; that there
would be trouble.
I knew Patles, to some degree, as a shy
and hesitant person but highly intelligent. At Millbrook First Nation, earlier
in March, I had watched her read from
prepared documents as Shelly Young
and Jean Sock starved themselves in an
attempt to get the Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq
chiefs to withdraw from the Made-in-Nova
Scotia Process and the risk of a modernday treaty it presented. I had strained to
hear her above the din of the crowd in the
Porcupine Lodge.
In a few years writing for the Media
Co-op, I’ve done a bit of frontlines journalism and developed a small sense
of heightened awareness when it comes to
situations where resistance meets authority. Sometimes, often smoking a cigarette,
I can almost taste electricity in the air.
As I watched her approach a line of
green safety vest-clad police officers,
behind whom were idling five seismic testing trucks, or “thumpers,” my first thought
was to put myself between her and what I
saw coming. I could taste electricity.
“Got your camera?” Patles asked me
calmly, as she opened a pouch of tobacco
and began to sprinkle a line of brown
flakes across one lane of highway. I did,
and obligingly began snapping shots.
A crowd of about 15 RCMP officers, who
had been regarding us with the interest a
pride of lions might display towards a lost
gazelle, huddled in a round and began to
converse in hushed tones.
This was before all that was to come;
before all the confrontations and violence
and abuse and “less-lethal” rounds and
pepper spray and failed and false negotia-
tions and tire fires that may take years to
recover from. If ever.
The fight against fracking in 2013 in
New Brunswick was, at that moment, new
and fresh. Perhaps on both sides there was
still hope that the scene might not devolve
into a seemingly endless grudge match
of anti-shale gas organizers and First
Nations land defenders versus the provincial government, Texas-based gas giant
Southwestern Energy (SWN) and their
business-class supporters.
Either that or the outcome was always
set and these were only the initial hesitant
jabs and dodges served out along the highways and dirt roads of New Brunswick,
meant to test the adversary for strengths
and weaknesses.
These warning shots would eventually
escalate. It has now been seven months
of communities putting themselves on
the line against SWN and their RCMP
protectors. There have been numerous
blockades, both temporary and more per-
14
Cover Story
manent, dozens of arrests and hundreds of
people who have come out to stop seismic
testing for shale gas.
In 2010, New Brunswick’s provincial
government, then under Premier Shawn
Graham, issued exploratory gas licenses
to SWN Resources Canada, a subsidiary of
SWN. Graham, who won the Kent County
political seat in 1998, hails from one of
New Brunswick’s dynastic old-money
families. His father, Alan Graham, is a
significant landowner in Kent County and
represented Kent County in the provincial
legislature from 1967 to 1998, serving as
Minister of Natural Resources and Energy
under the Frank McKenna government
from 1991 to 1997.
In early 2013, after seeing a 2011 seismic
testing campaign thwarted in an adjoining
New Brunswick county, SWN turned its
sights to Kent County, the Grahams’ seat
of power. Seismic testing lines were slated
to pass directly across land owned by Alan
Graham, who stood to receive royalties
from the development of any shale gas
deposits.
Elsipogtog and the surrounding
Mi’kmaq communities have a history of
resistance to industrial and government
schemes. SWN’s 2013 plans to conduct
seismic testing in Kent County did indeed
take into account the potential of Mi’kmaq
resistance, especially from Elsipogtog, one
of the largest reserves in New Brunswick.
Which brings us back to Patles and the
RCMP. I watched and photographed–and
smoked–as Patles sprinkled a circle of
tobacco around herself. She crouched
down, hands clasped, then knelt into a ball
on the pavement. Kathy Levi, one of the
Elsipogtog women, pounded her drum,
singing the Mi’kmaq honour song in a
voice made unsteady by a now palpable
tension.
RCMP officers approached the crouching Patles. Sergeant Bernard, a man who
in July would arrest several people at the
anti-shale gas blockades—including me,
on the later-dropped accusation of uttering threats—placed his sizeable hand on
Patles’ shoulder blade. He told her, quite
simply, to move or she would be arrested.
Lost in prayer, perhaps already aware
of the crackles of almost visible electricity
surrounding her and the impending clash,
Patles remained absolutely motionless.
Bernard looked back, looked around at
Segewa’t Na’gu’set, one of the fire keepers at the sacred fire encampment, was among 12 people
arrested at a peaceful protest along highway 126 on June 21st, National Aboriginal Day. Photo by
Miles Howe
his cohorts in green vests, then reached
down and began to lift Patles out of her
crouch. He arrested her and read her her
rights.
The look on Patles’ face seemed a
mixture of disturbed surprise, coupled
with a vague sense of amusement. She
calmly explained to the congregated crew
These were only the initial
hesitant jabs and dodges
served out along the
highways and dirt roads of
New Brunswick.
of RCMP that she was “sovereign” and was
in prayer.
I will always remember Patles at this
moment of her first arrest: “Don’t touch
me. I’m sovereign.”
Before all the banner drops and international solidarity and visits from A-list
Canadian environmentalists, there was
this small group of on-the-ground activists
in early June.
I arrived when no one had seen #Elsipogtog, the hashtag. It was clear that this
wasn’t going to be anything taught in any
journalism class, ever. And this battle
wasn’t going to be over in the week I had
packed for.
I slept in tents, or basements, or the
back seats of cars, or not at all. I chased
rumours and ghosts and sightings of
equipment down dirt roads with guides
who grew up in these woods. I flew with
pilots who would rather remain anonymous in antiquated two-seater Cessnas,
using secret grass runways in an attempt
to find the Texas-based gas company conducting seismic testing somewhere in the
New Brunswick bush.
The corporate media spotlight didn’t fall
on the anti-fracking resistance until the
RCMP raided the blockade on Highway
134 on October 17th, armed with assault
rifles and K-9 units, ready to enforce
SWN’s right to frack over the right to protect the land. I was surprised at the brutality, but not entirely: over the course of the
summer I had already watched the RCMP
arrest dozens of people, punch women in
the mouth and tackle elders.
Peeling back the layers of this conflict
has yielded the tangled roots of interconnected families and financial interests, the
likes of which might only take hold in the
unique, dynastically fertile soil of Canada’s
Maritime provinces. In the Maritimes, perhaps above all other Canadian provinces,
we have deeply entrenched power dynamics and old money. And we have sacrifice
zones: sparsely inhabited areas where the
populace ranks, statistically, among the
lowest in income and education in Canada.
Kent County, New Brunswick, where
Elsipogtog is located, is one
15
Cover Story
On June 25th, I was the first responder at this shot-hole driller fire. SWN estimates that the damages
to equipment from this fire total $380,000 and the RCMP continue to treat the case as unsolved
arson. Photo by Miles Howe
such sacrifice zone, ruled by a class system
so stratified as to appear neo-feudal. The
very wealthy, very land-rich families in
New Brunswick barely bother to hide
their connections to political seats. Maybe
families like the Grahams, the Irvings,
the Leonards and the McKennas have
been running the show for so long that
they have gotten sloppy at covering their
tracks—or maybe they simply consider
themselves untouchable and act with the
reckless abandon of an unaccountable
royal class.
A look at the Duty fo Consult Policy, currently usurped in New Brunswick by the
Assembly of First Nations Chiefs of New
Brunswick (AFNCNB), uncovers a similar
power dynamic: one of a ruling Indigenous
class and an impoverished one. While a
select group of chiefs gets wined and dined
on all-expenses-paid trips to Arkansas for
a white-washed tour of SWN’s hydraulic
fracturing operations, the majority of Elsipogtog residents are unemployed.
There is hope, however, in Kent County.
In my mind, the keys to the struggle,
after a summer and fall of watching protectors hold off the fifth largest gas company in North America, lie in an honouring
of the original Peace and Friendship
Treaties that exist between the Mi’kmaq,
the Wabanaki Confederacy and the Crown
and a continued fostering of intercultural
unity.
The Maritimes were never ceded by First
Nations peoples. The Crown has never
produced a deed to the land, because no
deed was ever signed. Yet Band Council
chiefs, whose authority derives from the
Indian Act rather than from traditional
governance structures, have been complicit, to varying degrees, in allowing SWN
Resources into traditional territory.
Before all the banner
drops and international
solidarity and visits from
the A-list of Canadian
environmentalists, there
was this small group of
on-the-ground activists.
Grumblings about AFNCNB complicity are growing louder. Already St. Mary’s
First Nation, Madawaska First Nation,
Woodstock First Nation and now Elsipogtog First Nation have withdrawn from the
AFNCNB. The organization—which needs
to represent 51 per cent of the Indigenous
population of New Brunswick in order to
maintain its authority—is about one more
withdrawal away from crumbling.
The non-Indigenous Acadians and rural
poor of Kent County have also suffered
state-imposed hardships. In angered whispers, seemingly bottled over decades, they
tell of the dynastic origins of Kent County’s
elite. These stories generally include crossgenerational woes, treachery and a downward spiral from a life that was tough—but
at least navigable via community and
entrepreneurship—to a current state of
disaffection, where stacks of resumes pile
up for every menial Tim Horton’s job.
The Acadians were the Woodspeople,
with their own special place reserved in
Mi’kmaq history and treaty.
An increasing number of non-Indigenous Kent County residents and Mi’kmaq
people see themselves in this struggle,
perhaps a final one, to save the water for
future generations. While they might not
be out in equal force on the frontlines,
non-Indigenous residents are the ones
bringing chicken fricot, poutine râppée
and other traditional delicacies to the warriors and protectors. In any battle, without
supplies, the frontlines are finished. So it
is a testament to them, as well, that this
struggle has lasted for so long, against so
much state-enforced power.
It has been a difficult fight. But from
the ashes of the encampment that faced
brutal police raids and the polarizing—and
eventually paralyzing—philosophical differences between those aligned with the
Indian Act Chiefs—who cannot apply a
treaty-based solution lest they acknowledge their own redundancy—and those
calling for a Treaty solution, sprang an
emboldened anti-shale gas movement.
In November, just as SWN figured to
begin seismic testing again in Kent County,
this time along stretches of Highway 11,
a new encampment sprang up. Images
of the brutal raid of October 17th had
flashed across the country and solidarity
from Indigenous supporters from various
nations, as well as from non-Indigenous
supporters from around the world, rained
down upon Kent County. In this renewed
anti-shale gas fervour emanating now from
many corners of Canada, differences in
philosophy suddenly became secondary to
stopping the Texas-based company by any
means.
Stymied again by the daytime slowdowns and nighttime raids on equipment,
SWN sought another legally binding
injunction against the anti-shale gas activists. When a judge granted the injunction,
issuing the RCMP the right to arbitrarily
arrest people within a 250-metre front-toback and 20-metre side-to-side parametre
16
Cover Story
of SWN equipment, protestors responded
by lighting tire fires along the highway for
three successive days.
For reasons that are still unclear, on
December 6th SWN issued a press release
stating that they had completed their seismic testing in New Brunswick and would
return in 2015. The press release thanked
New Brunswickers for their “continued
support.”
It was clear that this wasn’t
going to be anything taught
in any journalism class.
Missing from the release was the fact
that in Kent County, the company had
only obtained about 50 per cent of their
planned data. It remains unclear whether
they are currently testing or have plans
to test in the remainder of their licensed
areas, which cover over a million hectares
of New Brunswick.
The fallout from the 2013 anti-shale
gas actions in Kent County continues to
unfold. Four members of the Mi’kmaq
Warrior Society remain incarcerated in
connection with the raid of October 17 and
alleged activities on the 15 and 16.
The threats to water from SWN’s shale
gas exploration program have sparked new
allegiances between Indigenous communities and have galvanized non-Indigenous
allies, especially in the “threat zone” of
Kent County.
At the same time, many people have
experienced serious trauma and relations
have broken down between RCMP and
members of the Elsipogtog First Nation
especially.
This is certainly not the first “modern
day” clash between the Mi’kmaq people
and armed forces representing Crown and
corporate interests.
But it was a clash that will resound in
the lives of those who put their bodies on
the land, in the path of the thumpers, in
the way of state violence.
It will definitely resound in my life.
Never mind attempts at journalistic
objectivity. It hurts to watch people you
have come to know get tackled or pepper
sprayed or shot with less-lethal rounds.
These were people that I sat with, laughed
with, drank bad coffee with and smoked
too many cigarettes with. I watched them
ABOVE: A full SWN work contingent was blockaded on July 28th for over eight hours. The night
marked a turning point, as it was the first time the Mi’kmaq Warriors Society acted in conjunction
with anti-shale gas activists. Two days later, SWN announced it was leaving Kent County for the
summer. Photo by Mile Howe
For three weeks, from late September to mid-October, activists managed to blockade key pieces of
SWN’s seismic testing equipment, including five “thumper” trucks. On October 17th, RCMP brutally
attacked the peaceful encampment, firing less-lethal rounds, pepper spraying activists and arresting
40 people. Pictured is Mi’kmaq War Chief Seven Bernard, after being shot twice in the legs by
less-lethal rounds. Photo by Mile Howe
pray by sacred fires and sing their honour
song and I tried hard not to sensationalize
them or abuse the trust they had shown
me, an outsider to their community and a
guest upon their unceded land.
For a brief amount of time, before the
world woke up to Elsipogtog, I was, by
default, the curator of this story. But the
context that gave rise to shale gas resis-
tance—and complicity—in New Brunswick
extends before me and will go on after me.
The fallout remains to be understood in
the months to come.
Miles Howe is a member of the Halifax
Media Co-op and an editor with The
Dominion.
17
Farming
Meat from Harborside’s free range swine was deemed “unfit for human consumption.” Photo by Jonathan Ventura
Deli Meat Raid Sparks Real-Life Food Fight
Quest for a better prosciutto leads to showdown with provincial health inspectors
by Sheldon Birnie
WINNIPEG—Small-scale producers
in Manitoba are facing challenges in
developing specialty meat products for
market. While the provincial department
of Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives
(MAFRI) is championing local food—
sponsoring events like the Great Manitoba
Food Fight and highlighting Manitoba
products in major grocery chains—the
regulatory framework is designed for
large-scale, export-based agriculture and
not smaller-scale farmers.
Perhaps the most dramatic example
of this can be found in the recent events
in the small farming community of Pilot
Mound, in southwestern Manitoba.
Clint and Pam Cavers, along with their
three daughters, have operated Harborside Farms outside of Pilot Mound since
1997. The family lives at Harborside, raising cattle, pork and poultry. They butcher
and process the meat on site to sell to
customers who value a direct connection
to their food.
“I guess [our farm] does not even
compare to conventional pig farming,”
Pam Cavers tells The Dominion via email.
“[Conventional] farrowing barns are
huge. Like hundreds of breeding
females in one barn....We have around 45
breeding females.”
Harborside specializes in pasture-fed
heritage livestock breeds. The result,
according to the Cavers, is “juicier and
richer-tasting than most pork, and perfect
for grilling.”
Canadian Food Inspection
Agency (CFIA) rules are
designed for large-scale
processing plants.
Harborside’s customers include a
number of restaurants in Winnipeg who
make a point of preparing local food,
like Pizzaria Gusto and Bistro 7, as well
as members of community-supported
agriculture (CSA) organizations like the
Harvest Moon Society.
The Cavers have found themselves front
and centre in a real food fight with the
regulatory side of MAFRI over small-scale
production of specialty deli meats.
Currently, there are no specific regulations that pertain to what the Cavers, and
other small-scale producers, are trying
to do in Manitoba. Local food advocates
argue that the Canadian Food Inspec-
tion Agency (CFIA) rules are designed
for large-scale processing plants, like the
Maple Leaf hog plant in Brandon, Manitoba, which processes up to 85,000 hogs
a week.
Local food advocates maintain that
processing regulations that ensure food
safety on a large, industrial scale are not
only unrealistic for small producers, but
financial costs can be prohibitive.
“We all want safe food,” Abra Brynne,
sustainable local food systems network
coordinator with Food Secure Canada, told
The Dominion over the phone from British
Columbia.
Brynne believes that while food safety
is paramount, regulators need to develop
methods of dealing with small producers, like the Cavers, that won’t irreparably
damage their businesses. “We’ve seen
Maple Leaf Foods and others like them
recover from millions of pounds of recalled
meat. But a small enterprise may not
recover from 3,000 kilos of recalled meat.”
Clint Cavers agrees. “We take a hell of a
lot more care in what we do than someone
who works an eight-hour shift at a plant
who goes home and doesn’t think about
his job anymore,” he told The Dominion
18
Farming
over the phone from Pilot Mound. “This
isn’t just a job for us. This is our life.”
“We like food culture,” Cavers explained.
In 2011, after getting requests from some
friends in Winnipeg for a local source of
specialty deli meat—like prosciutto, an
Italian deli meat, and other charcuterie
popular among high-end restaurants in
Winnipeg—the Cavers began to develop a
process at their facility to provide for the
demand.
At that time, the Cavers got in touch
with their local MAFRI office in Pilot
Mound, in an attempt to work within provincial guidelines. The problem, according
to Clint Cavers, was that no regulations
exist within Manitoba for small-scale,
commercial dried meat production. Under
the provincial Food and Food Handling
Establishments Regulation sec 19(1), by
default, health inspectors follow CFIA
guidelines, which, again are designed with
large-scale production in mind.
“We really didn’t make a whole lot,”
admits Clint, explaining that he and his
wife were still very much in the experimental phase when MAFRI invited Harborside Farms to enter their locally made
prosciutto in the 2013 Great Manitoba
Food Fight, a provincially sponsored competition for “Manitoba food entrepreneurs
who have developed but not fully commercialized an innovative new food product.”
To the Cavers’ surprise, their pastured
pork prosciutto won the gold medal, netting them a $10,000 prize to continue the
development of the product for commercialization in May 2013. But shortly after
their victory at the Great Manitoba Food
Fight in Brandon, Harborside had a visit
from MAFRI health inspectors, who told
the Cavers to box up all of their products
in development and label them “Not For
Sale.”
“Then they showed up on August 28th
with a seize and destroy order.”
Accompanied by a member of the
RCMP, a provincial inspector arrived at
Harborside on August 28, 2013 and began
seizing Harborside’s dried meats, which
had been deemed by MAFRI as “unfit for
human consumption”—the same meat that
the minister of agriculture had sampled
in May, the same product the Cavers’ had
been awarded a $10,000 prize for.
Much of the seizure was filmed by a
University of Manitoba (U of M) student,
who was scheduled to visit the farm that
afternoon as part of the U of M’s Living
Rural Communities and Environments
course.
Jonathan Ventura, a U of M student
who was taking part in the course, instructor Colin Anderson and another student
made their way to Harborside Farms after
visiting the nearby Windy Bay Hutterite
Colony. They describe a heated situation
between the health inspector, the Cavers’
and themselves. At one point, the health
inspector waved his badge at them, and
demanded that Ventura and his fellow
student erase the contents of their camera,
and hand over their SD cards, threatening
them with legal action.
While Ventura and the other student
“Then they showed up with
a seize and destroy order.”
—Clint Cavers, Harborside Farms
complied with the unauthorized demands
of the health inspector, a glitch with Ventura’s software prevented the footage he
accumulated from being erased. Later that
evening, he and a group of other students,
along with Anderson, began discussions
on what they could do to bring the events
of August 28, and the regulatory inequities
that small producers in Manitoba face, to
wider public attention. A few days later,
the website realmanitobafoodfight.ca was
launched.
“The response was pretty crazy,” admits
Ventura, who initially expected that the
attention to the case would fizzle after
a few days. Instead, the site received
thousands of hits a day, and local media,
including the Winnipeg Free Press and the
local CBC, began highlighting the story.
In the end, Clint and Pam Cavers lost
approximately 160 kilos of cured meat,
and were fined $600 each. The Cavers say
they will continue to work with MAFRI in
developing specialty products. With their
meats destroyed, the issue of a nebulous
or non-existent regulatory framework that
is clearly problematic for small producers
still exists.
“There hasn’t really been a serious
discussion within MAFRI about how to
frame the regulatory system in a way that
supports small farmers,” says Anderson.
Anderson, who was raised on a farm near
Cypress River, Manitoba, has been working with farmers across western Canada
and the United States for over ten years.
He believes there is an unwillingness on
the part of governments to take action
with regards to food safety regulations.
“It’s just so much easier not to change
anything,” he told The Dominion in a
phone interview. “If something goes
wrong, you don’t get blamed for making
the change….Which is why MAFRI and
government in general now have to catch
up.”
On October 9, 2013, provincial Minister
of Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives Ron Kostyshyn and federal Minister
of Agriculture Gerry Ritz announced the
“Growing Assurance – Food Safety OnFarm” initiatives, which aim to “address
the safety of food through on-farm
procedures and in the processing and
distribution sectors.” According to the official statement released by the Manitoba
government, financial assistance is to be
provided to producers “to adopt assurance
systems and best management practices
related to food safety issues.”
“We are commited to ensuring food,
including local food, is produced in a
safe sustainable way,” a spokesperson for
Kostyshyn told The Dominion via email.
“Our government wants local farmers and
food producers to succeed.” On October
18, 2013, MAFRI met with small-scale
producers to discuss related issues. Matt
Ramsay, a U of M student who blogged
about the meeting, says that while it was
“positive,” it didn’t move beyond the realm
of “generalities” when discussing food
safety.
“The fight isn’t over,” says Anderson.
“The inertia of government isn’t keeping
up with the changes that people in civil
society want, including not only farmers
and producers, but also people who want
food. This fight is really not just a bunch of
farmers and processors complaining about
regulations. It’s about what a whole bunch
of people in society want to see happen.”
Sheldon Birnie is a writer, editor and song &
dance man living in Winnipeg, MB.
19
Pipelines
A Threat to Winnipeg’s Water Supply?
Activists raise red flags over lack of meaningful consultation around Energy East pipeline
by Shelagh Pizey-Allen
Kenora, ON—With Winnipeg’s drinking
water under threat from a proposed crude
oil pipeline, TransCanada’s consultation
process is leaving residents and activists
with more questions than answers.
In a project called “Energy East,” the
TransCanada Corporation plans to convert
an existing natural gas pipeline to transport up to 1.1 million barrels of crude oil
from the tar sands, through Ontario, to
refineries in eastern Canada.
Winnipeg-based environmental groups
and members of Idle No More are concerned about how close the proposed pipeline will run to Shoal Lake, ON, the source
of Winnipeg’s drinking water. A major
concern raised by activists is the possibility
of a spill so close to the water supply.
Idle No More activist Crystal Greene
drove three hours from Winnipeg to attend
an Energy East open house in Kenora,
ON, which lies 50 kilometres east of Shoal
Lake.
“As an Anishnabe-kwe, I see that it’s my
role to protect the water, it’s the role of the
women to protect the water,” Greene told
The Dominion at the September 16, 2013,
open house. “I feel like it’s my responsibility to speak up for that lake.”
Shoal Lake is not new to water issues.
Residents of Shoal Lake #39 and #40
First Nations have been under a boil water
advisory for over 12 years. The community
must haul in its drinking water, at a cost
of almost a quarter of a million dollars a
year. When the Winnipeg aqueduct was
built at Shoal Lake nearly a century ago, it
cut across a burial ground and split part of
the community, now known as Shoal Lake
#40, into an island.
The open house in Kenora was staffed
by over a dozen TransCanada employees
and an Aboriginal relations firm. Staff
answered questions and guided visitors
through an exhibit but were unable to
provide concrete information about how
close the pipeline will run to Shoal Lake.
The exhibit’s detailed satellite maps of
the pipeline’s path omitted the area west
of Kenora to the Manitoba–
Ontario border, where Shoal Lake lies.
The non-profit advocacy group Council of
Canadians lists Winnipeg and Shoal Lake
#40 First Nation as being on or near the
existing natural gas mainline.
Several Kenora-area activists who came
to hand out leaflets about environmental
issues were asked to leave the building.
Red Lake, ON, resident Lawrence Angeconeb spoke to The Dominion in the parking lot while giving out leaflets. Angeconeb
explained that if a leak were to occur in
the existing natural gas pipeline, “the gas
goes up, rather than down. With oil, if it
ruptures, it goes down: into the soil, into
the rivers.”
Climate and energy campaigner for the
Council of Canadians Maryam Adrangi
pointed out that the natural gas pipeline
that TransCanada plans to convert for
shipping crude is an old pipeline that was
originally constructed without the consent
of affected communities. “Communities on
the ground are still not given the right to
ultimately say ‘no,’ even though they are
the ones who would have to face the true
costs of a pipeline rupture,” she wrote in
an email to The Dominion.
The effects of such a rupture could
be devastating. In 2010, for example, a
pipeline transporting diluted bitumen
from the tar sands spilled into Michigan’s
Kalamazoo River. Three years later, the oil
is still being cleaned up. The diluting agent
in the bitumen, necessary for pipeline
transportation, vaporized during the spill
and the remaining oil sank to the bottom
of the river.
Adrangi added that the pipeline enables
the expansion of “an already dirty industry
which is severely impacting communities
living downstream.”
Some Indigenous activists are concerned
that their treaty rights, which should
protect their land and communities, have
been eroded by federal legislation passed
last winter. The Idle No More movement
took off last October, building on widespread opposition to Bill C-45.
The bill, passed in December 2012,
changed environmental protection legislation such as the Navigation Protection Act
and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. Since the changes, pipeline
and power line companies are no longer
required to demonstrate that their projects
will not damage waterways, unless the
waterway is on a list prepared by the
transportation minister. Idle No More has
claimed that this effectively removes protections for the vast majority of Canadian
lakes and rivers.
Bill C-45 was accompanied by other
omnibus bills, including Bill C-428 and
Bill S-212. Together, the bills weakened
environmental regulations, changed how
appropriations of reserve land occur and
decreased federal responsibility to protect
waterways.
Greene said that these interlocking
pieces of legislation clear the way for
development and resource exploitation by
eroding Indigenous land rights, which she
called the “security net to protecting this
land for people of all nations.”
Whether the new legislation has affected
TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline
consultation process is unclear. Although
some media coverage has framed TransCanada’s open house events such as the
one in Kenora as consultations, activists
say that there was no meaningful dialogue
or process to give input.
TransCanada spokesperson Philippe
Cannon told The Dominion that the
company is in the process of “stakeholder
engagement and gathering information”
before the company files for approval from
the National Energy Board.
TransCanada has delayed filing its application with the National Energy Board
until 2014, which may delay its anticipated
start date for shipping crude oil. Once the
filing is complete, the approval process
could take between 18 and 24 months.
The National Energy Board is currently
conducting hearings on a second pipeline moving oil from western Canada,
Enbridge’s Line 9B.
Cannon said that TransCanada’s stake-
20
Pipelines
Open house staff could not specify how close the pipeline would run to Shoal Lake. Photo by Crystal
holder engagement strategy is to organize
open houses, meet with landowners, and
gather comments through TransCanada’s
website. He said the public response to the
project has been positive.
Some open houses have seen visible
opposition, however, such as the one in
North Bay, ON, where 50 people protested
the project wearing satirical “SaveCanada” shirts in imitation of TransCanada
employees’ attire.
When pressed, Cannon was unable to
confirm whether TransCanada’s “stakeholder engagement strategy” represented
the entirety of its consultation process.
The National Energy Board’s website lists
a number of acceptable consultation methods, including open house meetings, radio
spots, and questionnaires. The Dominion
spoke to about ten concerned area residents who expressed criticism of the open
house format, which was not designed to
invite residents’ opinions, especially critical ones.
Kenora resident Teika Newton followed
the lead of North Bay activists and sported
a “SaveCanada” T-shirt at the open house,
where The Dominion interviewed her.
“[The open house was] presented in a
format where community discussion is not
encouraged,” she said. “You’re having a lot
of one-on-one conversations with people,
each person coming in and getting a different piece of the puzzle.”
TransCanada did not organize an open
house in Winnipeg, but held one in the
community of Île-des-Chênes, 25 kilometres outside the city of Winnipeg. Greene
said that the distance made the open
house inaccessible to many Winnipeg
residents.
Newton was concerned that even if the
National Energy Board were to disapprove
the project in response to community
opposition, “the federal government has
the authority to override decisions made
by the NEB if it is in the national best
interest.”
The Council of Canadians shares similar
concerns. Bill C-45 and other omnibus
bills passed by the Conservative government have sought to streamline approval
processes for energy projects. Adrangi
said this means shortening timelines and
creating barriers to submitting complaints,
such as providing “ten-page documents
that interested participants need to fill
out.”
In addition to environmental and safety
issues along the pipeline itself, activists
like Lawrence Angeconeb are concerned
about the First Nations communities in
Alberta, such as Fort Chipewyan and Fort
MacKay, that are directly affected by tar
sands production.
Angeconeb said his personal mission
is “to get everyone in Treaty 3 and the
First Nations communities that surround
Kenora to oppose the pipeline as an act of
solidarity for the First Nations communities that are affected directly” by the tar
sands.
The United Nations Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples prescribes
a protocol of free, prior, and informed
consent for projects that impact Indigenous lands and peoples. Adrangi said
that the development of the tar sands, as
well as the original natural gas pipeline
for Energy East, violated those protocols.
“Local people should be agents of local
governance, and Indigenous peoples have
been and are still being denied that right,”
she said.
Outside the open house, Angeconeb
added, “They’re saying that they’re
approaching First Nations and they’re
not really saying who, and that’s just how
secretive this whole process may turn out
to be.”
The role of Indigenous people in environmental approval processes is one of
the many issues that the Idle No More
movement continues to raise. Over the
summer, several members of Idle No More
Winnipeg initiated “Water Wednesdays,” a
weekly event that connected INM supporters with local environmental organizations
to strategize and share stories.
“When they unveiled their plans for
the west-to-east pipeline on August 1, I
knew that we had to start informing each
other of this,” said Greene. “As Indigenous
peoples, our entire existence and identity
and rights are connected to the land and
the water.”
Greene said that the role of treaty rights
in protecting land and water is what makes
the Idle No More movement appeal to
Indigenous and non-Indigenous people
alike. “Indigenous rights are our last resort
to protecting the land, the air, the water,”
she said. “If it wasn’t for the land and the
water, there would be no life.”
Shelagh Pizey-Allen lives in Winnipeg.
21
Toronto Media Co-op
Rob Ford and Harm Reduction
A personal insight into the Rob Ford drug scandal, harm reduction and the depths of human hypocrisy
by Rob Connell
TORONTO—Given the
continually unfolding
Rob Ford scandal I’d
like to offer a personal
insight into the drug
policy prescriptions he
has advocated for much of his political
life, so that we can better understand the
dynamics of this problem and what his
mayorship is costing Toronto.
Harm reduction is a way of thinking
about and practising healthy ways of being
that build on the risk-reduction strategies
we all use to keep ourselves as safe and
healthy as possible. This philosophy and
practice is not in opposition to abstinence
(the “just say no” approach) but recognizes that “just say no” is not a realistic,
desirable or attainable goal for many of
us. Instead, it offers a broader range of
options for anyone looking for ways to
sustain their health and well-being.
In my capacity as the coordinator of the
Toronto Raver Information Project (TRiP)
I served on the Toronto City Council’s
Drug Strategy Committee from 2007 to
2008. During my tenure, the committee
was grappling with the implementation of
Toronto’s safer crack use kits, a pragmatic
project designed to reduce the spread of
blood-borne viruses (HIV and Hepatitis
C) among at-risk crack users. Most of our
work revolved around trying to convince
the two drug detectives on the committee
to tell their colleagues to stop seizing and
breaking the kits, thus sabotaging a cityapproved initiative.
Rob Ford was not on the committee, but his vocal opposition to the crack
kits and harm reduction as a whole was
well known. In his 2005 statements on
the issue, Councillor Ford dismissed the
concept of harm reduction in its entirety
and essentially advocated that the only
response to crack use should be forced
rehab or for users to “dry out in jail.”
For the record, in and of itself, I don’t
care that Rob Ford enjoys crack or any
other substance, although it reflects poorly
The Toronto Raver Information Project, seen here tabling, focuses on harm reduction in relation to drugs,
something Mayor Rob Ford has so far opposed. Photo courtesy of former TRiP Coordinator Lisa Campbell
on his integrity that he so vigorously lied
about it. I do care that he has a long history of demonizing and vilifying people
who do the exact same thing as he does.
I do care that his very political existence
seems to revolve around gutting social programs, including progressive and compassionate initiatives and policies designed
to actually help, rather than punish or
further harm, people dealing with similar
substance use issues as him. Therein lies
the truly disgusting and outrageous aspect
of the scandal.
Given the huge disconnect between what
Rob Ford says and what he does, in terms
of drugs, I think we have a mayor who is
either so deluded and unreflective that
his grasp of reality and capacity for sound
judgment is in serious doubt, or a person
who is largely unable to empathize with
others and has sunk so deep into cynicism
and self-serving manipulative lying that
he’s approaching the behaviour of a sociopath. It’s possible that future revelations
on his alleged role in murder and extortion
may shed light on this last point.
Although I think it’s fair to point out
that Ford’s substance use has at times
resulted in reckless endangerment of
others (impaired driving) and seems quite
self-destructive, we should be wary of
ridiculing and demonizing Ford for his
drug use in and of itself, because this feeds
into the social stigma that helps justify the
disastrous war on drugs. As I have pointed
out above, there are much better reasons
to criticize the beleaguered mayor.
Rob Connell was a member of the Toronto
Raver Information Project (TRiP) from 2005
to 2008, an organization founded in 1995
by members of the city’s electronic dance
music, or rave, subculture.
22
Toronto Media Co-op
Why Hasn’t Ford Been Charged?
Cuts and murders are much better reasons to criticize Toronto mayor
by the Toronto Media Co-op
TORONTO—The
ongoing saga with
Mayor Rob Ford
continues.
There have been over
40 Ford-related issues
or scandals before the crack and other
video allegations even surfaced.
But beyond the crack video hype and
non-stop comedy quotes, readers of the
Toronto Media Co-op will know the real
issues with Ford are being sidelined by
current media coverage.
Ford’s mission to cut services and
eliminate staff and services at the City of
Toronto have had far more of an impact
on the city in the last three years than the
allegations of his crack-cocaine use. Ford
has made a number of dubious claims
about his fiscal record and has, for the
most part, manufactured a financial problem that never existed.
He’s cut taxes, cut programs and cut
spending in the city mostly on the backs
of staff gapping: not hiring replacement
workers in various departments when they
are necessary.
This has had numerous outcomes, from
a lack of shelters for the homeless to fewer
staff to run needed departments and poor
services for city residents.
Most media outlets have focused on
Ford’s drug use as the main story. In
reality, even more alarming are questions
around whether Ford has had anything
to do with extortion, drug dealing and,
most importantly, the murder of Anthony
Smith.
Reporters have actually begun asking
the mayor about whether he was involved
in a murder plot.
Alexander “Sandro” Lisi, the mayor’s
friend and occasional driver now charged
with extortion (relating to the mayor’s
crack video) and drug dealing, has been at
the centre of police investigations involving Ford. He’s been charged and convicted
numerous times. According to an explosive
report in the Toronto Star in May, Lisi
paid visits to an Etobicoke house of Fabio
and Elena Basso, friends of Ford, after the
video surfaced.
“A day later, just before midnight, Fabio, his girlfriend, and
Fabio’s mother were assaulted by
an unknown attacker brandishing
an expandable baton who broke
into their home,” wrote Star
reporters Kevin Donovan and
Jayme Poisson on Aug. 16, 2013.
Mark Towney, Ford’s former
chief of staff, told police that there
could have been a link between
Ford’s crack video and the
murder of Anthony Smith (who
was gunned down in March),
claiming that the video (now held Questions remain around Ford and more serious crimes.
by the police) could have been the Photo by West Annex News, illustration by ALL CAPS Design
documents. “I don’t see how it would have
motive for the murder.
compromised the other investigation.
The most puzzling element of the
They describe the mayor being at a soccer
scandal and allegations: why hasn’t Mayor
game. Lisi gets a package and puts it in the
Ford been arrested and charged?
[mayor’s] car. You get an instant search
Police search-warrant documents
warrant and get a sample and get the
released to the public outline hundreds
sample analyzed...then months or years
of phone calls and package exchanges
later you have the evidence.”
between the mayor and his now-charged
Pugash countered that police would
friend Lisi.
have been under intense scrutiny given the
In an interview with the Toronto Media
high profile of the investigation and said
Co-op, Clayton Ruby, the constitutional
the TMC is “looking at this backwards” and
and criminal lawyer who nearly removed
offered the following hypothetical situaFord from office as part of a separate
tion: “Let’s say we were investigating you
scandal, thinks the package exchanges
and your friends and had reason to believe
should have given the police opportunities
there was proof of criminality. What if
to get evidence of drug possession against
we felt that there was something that was
the mayor.
going to happen over time? What if you do
“They never made any attempt to get
something relatively criminally minor and
evidence that what was being delivered to
we arrest you? What happens to the other
him was cocaine and they should have and
could have. They should have arrested him 98 per cent of what happens later?”
Though Pugash was not legally able
and searched the vehicle. If it had been
to comment directly on why Ford’s car
you they would have done those things.”
was not searched, he defended DetectiveMark Pugash, spokesperson for the
Sergeant Gary Giroux, the man leading the
Toronto Police Service, has publicly
derided Ruby’s expertise, noting that Ruby Ford investigation, calling him “without a
doubt the most tenacious and persistent
has never been an investigator and has
investigator that I know.”
never conducted an investigation. He told
Readers of the Toronto Media Co-op
the TMC, “The idea that when you start a
might disagree.
major investigation you know what you’re
Detective-Sergeant Giroux was one of
gonna end up with makes no sense...you
have to follow the evidence where it leads.” the lead investigators for G20-related
charges against protesters. A number of
But Ruby, who has seen thousands of
police investigations, believes that Toronto those arrested and charged claimed that
the charges against them were politically
Police still would have been able to get the
motivated.
evidence given what was in the redacted
23
Coop Média de Montréal
Opposition to Enbridge Grows
by Coop Média de Montréal, photos by Arij Riahi
The demonstration proceeded to take Highway
334, the main highway running through many
communities off the western tip of Montreal,
and formed a round dance.
Kanehsatà:ke
Traditional
Territory—On
November 16, 2013,
as part of a national
day in opposition to
pipelines, 200 people went to Oka Park,
on Kanien’kehà:ka (Mohawk) traditional
territory, to protest Enbridge’s plan to
reverse its Line 9B pipeline in order to
send tar sands oil from west to east. The
pipeline runs though the traditional territory of the Kanien’kehà:ka people.
“We could be occupying this park. We
could say we’ll put up a camp and we’ll
not let Enbridge workers come in, we
won’t even let Oka Park workers come
in,” said Ellen Gabriel, an outspoken
Kanien’kehà:ka community leader bestknown for her role as a spokesperson
during the “Oka” Crisis. “But we haven’t
done that because we want peace. But
your government [doesn’t] want that.
They want us to assimilate and to forget
who we are as Indigenous peoples. And
they want these pipelines to go through
no matter what.”
For full video of Grabriel’s speech, visit
http://montreal.mediacoop.ca.
Opposition to oil and gas in Oka Park, on Kanehsatà:ke Traditional Territory, has been growing.
November 16, 2013, marked the second rally against Enbridge since July.
Ellen Gabriel, a Kanien’kehà:ka community leader, spoke to the crowd.
Old and young took part in the demo. The
unbridled exploitation of oil and gas is “taking
away the quality of life of your grandchildren
and their grandchildren,” said Gabriel.
Enbridge is becoming environmental enemy number one in many parts of Quebec.
Letters
KCAB TALK
Compiled by Moira Peters
Ride On
You’ve captured the Toronto cycling
problem perfectly and you’ve really
highlighted how far a little human kindness and compassion can go (“My Letter
to Rob Ford” by Taylor Flook, Issue 91:
November/December 2013). I hope
[Ford] takes your advice, gets a cruiser
and follows you up the high road. Hope
to you see you in a bike lane before too
long!
—kfothers
I do 8,000 kilometres of commuting
by bicycle annually, and can certainly
sympathize with you. When you do
get back out there, try to take the lane
wherever possible. By controlling your
position you can prevent people from
trying to squeeze by. Any lane you are in
is a bike lane.
—shamu
I was involved in a bike accident and
as it turned out it was my error that
led to the accident. Would a bike lane
have changed the outcome? Maybe.
But...I have no expectations that the city
provide bike lanes on each and every
road and I think too many cyclists are
expecting and demanding too much.
People must realize that there is a cost
involved...which has a direct impact on
doing business in a city.
—morrisR
that the regulator may require this and
that. So yes, the companies must follow
requirements of the regulators, but the
regulator may require them, if they see
fit.
—Ken Summers
History will show that a) bicycling is
a way out of our dead-end, climatewrecking system; b) your loving
approach is what will get us through
the chaos that is surely coming; and c)
a healthy sense of humour is vital to
maintaining our dignity as human beings—car-drivers and bikers alike.
—Vanessa (also a bike-on-car
accident survivor)
Narratives of “the worker” as put
forward within the white labour movement really need to be challenged, and
it’s rad to see this particularly coming
out of concrete on-the-ground struggle
(“Queer Struggles are Class Struggles”
by Shay Enxuga, Issue 91: November/
December 2013). That said, I’m disappointed that a critical lens isn’t put on
the Service Employees International
Union (SEIU), especially given the
relationship between trans people,
particularly trans people of colour, and
the prison industrial complex. The relationship between the SEIU and security
puts the SEIU objectively on the side of
white supremacy. For Baristas Rise Up
to avoid grappling with this explicitly is
a huge mistake, in my opinion.
—Brad Vaughan
‘Water’ the rules?
The Environment Communications
flack claims that the new regulations in
New Brunswick have rules the companies must follow (Penobsquis: “New
Brunswick’s Dirty Little Secret” by Rana
Encol, Issue 91: November/December
2013). The catch is that all of them read
Working the Bars
Got a little backtalk for us? Send letters to [email protected]. Letters and comments may be edited for length and clarity.
Anonymous letters and comments may not be published; those with an accompanying address will be prioritized.
Celebrating 20 years of Incorporation/25 years of Working Groups
Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group
Linking education and research with action for social and environmental justice
NSPIRG works closely with the Halifax Media Co-op to develop citizen
reportage skills in our community. We’re proud to be associated with
The Media Co-op.
Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group
314-6136 University Avenue
Halifax, NS B3H 4J2
(902)494-6662
[email protected] www.nspirg.ca
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter
25
alTeRnaTive
TRaDe
inneR CiTY
RenovaTion
Legacies for the Future
How a Social Enterprise
Changes Lives and
Communities
Gavin Fridell
9781552665879 $24.95
Marty Donkervoort,
Foreword by Jack Quarter
eThiCal
ConsumpTion
Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier,
Preface by Sarah Soule,
Translated by Howard Scott
Yellow Ribbons
The Militarization of National Identity in Canada
A.L. McCready
9781552665800 $18.95
The Devil anD
The Deep blue sea
An Investigation into
the Scapegoating of
Canada’s Grey Seal
Linda Pannozzo
9781552665834 $18.95
9781552665862 $24.95
9781552665817 $18.95
F E R N WO O D P U B L I S H I N G
c r i t i c a l b o o k s f o r c r i t i c a l t h i n ke r s
w w w. f e r n w o o d p u b l i s h i n g . c a
Own your
Media.
Join the
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The Media
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26
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We accept illustrations on an on-going basis and
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Pitch us your artist profile at mediacoop.ca/ART
27
CUPE NB President Danny Legere is joined by a young, First Nations protestor at Elsipogtog this past summer.
CUPE stands in Solidarity with anti-fracking
protestors in Elsipogtog
At our recent national convention in Quebec City, more than 2,000 CUPE leaders and activists from around the
country passed an Emergency Resolution in support of anti-fracking protestors in Elsipogtog.
The resolution said, in part, “The shale gas industry has failed to demonstrate that such development would not
have serious consequences for the environment and the health of citizens.”
CUPE New Brunswick was the driving force behind the resolution.
More recently, CUPE NB, CUPE NS, CUPE PEI and CUPE NL were proud to sponsor a huge benefit concert that
took place in Halifax on November 30.
Canada’s largest union – with close to 630,000 members – stands in solidarity with First Nations
people in New Brunswick on this important struggle.

The Dominion - The Media Co-op

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