Archive for May, 2009
Green Energy Act on 'Living at the Barricades' Lake Ontario Waterkeeper's Weekly Radio Show
This may be my second last post on the Green Energy Act, but I don’t want to spend any time on the politics of that bill right now. Instead, I want to spend a moment on Lake Ontario Waterkeeper and the great people involved in that organization. I’ve been aware of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper since the days when their office was at Harbourfront Centre and I was a Dock Attendant at the marina where they kept their boat. As a sailor and someone who cares about nature conservation myself, I deeply respect and appreciate the work they do for all of us. As an activist, working on an issue that affects Lake Ontario, I’ve become more and more aware of their principled action to preserve our lake.
Each week, Mark Mattson and Krystyn Tully, the President and Vice President of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper co-host a radio show called ‘Living at the Barricades
‘. It explores a number emerging environmental issues that impact water. It is a fascinating listen for any activist, or person who cares about what’s going on. Their tireless work, lengthy but principled struggles are personally inspiring.
I was pleased to join Mark and Krystyn on Living at the Barricades last week to speak about the Green Energy Act, and it’s impact on environmental protection, especially as it relates to the proposed wind farm in Scarborough. Here is a link to that show.
I subscribe to Living at the Barricades for free through iTunes, you should too. below the bassline earnest ranglin mp3 download
No Comments »A UN Mandated Force Needs to be on the Ground in Sri Lanka
When has a minority group ever been interned in camps run by the dominant opposing side in a military conflict, and it ended with those people walking out alive? When have internment or concentration camps without independent media or Red Cross access ever not resulted in mass killings of minorities? Simply put, the fox can never be trusted to guard the hen house. Why haven’t we learned to respond immediately?
Sri Lanka has been engaged in civil war for well over two decades. The Tamil people have suffered systemic racism in Sri Lanka for decades, and well before the start of this war. With the government of Sri Lanka bombing Tamil civilians, denying humanitarian access, or the mobility of independent media – how can the world sit by and just hope that somehow the Sri Lankan government won’t go even further, especially when the UN is saying they’ve likely already committed crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Pro-Sinhalese folks will say, that the LTTE are terrorists, that’s not a claim I am going to dispute, but the LTTE are not holding over 200 000 members of an ethnic group they’ve been indiscriminately bombing, denying basic medial and food aid to and forbidding the media from witnessing. The Sri Lanka government is. They are also not denying the over 200 000 minorities they are holding in guarded camps, surrounded by barbed wire, the right to leave the camps. The journalists who tried to report on the severity of the camps was deported from Sri Lanka for ‘damaging the countries image’.
The world community needs to get their act together and invoke the ‘responsibility to protect’ and prevent what could be an undisputed genocide if the world community fails to step in. The reason Tamil Canadians are in the streets of Toronto daily is to push for our government to protect their loved ones back home. It isn’t an unreasonable request to ask Canada to stand up and use it’s presence on the international stage to protect innocent civilians from further harm.
I was very young when the Srebrenica massacre happened. I am too young to remember it, but it is a topic I’ve certainly learned about in university and read about on my own. I was shocked that such a large scale mass murder of innocent people could take place in ‘safe zones’ while the UN stood by and watched. It demonstrated the atrocities of Rwanda had not served as a lesson in managing ethnic conflict. The resulting decade of discussion about the UN’s effectiveness has seen Darfur virtually ignored by the international community, and now Sri Lanka setting the stage for the latest moment when the world community has a choice to make.
The United Nations Security Council has a responsibility to protect innocent civilians. They have a responsibility to ensure that innocent civilians are protected from armed conflict. The reports that are getting out of Sri Lanka make it clear that isn’t happening. Whether you believe the government figures of 378 deaths from the Sri Lankan government shelling a hospital, or the Tamil community’s figure of 3000 – there is no room for moral relativism when it comes to the deaths of innocent civilians. One is too many. 300 or 3000 is totally without explanation. Simply put, governments never have the right to kill their people, and the world community always has an obligation to act when it is clear a government either has, is or soon will kill innocent civilians.
The silence of Canada’s government has been deafening on this issue. The Canadian government should act at the United Nations to pressure members of the Security Council to pass a resolution invoking the ‘responsibility to protect’ and sending in an international force that can protect Tamil civilians from violence, and develop a framework to a sustainable peace and security for both the Tamil and Sinhalese populations of Sri Lanka.
A UN mandated force could open the country up to foreign journalists, keep the peace and allow for humanitarian aid to flow in hopes of alleviating the current humanitarian crisis and preventing further humanitarian crises and acts of genocide. This force could also stabilize the situation and prevent future outbreaks of violence.
If you haven’t already, write to the Prime Minister of Canada (pm@pm.gc.ca) and your Member of Parliament
to tell them that you believe Canada must act to prevent further crimes against humanity from being committed in Sri Lanka.
These protests we’ve seen every day have been about raising awareness and getting people to pressure the government. If you agree with the Tamil community, or even if you just want the protests to stop, remind Stephen Harper that his Government has a moral obligation to pursue peace in the world and that the UN has a responsibility to protect. Call on him to do his part to ensure that happens.
Below are some links to stories about the chaos brewing in the internment camps the Sri Lankan government has forced over 200 000 Tamils into.
Children Separated From Parents in Chaotic Sri Lankan Camps – Save the Children, May 16 2009
Sri Lankan Government Denies Entry to Aid Groups, Raising Humanitarian Law Questions, May 15 2009
The banality of evil in Sri Lanka – UPI Asia, May 15 2009
Sri Lankan shelters stretched to ‘breaking point’, May 12 2009
5 Comments »Maybe Metro Didn't Get the Memo That Bottled Water is Out.
OK, so let’s set the scene. Environmentalists rightly have been going after bottled water companies, launching a highly publicised campaign to get folks to drink tap water and use reusable water containers instead of buying water that costs considerably more per litre than gas, and is no different than tap water anyways.
As with all things that are not related to the mandate of the City of Toronto – Toronto City Council jumps in! They ban the sale of water at Toronto Civic Centres, but don’t go any further, allowing stores to continue selling water, causing the waste diversion folks to continue to have to process all of these single use bottles at ridiculous rates.
As with many Toronto City Council pet projects, hilarity ensues.
First at Toronto City Hall, Pepsi doesn’t empty the machines, then some bright staffer puts tape over the aquafina logos, so only those smart enough to hit the button will still get water, and finally the machines are turned facing the wall, until the offending water could be replaced. Then, it turns out water is still being sold at the Scarborough Civic Centre, in the ward of the Councillor behind the whole water banning thing to begin with.
It’s safe to say, after all of this, and folks just thinking about it in general, bottled water is now kind of taboo. It’s seen as being ungreen, and therefore bad. I know I personally have stopped buying cases of bottled water, and do my best to carry and use my aluminium reusable bottle instead. Don’t get me wrong, bottled water has it’s purpose. At an event that’s outdoors in the summer, it would almost be unreasonable to not have bottled water available, but for folks at home, or for individual, non group setting use, it is a bit unnecessary.
The folks at Metro even in their attempt to be all chic, didn’t seem to get the memo about bottled water. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bottled water display as big as the one I saw today at the Metro in the Market, as I saw today. Normally I don’t go to grocery stores and take pictures, but the check out guy was taking a long time, and I was pretty bored and happened to be playing on my phone at the time. There are twenty columns of water, four rows deep, stacked six high. Thats 480 cases of water, proudly on display by the checkout. At $4.99 a case that’s like $2500 bucks in water. It seemed kind of excessive. I thought I’d throw it out there, just because the whole bottled water thing seems like the kind of issue where these things matter.
“Water Display”
“Water Wall”
“Water Wall – closer view”
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