A Common Front meeting in September 2015.
The Council of Canadians NWT chapter and allies have formed a Common Front in the Northwest Territories to promote social justice.
NWT chapter activist Lois Little has highlighted, “We will have our second Common Front gathering on Saturday October 1st and are so pleased that we can Skype Brent Patterson in to do the Trudeau Tracker segment on promises made, broken and fulfilled. We are still registering people but it looks like we’ll have a couple dozen folks from a variety of civil society and Indigenous organizations committed to working together to express our common values.”
Some of the issues that could be raised in the “Trudeau Tracker” segment might include the federal government:
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not improving on the Harper government’s weak emission reduction targets -
falsely maintaining the argument that they can be both environmentally responsible and approve a pipeline to get oil to tidewater -
saying that now is “not the moment” to begin phasing out fossil fuel subsidies and that a liquefied natural gas tax break should be locked in until 2025 -
approving the Woodfibre LNG terminal in Squamish -
approving the Navigation Protection Act and Fisheries Act permits needed for construction on the Site C dam -
refusing to immediately restore protections to the more than 31,000 lakes and 2.25 million rivers now without federal protection -
supporting the provisional application of the Canada-European Union CETA free trade agreement -
pursuing a free trade agreement with China -
saying that pharmacare is not part of their mandate -
refusing to commit to increased health care transfer payments -
refusing to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into Canadian law -
not allowing the Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women to make finding of police misconduct -
increasing Canada’s military presence in Iraq -
selling military vehicles to Saudi Arabia despite their human rights record
The federal government will also be making a series of decisions in the coming months including on a nuclear waste dump on Lake Huron (expected soon), the Pacific Northwest LNG terminal on Lelu Island (on October 2), the Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline (on December 19), the privatization of public assets such as airports (likely by March 2017), its proposal for electoral reform (in May 2017), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (by November 2017), and the Energy East pipeline (by June 2018).
The Common Front in the NWT brings together over 20 organizations. Common front movements draw together social and environmental justice advocates to coordinate actions based on shared goals and priorities. By combining the public profile of many organizations, these solidarity movements multiply their political influence and effectiveness.
The NWT chapter has been active in calling for a fracking moratorium in the Liard Basin, opposing the proposed 100,000 barrel per day Arctic Gateway tar sands export pipeline, calling on their Liberal MP Michael McLeod to hold a public consultation on a climate plan, demanding that their territorial government pursue a clean energy future, asking that Yellowknife City Council pass a resolution in opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, raising concerns about the impact the Giant Mine could have on Great Slave Lake, successfully mobilizing against Husky Oil’s application to mine for silica (a mineral used in the fracking process) near Chedabucto Lake, and so much more.
The chapter is also organizing around the House of Commons Special Committee on Electoral Reform (ERRE) visit to Yellowknife on September 30, and Little will be presenting on the Trans-Pacific Partnership to the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade (CIIT) via video-conference on October 18.
For blogs highlighting the work of the NWT chapter, please click here.
