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What do the new NAFTA and the TMX have in common?

June 14, 2019

I emailed you earlier this week to sound the alarm about the Trudeau government’s rush to push the new NAFTA...

In a new hard-hitting Council of Canadians report, economics and pipeline expert Gordon Laxer reveals special provisions in the new trade deal that will allow the federal government to continue to subsidize the Trans Mountain (TMX) pipeline.

The Trudeau government is expected to announce its decision on the pipeline’s future next week.

This pipeline, which will ensure expansion of the climate-polluting tar sands in Alberta, will not only send crude to export on fragile coastal B.C. shores, it will put thousands of waterways, communities and drinking water sources at risk along its route. Forests and lands will be bulldozed and razed to build some of it – even through First Nations where Indigenous peoples have said “no.”

A Green New Deal for public health care

June 14, 2019

This is part of a series on sparking change with a Green New Deal.

When I first started working on climate issues almost 20 years ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) pegged the annual death toll from the climate crisis at 150,000. The WHO is now projecting that from 2030 to 2050 the climate crisis will take the lives of at least 250,000 every year.

How will a Green New Deal change everything?

June 13, 2019

This is the first blog in a series on the changes a Green New Deal can spark.

On May 6, the Council of Canadians helped launch the Pact for a Green New Deal, along side dozens of other organizations. Over 50,000 people have since signed the pledge, over 100 organizations have now joined, and 150 town halls have taken place (with many more still planned). This is just the beginning of shaping a Green New Deal.

Wisconsin dairy farmer says supply management is not the problem, overproduction is

June 13, 2019

Farmer protest on Parliament Hill While the Canadian Parliament is in the process of actively ratifying the Canada United States Mexico Agreement, a U.S. dairy farmer is visiting Ottawa to tell farmers that access to Canadian markets in the new NAFTA will not solve the woes of American farmers.

In the U.S., major dairy industry lobby groups have been urging the swift passage of the CUSMA though the U.S. Congress. Jim Goodman, President of the National Family Farm Coalition says, however, that they miss the point: it is American overproduction that hurts American farmers, not Canada’s control on imports and its supply management system.

Solidarity against the megadamage of megadams

June 11, 2019

13 people were arrested on Parliament Hill yesterday at a Protest Against Megadam Megadamage in Ottawa, which started outside the annual meeting of the International Coalition on Large Dams before marching to the Hill. Everyone was released with a trespass ticket and a 90 day ban from the Hill soon after.

I took part in the protest, organized by the Ontario-Muskrat Solidarity Coalition and Wa Ni Ska Tan: An Alliance of Hydro Impacted Communities. Indigenous Land and Water Protectors were in Ottawa to challenge Site C, Muskrat Falls, the Automation of the Grand Rapids Generation Station, and other damaging megadam projects.

The Indigenous Land and Water Protectors and allies were arrested while trying to deliver a 15,000 signature petition against megadams to Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna.

The Council of Canadians

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