I attended the Canadian Organic Growers Toronto conference today, and could easily write a dozen posts. I’ll write about just one speaker, Percy Schmeiser, who I had first listened to perhaps a decade ago or more at a Toronto Vegetarian Association event. In those days I was not a food activist at all. I just liked vegetables and wanted to be informed about what I was eating and feeding my family. So I went to Mr. Schmeiser’s talk then not necessarily expecting to be convinced of the harm of genetically modified foods.
Mr. Schmeiser’s story is one of profound and infuriating wrong. When I first heard him speak, he was embroiled in a legal battle with Monsanto, which had identified their genetically modified crop on his field, and demanded that he pay for using their patented product. As a heritage seed developer, he certainly didn’t welcome Monsanto’s “contribution”, which had contaminated all his fields and destroyed 50 years worth of work. All he did was refuse to pay. And in retribution, Monsanto dragged him right up to the Supreme Court, counting on the fact that he would succumb to the immense pressure of overwhelming legal bills. Read more »
These are hard times for those of us working on climate change – scientists, environmentalists, policymakers and others. The breathless rumours about the death of climate change science from denialists are not only premature, however, they are contrary to what anyone working in the field knows and understands. The real question is whether we will embrace the science in time to prevent catastrophe.
I was studying Anthropology at the University of Toronto in the early 1980s. At that time, Richard Leakey and Donald Johanson were embroiled in a bitter feud about the significance of Australopithecus afarensis. Johanson had found remains of the 3.2 million year old hominid and was sure that it was a human ancestor. Leakey was initially unwilling even to acknowledge that it deserved its own species name. Johanson was still fighting off accusations of professional misconduct because he publicized his findings in a popular magazine and gave the specimen the catchy name “Lucy” before submitting his research to peer-review. Some old textbooks that we used still referred to Piltdown Man, which had been revealed as a fraud four decades before. Read more »
I’ve wanted to write for a while about Afghan prisoner issues, but for a while every day brought new revelations. And now for days I’ve wanted to write about the prorogation of Parliament, but I’m honestly stumped about what to say. And obviously I’m heartily ashamed of Canada’s performance at Copenhagen, which earned us the “Fossil of the Year” award once again.
Maude Barlow ties all this together, and more, here.
I watched Avatar with my family on New Year’s Day and highly recommend it. One of my friends described it as a futuristic Pocahontas story that ends well for the natives. He also found it amusing that the substance for which mankind was willing to lay waste to the beautiful moon of Pandora was called unobtainium. Spoilers ahead. Read more »
Green Party Holiday and Shopping Party Fundraiser Wednesday, 2009 December 2, 7 pm – 9:30 pm
Ten Thousand Villages, 362 Danforth Ave
(just east of Carrot Common, just west of Chester Station)
Stephen Scharper is a powerful speaker who helped send us off on the Sunshine Walk for Climate Justice last year. I’m looking forward to this talk in our neighbourhood.
A Time to Speak of Poverty and Climate Change:
A Conversation with Professor Stephen Bede Scharper Saturday, 2009 October 17, 9 am – noon
Danforth Baptist Church, 60 Bowden St
(corner of Danforth and Bowden, west of Chester station)
Presented by Toronto East KAIROS Committee.
Free admission, info 416-466-0566.
I’d like to thank my friend Glenn MacIntosh of EcoSanity for his recent posting alerting me to this stunning, heartbreaking address:
President Nasheed of the Maldives appeals to the United Nations to commit to targets of 350 ppm and temperature increases no higher than 1.5 degrees Celsius so that his country might stand a chance of not being swept beneath the seas. Read more »
I’ll be participating in the Second Annual Danforth Multifaith Peace Walk and urge everyone to join me. The walk begins at Glen Rhodes United Church and continues past the Danforth Jewish Circle, the Pakistani Community Centre and the Madina Masjid on Danforth to celebrate the newly renovated space, ending at Eastminster United Church.
Women are asked to wear a head scarf inside the Madina Masjid.
Second Annual Danforth Multifaith Peace Walk
Sunday, 2009 October 4, 1 pm
Glen Rhodes United Church, 1470 Gerrard St E
About a month ago now, I visited with Robert Nevin, who was the Green Party of Canada candidate in the 2000 election. He is a truly wonderful man – informed, articulate and passionate.
He really liked the postcard I was handing out. With one exception. And he was right. Read more »
It was my friend William who first pointed it out to me. The eligible voters who are declaring their intention not to vote in this election are coming from a most unlikely group. We expect a good percentage of newly eligible voters to declare a lack of interest in politics. But there are huge numbers of seniors now saying they are so confused or disgusted with politics that they don’t know how to vote and intend not to. I’m hearing this more and more. And seniors are generally regarded as the most reliable voter group by age. Read more »
The Canadian Health Coalition is concerned about new threats to our universal public health care system. They are concerned that the new head of the Canadian Medical Association, who owns private clinics himself, is promoting a mixed model of health care delivery.
I applaud the goals of the Canadian Health Coalition, which has just launched a website to address this new threat, and urge everyone to sign the pledge online, which I appear to have signed twice in my enthusiasm. Read more »
I’ve had a couple of people ask what Green Party policy was on disabilities. One concern was that some of the policies towards greening the economy were fairly hostile to people who had a difficult time already dealing with life’s challenges. This is something I’ve pledged to address on Shadow Cabinet.
In the meantime, I’m proud also to say that the Green Party has a very robust and human-scale policy towards people with disabilities centred on two policy points which I find incredibly important. Read more »
In many ways, the morning rain and overcast sky made this the best Pride Parade I’ve ever been in. The cool weather gave us all extra energy. Here we are waiting for the parade to start. Thanks Soo Luen for the photo. Read more »
According to a study jointly co-authored by researchers at Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), the United Nations University and CARE International, the stresses of climate change could create 700 million refugees by 2050. That’s about 20 times the entire population of Canada desperately searching for a new home. 40 countries may cease to exist altogether.
These are hard times for those of us working on climate change – scientists, environmentalists, policymakers and others. The breathless rumours about the death of climate change science from denialists are not only premature, however, they are contrary to what anyone working in the field knows and understands. The real question is whether we will embrace the science in time to prevent catastrophe.
In many ways, the morning rain and overcast sky made this the best Pride Parade I’ve ever been in. The cool weather gave us all extra energy. Here we are waiting for the parade to start. Thanks Soo Luen for the photo. 
Explaining my introductory postcard
Subscribe to articles