Salil Shetty, the global secretary-general of Amnesty International, delivered a blistering attack on Harper’s record on human rights actions, in a report released March 31 entitled Getting Back On The Rights Track. ‘Globally, Canada’s reputation as a reliable human-rights champion has dropped precipitously,’ Amnesty stated.
Green Leader Elizabeth May responded, ‘Canadians are aware of the current Government’s indifference for human rights and its disdain for the organizations that defend them. There has been a definite drift away from the traditional Canadian values of taking leadership in human rights and a change of government is urgently required to rebuild trust.’
Annual Green Awakening Network
& Greening Sacred Spaces Forum
Saturday, March 26, 9 am – noon
Sunday, March 27, 8:30 am – 3:30 pm
Eglinton St George’s United Church, 35 Lytton Rd
Come and join faith communities from across Toronto and region for a day of inspiration and practical help on March 26. The event is for faith communities wishing to seriously take their commitment to ‘live with integrity’ in creation. Read more »
I’m a worrier. For most of my life, I’ve fretted over my children like many mothers do. Their health, their grades, their social development. The last few years I’ve been worried at a whole new level. When I was a young woman, analysts predicted a clean future powered by the sun and wind. They pointed out the urgency of starting this great transformation because a few decades later it would be too late. For multiple reasons including climate change, the imminent decline of oil and the stress on vulnerable but critical water and other resources, delay would bring on miserable results. That was a now a few decades ago. We are more dependent than ever on oil, our emissions keep rising, water tables are declining all over the world and food stresses are leading to riots in countries all over the world. Governments in North Africa are tumbling to populations that demand to be fed.
I remain hopeful that by investing in a green economy, we may still turn things around in time and deliver a future not too unlike the present for our children. That is what I’m working for, that is what I want to see – a Canada much like the Canada we all know, but moving boldly into a transitional economy from which we will emerge into a more permanent economy that’s more efficient and respectful of our limits. Read more »
A clever site called People for Corporate Tax Cuts does a brilliant job of highlighting the impact on Canadians of a corporate tax cut. Although it’s designed for an Ontario audience, it works well at all levels of government. Governments only have so much money. If they cut the corporate tax rate, either they have to increase the tax burden on individuals, or they have to cut services. This might make sense if we had outrageous corporate tax rates that made it difficult for businesses to compete in a global economy, but that’s not the case. Corporate tax cuts are just welfare for the rich.
A few years ago, Elizabeth May said that we need to plan cities around the child, instead of around the car. There’s now a movement around 8-80 cities that calls on cities to be planned with two groups of people in mind – 8 year olds and 80 year olds. The theory is that if you take care of the young and old, the able-bodied in between will be able to look after themselves. It’s a compassionate approach to community building with the goal of safe streets, local economies and cohesive neighbourhoods, rather than maximum mobility. And it’s very much at the heart of what the Green Party is all about.
I’ve just been alerted to an article by Gwynne Dyer, who anticipates increasing food riots globally. We may be sheltered from actual rioting in Canada for a while, though we won’t be spared the rising prices. And of course, the global destabilization involved will have inevitable impacts on Canada long before we face actual shortages here.
May the new Rabbit year beginning today bless all Chinese Canadians, and all Canadians, with happiness, good health and good fortune. Gung hei fat choi! Happy New Year!
2011 Peace and Conflict Studies conference Friday, 2011 January 28, 3 pm to 9 pm Saturday, 2011 January 29, 9:30 am to 6 pm University of Toronto
The Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict at the University of Toronto hosts the 2011 Peace and Conflict Studies conference. With a focus on the community level of analysis, the conference contends that local-level considerations are vital to the reduction of structural violence. With the community as the foundation, the conference will survey the contours of six sub-topics – education, justice, media, memorialization, infrastructure, and psychological trauma – in a series of panel discussions. These will be united by an opening keynote event with three keynote speeches.
No Growth vs Green Growth debate
Tuesday, 2011 February 2, 9pm
Ideas on CBC Radio One
I want to thank a local supporter for alerting me to Tim Jackson’s presence in Canada. Jackson is an economist working with Canadian economist Peter Victor on modeling an economy not built around constant growth. Read more »
In visiting with people door-to-door, one of the most common grievances I hear is the worry from seniors about increasing difficulty just to make ends meet. Often, seniors worry not only for themselves, but also about the burden they put on other family members. Just before I left for Cancun and a month of worries about climate change followed by Christmas, Joe Friesen reported in the Globe and Mail that senior poverty in Canada had jumped 25% during the economic crisis. The picture he paints is exactly in line with the experiences I hear about. We need to address senior poverty. Working towards the Green Party’s visions for valuing seniors and eliminating poverty would be a start.
UPDATE — While the number of seniors who slipped into poverty increased by 25%, it turns out CEOs were making more than ever – more in just a day’s worth of work than most Canadians make all year.
COP 16 President Patricia Espinosa just received a prolonged standing ovation simply for announcing 10 hours late that negotiations were still ongoing and a deal was still possible. I am in tears.
The youth action outside this building was forcibly stopped.
The best analysis I’ve seen of the new text is offered by BBC. It is better than nothing.
A ceremony announcing the Colossal Fossil was widely expected to award Canada for the fourth year in a row, given the large number of fossils accumulated during this year’s negotiations. But in the confusion outside, the announcement has been put off. I’m proud of the young Canadians for their courage, and disgusted by our leaders for their lack of it.
[Adriana is blogging from the UN climate change negotiations in Cancun, in an attempt to keep the Canadian delegation honest.]
At this morning’s meeting with Canada’s chief negotiator, the first question of the day was taken by a representative of Canada’s youth delegation. He delivered a strongly worded rebuke to Canada for failing to show any leadership, for insisting on weak targets and extensive loopholes, for failing to work constructively with countries that took the problem seriously, and for failing to recognize and address the terrible pain they were imposing on succeeding generations who would never benefit from the advantages that Canadian government choices made today. They demanded that Canada stop kowtowing to the oil industry and take a stand for Canadians and the world. And then they walked out, all 15 or so of them. Read more »
This morning, a group of 30 Greens from all over the world gathered for breakfast in Cancun. Most were officeholders in Europe, either in the EU Parliament or in country governments. But municipal councillor Cathy Oke arrived from Melbourne, Australia, former Santa Monica mayor Mike Feinstein came from the United States, and four Canadian Greens joined in with three Brazilians, including the leader of the Brazilian Greens, Senator Marina Silva, who gathered 20 million votes in the last presidential election, earning 20% of the popular vote, 30% of the urban vote and winning the popular vote outright in Brazil’s capital city of Brasilia.
From left to right: Ronan Dantec, Deputy Mayor of the city of Nantes (France); Marina Silva, Presidential Candidate (Brazil); Dr Cathy Oke, City of Melbourne Councillor (Australia); Adriana Mugnatto-Hamu, Green Party of Canada Climate Change Critic; Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada
I had wanted to meet Marina ever since she left Lula’s government over disagreements about dam-building and other environmentally damaging policies and began to consider running for the Greens. Read more »
I’ve had a hard time connecting the last few days. It’s been busy. A whole lot of nothing is happening in Cancun. There are moments of inspiration amid days of information overload, but the negotiations are slow and it’s very unclear what they will lead to. Canada is being quiet but unhelpful, and all indications are that when push comes to shove, Canada will stand in the way of any real progress. Read more »
I’ve never been to a COP before, but I’ve been involved in climate change issues long enough to recognize a very sad trend from fighting to prevent it to squabbling over the money to deal with it. Far more energy is being spent today to discuss the costs of adaptation, primarily for countries that have had very little to do with causing it. More and more effort is spent by scientists not in evaluating the broad implications of a warming planet, but in evaluating the much more narrow human-scale impacts it will cause. Read more »
I’ll be celebrating out at Christie Pits later today, after I march in the Cabbagetown parade with Ellen Michelson from Toronto Centre. This evening, I’ll be at the Vegetarian Food Fair. Wish everyone a happy weekend.
Last night, my daughter and I put on our salwar kameez and abandoned her father and his achy back to enjoy ourselves at the South Asia Festival on Gerrard Street between Greenwood and Coxwell. As usual, it featured wonderful music and lively dancing in the background, delicious street food smells spreading all over the street and plenty of activities for families to enjoy. My daughter spent a few minutes pawing through a bin full of bangles to select a dozen for fifty cents. Mango shakes are wonderfully refreshing on a hot summer day. The festival continues today if you still want to check it out.
South Asia Festival continues Sunday, 2010 July 18, noon to 11pm
Gerrard Street, east of Greenwood to Coxwell free
Come out and join the Green contingent marching in Pride this Sunday. Celebrate the Green Party’s long support for gay rights. We were the first party to support same-sex marriage and the first to have an openly gay leader. We continue to advocate for gay rights and equal treatment. Meet us by 12 noon at the latest on Bloor Street at Ted Rogers way. We will have new campaign t-shirts available to wear or purchase. Bring water, comfortable walking shoes, skimpy clothes, green body paint, water guns and noisemakers. Be prepared to get wet. Have fun!
Pride Parade 2010
Sunday, 2010 July 4, 11:45 am
Bloor Street at Ted Rogers Way
If you arrive late or cannot find us, call Rebecca at 905-999-5479
The main item on the G-20 agenda was whether to cut debts or invest in more financial stimulus, with Stephen Harper strongly advocating the need to cut debts.
We need to cut debts. Large public debts leave governments at the mercy of interest rates. Double the interest rates and suddenly the debt load becomes completely unmanageable and we’re worried about our credit rating, forcing us into all kinds of nasty measures like privatizing health care, education and even basic services like water. So in the interest of securing high quality public services, we need to make sure we keep the debt down. The problem is that Stephen Harper proposes to cut debts not by raising taxes or trimming perverse subsidies to favoured industries, but by attacking the very services I desperately want to protect. I have no interest in cutting the debt to have more money to fork over to the oil industry while basic services get gutted. Read more »
This evening I attended the launch of Canada’s climate calendar. It’s an interactive tool you can see online which compares Canada’s per-capita emissions with those of other countries in the world. It is horrifying. Read more »
May the new Rabbit year beginning today bless all Chinese Canadians, and all Canadians, with happiness, good health and good fortune. Gung hei fat choi! Happy New Year!
Pride Parade 2010
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