Archive for Social justice & diversity

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.

For more information and to register, click here.

You can hear Tim Jackson and Peter Victor argue for a steady-state economy while Paul Ekins and Richard Lipsey promote green growth.

An audio recording of the debate is available online, and it will be rebroadcast on the CBC:

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 »