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How a 20-Year-old Patent Application Could Upend Canada’s Biggest Trade Deal

The Hill Times online If the pharmaceutical giant succeeds, it will have effectively found a mechanism to override the Supreme Court of Canada and hold Canadian taxpayers liable for hundreds of millions in damages in the process. The cost to the health-care system could be enormous as the two Eli Lilly patents may be the proverbial tip of the iceberg and claims from other pharmaceutical companies could soon follow. Details here. Please also read: Free Trade: Path to Prosperity - or Back Road to Corporatism? - by Larry Powell

Emails Show Secrecy on Federal Oilsands Probe in Alberta, Canada.

thestar.com Proposed answers from Environment Canada to questions about a 2013 oilsands leak triggered emails suggesting the department “limit information” given to media. Details here.

Two States and Several Canadian Provinces, Including Manitoba, Gear Up A System To Cut Carbon Emissions - Is a Carbon Tax in the Wind?

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ClimateProgress Massive highway repair and infrastructure renewal in Manitoba (above),  clearly show the need for some sanity aimed at controlling emissions. PLT photo  Washington State is poised to join California and several Canadian provinces, including Manitoba, in a carbon trading system, according to a Monday memoranda from the governor’s office. Details here.

New Studies Show Farm Chemicals Are Affecting More Than Bees. Bird Populations are Declining, Too.

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Is modern agriculture’s hold on nature becoming a death grip?  By Larry Powell Another insectivorous species in decline,  the  purple  martin. Are they becoming "neonic" victims, too? PinP  photo. This summer, the tragedy of dying pollinators took on a new dimension. A team of Dutch researchers found that, in addition to bees, “significant declines in populations of insect-eating birds are also associated with high concentrations of neonicotinoids.” “Neonics,” as they are commonly called, have become the most widely used group of insecticides in the world – and, the most infamous. As well as killing the crop pests they are supposed to, they’ve been implicated in the deaths of billions of honeybees from near and far, for well over a decade. The European Union even clamped a two-year moratorium on their use, last year. Various formulations of the chemical are made by multinational corporations like Bayer CropScience, Syngenta and Monsanto. They’re used as seed dress

Fracking Chemicals Not on Canada’s Pollutant List

Metro OTTAWA – Environmentalists and legal experts are criticizing the federal government’s decision to leave toxic fracking chemicals off a list of pollutants going into Canada’s air, land and water. Full story here.

Disasters Poised to Sweep Away Development Gains

IPS Inter Press Service UXBRIDGE, Canada  - Extreme poverty and hunger can be eliminated, but only through far greater efforts to reduce carbon emissions that are overheating the planet and producing punishing droughts, catastrophic floods and ever wilder weather, said climate activists involved in talks to set the Sustainable Development Goals . Details here.