Posts

Climate Crisis Threatens Canadian Agriculture, We Need an Agricultural Adaptation Plan, Now

Elizabeth  May All around the world, governments are mobilizing resources to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions while adapting to the climate crisis. Everywhere around the world that is except Canada. Details here.

Bangladeshi Outrage - Will Anything Change?

Image
P in P : Will the outrageous tragedy involving the collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh change anything with regard to workers' rights? Of course not. Wasn't it just the other month when a horrific fire claimed over a hundred lives at another similar factory in that same country, with workers locked inside? That sure changed a lot of attitudes and practises, didn't it? While cute little kids dance on Canadian TV, advertising Joe Fresh clothes which are made in these horrific sweat-shops, there is plenty of blame to go around. But greedy, soulless, heartless corporations like Joe Fresh, Walmart and Disney , including their hollow, despicable shareholders, surely must remain at the top of the blame-list.  Instead of improving working conditions and pay for the world's poor, thus allowing them to buy clothing, ethically made in places which pay decent, livable wages, human society is on a downward escalator, on a relentless race to the bottom. As long as

Roundup Could Be Linked To Parkinson's, Cancer And Other Health Issues

Image
(Reuters) - Heavy use of the world's most popular herbicide, Roundup, could be linked to a range of health problems and diseases, including Parkinson's, infertility and cancers, according to a new study. Details here. Related article: Field of Nightmares - Ottawa continues to embrace the use of Roundup on Canadian farms by letting corporate seduction trump scientific evidence. Crop-duster.  PLT photo

Video: Withdrawing From UN Drought Treaty For The Cost Of...

Image
House of Commons April  16, 2013 Elizabeth May:  Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister told this House that Canada legally withdrew from the treaty to combat drought and desertification because it was “ …not an effective way to [use] taxpayers’ money”. The cost of the treaty, $300,000 a year, is roughly equivalent to half the cost of a G8 gazebo or 109 days of the care and feeding of a rented panda, less than 4% of the PMO office budget, a third the cost of shipping an armoured vehicle to India, or two days of government advertising to tell us how happy we should all be with the way the government is spending our money. By what criteria is that spending more effective than pulling our weight in the world to confront drought and expanding deserts? Hon. Julian Fantino:  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to the criteria. That is making Canada's assistance more effective and efficient so we can dedicate those resources to the people most in need. We are

Vancouver Island Declares Itself a GE Free Zone

Image
Society for a GE Free BC 51 municipalities yesterday supported a motion brought forward by Metchosin to make Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities a genetically engineered free zone – Details here. Designed by PLT

You Did It... The ELA lives!

Image
Show Detail Friends, I have big news to share with you on the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA). The e-mails and letters you sent calling for the ELA to be saved, the petitions you signed, the pressure you helped to mount on social media – it has all paid off. Today the Ontario government announced that it will step in to help keep the world-renowned Experimental Lakes Area operating. Public pressure from concerned citizens like you made this happen. Your support enabled the Council of Canadians to join other groups in sustaining a broad and effective campaign over the last several months. Our efforts culminated last month with our urgent '48 Hours to Save the ELA' action alert, in which nearly 4,000 Council members sent messages to Ontario Premier Wynne and Manitoba Premier Selinger calling on them to intervene – and today, they did! You and I must build on the momentum of this victory for the next fight to protect water. We must challenge the Harper Conservative

Black Market in Moose Thrives in Manitoba

Image
Winnipeg Free Press The animal has been wiped out in parts of Manitoba, so why is it easy to get moose meat? Details here. Graham Powell Photography

Huge Response - Break the Grip of Monsanto

Image
Wow -- 35,000 pledges already! Let's reach 45,000 and stop the take over of our food and our politics. Click  here  to pledge now. Dear Avaazers, One mega-company is gradually taking over our food supply -- putting the planet’s food future in serious danger.  But we can turn the tide on Monsanto and other companies that push through policies that prioritise their profits over the public good.  Pledge $4 now to help stop this dangerous domination of our politics and our food: One mega-company is gradually taking over our global food supply, poisoning our politics and putting the planet’s food future in serious danger.  To stop it we need to expose and break up Monsanto’s worldwide grip. Monsanto, the chemical giant that gave us poisons like Agent Orange and DDT, has a super-profitable racket.  Step 1: Develop pesticides and genetically modified (GM) seeds designed to resist them, patent the seeds, prohibit farmers from replanting their seeds year to year, then send u

Prairies Get Ready For Runoff

Image
Manitoba Co-Operator Flood risks rise again in Manitoba, high runoffs expected in Sask. Details here. A swollen Assiniboine, St. Lazare MB,  Spring, 2011. PLT photo. 

Fish Die in Lake of the Prairies in Western Manitoba

Image
(Video by Kirk Lyttle) What caused the fish-kill (or the extent of it) are still unknown. Was it the dramatically-lower lake levels caused when the authorities deliberately "drew them down," in anticipation of serious flooding this spring? Was it lack of oxygen? Or both? Lake of the Prairies formed decades ago with the construction of the Shellmouth dam on the Assiniboine River, near Russell, MB. This year, authorities have drawn its water levels down dramatically, in anticipation of serious flooding this spring. See "then" and "now" shots below, both taken at the bridge which crosses the lake, east of Yorkton, SK. Above, during the record flood on the Assiniboine in 2011. Note the high water levels below the bridge. Below, note the low levels and exposed abutments,  in full "pre-flood" mode this past weekend.  (PLT photos)

VIDEO: Left On The Ice To Rot

Winnipeg Free Press Frank Kenyon wants to sell fish. Not let them die. Details here.