First Nations communities are rallying the public to join them in defending the land from the North Dakota Pipeline
On Sept. 13, Divest Concordia and the Concordia Student Union (CSU) invited three Indigenous activists to discuss the effects of climate change and why they oppose oil companies, which they say are destroying their communities.
The speakers included Vanessa Gray, a youth activist from the Aamjiwnaang First Nation near Sarnia, Ont., and Kiona Akohserà:ke Deer and Onroniateka Diabo, who are both from the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory. Akohserà:ke Deer and Diabo recently returned from Standing Rock, where protests over the North Dakota Pipeline are taking place.
The discussion began as Gray outlined the challenges facing the Aamjiwnaang First Nation community. She said the area is surrounded by over 60 high-emitting facilities which make up over 40 per cent of Canada’s petrochemical industry. Even then, it is “impossibly hard,” she said, to mobilize the 800 residents against climate change.
“Climate change is not the subject people want to talk about in Sarnia,” she said. “In a place where education is shared—let’s take Concordia for example—talking about climate change might be easier than [in] a place where everyone’s livelihood is based off [gas companies like] Shell or Suncor.”
Companies that are not being held accountable for negligence are damaging the environment, said Gray, and the population is also affected by it.
According to Gray, thirty per cent of women in Aamjiwnaang have experienced miscarriages or stillbirths within their lifetime. “This is just based on where they live—not based on diet or what the mother is doing,” she said.
In an ongoing court case, Gray said she is facing heavy charges for her role in the December shutdown of Line 9—a pipeline with the capacity to carry 300,000 barrels of oil a day between Sarnia, Ont. and Montreal. This year, the pipeline turned 40 years old.
“We cannot survive a pipeline rupture like Line 9 because there’s no way of cleaning it up. This is why I’m facing life in prison—because there is no other choice at this point,” Gray said. “It’s just one of the many issues that connects us all. It connects me to you, because this pipeline starts in my backyard and ends here [in Montreal].”
After Gray, Akohserà:ke Deer shared what changes she recently noticed taking place in her Kahnawake community, and what she had learned since returning from Standing Rock.
She said she had been approached by young people outside the community who were looking for a way to work together. A lot of the elders are still reluctant to welcome those not of Indigenous descent, Akohserà:ke Deer said, however claiming she believes her generation is more open.
She further encouraged people to get the word out via social media, about the social injustices facing Indigenous communities not just locally, but globally as well.
For anyone looking to get directly involved, Akohserà:ke Deer said: “Try to educate yourselves a little bit before you walk into somebody else’s community. There’s different protocols everywhere. In Kahnawake, how we mobilize is completely different from how they mobilize now in Standing Rock.”
Canada’s decision between the extraction of natural resources and saving our land
The Energy East pipeline project is causing conflicts in towns and cities that will be affected by TransCanada’s nation-long pipeline proposal—Montreal being one of them.
The pipeline proposal has reemerged storylines of environmental concerns clashing with corporate interests.
In Montreal, protesters delayed the Aug. 29 Energy East hearings held by the National Energy Board (NEB) until further notice. The hearings, which were scheduled to last all week, were set up for commissioners of the NEB to gain an understanding of the public’s opinion towards the Energy East proposal. The report would then be forwarded to TransCanada to rework issues the public has with the pipelines.
“In the last five years or so—with climate concerns, indigenous rights and sovereignty issues and all these social issues—pipelines have become a lot more controversial,” said Kristian Gareau, a protester at Montreal’s Energy East hearing and a Concordia Masters student in the Individualized Program (INDI). He added that he believes the pipeline project is not fit for today’s reality.
Gareau said he believes some of the population are already dissatisfied with TransCanada’s pipeline project—including environmentalists, scientists and farmers. “On top of that, you see some of these secret meetings that took place with [NEB and former Quebec premier] Jean Charest who is a paid TransCanada lobbyist,” he added. This scandal is a great ammunition for protesters such as Gareau who claim there is a bias within the required NEB report, which must report on the public’s opinion on Energy East at the end of the public consultation process.
“The NEB is supposed to be impartial and issue recommendations in the public interest,” said Alex Tyrrell, leader of the Green Party of Quebec and Environmental Sciences student at Concordia. He said many residents believe the NEB cannot continue with hearings for TransCanada because it has become clear that at least two of the three commissioners tasked with overseeing the hearings and writing a report on public interest concerning the Energy East pipelines have already been promoting it.
Gareau describes the NEB as a powerful entity, stating that as a commissioner or board member there is a responsibility to provide a fair and natural balanced review on public opinion towards pipelines. However, Gareau believes—in regards to meetings between Charest and two of the three commissioners—it is difficult for the NEB to form an unbiased report. “There’s kind of a revolving door between industry and the NEB, so the cultures and interests of the oil and gas industry are very much entrenched in the NEB,” said Gareau.
Tyrrell said the NEB initially denied meeting with Charest. However, once it was revealed the meetings did take place, the NEB was then ordered to admit the meetings had occurred and to release notes taken during the meeting, said Tyrrell. The published notes revealed that the commissioners and Charest discussed how to spin the NEB report in a way that would gain support from Quebec residents. “Their job isn’t to do public relations, it’s to do safety and environmental analysis,” Tyrrell said.
Tyrrell added people should be trained specifically to evaluate these projects on behalf of government organizations and anyone involved in the energy industry due to their loyalties to energy companies should not be hired. “They’re supposed to be evaluating the project on behalf of the citizens,” said Tyrrell. He said it should not be on behalf of TransCanada or on behalf of people who are fixated on prolonging the life of the oil industry to continue its existence into the future.
Tyrrell said similar circumstances led to catastrophes like the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. “The regulators were far too close with the industry and lacked the teeth to really do anything— even when problems were well known,” said Tyrrell.
There are also concerns about the safety and reliability of TransCanada’s plan. Of the 4,550 km of proposed pipeline for this project, approximately 75 per cent of those pipelines will be converted from old gas transmission lines, according to Energy East pipeline spokesperson Tim Duboyce.
Tyrrell said this proposal is problematic. “Not only are the pipes already aged and worn, but they were never designed to carry tar sands oil in the first place,” he said, adding that alterations to existing natural gas pipelines increase the probability of spills.
Duboyce said there are a series of pipelines that cross the Prairies through Northern Ontario. The pipeline splits as some of the pipelines head to the Greater Toronto area, while others continue east towards Ottawa and then South from there.
The new section of the pipeline would run from Iroquois, Ontario and up across the Ottawa river, said Duboyce. In Quebec, the pipeline would cross the North Shore towards Laval and connect with the Suncor Energie refinery. “It would travel beneath the St. Lawrence river about 100 meters below the bedrock in a concrete tunnel we’re going to build adjacent to an existing pipeline that actually crosses the St. Lawrence,” Duboyce said. The pipeline would reach the Valero refinery located in Lévis, Q.C., continuing east towards New Brunswick and then on to St. John’s, N.B. where it will be attached to a marine export terminal.
While TransCanada says the pipeline will give both Quebec and Canada an economic advantage, critics to the pipeline say the advantages of a pipeline like Energy East are, at best, short term.
TransCanada advertises that Energy East will generate a large amount of employment. “During the development and construction phase of the project, Energy East will support, on an annual basis, 14,000 full-time direct and spinoff jobs across the country,” said Duboyce. He said among 14,000 of the full time jobs stated, Quebec employment represents an average of 3,100 full-time direct and spinoff jobs annually during a nine year development and construction period.
However, as Tyrrell points out, the development and construction period will only last nine years, resulting in the predicted high employment rates being limited to that timeframe.
“They claim 14,000 jobs for the overall project … but those are just construction jobs. It’s really short-term,” said Tyrrell. “Once the pipeline is built, even TransCanada will tell you—there’s only 33 permanent full-time jobs in Quebec.”
Tyrrell said his greatest concern for the proposed Energy East pipelines is the level of development of the tar sands the pipelines will permit, ultimately contributing to Canada having a larger oil industry.
Tyrrell said the oil TransCanada will be transporting through these pipelines is not necessarily for domestic consumption. “Once it’s built it’s going to be in the ground for at least 50 years, and it’s going to tie the entire country into the practice of digging up this inherently unsustainable resource and exporting it to other countries,” said Tyrrell.
Duboyce said TransCanada plans to make Canadian crude oil more competitive outside the US markets and expand into international markets. He also said that Energy East will make it possible for refineries to buy Canadian oil instead of oil from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
“One of the key points that gets lost in this conversation … is that there’s only one thing that drives oil production, oil transportation—and that’s oil consumption by people,” said Duboyce.
Graphic by Florence Yee.
Duboyce stressed the importance of expanding Canada’s oil industry in order to benefit Canada’s economy. Not only do we use oil to fuel our transportation, but we find oil in our cell phones, computers, some clothing, makeup and chewing gum, Duboyce said. “It’s a pretty important component of the economy.”
However, Gareau strongly disagrees. “It’s economic considerations are very short-term,” he said, adding that the economic prospects of how much the oil currently valued may now be overvalued. “This fossil economy is declining.”
“We need to leave a lot of fossil fuels in the ground,” said Gareau. “How we’re actually going to do that—that’s what we need to be talking about.” He said people need to be discussing 21st century energy and economic opportunities, instead of relying on traditional needs—such
as crude oil. “[The pipeline] also locks Canada into a fossil economy that will be defunct in the next decade or two, putting us that much further behind in the emerging green economy,” said Gareau.
“[NEB is] going to let the companies continue to exploit them anyway and they’re going to get the public and the environment to absorb the risk.” Tyrrell said. “It’s really short term economic gain vs. long term environmental sacrifice—it’s a question of priorities.” Tyrrell said once these pipelines have been built, there will be tons of subcontractors and companies already specialized in fabricating pipelines. “You can export pipeline parts to some other part of the world,” he said. “But chances are, they’re going to want to build another pipeline locally or as close to Montreal as possible.”
“The strategy of the environmental movement is to shut down the tar sands by blocking all of the exit paths,” said Tyrrell. He said the opposition has managed to block the Northern Gateway for the time being, but now it’s time for Eastern Canada to block the Energy East pipeline. Tyrrell said the resistance is going well so far. “The people protesting are not only speaking for themselves, they’re speaking for huge sections of the population—that includes [speaking for] the mayors of hundreds of different municipalities in Quebec.”
Amin Dada, left, Aubrey Hansen-Barkun, right.
Photo by Danielle Gasher
Montrealers can now rent out their vacant private parking spots
Thanks to a cousin from the South Shore, a well-situated apartment and a productive 14-hour flight, Amin Dada may have created a permanent solution to a problem plaguing modern-day life: parking.
A conversation about the struggles of parking in a big city usually turns around in the same circles as the cars looking for parking. Dada, a self-described “OCD problem-solver,” needed to fix the problem once he got acquainted to it. The 30-year-old Concordia graduate is the founder of City Parking, a mobile app that lets driveway and parking spot owners rent out their spots when they are not being used.
Dada got a taste of what the app would be like before even getting the idea for City Parking. In late 2012, he started lending his parking spot to a cousin who drove downtown during the week to get to Concordia. Dada—who lived right behind Montreal’s Bell Centre at the time, and had a parking spot but no car—was happy to do so. He started offering up his spot to more of his friends and family, until it became quite the annoyance.
“I was a virtual lot attendant taking reservations through calls and texts at work,” said Dada with a laugh. The situation got Dada thinking about a permanent solution to people’s parking woes. On a long flight in December 2013, Dada wrote up his business plan for the idea. The app went live on July 20, 2016.
The app is pretty straight-forward. Upon downloading the app, the user must simply sign up. Users get an hour of free parking the first time they use the app. After the free trial, a driver can reserve or book a spot anytime, anywhere, in advance or at the last minute, for a flat rate of $2 an hour. Dada explained that if a car is parked in the spot upon arrival, the driver can either call the owner using the app, or select the “report problem” setting in the app—which calls the City Parking team directly. From there, the team leaps into action and finds the next closest spot for the driver, and gives them 30 minutes free.
While the concept of the app may sound similar to the Uber app in terms of average people offering a car service, nothing makes Dada and his team cringe more than being compared to the company. While City Parking is decluttering the streets, and promoting public transport by suggesting spots close to bus stops and metro stations, Dada said, Uber is doing the opposite.
Screenshot of City Parking. Courtesy of Danielle Gasher.
The app has not been heavily advertised or shared with the media because the team wanted to give it a test-run with friends, family and people who stumbled upon it. City Parking currently has over 100 users and 20 parking spots. The official launch of the app will take place in late September—an exact date has not been set yet.
The City Parking team is still small, but hard at work and attracting big names. The team. All Concordia graduates, is composed of five employees, plus two investors, and two advisors—including one from Google. The team is also receiving support from the city, the details of which Dada is not yet able to disclose.
Concordia student Aubrey Hansen-Barkun joined the team last winter. The 23-year-old marketing student was looking for a project to get involved with—a start-up worthwhile. He found Dada’s ad on Indeed and the two met up.
“First time we spoke, I was like ‘wow, this is an incredibly smart guy, and this is definitely something I want to be a part of,” said Hansen-Barkun, who is now the start-up’s marketing analyst.
The pair’s passion for the project is apparent in the amount of research they have conducted, and in the focused and energetic way they speak about their app. Dada and his team have a global vision for the start-up.
“Parking lots are being taken over by condos—meters cannot be expanded. Where will you find parking when your city grows? If we can solve parking [problems] for Montreal, we can solve it for other cities as well,” Dada said.
On top of decongesting the streets, Dada explained, solving the city’s parking problems has the power to lower carbon emissions caused by the “cruising time” that cars take when looking for parking. A 2006 study on parking, conducted by UCLA professor Donald C. Shoup, found that drivers in a 15-block district in Los Angeles “cruised” for 950,000 miles, produced 730 tons of carbon dioxide and used 47,000 gallons of gas just searching for parking. While gas station lots are sitting empty all day, and townhouse driveways are generally vacant between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., cars are polluting the air as they drive aimlessly around, looking for something they may never find, said Dada.
In the large and bright conference room of the team’s office space, Dada and Hasen-Barken sit with their computers, a couple of notepads and a cardboard coffee cup— the pair looks small, hopeful and powerful all at once—just like their app does in the ever-growing, digital-sharing economy.
Déménagement Myette: the environmentally-conscious moving company
At 11 a.m. sharp, the movers arrive at my apartment. The two men have come prepared, and quickly, they begin unpacking their equipment. They start unloading and stacking blankets, ropes, tool boxes and tape. They talk amongst themselves, examine my stairs and point towards my door. They are discussing their game plan. After a few minutes, the men are almost ready to start the big move. Only one thing remains before the heavy lifting: their bikes need to be laid strategically on their side.
For the past eight years, Déménagement Myette has been moving apartments and offices of all sizes across the island of Montreal…on bikes. Julien Myette founded the company in 2008 after quitting his desk job to pursue his two great passions in life: cycling and the environment.
“Julien never uses a car,” said Matthew Gaines, spokesperson of the company, with a laugh. “He bikes everywhere.”
Since its opening, the company has built a good reputation, earning rave reviews on Google, and countless interviews and features in major media outlets such as The Globe and Mail, La Presse and Radio-Canada. The type of moving service offered is unlike anything else on the market. With friendly service, lower rates and lower CO2 emissions than companies that rely on trucks, Déménagement Myette has created an environmentally-conscious moving experience.
“It’s very nice to work for a company with values that I believe in,” said Gaines, who has been working for the company for three years.
The process for booking the movers is the same as with any other moving company. The information for the move is entered online or over the phone, an estimate is provided and, if the client decides to move forth, a date and approximate time is set. What comes after the booking is what steers far from the ordinary.
Gaines explained that, on average, the company sends two movers for a job. The movers arrive with trailers attached to their bikes. The size of the trailers depend on the size of the move. The ones that pulled up to my place were about as long as the bikes themselves, but not much wider than the average desk. The company’s largest trailer can hold up to 300 kilograms, said Gaines. To place the items on the trailers, the movers wrap and tape each item rapidly yet carefully in large blue blankets. Afterwards, they begin stacking the items on the trailers as if they’re playing a game of Tetris. Ropes with locks are used to secure the items in place.
While it sounds like quite the process, on average, an entire move with the company, including transportation, takes less than three hours. The company moves anywhere on the island with a maximum distance of 15 kilometers. There is only one item the company doesn’t move: pianos.
As the last piece of furniture is placed in my new bedroom, one of the men walks over to me with a smile, wiping his sweaty palms on his shorts before handing me the bill for the move. The amount is approximately $100 less than what any other moving company offered for the same date. I make the payment and chat with the men for a good 10 minutes. We say our friendly goodbyes, and out the door and on their bikes the pair goes—with pep in their pedal, on to the next move.
The tar sands are a toxic wasteland that shall poison our nation
“In short, it is an enterprise of epic proportions, akin to the building of the pyramids or China’s Great Wall. Only bigger,” said former prime minister Stephen Harper back in 2006, as he vividly discussed the development of the tar sands.
Photo by Kris Krug.
It’s now almost a decade later, and the surrounding forest is disappearing, as the process of industrialization has spread like a deadly virus. The animals are diseased and the river has been exposed to toxic pollutants. The air now carries a pungent odor, as noxious fumes fill the atmosphere and plumes of vapor block out the sun.
The thirst for oil has undoubtedly transformed the landscape of northern Alberta. As a Canadian, I strongly oppose the development of the tar sands and I’m quite frankly ashamed we have allowed these nefarious operations to continue onwards.
You may be wondering ‘What the hell are these so called tar sands?,’ sometimes referred to as ‘oil sands.’ According to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Alberta has some of the largest deposits of bitumen, a type of crude oil that is trapped within the sandy soil. Bitumen is a gooey substance that shares a similar texture to molasses, and requires various chemical processes to separate the oil from the sand—hence the name tar sands.
Photo by Julia Kilpatrick.
According to an article published by The Globe and Mail in 2014, the size of the tar sands is 140,000 square kilometers, and only 4,750 square kilometers are mineable. The development can now be seen from space, as parts of the boreal forest have been decimated due to operations in the region, as mentioned in the same article. Most of the extracted oil is consumed domestically, with 1.5 million barrels consumed per day, while the rest of the oil heads mainly to the U.S., according to the same article.
This data highlights our grotesque addiction to oil.
The development has heavily impacted the indigenous communities living around the Athabasca River. An article published by the Vancouver Observer revealed that Health Canada warned several communities living downstream of the tar sands that there were toxins present in the animals. Testing revealed that fish contained abnormally high levels of mercury, meanwhile wild game contained high levels of arsenic. This inevitably led several communities to stop eating wild game, forcibly altering their traditional way of life. The same article also mentioned how many community members have developed rare forms of cancer, leading many in the community to speculate there exists a link between the tar sands and these diseases.
Immediately after the article was released, the then Health Minister Rona Ambrose refused to comment on the matter. In my opinion, this demonstrates the level of devotion the Conservatives had towards the development of the tar sands. Throughout Harper’s dark reign over our country, he notoriously endorsed the Keystone pipeline proposal that would see millions of litres of crude oil transferred across the border.
We have yet to see the true consequences of the tar sands here in Canada, although for reference we can look towards the incident regarding the Kalamazoo River. In 2010, a Canadian pipeline carrying diluted bitumen spilled into the tributaries of the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. Over the course of 17 hours, roughly 3.3 million litres of crude spilled from the pipeline, before the company Enbridge shut off the flow, according to the CBC.
Photo by David Dodge.
The diluted bitumen behaves very differently from refined oil, and sinks in water, making cleanup efforts extremely difficult, according to the same report. The entire spill costs almost US$1.27 billion according to EcoWatch, meaning that it was the most expensive inland oil spill in U.S. history.
With the new Liberal government coming into power, it is unclear which path they shall take in addressing this very contentious issue. Catherine McKenna, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, was in Paris for the climate talks, but hasn’t publicly addressed the government’s policy towards the tar sands.
Can we not learn from these horrible mistakes? Can we not see the tar sands spell disaster in capital letters written bold? The region has become a toxic blemish on our beautiful landscape, altering the ecosystem and indigenous communities’ way of life. Our nation may be filled with desirable resources, ready to be exploited, but at what cost?
A first-hand account of this week’s Blue Dot event
A tiny blue dot. A speck in the infinite cold darkness of space. All we have to live, all we need to live comes from this little rock to which we’re anchored. What would we do without it?
If there is no air for three minutes, you’re dead. If there is no water for three days, you’re dead.
We can all agree that we need these elements of life, these essential resources. And that is the message David Suzuki’s Blue Dot Tour is bringing to Canada.
The sun shone unobstructed, and a crisp autumn wind blew. Trees with leaves of orange, gold-green, and umber framed the stage as musicians played. French folk music flowed through an enthusiastic crowd of more than 2,000. Artists performing included Les Cowboys Fringants, Lisa Leblanc, Paul Piché, Gilles Vigneault, Eléanore Lagacé and Ian Kelly.
Children and parents. The young and the old. Students and retirees. There were at least four generations out for fun. With everyone smiling and milling around, food trucks sold snacks off in the background.
Montreal throws thousands of concerts in a year. Actually it’s likely closer to hundreds of thousands. But last Sunday wasn’t for culture, or dancing, or alcoholism. It was a social movement.
Or at least that’s what Suzuki is trying to start. Suzuki is travelling across Canada bringing people together and asking a pretty simple question: isn’t it about time to enshrine the fundamental human right to a healthy environment in our constitution?
At first I was a bit… well, not dismissive, I guess I’d call it cynical. Achieving a constitutional amendment is one of the most difficult political tasks. And that’s something of an understatement! The bare minimum requires an agreement between seven provinces representing at least 50 per cent of the country’s population. Our last federal election couldn’t even muster 40 per cent for a single party, and only 61 per cent of us even bothered to show up.
But that is starting from the end. That sunny Sunday afternoon was all about beginnings.
From Sept. 24 to Nov. 9 Suzuki is crisscrossing Canada putting on free concerts, fundraising benefits, and political soirées. The theme of the tour is bringing together all generations of Canadians to sing and dance and laugh and listen — listen to ourselves, the
citizens of this nation who overwhelmingly agree that a healthy environment is essential to our lives.
“85 per cent of Canadians in polls say [they want] to enshrine the right to a healthy environment in the constitution,” Suzuki said on stage.
He urged anyone interested to visit the website bluedot.ca where there’s a petition for Canadians to sign, as well as a video that elucidates the three step, bottom-up method of action the tour is advocating. Starting at the municipal level, he urges every one of us to pressure our representatives to make declarations recognizing a healthy environment as a fundamental human right. The next progression is for cities across Canada to use their declarations as a model and pressure their provincial assemblies to pass an environmental bill of rights. Finally, and this is realistically a long way down the road, the goal is to amend the Charter of Rights to recognize the fundamental human right to a healthy environment.
It’s not an overnight solution. It’s not a quick fix. Suzuki, the Kyoto crusader, worked long and hard to convince nations across the world to sign the Kyoto Accord. Now he’s focusing on his home, our home.
There are many more stops on the Blue Dot Tour, the next one being Wednesday, Oct. 15 at the Corona Theatre right here in Montreal. It’s a fundraiser with an impressive list of talent: Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw from Metric, Montreal’s own Half Moon Run and Patrick Watson, and many more.
When I saw Suzuki walk out on stage full of enthusiasm and vitality it was hard to believe he’s already 78 years old. He’s been a champion for the environment for over 50 years and hopefully for more still to come. But he’s just one man and that’s why he’s trying to start a movement. It takes all of us to spur on real action, not just a few. And it won’t come from one person or one group, we all need to have a conversation about what is really important in the long run and the short. Our economy doesn’t have to suffer, it needs to be redirected.
“But this is the challenge, I believe. That we have to come together as human beings and map out what are our most fundamental needs, and THEN build an economy and a way of living on top of that,” said Suzuki. “Surely a healthy environment should be a fundamental right of all Canadians. It should be in our constitution!”
Canadian activist Naomi Klein launched her latest book to a crowd of over 800 attendees at the Imperial Theatre on Sept. 16 in a renewed call for radical, aggressive response against modern capitalism and environmental degradation.
The crowd, of which students formed a large part, gathered outside the entrance and made a long and snaking line stretching around across Ste. Catherine street and resembling more the line of a rock concert than a book launch.
While Klein was undoubtedly the star of the show, journalist and radio presenter Anne Lagacé Dowson served as host and introduced three short appearances meant to set the ambiance. Concordia’s Student Union VP External and Mobilization Anthony Garoufalis-Auger and SSMU’s VP External Affairs Amina Moustaqim-Barrette took the stage in order to invite the crowd to the worldwide People’s Climate March on September 21.
Photographer and activist Robert van Waarden came afterwards to display images from his work “Along the Pipeline”, a compilation of places and people along the proposed route of the Energy East pipeline that will stretch from Alberta to New Brunswick. Student activist Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois rounded off the introduction by using a few minutes to take on the tangle of neoliberalism, extraction companies, and politics.
Klein’s talk fired the audience with a magnificent set of concepts in the little more than an hour allotted to her, talking above all of the importance and need for radical change when it comes to human activity on the planet and the failings of our way of life.
“Only radical change has a chance of diverting catastrophe in time and that is because we have waited so long,” she said, dismissing the idea of gradual change. “We need to reduce our emissions by 10 per cent per year starting now. The problem is that [such reduction] is incompatible with our economic system.”
On the battle between the economy and the environment Klein recognized that the big hurdle to environmentalism’s public image was the economic fallout many expect would come from weaning society from traditional sources of energy. She was convinced nonetheless that diverting our focus from oil and investing in energy efficiency would actually create more jobs in the end. “It’s not a choice between jobs and the environment. It’s a choice between mindless growth and the environment,” Klein said.
Klein also contested the strategy of economic austerity defended by governments and corporations, particularly in Europe. For her there is a basic clash between the logic of austerity’s endless cuts to the public sphere and the needed response to this crisis.
Usually austerity comes in hand with privatization, and that is another obstacle that Naomi acknowledged by saying that she fought the key pillars of the neoliberal era. She said that all of the public services become better when handed over to the private sector when one realizes it is not in the private interests of companies to provide and explore cleaner sources of energy over traditional fossil fuels.
Naomi did have a few kind words to say and congratulated the members of the organizations present for her talk. “I’ve never seen a student movement spread so quickly,” she said of divestment groups aiming to strip public institutions of links to corporate polluters. She advocated the continuance of pressure demanding educational institutions and public organizations to sell shares of fossil fuel related corporations.
“[These companies should] be pariahs as the tobacco companies were made into pariahs,” she said combatively.
“[It’s] not just the divestment. [It’s also] the re-investments. It’s what could be done with this money once it’s taken away from the Exxons and the Shells. There are so many fantastic projects out there that are languishing for lack of funding,” she said.
“We have built an energy system based on the idea of disposable people and disposable places. That has been built into the fossil fuel economy since the very beginning,” she said. “We are up against a psychotic logic that has profoundly confused destruction with creation and that is the logic that we fundamentally have to change.”
Famous for her work with chimpanzees, Dr. Goodall came to Concordia to spread a message of hope
“Oooo whoooo oo who oo who oo who oo who oo who oooo whooo oo who oo who oo
Photo by Keith Race
who.
“That’s me, Jane, in chimpanzee,” explained Dr. Jane Goodall.
Slight of stature but bright of countenance, all eyes were on Dr. Goodall as she made her way to the stage accompanied by raucous applause and an audience that stood up from their seats to honour the world renowned primatologist and environmentalist.
Dr. Goodall brought a stuffed cow and monkey with her to the stage, which she placed on the table next to the podium before launching into her introduction which included a greeting in chimpanzee-speak.
Dr. Goodall had been invited to speak by Concordia University, the Concordia Alumni Association and the CSU. Her lecture, entitled “Sowing the Seeds of Hope,” was part of her current 8-week tour which will next take her to the United States and then on to Europe.
There are a lot of accomplishments under Dr. Goodall’s belt. She pioneered the study of chimpanzee behaviour, has written over 25 books, received numerous awards, started the Jane Goodall Institute, the Roots & Shoots program, and spearheaded a multitude of conservation and environmental campaigns. Her success is acclaimed worldwide and she is highly respected as an expert in the field of primatology, anthropology and ethology. Furthermore, she is a UN Messenger of Peace and was made a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2004.
How does she account for all this achievement? She credits her mother:
“I put a great deal of credit [to] my mother because she was an extraordinary mother. When I was born I seemed to have an innate love of animals. I don’t know where it came from, I just had it. And she always supported this.”
As proof of her mother’s hand in her accomplishments, Dr. Goodall captivated the audience with stories of her mother’s acceptance of Dr. Goodall’s curiosity and desire for knowledge.
“I was 18 months — I don’t remember this of course — but I was 18 months when she came to my room and found that I’d taken a whole handful of wriggling earthworms to bed with me. She said ‘Jane it looked like you were trying to work out how they walked without legs.’ And instead of getting mad at me, you know, ‘throw these dirty things out the window’ she said, ‘Jane they need the earth they’ll die here. And together we took them back into the garden.’ ”
Her mother also accompanied her during her first six month sojourn in Tanzania where she made the discovery that would launch her career and change the way scientists thought about animals.
But Dr. Goodall didn’t come all the way to Montreal to talk about her mother or give a biography of her life. She had come to talk about the fate of our planet: why we should be concerned and why we should also be hopeful.
Dr. Goodall is not a preacher. Although she advocates fiercely for animal rights, conservation, vegetarianism and environmental consideration, she does not stand on a soapbox and exhort. Rather, Dr. Goodall uses calm logic, reasoning and emotional sensibility to demonstrate the reasons for why we need to take an active stance in rehabilitating the earth, in stopping deforestation, the spreading of the desert, the rising levels of C02 in the atmosphere, the shrinking water supplies, the loss of biodiversity and species extinction.
“We’re destroying the planet. Fewer people understand the tremendous harm that’s being done as the middle classes grow around the world, in the developing countries, which of course is a good thing, less poverty, but it turns out very often as people get more money they feel the need to eat more meat and to eat more meat amongst all these billions of people means raising billions and billions of animals to feed them. And people want cheap meat. So the conditions in these intensive farms are truly horrendous but even if you don’t care about animal suffering, and some people apparently don’t, but even if you don’t care, huge areas of forest are cut down every year to grow the grain and graze the cattle for all these billions of different kinds of animals that we’re eating. As the animals are fed slightly richer food than they normally would have to make them grow quicker the process of digestion is producing more and more methane gas. That’s what you get from the process of digestion in people, I don’t know a polite way of saying it but you all know exactly what I mean.”
And thus we came to what Dr. Goodall described as her “greatest reason for hope,” the Roots & Shoots program.
The Roots & Shoots program is a youth-oriented initiative that began with 12 students on the verandah of Dr. Goodall’s house in Tanzania. The students were concerned with the problems they saw in the world around them and wanted Dr. Goodall to fix them. Instead, Dr. Goodall suggested that they get together the other students who felt as they did and work as a group to improve things on an environmental, human, and animal level.
Dr. Goodall expressed that she believes the damage to the earth can be reversed but it’s up to the people of this world to make that happen, specifically youth. That’s why the Roots & Shoots program is her “greatest reason for hope,” she sees the youth of this earth as the answer to preserving our planet.
“It’s my greatest reason for hope I think, Roots & Shoots, because everywhere I go on this endless circuit around the planet there are young people with shining eyes wanting to tell Dr. Jane what they’ve been doing to make this a better world. And its a group of young people around the world that share our philosophy, a group of young people that understand yes we need money to live but when we start living for money in and of itself that’s when it goes wrong. To make a lot of money, there’s nothing wrong with that if you use it for the right purpose, to make the world a better place.”
The Roots & Shoots program is now in 136 countries, including Canada. In fact, representatives from the Vanguard Intercultural High School Roots & Shoots group, were at the lecture and presented Dr. Goodall with a booklet that cited all the ways she had inspired them.
They were not the only youth in the audience. During the Q&A, bright-eyed children as young as eight stood in line to speak to Dr. Goodall. They were inquisitive and eager and Dr. Goodall clearly meant a lot to them as a role model, and if any proof is needed to show Dr. Goodall’s message is getting through to the younger generations, this was it.
Whether it be pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol, the gutting of federal environmental regulations or the muzzling of some of our top climate scientists, the Harper government has done irreparable damage to our international reputation and more importantly to our ecology.
That’s not to mention an unprecedented and secretive trade deal being negotiated with China that would all but ensure the unbridled expansion of the tar sands. This would also increase Canada’s direct role in the release of GHG emissions which threaten to push the global concentration of CO2 over the edge and into dangerous territory.
It’s no secret that Harper is a friend to big oil. After all, this government continues to hand out subsidies to the tune of $1.4 billion to the fossil fuel industry even as energy companies take in record profits.
If there was ever a time for Canadians to come together to stand up and tell this government that we oppose its policies and want an end to these subsidies, this is it.
It is true that climate change will most negatively impact the world’s poorest; but the regressive environmental policies of the current government will also be felt here at home. They will also be felt in communities most vulnerable to the effects of climate change; such as Indigenous communities who have lived and depended on the land for generations, ranches and farms which depend on streams and water tables, and yes, eventually the rest of us.
This is why now, perhaps more than ever, we need a new generation of climate leaders to converge and create meaningful opposition movements. Climate injustice is another form of oppression, inextricably linked to all other battles in social justice. Whether it’s the destruction of the environment, access to education or vast economic inequality we must hold our leaders accountable and ensure equity and justice for all of our citizens. Ending the fossil fuel subsidies and re-committing to the protection of our climate and environment more generally could be a first step.
This week saw historic action taken against the future of oil pipelines, and the prospect of more tankers on the B.C. coast shipping tar sands bitumen to global markets. The movement, aptly called “Defend Our Coast”, has rallied thousands of concerned citizens across British Columbia to mobilize and take action against the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. As I write this, citizens all across the province are linking arms in front of their Member of Legislative Assembly offices to show they are united in opposition to this pipeline.
This has left me thinking. After a year that saw an incredible mobilization of students in Quebec to defeat the tuition increases and ultimately the Liberal government, why not learn from that success? Let us link our common struggles from coast to coast. Radical grassroots activism has proven to work. It’s time to take direct action against the environmental record, or lack thereof, of our federal government.
This weekend I will be attending a conference called Powershift in Ottawa. There, 1500 youth from across the country will meet to discuss the future of climate change activism and how Canadians can mobilize practically to fight for our country to start taking it seriously. Speakers such as Naomi Klein, Bill Mckibben and Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois will be making key note addresses throughout the weekend. Participants will be actively lobbying MP’s, taking it to the streets and getting out their message to end big polluter handouts in every way we can. After all, Harper did promise at the G20 to do so. It stands to be one of the most important convergences of young activists and environmentalists that we’ve seen in the past decade.
We now have a chance to come together and show the Harper government we will no longer let them tarnish our reputation internationally, nor will we let them trample the ecological rights of our most at risk communities while providing subsidies to companies with soaring profits.
As Naomi Klein aptly put it, “ We are part of a groundswell, a global movement against all forms of dirty energy. It is a movement on a roll. The beautiful truth is that we have fossil fuel companies surrounded, and they’re running scared.”
David Suzuki presented a lecture in front of more than a thousand students at John Abbott College in honour of the official inauguration of the new science building Wednesday.
The college cancelled classes to allow students to watch the speech, entitled The Challenge of the 21st Century: Setting the Real Bottom Line. The lecture was also available through a live webcast to more than 13,000 high school students as far away as Gaspé.
Throughout the lecture, Suzuki imparted his wisdom to the attendees.
“The planet is not in trouble,” he said. “The planet will be just fine, with or without us. We’re the ones who are in trouble.”
Suzuki said he often gets asked how the planet can be saved but expressed it was not the planet that needed saving, but the people inhabiting it.
“Environmentalism is not a speciality, it’s not a discipline,” he explained. “Environmentalism is a way of seeing our place on the planet.”
Suzuki referred to himself as an “elder” and shared his belief that it is up to elders to pass wisdom onto the next generation but that it is up to the youth to take action.
Suzuki told the students the most important difference they can make is to see the world through an environmentalist’s eyes.
Suzuki emphasized that wealth was not defined by money, but, as his father said, relationships are what constitute prosperity. He went onto explain that the last weeks of his father’s life were some of the happiest they shared.
John Abbott student Jeremy Pizzi said that while he didn’t learn anything new, the lecture was still enlightening. Pizzi found the most effective part of Suzuki’s lecture was when he held up the 1992 document World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity in which leading scientists warned against the impact of environmental destruction and global warming.
“If not checked, current practices put at serious risk the future we wish for a human society,” read Suzuki. “No more than one or a few decades remain.”
John Abbott College inaugurated their new science and technology building after the presentation. The building is heated with geothermal technology and the college is hoping it will be certified gold in the Leadership in Environment and Energy Design, a ranking system for eco-friendly buildings.
Suzuki finished by speaking about the economic market as a major factor in the environmental debate today. “If it’s not working we can change the market, we can’t change the laws of nature but we can sure as hell change the things that we invent.”
Children, parents, adults, students and grandparents joined forces and braved the cloudy weather Sunday afternoon to march for environmental awareness.
An estimated 200,000 to 250,000 people were in attendance, waving signs and flags, and wearing flamboyant costumes. The march began at 2 p.m. at the Place des Festivals and ended at Mount Royal Park where speeches were made.
The purpose of the march was to draw attention to the importance of environmental issues and show support for “green” initiatives and attitudes.
Many students and citizens bore the red felt square on their jackets and coats, which has come to represent the anti-tuition hike movement. The atmosphere was cheerful and despite the crowds, the march was very peaceful. Police were on the scene to ensure the event remained safe, but did not report any major incidents.
In the cozy, dimly-lit setting of the Hall building’s 12th floor Greenhouse, two people serenaded a small audience on their guitars. About two dozen people were gathered to discuss whether the biggest threat to our environment today is in fact that we are just “too many people.”
Last Thursday, Concordia hosted the book launch of authors Ian Angus and Simon Butler’s Too many people? Population, Immigration, and the Environmental Crisis. As Butler couldn’t make the trip from Australia, Angus held a public discussion on their behalf.
In their book, the self-proclaimed eco-socialist authors argue that blaming today’s problems purely on growing populations is overly simple, and ignores the importance of the way wealth is distributed throughout the world.
“Corporations and armies aren’t polluting the world and destroying ecosystems because there are too many people, but because it’s profitable to do so,” explained Angus.
Angus continued that the “too many people” theory ignores the role of an economic social system in which short-term corporate profits always trump environmental sustainability. Angus argues that today’s economy has growth, waste, and devastation built into into it.
Fundamentally, the argument of overpopulation causing endless problems in the world hinges on a misuse of statistics and is a dangerous belief as it may lead to racism and anti-immigration reforms, according to Angus.
“If we misdiagnose the illness, then we will waste precious time on ineffective cures at best; at worst, we will make the crisis more intense,” he said. “As eco-socialists, we believe very clearly that we will not turn back the tide so long as capitalism remains the dominant economical system in the world.”
However, not everyone in the audience was convinced.
“I feel that he was saying population and individual consumption are not major problems and we don’t need to address them,” said Kristy Franks, a prospective student and citizen activist. “The way I see it, we need to focus on all of these areas, as they are all intertwined.”
Despite this, Angus still has reason to hope. “Today, millions of people know that another world is possible,” he said. “They know that this system may seem eternal, but it isn’t, and they are actively fighting for change.”
