Sunday 28 September 2014

Declarations of Canadians for a New Partnership

Shelagh Rogers was in Winnipeg yesterday evening (Sept 27), joining Wab Kinew in hosting the Burt Award for First Nations, Metis and Inuit Literature.  I had the privilege of being there representing the Canadian Commission for UNESCO.  It was  very obvious during the course of the evening, that Shelagh is powerfully committed to being in partnership with First Peoples.  Here is a letter from Shelagh that Karla has forwarded, inviting us all to sign the online Declaration of Canadians for a New Partnership.  Here is Shelagh's letter.  Please consider signing the declaration.  The link is at the bottom of the post.

----------------------

Dear Friend,

On Thursday, Canadians for a New Partnership was launched. Its purpose is to advance the public's knowledge and understanding of the histories and cultures of First Peoples, their contribution to Canada and the current issues affecting reconciliation and improved relationships between First Peoples and other Canadians by delivering a national lecture series, operating a speaker’s bureau, maintaining a website, and providing educational materials and resources. We will also do all things that are incidental or conducive to the attainment of these objectives.

I am a member of the board, which includes two former Prime Ministers, two former Assembly of First Nations Chiefs, Sheila Fraser, the Metis leader Tony Belcourt, Mary Simon, Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Chelsea Vowel and Stephen Kakfwi, former NWT Premier and residential school Survivor, among others.

I'm writing to ask if you will sign our on-line Declaration and help spread the word. Many signatures will make a real impact. 


Let's make Canada stronger. Thank you so much. 

love,
Shelagh

Friday 19 September 2014

Museum of Human Rights Opening and Idle No More

Biked past the Human Rights Museum about noon today. Opening ceremony had just ended when I got there, and I found myself in the middle of a little Idle No More action. And I made "friends" with three guys from Shoal Lake. Asked whether I could give them some "Where Waters Meet" propaganda (see "Faith in the City" information posted in this blog), which they happily accepted, in exchange for some "propaganda" of their own.



 

- submitted by Gareth

Monday 15 September 2014

Direct Link to Faith in the City Registration

Here is a direct link to the registration form for this year's Faith in the City:  WHERE WATERS MEET.   See Sept 6 post for details.

Click here to access Registration Form.


Wednesday 10 September 2014

WATER - A Prayer

Karla shared this prayer at the end of August.  It is offered in this blog with her permission.


~Water~         Karla W

Creator God
Mother and Father of all that is
 
in humbleness and humility for all that is undeserving,
hear our fervent prayer.

We have grown thirsty from crying,
wandering the desert, troubled, delirious...far gone.
We see the water, yet do not drink.

Unclench our sticky, furled fists of greed so we may catch
one lone tear from your heavenly Grace.

Let it wash us clean so that we may, once again, feel the beauty of the earth...like children

eyes cleansed, restoring vision that clearly sees the gift of creation

let it run through our veins, blood of Christ...life giving forgiveness

quenching our insatiable thirst for the riches of the land and sea

give drink to our parched hearts, restoring the connected rhythm with all of creation.

Amen


- submitted by Gareth

Saturday 6 September 2014

Announcing! Faith in the City II


Faith in the City II - WHERE WATERS MEET


WHERE WATERS MEET
First Peoples and Settlers Exploring our Relationship with Mother Earth 
through Shared Stories and Sacred Acts
UPDATE:  This is updated information.  Note, for example, that Where Waters Meet will not begin on Friday evening, as previously planned, but rather on Saturday morning.  

Oct. 18, 19, 2014
Saturday, 9 - 4:30; Sunday morning, 10:30
Augustine United Church
144 River Avenue (Osborne Village)
Winnipeg, Manitoba

WHERE WATERS MEET
This year, Faith in the City II – Augustine’s annual ecumenical, congregationally-based conversation – explores our relationship with Mother Earth.  First Peoples and Settlers will gather at Augustine United Church and at the Assiniboine River nearby, to engage together in examining questions such as:
  • How do we rekindle our spiritual connection to the earth?
  • How can settlers and indigenous peoples be allies in actions to defend our earth’s resources?
  • How has Christian theology/tradition brought us to where we are (e.g. the ecological crisis, the troubled relationship between first peoples/settlers)?
  • How can a decolonized and reimagined Christian theology move us to a new and sacred place?
  • How can the settlers among us find the courage to become unsettled?   

Stan McKay (Cree), Melanie Kampen (Settler Mennonite), Melody McKellar (Mohawk/French) and Steve Heinrichs (Settler Christian) will lead this highly experiential and interactive day of ceremony, conversations and sharing-circles. 

On Sunday, the Very Rev. Dr. Stan McKay (former moderator of the United Church of Canada) will join Rev. Bob Gilbert (Augustine United Church) in leading a special Faith in the City worship service at 10:30 a.m..

Registration Cost
The following categories are guidelines.  Registrants may pay as they are able.
$40 (Fully employed); $30 (employed part-time); $20 (student/unemployed)

Donations
Donations are most welcome.  When donating $75 or more, your registration will be included, and a tax-deductible receipt will be issued for a portion of the donation.
Registration Form will be available on the Faith in the City site Monday, September 8.

Please visit the Faith in the City blog for ongoing updates.  

Sunday 25 May 2014

Formatting problem with this blog

Perhaps you've noticed that there are occasionally extraneous texts that appear across the Just Living blog at the oddest intervals, and outside any of the template parameters.  I've tried my best to solve the problem of why that happens, to no avail.  Sorry.

- Submitted by Gareth

Speaking Up for LGBTQ Rights

United Church of Canada Moderator Gary Paterson's blog has a post focusing on the need to speak for LGBTQ Rights.  Here are some excerpts:

What is it about homosexuality that seems to rile up so many Christians, as if this were something that was about to destroy the world? Seems to stir up far more passion than issues of poverty, war, or climate change. It turns out that playing the “homosexual card” and stoking the fears of a “gay agenda” (i.e. “They’re taking over the world!”) often leads to the most successful religious fundraisers in the United States; that troubles me!
...
 In the last few weeks we have seen the reaction to World Vision’s decision in the U.S. that married gay couples were “acceptable,” or, at least, could be hired to work for the organization. Reactions from various evangelical churches were swift and condemning; some denominations leapt into the fray, telling their membership to immediately stop all financial support, even to the point of reneging on commitments to support foster children. Faced by the power and pressure of money, World Vision reversed its position within two days, and ate humble pie; it was not a pretty sight.
...
I am so grateful to be part of the United Church, where last August we celebrated 25 years of recognizing LGBTQ people as full members of the Body of Christ, of the church. Sure, our denomination is not perfect, and there are times and places where prejudice still rears its head; but it’s changing, and it continues to get better, more just, and inclusive. I want this news to make the headlines, at least on occasion, so that the world, the “spiritual but not religious,” the great and growing numbers of the “un-churched,” don’t think that what they hear and see in the headlines is the sum total of a Christian understanding of homosexuality. I want them to hear our message about acceptance and affirmation – “There’s a place for you!”


You can read the article by clicking here.

- Submitted by Bob

Canada's $207,000 oil sands ad: Putting a price on deception

From the Globe and Mail

This business column by Eric Reguly appeared in the May 10, 2014  Globe and Mail "Report on Business".  As we pick up our Saturday Globe, we usually are rather quick to deposit the Report on Business on the recycling pile (not sure that's a good idea or not).  This time the headline of the column by Reguly caught Kathleen's attention.  In the print version of the May 10 Globe and Mail, the secondary headline (on the continuation of the article on pg. 6) was:  "If Canada were responsible, it wouldn't blow small fortunes on deceptive ads".  We both found it interesting to find an article with this editorial position in the business section of the Globe.  The article begins like this:

The ad in The New Yorker is pretty, if not quite arresting. The full-page photo on the inside back cover – prime real estate in the United States’ leading upmarket magazine – features a pristine river meandering through a lush mountain valley, untouched by humanity. It is not a tourism ad. It is designed to convince influential Americans that the Keystone XL pipeline is environmentally safe, even desirable.

What is clever about the ad is not the photo; it is the headline and the succinct lines of copy beneath it. They are slick pieces of propaganda – misleading without being outright lies. Of course, advertising is all about propaganda. But this ad is unconscionable because you, the Canadian taxpayer, paid for it. The rate for a full-page ad in that location, according to Condé Nast, publisher of The New Yorker, is $207,000 (U.S.).

You can read the entire article by clicking here.

- Submitted by Gareth and Kathleen

Thursday 27 March 2014

WALKING WITH OUR SISTERS - A Commemorative Art Installation


Submitted by Karla W.

This past June, I attended classes at the Canadian School of Peacebuilding. During that time, I met Maxine Matilpi, a dynamic instructor for the Human Rights and Indigenous Legal Traditions class. She introduced myself and fellow classmate, Michelle Shephard, to the Walking With Our Sisters commemorative art installation which is intended to bring awareness to the many missing and murdered aboriginal women.  She invited us to join her students who were beading moccasin "vamps" or "tongues" for the upcoming cross-country exhibition. We gladly accepted and felt honored to be able to participate.
After some time and many needle pokes our contribution to the project was complete and was submitted along with the over 1000 others who participated.


photo by Karla W.
 
Now on exhibit at the 
URBAN SHAMAN GALLERY 
(March 7 - April 12, 2014)

Saturday 22 March 2014

The Earth needs a good lawyer

By Brian Loffler
New Internationalist Magazine
March 5, 2014

The earth from space [Related Image]
Image Source:  Creative Commons

Once in a lifetime a truly game-changing event reshapes global society. Think back to 1833 when the British Parliament finally bowed to public pressure and the Slavery Abolition Act was passed. Now, in our lifetime, Polly Higgins is campaigning tirelessly to do for Earth Rights what the abolitionists did for Human Rights. And the goal is in sight. I spoke to Polly Higgins this week for an update.

(I've chosen a number of excerpts from the interview with Polly Higgins.  You can read the entire interview by clicking here.)

Brian: We’re always fascinated to know what motivates people; what got you started on a lifetime of activism?
Polly: In my student days I met the Austrian artist and ecologist Hundertwasser. He was a big part of my life then. I went to Austria specifically to seek him out for an interview for my Master’s thesis. He was an ecological thinker so much ahead of his time. He talked about things such as: trees have rights; nature has no straight lines, so neither should our architecture.

....

Ten years ago you were a regular lawyer appearing in the British court system, but that’s all changed. Why is that?
In 2005 I was a barrister representing a man who had suffered a serious workplace injury. There was a moment of silence while we were waiting for the judges, and I looked out the window and thought: ‘The Earth has been badly injured and harmed too, and something needs to be done about that.’ My next thought actually changed my life: ‘The Earth needs a good lawyer, too.’ When I looked around for the tools that I could use to defend the Earth in court, I realized those tools didn’t actually exist. But what if the earth had rights like we as humans have rights? International laws that criminalize genocide are now accepted as a valuable tool. Why couldn’t we also criminalize ecocide?

...

During your research you found that the UN had been considering introducing a crime against nature for decades. What went wrong?
In the lead-up to the adoption of the Rome Statute which led to the establishment of the International Criminal Court, there were to be five core international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, crimes of aggression and ecocide. But last-minute lobbying – particularly by the US, Britain, Netherlands and France – saw ecocide dropped from the Statute.


  You can read the entire interview by clicking here.

- Submitted by Gareth

Once in a lifetime a truly game-changing event reshapes global society. Think back to 1833 when the British Parliament finally bowed to public pressure and the Slavery Abolition Act was passed. Now, in our lifetime, Polly Higgins is campaigning tirelessly to do for Earth Rights what the abolitionists did for Human Rights. And the goal is in sight. I spoke to Polly Higgins this week for an update.
Brian: We’re always fascinated to know what motivates people; what got you started on a lifetime of activism?
Polly: In my student days I met the Austrian artist and ecologist Hundertwasser. He was a big part of my life then. I went to Austria specifically to seek him out for an interview for my Master’s thesis. He was an ecological thinker so much ahead of his time. He talked about things such as: trees have rights; nature has no straight lines, so neither should our architecture.
- See more at: http://newint.org/blog/2014/03/05/polly-higgins-interview/#sthash.4n8BSs2L.dpuf

Are Western evangelists responsible for Uganda’s homophobia?


Written by Patience Akumu
New Internationalist Magazine
March 17, 2014

Evangelical preacher [Related Image]
Image Source:  Creative Commons

They came in brandishing the bible and promising hellfire to the man who walked around the neighbourhood in a dress and high heels singing and dancing and making the children happy for a change.

The entrance of Western evangelism into Uganda was fervent but seemed quite benign. Getting drunk with the Holy Spirit, claiming all the riches of the world and giving a twist to God’s name – Gawd! Who would have thought that a ludicrous campaign would turn into a full-blown witch-hunt of those who dissent?

Today, thanks to the evangelists, Uganda is one of the countries with the harshest anti-gay laws in the world, following President Yoweri Museveni’s agreement to the Anti-Homosexuality Act in February.

You can read the entire article by clicking here.

- Submitted by Gareth

They came in brandishing the bible and promising hellfire to the man who walked around the neighbourhood in a dress and high heels singing and dancing and making the children happy for a change.

The entrance of Western evangelism into Uganda was fervent but seemed quite benign. Getting drunk with the Holy Spirit, claiming all the riches of the world and giving a twist to God’s name – Gawd! Who would have thought that a ludicrous campaign would turn into a full-blown witch-hunt of those who dissent?

Today, thanks to the evangelists, Uganda is one of the countries with the harshest anti-gay laws in the world, following President Yoweri Museveni’s agreement to the Anti-Homosexuality Act in February. - See more at: http://newint.org/blog/2014/03/17/evangelist-preachers-uganda-lgbt/#sthash.TY4S1eRO.dpuf
They came in brandishing the bible and promising hellfire to the man who walked around the neighbourhood in a dress and high heels singing and dancing and making the children happy for a change.

The entrance of Western evangelism into Uganda was fervent but seemed quite benign. Getting drunk with the Holy Spirit, claiming all the riches of the world and giving a twist to God’s name – Gawd! Who would have thought that a ludicrous campaign would turn into a full-blown witch-hunt of those who dissent?

Today, thanks to the evangelists, Uganda is one of the countries with the harshest anti-gay laws in the world, following President Yoweri Museveni’s agreement to the Anti-Homosexuality Act in February. - See more at: http://newint.org/blog/2014/03/17/evangelist-preachers-uganda-lgbt/#sthash.TY4S1eRO.dpu

The #1 factor that has allowed me to live car-free easily and pleasurably for 10 years

I think maybe Nancy R. will be able to identify with Zachary Shahan, who authored this article for Treehugger.com.  And, I think the rest of us will find it interesting as well.  To read the whole article, please click here.

Image Source:  Treehugger.com


Treehugger.com
March 21, 2014

It's hard to believe that I've lived car-free for nearly 10 years straight now. However, it's also hard to believe I ever thought owning a car was a good idea. I'm reminded of this any time I visit someplace where I need to rent a car. It's fun having one for a short time, but before long I realize how much worse the quality of life is when you have to drive everywhere.

However, I will be the first to admit that there is one key factor has allowed me to enjoy a car-free life for 10 years in 5 or 6 different cities. I won't give it away right yet ... but will first quickly run down how I got around in each of the 5 to 6 places I've lived in the past 10 years, in chronological order.

Zachary Shahan goes on to describe 6 different cities in which he's lived, and concludes with "the #1 factor".  There's no need to give a spoiler alert here, since you'll have to click the link to discover the main factor in his ability to live car-free.  And, if I remember right, Nancy R has spoken in much the same way about how it's possible for her to function car-free.

-Submitted by Gareth

Trading water for fuel is fracking crazy

From the David Suzuki Foundation Blog
Feb 20, 2014
By David Suzuki with contributions from Ian Hanington, Senior Editor

Photo: Trading water for fuel is fracking crazy
Drought and fracking have already caused some small communities in Texas to run out of water altogether, and parts of California are headed for the same fate. (Image Credit: Merinda Brayfield)


It would be difficult to live without oil and gas. But it would be impossible to live without water. Yet, in our mad rush to extract and sell every drop of gas and oil as quickly as possible, we're trading precious water for fossil fuels.

A recent report, "Hydraulic Fracturing and Water Stress", shows the severity of the problem. Alberta and B.C. are among eight North American regions examined in the study by Ceres, a U.S.-based nonprofit advocating for sustainability leadership.

One of the most disturbing findings is that hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is using enormous amounts of water in areas that can scarcely afford it. The report notes that close to half the oil and gas wells recently fracked in the U.S. "'are in regions with high or extremely high water stress' and more than 55 per cent are in areas experiencing drought. In Colorado and California, almost all wells — 97 and 96 per cent, respectively — are in regions with high or extremely high water stress, meaning more than 80 per cent of available surface and groundwater has already been allocated for municipalities, industry and agriculture. A quarter of Alberta wells are in areas with medium to high water stress.

Read the entire article by clicking here.

  - Submitted by Karla

Sold Aged 7 - For Chocolate

This was sent to me via my Sojourners email service.  Walk Free is a movement of people everywhere, fighting to end one of the world's greatest evils: Modern slavery.


In the cocoa fields of the Ivory Coast, child slavery is ‘normal.’ It’s routine. It’s accepted.1 Children as young as 7 are sold  deprived of their childhood, ripped from their families, and subjected to routine abuse  to work long, backbreaking days picking cocoa. And it all stems from our love of chocolate.

Many chocolate brands have made public commitments to find the best solution. But we’ve learned that Warner Bros. is refusing to tell consumers where the cocoa for their Harry Potter chocolates comes from.

Warner Bros. has just announced plans for a massive expansion of their Harry Potter World in Florida – including a new shopping district, where more children than ever will be able to buy these chocolates. Taking a stand right now will make a big impact – will you help?

Image Source:  Cargocollective.com




Thousands of activists have asked Warner Bros. to ensure their Harry Potter chocolates are free of slavery because:
  1. An independent investigation into their supplier Behr’s Chocolates led to a failing score of 1 out of 48 possible measures to ensure their operations are slavery-free;2
  2. Warner Bros. dismissed the findings of the investigation, simply stating that they were 'satisfied’ that fair labour practices were being used in the production of their chocolates;
  3. Given the conflicting information, outraged consumers asked Warner Bros. what steps were taken to ensure there was no slavery in Harry Potter Chocolates. Warner Bros. refused to respond.
We’re concerned that Harry Potter chocolates may contain cocoa harvested in conditions of modern slavery. Are you?


http://www.walkfree.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Harry-Potter-website.png
Image Source:  Walkfree.org

 As consumers, we deserve to know that the products we buy are free from the taint of modern slavery. 


Ask Warner Bros. to ensure their Harry Potter Chocolate Frogs are free of slavery.

Thank you in advance for taking action. Please share this with your friends to bring us one step closer to ending the ‘normality’ of child slavery.

- submitted by Gareth

Thursday 20 March 2014

Which foods are the worst for the environment?

Although beef is always climatically costly, pork or chicken can be a better choice than broccoli, calorie for calorie.

From Toronto Star, March 20, 2014
Reprinted from the Washington Post, March 13, 2014
By Tamar Haspel

Any way you slice it, beef has the highest environmental cost of just about any food going, and the cow’s digestive system is to blame.
Any way you slice it, beef has the highest environmental cost of just about any food going, and the cow’s digestive system is to blame.  Image Source:  FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP / GETTY IMAGES file photo

The argument that a vegetarian diet is more planet-friendly than a carnivorous one is straightforward: If we feed plants to animals, and then eat the animals, we use more resources and produce more greenhouse gases than if we simply eat the plants. As with most arguments about our food supply, though, it’s not that simple. Although beef is always climatically costly, pork or chicken can be a better choice than broccoli, calorie for calorie.

...

Comparing cows with pigs, and meat with plants, is often done using data from the Environmental Working Group, which produced a report in 2011 that detailed the environmental cost of meat. The report includes a chart that ranks various foods according to the amount of emissions generated in the course of production. Ruminants are the worst offenders, with lamb generating 39 kilograms of carbon dioxide (or its equivalent) for each kilogram of meat, and beef generating 27. Then come pork (12), turkey (11) and chicken (7). Plants are all lower, ranging from potatoes (3) to lentils (1).

But there’s another way to look at the same information. If you stop eating beef, you can’t replace a kilogram of it, which has 2,280 calories, with a kilogram of broccoli, at 340 calories. You have to replace it with 6.7 kilograms of broccoli. Calories are the great equalizer, and it makes sense to use them as the basis of the calculation.

When you reorder the chart to look at climate impact by calorie, the landscape looks different. The ruminants still top the chart, but the monogastrics look a whole lot better. Low-calorie crops like broccoli don’t do so well. Although beef still looks bad and beans still look good, pork and poultry are on a par with green vegetables. (Which means that a beef-and-leaf paleo diet is the worst choice going, environmentally speaking.)

...

The claim that vegetarianism is kinder to the planet also fails to consider a couple of kinds of meat that aren’t on the Environmental Working Group’s chart. Deer and Canada geese do active damage in the areas where they’re overpopulated, and wild pigs leave destruction in their path wherever they go. Eat one of those, and do the planet a favour.
Most people, though, are most likely to get their food from the farm, and it’s important to note that, although the chart attaches one number to each kind of food, farming styles vary widely and not all pork chops — or tomatoes, or eggs — are created equal. Unfortunately, it’s all but impossible for us consumers to figure out the climate impact of the particular specimens on our dinner table, whether they’re animal or vegetable.

---
 
There's a lot more in this article that serves as "food for thought" (I know, bad pun).  In some ways, I find it paralyzing, since it all becomes more complicated, and it's so much easier to simply conclude that if it's organic or local, or [even better] both, then I grab it.  Still, if knowledge is power (as some say), becoming informed about all the aspects to keep in mind, we'll all be empowered to make decisions that make sense (at least to ourselves).

You can read the entire article by clicking here. 

- Submitted by Gareth


How much is water worth to you?

Water is the most important natural resource on the planet. It sustains the land and the species that live there, including us. Yet each year there is less and less clean, fresh water available.

Here in Canada we are lucky. We have 20% of the earth’s surface fresh water and 9% of the country is covered in fresh water. That’s a lot of water! Which is why it is so important to ensure the protection of this vital resource.

This is where the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) comes in. Across the country, NCC is working to protect wetlands, shorelines, riparian areas and other important fresh water ecosystems.

Image Source:  Screen shot of Nature Conservancy video

In British Columbia, NCC is working to protect land in the important Columbia Valley, where one of North America’s mightiest rivers – the Columbia – begins. This is the only stretch of the Columbia River that has been left unaltered by dams, and is part of the longest uninterrupted wetland in western North America. Unlike many other areas in the world, this region still supports a full suite of large native mammals, such as bear and cougar, elk and deer. NCC’s Columbia Lake – Lot 48 conservation area protects both a key stretch of lakeshore as well as a high-traffic wildlife corridor for elk, caribou, moose and bear.

On the opposite side of the country, NCC is doing important conservation work on The Grassy Place, a virtually pristine habitat at the headwaters of Robinsons River in southwest Newfoundland. The Grassy Place is the second largest project NCC has ever undertaken in Atlantic Canada and contains the largest wetland of its type in the province.

From east to west NCC is working to protect fresh water, ensuring lands surrounding important fresh water habitats are protected for the future and monitoring the health of these land’s fresh water resources.

But we could not accomplish all this alone! It’s thanks to concerned Canadians like you that we can engage in this important conservation work. Thank you so much!

To find out more about NCC’s work and how you can help, visit www.natureconservancy.ca

See the video by clicking here.

-Submitted by Karla

Moose and beavers do not stand on the shore applauding

From Winnipeg Free Press, January 27, 2014

By Will Braun

An artist's rendering of the Keeyask dam on the Nelson River. The project will be an extension of the overall hydro system.
An artist's rendering of the Keeyask dam on the Nelson River. The project will be an extension of the overall hydro system.  Image Source:  Manitoba Hydro

The Clean Environment Commission [has] concluded three months of numbingly detailed and occasionally passion-sparked hearings into the proposed Keeyask Dam.

....

The standard clean-hydro script was presented by Hydro at the Keeyask hearings. It was also showcased by Premier Greg Selinger in Washington, D.C., last February. Speaking to an audience at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Selinger portrayed Manitoba as a leader on climate and energy policy. He positioned Keeyask on this cutting edge, a benign source of energy to displace coal in the U.S.
He said the "legacy of bitterness" in the north has given way to a new era. New dams will be built in a way that not only reduces negative impacts, Selinger said, but uses them as "an opportunity to make environmental conditions better."

A remarkable claim.

What neither Selinger nor Hydro include in the official story, and what the CEC should include in its report, is this: A dam itself is no favour to the environment. Moose and beavers do not stand on the shore applauding as bulldozers roar and dynamite goes off.

Keeyask would involve pouring 870,000 tonnes of cement in the Nelson River. The work camps, roads, borrow pits and flooding would affect 14,000 hectares, not including the 1,400-kilometre Bipole III corridor.

...

Is Keeyask pushing the leading edge of energy and climate policy? Is it clean? Or is it a complex megaproject with potential benefits and serious consequences that need to be accurately described and thoughtfully weighed?

To echo a phrase from the closing argument of the Consumers Association of Canada at the hearing, hopefully the CEC report will "pierce the veil of Hydro branding."

Will Braun works for the Interchurch Council on Hydropower.

You can read Braun's op ed piece by clicking here.

- Submitted by Karla 

News from International Labour Rights Forum


Last year, we brought you the story of Edwin Cisco, who together with the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia (FAWUL) is changing the way rubber is tapped in Liberia--with assistance from ILRF and the support of concerned individuals like you. FAWUL and Edwin are powerful testimony that change can happen if we work together. We write now to ask you to help ILRF expand our work with Labor Rights Defenders.

Image Source:  ILRF
In the past ten years, Edwin Cisco has gone from being jailed for organizing to winning awards for his work to end child labor. And now agriculture workers across Liberia hope that FAWUL’s wins for workers can be expanded to all workers, across the industry. This is because FAWUL won ground-breaking changes in their most recent contract negotiation, securing reduced production quotas, agreements with Firestone to build more schools, and a transport system so rubber tappers no longer have to walk miles each day with 150 pounds of rubber on their backs!

These wins come after more than a decade of work by ILRF, FAWUL, and many others to improve working conditions on Firestone rubber plantations.

In the lead-up to recent union negotiations, ILRF developed with FAWUL a field survey to document workers’ living conditions and expenses and children’s access to schools. These surveys laid the foundation for FAWUL's wins, improving life for 6,400 workers and their families -- all together helping more than 40,000 people! We have long advocated for a path to change like FAWUL’s -- one where parents and community leaders are making the eradication of child labor possible, by negotiating better livelihoods for parents and holding corporations accountable for conditions in their supply chains.
Our ability to foster solidarity across countries depends on individuals like you -- who understand that a violation of one worker's rights undermines all workers’ rights. Please consider making a donation today so we can continue to support front line labor rights defenders around the globe.

In solidarity,

Judy Gearhart
Executive Director


- Submitted by Bev

Rana Plaza one year later: Companies must pay up!

In another seven weeks, we mark the first anniversary of the building collapse at Rana Plaza, in Bangladesh.  Over 1,100 people were killed in one of the worst industrial accidents in history.

As you may know, this was followed up by a ground-breaking agreement signed by global unions, local unions in Bangladesh, employers, major clothing brands, the International Labor Organization, the Bangladeshi government and others.

In addition to trying to ensure that the tragedy doesn't repeat itself, the employers also agreed to help compensate the injured and the families of those killed.

As the Clean Clothes Campaign put it, "The survivors and victims families have suffered enough and should not have to relive that horrible day without being secure that their financial losses at least are covered. They suffered terrible injuries, lost husbands and wives, children and parents, brothers and sisters; and will bear the physical and emotional scars for life. This can never be compensated for, but they can and should be compensated for loss of income and medical costs before the anniversary."

But among those companies which have not made public donations to the fund are these:

Adler Modemrkte, Auchan, Ascena Retail, Benetton, C&A, Carrefour, Cato Fashions, Children's Place, Grabalok, Gueldenpfennig, Kids for Fashion, KiK, LPP, Manifattura Corona, Matalan, NKD, Premier Clothing, Primark, PWT, Walmart and Yes Zee.

IndustriALL, UNI Global Union and the Clean Clothes Campaign have launched an online campaign hosted by LabourStart to pressure those companies to pay compensation now.

Please sign up and send your message.  And please spread the word about this very important campaign.

Meanwhile, halfway around the world in Peru, the government is attempting to privatize the country's water supply -- over the objections of citizens and the country's trade union movement.  Those unions and their global union federation PSI have launched an online campaign demanding that Peru stop this privatization now.  Please support the campaign and spread the word.

Thank you very much!



Eric Lee

- Submitted by Bev

"Thank you, Mom"? Thanks for nothin'


http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/ReSizes/OriginalWatermarked/Global/usa/image/2007/11/orang-utan-at-the-borneo-orang.jpg
Image Source:  Greenpeace


The orangutans of Indonesia are endangered and now their last chance at survival is vanishing fast.

Procter & Gamble's video was watched by millions all over the world. Now everyone needs to know that deforestation to create palm oil plantations means orangutans are senselessly orphaned.

While Procter & Gamble were advertising about motherhood, companies that produce their palm oil have been making orphans out of orangutans. During the Winter Olympics the makers of Head & Shoulders ran an advertising campaign called "Thank you, Mom" to talk about how their products help mothers raise their children.

But we've made a video of the dirty secret Procter & Gamble don't want you to see. It's all about what they call "sustainable" practices. Click here to watch and share the video.

Procter & Gamble uses palm oil linked to the destruction of Indonesia's forests. Deforestation for palm oil plantations takes orangutans away from where they were born, destroying the place where they once lived. This dirty palm oil is in products you probably use every day.

- Submitted by Bev



The Oilsands-Inspired Creation that Looms in Washington

Winnipegger Mia Feuer's art reflects the 'sculptural' transformation of Alberta's landscape.
From The Tyee, 23 Jan 2014
By Andrew Nikiforuk 

Mia Feuer sculpture
Image Source:  Kate Warren, The Tyee

Reviewers alternatively call the Washington, D.C. exhibit dystopian, eerily beautiful, or a "nightmarish manifestation" of environmental ruin.

In particular, many are attracted to the ominous black skating rink that occupies the rotunda. The plastic rink may or may not be a metaphor for oil's grip on Canadian politics.

Others are awed by a giant (40-feet by 40-ft. by 30-ft.) sculpture that hangs over the rink. Composed of a riot of suspended trees, oil field junk, tar paper and black birds, it resembles some strange, Harry Potter-like hallucination.

...

Winnipeg-born sculptor Mia Feuer [from Winnipeg's North End] calls her bitumen-inspired creation "An Unkindness," after a gathering of ravens. She says that artists have a duty to respond and reflect upon the times we live in.

"We just can't all be making beautiful things," Feuer says.

...

[Feuer toured some of the tarsands in Alberta in preparation for her exhibit.]   During her tour, Feuer got a glimpse of so-called reclaimed sites.

After digging up low-lying peat lands, fens and rivers to mine bitumen, industry replaces complex boreal landscapes with artificial, man-made hills made with layers of mining waste, including petroleum coke and salt-laden sands.

The process also includes dumping toxic mining waste into pits and then capping the pits with freshwater: an untested form of reclamation.

Because peatlands, which occupy 65 per cent of the mineable area, take 10,000 years to make, there is no requirement for industry to restore them. Nor is there any legal requirement to replace wetlands with wetlands, as most industrial nations now mandate, because of the high cost to industry -- up to $12 billion.

After building sandy uplands, industry then attempts to grow salt-tolerant plants on engineered soils. Scientists calculate that it may take 200 years to determine if the man-made sculptures can survive droughts, forest fires, erosion, insects, pathogens, or bitumen pollutants.

The reclamation sites gobsmacked Feuer. "I stood in a land that was once boreal forest, that was now a bunch of toxic wheat grown in toxic earth," she says.

The wheat, an attempt to build some vegetation cover, invited a mice plague. One company, in turn, sought to control the rodent epidemic by planting trees upside down, with their roots sticking in the air. The trees gave mice-hunting ravens a place to perch. (Since 1977, industry has blamed meadow voles and deer mice for slowing reclamation efforts.)
 
It all looked like some "twisted-demented nursery rhyme," says Feuer. And it inspired a huge sculpture that now greets visitors at [the exhibit in Washington DC].

You can read the entire article by clicking here.

-Submitted by Kathleen

A Canadian genocide?

A new museum in Winnipeg has become a flashpoint for how we interpret this country’s treatment of First Nations 

From United Church Observer
By Larry Krotz





Image Source:  Edward S. Curtis/Library and Archives Canada/PA-039476


There is something inherently perverse about the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the as-yet-unfinished landmark rising from the plain between a parking lot and a baseball stadium at Winnipeg’s Forks. When you get right down to it, this $351-million dream of the late media mogul Izzy Asper is being built to document evil.

Of course, it will also document survival against horrible odds and endurance in the face of atrocities that human beings inflict on one another. If you and your people have come through the worst of horrors, then that in itself is cause for celebration. But getting to be included in the museum’s litany of narratives has become a kind of race to the bottom: “The things that happened to my people are just as bad — if not worse — than those that happened to yours.” Or, as various groups already included in the museum have complained to its developers since almost day one, “The story you are proposing to tell about my people is not nearly so bad as it should be.”

The museum, which opens in September and is one of only two national museums located outside Ottawa-Hull, has been taking shape for more than a decade. In that time, disputes have almost constantly overshadowed what its promoters would prefer to highlight: a glass atrium “cloud” symbolizing the wings of a dove; spiral staircases leading up to a light-filled 100-metre-tall Tower of Hope; and a “mountain” made of 450-million-year-old Tyndall limestone from Manitoba. Possibly, museum of something as touchy as human rights should expect controversy. It is a museum of grievances, and it is very hard to make the aggrieved happy.

The Ukrainian community, for example, lamented that exhibits on the Holodomor (the 1932-33 starvation engineered by Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin) were going to be too close to the washrooms; Palestinians objected to being left out entirely; even Jews — whom Asper envisioned as central to the museum — were reportedly upset that the founding of the state of Israel was not going to be commemorated.

But the nascent museum’s most heated controversy is the growing insistence that exhibits depicting the story of First Nations peoples carry the word “genocide” in their titles. So far, the museum has resisted doing that.

The Canadian government currently recognizes five genocides: the Holocaust, the Holodomor, the Armenian genocide in 1915, the Rwandan atrocities in 1994 and the Bosnian ethnic cleansing from 1992 to 1995. First Nations activists aim to add one more to the list. For them, the museum is a testing ground.


- Submitted by Kathleen

Study: High schools with gay-straight alliances have reduced risk of student suicide

[Canadian] research suggests anti-homophobic policies benefit high school students regardless of sexual orientation 
From Salon.com, January 24, 2014


Study: High schools with gay-straight alliances have reduced risk of student suicide
Image Source:  Flickr Creative Commons
The presence of gay-straight alliance (GSA) groups in schools reduces the risk of suicide among both LGBTQ and straight teens, according to a study published in the International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies and funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research.

Using data from the 2008 British Columbia Adolescent Health Survey for grades 8-12, the study found that in schools where gay-straight alliance groups have been in existence for three or more years:
  • The odds of homophobic discrimination and suicidal thoughts were reduced by more than half among lesbian, gay, bisexual boys and girls compared to schools with no GSA.
  • There were also significantly lower odds of sexual orientation discrimination for heterosexual boys and girls.
  • Heterosexual boys were half as likely to attempt suicide as those in schools without GSAs.
Gay-straight alliance groups stem back to the late 1980′s, when discussions of sexuality were much less open than they are today. GSA’s have proliferated in universities and secondary schools since then, with the goal of creating safe spaces on campus for all students–regardless of sexual orientation.

You can read the entire article by clicking here.

- Submitted by Gareth

Worse than Walmart:

Amazon’s sick brutality and secret history of ruthlessly intimidating workers 

You might find your Prime membership morally indefensible after reading these stories about worker mistreatment
From Salon.com, February 23, 2014
Written by Simon Head

Excerpted from the book "Mindless:  How Smarter Machines are making Dumber Humans"

When I first did research on Walmart’s workplace practices in the early 2000s, I came away convinced that Walmart was the most egregiously ruthless corporation in America. However, ten years later, there is a strong challenger for this dubious distinction—Amazon Corporation. Within the corporate world, Amazon now ranks with Apple as among the United States’ most esteemed businesses. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and CEO, came in second in the Harvard Business Review’s 2012 world rankings of admired CEOs, and Amazon was third in CNN’s 2012 list of the world’s most admired companies. Amazon is now a leading global seller not only of books but also of music and movie DVDs, video games, gift cards, cell phones, and magazine subscriptions. Like Walmart itself, Amazon combines state-of-the-art CBSs with human resource practices reminiscent of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Amazon equals Walmart in the use of monitoring technologies to track the minute-by-minute movements and performance of employees and in settings that go beyond the assembly line to include their movement between loading and unloading docks, between packing and unpacking stations, and to and from the miles of shelving at what Amazon calls its “fulfillment centers”—gigantic warehouses where goods ordered by Amazon’s online customers are sent by manufacturers and wholesalers, there to be shelved, packaged, and sent out again to the Amazon customer.


http://bbpbooks.teachingforchange.org/files/teachingforchange/amazonwarehouse.jpg
Amazon’s shop-floor processes are an extreme variant of Taylorism that Frederick Winslow Taylor himself, a near century after his death, would have no trouble recognizing. With this twenty-first-century Taylorism, management experts, scientific managers, take the basic workplace tasks at Amazon, such as the movement, shelving, and packaging of goods, and break down these tasks into their subtasks, usually measured in seconds; then rely on time and motion studies to find the fastest way to perform each subtask; and then reassemble the subtasks and make this “one best way” the process that employees must follow.

...

In December 2009 Mark Onetto, chief of operations and customer relations at Amazon and a close collaborator of Bezos, gave an hourlong lecture on the Amazon Way to master’s of business administration students at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. Onetto is a disconcerting figure, because once he starts talking, style and substance are in sharp contrast. He is French born, and he still speaks with the rather faded insouciance of Maurice Chevalier and “Gay Paree,” and he makes much of this in his lecture. But there was nothing gay (in the traditional sense) or insouciant about the Amazon workplace that Onetto described for UVA’s MBA candidates.

Like most such corporate mission statements, Onetto’s uses a coded language that hides the harshness of his underlying message, which needs translation along with a hefty reality check. As with Walmart so at Amazon, there is a quasi-religious cult of the customer as an object of “trust” and “care”; Amazon “cares about the customer,” and “everything is driven” for him or her. Early in the lecture, Onetto quotes Bezos himself as saying, “I am not selling stuff. I am facilitating for my customers to buy what they need.”

...

Whereas some Amazon employees are in constant motion across the floors of its enormous centers—the biggest, in Arizona, is the size of twenty-eight football fields—others work on assembly lines packing goods for shipping. An anonymous German student who worked as a temporary packer at Amazon’s depot in Augsburg, southern Germany, has given a revealing account of work on the line at Amazon. Her account appeared in the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the stern upholder of German financial orthodoxy and not a publication usually given to accounts of workplace abuse by large and powerful corporations. There were six packing lines at Amazon’s Augsburg center, each with two conveyor belts feeding tables where the packers stood and did the packing. The first conveyor belt fed the table with goods stored in boxes, and the second carried the goods away in sealed packages ready for distribution by UPS, FedEx, and their German counterparts.


Staff at Amazon's Marston Gate warehouse.
Image Source:  Sarah Lee, The Guardian
Machines measured whether the packers were meeting their targets for output per hour and whether the finished packages met their targets for weight and so had been packed “the one best way.” But alongside these digital controls there was a team of Taylor’s “functional foremen,” overseers in the full nineteenth-century sense of the term, watching the employees every second to ensure that there was no “time theft,” in the language of Walmart. On the packing lines there were six such foremen, one known in Amazonspeak as a “coworker” and above him five “leads,” whose collective task was to make sure that the line kept moving. Workers would be reprimanded for speaking to one another or for pausing to catch their breath (Verschnaufpause) after an especially tough packing job.

...

A significant portion of the article has been reposted here.  There's more.  You can read the entire article by clicking here.

Note:  It is not hard to find other articles critical of worker conditions at Amazon.com.  The book, Mindless, written by Simon Head and from which this is excerpted, focuses at least in part on abuses such as these.  You can read a short but excellent review of that book, by clicking here.  A quote from the review:  [Head] argues that ... computerized management programs that Amazon and other large organizations use to measure everything that happens in factories, warehouses and depots—are turning workers into “digital chain gang” members who work harder and earn less. Once limited to tracking blue-collar productivity, CBSs now engulf much of the white-collar world, where they control the complex work of physicians, teachers and others in the professional and administrative middle class.

-Submitted by Gareth