Canadian swordfish eco-certified despite deaths of endangered sea turtles and sharks
Despite strong opposition from conservation organizations, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has granted eco-certification to Nova Scotia’s swordfish longline fishery which is responsible for killing 35,000 sharks and 200-500 endangered sea turtles each year as ‘bycatch’. According to yesterday’s announcement by the MSC,...
Budget 2012: At least the war on the environment is going well
Until this year, the purpose of the annual Canadian federal budget was to project government revenues, lay out spending priorities and forecast economic conditions for the upcoming year. Reading Budget 2012, announced last week by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, it soon becomes clear that this government has no intention of ...
Mourning Mulcair’s win
There will be lots of soul searching and head scratching going on this week about what happened with the NDP leadership race. The mechanics of the convention, the interesting lack of deal-making, and how the balloting progressed are all fodder for those who enjoy going through the entrails of leadership conventions. Others ...
Local MP criticizes Fed plans to 'gut' Fisheries Act
MP Alex Atamanenko (BC Southern Interior) said the Conservative’s plan to make changes to the Fisheries Act in an omnibus federal budget bill next week has been exposed and the federal government needs to come clean on its agenda. A former DFO employee Otto Langer leaked documents last week that shone a light on government ...
Nathan Cullen would get my vote
There are so many factors that NDP members have to look at when choosing who to vote for in their leadership race that I don’t envy them (I am not a member). How do you weigh the various elements: policies, philosophy, engaging personality, ability to take on Stephen Harper in the House, co-operation with the Liberals, and ...
Is Harper undermining Obama on Iran?
It might be useful for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to read a U.S. state department cable from Israel released by Wikileaks. It reveals that talk of Iran's imminent production of nuclear weapons goes back to the early 1990s: "The head of the MFA's [Ministry of Foreign Affairs] strategic affairs division recalled that GOI...
Canada supports the dark side of international finance
You can say one thing for the powers that be in the banking industry. They’ve got a lot of nerve. This past week our own finance minister Jim Flaherty, along with Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, came out strongly in opposition to a modest proposal to regulate the US banking system. Their interventions followed...
Canadians call for enquiry on alleged robocall election fraud
Over 20,000 Canadians have joined with online campaigning organization Leadnow.ca to call for a full and independent public inquiry into an alleged systematic voter deception phone campaign that targeted likely non-Conservative voters in key ridings during the May 2011 election. Since the campaign launched on Friday, 20,000...
Time to zip John Baird’s loose lips
It is hard to credit the latest statements and actions by Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. On both Iran and Israel Baird seems to almost deliberately seek to humiliate both himself and the country he is supposed to represent on the international stage. Taking an ultra-orthodox rabbi (whose organization opposes any Palestinian...
Treaty Negotiations under microscope: FNS political executive to appear before Standing Senate Committee
The political executive of the First Nations Summit are travelling to Ottawa this week to provide testimony on the state of Treaty Negotiations in British Columbia to the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples. Grand Chief Edward John, Chief Doug White and Dan Smith will appear before the Standing Senate Committee ...
