A Few Lessons For Michael Ignatieff

I'm a proud and active member of the Liberal Party of Canada, but I have never made any secret of the fact that I disagree with our new leader on a growing number of issues.

I guess we can add the Alberta tar sands to that list.

"This is a huge industry. It employs Canadians from coast to coast. We have oil reserves that are going to last for the whole of the 21st century. We are where we are. We've got to clean it up and we've got to make it a sustainable place to work and live, not only for the aboriginal population, but for the workers who live there," Ignatieff said.

"At the moment, it's barely environmentally sustainable, and it's barely socially sustainable. The Conservative government has done nothing about this. We need to move forward. But am I proud of this industry? You bet. It's a world leader. We just need to make it better. But I don't take lessons from the National Geographic."

He may not need any lessons from National Geographic, but he certainly needs a reality check from someone. So allow me to educate you, Mr. Ignatieff.

1) "Barely environmentally sustainable."

By what possible definition?

This is an industry that tears out thousands of acres of complex boreal forest habitat and eventually, slowly, when they get to it, replaces it with flat grassland or wetland - at a fraction of the rate at which it digs.

This is an industry that turns millions of gallons of fresh water into oily, contaminated sludge which it stores in endlessly growing 'tailings ponds' that it has only the vaguest notion of how to turn back into fresh(ish) water.

This is an industry that continues to spew out grotesque amounts of CO2 emissions that it insists will 'someday' be captured and stored, despite the fact that even the biggest boosters of CCS technology admit that what is being developed simply won't work for the tar sands.

2) "Barely socially sustainable."

Ft. McMurray is a boom town. To a lesser extent, so are Calgary and Edmonton. Boom towns by definition are the very opposite of 'socially sustainable'.

I can't help but wonder if Mr. Ignatieff has ever actually met any of these "Canadians from coast to coast" who work in the oil patch. I have. I sat next to one on a plane who was on his way home to Ontario for his monthly visit with his wife and kids. By the time he got on the Edmonton-to-Toronto red eye, he had already been on two other flights and was facing a fourth to get him back to Sudbury. He hadn't slept in over 24 hours and he was having a really hard time sleeping on the cramped and chilly WestJet flight, finally opting to lay his head on his food tray with his arm over his eyes. He moaned frequently. He looked like death.

Then there was the guy I knew who gave up his job and his home for one of those great paying jobs out in Ft. McMurray. He was back within three months, full of tales of broken promises, abusive bosses and unaffordable and unlivable housing.

Temporary workers, exploitive conditions, disrupted families, artificially inflated living costs, and health consequences that are only just now being understood. This is the social reality of the tar sands mining industry.

3) "But am I proud of this industry? You bet. It's a world leader."

A world leader in what - size? Certainly. But as a sustainable industry that benefits all Canadians and moves us forward into the future, it represents a complete and utter failure.

One proof of this failure is in the recent announcement that the province of Alberta will be running a deficit this year. How can this be? How can the "new economic centre" of Canada find itself so quickly in the red just because of a temporary drop in oil prices? Weren't they using oil revenues to build a budgetary surplus as a cushion against inevitable swings in commodity prices? Oh, right.

Just about every other country with significant energy resources has a national energy policy that to some extent involves public ownership of oil and gas companies so that their citizens have maximum control of, and enjoy maximum benefit from, their own resources.

Canada, on the other hand, has no national energy policy. Such decisions are left entirely to the provinces, and in the case of Alberta they have chosen to abdicate public stewardship of their own resources in favour of making a quick buck by renting them cheap to private corporations who are responsible to no one but their shareholders.

There is nothing to be proud of here, Mr. Ignatieff. And there are far more fundamental problems with the tar sands than their somewhat untidy appearance in the pages of an American magazine.

I think what bothers me the most about Ignatieff's comments is the knowledge that from this day forward, no Liberal MP will be able to stand in the House of Commons and object to the Conservative government's lack of action on the tar sands or the environment or energy policy without having these very comments thrown back in their faces by Harper or one of his lackeys.

I am not suggesting that Mr. Ignatieff automatically take the opposite position from the Conservatives on every single issue. That's what we have Jack Layton for. But if his intention here was to appease the citizens of Alberta and build the Liberal Party's fortunes in the west, there are better ways to go about it than becoming an apologist for the tar sands mining industry. Because the people of Alberta are getting screwed here as much as anyone - and most of them know that. They don't need apologies or defences. They need real leadership that will point the way towards responsible, sustainable, beneficial, public stewardship of their land and their resources.

Mr. Ignatieff had an opportunity this week to show that sort of leadership - to show that the Liberal Party can represent a rational middle way between shutting down the oil sands altogether and allowing corporate interests to continue their uncontrolled and destructive exploitation.

In the opinion of this Liberal, he failed.

The Plan for AECL: Private Profit, Public Liability

Those of us following the Chalk river / AECL saga have been anxiously awaiting a report from the National Bank of Canada regarding the crown corporation's disposition.

Actually, 'anxiously' might be an overstatement, since the report's recommendations were pretty much a foregone conclusion.

Ottawa urged to sell controlling interest in AECL

TORONTO, OTTAWA — The federal government should relinquish control of its flagship nuclear energy company but retain its problem-plagued Chalk River research facility, says a report commissioned by Ottawa.

The report by National Bank of Canada recommends that the federal government sell off at least a 51-per-cent interest in Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.'s commercial operations, according to sources who have been briefed on its contents.

Ottawa has refused to divulge the report's recommendations and has left the fate of AECL in limbo until the Ontario government decides whether to buy the Crown corporation's Candu technology or opt for its main rival, France's Areva Group.

...But even if AECL succeeds in winning the bid, the federal government, which has been heavily subsidizing the business since the 1950s, plans to restructure the company to make it more competitive.

The National Bank report recommends the government break up AECL, sources confirmed yesterday. The commercial venture, with new investors as majority owners, would handle reactor sales and service, while the government would retain ownership of the research and technology division, which runs AECL's Chalk River laboratories and the NRU reactor.

... National Bank recommends that the Chalk River site be excluded because AECL – and its government shareholder – face liabilities totalling about $7-billion to clean up waste at the Chalk River site.

“No company would want to buy that,” said Greenpeace energy campaigner and nuclear opponent Shawn-Patrick Stensil.

In other words, they're selling the store and keeping the dumpster out back.

I shouldn't be surprised, though. This is exactly what the government wanted to hear. When you don't believe in public ownership, it's easy to find ways to make public assets unprofitable so you can justify selling them off to your corporate buddies - and then call it being 'competitive'.

Welcome to Canada's new Free Market Nuclear Industry.

The Worst Thing I've Read in a While

If you're sick of reading about Gaza, or you just can't bear to read any more tales of atrocities, just stop right now. But if you think you can take it, read this latest testimonial from In Gaza. Not to obsess on the suffering, but just so we don't forget.

Eyes open.

The family of 14 was still huddled under the stairwell when Israeli soldiers stormed the outer gate.

“My father opened the back door and stepped out. They shot without warning. He died immediately,” said al-Helo.

The soldiers then ordered the rest of the family to leave the house. “Get out, get out,” al-Helo said they screamed. When he tried to remain in the house with his father Fouad’s body he said the Israeli soldiers told him “If you stay here we’ll kill you.”

They left, trying in vain to find shelter. “We were knocking at the doors of people’s houses along the road, desperate to get in. Everyone was afraid to open, or had left their home,” said al-Helo.

The terrified family had only walked a few hundred meters down a back lane before Israeli snipers began shooting at them, hitting one-year-old Farah in the abdomen. The girl, whose name means “joy,” didn’t immediately die, instead suffered for the next few hours, intestines falling out. Her mother, Shireen, breast-fed her in a desperate attempt to comfort the baby.

I don't think I am ever, ever going to get that image out of my head.

That every single citizen of Gaza hasn't taken up arms against Israel is a testament to their self-restraint and their desire for peace. I don't know if I would be that restrained under the same circumstances.

A Taste of the Third World in Wilmington, Ohio

Of all the sad and disturbing stories that have emerged so far from the economic crisis, for some reason this one in particular fills me with dread.

DHL Workers Welcome Truckloads of Food

A local town, which is bracing for thousands of job cuts, gets an important delivery today to help workers in need.

This morning, eleven tractor trailers loaded with food and supplies pulled into Wilmington. It's an effort to help the thousands who will lose their jobs when DHL closes their hub at the Wilmington Air Park. It's estimated nearly 10,000 jobs will be eliminated.

Volunteers with the group Feed the Children distributed the food and personal supplies to hundreds of people who lined up in the cold.

One third of the families in this town had someone employed at DHL.

I'm not sure which is worse - the sight of Americans lining up for food aid, or wondering how long it will be before it happens here.

Random Thoughts on The Layover of the Century*

(*stolen from the inimitable Kady O'Malley, who wins the Best Title of the Day Award)

1) Watching Obama talking with Michaelle Jean, I thought she looked classy and confident (as usual), and he looked absolutely enchanted with her.



2) There's been much speculation about what Obama and the GG talked about all that time. My guess it was divided between "What is it you do again?" and "So, tell me your version of what happened last fall".

3) Poor, poor Steve. He is no longer The Almighty Tallest.



4) Bafflegab sounds exactly the same in English AND American, no matter who the President is. Sorry, but CCS is still wishful thinking, especially when it comes to an operation like the tar sands. But hey, leave it to Harper to latch on to the one issue that most progressives disagree with Obama on and claiming it as his own.

5) Shorter Stephen Harper: "We are at war with greenhouse gases. We have always been at war with greenhouse gases."

6) Obama making an unscheduled stop at the Byward Market to buy souvenirs and a Beavertail is just about the coolest thing EVAH!

Help Send a Blogger to the Liberal Convention!

Well, now I've done it. I've filled out my Form 6 and faxed it to the LPCO, and unless we have a sudden flood of people from Halton who want to go to the Vancouver Liberal Convention, it look like I'm going to be a delegate.

Woot!

Now I just have to pay for it.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not going to be going into debt or taking food out of the mouths of my family to do this. We've got a bit of savings and some leftovers from a recent windfall, and I'm always happy to indulge myself if it's something I consider worthwhile.

Still, Liberal conventions are notoriously expensive. Although apparently the party is offering reduced convention fees depending on how expensive it's likely to be to get there from your riding. Which means that flying out of Toronto I'll be saving... thirty-five bucks. Oh, boy.

I can't wait to find out what the WiFi access fees are going to be.

So. Since I plan to blog from the convention and will be therefore providing you, my faithful readers, with three whole days of high quality Liberalicious entertainment, I thought I would also provide you all with the opportunity to contribute to the cause.

PayPal donations now being accepted, with gratitude, at the sidebar to your right.

Meanwhile, It Still Sucks in Gaza

Funny how the western media has totally moved on from Gaza. And yet, for those who are still in the thick of it, the only difference seems to be the particular flavour of hell they're living in.

Yes, the tanks have retreated and the aerial bombardment has ceased. They're still getting shelled from the sea, bombed by drones and shot at from the border, of course. And the Israelis have suddenly decided that their previous arbitrary 300m "buffer zone" was woefully inadequate and have now arbitrarily expanded it to a full kilometre - all on the Gaza side of the border, of course.

This, in a country that is only 6-7 kilometres wide along much of its length.

The expansion of this zone has swallowed up huge amounts of active farmland that desperately needs to be irrigated and/or harvested in order for the Gazan farmers to survive. And so they go out into their fields to harvest. And they are shot at. And three have been killed.

As for the blockade, it is worse than ever. Almost nothing is getting through, with both Israel and Egypt choking off the crossings and the supply tunnels largely destroyed. And at least one UN aid warehouse was reportedly raided and robbed by Hamas, which is SO not helping.

And yet, our faithful correspondent reports one bit of good-ish news this week. Faced with a dire bread crisis caused by frequent or total electrical blackouts, a desperate shortage of cooking fuel, and a near total lack of available combustibles, one man has come up with a creative and ancient solution for his community.

Drawing on the knowledge of a 70 year old craftsman from nearby Khan Younis, Mohammed Abu Dagga had constructed an earthen oven operating on conventional diesel, stores of which had been br rather than the unavailable cooking gas. The mud oven, lined with the few available sturdy bricks, took one week to construct; the technique of mixing and packing a sand, straw and earth mixture meant that Israel’s ban on construction materials did not hamper this one project. Thousands of destroyed houses throughout Gaza remain rubble, reliant on Israel’s benevolence to open borders to concrete and building materials (a benevolence which has yet to materialize), items long-since on the banned list.

On the day we visited, Al Faraheen’s new communal oven had queues past the entrance. These were not the dismal lines of hopeful Gazans waiting for hours to find the last of the bread had been sold. The mood in Faraheen was jovial, an air of relief, if but for one small reason to be thankful. For the many villagers who can’t afford, or can’t find, cooking gas and who are exhausting firewood supplies (although the Israeli military’s bulldozing and tank-ravaging of olive and fruit trees provides a depressing new source of wood), one shekel can bake 10 rounds of bread. Given that Abu Dagga’s investment in the oven was $2,000 (roughly 8,000 shekels), the price is fair, and more within the reach of a largely agriculture-based community than the nearly 400 shekels a canister of cooking gas goes for.

I guess 'good news' is a relative term in a place where a rediscovery of medieval technology can be considered progress, but I suppose it's something.