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Save Canada's Environment Laws - Backgrounder
2010-04-27  |  Stephen Hazell

These amendments:

•    allow the Minister of Environment to avoid doing detailed environmental assessments on large projects by breaking the projects up into smaller pieces.  This amendment undoes the recent victory by Mining Watch Canada and Ecojustice in the Red Chris Mine decision of the Supreme Court of Canada.  These new rules apply even to projects that are already in the environmental process but which had not been scheduled for the more detailed “comprehensive study” process because of the government’s refusal to acknowledge its legal obligation to do so.

•    exempt a host of major projects that are funded by federal infrastructure and other government sources from environmental assessment provisions.  These sections effectively give legal sanction to rules that were previously contained in regulations of questionable legality which are being challenged in court by Sierra Club...

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New CCPA report says CETA threatens procurement and public services
2010-04-22  |  Janet Eaton

Negotiating from Weakness 

Canada-EU trade treaty threatens Canadian purchasing policies and public services

The third round of negotiations for the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) are taking place in Ottawa April 19-23. A new CCPA analysis of the proposed agreement warns that it poses a serious threat to Canada's  procurement policies and a broad range of public services.

According to the analysis, which draws heavily on leaked documents including the draft negotiating text, the proposed CETA would have an adverse impact on public services, such as waste, drinking water, and public transit. The proposed rules would entrench commercialization, especially public-private partnerships;  prohibit governments from obliging foreign investors to purchase locally, transfer technology or...

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Welcome to My Earth Day: A log of my Fortieth Anniversary of Earth Day
2010-04-22  |  John Bennett

7:30 am -- Clock radio alarm comes on and I hear Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien is celebrating Earth Day by planting a tree in a city compost. This is the same guy who has not responded to hundreds of emails urging a stop to the Terry Fox Road extension through a once protected wetland. Last week, a 200 year old Black Maple was cut down to make way for another stupid suburban road. 'Hypocrite' is all I could think.

9:30 am -- Cell phone rings.  It's Larry Pegg, a community activist opposing pesticide use on his neighbourhood lakes. I thought he was calling to thank me for writing a letter to the Ontario Minister of Environment opposing the pouring of pesticides into the private lake in Greely only 20 kilometers from Parliament Hill.

"John," he says, "I'm calling for help getting an injunction. Last night the board members of the Lakeland Estates Community Association swore an oath to use...

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Canadian Fact Finding Delegation Discovers Mexican Community Devastated by Mining Activities of Blackfire Exploration; Calls for Parliament to Censure Blackfire and pass Bills C-300 & C-354
2010-04-21  |  Janet Eaton

http://www.commonfrontiers.ca/

April 21, 2010
For Immediate Release

Canadian Fact-finding Delegation Discovers Mexican Community
Devastated by Mining Activities of Blackfire Exploration
Delegation calls for Canadian Parliament to censure Blackfire and
pass Bills C-300 & C-354

OTTAWA, 21 April 2010 - A Canadian delegation that visited Chiapas,
Mexico following the murder of social activist Mariano Abarca and the
involvement of several employees of the Calgary-based mining company
Blackfire Exploration has concluded that Blackfire should leave Chiapas,
and the Canadian Parliament needs to act now to prevent further
international mining conflicts from turning deadly.

Blackfire's barite mining operation near the town of Chicomuselo in
the southern Mexican state...

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CETA & Global Europe Timeline
2010-04-21  |  Janet Eaton

 By Janet Eaton, SCC rep to Trade Justice Network, April 2010

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Global Europe Timeline as Context for CETA:

 2005 The renewed Lisbon strategy set out the steps that must be
taken within the European Union to deliver growth and jobs while
recognizing that this internal agenda must be complemented with an
external agenda for improving European competitiveness in the global
economy. Global Europe has been referred to as the external arm of the
Lisbon strategy.

 2005 (Sept 1) Paper on Global Trade and Competitiveness - origin of
Global Europe where the EU Commission set out 50 pp of ideas for a revised
trade policy for Europe. It aired the possibility of lifting the
moratorium on new bilateral and regional free trade negotiations i.e the
"Lamy doctrine", in place since 1999.

 2005 (Sept 19) Market...

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