Irving Oil to build another Refinery: Baird sees no problem

Ivring Oil Refinery in Saint John- largest in Canada

It seems everyweek I discover a new reason to feel anxious for my sweet Maritimes:

Conservation Council of New Brunswick - News Release

May 24, 2007

Environment Minister John Baird Exempts Colossal Refinery Development From EIA

Following close on the heels of Environment Minister John Baird’s decision to exempt industry from hard caps on greenhouse gas emissions, the Minister has exempted the first Canadian oil refinery to be built since global warming became a concern, from assessment under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.

Irving Oil plans to build a colossal $7 billion dollar, 300,000 barrel/day refinery adjacent to its existing refinery in Saint John. Irving’s existing refinery is the largest in Canada and therefore among the top 25 greenhouse gas emitters in the country at 3.3 million tonnes of CO2 per year. The gasoline is to be marketed in the northeastern United States. Six out of 10 cars on the road in Boston are already fueled by gasoline refined in Saint John, New Brunswick.
[Atlantica, anyone?]

“We are appalled that Mr. Baird does not plan to have Environment Canada assess the impacts of the new Irving refinery’s emissions on global warming and smog,” said David Coon, Policy Director of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick. “Clearly, the carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides will cross provincial and international boundaries, one of the triggers for a federal environmental assessment,” said Coon. "Clearly, the federal government has legal obligations for the impacts of increased greenhouse gas emissions on global warming."

“We raised these issues with Minister Baird in a letter three months ago and haven’t had the courtesy of a reply,” said Coon. “Yet the Minister found time in his busy schedule to fly to Saint John for a private meeting with the Irvings to discuss the refinery project,” he said.

Speaking on CBC’s April 27th edition of The Current, Environment Minister John Baird said the Irvings new refinery “ will provide great economic benefits for the province, a lot of jobs, a lot of hope, a lot of opportunity will be created with that. If we didn’t have an intensity-based system (for regulating greenhouse gas emissions) that wouldn’t be able to go ahead”.

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency announced today that the proposed scope of the environmental assessment would be restricted to the potential impacts of the construction of a pier and breakwater to load gasoline and petroleum coke onto ships for export and the unloading of crude oil from supertankers. The public has until June 30th to comment on
the proposed scope of the federal environmental assessment.

For more information, contact:
David Coon, Policy Director: (506) 466-4033

CBC article from October about Smog concerns for current refinery, and Irving's plans to build another.

Afghan Parliament kicks Malalai Joya out

See the following article about the Afghan Parliament ousting feminist activist Malalai Joya from parliament after 4 years of her challenging her fellow parliamentarians:
[see also RAWA]


KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghanistan's lower house of parliament voted Monday to oust an outspoken female lawmaker who has enraged former mujahedeen fighters now in President Hamid Karzai's U.S.-backed government.

The lawmaker, Malalai Joya, compared parliament to a stable full of animals in a recent TV interview.

The video clip was shown in parliament on Monday, and angry lawmakers voted to suspend her from the body, said Haseb Noori, spokesman for the parliament. No formal vote count was held, but a clear majority of lawmakers voted for her suspension by raising colored cards, Noori said.

A parliament rule known as Article 70 forbids lawmakers from criticizing one another, Noori said.

Joya, 29, said the vote was a "political conspiracy'' against her. She said she had been told Article 70 was written specifically for her, though she didn't say who told her that.

"Since I've started my struggle for human rights in Afghanistan, for women's rights, these criminals, these drug smugglers, they've stood against me from the first time I raised my voice at the Loya Jirga,'' she said, referring to the constitution-drafting convention.

Joya, a women's rights worker from Farah province, rose to prominence in 2003 when she branded powerful Afghan warlords as criminals during the Loya Jirga.

Many of the commanders who fought occupying Soviet troops in the 1980s still control provincial fiefdoms and have been accused of human rights abuses and corruption. After ousting the Soviets, the militias turned on each other in a brutal civil war that destroyed most of the capital, Kabul.

Some faction leaders, like former President Burhanuddin Rabbani and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a deeply conservative Islamist, have been elected to parliament. Others, like northern strongman Abdul Rashid Dostum, were appointed by Karzai.

Sayed Alami Balkhi, a lawmaker from the northern province of Balkh, said the speaker of the upper house of parliament sent a letter to the lower house on Sunday saying that Joya had humiliated and attacked both houses.

"If the lower house does not take a decision about her, we will take a decision,'' Balkhi quoted the letter as saying.

Joya's outspoken ways have earned her many enemies in Afghanistan. In February, during a rally to support a proposed amnesty for Afghans suspected of war crimes, thousands of former fighters shouted "Death to Malalai Joya!''

Last May, Joya called some lawmakers "warlords'' in a speech at parliament, prompting some parliamentarians to throw water bottles at her. A small scuffle broke out between her supporters and detractors, and Joya later told The Associated Press in an interview that some lawmakers threatened to rape her as payback.

Joya said Monday that if she couldn't remain in parliament, she would fight against "criminals'' independently. She said if anything were to happen to her - a reference to a possible assassination attempt - that "everyone would know'' that the people she has criticized like Rabbani or Sayyaf would be responsible.

"I'm not alone,'' Joya told reporters. "The international community is with me and all the Afghan people are with me.''

NB will have a publicly-funded Midwives Association by 2008!!

See Daily Gleaner article

Health Minister Mike Murphy has announced that Midwives could be helping New Brunswick women give birth by the spring of 2008. A committee will be formed in June to develop legislation to allow midwives to practice in New Brunswick (currently midwifery in NB is a grey area, not illegal, but not legislated either). Most important is that midwifery will be part of the NB health-care system, a viable choice for mothers who would otherwise have to travel to Nova Scotia for a midwife's care (or perhaps she might be able to access one of NB's six practicing midwives).

Only New Brunswick, P.E.I., Newfoundland and the Yukon don't include midwives in the public health-care system.

In other women's health news:
Morgentaler's lawsuit against the province for limiting access to affordable abortion began this week.
The province is arguing that Morgentaler doesn't have legal standing to challenge current regulations, that he cannot assert the right of women under the charter because he is not a woman, not pregnant and not seeking an abortion.

If men were not allowed to represent the interests of women to their peers/government, women would still not have the vote, be able to own property, and would still be considered minors in marriage law (going back to John Stuart Mill, one of the first to champion legislated rights for women).
Due to the social stigma attached to abortion, high profile nature of the case, and potential intimidation and retaliation by anti-choice protestors, no woman has yet come forward with the willpower and resources to mount a case against the province on her own.

Lawyers debate Morgentaler's standing
Abortion Lawsuit sparks rally

ATTN Atlantic Canadians: the cons of "Atlantica"

Atlantica tide should be kept at bay
Chronicle Herald - May 15, 2007

By DAVE RON

In response to Charles Cirtwill's May 8 column, "Like it or not, Atlantica does exist, thankfully": I cannot recall a more rhetorical piece of propaganda ever gracing the pages of this newspaper.

Seeing as how Cirtwill spent the majority of his word count championing some false notion of inter-regional communion, erecting straw-man arguments, and speaking to what Atlantica doesn't represent, I thought it wise to elaborate on what Atlantica does, in earnest, represent.

To avoid any further confusion, Atlantica is not "the name that has been attached to the northeastern corner of the United States and the eastern portion of Canada." Atlantica is the abbreviated name for what's formally known as the Atlantic Northeast Economic Region (AINER), a cross-border trade concept spanning the Atlantic provinces, Newfoundland, southern Quebec, and the New England states (i.e. Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and upstate New York).

Its main proponent and originator is a right-wing think-tank group called AIMS, the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, of which Cirtwill is not-so-coincidentally president. The Atlantica tag line is "business without borders," which has a double meaning: business unhampered by the international border, but also unbound from social protections such as minimum wages, social program spending, environmental regulation, public ownership and unionization.

Contrary to the belief that Atlantica is concerned with increasing trade ties in the northeast region, it is actually about two very different things: First, developing a conduit to channel Asian goods to the United States through the Atlantic provinces. Massive container ships called "post-Panamax" are too large to pass through the Panama Canal and Halifax is the closest North American port for ships from Asia via the Suez Canal.

Second, Atlantica is about increasing exports of unprocessed resources, like energy and water, from Canada to the United States. The intent is to export oil and gas from the Atlantic offshore as quickly as possible on terms that favour industry and leave decisions regarding exports to deregulated markets rather than through direct public participation.

Sure, as Cirtwill remarks, "Atlantica is delivering benefits on the ground today" insofar as it primarily profits elite interests and foreign investors. For example, Atlantica prioritizes U.S. energy needs over Atlantic Canadian energy security.

Atlantic Canada currently exports 75 per cent, and rising, of gas to the U.S., without even meeting the energy needs of everyone in the Maritimes; under NAFTA's proportionality clause, Canada must supply the U.S. with the same proportion or more of total exports as it has within the previous three years.

A central flaw in the Atlantica scheme is in its being predicated on historical inaccuracies. Contrary to its claims of past inter-regional prosperity, the Atlantic provinces have not gained much at all, in the past, from integration with the U.S. According to a 2006 Micro-Economic Analysis completed by Statistics Canada, for example, the manufacturing sector benefited least in terms of output, productivity, employment and wages.

The environmental and health concerns we have to look forward to include the bulk of massive expansion in container traffic shipped onwards by "truck trains," resulting in increased greenhouse gas emissions, higher fatal-crash rates per mile, as well as the likely expansion of superhighways through communities, wilderness, and farmland.

Also, with increased pressure to deliver finite oil and gas reserves to the U.S., there is no regard given to the advantages of using cleaner-burning natural gas as a stepping stone to a more renewable energy future for the region.

And yes, Atlantica has caught the ear of labour unions; but what working individual wouldn't raise an eyebrow at Atlantica's flippant use of beguiling buzzwords, like "poor quality public policies" and "economic distress factors," to describe minimum wage and union density, claiming that their extremely low rates in the region are already too high.

Cirtwill's vilification of labour unions as a means of thwarting opposition to Atlantica doesn't account for the growing number of citizens' groups, environmental organizations, non-profit associations, and others in the region who are directly opposed to the undemocratic and destructive nature of this radical experiment in free-market fundamentalism.

Atlantica is rooted in a framework which aims to attract corporate interests to the Atlantic region by threatening to axe our minimum wage (which is already below poverty levels), our environmental regulations, our social programs, our public services and our workers' rights to unionize – things they refer to as "policy distress factors." This kind of language is eerily familiar to that of NAFTA and the FTAA, stemming from a neo-liberal agenda that aims to dismantle "trade barriers" such as social and public programs, environmental regulations and workers' rights.

Like it or not, Charles, Atlantica doesn't yet exist, thankfully. It's the public's role, however, and not just labour's, to ensure we keep it that way for the vitality of our children, our environment, and our energy security.

Dave Ron is executive director for the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group, a non-partisan policy think-tank based at Dalhousie University with 16,000 student members.

Women unite across party lines in support of childcare

See the full story about women MP's joining forces across party lines over child care.

"New Democrat Olivia Chow, Liberal Ruby Dhalla and Bloquiste Vivian Barbot have joined forces to put child care back on the national agenda. Their goal is to force a parliamentary vote on Bill C-303, a private member's bill calling for a pan-Canadian
child-care system with dedicated federal funding.

Obviously, this runs directly counter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's plan. He is taking money out of organized child care to pay for his government's $100 monthly allowance to parents of preschoolers. No Conservative MP – male or female – is expected to support Bill C-303.

But that may not matter. If the Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Québécois vote solidly in favour of the legislation, it will pass.

Tomorrow, the parliamentary committee on human resources and social development will begin final consideration of the bill, introduced by New Democrat Denise Savoie last spring."

quickie toon

I just found a site where you can make cartoons! toondoo.com
I just picked a background, and it all came together..... oh my.

Write letters to protect NB Morgentaler Clinic from anti-abortion interference

From the NB Advisory Council on Status of Women:

BUBBLE ZONE LEGISLATION: PLEASE WRITE LETTERS!

The Morgentaler Clinic staff and other pro-choice organizations are pressing for the provincial government to pass “Bubble Zone” legislation.

A Bubble Zone bars anti-choice demonstrations in certain places, typically the immediate area around an abortion clinic and also around the homes and other workplaces of clinic staff. Such legislation provides a basis for police to act against the type of conduct described above. Ontario and British Columbia have had Bubble Zone legislation for many years. In those provinces the legislation has been effective in protecting clinic clients and clinic staff from precisely the kind of harassment they are experiencing here in New Brunswick.

The Minister of Justice is currently considering Bubble Zone legislation for New Brunswick. Please contact him to show your support for this important legislative initiative!

Hon. Thomas J. Burke, Q.C.
Attorney General, Minister of Justice and Consumer Affairs
Phone: (506) 462-5100
Fax: (506) 453-3651
T.J.Burke@gnb.ca

Mailing address:
Centennial Building
P. O. Box 6000
Fredericton, NB E3B 5H1

Constituency Office:
Phone: (506) 453-3365
Fax: (506) 453-5469
tjbconstituency@hotmail.com

Mailing address:
288 Union Street
Fredericton, NB E3A 1E5

ONGOING HARASSMENT AT THE MORGENTALER CLINIC

Tuesdays are ‘clinic day’, the day when women from around the province who have been denied publicly funded abortions come to the Fredericton Morgentaler Clinic. On arrival, they are forced to endure a gauntlet of anti-choice demonstrators in order to access their right to an abortion. Although the antis claim that they behave in a peaceful manner, they are in fact extremely aggressive. Here is an account of today’s events from a member of the Clinic staff:

“The "antis" were horrible today. The sign that the police once confiscated (very disgusting) is now in their hands again. They had another one as well. These are the same signs that the Show the Truth people used when in town. We saw close to 20 people today and many walked in crying and extremely upset. Needless to say, it creates a less than comfortable environment in here. People settle down once they get inside but it takes a while!

“I called … the police department and [the officer I spoke to] told me that there's nothing more they can do. They did try and apparently didn't have enough evidence or whatever they needed to make the conviction stick. A couple of people (not sure who they were) were involved in shouting matches with the antis and I said to [the police officer], that I was concerned this could lead to an incident. I believe he understood but said well if there's an incident, call the police….