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MONTREAL – The Green Party of Quebec and the Green Party of Canada stood united today to condemn the Charest government's high-handed approach chosen to resolve the student crisis through the adoption of Bill 78, the special law announced Wednesday night.

“The Charest government just added insult to injury,” said Claude Sabourin, Leader of the Quebec Greens, who slammed the adoption of Bill 78 by the Quebec National Assembly. “Denying the right to protest is undemocratic not the best way to go about stopping them,” said Sabourin, who strongly condemned the unilateral move by the Charest government.

“I worry a lot when I see Canadian governments, federal and provincial, interfering with our rights and liberties," said Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada and MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands. "The right to assembly is a fundamental right for everyone.”

Not one to mince words, Sabourin was unequivocal: “Quebeckers seemed supportive of the Charest government's attempts to end to the crisis. This time, I’m afraid the jig is up for good. Clearly, we will have elections this fall.  The Charest government has lost all sense of legitimacy.”

Contact:
Debra Eindiguer
Debrae1@rogers.blackberry.net
613 240-8921

OTTAWA – Today in Question Period, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries, Randy Kamp, confirmed that the Experimental Lakes Area is to be sold off to private interests. 

Independent MP, Bruce Hyer, Thunder Bay-Superior North asked:   “Mr. Speaker, two years ago the Conservative member for Kenora crowed about the importance of new dollars for the Experimental Lakes Area. He stated:

‘The Experimental Lakes Area is known world-wide as Canada's most innovative freshwater research centre. ...we are investing in projects like this one -- helping to establish Canada as a leader in knowledge creation...’

Will the member for Kenora fight for the research centre that he bragged about recently or just allow his party to toss those investments and his credibility into the Experimental Lakes?”

In response Kamp said: “Mr. Speaker ... we are looking forward to facilitating a transfer from this particular facility to a private organization.”

“This is truly shocking,” said Green Leader Elizabeth May, MP Saanich-Gulf Islands.  “The Experimental Lakes Area has contributed immensely to our understanding of freshwater ecosystems.  Since 1968, a group of small lakes 250 kilometres east of Winnipeg has provided a unique opportunity for study. 

“The changing chemistry of lakes from acid rain, phosphates, decreased stratospheric ozone leading to greater UV and the impacts of climate change have all been studied. These impacts have been examined not only separately, but it relation to each other. This body of knowledge and ability to continue assessing impacts is critical to science,” said May.  “It is reckless to threaten our access to such critical work."

Media Contact:
Debra Eindiguer
debrae1@rogers.blackberry.net
613-240-8921

OTTAWA – Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, MP Saanich-Gulf Islands, warned the Harper Conservatives not to move recklessly on expanding northern offshore drilling in the Beaufort Sea before more is known about the potential risks to this fragile ecosystem.

“The announcement that 905,000 hectares in our pristine Arctic waters are open for bidding comes as a shock – especially when Parliament is debating Bill C-38, which guts so much of our environmental protection,” said May.

The Green Party leader also pointed out that we do not know enough about the environmental implications of drilling in the Arctic.

The bidding announcement comes less than two years after such drilling plans were put on hold following the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  Ironically, after a subsequent Arctic-drilling safety review by the National Energy Board, looser rules were introduced.  These allow companies with equivalent measures in place to circumvent a requirement that they respond to a blowout by drilling a relief well before winter.  However, the alternative measures to deal with a blowout are not yet developed.

In the House Thursday, May addressed this issue:  “... My question is simple. How will the National Energy Board eliminate the risk of blowouts during drilling, exploration, and development in our most fragile ecosystem, the Arctic?”

As with most questions relating to environmental protection, John Duncan, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, refused to address May’s concerns.

“Before we continue along yet another risky fossil-fuel road, the National Energy Board must clarify how it will eliminate or minimize the dangers of blowouts on the ocean floor,” said May.  “What equipment will they have aboard? What precautions will they take?  Right now we simply do not know. 

“Furthermore, the Arctic is a shared environment.  We need a circumpolar approach developed through the Arctic Council.”

Interestingly, the bidding announcement came just one week after Scott Vaughan, Canada’s Commissioner on the Environment and Sustainability, pointed out that the Conservatives are highly unlikely to meet their own greenhouse-gas reduction targets.

“As the rest of the world and many of its leaders pay heed to warnings about climate change, Mr. Harper is opening up as many areas to resource extraction as he possibly can,” said May.  “As the ice melts and the Northwest Passage opens up, he wants to speed up the warming while he destroys decades of environmental laws and ignores renewable-energy opportunities along with the jobs they will create.”

Contact:
Debra Eindiguer
debrae1@rogers.blackberry.net
613-240-8921

OTTAWA -- The Green Party has a vision of a Canada that is free from discrimination, including people having the right to live their lives without discrimination for their sexual orientation. “We must be vigilant to ensure that everyone’s rights are respected in legislation and in practice,” said Green Leader Elizabeth May (MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands).

“As Canadians, we can be proud that our great country was one of the first to sanction same-sex marriage. As Greens, we are proud that we were the first federal party to officially support the inclusion of same-sex couples in civil marriage.”

“Now, we must continue to improve. It is still unacceptable that trans-gendered people are rarely even considered when laws and public policies are created. We still have to make changes,” said May.

The Green vision is of a world free from discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, a world in which difference is accepted and celebrated.

Green Party MPs will:

• Amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to explicitly include gender identity and gender expression as protected grounds of discrimination.
• Amend the Criminal Code to include gender identity and gender expression in the hate sentencing and hate propaganda provisions.
• Support public education to end prejudice and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
• End the targeting by Canada Customs of LGBT bookstores and other LGBT businesses.
• Ensure Canada advocates internationally for an end to state-sanctioned discrimination and violence against LGBT people.

Contact Information:
Debra Eindiguer
c: 613.240.8921
debrae1@rogers.blackberry.net

Since my last article for Island Tides, Parliament has been dominated by the March 29 Budget and the April 26 budget implementation bill, Bill C-38. The first set out the fiscal plan with a heavy dose of promised laws to reduce/fast-track environmental assessment; the second went far beyond the words of the budget itself, to deal stunning blows to the foundational laws to protect nature.

Given limitations of words and space, let me cover some of the main points.

Budget 2012 cuts government spending, overall, by about $5 billion for next year. (Green Scissors, my submission to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, cut by $6 billion, but went after very different things—like government advertising and the Prime Minister’s Office budget.)

Budget 2012 delivers the expected news of increasing the age of entitlement to Old Age Security to 67, while deeply cutting CIDA, CBC, Environment Canada, Statistics Canada, Parks Canada, Library and Archives, and DND (cuts there largely due to the end of involvement in Afghanistan). It also cuts $7.5 million from Elections Canada, $14 million from tourism, and over $50 million from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (leading to the announced closing of the Canada Plant Health Centre on East Saanich Road). It also did away with the youth volunteer-service program, Katimavik.

There is no mention of climate change. The hoped for extension of the eco-Energy home energy retrofit programme was not to be, ditto hopes for funding to keep the Polar Environmental Arctic Research Laboratory–Canada’s critical research lab on Ellesmere Island and the world’s closest to the North Pole–from closing. No reprieve there, nor for funding of climate science. Scientific research through the National Research Council is now directed to focus on work that is ‘business-led and industry-relevant.’ (I can just imagine what Einstein would have said about that.)

Also announced in the budget was the surprise termination of the National Round Table on Environment and Economy– the only effort remaining within the government to develop consensus between industry and environmentalists to pursue sustainable development. As I was feverishly reading the budget document in ‘lock-up’ (the invitational, embargoed preview of the budget), I scanned for any reference to climate change, I got excited when I saw the word ‘climate,’ only to focus and realize it was a discussion of the ‘investment climate.’

Instead, Budget 2012 commits the country to expansion of fossil fuel production: oil sands, pipelines, super-tankers, seismic testing and off-shore drilling. Consistent with that is the funding of an attack on environmental charities with a new $8 million to spend on going after groups alleged to be conducting ‘political’ advocacy, a charge which has been directed at groups opposing the Enbridge super-tanker scheme.

The budget was very grim news indeed, but did not really prepare me for the introduction of the omnibus Budget Implementation Bill. It’s bizarre tabling was without prior notice—not even the usual advance ‘lock-up’ with technical briefing.

I picked up my copy and made for my desk in the House, where I sat, reading, near tears, for the next three hours. C-38 is over 400 pages repealing, amending or otherwise revising 70 different pieces of federal legislation. Aspects never even hinted at in the budget itself include removing oversight from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, changing entitlement to Employment Insurance (this is still vague but appears to allow refusing EI to anyone if there is any job available, even one not in their field), and allowing the Cabinet to overrule the National Energy Board (NEB).

Not Mentioned In the Budget

Nearly half of the budget implementation bill is directed at rewriting Canada’s foundational environmental laws. The Budget itself never mentioned that the Fisheries Act was to be re-written, gutting habitat protection and restricting federal action in many instances to commercial, recreational, and Aboriginal fisheries. This essentially means that if humans aren’t catching a fish, there is no protection for its habitat.

There nothing was mentioned in the budget speech about the changes to the Species at Risk Act which put the NEB in charge of permitting destruction of endangered species and their habitat along the proposed route of a pipeline; nor about the supplanting of the NEB as arbiter of pipelines under the Navigable Waters Protection Act. The NWPA is amended such that pipelines are no longer considered an obstruction to navigation–even if they are.

Although it was abundantly clear that a large focus was to be ‘streamlining’ the environmental assessment process, the advance hype focused on time limits for hearings. It was nowhere mentioned that the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act was to be repealed. C-38 wipes out the entire CEAA and introduces an entirely new law. Under the new act, ‘environmental effects’ (that which is to be studied under a federal EA), is, for many circumstances, restricted to fish and migratory birds.

Not Clear On the Concept

With so many new laws and the repealing of old laws and complex text, the Conservative ministers speaking in the House in support of C-38 frequently claim the budget implementation act will include measures that are simply not there at all, or misstate how the new laws will operate.

I go up to them afterward and, for example, ask ‘I cannot find any reference to increased tanker safety in C-38. Can you show me what section you were referring to?’ Or, ‘I can’t find anything that says environmental reviews will only be transferred to the province if the environmental assessment in that province is ‘as good or better’ than the federal one. Where is that?’ Of course, when I ask these specific questions, it is because I am pretty sure that I haven’t missed anything.

The ministers tend to look back at me, blinking slightly. They mention that it is a very long and complex bill. Yes it is, but I have read it and I missed the section they just told the House was in the Act. Where is it? Then the look on their face is like the ‘lapine’ word from Watership Down for a rabbit caught in headlights on a road: ‘tharn’.

There is much more, but for now, I urge constituents to join growing calls for removal of environmental laws from Bill C-38. The Harper Conservatives have gone too far. Previous Progressive Conservative Fisheries Ministers Tom Siddon and John Fraser have both spoken out against the horrifying changes to the Fisheries Act.

Write letters to the editors of the nation’s newspapers. Contact the other Opposition leaders (Rae and Mulcair) and urge that they join me in a strategy to derail this juggernaut of abuse. For more details about Bill C-38, go to www.elizabethmaymp.ca. Together, we can make Stephen Harper regret taking aim at nature.

Elizabeth May is the Leader of the Green Party of Canada and Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands.

Originally printed in The Island Tides.

OTTAWA -- The Green Party of Canada commends UN Special Rapporteur Olivier De Schutter on his honest appraisal of Canada's status with respect to the right to food.

After an 11-day visit to Canada, during which he met with citizens across Canada and received testimonies in-person and by mail from Canadians, including significant interaction with Canadian First Nations representatives, the Special Rapporteur issued his preliminary report May 16, 2012.

"We are deeply indebted to the United Nations and the Special Rapporteur for highlighting the crisis in social assistance and food security in this country. We share his concern regarding the deep and severe food insecurity faced by aboriginal peoples across Canada living both on- and off-reserve in remote and urban areas as well as the food insecurity faced by families on social assistance. 1 in 4 First Nations children live in poverty, with poverty affecting some 3 million Canadians. It is completely unacceptable," said Vanessa Long, Social Services Critic for the Green Party of Canada.

"As Minister Kenney pointed out, we are a wealthy nation with a high standard of living and M. De Schutter was right on that our privileged status makes it even more unacceptable that 1 in 10 families with a child under 6 are food insecure,” commented Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada and Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands, “Canadian Parliamentarians committed in 1989 to eradicating child poverty by 2000 and here we are 23 years later and the levels are basically the same. Ineffective policies and lip service have been paid to the issue but we are forced to ask if they really care at all.”

"M. De Schutter has very clearly connected the dots between callous government policy toward our most vulnerable citizens, the increasing gap between the wealthy and poor in Canada, social assistance levels that every year fall further behind the rising costs of living, and Food Bank usage that is increasing,” Ms. Long continued,  “These are not merely accidents of a global economy as our government would have us believe, but the logical result of decades of mismanagement by this country's governments at all levels. Canada has no national food policy or strategy and no means to deal with systemic issues relating to food, hunger, and food systems.”

"The current government has made it clear that they do not consider food security a right for all Canadians and their policies and inaction in the face of a national crisis in our poorest households fits right in with their emphasis on oil and gas first, everything else last As Greens, we are a values-driven Party, and one of our six values is social justice. You can be assured that eradicating child poverty would be a top priority with any Green government, in Canada or elsewhere," Ms. May concluded.

Contact Information:
Debra Eindiguer
debrae1@rogers.blackberry.net
613-240-8921

Last night in the House, there was a Committee of the Whole until 1:30am. On the option of the NDP, two departments of government can be submitted to examination of the main estimates (or the Department's 2012 budget) through a Committee of the Whole.  This entails the whole of the Commons being converted from Parliament to Committee, with the Speaker off the throne and at the table, the mace removed, and MPs free to move about. 

It can be a useful opportunity.  The NDP opted for Defence and Environment and the time for the meetings was duly scheduled by the Conservatives.  As customary, the Committee of the Whole (COW) begins when the daily business of the House is over.  The Conservatives chose the week the environment committee was out on the road, holding meetings across Canada, to have the Environment COW and then scheduled late votes both nights.  Earlier that day it was announced that last night would be the cut-off on Copyright legislation, Bill C-11.  I had many amendments to attempt removing the most onerous digital locks sections of the Copyright bill. Thanks to support from the Liberals as seconders and in forcing votes, we were able to force recorded votes.  Only once all substantive amendments had been defeated did I ask to compress the voting process to “Apply the vote,” cutting about an hour and a half off our voting time.  Still, COW did not start until about 9:30 pm and ran for four hours til 1:30 am. I attended both and wondered why anyone thought this could be useful.

True, departmental officials were available.  In each case a small table was placed at about the spot where the Prime Minister usually sits (although he was not there), and at the table top ranking officials sit in case their expertise and background is needed to answer questions.  I want to try to paint the picture of the table, one side pressed against the government bench.  In close formation, one on each of the three open sides of the table, sit the highest ranking officials.  Sitting like statues, facing each other.  True, General Walter Natynczyk had the best ram-rod like posture.  Staring straight ahead at the Defence Deputy Minister Rob Fonberg at a distance of a few feet.  The same formation for the Environment Deputy, Paul Booth, only he stared straight at Peter Kent, in the front row of government benches, flanked by the head of Parks Canada Paul Latourelle and Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency head Elaine Feldman.  What must have been going through their minds? In four hours of Defence and four hours of Environment, they never spoke.  Why were they there?  Maybe that’s what they were thinking: why am I here? 

Certainly not to help Peter MacKay or Julian Fantino answer a simple question from Liberal John McKay who asked (three times? four times?) if anyone knew the cost per hour of the Department’s current jets, the F-18s.  And the only person rustling through papers to provide answers to Peter Kent was Michelle Rempel, his Parliamentary Secretary.  And, really, when nearly every answer was like a Chinese menu, why did anyone need to be there to help with answers?

Menu options for Peter Kent:

Option A: If asked anything by an NDP MP, answer with some variation of how bad bad bad the leader of the Official Opposition was to call the oil sands a disease;

Option B: If asked anything by a Liberal MP,  say “we will never ever ever bring in a carbon tax;”

Option C: If asked by a Conservative backbencher, for extra measure one MP actually bothered to read from the script and ask Peter Kent, “will you ever bring in a carbon tax?”  Answer: We will never ever ever bring in a carbon tax, unlike those bad bad bad Liberals. 

So was there anything new?

Well, last night Peter Kent said some unbelievable things.   For one, when Megan Leslie asked if the government planned to allow Opposition Members on the delegation to the Rio plus 20 conference this June, he said “no” (that was the believable part). And then he said, for the Durban climate conference, the government had offered assistance to the two Opposition MPs who attended. He claimed that while not actually providing credentials as part of the Canadian delegation, the government helped with getting the Opposition MPs into the UN FCCC Conference of the Parties in Durban.  Well, that description only applies to two people: me and NDP MP Laurin Liu.  I tried to help Laurin.  She had a whole day in Durban without being able to get into the conference centre at all. The NGO Climate Action Network finally succeeded in begging the UN Secretariat to grant her a badge with them. I asked her last night if she had had any offer of help from the “official” delegation that I didn’t know about. Nope. 

I know for a fact I was never offered any help.  And I know I never saw any help.  Since I was granted credentials as an advisor to the Government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and they never had any request from Canada, the whole claim was as unnecessary as it was invented.   (Fun to imagine the conversation as a senior Canadian diplomat rings up his counter-part in PNG, “We have the Leader of the Green Party, you know. And it’s kind of awkward because we are not going to allow Canadian MPs on our delegation, unless they are Conservatives, so we aren’t paying her way or helping her find a hotel, and frankly, we feel pretty lousy about it, but it would be just aces if you could accept her on your delegation.” Not.)

There was also the claim, not once but twice, that the contaminated sites programme was a Harper Conservative initiative: “Our government invested $3.5 billion”. Twice, they said it.  Even though the $3.5 billion was put in place in 2005 by Paul Martin’s government to remediate contaminated sites on federal land.  At the time they thought there were a total of 8,500 sites.  Now, with half the money gone and 40% of the sites remediated, they realize the total is 22,000 sites.  So the Environment Commissioner Scott Vaughan reported that a plan is needed.  More to the “unbelievably score card,” when Liberal Kirsty Duncan asked about the Commissioner’s report, Kent managed to insult both her and Scott Vaughan (and here I paraphrase) “The hon. member is as confused as the Environment Commissioner.”  She pressed to find out if he accepted the commissioner’s report. Nope. Not really. On toxics, Vaughan was confused. On climate, well, the poor man is obviously out of his depth.  Used out of date data sets. 

To both Liberal and NDP environment critics wanting to see plans for climate or toxic sites, Kent delivered a paternalistic, “the hon. members should be patient.”

Perhaps most unbelievable was Kent confusing the goal, to which Stephen Harper affixed his signature in Copenhagen (in the non-binding Copenhagen Accord) to avoid allowing global average temperature from reaching 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.  Kirsty Duncan prefaced a question noting that the “window is closing” on our ability to avoid a global average temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius. Kent looked at me as he said, (not yet recognized by the chair) “it’s closed.”   And then he rose and said the temperature in our Arctic has already risen above 2 degrees Celsius.

He said the same thing to me in Durban and I had explained that Arctic temperature increases are not the same thing as a global average temperature increase. The poles warm more rapidly than any other part of the planet.  The reason scientists are warning that we must avoid 2 degrees Celsius global average temperature increase is because that is a level of serious danger. It will be too late for low-lying island states at 2 degrees global average temperature.  That is why scientists and African nations rally around the slogan “1.5 to stay alive.”  Going beyond a 2 degree global average temperature increase is catastrophic.  The Minister of Environment doesn’t know the difference.  Kirsty Duncan explained the difference.  She is both a Liberal MP and a scientist. She worked on the IPCC. When she had clarified the science for the minister, she let out a sad sigh. It carried on her mic.  And Peter Van Loan and Peter Kent and Michelle Rempel all found that a hilarious moment.  And they all laughed uproariously. I wish I had found that more unbelievable.

OTTAWA -- Today in the House of Commons, the Speaker selected 18 amendments from Green Party leader on C-11, the new Copyright Act. Despite attempts by NDP and Liberal MPs to makes substantive changes in legislative committee hearings, their efforts were defeated. The current bill, if passed, would allow the holders of copyright to exert inappropriate control through the use of digital locks.

"I urge Conservative Members of Parliament to give my amendments serious consideration. The current draft allows digital locks to trump all other considerations," said Ms. May, MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands, "my amendments introduce the proper balance that the Minister of Heritage says he is pursuing."

The Green Party amendments also add an amendment to allow greater clarity for the proposed inclusion of "education" in the Copyright Act’s fair dealing provisions.

Contact Information:
Debra Eindiguer
debrae1@rogers.blackberry.net
c: 613.240.8921

OTTAWA – Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, MP Saanich-Gulf Islands, today listed and explained the dangerous and damaging impacts that Bill C-38, the Budget Implementation Bill, will have on Canadians’ environment, health, and jobs.

“As more and more people are realizing, the Harper Conservatives have packed their so-called budget bill with lots of non-budget items in order to hide them from the public, and even confuse their elected representatives,” said May.  “I decided it was time to itemize the various bills, regulations, policies, and programs that will be affected.”

Due to the Conservatives’ imposition of time allocation, May has not been able to speak on Second Reading, although she has been able to ask questions and make comments in the House of Commons.

Bill C-38 Changes Clearing the Way for Resource Extraction:

Canadian Environmental Assessment Act – “Environmental effects” under the new CEAA will be limited to effects on fish, aquatic species under the Species at Risk Act, migratory birds.  A broader view of impacts is limited to:  federal lands, Aboriginal peoples, and changes to the environment “directly linked or necessarily incidental” to federal approval. 

Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency – The Agency will have 45 days after receiving an application to decide if an assessment is required.  Environmental Assessments are no longer required for projects involving federal money.  The Minister is given wide discretion to decide.  New “substitution” rules allow Ottawa to download EAs to the provinces; “comprehensive” studies are eliminated.  Cabinet will be able to over-rule decisions.  A retroactive section sets the clock at July 2010 for existing projects.

Canadian Environmental Protection Act – The present one-year limit to permits for disposing waste at sea can now be renewed four times.   The 3 and 5 year time limits protecting Species at Risk from industrial harm will now be open-ended.

Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act – This legislation, which required government accountability and results reporting on climate change policies, is being repealed.

Fisheries Act – Fish habitat provisions will be changed to protect only fish of “commercial, Aboriginal, and recreational” value and even those habitat protections are weakened.  The new provisions create an incentive to drain a lake and kill all the fish, if not in a fishery, in order to fill a dry hole with mining tailings.

 Navigable Waters Protection Act – Pipelines and power lines will be exempt from the provisions of this Act.  Also, the National Energy Board absorbs the Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA) whenever a pipeline crosses navigable waters.  The NWPA is amended to say a pipeline is not a "work" within that Act.

National Energy Board Act – NEB reviews will be limited to two years – and then its decisions can be reversed by the Cabinet, including the present Northern Gateway Pipeline review.

Species at Risk Act – This is being amended to exempt the National Energy Board from having to impose conditions to protect critical habitat on projects it approves.  Also, companies won’t have to renew permits on projects threatening critical habitat.

Parks Canada Agency Act – Reporting requirements are being reduced, including the annual report.  638 of the nearly 3000 Parks Canada workers will be cut.  Environmental monitoring and ecological restoration in the Gulf Islands National Park are being cut.

Canadian Oil and Gas Operations Act – This will be changed to exempt pipelines from the Navigational Waters Act.

Coasting Trade Act – This will be changed to promote seismic testing allowing increased off-shore drilling.

Nuclear Safety Control Act – Environmental Assessments will be moved to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, which is a licensing body not an assessing body – so there is a built-in conflict.

Canada Seeds Act – This is being revamped so the job of inspecting seed crops is transferred from Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspectors to “authorized service providers" the private sector.

Agriculture Affected – Under the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act, publicly owned grasslands have acted as community pastures under federal management, leasing grazing rights to farmers so they could devote their good land to crops, not livestock.  This will end.  Also, the Centre for Plant Health in Sidney, BC, an important site for quarantine and virus-testing on plant stock strategically located across the Salish Sea to protect BC's primary agricultural regions, will be moved to the heart of BC's fruit and wine industries.

National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy – The NRTEE brought industry leaders, environmentalists, First Nations, labour, and policy makers together to provide non-partisan research and advice on federal policies.  Its demise will leave a policy vacuum in relation to Canada`s economic development.

More Attacks on Environmental Groups – The charities sections now preclude gifts which may result in political activity.  The $8 million new money to harass charities is unjustified.

Water Programs – Environment Canada is cutting several water-related programs and others will be cut severely, including some aimed at promoting or monitoring water-use efficiency.  

Wastewater Survey – The Municipal Water and Wastewater Survey, the only national study of water consumption habits, is being cut after being in place since 1983. 

Monitoring Effluent – Environment Canada’s Environmental Effects Monitoring Program, a systematic method for measuring the quality of effluent discharge, including from mines and pulp mills, will be cut by 20 percent. 

“In spite of the fact that most Canadians have no idea how seriously Bill C-38 will affect their lives, the Senate is about to begin hearings so that Conservative Senators can vote on it as soon as possible,” said May.  “This railroading version of democracy is tragic for Canada.”

The Green Party of Canada is launching its C-38: Environment Devastation Act campaign to engage Canadians in having their C-38 concerns heard. Please visit budgetdevastation.ca for more information.

Media Contact:
Debra Eindiguer
debrae1@rogers.blackberry.net
613-240-8921

As a long-time environmental lawyer who has watched, and, in some cases, played a role in the development of Canada's environmental laws, I am devastated at the cynical, manipulative, and undemocratic way the Harper Conservatives are weakening or destroying those crucial laws.

The Conservatives have hidden their destructive, anti-nature, health, and even jobs agenda in the 425-page Bill C-38, the Budget Implementation Bill. Due to their imposition of time allocation on the Bill's various stages through the House of Commons , I haven't been able to speak during Second Reading, although I have been able to ask questions and make comments. That's why I decided to hold a press conference Thursday morning, May 10, to itemize the various bills, regulations, policies, and programs that will be affected.

Bill C-38 Changes Clearing the Way for Resource Extraction:

Canadian Environmental Assessment Act – “Environmental effects” under the new CEAA will be limited to effects on fish, aquatic species under the Species at Risk Act, migratory birds. A broader view of impacts is limited to: federal lands, Aboriginal peoples, and changes to the environment “directly linked or necessarily incidental” to federal approval.

Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency – The Agency will have 45 days after receiving an application to decide if an assessment is required. Environmental Assessments are no longer required for projects involving federal money. The Minister is given wide discretion to decide. New “substitution” rules allow Ottawa to download EAs to the provinces; “comprehensive” studies are eliminated. Cabinet will be able to over-rule decisions. A retroactive section sets the clock at July 2010 for existing projects.

Canadian Environmental Protection Act – The present one-year limit to permits for disposing waste at sea can now be renewed four times. The 3 and 5 year time limits protecting Species at Risk from industrial harm will now be open-ended.

Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act – This legislation, which required government accountability and results reporting on climate change policies, is being repealed.

Fisheries Act – Fish habitat provisions will be changed to protect only fish of “commercial, Aboriginal, and recreational” value and even those habitat protections are weakened. The new provisions create an incentive to drain a lake and kill all the fish, if not in a fishery, in order to fill a dry hole with mining tailings.

Navigable Waters Protection Act – Pipelines and power lines will be exempt from the provisions of this Act. Also, the National Energy Board absorbs the Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA) whenever a pipeline crosses navigable waters. The NWPA is amended to say a pipeline is not a "work" within that Act.

National Energy Board Act – NEB reviews will be limited to two years – and then its decisions can be reversed by the Cabinet, including the present Northern Gateway Pipeline review.

Species at Risk Act – This is being amended to exempt the National Energy Board from having to impose conditions to protect critical habitat on projects it approves. Also, companies won’t have to renew permits on projects threatening critical habitat.

Parks Canada Agency Act – Reporting requirements are being reduced, including the annual report. 638 of the nearly 3000 Parks Canada workers will be cut. Environmental monitoring and ecological restoration in the Gulf Islands National Park are being cut.

Canadian Oil and Gas Operations Act – This will be changed to exempt pipelines from the Navigational Waters Act. Coasting Trade Act – This will be changed to promote seismic testing allowing increased off-shore drilling.

Nuclear Safety Control Act – Environmental Assessments will be moved to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, which is a licensing body not an assessing body – so there is a built-in conflict.

Canada Seeds Act – This is being revamped so the job of inspecting seed crops is transferred from Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspectors to “authorized service providers" the private sector.

Agriculture Affected – Under the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act, publicly owned grasslands have acted as community pastures under federal management, leasing grazing rights to farmers so they could devote their good land to crops, not livestock. This will end. Also, the Centre for Plant Health in Sidney, BC, an important site for quarantine and virus-testing on plant stock strategically located across the Salish Sea to protect BC's primary agricultural regions, will be moved to the heart of BC's fruit and wine industries.

National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy – The NRTEE brought industry leaders, environmentalists, First Nations, labour, and policy makers together to provide non-partisan research and advice on federal policies. Its demise will leave a policy vacuum in relation to Canada's economic development.

More Attacks on Environmental Groups – The charities sections now preclude gifts which may result in political activity. The $8 million new money to harass charities is unjustified.

Water Programs – Environment Canada is cutting several water-related programs and others will be cut severely, including some aimed at promoting or monitoring water-use efficiency.

Wastewater Survey – The Municipal Water and Wastewater Survey, the only national study of water consumption habits, is being cut after being in place since 1983.

Monitoring Effluent – Environment Canada’s Environmental Effects Monitoring Program, a systematic method for measuring the quality of effluent discharge, including from mines and pulp mills, will be cut by 20 percent.

In spite of the fact that most Canadians have no idea how seriously Bill C-38 will affect their lives, the Senate is beginning hearings so that Conservative Senators can vote on it as soon as possible. This railroading version of democracy is tragic for Canada.

The Green Party of Canada is launching its C-38: Environment Devastation Act campaign to engage Canadians in having their C-38 concerns heard. Please visit budgetdevastation.ca for more information.

Elizabeth May is the Leader of the Green Party of Canada and Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands.

Originally posted on rabble.ca.

Usually when the Harper Conservatives bring in a new law, there is a big roll-out. The prime minister or one of his heavy-hitters goes to a prime location, usually not Parliament Hill. A factory or a mall or a friendly backyard. Tens of thousands are routinely spent on a "branding" of the new act. There are banners and public relations firms to design the whole package. 

Unlike the laws I used to study in law school, laws with names that sound like statutes, Stephen Harper's proposed legislation must go through focus group testing for the most "election-ready" phrasing. For example, the omnibus crime bill which brought in mandatory minimum sentences and a plethora of moves decried by every criminologist and bar society was christened the "Safe Streets and Communities Act." And Bill C-36, an act of all of four paragraphs amending one sub-section of the Criminal Code in relation to sentencing people convicted of assault (to allow taking into account age of the victim) was given a fabulously overblown title -- "Protecting Canada's Seniors Act."  


The launch almost always involves a media and MP opportunity to digest the laws in a "lock-up" -- an advance briefing usually including colour brochures and charts and graphs and, if not brass bands, at least a serious amount of noise.  


Not so for Bill C-38, known as the omnibus budget bill. Sure, it did get the fabulous title: the "Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act." There all similarities to other pieces of legislation end.   


There was no announcement. No press release for first reading. There was no lock-up. There were no schematic guides to understand the changes to the 70 laws undergoing a brutal overhaul. Like surgery without an anesthetic, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act was repealed and a whole new act brought in. While the four-paragraph seniors bill, C-36, will get its own committee hearings and full debate in the House, the 420-page Bill C-38, the omnibus budget bill, will be fast-tracked through the Finance Committee. 

To add injury to insult, Conservatives limited the number of days allowed for debate at second reading of C-38. Government House Leader Peter Van Loan puffed himself up to pronounce that this was a longer time for debate than other budget bills. Meanwhile the Opposition MPs are left to protest that no other budget bill in Canadian history had repealed, amended or overhauled 70 existing pieces of legislation.


Some laws are the stuff of future Conservative campaigning. They are over-sold and put in the front window. Then there is the orphaned and unloved bastard child of Harper's legislative agenda. It is hidden. It is not to be placed in the front window, nor proclaimed as it should be: "Vote for the Conservative Party, tough on nature!" The good news in this is that Stephen Harper knows that his base would hate a lot of what's in C-38. That's why he is hiding it -- in a way that hides it in plain sight for anyone who is willing to dig deep and read the fine print. 

Here's what is in C-38 on the environment. (C-38 threatens more than environmental damage, but this should give you a sense of why I am determined to stop this bill.)


Canadian Environmental Assessment Act ditched. Repealed and replaced with a completely new act. "Environmental effects" under the new CEAA will be limited to effects on fish, aquatic species under the Species at Risk Act, migratory birds. A broader view of impacts is limited to federal lands, Aboriginal peoples, and changes to the environment "directly linked or necessarily incidental" to federal approval.

Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency seriously weakened. The agency will have 45 days after receiving an application to decide if an assessment is required. Environmental assessments are no longer required for projects involving federal money. The minister is given wide discretion to decide. New "substitution" rules allow Ottawa to download EAs to the provinces; "comprehensive" studies are eliminated. Cabinet will be able to over-rule decisions. A retroactive section sets the clock at July 2010 for existing projects.

Canadian Environmental Protection Act undercut. The present one-year limit to permits for disposing waste at sea can now be renewed four times. The three and five-year time limits protecting species at risk from industrial harm will now be open-ended.


Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act killed. This legislation, which required government accountability and results reporting on climate change policies, is being repealed.

Fisheries Act seriously weakened. Fish habitat provisions will be changed to protect only fish of "commercial, Aboriginal, and recreational" value and even those habitat protections are weakened. The new provisions create an incentive to drain a lake and kill all the fish, if not in a fishery, in order to fill a dry hole with mining tailings.

Navigable Waters Protection Act hampered. Pipelines and power lines will be exempt from the provisions of this act. Also, the National Energy Board absorbs the Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA) whenever a pipeline crosses navigable waters. The NWPA is amended to say a pipeline is not a "work" within that act.

Energy Board Act neutered. National Energy Board reviews will be limited to two years -- and then its decisions can be reversed by the cabinet, including the present Northern Gateway Pipeline review.

Species at Risk Act hamstrung. This is being amended to exempt the National Energy Board from having to impose conditions to protect critical habitat on projects it approves. Also, companies won't have to renew permits on projects threatening critical habitat.

Parks Canada Agency Act trimmed, staff cut. Reporting requirements are being reduced, including the annual report. Six hundred and thirty eight of the nearly 3,000 Parks Canada workers will be cut. Environmental monitoring and ecological restoration in the Gulf Islands National Park are being cut.

Canadian Oil and Gas Operations Act made more industry friendly. This will be changed to exempt pipelines from the Navigational Waters Act.

Coasting Trade Act made more offshore drilling friendly. This will be changed to promote seismic testing allowing increased off-shore drilling.

Nuclear Safety Control Act undermined. Environmental assessments will be moved to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, which is a licensing body not an assessing body -- so there is a built-in conflict.

Canada Seeds Act inspections privatized. This is being revamped so the job of inspecting seed crops is transferred from Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspectors to "authorized service providers," the private sector.

Agriculture affected. Under the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act, publicly-owned grasslands have acted as community pastures under federal management, leasing grazing rights to farmers so they could devote their good land to crops, not livestock. This will end. Also, the Centre for Plant Health in Sidney, B.C., an important site for quarantine and virus-testing on plant stock strategically located across the Salish Sea to protect B.C.'s primary agricultural regions, will be moved to the heart of B.C.'s fruit and wine industries.

National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy killed. The NRTEE brought industry leaders, environmentalists, First Nations, labour, and policy makers together to provide non-partisan research and advice on federal policies. Its demise will leave a policy vacuum in relation to Canada's economic development.

More attacks on environmental groups funded. The charities sections now preclude gifts which may result in political activity. The $8 million new money to harass charities is unjustified.

Water programs cut. Environment Canada is cutting several water-related programs and others will be cut severely, including some aimed at promoting or monitoring water-use efficiency.

Wastewater survey cut. The Municipal Water and Wastewater Survey, the only national study of water consumption habits, is being cut after being in place since 1983.

Monitoring effluent cut. Environment Canada's Environmental Effects Monitoring Program, a systematic method for measuring the quality of effluent discharge, including from mines and pulp mills, will be cut by 20 per cent.

In spite of the fact that most Canadians have no idea how seriously Bill C-38 will affect their lives, the Senate is about to begin hearings so that Conservative senators can vote on it as soon as possible. This railroading version of democracy is tragic for Canada.

The Green Party of Canada is launching its C-38: Environment Devastation Act campaign to engage Canadians in having their C-38 concerns heard. Please visit our website for more information.

Elizabeth May is the Leader of the Green Party of Canada and Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands.

Originally posted in the Tyee.

OTTAWA - Environment Commissioner Scott Vaughan today released his report on Canada's climate action and progress in cleaning up federal contaminated sites.

"Dealing with climate and toxic waste sites, the Harper Conservatives are failing Canadians," said Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada. "It is clear in the evidence as audited by this branch of the office of the Auditor General that there is no plan in place to meet even the reduced, lax targets set by the Prime Minister to reduce greenhouse gases by 17% below 2005 levels by 2020. Having heard the mantra (like a broken record) in the House of Commons claiming that 'this government has a sensible regulatory sector by sector approach,' finally someone is telling it like it is -- Canada has no plan to meet its own climate target, having regulated only 2 sectors, with no plan to deal with rising emissions from the oil and gas sector."

The Environment Commissioner also issued a report on the federal plan to address the on-going liability of federal contaminated sites. In 2005, the previous government established a $3.5 billion fund for clean-up of federal toxic sites. In 2005, it was thought there were 8,500 sites, now 22,000 have been identified. Just looking at the earlier identified sites, there is a $500 million short-fall.  Add in the additional 14,000 or so new sites, and it is clear we are falling behind. Instead of providing new funding, there have been funding cuts.

"We cannot ignore environmental liabilities, whether due to the climate crisis or toxic waste sites.  The Harper Conservatives must accept these recommendations, stop pursing the anti-nature agenda of the omnibus budget bill and make a dramatic mid-course correction. Economic health is completely dependent on ecological health,” said May.

Media Contact:
Debra Eindiguer
debrae1@rogers.blackberry.net
C: 613.240.8921

Emphasizes Need to Combat Harper’s Environmental Destruction Master Plan

OTTAWA – Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party and MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands, today gave her full support to the newly established BlackOutSpeakOut Campaign, organized by several leading environment groups.

“The campaign’s observation that ‘Silence is not an option’ couldn’t be more accurate as Canadians face the biggest assault on nature in history,” said May.  “I am proud to support this wonderful and timely initiative to empower Canadians to speak out and save our environment.”

May stated that the timing of the campaign couldn’t be better as the Harper Conservatives push their Bill C-38 Budget Implementation Bill through Parliament, invoking time allocation, undermining committee oversight, and misleading the public on hidden details.

At the same time, Environment Minister Peter Kent has been claiming that environmental groups are “money laundering,” implying that they are disguising the source of money or assets derived from criminal activity.

“This claim by Mr. Kent is misleading in the extreme, designed to alienate Canadians from the very people who are working to protect their environment.  Such unfounded and misleading over-statement is politically cynical, manipulative, and reprehensible,” said May.

“In the same vein, the Harper Conservatives are all set to define ‘national interest’ in line with their oil, gas, and mining master plan – of which Bill C-38 plays an important role.  Thank goodness Canadians are ready to challenge that definition,” May concluded.

Media Contact:
Rebecca Harrison
media@greenparty.ca
613-614-4916

The budget omnibus bill was best described by Terry Glavin the other day as a “statutory juggernaut that introduces, amends or repeals nearly 70 federal laws.” (Ottawa Citizen, May 5, 2012 “Something’s fishy with Bill C-38”).

What Canadians are beginning to realize is that the budget omnibus bill, or Bill C-38, is an outrage.  There is much in the budget that was never hinted at, but there are also claims of what is in the bill that simply are not there.

Aspects never even hinted at in the budget itself include removing over-sight from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and changing entitlement to Employment Insurance (this is still vague but appears to allow refusing EI to anyone if there is any job available, even not in their field).

Nearly half of the budget implementation bill is directed at re-writing Canada’s foundational environmental laws.  The budget never mentioned that the Fisheries Act was to be re-written, gutting habitat protection and restricting federal action in many instances to commercial, recreational and Aboriginal fisheries.  Rumours abounded due to a leaked memo to retired Fisheries scientist Otto Langer, but there was nothing in the budget about it at all.  But C-38 devotes a lot of space to the overhaul of protection of fish habitat.  If a human isn’t catching a fish, there is no protection for its habitat.  There was nothing in the budget about changes to the Species at Risk Act, putting the National Energy Board (NEB) in charge of permitting destruction of endangered species and their habitat found on the proposed route of a pipeline; nor for the supplanting of the NEB as arbiter of pipelines under the Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA). The NWPA is amended such that pipelines are no longer considered an obstruction to navigation – even if they are.

Although it was abundantly clear that a large focus was to be “streamlining” the environmental assessment process, the advanced hype focused on time limits for hearings.  It was nowhere mentioned that the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act was to be repealed.  C-38 wipes out the law and introduces an entirely new approach to environmental assessment.   

With so many new laws and repeal of old laws and complex text, the Conservative ministers speaking in the House in support of C-38 frequently claim the Act will include measures that are simply not there at all, or mis-state how the new laws will operate. 

I have heard members and Cabinet ministers claim the Act adds to environmental protection through increased tanker safety – but that is not in Bill C-38.  I have also heard members and ministers claim that the substitution of a federal environmental review is only allowed if the province has an “equivalent process” or as Parliamentary Secretary Michelle Rempel would have it, only if the provincial review is, “As good or better,”   Whenever opposition members ask about the appalling nature of the omnibus bill, the Conservative talking points include a gratuitous insult, “Perhaps if the Member opposite would actually read the bill...”

I would find it refreshing if any of the Conservatives speaking for the bill had read it.  I went over to one Conservative MP to inquire where he found the equivalency provisions and he pointed to the bill’s summary --  not a legislatively operative section.  True, the summary section claims the processes must be equivalent, but the bill itself falls short of that or any other objective criteria.   The provisions allowing for a provincial government to sign an agreement to substitute the federal environmental review with a provincial review are a strange combination of discretionary and mandatory language. 

Discretionary: “If the Minister is of the opinion that a process for assessing the environmental effects of designated projects that is followed by the government of a province...that has the powers, duties or functions in relation to an assessment of the environmental effects of a designated process would be an appropriate substitute (mandatory) the Minister must, on request of the province approve the substitution.” (Section 32, on page 51 of C-38.)

What would make the minister think it was “appropriate”?  “Appropriate” is not defined.  Maybe Environment Canada is short of cash?  Maybe the province is looking for a major development and wants it rubber-stamped quickly?  There is nothing to rule out an exercise of discretion without any ability to justify it as “equivalent.”  Once the Minister has reached that conclusion and a province requests a substitution, there is a mandatory duty to pass over the federal role to the province.

I am unsure if I have found everything alarming in C-38.  I cannot, for example, figure out why one section of the Fisheries Act is placed more than a hundred pages removed from the rest of the Fisheries Act changes, and I also cannot figure out what the stranded “Fish Allocation for financing purposes” (page 289, section 411 of Fisheries Act) amendments are supposed to do.  It looks like a scheme for selling fish or equipment for financing government activities. But that is pretty bizarre.

I am sure that putting all this in a fast-track budget bill, with time allocation on debate and heading to the Finance Committee, is a direct assault on the principles of Parliamentary Democracy.

The mainstream media is marking its report cards for the one-year anniversary under Harper Conservative majority rule. The bromides are calming—the Globe and Mail editorial gives the Conservative majority a positive spin—“more ups than downs”—while its reporter, John Ibbitson, wrote a piece nearly oozing with reverence for the prime minister.

It is clear we all have our biases. I only entered politics back in 2006 because I feared what a Harper minority government would do to decades of environmental law and policy. I have been very critical of the cuts to climate science, retreat from Kyoto commitments, and sabotage of climate negotiations internationally since 2006. But with that bias out in the open, I believe the last year has been the most devastating in Canadian history for parliamentary democracy, for charter rights, to collective bargaining and trade union rights, for evidence-based public policy, and for environmental law and protection. And, of course, the damage to climate policy was accelerated.

Here’s the evidence:

1. Abuse of democracy: Every piece of government legislation introduced since the election has had time allocation applied to limit debate, smashing through historical records. Parliamentary committees have been meeting increasingly in secret. Omnibus legislation, forcing massive legislative changes through one bill, has been used, further depriving Parliament of adequate time to analyze and improve legislation. The auditor general’s report on the F-35 issue makes it clear that Parliament was not given accurate information about the cost of the fighter jets, even after the true cost was known within cabinet. No need to detail here the simmering scandal of electoral fraud and robocalls.

2. Charter rights: The omnibus crime bill included nine separate pieces of legislation. Many sections involving mandatory minimum sentences arguably violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As well, the new refugee law, C-31, will require political refugee claimants arriving by boat (or anything the minister deems as “irregular entry”) to face automatic internment for up to a year without access to judicial review. This will include children between 16 and 18.

3. Collective bargaining: The intervention by the federal Parliament into Air Canada labour disputes (twice) and Canada Post’s lock-out of its workers undermines labour rights. So, too, does the Conservative party-supported private member’s bill to impose more financial transparency on labour unions than on other professional groupings, such as law societies.

4. Control of information: The Harper majority government has been the most closed and non-transparent in history. The number of people working in the Prime Minister’s Office has expanded, with its now over $10 million per year budget. Most of the PMO staff are described as “information officers”. Their job is to block access to information. No public servants or government scientists can speak to the media without permission; neither can they speak to MPs.

5. Evidence-free decision making: Once again the omnibus crime bill must be mentioned. A “tough on crime” agenda was unhinged from the reality of falling crime rates. No amount of evidence from criminologists that mandatory minimums do not reduce crime rates, nor that it was unwise to pass the bill without estimates for the cost of new prisons, made a dent in the Conservative majority mantra that any opposition MP who objected was siding with criminals and showed no concern for victims. The budgetary cuts are now disproportionately targeting Statistics Canada. Who can deny that the Harper brand of Conservatism is an evidence-free zone?

6. Assault on the natural world: The gloves are off. Harper and company have taken aim at environmental groups and First Nations opposed to the Enbridge supertanker scheme calling them “radicals” and labelling MPs who oppose the project as “against Canada”. While selling out our resources to China, without national security checks, Stephen Harper has promised Beijing the Enbridge project will proceed. In order to achieve this goal, come hell or high water, environmental laws are being eviscerated. And the sweeping changes are concealed in C-38, the budget implementation bill. The National Energy Board will now have jurisdiction over endangered species and navigable waters, if they occur in the way of any proposed pipeline. Meanwhile, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act is repealed (under C-38) with an entirely new approach to replace it. The new law will restrict the study of impacts of major projects to areas “under the legislative authority of Parliament”—confined to fish and migratory birds. Where, in the past, an environmental review at the federal level was the most rigorous and comprehensive, new federal reviews would be a joke by Third World standards. The removal of habitat protection under the Fisheries Act is also part of the budget bill. So too, repealing the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act and the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy Act. Meanwhile, $8 million has been freed up to harass environmental charities.

Canadians must not remain silent. It is not only one area of public policy or one ecosystem that is threatened. Canada, our values and our traditions, are at risk.

Originally published by Straight.com

MP Says Number of Harper Conservative Scandals Intolerable

OTTAWA– Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands, today filed a complaint with Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson, calling for an investigation into conflict of interest allegations relating to the Harper Conservatives. 

“I have reviewed research by Democracy Watch that raises serious questions about whether a breach of ethics rules has occurred regarding meetings between Rahim Jaffer and various representatives of the Conservative government on behalf of various companies in 2009 and 2010,” said May. “The research suggests that the representatives of the Conservative government gave preferential treatment to certain companies and people represented by Mr. Jaffer. This needs to be investigated fully.”

Democracy Watch’s research is available online at: http://www.dwatch.ca/camp/jaffer-documents.pdf.

May’s letter states:  “To have any effect at all on ethical standards in government decision-making processes, which is the purpose of the Act, giving someone an advantage must be interpreted to include making any decision that gives them an advantage, including decisions to communicate with them more directly and with more priority than one communicates with anyone else in a similar position, and granting or arranging meetings with them with more priority than one meets with anyone else in a similar position.”

Jaffer is a former Conservative Member of Parliament, who represented Edmonton-Strathcona until 2008 when he lost the seat to New Democrat Linda Duncan.  He has been the subject of repeated controversies, including a fake radio interview where it was revealed that an aide was impersonating him and special treatment after being charged with drunk driving and possession of cocaine.

“It is evident that Mr. Jaffer was allowed to use government and parliamentary resources and office space for his business activities, which is a breach of ethics,” said May.

Democracy Watch's opinion is that there is clear evidence that gives rise to a reasonable belief that David Pierce, Doug Maley, Brian Jean, Sébastian Togneri, and Helena Guergis provided preferential treatment to people and organizations represented by Rahim Jaffer because these people and organizations were represented by Mr. Jaffer.

"Democracy Watch prepared exhaustive research pointing out multiple breaches of the Conflict of Interest Act by Conservative government representatives and sent it to the Ethics Commissioner in May, 2010, and these breaches should finally be fully investigated by the Ethics Commissioner,” said May. "I am submitting this complaint in part as an attempt to expose and rein in a majority government that seems determined to ignore the established laws, rules, and traditions of our democracy.  The list of scandals is too long to tolerate."

Media Contact:
Rebecca Harrison
media@greenparty.ca
613-614-4916

Mental Health Week spans May 7th through 13th, with the goal of encouraging all Canadians to talk and learn more about mental health issues.

Elizabeth May, Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands and Green Party of Canada Leader, was pleased to attend the Champions of Mental Health Awards this week, at the invitation of the Canadian Medical Association.

“It was wonderful to celebrate these outstanding individuals and organizations who work so hard to raise awareness and generate action on mental illness. I applaud the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health for organizing this annual event,” said May.

The Green Party of Canada subscribes to the World Health Organization’s definition of health as “a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

“The costs of mental illness are incredibly high,” said May. “Family life, school, and employment are all affected. Often there are issues of addiction and physical illness that must also be dealt with.  It is imperative that the government support adequate services for mental health, especially for the young.”

The Green Party promotes a comprehensive approach to mental health including:

• An increase transfer funding for non-institutionalized mental health patients including children and youth to provide adequate community-based support and outpatient and inpatient care by mental health practitioners, including in rural Canada where lack of facilities and trained professionals is acute;
• Support for a public health initiative to reduce the use of psychoactive drugs through better rehabilitation and prevention programs, especially for children;
• Requirements for greater involvement of people dealing with personal mental health problems in research planning, policy development, program evaluation, and other decisions that affect their lives and communities.

Contact:
Debra Eindiguer
media@greenparty.ca
613-240-8921