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Fraud Made Legal Tax havens Glyphosate & Fish CN sprays rail lines Big Dams Drought and disaster Fair Vote Canada

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January | February 2018 watershedsentinel.ca Sentinel January | February 2018 Vol. 28 No. 1 Features

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14 ©Laurent Ribot ©Clark & Kim Kays ©

Tax Havens Alternative Futures Fighting tax fraud by making it legal, and Only by working together and cooperating have human beings become the semi-sapi- more spin from the Trudeau government ent species we are. From food co-ops to a myriad of housing arrangements, from credit on the other Paris agreement. unions to worker-owned enterprises, we see the roots of this cooperation all around us.

Content 3 Canada News 8 Landfill Encore 29 Big Dams Four mines in BC; Yukon’s Peel Another gravel pit, another The disaster of global hydro- Valley plan upheld in court landfill, now in Campbell River electric development 4 Letters 10 World News 32 Necrofauna Missives from our readers The purpose of jellyfish, Costa The science, the ethics Rica’s 300-day record 5 Fish Farms 34 Fair Votes Injunctions against occupiers 11 Right Whales What it might look like in BC Canada takes measures to 6 Glyphosate reduce deaths 36 Wild Times CN sprays rail lines without a Joe Foy on the Site C Scam permit and too close to fish 12 Rainforest waters Leave carbon uncut on Vancou- Cover Credit ver Island Murray Foubister

Printed on Rolland EnviroPrint, 100% post-consumer Process Chlorine Free recycled fibre, FSC, Ecologo and PCF certified. watershedsentinel.ca | 1 Editorial Sentinel Delores Broten Publisher Watershed Sentinel Educational Society Editor Delores Broten Managing Editor Claire Gilmore Graphic Design Ester Strijbos Renewals & Circulation Manager Dawn Christian That Dam Advertising Sally Gellard They are calling it “Black Monday,” the day the BC NDP, as a unanimous caucus, Special thanks to Clara Broten, Valerie Sherriff, Mike turned its back on indigenous rights and on a sustainable future, and approved the Site Morrell, Karen Birch, Patricia Robison, Mary Gavan, Norberto Rodriguez de la Vega, Anicca de Trey, Kathy C dam on the Peace River. We could rail on about the arguments they dismissed – ge- Smail, Ray Woollam, the writers, advertisers, distribu- otechnical, financial, electrical demand forecasts. We are shocked at the rather unbe- tors, and all who send information. lievable advice they chose to follow, despite competing viewpoints of equal or higher Deep thanks to our Board of Directors: Anicca de Trey, merit. But all that has been done. Alice Grange, Mike Morrell, Norberto Rodriguez de la Vega, Susan Yates, Lannie Keller, Sally Gellard, and Carly Palmer. Published five times per year. In a small example that illustrates the lack of credibility, one NDP backgrounder says, Subscriptions: Canada $25 one year, “99% of Class 1-5 agricultural lands (capable of crop production) in the Peace Agri- $40 two years; US $35 per year, cultural Region will not be affected by Site C. Permanent loss of approximately 3,800 Electronic only $15 a year hectares of class 1-5 agricultural lands leaves approximately 2.7 million hectares of Distribution by subscription, and to Friends of Cortes Class 1 to 5 lands available...” Island and Reach for Unbleached! Free at Vancouver Island and Vancouver area libraries, and by sponsor- ship in BC colleges, universities, and eco-organiza- Uh huh. Class 5 land is suitable mostly for pasture or tree farms; Class 1 land – the tions. really good stuff – is in the valley bottom.

Disclaimer: Opinions published are not necessarily those of the publisher, editor or other staff and volunteers of the Numerous theories have been raised by the angry and perplexed voters who expect- magazine. ed more from this government: Death threats? Water exports? Big labour calling the shots? Water for fracking? Energy for LNG exports? The latter two seem most likely. Member Magazines BC and Magazines Canada ISSN 1188-360X Publication Mail Canada Post Agreement Whatever convinced the caucus to acquiesce, with this decision, the NDP has slammed PM 40012720 the door on alternative green energy developments, including those promoted by First Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: Nations, and – importantly – on the new climate-and-war resilient economy such de- Watershed Sentinel velopment would inherently support. Box 1270, Comox, BC, Canada V9M 7Z8 250-339-6117 [email protected] Now the Yellow Stakes raised in the campaign to Keep the Peace are the stakes in the www.watershedsentinel.ca heart of the BC NDP, a party that could not separate its futile dreams of an industrial past from the new uncharted future. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada. The future laps at our doors, and the BC NDP chose to dam it. Delores Broten, Comox, BC, December 2017

When you want your message to reach thousands of concerned and active At the ’Shed readers, please contact us for our ad rate Do we look different? This issue we are using a printing process with UV dried ink, sheet: 250-339-6117 or which should give a crisper look and is less toxic. [email protected] Attention Subscribers! The insert in the magazine is to attract new subscribers. You www.watershedsentinel.ca do not need to use it to renew your subscription. When the time comes, you will receive a friendly notice offering you an early bird discount for your renewal. Next Issue Ad and Copy Deadline: to the generous folks who have been sending in donations – you are February 2, 2018 Big Thank You helping sustain the Sentinel, as well as warming our hearts! Big thanks also to those who get and distribute a bundle – we get lots of new subscribers from folks who find the Watershed Sentinel at the doctor’s office or local coffee shop. You are helping a lot.

2 | watershedsentinel.ca Canadian News

Heiltsuk heroes (take II) Peel victory Mines in BC Spill Response Yukon Land Use Digging In Just two weeks before a loaded fuel barge In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Approved: The Murray River metallur- broke free from its tug off the coast of Court of Canada has overturned a Yukon gical coal mine in central BC, in habitat Bella Bella (Heiltsuk waters) on Nov. 26, Appeals Court ruling that rolled back of the threatened Central Group of south- 2017, the Heiltsuk nation released initial years of land-use planning for the Peel ern mountain caribou. The feds said they plans calling for an Indigenous Marine watershed region in north Yukon, a vast would work with First Nations to stabi- Response Centre (IMRC). The proposal expanse of sub-Arctic wilderness. The lize the herds. is in response to the spill of over 100,000 Supreme Court ordered the Yukon gov- litres of diesel by the Nathan E. Stewart ernment to consider a final recommenda- Rejected (unofficially, by EA): The tug barge in Seaforth Channel in October tion proposed in 2011 by an independent Ajax copper/gold mine near Kamloops 2016, and the lack of “world-class spill commission. It would protect about 80 and in sacred traditional territory. The response” promised by the Liberal gov- per cent of the area from development. mine had been assessed by the Stk’em- ernment. The Heiltsuk were instrumental The Yukon government, in 2012, sought lúpsemc te Secwépemc Nation and op- in responding quickly to both crises. to discard that plan in favour of its own, posed by the city of Kamloops. Its final which would protect just 30 per cent of fate will be decided in federal cabinet. The IMRC would be located in Heiltsuk the area. territory where the majority of incidents on the central coast occur, be staffed by The ruling ends a five-year legal battle trained crew familiar with the local ma- between the Yukon government and a rine environment and equipped with ves- group of First Nations and environmental sels and equipment expressly designed groups. ©Gord McKenna for central coast conditions, and would —www.cbc.ca, respond to 100 per cent of incidents in the December 1, 2017 area in five hours or less. —www.heiltsuknation.ca, November 27, 2017 Fish farm boost Dismissed: Two judicial reviews brought by Taseko Mines against federal rejection Millions of the New Prosperity mine at Fish Lake Highway robbery (Teztan Biny). Taseko had challenged the The federal government is supporting the constitutionality of the Canadian Envi- Expired Permits market development of Canada’s aqua- ronmental Assessment Act, 2012. The culture industry with an investment of Federal Court ordered court costs to be Nestlé has extracted one billion li- $2.48 million. The investment will sup- repaid to the Tsilhqot’in. tres of water from their Aberfoyle well port the Canadian Aquaculture Industry since their Permit to Take Water, which Alliance (CAIA) as it works to increase Egg nog consultation: A proposed allowed extraction of up to 3.6 million li- awareness and demand for Canadian amendment for Mt. Milligan copper/ tres a day, expired on July 31, 2016. The farmed fish and seafood in the US, Asia gold mine north of Prince George would Council of Canadians and Wellington and Europe. CAIA’s executive director allow for extraction of 1.8 million cubic Water Watchers are demanding that the stated, “this program continues to help metres of water per year for 2 years from Ontario government phase out permits our industry to establish new and long- Esker and Philips Lakes, for use in tail- for single-serving, disposable bottled wa- term global demand for Canadian farmed ings ponds. Public consultation runs from ter products and deny all applications for seafood products like salmon, mussels, December 27, 2017 to January 10, 2018. any new permits from bottled water com- oysters and more.” —Canadian Environmental Assessment panies indefinitely. —www.foodincanada.com, Agency, BC Environmental Assessment —www.canadians.org, November 22, 2017 Office, December 2017 November 27, 2017

watershedsentinel.ca | 3 Letters

Duplicitous Sh*** Small but Mighty be able to read it. With all my respect... (In response to a query about where the Stewarts have got the message–Thank this amazing magazine is to be read. The geotechnical reports on Site C might be you kindly for a great little but super po- yellow and white and orange is almost found) tent magazine–Our renewal will soon be impossible to read. It would be very nice in the mail. to have all these reports and all the maga- They probably don’t exist. Although, ya —Keiko and Allen Stewart, zine readable. Love your magazine. Lots never know... Tinkerbell might exist... Hagensborg, BC of greetings. Snow White and all seven little f****rs —Mexi might exist... it’s hard to know what does Cyberspace and does not exist... “I think therefore I am” or something... ya know... if we can Beyond Banksters and Site C IMAGINE a thing then maybe it exists in Dear Michelle [Mungall, BC Minister of some form somewhere... it’s all very zen, Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resourc- isn’t it... es],

Judith Sayers has written an excellent Thank you for your heartfelt reply about piece [https://fnbc.info/blogs/judith-say- the NDP decision to go ahead with Site ers/black-black-monday-and-bad-day- C. I believe your government is making a mother-earth] about this arse-licking bit grave error with this decision, and I tru- of duplicitous shyte … I assure you it, un- ly hope that some way it can be changed. ©Bunches and Bits like these geotechnical reports which are Have you read Beyond Banksters by in question, it does exist...as does Judith Joyce Nelson? I believe it explains the Editors’ note: We, too, (along with a herself... she is a hera. real reason why your government has handful of subscribers) noticed the print made this decision. I wish politicians job on the Nov/Dec issue was not up to I voted CCF until they became NDP, then would be more honest in talking about snuff. We sent out an email to all our sub- I voted NDP even though there were a how they are pressured from behind the scribers to give them access to the (crisp, couple of times I had to hold my nose, scenes to make decisions that so neg- clear) digital version, did some sleuthing however, this perfidious shyte has shifted atively affect the health of our land and with a magnifying glass, and discovered my focus and I’m quite sure come the next our people. that the printers made a mistake with the election I’ll vote Green... not because I’m —Eleanor Wright paper they used. They assure us they’ve impressed by their ideas around economy Lillooet, BC taken steps to ensure that it won’t happen and finance, because I’m not and they again. The silver lining to this mini-fiasco need to wake up, but as a protest. is that they’re letting us try out lower-en- ergy-footprint, solvent-free UV printing Geotechnical reports? “We don’ need no Fetch the Microscope! technology – which is also supposed to steeenkin geotechnical reports”... Hallo, hallo: The reason to have Water- result in a better print job – for free on our DANG, eh? shed [Sentinel] is to read and learn about January issue. Who’d’a thunk it? all your very interesting reports. Page 33 —Anne Cameron about Site C Final Report + Disruptive Tahsis, BC Factors – I had to fetch a microscope to

The Watershed Sentinel welcomes letters but reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, legality, and taste. Anonymous letters will not be published. Send your musings and your missives to: Watershed Sentinel, Box 1270, Comox BC, V9M 7Z8 [email protected] or online at www.watershedsentinel.ca

4 | watershedsentinel.ca Fish Farms

Injunctions granted against Indigenous salmon defenders

by Claire Gilmore

T’isn’t the easiest season for the fish wisdom of such policies.” He cited nu- that the farms’ licenses of occupation are farm activists on our coast. merous reasons for the decision includ- set to expire in June 2018 – giving the ing Marine Harvest’s stated safety con- companies a strong case for renewal of On December 22, 2017, the BC Supreme cerns for both the occupiers and fish farm those licenses. Court granted injunctions to Marine Har- staff, and alleged intimidation of staff, but vest and Cermaq, requiring wild salmon eventually came around to “Interference Meanwhile, First Nations leaders and defenders to vacate fish farm sites at Bur- with the Plaintiff’s Operations” – Marine defenders on-the-ground continue to act, dwood, Sir Edmund and Cypress (Cer- Harvest’s concerns over its ability to re- and have made it clear that they will not maq), and Midsummer Island (Marine stock the pens with smolts in a timely give up in their defense of wild salmon as Harvest). manner – “Such restocking is essential to long as open-net pen fish farms continue the business of the Plaintiff.” to operate in their territories. The decision follows four months of direct actions by members of the Mus- Such restocking would also have the pens gamagw Dzawada’enuxw, ‘Namgis, and loaded with still-growing fish at the time Mamalilikulla nations and others aimed at removing open-net pen salmon farms from their traditional territories. Actions have included the occupation/monitoring of fish farm sites, delivering of eviction notices from the nations to the fish farm On December 18 the BC government announced companies, occupations of government they are bringing an offices, solidarity rallies, and a Wild immediate end to the Salmon Matriarch Camp, which began hunting of grizzly bears on October 13 and is currently in front of throughout the province. John Horgan’s office in Victoria. The spring hunt was to open on April 1, 2018, The injunctions highlight the incapacity but the ban on hunting of our legal system to handle indigenous for resident and non- rights issues, particularly around inter- resident hunters takes effect immediately. First pretations of “trespassing.” In his Rea- Nations will still be able sons for Judgment for the Marine Harvest to harvest grizzly bears decision, the judge who granted the in- pursuant to Aboriginal junctions against wild salmon defenders rights for food, social, or Molina Dawson, Karissa Glendale and ceremonial purposes, or unnamed others stated, “These cases treaty rights. are often the product of government de- cisions and government policy. It is not the role of courts, generally speaking, to examine or involve themselves in the ©marneejill

watershedsentinel.ca | 5 Glyphosate & Fish

CN has been spraying BC rail lines without a permit ©Yvonne Collins ©Yvonne ©Luanne Roth

BEFORE: Green and Lush AFTER: Dead and Toxic

The rail line, seen here (left) just before spraying began, is located within habitat for grizzly bears and other wildlife. by Erica Stahl

Wild salmon just can’t seem to catch a Prince Rupert. The Skeena is the second Luanne asked the Province to investigate, break right now. From bloodwater from largest salmon river in Canada and pro- and she hired an independent environ- farmed fish plants to the anti-spawning vides rich habitat for many iconic species. mental consultant to analyze the sprayed mats Kinder Morgan placed along its Since the herbicide spraying, a ribbon of area. Her environmental consultant found proposed pipeline route, wild salmon dead vegetation follows the rail line on evidence of glyphosate on plants directly in British Columbia are facing threats both sides, all the way along the river. overhanging salmon habitat. BC’s Pest from human interference at every Management Regulation states that gen- point in their life cycle. We can now Luanne Roth, the T. Buck Suzuki En- erally, a two to five metre pesticide-free add exposure to glyphosate to the list. vironmental Foundation’s energy cam- zone must be maintained when spraying paigner for the north coast, was appalled glyphosate close to a fish-bearing river or Between July and October 2017, CN Rail when she saw the effects of the spraying. stream. contracted a company to spray herbicide The line of dead vegetation went right to containing the chemical glyphosate along the water, despite the fact that there are Glyphosate is an active ingredient in the 100-kilometre stretch of track that supposed to be no-spray buffers to pro- many commercial herbicides, including follows the Skeena River from Terrace to tect fish-bearing streams and rivers. Roundup. It is an extremely potent and

6 | watershedsentinel.ca indiscriminate agent – it will damage or the course of this work, and there were Some of the places identified in the Pro- kill any plant it comes into contact with, numerous other instances of non-compli- vincial report as having been sprayed unless that plant has been genetically ance on the part of the contractor. without a PMP were Fort Nelson, Fort modified to withstand glyphosate -appli St. John, Dawson Creek, Prince George, cation. Nechako, Bulkley, Telkwa, Skeena, and Lillooet. If CN rail lines or rail yards While there are conflicting opinions from were sprayed with herbicides in your area credible scientific sources about the ef- after May 2017, it is likely that the spray- fects of glyphosate exposure on humans ing was illegal. and the environment, it is certainly a sit- uation where the precautionary principle Luanne received support from West Coast should apply: glyphosate is listed as a Enviornmental Law’s Environmental carcinogen in the state of California, a Dispute Resolution Fund (EDRF) to look probable carcinogen by the International into options for legal action against un- Agency for Research on Cancer, and the permitted activities on the CN rail line. If European Union, while not viewing it as you think herbicides were applied illegal- a carcinogen, recognizes it as toxic to ly in your area after May 3rd, 2017, you aquatic life. The Province of BC has rec- can contact Luanne or the EDRF to learn ognized that glyphosates are highly toxic more about your options: to amphibians. • Luanne Roth, North Coast Energy Cam- paigner, T. Buck Suzuki Environmental One aquatic toxicology specialist, com- Foundation, [email protected] menting on CN’s spraying, noted that 250-621-4201 or 778-884-5888 (cell) with exposure to glyphosate “fish could • Erica Stahl, EDRF Liaison Lawyer,

experience changes to their ability to Roth Luanne © smell, micro and macroscopic changes West Coast Environmental Law to their tissues and possible mutations to The line of dead [email protected] their blood.” 604-684-7378 (or toll-free at 1-800-330- vegetation went right to 9235) As if this weren’t bad enough, CN did not the water, despite the fact have legal authority to spray herbicides while this work was done. The company that there are supposed Erica Stahl is a lawyer with West Coast used to have a legally-required Pest Man- to be no-spray buffers Environmental Law and this piece was agement Plan (PMP), but it expired on originally published on the blog at www. May 3rd, 2017 and CN did not renew it. to protect fish-bearing wcel.org/law-alert-blog streams and rivers. Pest Management Plans as a form of reg- ulation are rather weaker than we’d like – the provincial government generally does But here’s the real kicker. The Pest Man- not even review them. Nonetheless, with- agement Plan that CN Rail allowed to out a PMP, CN is only allowed to spray expire, the one that would have permit- 20 hectares of its railway infrastructure ted the spraying of herbicide along the with herbicides. Prince Rupert-Terrace rail line, was for the entire province. The Provincial inves- The provincial investigations begun as a tigation revealed that spraying on CN rail result of Luanne’s complaint found that lines has been taking place all around the over 1800 hectares of CN Rail’s right- province this summer, after CN’s PMP of-way were sprayed with herbicides in had expired.

watershedsentinel.ca | 7 Landfill Déja Vu

Campbell River gravel pit applies to hold toxic wastes

The final elevation of the proposed land- Application Review fill is above Rico Lake and McIvor lakes. Proposed ditches and swales rated for a 1-in-100-year rainfall will not handle Campbell River’s precipitation, which BC Hydro identified as having two 1-in- 150-year rain events in November 2016.

Upland’s site sits over a large sand and gravel high-vulnerability class IIA aqui- fer, with west groundwater drainage to Rico Lake and east groundwater drain- age to Quinsam River and to Cold Creek, which feeds the DFO Quinsam River Fish Hatchery.

Although background sediment sampling Google Earth should be a basic application require- ment, no sediment sampling in Rico Lake Ask Minister of Environment George or McIvor Lake has been required for Heyman to protect BC’s drinking water comparison in future years. Also, sam- at www.crecweb.com/reports by Leona Adams pling in small creeks to the east has not been required. Campbell River’s drinking water and salmon habitat may be at risk from a Leachate could exceed Contaminated gravel-pit-turned-landfill, owned by Certificate to upgrade their site to a land- Sites Regulations. Sulphate, chloride and Upland Excavating Ltd. (Upland). The fill and to store contaminated soil as well manganese are identified as untreatable. Campbell River Environmental Commit- as demolition waste which can be con- Parameters are proposed to meet drink- tee (CREC) is ringing alarm bells about taminated (including with hydrocarbons). ing water CSR guidelines, but not the BC the recent, possibly unpermitted, The application is similar to the one for aquatic guidelines. dumping of toxic creosoted timbers the Operational Certificate at Shawnigan and medical waste there. CREC is also Lake landfill that MOE gave and finally The response from the MOE points out concerned about plans to use the site, cancelled due to contaminants leaving the that under the Regional District Waste which sits next to the community’s site, causing a do-not-use-water advisory. Plan, Upland is required to upgrade to drinking water supply, for long-term satisfy current ministry guidelines, in- storage of potentially contaminated The proposed landfill is located at 7295 cluding upgrading to an engineered lined construction and demolition waste and Gold River Highway, Campbell Riv- landfill with leachate collection and treat- contaminated soils. er, BC. It is adjacent to Rico Lake to ment. That is correct, but the upgrade the west, which drains to McIvor Lake, should not increase the quantity of waste Upland has applied to the Ministry of Campbell River’s drinking water supply, from 3,200 cubic metres a year to 25,000 Environment (MOE) for an Operational during the rainy season. cubic metres a year, nor from inert waste

8 | watershedsentinel.ca Once the timbers were removed from the dam they were stockpiled and then moved to a disposal site to waste that may be contaminated and to contaminated soil, as Upland’s applica- Salmon River tion proposes. Liners have been known to Diversion Dam fail. A 2001 Environment Canada publi- cation stated: “It is now accepted that all landfills will eventually release leachate to the surrounding environment….”

Engineer and expert hydrogeologist Dr. Gilles Wendling finds that critical data is missing from the reports from Up- land’s consultant, GHD. Upland’s own third-party hydrologist agrees with Dr. Wendling that more investigation is need- ed to the west and east of the site Rico Lake and Campbell River’s water supply are still at risk.

Creosote and medical waste

In August 2017, Upland deposited con- taminated coal-tar creosoted timbers from the decommissioning of BC Hy- dro’s Salmon River Dam into the upper level of their site. en the date the timbers were installed, ly, it looks like we may be wrong. I fear there would be 40 years worth of creosote we still have to fight for the protection When CREC notified the MOE of this left in the timbers to continue to leach. of our drinking water and salmon habitat non-compliance, we were informed that The MOE accepted Upland’s consultant’s and that the MOE will approve Upland’s similar waste has been allowed at Up- testing of the creosoted timbers to be sig- application, even though told by two out land’s site regardless of Upland’s exist- nificantly below acceptable standards. of three hydrogeologists that more inves- ing permit that waste must be inert and tigation is needed. also only deposited in the centre of their The MOE compliance team inspected gravel pit. (We were also told that similar Upland’s site and labelled the deposit of This is a good example where the pro- sites in BC have been allowed to deposit the creosoted timbers “compliance to be fessional reliance model has failed, and similar waste – so if you have a private determined.” While the inspector was continues to fail. Errors have been found landfill in your community you may wish there, the deposit of medical waste was in the Uplands and GHD application pro- to check it out.) observed and even though a picture in the cess, not by MOE, but rather by CREC. Compliance Inspection Report showed Risks to the only source of drinking water CREC was then informed by the Min- medical waste with needles, MOE com- for Campbell River are real, and if fears ister’s office that “inert” meant that the pliance called it “possible medical waste” prove true, there is no mitigation. waste will not leach to any significant ex- with “compliance to be determined.” tent. However, it was reported in the local paper that workmen became ill when re- Professional reliance Leona Adams was born in Campbell Riv- moving those timbers. er, BC. She has been the president of the When we had a change of government Campbell River Environmental Commit- BC Hydro tested the pools of contamina- in BC, we thought nothing like the tee since 2011 and was awarded the City tion, seen in a decommissioning picture, Shawnigan Lake landfill’s risk to our Stewardship for Environmental Excel- to be hydrocarbons (creosote). Also, giv- drinking water would happen again. Sad- lence award in 2013.Sal

watershedsentinel.ca | 9 International News

Fossil-free Mine blocked Cautious optimism? 300-Day Record Brazil Mining Watch Costa Rica’s electricity was produced In a powerful victory for indigenous Ottawa plans to create an indepen- entirely using renewable energy for 300 rights in Brazil, Toronto-based company dent office to oversee Canadian mining, days beginning January 1, 2017. The na- Belo Sun Mining has had its license to oil and gas companies’ activities abroad. tion currently generates more than 99 per drill revoked by a federal court, dealing Nearly two-thirds of the world’s public cent of its electricity using five different a significant setback to its proposed “Vol- mining companies are listed in Canada. renewable sources; hydropower (78%), ta Grande” gold mine planned along the Canadian mining and exploration compa- wind (10%), geothermal energy (10%), Xingu River. The court cited Belo Sun’s nies were present in 102 foreign countries biomass and solar (1%). In 2015 Costa failure to uphold the right of local indig- in 2015, and many are alleged to have Rica went 299 days using only renew- enous communities to prior consultation been involved in human rights abuses in ables. on the project’s social and environmental the countries where they operate. —www.independent.co.uk impacts, which would compound the de- —www.reuters.com November 22, 2017 struction already wrought by the adjacent December 12, 2017 Belo Monte hydroelectric dam. A new licensing process will not be considered until Belo Sun has undertaken an “Indig- Farmer-to-farmer enous Component Study” to measure the The Purpose of Jellyfish project’s impacts. —www.amazonwatch.org Seed Sharing December 11, 2017 Fish Food The Center for Food Safety has launched Squid, sole, dogfish, herring and cod the Global Seed Network – a nonpro­ all feed on baby jellyfish – according to fit peer-to-peer seed sharing platform to new research from the University of East connect people around the world who are Glitter ban Anglia and the Centre for Environment, preserving, protecting, and regenerating Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Ce- the global seed supply. The online com- For Cleaner Seas fas). munity is an innovative take on the social network: members create a profile and A group of nurseries in southern En- Until now there has been little known share rare and heirloom seeds as well as gland has banned the use of glitter among about the role of jellyfish in food webs. information via an online forum. The site, its 2,500 children to reduce the amount of Predators are hard to identify because globalseednetwork.org, is now open for microplastics entering the seas. jellyfish are digested very quickly, but registration from new users. researchers were able to detect jellyfish Alice Horton, research associate at the which had been highly digested by study- The US alone has lost 93% of its fruit UK’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, ing tiny fragments of DNA present in fish and vegetable seed diversity in the last 80 told the Guardian, “Glitter is absolutely gut samples. years. Five companies – Monsanto, Dow, a microplastic and has the same potential Bayer, DuPont, and Syngenta – now own to cause harm as any other microplastic The team found jellyfish DNA in nine more than 60% of the global commercial [including microbeads, the subject of a of the 50 potential predators investigat- seed supply. This corporate control of government ban in the UK]…. one nurs- ed – in whiting, herring, dragonet, Dover seed has decreased diversity and led to ery banning it is … not going to change sole, dab, squid, sprat, poor cod, and less- worldwide seed price increases, threaten- the world but [it] sets a target for others.” er-spotted dogfish. Looking at the jelly- ing rural livelihoods and driving millions —www.theguardian.com fish life-cycle, the team suggested that of farmers out of business. November 17, 2017 the majority of jellyfish eaten would have —www.centerforfoodsafety.org been juvenile. April 25, 2017 —www.uea.ac.uk November 29, 2017

10 | watershedsentinel.ca Right Whales

Taking measures to reduce whale deaths

by Susan MacVittie

ping lanes and fishing grounds in the Gulf of St Lawrence. After the death of an eighth right whale in July, Fisheries and Oceans closed the snow crab fishery in part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence to try to keep whales from getting tangled up in fishing ropes.

The managing director of the Snow Crab Fishermen’s Asso-

©Oregon University State ciation from southeastern Cape Breton, Nova Scotia said he and other fishermen are already looking at ways to reduce the amount of slack rope attached to traps during the April-to-Au- gust snow crab season.

Minister LeBlanc said that the government will work with part- ners on the specific proposals discussed at the meeting, such as: Since June 2017, twelve North Atlantic right whales have • adjusting existing fishing gear immediately, died in Canadian waters plus another four in American wa- • testing new gear technologies that would reduce the amount ters. Many of the whale deaths have been attributed to ves- of rope in the water, sel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. • putting measures in place to reduce lost fishing gear, • adjusting fishing seasons to avoid periods when right On November 8, 2017 the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and whales congregate, the Canadian Coast Guard, Dominic LeBlanc, met with repre- • enhancing whale sighting and detection information and sentatives from fishing organizations, marine transportation in- timely sharing among partners and industry, dustries, and other stakeholders, to discuss concrete actions to • including temporary speed restrictions in target areas and better protect North American right whales. The meeting was adjustments to shipping lanes based on accurate and timely held in Moncton, New Brunswick and echoed concerns raised whale sightings information, at the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium’s annual meeting • ordering boats to give right whales a 100-metre buffer zone, in Halifax in October. and • improving collaboration and coordination across all sectors. Presenters said urgent action is needed for the 450 right whales still alive as of 2016, according to the latest population estimate, In August, Transport Canada imposed a temporary mandatory which does not include this year’s losses. speed limit for the Gulf of St. Lawrence of ten knots on vessels of twenty metres or more, and fines were given to vessels who The North Atlantic right whale is listed as an endangered spe- did not comply. Coastal communities, such as Gaspé, Quebec, cies under the Species at Risk Act and is migratory. Collisions saw cruise ships cancel their visits due to the slower speeds af- with vessels, entanglement in fishing gear and underwater noise fecting their scheduling. are the most serious threats to the right whale population. A re- covery strategy has been developed and the right whale is pro- Researchers say the whales will return to the Gulf as early as tected by various acts and regulations. May 2018.

Right whales come to Atlantic Canadian waters to feed on rich Susan MacVittie is the Watershed Sentinel’s east coast corre- supplies of their prey, which often happen to be in busy ship- spondent based in Prince Edward Island. watershedsentinel.ca | 11 Rainforest Island?

Pacific Northwest forests are unharvestable carbon ©Jens Wieting

by Jens Wieting

Time is running out for Vancouver Island’s globally rare en- of the logging of remaining old growth rainforest on public and dangered old growth rainforest. The new BC government private lands on Vancouver Island. must act quickly for the rainforest, communities and the cli- mate, before it’s too late. The average annual amount of old growth logged between 2005 and 2015 was close to 9,000 hectares (equivalent to about 22 For millennia most of Vancouver Island was covered by old Stanley Parks). However, this annual amount jumped in 2016 growth trees, many more than 1,000 years old. Indigenous peo- to 10,700 hectares (equivalent to more than 26 Stanley Parks). ples lived with and used the rainforest without destroying it. This number is more than 10 per cent higher than the annual Now, after a century of large scale logging, the majority of these average in the 10-year period 2005–2015. old growth rainforest ecosystems and more than 90 per cent of the biggest trees have been logged. The destruction of coastal old growth is even more concerning in light of the fact that forests in other parts of the province are Instead of phasing out old growth logging, right now the pace increasingly hit by wildfires driven by human-caused climate of destruction is speeding up. This was revealed recently in a change. In British Columbia alone over one million hectares Sierra Club BC review of government data and satellite images of forests burned in 2017 – the highest number since records

12 | watershedsentinel.ca began. This resulted in skyrocketing provincial greenhouse gas emissions compared to average years in the past. “Tropical countries lost 10 per cent of One of the most important recommendations of climate scien- their primary forests between 1990 and tists is that the vast majority of fossil fuel reserves must be left 2015. On Vancouver Island, old growth untouched as “unburnable” carbon. forest declined by 30 per cent.” The same must apply to carbon-rich forest and other natural ecosystems. There is now no remaining pathway to saving our climate without swift, strategic action to reduce carbon emis- Sierra Club BC has estimated the impact of one year’s worth sions related to land use. This means that just like we have to set of old growth logging on our climate. In our 2013 report Car- aside large fossil fuel reserves as unburnable carbon, we have to bon at Risk, we found that one year of old growth logging on map and protect the world’s remaining carbon-rich old growth Vancouver Island alone essentially eliminated BC’s progress in forests – such as the globally rare temperate rainforest ecosys- reducing carbon emissions that year, releasing approximately 3 tems in the Pacific Northwest – as “unharvestable” carbon. million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and nulli- fying the province’s progress in reducing annual emissions. Here’s why this is so important: so far, these forests have been relatively resilient to climate impacts like fires and pests. BC’s endangered old growth forests are one of our province’s They’ve been a much safer carbon sink compared to other for- best tools for fighting climate change. ests. BC’s old growth coastal rainforests can store 1,000 tonnes of carbon per hectare, one of the highest rates on earth. They’re The Great Bear Rainforest Agreements show that solutions are like a carbon bank, accumulating carbon in soil, trees and organ- possible. The agreements met science-based conservation lev- ic matter over millennia. Reducing emissions by avoiding log- els, strengthened First Nations’ rights, enabled conservation ging of this old growth has immediate benefits for the climate. financing and forest carbon credit projects, and gave forestry companies certainty for logging under stringent standards. The Shockingly, about half of the carbon stored in these ecosystems reduced rate of logging is resulting in 600,000 tonnes of carbon is released in clearcut logging. Carbon is released from large emission reductions annually, benefitting the region’s First Na- amounts of waste wood left behind and exposed soils. This is tions with revenue from carbon credits. often combined with slash burning, an egregious practice that releases millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases annually and New protected areas and conservation measures for Vancouver must be phased out quickly. It can take centuries until the bio- Island must respect First Nations’ rights and interests, enable mass reaches previous levels. This is time we don’t have. a transition to sustainable second-growth forestry, reduce car- bon emissions, and support diverse economic activities such as Contrary to industry claims, more and more research shows that tourism. The Ahousaht Nation in Clayoquot Sound is leading old trees store more carbon per year than young trees. A recent the way in demonstrating alternatives. Their land use vision in- study found that the older a tree is, the better it absorbs car- cludes an end to industrial logging in their territory. bon from the atmosphere, with almost 70 per cent of the carbon stored in trees accumulated in the last half of their lives. The Sierra Club BC stands ready to work with the new BC govern- new findings suggest that old trees store more carbon in propor- ment, First Nations, the forestry sector and other environmental tion to their size. organizations to increase protection of endangered old growth rainforest as a key part of our response to global warming. This And yet the destruction of Vancouver Island’s original old summer’s wildfires and hurricanes are a stark reminder that the growth rainforest is occurring three times faster than primary time to act is now. Please visit www.rainforestisland.ca and join forest loss in tropical rainforests. According to the UN Food and our call for action. Agriculture Organization, tropical countries lost 10 per cent of their primary forests between 1990 and 2015. On Vancouver Is- Jens Wieting is the forest and climate campaigner for Sierra land, old growth forest declined by 30 per cent over the same Club BC time period.

watershedsentinel.ca | 13 Tax Havens

Making tax fraud legal and the other Paris agreement ©Laurent Ribot ©Laurent

by Joyce Nelson

It’s not clear whether the Bill Morneau/ This brouhaha all started on July 18 when owners don’t have the “huge” salaries Tax Revolt saga that roiled the media the Trudeau government announced plans and pensions enjoyed by civil servants to and Parliament throughout the last half to close three tax loopholes available to rely on for retirement. On September 5, of 2017 will continue in 2018, but it small business owners who incorporate the CFIB delivered a petition to Ottawa looks likely. their businesses as personal corporations, with nearly 14,700 signatures. called Canadian-Controlled Private Cor- By mid-December pundits and politicians porations (CCPCs) – affecting quite a Interestingly, it was later revealed that were calling for the Finance Minister to few upper middle-class professionals, the Canadian Federation of Independent resign over conflict of interest charges from doctors, lawyers, and accountants Business is a client of Morneau Shepell. connected with his shares in Morneau to farmers and owners of small business- Shepell (his pension management com- es. They were not about to take this lying There’ve been some funny moments in pany). Moreover, the Canadian Federa- down. all the heated rhetoric, especially on Sep- tion of Independent Business (CFIB) was tember 19 when Trudeau faced questions complaining about the lack of clarity in The CFIB took up their cause and put its about his own finances since he became tax changes to be introduced in January. own spin on things, arguing that business party leader. He said, “I no longer have

14 | watershedsentinel.ca dealings with the way our family fortune Most tax experts agree that some of the ister of health) announced that this puts is managed,” which prompted Conserva- biggest users of offshore tax havens are Canada “at the forefront of global action tive MP Lisa Raitt to tweet: “Here’s a tip banks and the financial sector in gener- to improve international tax rules, and – if you want to be seen as a man of the al, along with multinational corporations work towards a more fair and transparent people try not to refer to your assets as engaged in resource extraction: forestry, tax system.” ‘my family fortune’.” mining, as well as the oil and gas sectors. There’s only one problem (or sever- Behind all the sound and fury, something al). According to tax experts, the BEPS else has been going on. In order to see it, “Canadians for Tax Fairness Agreement has major weaknesses and we have to look at the timeline of events. enough loopholes to drive a fleet of Fer- And that leads to what I call “the other estimates that between $10 raris through. As well, the BEPS Agree- Paris agreement” – not the 2015 Paris billion and $15 billion per ment doesn’t affect Canada’s Tax Infor- Agreement on Climate Change but an- year in Canadian taxes goes mation Exchange Agreements (TIEAs), other Paris agreement, one few Canadi- uncollected due to tax havens. which were introduced and signed by the ans have heard about. Harper government and (as we shall see) This amount would be are unique, to say the least. Paris again enough to fund Pharmacare, universal childcare, free The OECD’s tax policy director had al- On June 7, 2017, a representative for ready acknowledged in 2016 that Cana- Morneau’s Finance Department, Ginette university tuition, and da’s TIEAs had caused a massive uptick Petitpas Taylor (at the time, the parlia- infrastructure improvements in Canadian money flowing into tax ha- mentary secretary to the finance minister) in First Nations communities vens, and he told the CBC that “we are went to Paris for a mass-signing ceremo- dealing with” the issue in negotiations. ny. Along with representatives from 66 all at the same time.” But apparently, nothing was changed. other countries, she was there to formally adopt something called the Multilater- These havens are a huge issue, especially Before the BEPS Agreement was formal- al Convention to Implement Tax Treaty for Canada. A tiny NGO called Canadi- ly signed, an independent organization Related Measures to Prevent Base Ero- ans for Tax Fairness, led by the intrepid called the BEPS Monitoring Group is- sion and Profit Shifting. This is usually Dennis Howlett, says that multinational sued a statement saying that the Agree- referred to as the BEPS Agreement or the corporations and the wealthiest Canadi- ment “fell short of providing a compre- BEPS Initiative. ans are sending well over $250 billion per hensive and cohesive approach to reform year to offshore havens to avoid paying of international tax laws.” Don’t let the boring name fool you. The taxes on it in Canada. BEPS Agreement is being touted as the While most corporate media outlets in first coordinated, international attempt to When the Panama Papers were leaked in Canada simply ignored the BEPS Agree- crack down on the trillions of dollars in April 2016 as anger about tax unfairness ment signing ceremony of June 7, the To- corporate profits stashed away in offshore was rising worldwide, Bill Morneau told ronto Star (to its credit) published a crit- tax havens. As the official title indicates, the press that Canada would become “a ical article on June 8. Written by Marco governments across the planet have seen really strong voice” on the offshore tax Chown Oved, the article pointed out that their tax base steadily eroded by multina- haven issue, while PM Trudeau said, “It’s Canada leads the world in the number of tional corporations shifting their profits certainly something we will be working tax treaties and agreements that allow into tax havens. Drafted by the G20 and on together as a community of nations” – multinational corporations to escape the the OECD (Organization for Econom- apparently a reference to the forthcoming taxman. Oved interviewed tax authorities ic Cooperation and Development), the BEPS Agreement. who said the BEPS Agreement is vaguely BEPS Agreement is the result of several worded and has so many loopholes that years of consultations (which are still on- In signing the Agreement on June 7, 2017, nothing much will change, especially for going, despite the formal signing). Ginette Petitpas Taylor (now federal min- Canada. Continued on Page 16 

watershedsentinel.ca | 15 Tax Havens continued

Apparently, the so-called “community of by the OECD) by adding “a provision of income tax? Six weeks after the BEPS nations” has come up with a tepid agree- its own” through “section 5907 (11) of Agreement was signed on June 7, Mor- ment. Canada’s Income Tax Regulations.” neau’s Finance Department released the plan to remove those three tax loopholes Even more important, Canada has gamed Deneault noted that this “new loophole” benefitting incorporated professionals – the system in favour of corporate tax created by a tax code change was en- sparking outrage throughout the summer cheats. dorsed by a 2008 federal advisory panel and autumn. which “included an ex-chairman of the Those TIEAs board of the Royal Bank of Canada and Driving the narrative an ex-CEO of SNC Lavalin Group, a The Watershed Sentinel (November-De- retired Scotiabank executive who was a Before Morneau’s alleged conflicts of in- cember 2011) was one of the first Cana- director of Barrick Gold and Rogers, an terest became an issue in mid-October, the dian media outlets to blow the whistle on international tax expert from Pricewater- pundits had a field day. For example,The Canada’s TIEAs, noting that the “new house Coopers, and a retired Shell Cana- Globe and Mail’s Campbell Clark wrote TIEAs are being touted as a means for da executive.” (September 6) that this is Morneau’s more ‘transparency’ about tax avoidance, “first real fight” and he’s “eager” to take it but there is little to justify this claim ... As Deneault bluntly put it, “While claim- on. “He wanted this. He wants to take on with the new TIEAs, a corporation can ing to fight tax fraud, Ottawa legalizes its the argument that if the government does repatriate those offshore profits tax-free, every aspect. At the same time, its honour not stop the use of private corporations leaving no trace of the deferred taxes.” is untarnished in that it actively looks for for personal tax advantages, Canada will TIEAs to sign and can therefore boast of have a two-tier tax system for incorporat- This is how it works: a corporation makes being part of the international initiative ed business people and everybody else – its profits in Canada but can set up sub- instigated by the OECD. Fighting tax and that gap will grow bigger over time.” sidiaries in a tax haven (usually nothing fraud by making it legal: this is truly Or- As Morneau told reporters in Vancouver more than a PO box). The corporation can wellian.” on September 6, “We want to make sure shift its profits to the tax haven (where it ... that we’re not creating an ongoing tax pays no or low taxes) and keep its losses As far as I can determine, no other coun- advantage for a privileged few.” in Canada (where they are tax deducta- try has this arrangement. ble). The corporation can then repatriate Such things were being said with a the profits (without being taxed) as div- Both the CBC and the Toronto Star re- straight face as Morneau and Trudeau idends for shareholders, mergers and ac- ported this Orwellian situation in 2016 metaphorically put on their Robin Hood quisitions, share buy-backs, fat bonuses and stated that the Trudeau Liberals had costumes. and salaries, etc. done nothing to change it. In June 2017, the day after Ginette Petitpas Taylor During the height of the rhetoric, Conrad As I wrote in 2011, tax havens are a way signed the other Paris agreement, the To- Black called Morneau’s tax plan “a seis- to “starve the beast” of government, in ronto Star again raised the issue. mic lurch to the left.” Actually, the origi- order to foster privatization and deregula- nal tax plan fits rights into the neoliberal tion. What I didn’t know at the time was I suspect that the Liberal government, economic agenda of shifting the tax bur- that the Harper government had actually which had said that Canada would be “a den further away from multinational cor- changed the tax code to facilitate this tax really strong voice” on the offshore tax porations. avoidance and repatriation of profits tax- haven issue, felt there might be a need to free. distract attention from the matter, before So what was the one thing that almost the whole issue of tax havens could fur- never came up? I followed the issue (in That fact didn’t come out until 2015, ther galvanize Canadian taxpayers. print) from mid-July to the end of Octo- when Alain Deneault, a Canadian ex- ber and found only three articles that re- pert on tax havens and the author of two What better way to distract attention than ferred to tax havens. In each instance it books about the issue, wrote that Canada to get Dr. Joe Blow Incorporated fighting was an NDP member of Parliament that had “made a travesty” of TIEAs (created with Dr. Jane Doe Unincorporated about raised the offshore issue.

16 | watershedsentinel.ca Various tax experts estimated that the most that would be collected per year “Canada leads the world in the number of from Morneau’s original tax plan (most of it later rolled back) was about $250 tax treaties and agreements that allow million. Meanwhile, Dennis Howlett of multinational corporations to escape the taxman.” Canadians for Tax Fairness (CTF) was estimating in September that because of offshore tax havens, at least $8 billion in Canadian taxes on multinational corpora- It’s a tired old line that we’ve heard before. The good news is that the BEPS Agree- tions goes uncollected annually. ment is still being negotiated internation- Not only have those international part- ally and could be rewritten to take much After the November 5 release of another ners delivered a tepid BEPS Agreement, stronger action against tax evasion and tax havens data-leak called the Paradise but the Trudeau government continues tax avoidance. Papers, CTF revised its estimate to be- (as Alain Deneault puts it) “to fight tax tween $10 billion and $15 billion per year fraud by legalizing it.” Similarly, the tax code changes that the in Canadian tax losses due to tax havens. Harper government added as a provision In their important November 2017 report Good news to TIEAs could be eliminated. entitled Bay Street and Tax Havens: Curb- ing Corporate Canada’s Addiction, CTF As a Toronto Star editorial (November Both of these changes would need a loud, stated that this amount would be enough 8, 2017) noted, “The Paradise Papers are concerted and immediate push from the to fund Pharmacare, universal childcare, doing nothing to soothe those who worry Canadian public. In other words, this is free university tuition, and infrastructure about the unseemly intertwining of mon- no time for either apathy or cynicism. improvements in First Nations communi- ey and power in politics or about the ex- ties all at the same time. tent to which the economy is rigged by the few against the many. The government Joyce Nelson’s latest book is Beyond On November 8, PM Trudeau tried to can do something about that. It can, for Banksters: Resisting the New Feudalism. quell the uproar about the Paradise Pa- instance, close unfair and ineffective tax The sequel, Bypassing Dystopia, will be pers by telling the press, “We have done loopholes and collect what’s owed. Or it published by Watershed Sentinel Books in much in regards to tax avoidance and tax can sit back, defend the current arrange- March 2018. evasion, including working with interna- ments and watch the cynicism grow.” tional partners.”

watershedsentinel.ca | 17 Alternative Futures Mutual Aid in communal actions In the 18th century, Peter Kropotkin, the Russian scientist and philospher, posited mutual aid as the driving force of evolution, and he wasn’t far wrong. It is by working together and cooper- ating that human beings have become the semi-sapient species we are.

From food co-ops to a myriad coopera- tive housing arrangements, from credit unions to worker-owned enterprises, we see this cooperation all around us. In this feature section we look at a few examples of what may be our best path to a sustain- able future.

Sponsored by ©Wally Gobetz ©Wally 18 | watershedsentinel.ca A New Story

The birth of a new cooperative economy

by Guy Dauncey

They say we are self-interested, we’re always out to win. Are you a full or a conditional altruist? Always individualistic, though it used to be a sin. They say we need free markets, the better to compete, Scientifically applied game theory demonstrates that a quarter and the economy will flourish if we only think of greed. of us tend to be selfish and self-interested; a quarter are fully altruistic; and half are conditionally altruistic, preferring to co- This is economics 101, the way it’s taught today. Not a word operate with others on condition that others do the same and the about nature, community, caring, sharing, or cooperation. social rule-breakers are punished.

During the mid-19th century, when the attitudes of the Enlight- This behavioral preference has arisen because of the evolution- enment worked hand-in-hand with science, democracy, educa- ary effectiveness of altruistic cooperation within groups seek- tion, literacy, public healthcare, labour unions, technological ing food and facing conflict, and presumably also because be- breakthroughs, banking, and the power of fossil fuels to gen- ing kind and cooperative­ brings friendship and companionship, erate rapid economic growth, it certainly seemed that after ten while being a selfish jerk does not. thousand years of economic stagnation, the competitive pursuit of profit was improving life for all. Recall the last time you stood in a queue. Someone barges in front of you. Do you feel indignant and want to call out that it’s In the 1760s it took eighteen hours of human labour to transform unfair? This is how conditional altruists respond. Do you take a pound of cotton into cloth. By the 1860s it took one and a half a kindly attitude and assume the person has a good reason for hours. Today, it probably takes five seconds. queue jumping? This is how full altruists respond. Or are you perhaps a queue-jumper yourself, believing in your need to be at As we approach the mid 21st century, however, we look with the front? This is how the self-interested respond. dismay at how the single-minded pursuit of profit is destroy- ing nature, wounding the atmosphere, shattering communities When social and economic conditions are secure, the condition- and causing increasing loneliness amid an over-abundance of al altruists align with the full altruists and together they nurture ever-cheaper goods. The old economic story that competitive a cooperative way of living that tends towards kindness. When profit-seeking in a free market would solve all our problems by people are insecure, however, when they experience fear and generating economic growth has shed its coat to reveal a Gothic hurt, some conditional altruists align with the self-interested, es- horror story offering nothing but misery, death and collapse. We pecially when they promise to end their miseries by blaming and are long overdue to toss it in the recycling, and build ourselves persecuting others, be they Jews, Muslims, Yazidis, Rohingyas, a new story. Blacks, bankers or rich elites.

The new story starts with syntropy, the incredible anti-entropic This adds urgency to the search for a new story and a new model process that causes all forms of existence to cooperate with oth- for our future economy. What makes the task easy is that it has ers within their empathic reach to increase their organizational been hiding in plain sight ever since Robert Owen and the Ro- capacity and reach, from atoms and molecules to the first living chdale Pioneers formalized the workers’ cooperative movement organisms. Syntropy generates Nature, and after several billion in 1844, and Henry Schulze-Delitzsch developed the first credit years it generated humans, not as selfish individualistic prof- union in Germany in 1852. it-seekers but as the most cooperative, altruistic species that has ever lived. Continued on Page 20 

watershedsentinel.ca | 19 Cooperatives continued

The new story in northeast Vermont, where farmers and foodies are working together to build a local food economy, growing not just food The new story is simple. It tells us that most humans like to but also affection, community and a network of mutual support. live cooperatively, a preference we developed during our hunt- It’s happening in farmers’ markets where people prefer locally er-gatherer past. When we started farming, the competition grown food and conversation to the soulless supermarket aisle. over land for cultivation and grazing caused conflict and war, bringing warriors, warlords, kings and feudal dynasties, and lat- It is happening in consumer cooperatives such as the Seikatsu er industrial capitalists and Club Consumer Cooperative in Japan, whose 300,000 members bankers, under whose rules share the distribution of safe, healthy affordable products and Worker Co-ops and Cooper- and on whose land we were meet together in small ‘hans’ to support each other with child- ative Banks Perform Better obliged to live. care, food education and business activities.

In Europe, during and af- Our inner selves whisper It is happening in the village of Hudswell in England’s York- ter the 2008 financial crash, that life could be better, shire Dales, whose villagers refused to accept it when their local cooperative banks outper- however, and whenever pub the George and Dragon was forced to closed following the formed investor-owned the opportunity arises we 2008 financial crash. They chose instead to buy it and run it as banks. From 2007 to 2010 rise up and attempt to build a community-owned cooperative – one of seven thousand coop- their assets grew by 10%, and a better world. Step-by- eratives in the UK. their customers and reserves step, we have learnt how to grew by 14%. Only 7% of the shape conditional altruism It’s happening on Vancouver Island where the nine worker-own- co-op banks suffered losses, into economic and financial ers of the Viridian Energy Cooperative are busy installing solar and no bailouts were need- institutions that work. panels, sharing their income and decision-making. It is happen- ed. Between 2003-2010 their ing in Austin Texas, where taxi drivers responded to the greed average annual returns were What is the new coop- of company owners and the dishonesty of Uber by forming the 7.5%, compared to 5.7% for erative economy? ATX taxi cooperative. investor-owned banks. —www.ilo.org/global/about- So what is this new coop- It has been happening since 1955 in Mondragon, Spain, where the-ilo/newsroom/news/ erative economy? It is big seventy thousand people work in a network of a hundred co- WCMS_210300/lang--en/ and small, varied and di- operatives, owning their own businesses, banks, university and index.htm verse, and it’s happening welfare system. When Spain’s economy col- all over the world. lapsed following the 2008 It is happening in banks that have changed their core motivation, crash and unemployment It is happening in a small such as Vancity in BC and the Triodos Bank in Europe, which rose to 26%, nobody in the town such as Hardwick has no shareholders, is owned by a trust, lends the savings of Mondragon network of 100 its customers to regenerative enter- cooperatives lost their job. prises that benefit people and the Instead, the worker-owners environment, whose management forsook their dividends and team is 40% women, and which had took an average 5% reduc- thirteen billion euros under manage- tion in income. When one ment in 2015 and a net profit after small co-op did have to close, taxes of twenty-nine million euros. its workers were absorbed by other co-ops. It is happening in the Emilia-Ro- magna region of Italy (south of Ven- —www.theguardian.com/ ice, north of Florence), where seven world/2013/mar/07/ thousand cooperatives and a host mondragon-spains-giant-co- of privately owned businesses have operative worked cooperatively in partnership ©Fagor Automation

20 | watershedsentinel.ca with local governments to build one of Italy’s happiest and most successful regions. Step-by-step, we have learnt how to shape It is happening in Bologna, where thousands of health and social conditional altruism into economic and service workers meet people’s need for care and loving attention financial institutions that work. through hundreds of social service cooperatives.

It is happening in New York’s Rolling Jubilee, whose people ey-creation powers for productive purposes, rather than to serve have raised funds to abolish $14 million of medical debts for the interests of bankers, asset-holders and shareholders. pennies on the dollar and bought and abolished $13 million of student debt, freeing ten thousand students from their burden. And it is happening every day whenever people are kind to each other, including strangers and people with different incomes, It is happening in the non-profit sharing economy, such as Vic- different colored skins, different religions, different abilities, toria’s Tool Library and Car-Share Cooperative (Modo), and different mental struggles and different sexual orientations. among the 800 members of the Lyttleton Time Bank in Can- terbury New Zealand who have shared 11,000 time exchanges. I could go on, but this should be sufficient. Once you know where to look, the evidence is everywhere. Our task now is to It is happening in housing co-ops, community land trusts, shared tell this story, and to convert it in a coherent political and eco- communal houses, ecovillages, cohousing projects, and myriad nomic platform, so that governments can embrace the vision non-profit housing initiatives. and set their sights on making it happen.

It is happening in non-corrupted democracies where money no Guy Dauncey is the author of the novel Journey to the Future: longer fuels the hubris and greed of billionaires and where gov- A Better World is Possible. (www.journeytothefuture.ca). He is ernments govern in a more participatory manner, as they strive currently researching his next book The Economics of Kindness: to do in Norway, Iceland, Sweden and New Zealand, the world’s Fifty Ways to Build a New Cooperative Economy. He lives in strongest democracies. Yellow Point, near Ladysmith. References will be included in the online version of this piece It is happening in 2,358 B Corporations, including 200 in Can- at www.watershedsentinel.ca ada and 38 in Vancouver, which use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems as well as generating a necessary profit.

It is happening wherever people are farming ecologically, gen- ORDER TODAY erating energy renewably, tackling the climate crisis, protecting wetlands, creeks and rivers, and protecting and regenerating Na- ture’s ecosystems and her amazing brilliance.

It is happening in European nations where workers have deci- sion-making seats on the company board, varying from every company with 25 or more employees in Sweden to every com- pany with 1,000 or more workers in France.

It is happening in communities such as San Francisco, which is close to achieving zero waste by 2020, and Amsterdam, which is working to create a circular economy. Watershed Sentinel Books Until about ten years ago it was happening in Germany, where 250-339-6117 the central bank used credit guidance to target the bank’s mon- www.watershedsentinel.ca/beyond-banksters

watershedsentinel.ca | 21 Group Rights

Mayan women push the envelope on collective intellectual property rights to safeguard their cultural heritage

by Claire Gilmore

In November 2017, the Constitutional “We know that our traditional shirts gling that does not appropriately value Court of Guatemala ruled in favour of (güipiles) and all the items with which our textiles, yet when they are delivered the National Movement of Maya Weav- we clothe ourselves, regardless of the to design companies they command high ers for a second time. The court is now indigenous nation that created them, are prices in dollars – why is there a differ- demanding that Guatemala’s Congress collectively owned and we must protect ence?” Meanwhile, not only are these “deliver a national law that protects this form of authorship.” same huipiles commanding high prices the collective intellectual property of abroad and being cut up to make products indigenous weaving designs, recognized In November 2016, the Weavers Move- such as high-end handbags, export com- as creations of Indigenous peoples.” ment introduced Bill N. 5247 which panies are beginning to machine-make seeks to reform five legal articles on the industrial güipiles. The movement in defense of indigenous Law on Copyright and Related Rights, weavings emerged in May 2016 and is the Law on Industrial Property, the Law A direct challenge to el capitalismo being led by the Women’s Association for on Protection and Development of Crafts Development of Sacatepequez (AFED- and the Criminal Code. In their declaration, AFEDES states: “as ES), with the support of 30 weaving co- weavers, we are claiming recognition operatives from 18 linguistic communi- As reported by Intercontinental Cry in as a collective with rights to protection ties. The weavers are making a bold move March 2017, the bill has two objectives: under intellectual property law. We are in response to the theft of their designs “First, it calls for a recognition of a defi- not claiming our individual authorship by transnational corporations in declaring nition of collective intellectual property, because we consider ourselves part of a themselves a collective and calling for which is linked to the right of Indige- collective.” changes to Guatemalan law that would nous Peoples to administer and manage afford them such legal recognition. They their heritage. Second, it asks that indig- This claim of collective rights mirrors state in their collectively written declara- enous nations be recognized as authors, what is known in Canada as aboriginal tion Textiles are the Books that the Colo- in which case they would automatically title – collective ownership of tradition- ny was Not Able to Burn: benefit from intellectual property law. al lands by an indigenous nation – and Recognizing indigenous nations as au- is emblematic of a subversive shift away “Faced with the problems of racism, de- thors just like individuals or companies from a foundational paradigm of the valuation, plagiarism, theft, and the ap- means that corporations that benefit from modern, colonial, capitalist worldview. propriation of our creations as indigenous the export of Mayan hand-woven goods As Jacinthe Poisson postulates in her people…. Our movement demands that will have to pay royalties to the commu- 2015 working paper on indigenous col- the government protect collective intel- nities who are the authors of huipiles.” lective property, “Claiming collective lectual property rights over our textiles property to the land challenges the liberal and Mayan apparel, which are vulnerable AFEDES has pointed to the huge discrep- conception of human rights as a bundle to appropriation, commodification, and ancy between the way international mar- of rights to which only individuals are inappropriate uses that violate our com- kets value their traditional textiles and the entitled.” Upsetting the ideological – and munity standards and spiritual values. poor compensation they receive for them: legal – applecart of our entire system of “At the markets we are subjected to hag- ownership, and especially land owner-

22 | watershedsentinel.ca ship, could have widespread implications documents indigenous legends and pub- Property is recognized as a human right – it’s no surprise that struggles for collec- lishes them in a book, he or she enjoys in the Universal Declaration of Human tive rights have met with resistance. the protection of copyright in the work Rights, while both the International Cov- and the exclusive economic rights that enant on Civil and Political Rights and On the other hand, indigenous cultural come with it. If the author learned of the the International Covenant on Econom- norms and customary laws tend to em- legends from the indigenous community, ic, Social and Cultural Rights are silent phasize the collective and interpret rights publication would constitute an infringe- on the subject. Poisson notes “While it is in that context. It’s a fundamental culture ment of indigenous cultural norms but undeniable that ‘property confers power,’ clash that can have perplexing results – would be sanctioned by intellectual prop- … property law ‘can render relationships for example, if a non-Indigenous author erty laws. Continued on Page 24  ©Clark & Kim Kays

watershedsentinel.ca | 23 Mondragon Corporation is a Co-op Group Rights continued Spain’s Mondragon is one massive corporation and the largest coop- erative in the world, but is com- posed of many small cooperative within communities either exploitative of the creation of rights i) to Indigenous and non-cooperative businesses. and humiliating or liberating and enno- communal property and ii) to collective Of 261 businesses, 101 are co- bling.’As Hernando de Soto suggests, cultural identity and juridical personality operatives. It was established this could largely depend on how prop- (unfortunately those standards have gone by a Catholic priest, José Maria erty is defined, protected and enforced.” largely unnoticed by Canadian courts). Arizmendiarrieta, in the Basque country in Spain in 1956. Indigenous peoples have been at the fore- Unfortunately, governments tend to re- front of mobilizations to change the ways quire some prodding via the legal system Each cooperative business can have property is defined and to claim recogni- before they will entertain major progres- their own set of rules, as decided tion of being “capable collective subjects sive reforms. The bill put forth by AFED- democratically by the membership who are identified as legitimate beneficia- ES has been called the “most accessible but within the scope of the overall ries of distinct rights.”1 In recent years, and the most swiftly developed legal re- Mondragon principles. For example, progress has been made internationally form to come out of Guatemala’s current management salaries can be capped towards recognition of indigenous col- political context” – and now Guatemalan at a multiple of workers’ wages, but lective rights. The UN Declaration on the congress is legally bound to act on it. the actual amount can vary between Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) cooperatives within Mondragon. recognizes and reaffirms “that Indigenous AFEDES’ Angelina Aspuac stated, “The peoples possess collective rights which recent ruling issued by the Constitution- Mondragon follows the principles of are indispensable for their existence, al Court, which exhorts the Congress to cooperative identity, including those well-being, and integral development as issue a special law that recognizes collec- for education and research, holding peoples.” Article 13 of the Indigenous tive intellectual property rights, is only 716 patents collectively. Although and Tribal Peoples Convention of the one legal step. Yet, it is a political con- Mondragon started as a collection of International Labour Organization (ILO) quest where women weavers can dignify cooperative businesses, it later found stresses that governments must respect themselves as weavers of a political fab- that purchasing its competition in the collective aspects of the relation- ric that passes through our hands and is other parts of Europe expanded its ship of the Indigenous people with their reflected in the colorful güipiles.” markets, and those purchased com- lands or territories. And importantly, the panies did not necessarily convert to Inter-American Court of Human Rights The weavers have clearly issued, and are the cooperative model of business. has instigated a major judicial innovation winning, “a challenge for the country to Most of the non-member workers broaden its awareness and realize that our are outside of the Basque region. creations are more than just accessories or crafts,” as they state in their declaration. Mondragon was doing well until “They are a symbol of our history, of the 2013 when some of the Fagor group resistance that we have maintained over of cooperatives, which manufactured 500 years, which has naturally evolved, household appliances, were allowed changed, been transformed. Neverthe- to go bankrupt and were sold. less, they contain – and are – the essence of the people. They are the wisdom of However, the corporation fared well men and women, which is translated into and provided stability through the what we see. They are more than colors, 2008/9 financial crisis, when layoff more than symbols. They are evidence of rates in Spain skyrocketed – mem- Mayan survival and they speak of our re- bers voted to redistribute work and lationship with the universe and our pro- take a pay cut rather than to lay off found love for life.” workers. Notes: [1] Ronald Niezen, The Indige- —www.mondragon-corporation. nous claim for Recognition in the Inter- com/en/about-us/ national Public Sphere (2005)

24 | watershedsentinel.ca Marinaleda

Food, housing and work for everyone through sharing

by Joyce Nelson

In 2011, Spain’s severe economic crisis brought 8 million In- dignados on to the streets throughout the spring and summer months. By that time, at least 400,000 families had been evicted from their homes by the banksters but under Span- ish law still had to pay their mortgages.

For practical inspiration, Los Indignados have looked to a small Spanish village of about 2,700 people: Marinaleda, in the impov- erished region of Andalusia. There, the mayor is a hero named Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo, who for almost forty years has helped the local people build an extraordinary community based in the beliefs of “Jesus Christ, Gandhi, Marx, Lenin and Che.”

There is food, housing, and work for everyone through sharing ©Ana Vigueras and co-operation. As Dan Hancox wrote, “The town co-opera- tive does not distribute profits: any surplus is reinvested to cre- ate more jobs. Everyone in the co-op earns the same salary, 47 While more and more people become what the financial sector euro (40 pounds sterling) a day for six and a half hours of work: calls NINJAs – no income, no job or assets – agricultural villag- it may not sound like a lot, but it’s more than double the Span- es like Spain’s Marinaleda might be showing us an alternative, ish minimum wage.” (Dan Hancox, “Spain’s Communist Model modest though it is. Think of it as a lifestyle of conspicuous Village,” The Observer, October 20, 2013) non-consumption, but at least with benefits of an actual commu- nity. Apparently, that may be better than having Wall Street or In 1991, Hancox notes, Marinaleda had finally gained access to Bay Street as your landlord. a large abandoned farm, “awarded to the village by the regional government following a decade of relentless occupations, strikes These examples of resistance may seem way too humble for and appeals.” In addition to the olive trees and an oil-processing North Americans to contemplate, but maybe not. As Guy factory, the villagers plant many crops that can be eaten fresh, Dauncey has noted in his excellent article, “Canada’s Housing but also some that can be preserved and jarred in the village for Crisis: Eight Solutions,” published in the Watershed Sentinel sale: peppers, pimentos, artichokes, a variety of beans. There is in March 2017, “Many younger people want more than an af- some small private enterprise in the village (bars and cafes, for fordable home. They also want to live sustainably with a strong example), but no franchises are allowed. sense of community. They want to build a sharing economy, with a lighter footprint on the Earth. They want to build their Marinaleda has inspired at least one other Spanish farming co- own ecovillages and tiny home villages.” operative, in Somonte, where hundreds of people visit and do- nate labour, second-hand equipment, furniture, etc. The fertile Excerpted from Joyce Nelson’s forthcoming book, Bypassing farmland was originally scheduled to be auctioned off by the Dystopia, Watershed Sentinel Books, Spring 2018. government in 2012, but the Andalusian Workers’ Union occu- pied the land, and the land was turned over to the farming co-op.

watershedsentinel.ca | 25 Credit Unions

The Farmers’ Bank

by Susan MacVittie

In the early stages of Canada’s financial system, ordinary The credit union in Canada owes its beginnings, not to the working people had little access to the commercially-cen- high financiers of the British colonies, but to an earnest group tred banks. Organized locally according to a co-operative of farmers in Prince Edward Island and Jesuit Priest, Reverend model, credit unions provided urgently needed savings and George-Antoine Belcourt. lending services at fair rates. ©Doug Kerr ©Doug

26 | watershedsentinel.ca From humble beginnings The Antigonish movement

In 1859, Father Belcourt arrived in the Acadian coastal com- Attempts in the 1920s to establish credit unions in English-speak- munity of Rustico, PEI. Even though the Island economy was ing areas in Ontario and the West did not succeed. quite strong, money was scarce and credit expensive. The few Island banks charged high interest rates, so farmers were forced In the 1930s, the Great Depression brought hard times to North to obtain credit from local merchants for supplies. This meant America, including the Maritime provinces. Men were out of that they paid high prices and became indebted to the merchants work and hungry, crops could not find a market, and rural com- almost all year round. munities were declining.

Father Belcourt became determined to do something to help the During these years, a movement started at St. Francis Xavier Acadian people become more self-sufficient. He believed that University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia and spread over the mar- farmers needed access to loans for agricultural purposes at rea- itime provinces. Small groups of people organized study groups sonable interest rates. The economy was strong and there was and learned to use the techniques of economic cooperation, a significant lack of currency available for Islanders due to a which led to the formation of a credit union, a factory, and a shortage of banks. He had been corresponding regularly with the cooperative store. French historian, Rameau de Saint-Père, who had been keeping him up-to-date on various economic movements in Western Eu- The most outstanding characteristic of the Antigonish move- rope, including people’s banks. ment was perhaps its decentralized nature – everyone learned to cooperate in groups to help each other and themselves at the Father Belcourt used his influence to have a bill to incorporate same time. the Farmers’ Bank of Rustico introduced to the legislature of PEI in 1863. Under his guidance, the bank was organized by In the 1930s, organizers associated themselves with the (Ameri- a group of farmers, and 350 families of the parish of Rustico can) Credit Union National Association and in 1932 established succeeded in setting aside almost $4,000 (an average of $10 per a credit union in Broad Cove, Nova Scotia. family) for the bank. The bank operated for 30 years, producing its own bank notes and providing loans. It is now a National Credit unions grew rapidly in Atlantic Canada in the 1930s and Historic site. representatives from the Antigonish movement, Moses Coady and A.B. MacDonald, travelled beyond the Maritimes to On- It was the first people’s bank in Canada and the precursor to the tario, Saskatchewan and British Colombia where their speeches credit union movement, says Scott MacDonald, author of From and ideas helped ignite local credit union movements. By 1939, Humble Beginnings, a history of credit unions in PEI. “It was a every province in Canada had a credit union movement and a credit union in every aspect, but the word credit union wasn’t legal framework to guide it. By the early 1940s, they were being around back then.” established across English Canada.

Caisse Populaire They’re not banks

MacDonald explains that the Farmers’ Bank inspired Alphonse Credit unions are financial cooperatives. Their products,- ser Desjardins to create the first credit union, (caisse populaire), in vices and operations – and even their physical appearance – may Québec in 1900. Desjardins was editor of the Gazette Royale resemble those of banks, but there are some major differences. when questions on the Farmers’ Bank were debated in the House The biggest ones are that they’re locally owned, and invest their of Commons. He championed the idea of cooperation to curb profits in the communities where they operate – where their usury, improve conditions for the working class, and contribute members live and work. Retail customers are considered mem- to the economic development of French Canadians. bers and owners. They are democratically governed on the co- operative principle of “one member, one vote,” regardless of the Today Desjardins Group is the largest association of credit amount that a member has on deposit or invested in the shares unions in Canada with the largest regional presence in Quebec, of the credit union. Subject to rules adopted by members, every and is well established in Ontario. Continued on Page 28 

watershedsentinel.ca | 27 Credit Unions continued

member has the opportunity to stand for election to the board other initiatives. And when you are the largest credit union in of directors and vote for candidates who are looking to become Canada – like VanCity in Vancouver, British Columbia – which volunteer directors tasked with establishing the long-term vision shared 30 per cent of their 2016 net profits ($18.5 million) of their credit union – they’re also the bosses of the CEOs. with members and communities – using assets to help develop healthy communities can really make a difference. Banks are for-profit corporations, with declared earnings paid to stockholders only. Unlike banks, credit unions are autonomous. One of VanCity’s innovations is the Shared Success program Each one has its own brand identity, management, and board of that sponsors and partners with local non-profits, social enter- directors, but they’re united through provincial centrals. These prises, First Nations, labour groups, and cooperatives that align provide financial, technological, and trade services to their with their values of social justice, financial inclusion and envi- member credit unions. ronmental sustainability. They also have an enviroFund™ grant program that in 2017 distributed $250,000 for sustainable local Today food system projects and initiatives.

According to the Canadian Credit Union Association (CCUA), Besides supporting projects in their local communities, credit the national trade association for the Canadian credit union sys- unions are also involved in lending a helping hand internation- tem, Canada has the highest per-capita membership in credit ally. The Co-operative Development Foundation of Canada unions in North America. There are 623 credit unions and caiss- (CDF), which nurtures credit union growth around the world, es populaires in Canada, with almost 3,000 branches. More than celebrated its 70th anniversary this year and officially amal- a third of the population is a member of at least one credit union. gamated with its long-time partner, The Canadian Co-operative Association. The Women’s Mentorship Program, now in its 16th For the 13th consecutive year, Canada’s credit unions were year, brings women leaders from foreign credit unions to Otta- awarded the Ipsos Best Banking Awards for Customer Ser- wa, Ontario for a week of classroom training and then job-shad- vice Excellence and Branch Service Excellence (2017). Local- ow managers at credit unions across Canada. Canadian credit ly-elected boards of directors help credit unions better under- unions donate 44 per cent of the money CDF raises annually. stand what’s important to their members and provide service that meets the need of the community. As part of their mandate Some of Canada’s largest credit unions, including BC-based to put people before profits, the money left over at the end of the Coast Capital Savings and Ontario’s Meridian are making big year is returned to members in the form of dividends, and do- plans for national expansion with an emphasis on digital and nated to communities in the form of donations, scholarships and mobile banking services. Future challenges may include in- creased regulatory measures, such as the advisory from the federal Office of the Credit Union Innovation Superintendent of Financial Institutions in 1931 First life insurance on loans and share savings for all members July which said credit unions cannot refer 1933 First payroll deduction service for deposits and loan payments to their services as “banking.” Non-banks 1959 First open mortgages will have until 2019 to remove the words 1960s First financial institution to lend to women in their own name, “bank,” “banker,” and “banking” on their first non-chequable savings account, first variable rate mortgage, first signage, and earlier for websites and print- short-term (under 5 years) renewable mortgage, first to offer daily inter- ed material, or incur a fine. The cost across est savings the country to make the changes is estimat- 1976 First personal line of credit ed to be about $80 million. 1977 First full-service ATM network 1986 First ethical mutual fund – ETHICAL Growth Fund Susan MacVittie, former managing editor of the Watershed Sentinel, is now WS’s 1988 First Registered Educational Savings Plan east coast correspondent based in Prince 1996 First fully-functional internet home banking Edward Island. 2001 First cheque imaging service 2002 First gay and lesbian public advertising campaign

28 | watershedsentinel.ca Big Dams

The disaster of global hydroelectric development

by David Simms

Around the world, hydro dams, pro- 2012, has left a controversial record. whole economies.” Amid the worldwide moted by banks to supply industry, His support for hydroelectric develop- boom in hydro development, the World are disappointing in their provision for ment, particularly in Africa, ostensibly Bank got on board, pushing projects that local populations. Their production is as a means of lifting the poorest of the “had been shunned in the 1990s, in part hindered by drought but their impacts poor from their plight while respecting because they can be disruptive to com- on community and ecology are high. the constraints of climate change, was munities and ecosystems.” described by Peter Bosshard, policy di- Jim Kim, appointed by Barack Obama rector of International Rivers as “the old to the presidency of the World Bank in idea of a silver bullet that can modernize Continued on Page 30 

Continued on Page 29  Hoover Dam ©Allan watershedsentinel.ca | 29 Big Dams continued

The money lenders seem undeterred by from rotting trees and the anaerobic de- na had an installed capacity of 319,000 the fact that Africa is in the grips of its composition of vegetable matter in the MW, up from 172,000 Mw in 2009. worst drought in 60 years. As a result of bottom of the reservoirs, which is a meth- drought, the output of Kariba Dam, which ane emitter. Overall, the country has 80,000 dams, provides 60 per cent of Zimbabwe’s pow- which have displaced at least 16 million er, has dropped to one-third of its capac- During the 2005 drought scientists es- people. This “hydro rush” may have been ity, and in 2016 Reuters reported that the timated the Amazon rainforest to have facilitated by a political culture inher- dam could soon lose its ability to produce turned from a net absorber of about two ited from the days of Mao – relocating electricity at all. billion tonnes of carbon dioxide to an ex- 16 million people may have been less porter of some five billion tonnes of car- problematic politically than it would be Drought may impair the availability of bon dioxide. elsewhere. Nevertheless, China’s push water to generate electricity but it doesn’t to develop hydro has not been without seem to have dried up funding for these The Independent reports that “Scientists problems. Ill-conceived dams have col- projects. The World Bank, which funds have calculated that the 2010 drought lapsed, killing thousands. The traditional large development projects like dam con- was more intense than the ‘one-in-100- livelihoods of fishermen and subsistence struction in poor countries, acknowledges year’ drought of 2005 .… In 2010, the farmers have been impacted and ecosys- that hydropower is an increasingly risky Rio Negro River, which is the biggest tems trashed. bet for energy generation but has decided tributary to the Amazon, was at its low- to move ahead anyway. est level since records began at the start China’s celebrated Three Gorges Dam of the 20th century, so we have indepen- on the Yangtze River, the largest in the The Bank has now earmarked $12 billion dent evidence of these droughts.” Brazil’s world, has a capacity of 22,500 MW – but for the Inga 3 Dam on the Congo River, a 14,000 MW capacity Itaipu dam, the sec- further development could see the river throwback to the “good old days” of Inga ond largest in the world, has seen its out- produce five times as much. On the oth- 1 and Inga 2. It has also got on board with put drop to the point where the country er hand, China’s dams are reported to be two other billion-dollar schemes on the had to import electricity from Argentina. quite inefficient, having a capacity factor Zambezi River. Although it has recently of 31 per cent. This means that at times of suspended funding for Inga 3 pending a Undeterred by the potential for increased low water flow, supplementary power is change in government, the project is ex- climatic effects associated with its dams, needed. Anecdotal evidence suggests that pected to move ahead. Most of the power Brazil’s push for more dams remains for every major dam that is constructed, (85%) produced by Inga 1 and 2 is used unfettered, motivated as it is by the alu- another coal-fired power station is also by industrial consumers, like mines, and minum industry’s massive demands for being built to take up the slack. Drought less than 10 per cent of the population of more power. After China, Brazil is the is also hard at work in Chinese rivers. Congo has access to electricity. world’s second largest hydropower pro- Water levels along some stretches of the ducer. As Greenpeace sums up Brazil’s Mekong River are at 50-year lows. The Amazon approach, “the Brazilian development vi- sion for the Amazon seems rooted in the High on China’s list of planned devel- In South America, particularly in the Am- colonial period as the region continues opments is an assault on the Tibet’s holy azon Basin, the story repeats itself – all to be seen – and valued – only as a rich river, the Yarlong Tsangpo, also known we need do is to change the names of stock of untapped energy, raw material as the Brahmaputra. The Tsangpo begins the players and places. Break-neck hy- and food-basket.” its journey at Mount Kalaish, the holy dro development associated with drought mountain of Buddhists, Hindus, Bons are the keywords, with one distinction: China and others, in far Western Tibet, before hydro development in the Amazon will flowing East. The lower reaches of the have changed that region’s rainforest to a Much has been written about hydroelec- Tsangpo have, until recently, been one of net carbon emitter, rather than the carbon tric development in China. The country the wildest places on the planet, inhabited absorber and “lungs of the planet” it was now tops the list of installed capacity, but only by the tough Pemako hill tribes. The once thought to be. The New Scientist even more remarkable is its meteoric rate Tsangpo Gorge, over which hydroelectric points the finger at the carbon released of expansion in hydropower. In 2015 Chi- developers have been salivating for de-

30 | watershedsentinel.ca cades, has a vertical drop of 6,000 me- tres, triple that of the Grand Canyon. The Drought may impair the availability of water but it rugged terrain and the incredible climatic zones, which vary from tropical jungle doesn’t seem to have dried up funding for these projects. to arctic glacier within mere kilometres, have made the area inaccessible to all but the most determined adventurers. Bosshard of International Rivers. China are part and parcel of how hydro works) Once it reaches the plains of India, the is playing the same game as the West, try- which led me to make this inquiry. Brahmaputra flows through the northern ing to buy favour by developing energy in state of Assam, nourishing the last pocket other countries, to allow its companies to BC’s miserable drought-ridden sum- of wild grassland on the Indian continent exploit their natural resources. mer of 2017 injected a sense of urgency before discharging its waters into the Bay to my examination of the question. The of Bengal. Despite questionable soil sta- Canada larger question of why humanity allows bility in the Pemako Gorge, China has its financial institutions to pursue insane plans for a 38,000 MW plant – nearly 35 Drought and forest fires are a familiar investments that wreck ecosystems, dis- times the output of BC’s proposed Site C. tale along the west coast of North Amer- place and marginalize indigenous popu- If China has its way, it will also divert a ica, and drought is certainly impacting lations, and raise havoc with the climate, portion of the Tsangpo to Northern China hydroelectric facilities in California. all to support financial gain and what is in order to fight desertification. There’s little to suggest what effect this believed to be a desirable materialistic is having on Canadian facilities at the lifestyle, is a question I’ll leave with the As with the hydro development in the moment; however, following the global reader. other regions we’ve examined, China march to the ill-advised development of seems oblivious to environmental con- mega-dams, three Canadian provinces David Sims is a retired math/physics cerns or to the fact that drought remains a are now on the hook to build dams – as- teacher from Clearwater BC with inter- prominent feature of its assault on rivers. suring them a debt-ridden future and the ests in yoga, Nature-respecting religions, If the Yangtse River is a representative possible privatization of their crown cor- mountain sports, photography, PIC pro- example, its answer will be to develop porations: BC’s Site C dam, Manitoba’s gramming, electronics for off-grid appli- even more dams upstream, in order to try Keeyask Generating Station and Bipole cation, and self-sufficient living. to alleviate the problems at Three Gorges. III transmission line, and Newfound- land’s Muskrat Falls Generating Station. Export-Import Bank of China What has spurred China doesn’t leave energy development this spate of risky, at its own borders. Chinese banks now unneeded devel- fund more projects in developing coun- opment is any- tries than those of the West. From 2007 one’s guess.It was to 2014, Chinese development banks col- my interest in the lectively loaned $117.5 billion to fund relationship be- construction of coal-fired power plants, tween hydropow- large hydropower dams and other energy er and climate projects in foreign countries. change, particu- larly the question Perhaps more worrisome for some, Chi- of self-induced na “does much of this funding through its drought (which I state-run Export-Import Bank of China, believe to be in- becoming the most important financier of herent in the en- large dams around the world,” says Peter ergy transfers that

watershedsentinel.ca | 31 Rise of the Necrofauna

The science, ethics, and risks of de-extinction

In the 1970s, scientists learned how to both sequence genetic code and to alter the DNA molecule – ushering in the era of genetically modified food. By the 1990s, cloning had been per- fected to the point of producing Dolly, the first cloned sheep. Since then, the curious phenomenon of repeating palindromic Rise of the Necrofauna DNA sequences has been harnessed into a gene-editing tool called CRISPR (clustered, regularly interspersed short palin- Greystone Press, 2017 dromic repeats) that scientists have described as possibly the (308 pp, including index), biggest biochemical revolution in the last 100 years. Moreover, ISBN: it’s cheap at $30 a pop (of delivering CRISPR machinery inside 978-1-77164-164-7 of cells), so the potential number of scientists and other people using it is huge.

Wray does a good job too of introducing some key players. One of these is Ryan Phelan, a biotech entrepreneur who has creat- ed several companies including DNA Direct, which is the first company to sell genetic tests to consumers. Another figure is Phelan’s husband, Stewart Brand, “a pioneering environmental- reviewed by Heather Menzies ist and technology visionary” who began publishing the Whole Earth Catalogue in the 1960s. In 2012, the couple founded a The idea of bringing ancient animals back from extinction while non-profit called Revive & Restore as a vehicle for pursuing other species are fast becoming extinct – at a rate of somewhere de-extinction, and by 2013, had helped propel the idea to the between 11,000 and 58,000 a year – does seem strange. Still, centre of a TEDxDeExtinction event, plus a cover story in Na- exploring the seeming contradiction can tell us a lot about our tional Geographic. Some commercial companies are involved, world and the priorities running it. like Crystal Biosciences and Dovetail Genomics. And there are individual scientists, including George Poinar’s son Hendrik Science journalist Britt Wray’s provocatively titled book on the subject of de-extinction does a good job of reviewing the sci- ence that has laid the foundations for this endeavor. One of the first breakthroughs, based on recovering organelles (which con- tain DNA) inside a 40-million-year old fly encased in Baltic am- ber, seeded writer Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park. In 1983, a group of genetic researchers, including George Poinar (who, along with his wife Roberta, had recovered the organelle) gath- ered to found something called the Extinct DNA Study Group, and published an academic newsletter article based on their musings about finding organelles in an amber-encased mosquito that might contain dinosaur blood which could be used to re- construct the genome of the long-extinct beast by reverse-engi- neering the genetic code based on the recovered DNA strands. Crichton chanced to read the article, and paid Poinar a visit.

32 | watershedsentinel.ca who is boosting the “revival” of the woolly mammoth by having assembled a full genome of the long-extinct creature and mak- “Meanwhile, a Russian scientist is working toward ing these genomes available to researchers worldwide. restoring the woolly mammoth into the northern In 2015, a group of Chinese researchers announced that they ecosystem because their hooves tramping down the had edited human embryos using CRISPR, which sparked in- snow could help keep permafrost in place.” ternational concern about what Wray describes as “unintended purposes like eugenics.” To me, this begs the question: just what are the purposes behind this fascinating application of genetic can afford to be most fit, especially as the living environment engineering? The evidence Wray offers for it being conservation becomes more challenging, rather than survival of an environ- is less than compelling. ment that continues to be fit for most human and non-human beings. Wray talks about “frozen zoos” which bank cells and tissue samples from endangered species. As a related venture, the Uni- It’s a book worth thinking about. versity of Manitoba’s Kevin Campbell has identified the specific genetic difference that allowed the woolly mammoth to carry Heather Menzies is an award-winning magazine and book writ- oxygen in its blood at a lower temperature than the elephant. er, an adjunct professor at Carleton University and a member This has prompted researchers at Harvard to pursue the goal of the Order of Canada. Her latest book is Reclaiming the Com- of introducing that gene into an elephant egg cell to produce a mons for the Common Good. cold-tolerant elephant that can range farther north. Meanwhile, a Russian scientist, Sergey Zimov, is working to restore the wool- ly mammoth into the northern ecosystem because their hooves tramping down the snow could help keep permafrost in place.

It all seemed a stretch to me. Yet, as I read too that a South Kore- an biotech research company funds its work by cloning people’s dead pets for around $100,000 US a pet, I realized that a myriad of unrelated agents and funding sources are advancing this en- terprise, while a eugenics agenda quietly advances with it. Not eugenics as the Nazis practiced it – by eliminating undesirable gene pools and perfecting a master race – but in the engineering of “good genes” (which is what the word eugenics means) for individuals. In other words, survival of the fittest for those who

watershedsentinel.ca | 33 Fair Votes

A referendum is coming to BC in 2018

by Fair Vote BC

The recently-elected NDP government in BC plans to hold ognized the unfairness inherent in how we vote and have called a referendum next fall on replacing “our outdated voting for change (including Justin Trudeau, Stephen Harper, Stéphane system with a proportional one.” The Green Party has joined Dion, Jean Chrétien, Tom Mulcair, and Elizabeth May, among them in a confidence and supply agreement that commits many others). As Trudeau’s Minister for Electoral Reform, both parties to consult with British Columbians and campaign Maryam Monsef, said when introducing the federal electoral in support of updating our voting system. reform process: “In a multi-party democracy like Canada, first- past-the-post distorts the will of the electorate. It’s part of why Voting reform commissions so many Canadians don’t engage in or care about politics. While there’s no such thing as a perfect electoral system, we can do Canada has had considerable experience with fairer ways of better.” [CBC, May 10, 2016] voting in the past (mainly in the western provinces), and most developed nations now use one form of proportional represen- Most developed countries use some form of proportional repre- tation (PR) or another. Over a dozen formal review processes in sentation (PR) voting. The most frequently discussed in Canada Canada have recommended changing how we vote, and politi- are STV (Single Transferable Vote) and MMP (Mixed Member cians from all political parties have at one time or another rec- Proportional), but there are other possibilities as well.

Proportional Voting Systems Around the World

Multi-Member systems in green and blue (List and Single Transferable Vote, respectively).

Top-Up systems in orange and red (Mixed Member Proportional and Mixed Member Majoritar- ian, respectively).

Combined systems are found in Scandinavia.

EvilFred - Own work, CC0, https://commons. wikimedia.org/w/index. php?curid=15120374

34 | watershedsentinel.ca Natural Voting ommend using “open lists,” where voters vote specifically for top-up candidates.

Options for BC A combined Multi-Member + Top-Up approach is a mod- ern-day refinement of the way voting used to happen in Man- Three types of voting systems have been re- itoba and Alberta. The federal Electoral Reform Committee cently recommended in provincial or federal recommended exploring a combined approach of multi-mem- electoral reform processes and so are natural options ber ridings in more urban areas and single-member ridings in for BC to consider: more rural areas to better address Canada’s unique geography. * The Multi-Member approach recommended by the 2004 BC The Rural-Urban PR (RU-PR) model was proposed by Fair Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform Voting BC and Fair Vote Canada during the federal electoral * The Top-Up approach recommended by the 2004 Law Com- reform process. Like typical multi-member systems, it offers mission and the NDP and Green Party members of the recent multi-member ridings in the more urban areas, but also allows federal Electoral Reform Commission (ERC) for single member ridings in more rural areas; because of the * The Combined Multi-Member & Top-Up approach also rec- improved proportionality that comes from the multi-member ommended by the NDP and Green Party members of the fed- ridings, it needs a much smaller number of top-up MLAs com- eral ERC pared with MMP (as few as 10-15% vs 40%) to ensure propor- tionality everywhere. Multi-Member systems are “small region” systems in which several current ridings are grouped together and a set of MPs or We suggested using moderate-sized multi-member ridings (in MLAs elected who reflect the diversity of voters in the region. the range of 2-to-5 seats) wherever possible, and single-member ridings in the most rural locales. These would be supplemented The Single Transferable Vote (STV) variant was used at the mu- by a few top-up seats, but many fewer than would be necessary nicipal level in all four western provinces and in several major with MMP, because the multi-member ridings would already cities (Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg) at the provincial level produce a considerable degree of proportionality. We estimate until as late as the 1970s. It is presently used at all levels of gov- that only about 10-15% of the seats would need to be set aside ernment in Ireland, for the Northern Irish Parliament, in Scottish under the RU-PR approach (approximately one in every 7 or 8 local government elections, in several Australian states, and the seats), as compared with 40% using MMP. Senate, in some New Zealand cities, in Cambridge and Minne- apolis in the USA, and most recently has been authorized for use This would mean that we could have a few single member seats in Ontario cities and towns. in the most rural parts of the country that would be only mod- estly larger than the current single-member ridings. If we inte- Top-Up systems such as the Mixed Member Proportional grated the top-up seats into the largest multi-member ridings, it (MMP) system typically have about 60% of the MPs or MLAs would be possible to avoid changing the existing single member elected in single member ridings (the same way we do now), rural riding boundaries at all. with the balance elected as “top-up” representatives to compen- sate for the imbalance created by the majority wins, First Past The BC government is looking for input on the structure of the the Post nature of the riding election results. voting referendum. The public is invited to fill out an online questionnaire and make comments on various aspects of the The total number of ballots cast for candidates of each party electoral system, including their preferred voting system, bal- would be added up, and then the number of seats each party de- lot design, and the distribution of public funding for designated serves would be determined based on their candidates’ share of groups to campaign. the popular vote (taking into account the number of seats each party has already won at the constituency level). The region- You can submit your opinions online until February 28, 2018 at al seats would be awarded to those candidates with the most https://engage.gov.bc.ca/howwevote votes from each party. MMP was invented for use in Germany, and is also used now in New Zealand and in the Scottish and For more infromation or to volunteer contact Fair Vote BC, Welsh devolved assemblies. Canadian proponents typically rec- https://fairvotingbc.com

watershedsentinel.ca | 35 Wild Times Site C Scam

by Joe Foy

Until recently, I had been really look- vealed the Site C dam as the bloated When an ashen-faced Premier John Hor- ing forward to 2018. A new provincial white elephant of a boondoggle many of gan announced to a gaggle of TV camer- government in Victoria was promising us knew it to be. It was wildly over bud- as and radio mics on December 11 that better attention to environmental pro- get, and the BCUC found BC Hydro had the Site C dam was going to be built, I tection and Indigenous peoples’ rights. consistently overestimated the need for listened in shocked disbelief. It felt a bit like Christmas Eve, waiting future electricity. They questioned if the to unwrap long-anticipated gifts under Site C dam was even needed at all. But when the premier and later the var- the tree. ious ministers explained how they had The BCUC also found a collection of come to their decision, my shocked dis- The biggest gift of all, of course, was the smaller wind, solar, thermal as well as belief turned to pure anger. The findings hoped-for cancellation of the Site C dam. conservation measures could deliver of the BCUC report were clearly not the Premier John Horgan had tasked the BC enough power, if or when it was needed, foundation of the premier’s decision – Utilities Commission (BCUC) with re- to the BC grid at an equal or lower cost. not at all. viewing the $8.3 billion mega-project. Regarding the $2 billion the former Lib- Instead, Horgan made the strange claim I had been working alongside many oth- eral government had already spent, the that the $2 billion already spent would ers since 2010 to stop the Site C dam BCUC found it could be paid off over a need to be accounted for immediately if from drowning the beautiful Peace River period of 30 years, along with remedi- the Site C dam were stopped – and the Valley, and drowning the ratepayers of ation costs. All this is very doable in a province would not be able to do this BC in a sea of red ink to boot. Getting province with a budget of over $50 bil- without extreme hardship. The only way to know the local farm families and the lion a year. forward, according to the premier, is to First Nations people was a real education flood over 100 kilometres of the Peace on how much they all love their precious In a nutshell the BCUC report describes River Valley at a cost of well over $10 homeland valley and how hard they have the Site C dam as a real stinker of a deal, billion. fought to keep the Peace. one private investors would not have touched with a ten-foot pole. I was as That would include the loss of all the val- When the promised BCUC report was sure as sure could be the premier would ley bottom farmland, farm family gener- made public in November 2017, it re- soon cancel the Site C dam. ational homes, First Nations heritage and sacred sites – and my trust.

Any trust people like me have that their NDP government knows right from wrong would be drowned too. Site C dam is a scam being pushed by a few people who want to get their hands on more than $10 billion of public funds. Stop Site C.

Joe Foy is the national campaign director for the Wilderness Committee, Canada’s largest membership-based wilderness preservation organization.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip

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