AUTUMN 2014 The Council of Canadians www.canadians.org FORGING SOLIDARITY ALSO INSIDE: THINK THE UNFAIR ELECTIONS ACT IS A DONE DEAL? THINK AGAIN. | 2014 SUPPORTER SURVEY FOR-PROFIT CLINIC LAWSUIT MAY TRANSFORM HEALTH CARE | TPP TALKS SHROUDED IN SECRECY Editor: Jan Malek Copy Editor: Janet Shorten Design: Amy Thompson Cover photo: Luc De Leeuw, Creative Commons licence Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Printing: Plantagenet Printing pg. 19 Contents Past issues of Canadian Perspectives are available at www.canadians.org. ISSN 1188-6897 Publications Mail Agreement No. 40065620 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Canadian Perspectives pg. 9 pg. 18 The Council of Canadians 170 Laurier Avenue West, Suite 700 Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5V5 Email: [email protected] 3 Letters to the Editor 18 Chapter Action Updates 4 On the Road with Maude 19-20 What Harper’s 2012 Barlow Budget Bills Are Doing to 5-6 Think the Unfair Elections Watersheds Today Act Is a Done Deal? Think 21 Energy East Pipeline Will again. Spill – It’s just a matter 2014 BOARD OF DIRECTORS 7-8 Forging Solidarity: of when, where and how Maude Barlow, Leticia Adair, Pam Beattie, Roy Brady, Communities and unions much Leo Broderick, John Cartwright, Robert Chernomas, Lois Frank, Andrea Furlong, Garry John, Ken Kavanagh, come together 22-23 LNG Pipedreams: Fractured Sandra Lockhart, Paul Manly, Tracey Mitchell, Moira Peters, 9-10 Turning on the Taps: The futures and community Abdul Pirani, Rick Sawa, Steven Shrybman, Heather Smith, Blue Planet Project fights resistance Fred Wilson for the right to water in 24 Standing in Solidarity with ADVISORY BOARD Detroit Indigenous Peoples Duncan Cameron, John Gray, Eric Peterson, 11-12 Growing Opposition in 25 TPP Talks Shrouded in Abraham Rotstein, Mel Watkins, Lois Wilson Europe Could Still Derail Secrecy EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CETA 26 Door-to-Door Democracy: Garry Neil 13-14 For-Profit Clinic Lawsuit Sinking the Harper agenda STAFF May Transform Health Care with grassroots power Meena Agarwal, Mohamed Amano, Tori Ball, 15-16 2014 Supporter Survey 27 Chapter Contacts Dave Bergeron, Elizabeth Berman, Hélène Bertrand, Michael Butler, Mark Calzavara, Daniella Carpio, 17 Chapter Activist Profile Dana Chapeskie, Philippe Charbonneau, Kathie Cloutier, Elma Parker, Leila Darwish, Brigette DePape, Roger Desjardins, Northumberland, Ontario Sujata Dey, Chris Gallaway, Angela Giles, Harjap Grewal, Andrea Harden-Donahue, Scott Harris, Amyn Hyder Ali, Donna James, Karen Jordon, Meera Karunananthan, The Council of Canadians believes that political literacy is crucial to regaining control of our Jamian Logue, Aleah Loney, Emma Lui, Jan Malek, communities and our country. We encourage you to copy articles from Canadian Perspectives – Ailish Morgan-Welden, Jeannette Muhongayire, most conveniently fit on one or two pages. If you would like to reprint articles, or if you would Brent Patterson, Dylan Penner, Matthew Ramsden, like to distribute Canadian Perspectives in your community, please contact us at 1-800-387-7177. Carl Stewart, Brant Thompson, Pamela Woolridge 2 Canadian Perspectives Autumn 2014 The Council of Canadians | www.canadians.org Letters to the Editor Cyclists on the Energy East Resistance Ride made a stop in Halifax in June. The group was cycling the pro- posed path of the Energy East pipeline to raise awareness and challenge the drive for fossil fuels. Ball Tori WHERE IS THE PLAN? WHY CANADIANS WON’T 6. Attack ads. These negative ads might Does the oil and gas industry really need BOTHER VOTING work for the traditional political parties to to be subsidized in this day and age, given It is disappointing to know that during gain temporary results, but they do not their extreme profitability? Might these the next federal election approximately 10 serve democracy well. subsidies be better shifted to the develop- million of us will not vote. But why is that? Yes, I confess, while waiting for real ment of renewable sources of energy in I suggest there are six reasons that might change, I will vote regardless. I guess I am order to accelerate their development? an optimist after all. Should our continuing dependence on explain this popular inertia. fossil fuels not be actively discouraged 1. The lack of respect and civility in the Raymond Cusson by making its generation and use more House of Commons and provincial legis- Shoal Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador costly by putting a price on it instead of latures that people witness through televi- subsidizing it? THANK YOU sion and the media. What would the citizens of Canada do if In addition to all of the above questions, 2. The lack of fairness. Canadians believe they did not have the Council of Canadians where is our government’s comprehensive that due to a lack of electoral reform, their to take care of their rights? Thank you, climate change plan? Does it even have one? votes will result in no representation in Council, for everything you do! The urgency for this is growing, and more Parliament and that their elected officials Shaheen Junaid and more Canadians are becoming alarmed have no real appetite to change the rules Montreal, Quebec about what is happening to our planet and once elected. How can one explain that therefore to our country. Canada must this last federal government was elected GREAT ISSUE become a world leader, a country that is with only 38 per cent of the votes and that I just got my very first copy of Canadian prepared to take bold initiatives and set the rest of the voters will find themselves Perspectives Spring 2014. Wow! It’s full examples for others. We have done so in with no voice in the House of Commons? of very important (good and bad) news that we otherwise might not know, or not the past in many areas – and we are fully 3. Lack of capacity to solve serious prob- know in full detail. I just read it cover-to- capable of doing so again. lems. While public awareness and con- cover in my first sitting. Joy Silver cerns have mounted about global prob- Coquitlam, B.C. lems such as greenhouse gas emissions, Helen Hansen the depletion of tropical forests and other Guelph, Ontario MEANINGFUL, species-rich habitats, so has the convic- NOT MANDATORY tion that governments are failing to solve SEND US YOUR LETTERS! Re. “Time to legislate voting?” letter to the them. If you have something to say about editor in the Spring 2014 issue of Canadian 4. The lack of trust and accountability. an article you have read in Canadian Perspectives. People have lost respect for government Perspectives, or an issue you think Instead of mandatory voting, why not try in general and don’t believe politicians are would interest our readers, please write meaningful voting where a voter’s vote honest, which leads people to question to us. We reserve the right to edit your counts in a meaningful way whether or government’s capacity to manage pro- letter for clarity and length. Letters not the voter votes for the winner of their grams effectively. must include your full name, address riding? With an effective voting system 5. Lack of team-building to solve problems. and phone number. like Preferential Ridings Proportional (PRP), The refusal of the political parties to form all votes could count and Canada could SEND YOUR LETTER TO: majority-based coalition government(s), Canadian Perspectives become a truly representative democra- thus strategic alliances, to solve real cy. False majority governments would not The Council of Canadians problems (health, environment, climate 170 Laurier Avenue West, Suite 700 happen, but real majority governments change, education, employment) indicates could. Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5V5 our incapacity to engage in team-building Email: [email protected], Dave Brekke for the benefit of the people. Attention: Editor, Canadian Perspectives Yukon www.canadians.org | The Council of Canadians Autumn 2014 Canadian Perspectives 3 Council of Canadians sup- porters and staff take to the streets during the Peoples’ Social Forum in Ottawa On the Road with Maude Barlow Dear friends, As summer comes to a close a busy fall and literary festival and a keynote to the care for all and a renewed role for the winter season beckons. Much as I have PSAC-affiliated Union of Canadian federal government. We are opposing spent time with friends and family this Transportation Employees Triennial mega pipelines, the expansion of the summer, it has also been busy on the work Convention in Vancouver. August in tar sands and fracking, while promot- front! I travelled to Haliburton Highlands in Ottawa provided the perfect backdrop ing an alternative energy future for the Ontario to support Environment Haliburton for the highly successful People’s Social country and planet. We are working in its quest to protect the precious waters Forum, which the Council helped orga- to protect the Great Lakes as a public of this region. nize. At the end of the month, I attend- trust while fighting for water justice ed our alternative forum at the First at home and internationally. We are In June, I oversaw the creation of the first Ministers’ meeting in Charlottetown, exposing the Harper government’s anti- Blue Community in South America. The where we took the message to the democratic moves such as election fraud gorgeous town of Cambuquira, Brazil, premiers to fight for public health care and the new legislation that would make is trying to protect its precious mineral in the face of the Harper government’s it even harder to expose such fraud in water heritage from being taken over by retreat from medicare. the future. Nestlé. Nearby São Lourenço was once a tourist destination famous for its min- Our September gathering of interna- Sometimes it can get frustrating, as we eral waters and waterpark, but Nestlé has tional water activists in Toronto was a seem to be fighting on all fronts at once.