These Policies Could Help End Single-Parent Poverty in BC

Such poverty is largely a women’s issue, say advocates. But there are solutions.

Adrienne Montani of First Call says policy changes around education, parental leave could reduce poverty in single-parent families. Photo from First Call.

Only 20 per cent of British Columbia’s kids are from single-parent families. Yet they make up more than half of the almost 164,000 children in the province living in poverty.

And 85 per cent of low-income B.C. single parents identified as female in the last census.

“We can’t talk about child poverty without talking about women’s poverty,” said Stephanie Skourtes, a sociologist and board member for the non-profit Single Mothers’ Alliance BC.

“There’s this myth now that women are on par, equal or surpassing the rights, privileges and income level of men. And that isn’t the situation.”

According to the 2019 BC Child Poverty Report Card, released last week by First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition, 19.1 per cent of all B.C. kids live in poverty.

There are many reasons single parents are more likely to be poor. More of them are receiving welfare or disability assistance — 84 per cent of all families with kids receiving assistance are single-parent led. Those rates leave families below the poverty line.

And almost two-thirds of minimum wage earners in the province are women.

The report card notes lone female parents had a median annual income of just under $45,000 in 2017, compared to $62,550 for lone male parents.

The Tyee spoke to four anti-poverty organizations about solutions to single-parent poverty: First Call; the Single Mothers’ Alliance; West Coast Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF); and the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition.

All agree current government policies entrench single-mom poverty, and that racialized, Indigenous, transgender and disabled mothers are more likely to be in poverty and languish there for years.

Each new or changed policy must be viewed through a gender, race and ability lens in order to aid those living in the deepest, longest-term poverty, advocates noted. And government must monitor — and be accountable for, and transparent about — their policies’ impact on poverty.

Here are the solutions that emerged from the interviews.

Income

Increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour today — instead of waiting until 2021 — and index it to inflation. (It’s currently $13.85.)

Abolish lower minimum wages for positions like liquor servers, who now are guaranteed $12.70. Nearly 60 per cent of accommodation and food service workers, which includes liquor servers, were women in 2017. (Elba Bendo, director of law reform for West Coast LEAF, noted there are also “very high rates of harassment and discrimination in those jobs.”)

Increase income and disability assistance rates. A single parent with two children under six on income assistance would receive $28,820 in income assistance, Canada Child Benefit and B.C. Early Childhood Tax Benefit payments. Rates are higher for parents with disabilities, yet a lone parent with two kids under six would receive just over $33,820 including child benefits.

Change disability assistance rules to provide benefits to parents of children with complex needs who require 24/7 care. Those parents are now designated “expected to work,” which brings lower assistance rates. “You’re on regular assistance, but the fact that you can’t work, have trouble sustaining work, because of your child or you’re a full-time caregiver, is not recognized,” said Adrienne Montani, First Call’s provincial coordinator.

Education and training

Expand the B.C.’s Single Parents Employment Initiative. The initiative, launched in fall 2015, has provided thousands of single parents on assistance with funding to go back to school and pay for childcare and transit costs while continuing to receive income assistance. But there are limitations. Parents must enrol in a 12-month education program in a government-approved area of study, and childcare spaces and transit must be available in their area. Montani would like to see the program expanded to include four-year degrees, so parents have an opportunity to earn more money, and eligibility open to all parents.*

Provide single parents who aren’t receiving assistance more access to grants, scholarships and bursaries. Student debt forgiveness would also allow parents to spend their income on raising their families, not paying off loan debt.

Support new parents

Reform parental leave. Canada is well-known for its parental leave. But government-funded leave under the Employment Insurance system isn’t open to parents who didn’t work the required minimum hours before giving birth. “Women have more trouble hitting those eligibility thresholds,” said Montani. “And then there’s the issue of the adequacy of the benefit.”

Payments are limited to a maximum 55 per cent of your regular income. Advocates say we should be more like Quebec, which has its own parental benefits plan which provides up to 75 per cent of parents’ income.

Housing

Expand rent control. B.C. limits rental increases to the rate of inflation, but the limit applies to the tenant, not the unit. As soon as a tenant moves out, there are no limits on raising the rent. Bendo proposes rent caps should be tied to the unit, limiting how much a landlord can increase rent when a unit is vacated. Housing costs are a significant factor in single-parent poverty.

Expand the number of social and co-op housing units large enough for families. The average market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Metro Vancouver last fall was $1,748, while a unit with three or more bedrooms rented for an average $2,063. For a single parent with two children on income assistance, rent would take almost 75 per cent of their income.

Increase transition housing for women experiencing domestic violence, and ensure it is accessible for trans, disabled, Indigenous and racialized women.

Childcare

Provide more licensed $10-a-day childcare spaces and make care available outside standard 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. operating hours. Many single parents work outside those hours.

Family law

Increase enforcement of child support payments. In 2014 the federal government estimated over $3.7 billion in unpaid child support was owed to parents.

Expand legal aid assistance to women in divorce or custody cases and in disputes over child support.

Invest more in prevention of domestic violence and supports for women fleeing abusive partners, including greater mental health supports for perpetrators and their families.

SOURCE

 

How the minority parliament can help respond to sexualized violence

Responding effectively to the problem of sexualized violence is not a partisan issue. There are positive changes a minority government can make.

exualized violence continues to be a widespread, costly, harmful, and discriminatory social problem. Canadian women are more likely to be sexually assaulted than to obtain a university degree or to be paid the same as our male counterparts, as I have noted elsewhere. For Indigenous women, the rate of sexual assault is triple that of non-Indigenous women.

Spurred by the #MeToo movement, our legal and social responses to sexualized violence have received enormous, and novel, public attention in the past five years. Canadians are increasingly frustrated with how our legal systems and social institutions respond to harmful sexual behavior.

During its first mandate, the Trudeau government took some steps that responded to this public dissatisfaction. Those steps should be applauded. For the first time in over 25 years, significant, substantive changes to the law of sexual assault were adopted through amendments to the Criminal Code. These include clarifying that intimate sexual communications between a complainant and her alleged abuser should be protected by our rape shield provisions; creating a process to determine whether private records in the accused’s possession, such as texts or Facebook messages between him and the complainant, are legitimately necessary for the defence (rather than introduced solely to humiliate, or discriminate against, the complainant); and permitting complainants or their lawyers to have a say on whether evidence of their other sexual activities, unrelated to the alleged sexual assault, should be introduced at trial.

These provisions are being challenged under the Charter. Some trial judges have upheld their constitutionality. Others have struck them down, despite the Supreme Court of Canada having already ruled on the constitutionality of laws of this nature.

The previous government also supported several promising policy initiatives aimed at improving our response to sexual violence. For example, the government funded the development of pilot projects to provide state-funded independent legal advice for sexual assault survivors in several provinces. Similarly, as part of its Strategy to Prevent Gender Based Violence, the federal government provided the National Judicial Institute (which trains judges) with money to develop judicial training that focuses on gender-based violence including sexual assault.

Despite these positive changes, there have been missed opportunities. For instance, when given the chance to clarify and improve the legal definition of capacity to consent to sexual touching through a proposed Senate amendment to Bill C-51, the Minister of Justice refused. At what point of intoxication is someone too drunk to consent? This is a frequent, inconsistently answered question in sexual assault trials. Instead of resolving the matter, Bill C-51 added an unnecessary and potentially problematic provision reiterating that unconscious people cannot consent to sex – a point about which judges were not confused.

Our new minority government has an opportunity to bring together all parties to work collaboratively on this social problem. What are some of the legislative steps and policy initiatives addressing sexualized violence that the government should pursue to meet its commitment to reduce violence against women articulated in its recent Speech from the Throne?

Provinces bear responsibility for delivering services to survivors of sexual violence and administering justice. Nevertheless, there is a great deal that could be achieved at the federal level. This piece and the feature series in Policy Options offer only a few.

Most obviously, additional revisions to the Criminal Code should be introduced. Courts require guidance in adjudicating sexual assault cases involving severely intoxicated complainants. The previous government committed to working on this issue. In many cases, women who are too intoxicated to walk, speak, or dress themselves properly are not found to be too drunk to consent. The Criminal Code should include a definition of capacity to consent that requires more than the bare consciousness or “minimal capacity” currently required by many courts.

The previous government eliminated preliminary inquiries in many sexual assault cases. Bill C-75 restricted the availability of preliminary inquiries to those offences liable to a maximum sentence of 14 years or more. This is a positive development for sexual assault law in part because it means that most sexual assault complainants over the age of 16 will not have to undergo the ordeal of testifying and being cross-examined twice.

But, because sexual assaults involving complainants under the age of 16 expose an accused to a sentence of up to 14 years, preliminary inquiries are still available in cases involving children. The new government should amend the Criminal Code so that children – some of our most vulnerable sexual assault complainants – are not forced to go through a process we now protect most adult complainants from enduring.

There are also, of course, countless steps beyond revisions to the Criminal Code that the federal government should take. To name a few, many of which will be examined more closely by the authors in this series:

• • Federal funding for independent legal aid programs should be made permanent.
  • A strategy for prevention and provision of services and dedicated funding for responding to sexualized violence in Canada’s north, where rates of sexualized violence are more than seven times higher than in the south, should be implemented.
  • The Canadian military, which, given the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in R v Stillman, will continue to run its own sexual assault trials, should be required to respond to the failings within its legal system identified by the auditor-general and others.
  • The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’ Calls for Justice should be answered with money and action.
  • The funding commitments related to the Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender Based Violence should be revisited and renewed.
  • Resources should be devoted to supporting better research on the vital gaps in our justice system that lead to costly harms, often borne by those who are most vulnerable.

Key to the success of any of these efforts will be the government’s willingness to consult and work with sexual assault experts – front-line workers, academics and practitioners. Initiatives like the Department of Justice’s 2017 Knowledge Exchange (in which sexual assault experts and law- and policy-makers were brought together to examine how sexual assaults are reported, charged and prosecuted in Canada) should be undertaken throughout the government’s term including in these early days in office, when mandates are developed and directions chosen.

Effective response to sexualized violence is a non-partisan issue. It is also a prolific and intransigent social problem with devastating effects – the bulk of which are borne by women and girls. This series highlights the many opportunities for Canada’s new minority government to improve our social and legal responses to this problem. SOURCE

China moves to phase out single-use plastics

Plastic bags to be banned in all major cities by end of 2020, says state planner

A Chinese labourer sorting out plastic bottles on the outskirt of Beijing. Photograph: Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images

China is stepping up restrictions on the production, sale and use of single-use plastic products, according to the state planner, as it seeks to tackle one of the country’s biggest environmental problems.

Vast amounts of untreated plastic waste are buried in landfills or dumped in rivers. The United Nations has identified single-use plastics as one of the world’s biggest environmental challenges.

The national development and reform commission and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, which issued the policy, said plastic bags would be banned in all of China’s major cities by the end of 2020 and banned in all cities and towns in 2022. Markets selling fresh produce will be exempt from the ban until 2025.

Other items such as plastic utensils from takeaway food outlets and plastic courier packages will also be phased out.

By end of this year, the restaurant industry will be banned from using single-use straws. By 2025, towns and cities across China must reduce the consumption of single-use plastic items in the restaurant industry by 30%.

Some regions and sectors will also face restrictions on the production and sale of plastic products, although it is not yet clear which geographical areas.

China also banned the import of all plastic waste, and the use of medical plastic waste in the production of plastic.

The production and sale of plastic bags less than 0.025mm thick will be banned, as will plastic film less than 0.01mm thick for agricultural use.

China is already boosting recycling rates and is building dozens of “comprehensive resource utilisation” bases to ensure more products are reused as part of its war on waste. SOURCE

 

Genetically Modified Seeds: Bayer Builds Latin America’s Largest Seed Factory in Chile

In Chile, the largest seed exporter in the southern hemisphere, Bayer is expanding the GM seed production factories of its subsidiary Monsanto

“Bayer-Monsanto: Get Out of Chile”, was the slogan on banners in Santiago on May 19 during the “March against Monsanto” protest, which took place in 30 cities around the world for an agriculture without pesticides and against the use of genetically modified seeds.

Just a few days earlier, the Bayer pharmaceutical consortium had been ordered to pay more than $2 billion to a couple in the United States who claimed to have had cancer due to the use of Roundup, a herbicide developed by Bayer’s subsidiary, Monsanto.

Critical voices grow in Chile

About 50 kilometers south of Santiago are two of the largest seed production plants in Chile. In September 2018, after the purchase of Monsanto, Bayer CropScience announced the modernization of the Viluco plant, the only factory that produces vegetable seeds in South America and one of the company’s three largest factories worldwide.

“We want to modernize the technology and processes, so that the factory reaches the standards of the factories in the Netherlands and the United States,” said Yuri Charme of Bayer CropScience. The project, called “Satisfaction of demand”, aims to increase seed production by 20% so that Chile can meet 70% of demand in the region in the near future.

Chile is the largest seed exporter in the southern hemisphere. According to figures from the Federation of Seed Producers (ChileBio), the country exported seeds worth $338.5 million in 2016/2017, a fifth of which were GM. One of the advantages of having a seed business in Chile is that when it is winter in Europe, there it is summer.

GM plant pollen contaminates local seeds

Bayer and Monsanto: Two Destructive Corporate Conglomerates Become One

The vegetable seed that is processed at the factory in Viluco represents, so far, a small part of the seed exports. Far more important are corn, soybeans and rapeseed. These are processed in another factory, a few kilometers south of Viluco, in the rural community of Paine. There, the majority of the population subsists from agriculture. Already in 2016, before the merger with Bayer, Monsanto had announced the expansion of the factory, which led a group of citizens to found the Paine Defence Committee.

“The largest seed processing plant in Latin America is being built here. There are no studies on its environmental impact. Politicians approved the project without consulting people’s opinions,” says Camila Olavarría, spokesman for the committee.

The inhabitants of Paine fear the contamination of local seeds by cross-pollination when pollen from modified plant fields is transported by wind to neighboring fields. This is particularly easy with rapeseed, because its pollen flies up to three kilometers.

“Most of the seeds here have been genetically modified”

In EU countries, the cultivation of genetically modified rapeseed is prohibited. In Chile, however, cultivation is allowed for research and export purposes. The only way to avoid cross-pollination would be a sufficient distance between crops. This prevention measure is not implemented in Chile.

Olavarría believes that the seeds in Paine are already contaminated:

“Most of the seeds here have been genetically modified. Bayer-Monsanto gives local farmers seeds that they sow on their land. They then have to return some seeds that are then processed in Paine and Viluco and exported,” he explains. And he adds that “farmers receive the seeds along with a package of pesticide products like Roundup”.

“There are more and more cancer diagnoses”

Roundup, the brand name of glyphosate, is the best selling herbicide in Chile. In March 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as a “probable carcinogen”. Camila Navarro, also a member of the Paine Defense Committee, points out that in her community “the number of people with cancer is growing, not only among farmers, but also among seasonal farmworkers and people close to the fields.”

He points out that the children of seasonal farmworkers frequently suffer from speech defects and cognitive disorders. He adds that there are also reports about pregnant women who work in the fields, and who suffer miscarriages or whose babies are born with fatal malformations. There are no official studies on the relationship between pesticides and these diseases.

Action network calls for ban on glyphosate in Chile

Cancer is the second most common cause of death in Chile. Each year, there are 45,000 new cases, according to the Chilean Ministry of Health earlier this year. A network for action against pesticides calls for a ban on glyphosate in Chile. Lucia Sepúlveda, one of its members, told DW that “Bayer and Monsanto are not welcome in Chile,” and concludes that the cultivation of genetically modified plants and pesticides “damages the environment and the health of the population.”  SOURCE

 

Logging B.C.’s ancient forests adds to extinctions

Governments everywhere must safeguard ancient forests, their webs of life and the life support systems upon which we all depend.

Old-growth western red cedar, western hemlock and Pacific silver fir in the Capilano River watershed near North Vancouver. AMANDA STAN / SUN

Human destruction and disruption of the natural world have sped up the natural rate of species extinction by at least 100 times. A recent study found that globally billions of populations of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians have been lost in recent decades with habitat destruction as the leading cause, now exacerbated by global warming. They referred to the massive loss of wildlife as “biological annihilation.”

Here in “Super, Natural B.C.,” we often celebrate our biological richness and spectacular landscapes. Many of us hang on to the belief that things are not so bad in our neck of the woods, despite the fact that 1,900 B.C. species are at risk of disappearing.

For a reality check, consider this: Vancouver Island’s remaining intact rainforest is being destroyed three times faster than the remaining Amazon rainforest in Brazil.

Brazil’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro, acted immediately to open large areas of the Amazon rainforest to industry, including in protected territories of Indigenous peoples. This puts at risk the 80 per cent of the rainforest that remains standing. In the last 25 years, nearly 10 per cent of the rainforest has been destroyed, falling to 3.3 million square kilometres last year compared to  3.7 million sq. km in 1993.

Globally, and right here at home, the loss of intact forests threatens species, carbon storage, clean air and clean water. In some countries this is mainly due to deforestation. In other countries such as Canada, it is mainly through the replacement of rich ancient forests with even-aged young forest.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in the capital of Brasilia in January 2019. SERGIO LIMA / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

B.C.’s temperate rainforests represent the largest remaining tracts of a globally rare ecosystem that covers just half a per cent of the planet’s landmass. Many species that live here don’t exist anywhere else. At a time when we need to respond to climate change, it’s worth noting that temperate rainforests store more carbon per hectare than tropical forests and while trees grow tall in decades, in tropical forests they need centuries to become old in temperate zones.

Logging of B.C.’s ancient forests continues in habitat that is needed for spotted owl and caribou, species on the brink of disappearing. Like in tropical areas, the loss of forests disproportionately impacts Indigenous peoples who hold title to them and who have used the resources in them since time immemorial.

Governments everywhere must safeguard ancient forests, their webs of life and the life support systems upon which we all depend. Bolsonaro’s rise to power is a huge threat to the future of biodiversity, Indigenous rights and the climate. It’s also a reminder that B.C. is not taking its global responsibility seriously.

B.C. can set a strong example by protecting original forests in a way that respects Indigenous rights while creating jobs and improving second-growth forestry. The Great Bear Rainforest Agreements showed that progress for healthy rainforests and healthy communities is possible and the NDP was elected on a promise to implement this science-based approach elsewhere in B.C.

A year-and-a-half later, the B.C. government has yet to take any meaningful steps to protect endangered old-growth ecosystems outside the Great Bear Rainforest.

The sixth mass extinction is a global threat that doesn’t stop at our borders. Thousands of people have written to the B.C. government, calling for immediate action to protect remaining endangered rainforests. The time for bold action from B.C.’s government is now.

How long does it take for a wind turbine to pay for itself?

How long does it take for a wind turbine to pay for itself? I was driving through south Texas and they seem to be sprouting up like trees. My friend and I guessed that they would pay for themselves in 5-10 years. How close are we to being correct?

John Rowen, former Aerospace Engineering Specialist/Technician at General Electric (1980-1995)

Updated Jan 21, 2019

“I worked on advanced wind turbine projects in the 1990’s developing variable speed generators to improve electronic efficiency and utilizing improved airfoil design for capturing energy from lower wind velocity.

The true answer is clouded by several factors. Federal and local tax incentive subsidies obscure the real cost. Maintenance is an expensive consideration that often is not considered in operating expenses. Interest paid on financing projects must also be included. Wind turbines, especially large units, are complex structures that require significant investment to build and operate. They are prone to failures and costly to repair. Downtime for routine servicing and inspections produces no electricity and winds are not always reliable consistent.

Turbine assemblies have a useful lifespan of about twenty years as mechanical and electrical components wear out over time and ordinary use, even under the best operating conditions.

The “carbon footprint” of wind turbines, figuring the manufacturing process and all the materials and manpower, transportation, other infrastructure, such as transmission wiring from remote locations, and site preparations involved in erecting and commissioning the units adds up to a real number that is seldom mentioned. Typical large units can be as tall as 400 feet and weigh up to 300 tons.

The actual pay-back of this “green technology” in terms of replacing fossil fuels and overall environmental benefit, including monetary outlay, is probably in decades rather than years. SOURCE

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Finland is now being run by five parties — all led by women, all but one of them under 35

‘I want to build a society in which every child can become anything and in which every human being can live and grow old with dignity,’ wrote PM Sanna Marin

Minister of Education Li Andersson, Minister of Interior Maria Ohisalo, Prime Minister Sanna Marin and Minister of Finance Katri Kulmuni attend a news conference of the new Finnish government in Helsinki, Finland December 10, 2019.Lehtikuva/Vesa Moilanen via REUTERS

HELSINKI— Thirty-four-year-old Social Democrat Sanna Marin took office in Finland on Tuesday as the world’s youngest serving prime minister, heading a coalition with four other parties led by women, all but one of them under 35.

Marin won the confidence of parliament with 99 votes in favor and 70 against.

She replaced Antti Rinne, who resigned last week after the Centre Party, one of the members of governing center-left coalition, said it had lost confidence in him over his handling of a postal strike.

“I want to build a society in which every child can become anything and in which every human being can live and grow old with dignity,” Marin wrote on Twitter.

The new cabinet takes over in the middle of labor unrest and a wave of strikes which have halted production at some of Finland’s largest companies for three days.

Sanna Marin

✔@MarinSanna

Neljässä vuodessa Suomi ei tule valmiiksi, mutta se voi tulla paremmaksi. Sen eteen me teemme töitä. Haluan rakentaa yhteiskuntaa, jossa jokaisesta lapsesta voi tulla mitä vain ja, jossa jokainen ihminen voi elää ja vanheta ihmisarvoisella tavalla.

2:23 AM – Dec 10, 2019

“It is my great pleasure to congratulate the new Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin. Finland has truly taken the gender issues to the next level: all coalition parties are now led by women!” tweeted new European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.

Twelve ministers in the new cabinet are women and just seven are men. The head of the Centre Party, Katri Kulmuni, 32, becomes finance minister, Green Party leader Maria Ohisalo, 34, continues as interior minister and the Left Alliance’s chairwoman Li Andersson, 32, remains education minister.

The Swedish People’s Party’s Anna-Maja Henriksson, 55, remains justice minister, the only coalition leader to finish school before the 21st century.

Despite outward shows of harmony, divisions remain between the main coalition partners, Marin’s Social Democrats and the Centre Party.

Marin will struggle to defend her leftist views against the Centre Party, which wants action to boost Finnish employment to pay for the costly welfare state.

Ursula von der Leyen

✔@vonderleyen

It is my great pleasure to congratulate the new Finnish Prime Minister @MarinSanna. #Finland has truly taken the gender issues to the next level: all Coalition parties are now led by women! I look forward to working with the @FinGovernment.

7:43 AM – Dec 10, 2019

Center Party chairwoman Kulmuni defended her decision to force out Rinne, accusing him of having taken the employees’ side in recent labor market disputes when he should have remained neutral.

Before his resignation, Rinne defended the publicly-owned postal service’s employees in their labor dispute by saying their employment conditions would not be trampled while his government was in office.

“It became sort of a habit to flag in advance in favor of one side, in matters which should be dealt with cool impartiality,” Kulmuni wrote in a long post on Facebook.

Marin said recreating trust between the coalition partners was one of her first tasks.

“It demands discussion, a direct one,” she said.

Meanwhile Marin said she would keep using social media — but with care.

Defending her frequent use of social media, she said: ”I present a younger generation but of course, when it comes to social media or Instagram, I think that I’m an individual, a person, a real person even though I’m a prime minister.”

“So I won’t change the way I behave. Of course I have to be careful in what I say,” said Marin, who posted pictures of herself pregnant and later with her child, now two, on Instagram.

She made no reference to other leaders, such as U.S. President Donald Trump, who frequently use social media and sometimes attract criticism over their online comments. SOURCE

Show that you care that Sobey’s is removing plastic bags

Please join us this Saturday the 1st of February at 11 am and help us celebrate the decision of SOBEYS grocery store in Picton to stop using single use PLASTIC BAGS.

We are going to have the press there while Plastics Free PEC is going to give a certificate of good will to our local store.

A great first step!bring your kids and friends and posters and join in the celebration.

It will only take a short while to stand with Council of Canadians and Plastics Free PEC and support this effort and then you can get on with your day. We hope to see you at SOBEYS PICTON this Saturday at 11:00

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Take Action: It’s Up to US. Only Vote for Politicians Who Support Life

The deadly bromide: “Growing the economy while protecting the environment.”

Many years ago, I was once counselled  by a climate justice activist: “Never vote against yourself.” Words matter. Now, at a time of unprecedented climate emergency ask, “Does this proposed growth support life or destroy it?”

Fossil fuel expansion does ‘grow’ the Canadian economy, but it always leads us further away from sustainability, climate justice, and a liveable future for our children. In an unprecedented global climate emergency, support for fossil fuel expansion is knowingly criminal: a Crime Against Humanity.

There is no way to sugar-coat this: these politicians are climate criminals. They are not protecting your family and friends. They are destroying our children’s future. It really doesn’t matter whether they are motivated by some sincerely held but perverse economic myth. They either know or ought to know that in an unprecedented climate emergency you cannot keep dumping greenhouse gas emissions into our atmosphere: this is criminal behaviour

Growing the economy by promoting, subsidizing, and expanding climate-killing greenhouse gasses is not protecting the environment. Even though we are awash in oil and fracked gas, our major political parties tell us we must expand production to protect jobs and to finance our way to a green future. This argument is pure sophistry. 

To fuel a green economy, Canada has several near-zero energy sources; existing nuclear energy, hydro, solar, geothermal, ocean energy, and onshore and offshore wind. The cost of energy is plummeting. At the same time, by electrifying everything, every sector of the Canadian economy is promising to become more sustainable. These developments are not occurring because of extractive industry subsidization, but in spite of it. The massive subsidies to promote and  expand fossil energy is money not invested in renewables and our green future. It is money not invested in a just transition for workers, trapped in the extractivism morass.But most important of all, climate criminals are increasing the time delay in mitigating global weirding.

Because time is of the essence. Climate scientists warn that we have only till 2030  to reduce emissions to 1.5 degrees C, the point where we will have a 50% chance to avoid climate Armageddon. Canada’s per capita emissions, among  the highest in the world, continue to rise.

Climate scientists tell us we are in a global climate emergency; that without immediate action, we face omnicide. Climate scientists say we have to leave carbon stored safely in the ground. Climate scientists tell us that our permafrost is starting to melt; that irreversible feedback loops are now a real possibility. Climate scientists tell us we cannot ‘negotiate’ with science. After all, reality is reality.

It’s up to us to take every opportunity to expose climate criminals. It is up to us to use every means at our disposal to demand climate action now. But above all, it is up to us to only support politicians who support life.