PIPE LINE LOVING INJUNCTIONS

Enbridge XL pipe line CEO’s (and big investors) thoroughly understand the power of BC Court Ordered Injunctions. If the Coastal First Nations reported plans (The Tyee, Feb. 30) fail to halt the pipe line and a blockade materializes on First Nations land, then Enbridge knows exactly where to go. With their fraudulent environmental clearance in hand, Enbridge will simply head for the BC Supreme Court. There Enbridge (through their expensive, tony lawyers) will ask a Judge for an injunction. As there aren’t any judges in BC Supreme Court that I know of who will refuse to give an injunction on request from a large corporation, an injunction would be issued to Enbridge. Following the usual scenario, the injunction would then be presented to the RCMP along with the demand that the protesters get out of the way or be arrested. And many protesters might not comply and would be arrested and taken to the police station.

At the police station the arrestees would be booked and offered a piece of paper called an “undertaking”. The undertaking informs the protesters that they will be allowed to leave the police station without going to jail if they promise to appear at a certain time to talk to a judge, and if they promise not to return to the scene of the conflict, or go anywhere around the scene of protest. The protesters will probably sign, however reluctantly, and leave. They have homes, jobs, children, schools that demand their attention. They cannot easily refuse to sign the undertaking. And Enbridge knows this. If everybody signs the undertaking the protest is effectively over. Enbridge will proceed with their work.

But if some of the protesters are so angry and disgusted with the Harper and Christy Clark governments, if they are so broken hearted over the destruction of nature’s bounty, and are so worried for their families’ futures, and their own, that they might say “To hell with this biased court system that only protects the 1% , I will sign nothing”, then the protest will take a different turn. The people who refuse to sign the undertaking will be kept in jail until they are taken before a judge and if they still refuse to sign the undertaking they will be taken back to jail. At this point, by any definition, they have officially become “political prisoners”.

Canada isn’t supposed to have political prisoners. Especially if some of the political prisoners are First Nations. Why, if this should occur, Harper and Christy Clark would have to listen to other countries asking about Canada’s “political prisoners”. Of course the major Western media networks, including the CBC, probably would probably downplay the entire thing if they reported it at all. But the word would spread, questions would be asked, alternate news outlets would pick up the story. And even China would have to think of some kind of spin.

China has money and interest in Enbridge and of course Kevin Falcon loves the way China carries out its public works programs. A couple of years ago when Kevin Falcon was asked about the blockade at Eagleridge Bluffs he said he really liked the way China did things. When they wanted to build a dam, they didn’t have to consult with the people, just their engineers. No problem. And that’s exactly how he and Christy Clark plan their “jobs creation” program, not just with the Enbridge pipe line, but also with gas fracking. They will just do it. And all our protest over the Enbridge pipe line will just be blowing in the wind unless some people start thinking about becoming “political prisoners”.

Is this concept too hard of a sell? Too much to ask? And no chance of succeeding this way? I would argue there is no chance of succeeding in stopping the pipe line any other way if the First Nations legal challenge fails. I have personally been battling the depletion of BC public forests for over twenty years, as have numerous large full time environmental organizations (NGO’s), and the old growth is all but gone and the second growth is being shipped out as logs. One person refusing to sign an undertaking is not enough. I was not taken seriously by the BC government, no matter how long I stayed I prison because I could be portrayed as a lone, weird little old lady who was probably senile.

Becoming a political prisoner is not easy. But at this juncture in our country’s history nothing is going to be easy, especially for the young. And it isn’t just that the future of our country that is at stake…our world is at stake. The earth itself is at stake. We must love this earth and the life it fosters more than ourselves, more than anything, or we will lose it all. And I believe that when the bulldozers come and significant numbers of people join the protest against the pipe line and when protesters are arrested and taken to jail some might refuse to sign the undertaking and in the process will willingly become “political prisoners”. Then the world will rejoice. If this should happen, I believe that Canada would rally around political prisoners in a way it has never done before. If this happens I believe that Canada would come alive.

WEEP, GAIA, WEEP!

Truly it’s enough to make Gaia herself weep. Mainstream (open net fish farms) has brought Don Staniford to court in order to punish him for alerting the public to their rotten fish farm practices that threaten the health of wild salmon. And while Don Staniford is brave and stalwart in his struggle against fish farm fish, from my own experience with BC courts on environmental issues, he’s up against the most conservative judiciary in Canada. However, BC judges do get annoyed, of course, when massive cuts in legal aid and overcrowded court room schedules impact their own judicial lives. But we can understand their annoyance since all these cuts come from the same BC Liberals that some of the same judges fought so hard to protect when under siege (Gordon Campbell, Christy Clark, in the BC Rail scandal). But we can hope for the best and support Don in anyway we can. We recognize that Gaia works in mysterious ways her wonders to perform.

Wild salmon are Gaia’s gift of love. To us. Many anthropologists believe that it was fish that first nourished the brains of pre-humans to the point of focused behavior, behavior that eventually became specifically human (tool making). And it isn’t just open net farm fish that are threatening this priceless gift.

It is also the genetically modified salmon biding their time in West Vancouver, awaiting their cue from the Harper government for release for human consumption, who in turn is awaiting his cue from the US environmental protection agencies. If the US answer is yes, that GMO fish is good for humans, then the Harper government will also move to release these artificial, hormonally treated, genetically scrambled fish for human consumption; fish that have no way of warning us humans what their tortured flesh will do to Canadian children and pregnant women who eat them, even if they knew. Some natural species do know, and send warnings in the form of certain colors, smells, etc., that they are dangerous to other species. The GMO salmon are not natural and can send no warnings. And neither are the sex changed, chemically infused, open net farmed fish.

We have depended on our government to warn us of dangerous foods, not promote then. I had sooner ask my daughter’s cat about the matter. I bet my boots that neither my daughter’s cat, nor her feline neighbourhood friends, would eat a GMO salmon. Or an open net farmed one. And would starve rather than consume an open net fish farmed, sex changed, flesh dyed, gene spliced, fish monstrosity that our government is gearing up to present to us. Yes, Gaia, weep for us! And a pox on those who mangle and murder your Great Gifts!

The Women’s Party has sent a further letter to Peter Kent, Minister of the Environment in reply to his letter to us. Copy below:

Jan.19, 2012
Minister of the Environment
The Honourable Peter Kent, P.C., M.P.
Ottawa, Canada K1A 0H3

Mr. Kent,
Thank you for your letter of Dec 12. We have been considering the information you provided in your letter along with the information provided in the letter from Mr. Gerry Ritz. We take issue with your letter, Mr. Kent on several grounds. First, the advances you claim for other genetically modified foods are wildly exaggerated. If this were not so, why wouldn’t your government allow the labeling of products that contain genetically modified foods? Certainly the Europeans demand this of their governments as well as other countries. The main over riding objection The Women’s Party has to GMO foods is that contrary to your claims, there is no science based, regulatory process that considers every “possible precaution” before letting these foods loose on the unsuspecting public simply because nobody knows at this point in time what the long term results will be, particularly in children, from ingesting GMO foods.

Yes, while it may be true that the struggle over GMO Salmon is still being fought in the US, your government is obviously getting geared up for an approval by the US. We feel that it is disingenuous to claim that because Canadian law (Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999) forbids new living organisms from being imported into Canada without a science-based assessment then your government can’t be guilty of such a thing. To the contrary, we argue that just allowing the cultivation of Genetically Modified Salmon eggs (on PEI) from and by a foreign company (Bay Fortune, part of AquaBounty, US) on Canadian soil is an infringement of the Act. Your government is willing to bypass Canadian law and run the risks of lost or escaped or even stolen eggs and fry of Bay Fortune, as well as that of matured GMO salmon who can interbreed with wild stock when matured in West Vancouver. We, Sir, are not.

We ask that a risk assessment on this practice be conducted forthwith as well as an explanation of why and how Stephen Harper’s government has been able to override the laws of Canada while exposing Canadian waters to a new and horrific threat of biological pollution.

Writing for the Women’s Party:
Betty Krawczyk betty.krawczyk@gmail.com

c.c.
The Honourable Leona Aglukkasq, PC, MP Minister_Ministre@hc-sc.gc.ca
The Honourable Keith Ashfield, PC, MP Min@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
The Honourable Christian Paradis, PC, MP ministre.industrie@ic.gc.ca
The Honourable John Weston, MP john.weston@parl.gc.ca

China and Norway, Robbers and Thieves? Of BC Waters and Salmon and Trees?

You bet. China now protects all of her old growth forests and has made it a crime to clear cut anything that looks like a tree in China. Not that China in principal disapproves of cutting old growth forests or clear cutting anything, just not in China. China most definitely approves of cutting old growth forests and clear cutting in other countries. In fact, much if not most of the old growth and raw logs leaving BC province is heading for China. China’s position is clear…after the massive flooding of her own denuded mountains and valleys from clear cutting, she is now more than willing to let Canada suffer the results of massive floods, soil depletion, unstable hills and mountainsides, watershed ruination and mud and rock slides. Just send China the raw logs and lumber, please. Which our BC government is only too happy to allow in order to maintain the support of domestic logging companies and developers.

And Norway? Norway is taking the same tact on open net fish arming along her shores that China does about her forests. Norway tells her fish farming companies to go ruin somebody else’s waters with the penned up, overcrowded, chemical laden, hapless fish with heir mushy, artificially dyed bodies, just keep them out of Norway as much as possible. And of course, BC has welcomed the Norwegian fish farm companies with open arms. But a lot of BC citizens have issues with this warm acceptance of the despoliation of our own waters from open net fish farming. For instance, Don Staniford, environmental activist, is on trial right now in BC Supreme Court for calling the Norwegian ( Cermaq) farm fish poisonous, like cigarettes. But I think the Norwegians may regret suing Mr. Staniford. Because of the media attention around the law suit more people will, before the four week trial is over, equate eating fish farm fish with cigarette smoking, along with its attendant ills, than ever before.

So, who are the robbers and thieves? Countries who don’t want to spoil their own land and waters and the eventual worth of their own countries, or our own Canadian governments, both federal and provincial, who obviously don’t give a dam? I think it’s the latter.

China should “Make Extended Preparations for War?”
How to make sense of this announcement by the Chinese President Hu Jintao? War with whom? Surely China isn’t going to invade Iran. China is the number one oil and gas importer from Iran. The Chinese buy their gas and oil, they don’t go around bombing other countries for it as the US does, as the US is threatening (and preparing) to do at this moment. The war drums have been beating down south for some months now. The message from the US is that they want to invade Iran (Patrick Pexton, Washington Post 1/6/12). However, perhaps the drums may pause to reflect on news of China’s recent announcements. Chinese Major General Zhang Zhaozhong says that “China will not hesitate to protect Iran even with a Third World War in order to safeguard their domestic policy needs”, and Chinese President Hu Jintao announced that the Chinese navy should “make extended preparations for warfare”.(Commodity Online, 1/7/12).

Okay, this seems to be about the Chinese warning the US that if they invade Iran there will be hell to pay. Like a third world war. I get it. Will Obama get it? I think he will. And so will the international banks, lending institutions, and all the makers of drones and exotic military mechanisms eating up the US budget. Why do I believe the One Percent will also get it? Wouldn’t the US OnePercent just love to invade Iran because of the billions, (maybe even trillions) to be made from waging such a war itself, plus all that oil? Oh, my God, all that oil!

But while the deep socketed eyes of the OnePercent may roll and glisten at the very idea of Iranian oil, I don’t think a US Iranian invasion will happen. Why not? Is it because I think Wall Street and the Military Industrial Complex might be stricken with a conscience? One that might suggest to them there is something immoral with ordering US personal sitting safely behind their desks in the US to direct the deadly unmanned drones to take out foreign soldiers and civilians alike if need be? No, nothing that improbable.

The real reason I don’t think there will be a US invasion of Iran is because China has “dibbies” (a word we used as children to denote prior possession) on Iran’s oil. And China has now let it be known they will protect their oil interests there. The American OnePercent can chew their fingers, snort a little coke, cry and wet their pants at the thought of the billions being so tantalizingly close and yet so far away and speaking Chinese. But they know they have to back off Iran. If they don’t, China might slap a claim on what is owed them by the US Treasury, start dumping US dollars and refuse to buy any more US bonds which would bring the US to their knees without firing a shot. The Chinese navy, the one that President Hu Jintao is talking up, is only for show. It is a symbol for the money war that is entirely in China’s power to wage and win. It’s an ironic twist. The only entity that can actually hurt the OnePercent is China. (photo: Chinese President Hu Jintao)