Photos

A Lighter Shade of Red

Speaking Remarks Honourable Darrell Dexter DEFSEC Atlantic September 9, 2009 7:00 p.m. Cunard Centre, Halifax, NS Check against delivery (Audience 200 plus)

Good evening [Business New Brunswick] Minister Boudreau, dignitaries, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. A special welcome to the many partners who have traveled to Nova Scotia for this important trade exhibition, especially to our partners from Atlantic Canada. We are pleased to be your host for DEFSEC Atlantic, the largest exhibition of its kind in Eastern Canada.

I understand that this is one of the most unique events of its kind in the country. I am honoured to both represent the government of the Province of Nova Scotia and to speak on behalf of this region and industry. With companies represented here from Canada and around the world, it is an excellent forum for collaboration among industry and government stakeholders.

We believe that partnership and collaboration is key in growing this sector not only for Nova Scotia, but also for our Atlantic neighbors. Over the last seven years, Nova Scotia's aerospace and defence industry has grown by an astounding 183 per cent. In 2008, aerospace and aerospace parts manufacturing accounted for more GDP then fishing, forestry, agriculture and tourism combined, in our province.

Here in Nova Scotia, the industry generates in excess of $600 million in revenues each year. When combined with defence spending, the industry contributes $1.5 billion to the provincial economy each year. The aerospace and defense industry in Nova Scotia is helping to build a more prosperous economy in this province. With 80 per cent of annual aerospace sales destined for export, the industry is poised to capitalize on future growth opportunities.

This government is committed to supporting the aerospace and defense industry in Nova Scotia because we recognize the opportunities that these industries play in supporting our economy. For instance, in July, I was in attendance when Lockheed Martin Canada opened its new home in Nova Scotia. The company plans to create up to 100 great career opportunities for our young and talented workforce as well as our seasoned professionals.

These jobs offer excellent wages and working conditions that will help to keep our skilled and experienced workers employed at home. Nova Scotia is fortunate to have the Aerospace and Defence Industry Association of Nova Scotia to support the advancement of the sector and the Human Resources Partnership to work with employers to meet skills and labour needs.

As a province, we have the highest concentration of Canadian Forces personnel in Canada. I know from my experience in the Navy how important the armed forces are to the history of this province and our economy. (insert story from your time in the Navy if you like). Investment in Nova Scotia by companies like Lockheed Martin, L-3 Communications, General Dynamics, Pratt & Whitney and others in Atlantic Canada, helps business in the industry flourish.

Given the strength of this industry and strong partnerships, I am confident that we will continue to see growth and economic spin offs from this promising industry- which translates into more opportunity for all of us. Thank you for the opportunity to speak and I wish you much success during this exhibition. I hope you find it both productive and successful. Thank you -END-

Last Chance for Democracy?

I just got this message from Jack Layton (who strikes me as being quite organized):

Thank you for your previous email in support of protecting Canada's environment.

I want to take this opportunity to update you on my Party's work to advance the fight against dangerous climate change. Our efforts received a major setback due to the combined forces of Conservative and Liberal MPs who voted together to delay Bill C-311, the New Democrat Climate Change Accountability Act.

Bill C-311, with tough, science-based reduction targets for our greenhouse gases, offered Canada a real chance to prove to the world that it is serious about tackling climate change. It passage by Parliament would have given Canada the credibility it sorely needs when it goes to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Now, instead of taking leadership on the environment, Canada will go to Copenhagen with nothing to offer.

For our part, New Democrats will seek any parliamentary measure possible to return C-311 to Parliament.

The decision by Liberal MPs to join with the Conservative to deny passage of this important legislation made one thing clear: more votes for the Conservatives and Liberals will mean less tangible action to protect our environment.

Others agree with our assessment:

“To date, Liberal environmental policies are indistinguishable from those of the Conservative government that have pushed Canada to last place among developed nations in protecting climate and the natural environment.“ – Stephen Hazell, Executive Director, Sierra Club Canada on September 21, 2009.

“This Bill (C-311) has wide support from a broad spectrum of Canadians. Politicians need to set aside their partisan differences and agree on these science-based emissions reduction targets. Time is running out.” - Mark Fried, policy coordinator, Oxfam Canada on October 21, 2009.

“Passing this Bill (C-311) before Copenhagen in December is Parliament’s only hope of proving that we are prepared to work seriously through the United Nations to find a solution to global warming. The Liberals voting with the Conservatives may have made that impossible.” - Dale Marshall, David Suzuki Foundation on October 21, 2009.

Looking forward, you can continue to count on our team of New Democrat MPs to push our plan to take on big polluters, protect our environment, and invest in sustainable solutions. I invite you to check the following link to find out more about our work: http://www.ndp.ca/platform/environment/aplanthatwillwork.

Again, thank you for your ongoing interest to have Canada's elected representatives act on climate change. Feel free to forward my email to anyone interested in environmental protection. All the best.

Sincerely,

Jack Layton, MP (Toronto-Danforth)
Leader, Canada's New Democrats

--

His message is pretty accurate I found after reading this CBC article on the voting today. The best part is the Stephane Dion was the first Liberal to vote against the bill. Not that I'm surprised, he's a Liberal.

Great timing, the delay of this bill. This Saturday is an international climate day of action. And in December the state system has its last chance to prevent run away climate change at the Copenhagen Summit. So don't hold out much hope for Canada being a strong supporter of a strong and binding agreement. The government doesn't even accept 1990 as its baseline year. Seems all the more reason to oppose the state system though we're too scared to do that aren't we.

Anyway pathetic and naive me, I actually decided to write to my MP who is Liberal and the Dear Leader Michael Ignatieff himself telling them what I think of them. If you want to reach him too you can email him at IgnatM@parl.gc.ca. Below is the message that I wrote him in case you feel like doing some cutting and pasting. I don't expect it will do much but one must still act right?


Dear Mr. Ignatieff,

I'm writing to urge you to support the passage of Bill C-311. I have read on cbc.ca that the Liberal Party is working with the Conservative Party to delay the passage of this urgent bill. Frankly this is pathetic and demonstrates that the Liberals and Conservatives present Canadians with mere mirrors of one another. No wonder Harper is riding so high in the polls. The Liberal Party of Canada has nothing to offer.

Climate change is the most important issue, period, considering that the survival of our species is at stake. Time is running out to do something to prevent runaway climate change. It seems from your party's actions that you don't share my concern. This is troubling to say the least.

This is the last straw. If this bill is not passed before the Copenhagen UN Climate Summit in December then you can forget about my support in the next federal election. I will work tirelessly in support of the only other option available to me, the federal NDP. I don't care if the Conservatives get their majority; at least they don't pretend to care about the planet. The Liberal Party is fading fast and is obviously completely out of touch with what matters to
Canadians. Good luck.

Sincerely,

Nightly Grind

I'm grinding my teeth away. Kiss my famous smile goodbye. Every night I have no control. It's coming from somewhere inside me. I'm starting to realize what is causing it. I could just get a mouthguard but that's just like putting up a space mirror to fight climate change. Technology is not a solution to this problem.

And my problem is climate change. Our problem is climate change (maybe you should be grinding your teeth too). We're fucked if we don't do something quickly. Fucked. Fucked. Fucked!

And I don't see that our governments, our dear leaders are going to take action. The economy is the most important word in their vocabularies. So "expensive" climate action is trumped before it was ever considered. All I read makes me realize that they cannot take action. They cannot take action as long as our lifestyles are impacted. This is not just Canada by the way India and China also have lifestyles to ensure. And lifestyles can be translated as us having lots of possessions.

I have already accepted that I'm going to be digging in the dirt growing food, that I'm going to trap animals for food, that I'm going to wear animal skins and chop down trees for warmth, that a bath will be an annual treat, I'll never eat a tropical food, rarely drink alcohol. I'm not even pretending that I will have this computer to gaze into on a planet without human caused climate change. I don't want any of the frills of modern life because I know they will destroy the planet. But is anyone talking about this? No, not even the environmentalists that should know better.

So I don't even know how to start talking to people still living in the old paradigm. The one that will, if not destroy all life on earth, at least end the human species (not such a bad thing but not all humans deserve this fate). These people are so entrenched in this system I don't see how they can get out. How do you say: "You'd better learn to grow turnips if you're planning on having kids", or "Can you imagine, without machines, how much human energy would go into weaving that sweater that you bought for $20"? And what's the use of talk? People don't care. They are more worried about jobs and the immediate and I can't blame them for being in the present. It makes sense if you are really an animal.

Thus I grind my teeth. I know what I should do but I don't want to go there. I'm so conflicted. I love my life here. I love the clean air and the dark night under a million, billion bright stars. I love living how we all have to live (and I'm still hanging on to a lot of things that I know I shouldn't). I don't want to give this up and fight against my species.

So for now grinding will continue and just maybe I'll figure out what I have to do. I know already that Canada is working to sabotage the Copenhagen talks that might, just might save our species. Obviously if this comes to pass then Canada is my enemy, the enemy of life. We'll see after the conference is over. Then it's decision time, one that most people are hardly aware of and that's scary and depressing.

Working Thoughts

For now I have to make some money to cover certain expenses (electricity, phone, internet, cooking oil, insurance, property taxes and probably a few more that I can't think of). So not an inexhaustible list. But these expenses require cash--unfortunately you can't barter with Bell to pay your phone bill. I don't think they are intelligent enough for that. So that means that I'm going to have to do as everyone else (apart from the rich who just get richer from having money) and sell my labour.

This is the model of our society. You sell your labour, get cash and then use that cash to purchase the things that you need like food, shelter, booze, clothing. Producing these things yourself is discouraged and you're told that you're not as efficient as a farmer in producing food or than the sweatshop worker in producing your clothes. Never factored into the equation is developing useful life skills like spinning or gardening. These skills have no value. So we go to school for one thing and focus our lives on that skill, accounting say. And you had better pray that we always need accoutants, because you can't eat ledger sheets.

This weekend I'm working for Elections NS and making a certain degree of money. Basically I'm sitting in a room and doing very little to get tiny pieces of paper so that I can cover my un-barterable expenses. It's a nice job and I'm lucky to have it but what amazes me is that I'm not working hard at all and I come home so exhausted, way more exhausted than I would be planting garlic or pruning trees which I might call real work.

I wonder what it is. Probably a combination of sitting and a lack of exercise. Humans were made to move their asses. We are animals. So sitting around at a computer or at a desk just doesn't make sense to our cells. I wonder if this is the cause of my exhaustion at the end of the day. Perhaps it's also a lack of variety, a lack of stimulation.

Ultimately, I'll be happy to be finished this little job soon and then I'll be able to pay my bills for a few months. But wouldn't it be great if I didn't have to sell my labour and focused on more important things like building my personal and community resiliency. In the end isn't that more valuable than tiny pieces of paper?

Repulsion

I have to write about this one because I feel that it's a good sign. Yesterday I walked into a massive Atlantic Superstore. I do this maybe twice a month when I need flour or nachos (well the truth is that I don't really need them). Not a big deal.

But this time when I walked in I had my head in my hands in no time and I was literally stumbling through the aisles trying to find what I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. It was a completely bewildering experience, I don't usually get instant headaches (in fact I never get headaches) and really a sense of repulsion, no other way to describe it. Not even when I'm dumping the shit bucket.

That's the thing. Finally life is making sense. A shit bucket makes sense. I shit, I compost it and I eat it in the form of veggies later and then I repeat. Makes sense.

A supermassive grocery store doesn't make sense. All that food with no garden--certainly no shit--all the bright packages, all those bright lights; who fucking knows what death solvent they use to clean the floors. Imagine working there! Yikes.

I'm quite proud that my civilized body is learning intuitively what is right and wrong. Because there are things in this life that are right and wrong. Things that we just know inside. The problem arises when you grow up believing that the grocery store is where food comes from and that veggies are all perfect with no blemishes, just like your skin should be. These are insane lessons of an insane culture.

More and more I'm realizing that I have to start telling new stories because teaching how to grow food isn't enough. Humans need legends. Right now the corporations decide what our legends are, what stories create our world.

A winter challenge. Next to knitting my felted clogs.

Read Between the Lines

There you have it. We have our solution to climate change. It turns out it's all the fault of our beloved economy. This year global greenhouse gas emissions will drop by 3% due to the global recession. So it follows that in order to save ourselves, other sentient beings and ensure the continuation of life on earth we need to drop the economy. Yes that same economy that we are reminded about every day like parishioners in the pews.

It's strange but the linked article doesn't even raise this point. I wonder why that would be? Doesn't my analysis make sense and provide us with the simplest solution to our biggest problem? It surely makes more sense than the smoke and space mirrors that are being suggested today. So instead of dumping the economy as any logical and sane person would, the article suggests: "We need an energy and environment revolution. Business as usual would increase temperatures by 6C. To hold emissions to 450ppm [parts per million], we need in the region of 18 nuclear power stations, 17,000 turbines, 100 concentrated solar power stations and 16 carbon capture and storage plants to be built every year until 2030".

Huh? So we need to feed the economy that's the cause of these emissions in order to get these emissions under control. We need to build more stuff, crank out more plastic, pour more concrete and build a whole new fleet of vehicles to save ourselves? What?

Why can't we learn the simplest lessons? What is our fucking problem?