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Healing in tar sands territory Quebec polices identityMilitary targets First Nations land

The Dominionnews from the grassroots

MEDICALERRORSAbuse and intimidation atMcGill-affi liated hospitals, p.14

INTERNATIONALHaiti in the Timeof Choleraby Matthew Davidson

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Medical Errorsby Brendan K. Edwards

14 COVER STORY

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ContentsFRONT LINESKiller Cops, fracking free territories, drug users memorialby Media Co-op Contributors

VANCOUVER MEDIA CO-OP4th Annual Unis’tot’en Action Campby Aaron Lakoff

LAWGoverning Genderby Ashley Fortier

ECONOMYReviving Homegrown Dollarsby Alina Konevski

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ENVIRONMENTAnother Climate Threshold Ignoredby Crystel Hajjar

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The Dominion magazine is part of the Media Co-op, a pan-Canadian media network that seeks to provide a counterpoint to the corporate media and to direct attention to independent critics and the work of social movements. The Dominion is published six times per year in print and on the web.

PublisherThe DominionNewspaper Co-operative

Board of DirectorsMaryanne Abbs (VMC)Palmira Boutilier (HMC)Stéfanie Clermont (CMM)Crystel Hajjar (contributor)Sharmeen Khan (reader)Dru Oja Jay (editor)Tim McSorley (editor)Dawn Paley (editor)Justin Saunders (TMC)

Editorial CollectiveRoddy DoucetMiles HoweNat MarshikTim McSorleyDawn PaleyTara-Michelle Ziniuk

Editors-at-LargeCorrey BaldwinStefanie GudeStephanie LawHillary LindsayMartin LukacsDru Oja JayMichèle MarchandDave MitchellMoira Peters

Fact CheckersSandra Cuff eGarson HunterNadeem LawjiArij Riahi

Copy EditingCo-ordinatorAshley Fortier

Copy EditorsAshley FortierOliver FuglerSimon Granovsky-LarsenAlison JacquesDavid Parkinson

Graphic DesignALL CAPS Design

Cover ArtistJonathan Rotsztain

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Shafi q Aziz—contributor, staff

Although Shafi q Aziz is new to the Toronto Media Co-op, he has had several years’ experience as a journalist for Basics Community News Service, serving on the execu-tive committee for three years. His commitment to neighbourhood organizing made him realize the impor-tance of alternative media in projecting the voices of marginalized people and communities. Shafi q’s brand of journalism often focuses on police brutality, gentri-fi cation, building people’s power, and critiquing the increasing militarization of the Canadian state at home and abroad. He hopes to continue to work with both the Media Co-op and Basics to strengthen the organizations and expand their Toronto readership. Shafi q encourages anyone interested in alternative media to get involved with the co-op.

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FIRST PEOPLESWalking the Walkby Arij Riahi and Tim McSorley

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HALIFAXMEDIA CO-OPJohn Levi Freed After Weekend in Jailby Miles Howe

HALIFAXMEDIA CO-OPThe Cost of Silenceby Sarah Slaunwhite with fi les from Maxime Daigle

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MONTREALMEDIA CO-OPEnbridge No More, Says Rally on Kanehsatà:ke Territoryby Tim McSorley

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LETTERSBack TalkCompiled byMoira Peters

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COMICPeople & Profi tby Heather Meek

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Member Profi le

FIRST PEOPLESNo Home on the Rangeby Sandra Cuff e

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TORONTOMEDIA CO-OPActivist Journalists Arrested at London homeby Darryl Richardsonand Megan Kinch

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TORONTOMEDIA CO-OP“We Want Our Meds!”by J. Den

Raids Terrorize Dixon Communityby Shafi qullah Aziz

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The Dominion September/October 2013

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Toronto police shot an 18-year-old youth nine times, killing him as he stood in the exit door of a streetcar. Sammy Yatim was wielding a three-inch knife when he was brutally murdered. Hundreds of people participated in a protest against the police following the murder, and future vigils are planned.

The Council of Yukon First Nations has voted to keep the territory “frack free.” At its annual general assembly, representatives unanimously passed a resolution calling on the Yukon government to ban hydraulic fracturing on traditional territories. “This is a game-changer,” said Don Roberts, who chairs Yukoners Concerned about Oil and Gas Development. “The First Nations are there to protect the land, protect the environment.”

The fi rst public memorial to drug users was unveiled in Toronto. The monument, located in South Riverdale, honours 79 people who have died because of drug overdoses, hepatitis C, HIV, violence and poverty. Organizers said more names will be added to the monument, which seeks to raise awareness around the stigma faced by drug users and the ongoing violence of the War on Drugs.

Opponents of plans to pipe tar sands bitumen from Alberta to the east coast of both Canada and the United States celebrated a cautious victory. Portland-Montreal Pipelines, which operates a pipeline that runs oil from Portland, Maine to Montreal, withdrew its application for a pumping station in Dunham, Quebec. The station was essential to plans to reverse the fl ow of the pipeline, to send oil from Montreal to Portland. The company is saying that it may reapply in the future.

A controversial proposal for an open pit gold mine in BC went up for review by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency for a second time. Taseko’s New Prosperity mine was fi rst rejected in 2010 over concerns that it would drain Fish Lake to form a tailings pond. The new proposal would move the tailings pond. But the Tsilhqot’in National Government, for whom Fish Lake is sacred and who fought hard to block the fi rst approval, has vowed to continue opposition over concerns about the environmental impact of the project.

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty took to the streets in support of tenants across Toronto, demanding that the city bring back the Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefi t (CSUMB) for tenants who need fi nancial support for housing. The mass application clinic for the current Housing Stabilization Fund (HSF), which is what replaced CSUMB, resulted in over 100 applications to the city for funds to prevent tenants from being evicted, to buy new furniture and to aid in improving housing conditions.

B. Manning (pictured above), a former US Army Private accused of numerous offences relating to his transmission of US state secrets to WikiLeaks, was convicted on 20 charges by a military tribunal judge. Much was made of the fact that Manning was not convicted of the most serious charge, that of aiding the enemy. Regardless, his sentence could run 136 years.Photo by United States Army

Industry Canada has paid out $22.1 billion in corporate welfare since 1961, including $8.8 billion in non-refundable grants, according to a new report by the Fraser Institute. According to the study, this is just a fraction of what is paid out by the government as a whole.

Guatemalans attempting to sue a Canadian mining company in Canadian courts over alleged human rights abuses scored a victory when a judge ruled that their lawsuits can go ahead. It is the fi rst time that a case against a Canadian company over actions of one of its international subsidiaries—in this case, HudBay Minerals Inc.—has been allowed to go forward.

In Florida, George Zimmerman was found not guilty of all charges related to his killing of Trayvon Martin. The controversial decision by the jury led to protests in memory of Martin and against what is seen as a double judicial standard for African-Americans, especially young black men, across the US and Canada. El Jones, Halifax’s poet laureate, wrote about why the verdict is important in Canada; for more, visit mediacoop.ca.

At least 72 people were shot dead in one day by Egyptian state forces, as protests continue to rock the country. Former President Mohamed Morsi was removed by the army earlier in the month.

Haligonians mourned the passing of Burnley “Rocky” Jones, who was a prominent African-Canadian activist for nearly 50 years. He was 71.

Front Lines

Killer cops, fracking-free territories,war on drugs deaths memorialby Media Co-op Contributors

4The Dominion September/October 2013

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Vancouver Media Co-op

4th Annual Unis’tot’en Action CampActivists converge on unceded land for fi ght against pipelines

photos and text by Aaron Lakoff


The 4th Annual Unis’tot’en Action Camp was held on sovereign, unceded Wet’suwet’en territory from July 10-14, 2013. The camp drew around 200 people from across Turtle Island, who converged for four days to strategize, network, and support the Unis’tot’en struggle against proposed oil and gas pipelines on their territories.

LEFT-RIGHT: A blockade marks the entrance to the Unis’tot’en camp; A caravan organized by the Vancouver Island Community Forest Action Network brought 25 activists from Victoria and Vancouver up to the camp on a school bus. Here, volunteers load up food and supplies in Vancouver before leaving; The caravan bus arrives at the blockade site on Wet’suwet’en territory.

L-R: Members of the Unis’tot’en clan perform traditional songs and dances to offi cially open the 4th Annual Action Camp. One of the songs is a war song to the Canadian state and oil and gas companies; Indigenous women from diff erent nations give a powerful in-depth workshop on decolonization the

fi rst morning of the camp; Everyone seeking to enter Unis’tot’en territory needs to pass through the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent protocol. Rather than likening the protocol to a border crossing between nations, the Wet’suwet’en describe it as a process of knowing the self, and taking a responsibility to defend the land.

This bridge spans the Wedzin Kwah (Morice River in English), a pristine river where salmon still swim and the water can be drunk. Some of the seven proposed pipelines would cut right under the river.


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Vancouver Media Co-op

For more information: www.unistotencamp.com

L-R: Dustin VanEvery, a Mohawk activist from Six Nations, was part of a delegation of Indigenous youth from Ontario who travelled up to the camp. The week before, he was also at the Tar Sands Healing Walk in Alberta. Here, he gets Wet’suwet’en youth to sign his shirt; Settler solidarity activists help to build a permanent cabin at the blockade site; Wet’suwet’en youth lead a tour of the permaculture garden, which sits directly on the path of the pipelines. Volunteers were invited up to the camp in May 2013 to plant the garden.

L-R: Arnold Norman Yellowman (right) from the Aamjiwnaang First Nation near Sarnia, Ontario, presents a workshop on the fi ght against Enbridge’s Line 9; In May, settlers and Wet’suwet’en people began construction on a pit house on the pipeline route; Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Toghestiy (left) and Unis’tot’en spokesperson Freda Huson (right) addressing participants at the camp.

L-R: Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en organizer Mel Bazil giving a workshop on carbon and biological off sets; Harjap Grewal (left) and Harsha Walia (right) from No One Is Illegal Vancouver give a workshop on movement building; Of course, no camp would be complete without guitar songs around a campfi re.


Environment

OTTAWA—For climate scientists, May 10, 2013, marked a historic moment: atmo-spheric carbon dioxide (CO2) reached a concentration of 400 parts per million (ppm) for the fi rst time in human history. But the surpassing of a climate change threshold made barely a ripple in main-stream media, raising questions among climate justice activists about the effi cacy of current strategies for capping green-house gas emissions.

Despite multiple scientifi c warnings and concerns from affected nations and environmental and grassroots groups, conferences of the UN Framework Con-vention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have made little progress. Organizations like the World Resources Institute, an international organization that collects environmental and socio-economic data, report that greenhouse gases have been rising steadily since 1995 when negotia-tions started.

“I think what’s happened is [govern-ments] didn’t really expect that the climate will change this quickly,” said Paul Beck-with, a climate researcher and part-time professor at the University of Ottawa who specializes in abrupt climate change. “The computer models…could be underestimat-ing the feedbacks in the system.”

Some suggest that political motives lurk behind the failures of UN climate processes. Scientists, politicians and civil society, both from Canada and interna-tionally, have criticized Canada, under the leadership of Stephen Harper specifi cally, for its disruptive role at the UN climate negotiations—especially after it became the fi rst country to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, a voluntary emissions reduction program, in December 2011.

Climate justice groups are questioning the usefulness of the 400 ppm announce-ment as a tool for further mobilization, especially because previous warnings about CO2 concentration have not prompted governments to reduce emis-sions.

“I do question how much

talking about…abstract numbers translates into action,” said Cameron Fenton, the national director of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, a climate advocacy organization, in a phone interview with The Dominion. “We’ve been talking about 350, 400 ppm for years now and it resulted in a huge mobilizing force. That being said, it is a pretty monumental line to cross; that it was crossed with so little concern, with so little attention, is discon-certing.”

Oceanographer and carbon cycle researcher Tim Lueker agrees. “The 400 ppm threshold is a sobering milestone, and should serve as a wake-up call for all of us…before it’s too late for our children and grandchildren,” he said, in a press statement released by Scripps CO2 Group.

Scripps CO2 Group is the organization responsible for measuring the concentra-tion of CO2 in the atmosphere. Scientists use samples from air and seawater to collect data for the Keeling Curve, a graph used to describe this concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. The samples have been collected since 1958, primarily from Mauna Loa in Hawaii, with additional monitoring stations on both poles and across the Pacifi c Ocean.

Research done on ice core samples mea-suring CO2 levels trapped in the perma-frost, mainly in Antarctica and Greenland, provides scientists with accurate records of CO2 levels for the past 800,000 years. To measure CO2 levels between 800,000 and up to 4.5 million years ago, scientists measure carbon isotopes in ancient ocean sediments. Scientists use this data to estimate the impacts that these recorded levels of CO2 will have on the Earth.

These records show that the last time CO2 concentration reached 400 ppm was three to fi ve million years ago. Back then, the global average temperature was three to four degrees higher, with up to 10 degrees difference in the poles. The weather patterns were signifi cantly differ-ent and sea levels were anywhere between 5 and 40 metres higher than current levels.

“Now [that] we look at the Earth’s his-tory more carefully and have better data on how the Earth responded to changes in global temperature and changes in the atmospheric composition in the past…we see we have already passed into the dangerous range,” said James Hansen, a climate researcher who retired from NASA to take political action on climate change. He was recently arrested at a climate-related protest outside the White House in Washington, DC.

Beckwith notes that passing the 400 ppm mark could have severe and irrevers-ible long-term consequences on sea ice thickness in the Arctic, with implications for world weather patterns and, in turn, agriculture and food supply.

The melting of ancient sea ice releases greenhouse gases—specifi cally, methane—that have been trapped in the ice for mil-lions of years. An increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases intensifi es warming trends, which in turn accelerates the polar melt rate in a cycle known as positive feedback.

“What happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic; it’s not like Las Vegas,” said Beckwith. “It is not just polar bears and the environment that we need to talk about [but also] how it affects humans.”

Beckwith expects to see the total disap-pearance of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean as early as the end of this summer or in 2014.

“Within a decade or so, [the Arctic sea ice] will be gone year-round; we’ll lose our winter in the Northern Hemisphere,” he told The Dominion.

Because of the positive feedback phenomenon, if greenhouse gas emis-sions continue unabated, CO2 levels are expected to rise at ever-accelerating rates.

“At this pace we’ll hit 450 ppm within a few decades,” said Scripps geochemist Ralph Keeling in a press statement.

According to the World Resources Insti-tute, the energy sector is primarily respon-sible for greenhouse gas emissions. The oil and gas industry alone accounts for 6.4 per

Another Climate Threshold IgnoredFull steam ahead for Canada’s tar sands as CO2 levels rise

by Crystel Hajjar


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Flooding in Calgary, Alberta, displaced over ten thousand people from their homes. Experts expect extreme weather events to increase in frequency and magnitude. Image by Sean Esopenko, CC2.0

cent of total global emissions. In Canada, the oil and gas industry is responsible for 23 per cent of total emissions, according to Environment Canada’s data from 2011.

Research conducted by the National Energy Technology Laboratory shows that the process of extracting oil out of the tar sands produces on average 3.2 to 4.5 times more CO2 per barrel than conventional crude oil. For this reason, it is currently the primary barrier preventing Canada from reducing its greenhouse gas emis-sions.

What’s more, according to the Pembina Institute, a research think tank focused on environmental advocacy, the Canadian government approved an expansion of tar sands development from 1.9 million barrels a day to over fi ve million barrels by 2030, which will increase rather than reduce Canada’s emissions.

“Carbon emissions from the oil sands, from production and processing, have doubled between 2000 and 2010 and are set to double again by 2020,” said Sydney Grieve of Climate Action Network Canada in an interview from Ottawa.

The Harper government is fi nancially supporting the oil and gas industry with

about $1.4 billion in tax breaks per year, according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Furthermore, on multiple occasions the government lobbied some members of the European Union (EU) against the EU’s proposed Fuel Quality Directive, which would label the tar sands as an unconventional and more polluting fuel.

On the legislative level, the Harper gov-ernment is facilitating the expansion of the oil and gas industry. Most notable was the 2012 omnibus budget bill, which elimi-nated or overrode previous environmental legislation, governing everything from impact assessments to water and air quality. Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver promoted the benefi ts of these changes for inves-tors and developers interested in exploiting Canada’s resources.

Grieve suggests Canada’s investment in the tar sands is not only environmentally but

also economically misguided. “The envi-ronmental impacts of supporting the oil industry are obvious, but economically this isn’t in our best interest, we have such an oversupply of our oil and the demand isn’t even there,” said Grieve. “Internationally, our government is on a lobbying rampage trying to promote the tar sands.”

Crystel Hajjar is a journalist and organizer in the climate justice movement. She writes on social, political and environmental issues.

Environment

Working towards a more sustainable future for all Canadians!

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FORT MCMURRAY, AB—In the heart of Canada’s oil country, the booming town of Fort McMurray—casually dubbed Fort McMoney—is slowly becoming one of Alberta’s largest cities. From 2006 to 2012, the city grew by 53 per cent, going from a population of 47,705 to 72,994—far exceeding the growth of Alberta as a whole. This doesn’t count the “non-per-manent residents” who are simply in town to work; including them, the population balloons to 112,215.

Nearby, however, Indigenous nations are struggling for cultural survival. The tar sands project continues to expand its destructive footprint on the tradi-tional territories of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation, Fort McMurray First Nation and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, among others. For them, opposition to the industrial project is not an environmental concern or a left-leaning pet project. It is a matter of human survival.

“I never did look at myself as a cam-paigner or an organizer, or an activist or an environmentalist. None of those things,” said Crystal Lameman, a member of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation who now works as the Alberta Climate and Energy Campaigner for the Sierra Club of Canada Prairie Chapter. “And I can say I still don’t look at myself that way. You know, it’s just doing what I need to for the sacrifi ces that our ancestors endured to ensure that we have that ability to utilize the land, to sustain ourselves.”

Lameman, a mother of two in her mid-30s, has been working since 2012 to raise awareness among members of her com-munity, located in the heart of northern Alberta’s tar sands territory, about the necessity—and possibilities—of fi ghting back against the tar sands.

These thoughts are echoed a further 300 kilometres north, by Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN). Located on the shores of Lake Athabasca, fed by the Athabasca River and downstream from the majority of the tar sands development, the ACFN has also

been fi ghting against the impact

of industrial pollutants on its land.For the past four years, the ACFN and

the Keepers of the Athabasca (a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people fi ghting for the protection of the massive Athabasca watershed, which feeds into the Athabasca River) have organized the

Healing Walk. It was started as a way to bridge the divide between activists and residents of the area—many of whom work for the tar sands—who are concerned but are not interested (or able) to engage in traditional protests. This year, on July 5, hundreds from across Canada, including

ABOVE: In Northern Alberta, Indigenous communities and their allies are organizing to halt the destruction they say is caused by the tar sands; BELOW: Hundreds took part in this year’s Healing Walk in Fort McMurray, calling for the protection of the environment and the health of all communities. Photos by Arij Riahi

First Peoples

Walking the Walk Gathering in northern Alberta aims to heal land and bolster spirits

by Arij Riahi and Tim McSorley


First Peoples

dozens from the tar sands area, gathered to walk through the tar sands and witness its impacts.

“I am labelled by government offi cials and the industry that I am an eco-activist. I am not an eco-activist. I am a user of the land,” said Chief Adam at the Healing Walk. “Environmentalists like to see the beauty of the landscape. I was brought up in the bush. I utilize and survive off the land. You may go in the bush and look at the scenery...I go in the bush and harvest the meat, and harvest the fi sh and what-ever else I have to feed my family. That is the difference between you and I.”

A peer-reviewed study released in 2010 by the Firelight Group Research Coopera-tive, which works with First Nations on community-based research projects, found that tar sands development has already severely limited access to First Nations’ traditional territory.

That link to the land is essential for Indigenous communities, said Lionel Lepine, a father of two who also lives in Fort Chipewyan. “One day, we’re going to be so damn rich [off the tar sands] that there will be nothing to buy. We’re going to be dead,” he said during a discussion at the Healing Walk. “And my poor great-great-grandchildren are going to suffer the consequences.”

Losing access to the land doesn’t only mean losing the possibility of a subsistence way of life—including the ability to hunt or fi sh—but in some cases it means not even being sure what kind of development, or destruction, is taking place.

In late June, the Alberta government reported that an oil spill had taken place at the Primrose tar sands operation of Canadian Natural Resources Limited. The operations are located in the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range (CLAWR) in Cold Lake, Alberta, in Beaver Lake Cree Nation territory.

Lameman went to the site after getting news of the spill, but was initially rebuffed. Offi cials at CLAWR later changed their position and promised Lameman she could enter the area if the oil company agreed to let her in. Her calls to the com-pany were not returned, she said. It took pressure from journalists and an eventual leak from an anonymous government scientist for the full extent of the spill to be revealed publicly in the Toronto Star in

mid-July, including that 4,500 barrels of bitumen had so far been cleaned up from four different sites.

“To me, the response I got is a slap in the face of what it means to be in direct violation of our inherent constitutionally protected treaty rights,” she said. “It was really, really hard to actually feel that and experience that, and it’s not something I ever want to have to experience again, but I’m sure I will.”

Many Indigenous communities across the country are subject to such a dispro-portionate quantity of pollution that they have become infamous toxic hotspots. In Fort Chipewyan, cases of rare untreatable cancers have been documented since the early 2000s. But people living in the com-munities had been feeling the impacts long before any studies were commissioned.

“Given what’s going on over there—all the pollution—we call our town ground zero, because ultimately we feel the impacts of tar sands development fi rst and foremost, and our people are dying,” Lepine said during the Healing Walk. “You know, I come from a town which only contains 1,200 people. And the cancer rate there is sky high in the last 10 years, beyond belief. The elders knew about this 40 years ago. When industry fi rst came in, the impacts on our lands became pretty obvious, and as industry came in people started to die.”

For years, First Nations people, sci-entists, doctors and environmentalists have raised the alarm about the health impacts of the tar sands. It was only this past winter, however, that an investigation into the health concerns of First Nations communities living downstream, such as the Athabasca Chipewyan, was fi nally announced. The study will be led by the University of Calgary, with federal and provincial funding. The investigation fol-lows a 2009 report by Alberta Health Ser-vices that showed higher rates of cancer in the community than are found in the rest of the Alberta population.

Since January, two separate reports have found Alberta’s lakes and groundwa-ter are being polluted more than previ-ously realized. The fi rst, from Queen’s University and Environment Canada, showed high levels of carcinogens, created by the tar sands extraction process, in lakes up to 90 kilometres from tar sands

extraction sites. The second, produced by 19 scientists from both the federal and provincial governments, confi rmed ongoing seepage from tailings ponds into groundwater.

Tar sands impacts aren’t just felt in northern Alberta, but at every stage of the refi ning process, including in the south-ernmost reaches of the country. In Sarnia, Ontario, over 60 petrochemical facilities are concentrated in a 25-kilometre radius. At least three of these refi neries, including Suncor and Imperial Oil who are active in Fort McMurray, process tar sands bitumen. The area is known as Canada’s Chemical Valley. It is also the home of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation.

“Growing up in this community, I expe-rienced a lot of health issues, including asthma attacks, skin issues,” said Vanessa Gray, a youth organizer and member of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation who also spoke at the Healing Walk. “There’s a lot of cancer in my family where I grew up, [we were] going to a lot of funerals...it happened all the time.”

Gray’s concerns are well documented. In 2011, the World Health Organiza-tion described Sarnia’s air quality as the worst in Canada. Studies have also found alarmingly high rates of cancer, respira-tory illnesses and reproductive disorders in the area, as cited in a 2007 report from Ecojustice.

For many Indigenous communities, the fi ght against the tar sands is a fi ght for their quality of life. “We’re all human beings fi rst and foremost. We all drink water. So this involves everyone,” stressed Crystal Lameman. “This isn’t about race, colour or creed, this is about our lives.”

Ultimately, it is about the future. “I’m so worried about my kids,” said Lepine. “You know from the words of our elders, they’re our future, let’s support them. Let’s keep them alive, let’s keep our kids alive. Let’s fi ght these guys. Let’s fi ght them harder, let’s take the gloves off.”

Arij Riahi is a legally-trained writer based in Montreal. Arij is at www.twitter.com/arijactually.

Tim McSorley is an editor with the Media Co-op and freelance journalist living in Montreal.

9


BEAUVAL, SK—On a clear day in north-western Saskatchewan, the jets are visible on the horizon. Flying in formation, they veer west and drop down below the boreal forest treeline and over a vast weapons range before landing back at the military base.

The Cold Lake Air Weapons Range (CLAWR) was established on traditional Dene and Cree lands 60 years ago. Today, Indigenous land defenders are taking action to get the territory back.

Spanning 11,700 square kilometres along the Alberta-Saskatchewan border, the CLAWR—also known as the Primrose Lake Air Weapons Range—covers an area larger than Lebanon or Jamaica. Indig-enous inhabitants and land users were evicted when the range was established in 1953, during the Cold War. Canada’s only tactical bombing range, the CLAWR is also now home to oil and gas extraction activi-ties and an Enbridge pipeline.

For decades, bomb and missile target practice has taken place on lands held sacred by Indigenous locals. “My great-great-great-grandfather is buried there on a point on that lake where they bomb,” Brian Grandbois of the Cold Lake First Nation told The Dominion. Captain Jean-François Lambert, a media spokes-person from Air Force Public Affairs, of the Department of National Defence, alleged in an e-mail to The Dominion that “gravesites identifi ed on the range have had fencing erected around them, and all elements of the natural habitat surrounding them have remained undis-turbed.” Grandbois tried to bring the issue of gravesites bombing to the attention of NATO, whose member nations conduct international air force training exercises at the CLAWR on an annual basis, but received no response.

Outside the northeast reaches of the CLAWR lies the Buffalo River Dene Nation, whose members elected Lance Byhette as band council chief in March

2013. Byhette pulls no punches

when it comes to his position on the air weapons range.

“We’ve waited long enough,” he told The Dominion. Two members of his commu-nity were charged in 1994 for hunting and trespassing inside the CLAWR. Despite an initial court victory, the hunters eventually lost their case. A new class-action lawsuit against the federal government is in the works. But Buffalo River Dene Nation members aren’t limiting their actions to the courtroom. “After having several meetings with people that got charged and community meetings, we’ve decided to take back the territory,” said Byhette in a telephone interview.

In April 2013, people got together to defy the military restrictions and began making trips into the northeastern part of the CLAWR. They began prepara-tions to build cabins, openly engaging in traditional land use activities and actively asserting their rights to their territory. Using the group name BRDN–Keepers of the Land, Buffalo River Dene Nation members, along with residents of nearby hamlets St. George’s Hill and Michel Village, are forging ahead with activities focused on reclaiming their land.

“We cut a trail to the air weapons range and we did take some lumber over there in the winter, while there was still snow on the ground. We took a contingent of approximately 17 to 20 people—well, in total, 30 people that were involved with the transportation and stuff like that—and we took skidoos out there, we recut the line, we made a trail, and we’ve delivered all of the housing material to Watapi Lake, which resides—supposedly—in the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range border,” said Byhette.

The Department of National Defence considers the actions trespassing. “The danger posed by the dropping of weapons has not abated,” wrote Lambert. “Unau-thorized access by anyone to the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range, is deemed trespass-ing, and can be extremely dangerous due

to past or current range operations.”The CLAWR encompasses Treaty 6,

Treaty 8 and Treaty 10 lands—traditional hunting, trapping, fi shing and gathering territory for several surrounding Dene and Cree First Nations, as well as nearby Métis communities. Questions, meetings and claims gained momentum in the 1970s, after the initial 20-year lease agreement signed in 1953 by the governments of Canada, Alberta and Saskatchewan quietly expired.

Over the next three decades, a spate of claims fi led through the Indian Claims Commission, negotiations and inquiries took place. Canoe Lake First Nation settled in 1995. Cold Lake First Nation settled for $25 million in 2001. And in 2004, four Métis communities to the east of the CLAWR accepted $19.5 million total, paid out over fi ve years, from the governments of Saskatchewan and Canada. But Byhette insists Buffalo River Dene Nation doesn’t plan to settle. “We’re not looking for com-pensation,” he said.

Not everyone in the surrounding Métis communities and First Nations was happy with the deals signed on their behalf by elected leadership, ceding historic claims to CLAWR lands in exchange for money. Grandbois, whose ancestor’s grave is a target in air weapons testing, and other Cold Lake First Nation members, includ-ing elders, were outspoken opponents of the impending deal within the community back in 2001.

“I remember it very well because I was fi ghting against it, and on October 16, 2001, my late mother was in the hospital in Edmonton, passing away from leuke-mia, and the Chief and Council from Cold Lake went to visit her in the hospital when I was there. And later that day I found out that they were signing away the air weap-ons range deal. That’s why they were all in Edmonton,” said Grandbois, a long-time land defender, in an interview with The Dominion. A rise in oil company activity on the air weapons range began not long

No Home on the RangeIndigenous resistance to the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range

by Sandra Cuff e

First Peoples

11

after, he said. “They waited for the sign-ing for Cold Lake, and then the corporate machine started rolling.”

People have known for decades that the CLAWR overlaps with the Cold Lake tar sands deposits and other hydrocar-bon resources. The Alberta government was studying oil sands deposits in the northwest corner of the CLAWR back in the mid-1970s, concluding that there was potential for heavy oil and gas projects in the area. Grandbois recalls that he and others had no idea that an explosion of oil development would almost immediately follow the Cold Lake First Nation’s deal.

Husky Energy, Cenovus and Canadian Natural Resources Limited now have tar sands and heavy oil projects within the CLAWR, and Enbridge is twinning its Athabasca oil pipeline, which runs right through the range.

But because of the lack of public access and the secrecy surrounding the military installations, few people have been aware of any accidents or spills related to oil development in the range. On June 25, 2013, the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) launched a new incident-reporting tool to provide public information regarding pipe-line and energy-related incidents on its website. Two days later, on June 27, 2013, the AER reported that bitumen had been leaking at one of the tar sands extraction projects inside the CLAWR.

“If there was a spill in there just recently, that’s the fi rst time I hear of it like that,” said Grandbois, when asked about the leak. He spoke to The Dominion during a short break from packing up his

camping gear at a Denesuline gathering at Palmbere Lake at the end of June 2013.

Less than a month later, the AER issued a news release, ordering the suspension of Canadian Natural Resources Limited’s operations within one kilometre of the June 2013 spill and placing restrictions on operations throughout the company’s Primrose North and South operations. This suspension was not the fi rst time this year the provincial regulator had imposed restrictions on the Calgary-based resource company due to spills. “Earlier this year, as a result of three releases of bitumen emulsion to surface, the AER ordered the suspension of steaming operations within the Primrose East section of the project area,” reads the July 18, 2013 news release.

“To clarify, we have always reported on all incidents under the former Energy Resources Conservation Board, but in annual publications,” AER Public Affairs spokesperson Bob Curran wrote in an email to The Dominion. “However, the three incidents that occurred in late May and early June would have been captured in the new online reporting protocol.” There was also an incident in January 2009, wrote Curran.

Canadian Natural Resources Limited issued a press release on July 31, 2013, providing an update on the status of its operations. “The four locations initially impacted at Primrose covered an area of 20.7 hectares,” reads the company state-ment. Sixteen birds, seven mammals and 38 amphibians have been found dead. More than one million litres of bitumen

have been recovered, according to the press release, but the bitumen emulsion continues to seep up to the surface at a rate of approximately 3,000 litres per day.

Cold Lake First Nation elder Sam Minoose has seen many of the impacts of military and industrial pollution for himself, but he still hunts moose in the CLAWR when he can. Cold Lake First Nation members are permitted to hunt inside the CLAWR on weekends, from Friday at 6:00 pm until Sunday at 6:00 pm, unless there are military activities going on. With oil development picking up in areas surrounding the CLAWR as well, there is almost nowhere left to pursue tra-ditional hunting and gathering activities.

“When I was on Council in 1990–1994, I went to Ottawa and requested the gov-ernment to establish some kind of Land Commissioner so they could interview our People regarding that bombing range area, ‘cause we wanted—we wanted our territory back,” Minoose, a former Cold Lake First Nation band councillor, told The Domin-ion. Minoose said that, since the Cold Lake First Nation’s settlement in October 2001, oil companies have pretty much been run-ning the show.

Over on the eastern side, plans for more trips and activities inside the CLAWR are underway. “We’ll see what happens in the near future, but we’re not gonna back down,” said Buffalo River Dene Nation Chief Byhette. “It’s time to take back our territory.”

Sandra Cuff e is a vagabond freelance journalist currently based up in northern Saskatchewan.


L-R: More than one million litres of bitumen have been recovered at a tar sands spill in the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range, and the spill continues.Photo credit: CNRL / Emma Pullman. In April 2013, a group of Buff alo River Dene Nation members traveled into the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range, hauling materials to build cabins; Plans for more trips and activities inside the air weapons range are underway, says Buff alo River Dene Nation Chief Lance Byhette. Photo credits: BRDN—Keepers of the Land

First Peoples


MONTREAL—Deena* emigrated from Jordan to Quebec in March 2010, hopeful about settling in a city where she could live safely as a transgender woman. Instead, she found herself caught in a multi-year long administrative nightmare.

Despite the fact that she met the requirements for changing her legal name and gender marker (the M or F that appear on offi cial documents) to match her gender identity, she was prevented from doing so because she was a perma-nent resident and not a Canadian citizen. Quebec is the only province in Canada that requires citizenship in order to make these types of changes to one’s legal documents.

This barrier was one of several up for debate in Quebec’s National Assembly last June as a result of the latest round of pres-sure from transgender activists, who have been fi ghting for decades to force impor-tant changes to the province’s Civil Code. Interventions made by members of the Conseil Québécois LGBT’s Trans Commit-tee were a response to Bill 35, which pro-posed minor changes on the topic of name and gender marker change, but which they felt fell drastically short of addressing the barriers trans people face.

“There’s no reason in the world the draft bill shouldn’t have already included amendments removing the surgical requirements for a change of sex des-ignation, eliminating the citizenship requirement, and creating an avenue for minors to change their sex designations. The government has been told about these issues for a long time,” said Samuel Singer, lawyer and former coordinator at Québec Trans Health Action (Action santé travesti(e)s et transsexuell(e)s du Québec, or ASTTeQ).

A report submitted by the Trans Com-mittee to the Quebec Minister of Justice in May 2012 very clearly outlines these and other important issues for combatting transphobia and minimizing administra-tive bureaucracy in the province. Singer asserts that the same points have been brought to the attention of the province

repeatedly for over a decade.At ASTTeQ, Quebec’s only province-

wide trans health organization, the citizen-ship requirement has been a particular concern. Acquiring citizenship in Canada is a lengthy and expensive process for anyone, and for many marginalized trans people it is never attainable. “When some-body has a criminal record, be it related to solicitation charges [for sex work], or shop-lifting, or self-defense in a situation where a person is being assaulted…the criminal record will prevent them from accessing citizenship, which will drag on the process of changing their legal docu-ments, potentially for decades,” said Nora Butler Burke, current ASTTeQ coordina-tor.

Butler Burke told the story of one trans woman who has been living in Montreal without citizenship for 25 years because she can’t afford the cost of applying for a pardon from the federal government. “It’s meant that when she interacts with the police, when she interacts with a welfare agent, when she’s trying to go to school to get a diploma, she’s still using her legal birth-assigned name and gender,” she explains. Being outed as trans because of a discrepancy between legal documents and gender identity can result in negative expe-riences ranging from dirty looks, to denial of health and social services, to outright violence.

Gabrielle Bouchard, core staff member at the student-funded Centre for Gender Advocacy in Montreal, agrees. “Trans people without the right ID face discrimi-nation in every single portion of their life. If you can’t fi nd a job and you can’t have stable housing…marginalization just adds up, it doesn’t stop there. Those two are foundational to make sure that you will stay marginalized,” she told The Domin-ion.

Barriers to job and housing access are directly linked to transphobia that indi-viduals without proper ID face in schools. Betty* is a transgender refugee from Latin America and an outreach worker with

ASTTeQ. Like many immigrants who come to Quebec, Betty enrolled in French language classes when she arrived. She found that the already alienating expe-rience of learning a new language was compounded by a lack of respect for her gender identity on the part of teachers and classmates. “It’s hard, and sometimes it’s painful. Because you don’t feel like people are respecting you and they are not giving you your place,” Betty said. While some individual instructors agreed to use Betty’s chosen name and pronoun, she said many insisted on using the name and pronoun that appeared on the offi cial school records.

Deena’s experience was similar. When she pursued a CEGEP program to become a daycare worker, her school refused to assist her in fi nding an internship where she would not have to disclose her legal name and gender. She was told by the school’s director that “the parents of the kids have a right to know your ‘real’ iden-tity in order to protect their kids.” After several unsuccessful attempts to advo-cate for herself, Deena left the program. Despite having worked as an engineer in Jordan, the barriers Deena faced in chang-ing her legal documents prevented her from fi nding steady work in Montreal.

In addition to the citizenship issue, the Trans Committee reiterated to the National Assembly their demand to eliminate requirements for gender reas-signment surgery (GRS). The Quebec Civil Code states that a person must have “successfully undergone medical treat-ments and surgical operations involving a structural modifi cation of the sexual organs intended to change his secondary sexual characteristics” in order to change the gender marker on offi cial documents. This stipulation has posed a number of serious issues for trans people in Quebec for decades, both because the Director of Civil Status has not maintained a consis-tent position on exactly which surgeries it requires, and because many feel it’s a violation of their human rights to demand

Governing GenderTransgender activists fi ght for crucial changes to Quebec’s Civil Code

by Ashley Fortier

Law


13

they undergo surgery in the fi rst place.Similar requirements have recently been

overturned as a result of legal battles in Ontario as well as in Argentina, where, in 2012, a bill was passed making it pos-sible for transgender people to change the gender marker on offi cial documents without undergoing any kind of medical transition. If the proposed amendments to Bill 35 in Quebec were to pass, it would represent the fi rst such change at the legislative level that was not the result of a court ruling.

There are many reasons someone wouldn’t want or be able to undergo GRS, according to Billy Hébert, manager of a community-based research and interven-tion project on the experience of aging trans people in Quebec health care and social services. “I’m thinking of a particu-lar woman who was quite sick and couldn’t access [GRS] and had papers that were non-concordant with her identifi cation and her appearance, and who faced a lot of discrimination trying to access health-care…in her case, treatment for cancer,” Hébert told The Dominion. His research shows that, by and large, accessing docu-ment changes becomes increasingly dif-fi cult for trans people as they age.

For Butler Burke, the elimination of the surgery requirement from the Civil Code comes down to an issue of bodily self-determination. “Legal documents are a way of regulating our movement and regulating our bodies, especially certain people’s movement and freedom. The more that we’re able to eliminate barriers to people’s freedom of movement and abil-ity to live and survive, the better people’s quality of life will be,” she said.

While GRS has been covered by Que-bec’s public health care system since 2009, there are many costly bureaucratic steps required to qualify for these surger-ies, making it inaccessible for a lot of trans people in the province.

The third issue the Trans Commit-tee pushed for at the National Assembly was the minimum age requirement. As it stands, individuals under eighteen cannot change their legal name or gender marker, with or without parental permis-sion. “[The Director of Civil Status] is asking trans kids and trans youth, who are in one of the most vulnerable periods of

their lives…to go through high school with this huge dichotomy between their lived gender identity and their legal one,” said Bouchard. Preventing them from changing their documents, she said, is essentially legitimizing the discrimination they face from teachers, classmates and school prin-cipals— discrimination she said leads to trans youth being one of the highest-risk populations for considering suicide.

An Ontario study undergone by the Trans PULSE Project showed that in 2010, almost 75 per cent of the trans people they surveyed had considered suicide in the past year, and that trans youth were twice as likely to seriously consider it than those over the age of 25.

After all the interventions made by trans advocacy groups at the National Assembly, none of the proposed changes to Quebec’s Civil Code were put to vote. Whether the minority ruling Parti Québécois would have supported the amended bill is unknown. What is clear, however, is that it did not have the support of the Quebec Liberal Party, who, after several days of presentations and questions, insisted a broader social debate was needed prior to considering any part of the bill. If the bill gets revisited at all, it won’t be until the National Assembly reconvenes after the summer.

Trans activists aren’t holding their

breath but instead are pursuing other avenues to achieve the results they want. The Centre for Gender Advocacy is spear-heading an online funding drive to pay for the costs of a Quebec Human Rights Com-mission complaint as well as a lawsuit.

In addition to legal channels, Hébert said there is a huge need for broader public mobilization: “That’s where impor-tant alliances can be made to make sure no one gets forgotten, particularly surround-ing questions of citizenship.”

In the meantime, individuals like Deena often pursue extreme measures to change their documents. After years of being given the run-around by provincial and federal government offi cials and strug-gling with transphobia in her day-to-day life, Deena eventually fl ew across the country to Vancouver to have her name changed. Claiming she’d lived there for three months, the process took only half a day. “I tell people here in Quebec: I spent two years trying to change my name and I had it changed in two hours in BC.”

*Some names and other identifying details have been changed to maintain the confi -dentiality of interviewees.

Ashley Fortier is a Montreal-based writer and editor (ashleyfortier.com | @smashmtl).

Across Canada, trans people face diffi culties accessing essential services like health care, especially when government ID does not match their chosen gender and name. Illustration by Mike Funk

Law


MONTREAL—Resident doctor Alexander Nataros had just begun his evening rounds of the emergency department at St. Mary’s Hospital last November when he came upon a man in near-critical condition. The man, who was lying in one of the beds that line the hallways of the McGill Univer-sity affi liated hospital, had a severe facial droop and a chronic case of hiccups, which suggested increased inter-cranial pressure.

Drawing on the limited neurological training he had received in his fourth year at the McGill Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Nataros swung into action, inspect-ing a CT scan that had been ordered by the previous resident. The test confi rmed what Dr. Nataros already suspected: there was blood in the man’s brain, likely the result of a hemorrhagic stroke. The patient also had a blocked airway and was on the verge of asphyxiation. Dr. Nataros gave the man an infusion and wheeled him into the “crash” room, where a second-year medical student intubated the patient. Together, they succeeded in stabilizing the man, who was then whisked off in an ambulance to a nearby tertiary care centre. While relieved that the fatality had been averted, as he resumed his rounds, Dr. Nataros was bothered by the nagging thought that the crisis should have never happened in the fi rst place.

In a telephone interview in March, Dr. Nataros told The Dominion that the stroke victim, whose life he had saved, was given the wrong treatment over the course of two days by two senior physicians. According to Dr. Nataros, the doctors had misdiagnosed the patient with a mild heart attack, and given him medication that caused his blood to thin. “It was more than just the wrong treatment,” said the junior doctor, who has youthful features and brown hair. “There was a missed diag-nosis that made it infi nitely worse, and the patient almost died.”

Dr. Nataros said that when he decided to report the medical errors, the doctors involved in the incident responded by get-

ting a number of their colleagues

to write letters accusing him of being argu-mentative and disrespecting authority. He also said that Dr. Sarkis Meterissian, the Postgraduate Director of Family Medicine at McGill University, attempted to defame his name. In a letter, which Dr. Nataros provided to The Dominion, Dr. Meteris-sian suggested that Dr. Nataros may suffer from a mental illness and requested that he undergo a medical evaluation.

Dr. Meterissian told The Dominion he could not comment on the specifi cs of Dr. Nataros’ case because the matter was cur-rently in front of the Collège des médecins du Québec (the province’s professional order of physicians). Dr. Nataros claimed that the treatment he has received is an example of the intimidation that many med students and young doctors face at the McGill University Health Centre’s (MUHC) teaching hospitals, and that he has witnessed many instances of verbal abuse and taunting. “These things go unchallenged because they are accepted in the culture.” He also said that he is wor-ried that the overly hierarchical relation-ship between senior doctors and their students at these institutions can often dissuade med students and young doctors from reporting medical errors.

In January, Dr. Nataros was placed on academic probation and forced to take a paid leave of absence from his family medicine practice at St. Mary’s. An inde-pendent ombudsperson is investigating the incident he reported. He went public with his story after exhausting all formal avenues of complaint, including two review panels, despite favourable testimo-nials from more than a dozen senior doc-tors who had worked with him and were willing to vouch for Dr. Nataros’ profes-sional competence.

Dr. Nataros stressed that he did not report the errors because he wants the doctors involved to be punished, but because he believes there is much to learn from the experience. “I don’t want to blame anyone,” said the doctor, who grew up in BC in a family that included six doc-

tors (two of his grandparents graduated from McGill). “I want this to be a learning experience and I want us to be able to have a safe space where we can point out such things so that future mistakes are cor-rected, and so people don’t suffer and die.”

Beyond a few unsigned letters of sup-port addressed to the administration, none of Dr. Nataros’ peers have offi cially come forward in his defense. However, a number of graduates of the McGill Faculty of Medicine, as well as of the nursing program, agreed to speak to The Domin-ion if they were quoted anonymously. They reaffi rmed that Dr. Nataros’ case is emblematic of a deeply entrenched culture of abuse and intimidation at McGill affi li-ated hospitals.

One doctor, who graduated from the McGill medical program in 2008 and is currently stationed at the Ottawa Gen-eral Hospital, said when she was on call at St. Mary’s she frequently saw patients mistreated but was afraid to report the incidents because she feared how her professors would respond. “I’m still trying to fi gure out why I had such a hard time speaking up,” said the doctor. “I think it was because I was scared of them. I was scared that I was going to be failed. It was an unsaid thing.” The intimidating atmosphere and late-night shifts with an understaffed workforce would eventu-ally prompt her to take sick leave twice for clinical depression. “I think it was the combination of being scared that I would kill [one of the patients] and the constant intimidation during the day, I just couldn’t take it anymore,” she said.

Another recent McGill graduate told The Dominion that her fellow medical students were mistreated by senior doctors. “I have many colleagues who had negative experi-ences at McGill, much like Alex [Nataros], and it doesn’t surprise me that this nega-tive environment led to medical errors,” she said. A recent graduate of the McGill nursing program said verbal abuse from supervisors prompted a number of nurses to switch career paths. “Many ended up

Cover Story

MEDICAL ERRORSAbuse and intimidation at McGill affi liated hospitals

by Brendan K. Edwards


15

doing research or other things like admin-istration because they felt the hospital wasn’t a healthy environment,” he said.

Dr. Thomas Perry, a Clinical Assistant Professor at UBC and a McGill alumnus, said that he was disturbed that the McGill Faculty of Medicine had been accused of trying to muzzle a whistleblower. He was also surprised that the department had not fi gured out a way to resolve the confl ict early on. “I fi nd it baffl ing. I mean why not just put this to bed?” mused Dr. Perry.

Dr. Perry has seen fi rsthand how an overly hierarchical system can lead to medical errors. As a third-year medi-cal student working a late night at the Montreal General Hospital in 1977, he watched—too afraid to say a word—as a surgeon performed what Dr. Perry knew was the wrong operation on a man with diabetes who had to have his parotid gland removed. Dr. Perry vividly remembers the incident. “The drapes were spread all over the man’s face. It looked to me like the doctor was operating on the wrong part…the gland is under the ear and they were going closer to the jaw, but, I fi gured I must be mixed up, the drapes must have disoriented me. I thought, little old me, third-year medical student, there’s no possibility I’m right. I did consider saying something about it before they cut but I suppressed myself, thinking I couldn’t pos-sibly be right. And then when the drapes came off, I realized the wrong operation had been done.”

Although Dr. Perry reported the error immediately to the associate dean of medicine, it was initially covered up by the doctors involved in the incident and it took four months before the truth was fi nally revealed. Fortunately, the patient survived and eventually received the correct opera-tion.

In their recently published book, After the Error, Susan McIver and Robin Wyndham note that roughly 38,000 to 43,000 deaths are attributed to healthcare delivery every year in Canada. Accord-ing to McIver and Wyndham, the total

Cover Story

Illustration by Jonathan Rotsztain


number of deaths is signifi cantly greater due to the high rates of non-reporting. Sholom Glouberman, the president of the Patients’ Association of Canada, cautions that it is diffi cult to get an accurate picture from the data because the baseline for what these systems will generate in terms of an “acceptable” amount of human error has yet to be determined. “Some people say, ‘Oh, well there should be no medical errors.’ Well that’s ridiculous,” he said. “There are always going to be errors in any system and you have to talk about what the baseline is in a complex system like healthcare.”

There is no doubt that medical errors can have devastating repercussions for patients and their families. In May, the Collège des médecins du Québec called on the well-known surgeon Peter Metrakos to explain before its disciplinary council events that led to the death of a patient named Ivan Todorov on February 1, 2010, less than three months after his surgery at the MUHC’s Royal Victoria Hospital.

A week before Todorov died, his daughter Dolia asked a pathologist for an independent investigation of a list of medi-cal errors that included mixed-up fi les, a chemotherapy overdose, a major vein cut during surgery, no food for weeks, and an untreated E. coli infection. The patholo-gist referred the case to coroner Claude Brochu when the patient was on the verge of death.

When Brochu issued his report on October 19, 2010, he raised serious ques-

tions about the care Todorov received at the MUHC’s Royal Victoria Hospital and the Lakeshore Hospital. Now, the Collège is accusing Metrakos of failing to properly assess Todorov’s medical condition before the operation and conducting an operation that was not medically necessary.

According to the provincial registry’s latest data, there were 219,234 errors and accidents between April and September 2012 in Quebec hospitals. Patricia Lefe-bvre, coordinator of the MUHC Quality, Patient Safety and Performance Depart-ment, recently told the Montreal Gazette that although progress had been made through increased transparency, under-reporting remained an issue at the McGill affi liated hospitals. With little access granted to the press and the general public, the MUHC hospitals, like most Canadian hospitals, have a tradition of being nearly impenetrable when it comes to obtaining realistic estimates of medical errors.

Scoring a short break from work to speak to The Dominion last April, Dr. Ken Flegel walked through a maze of hallways to a small break room around the corner from his offi ce on the fourth fl oor of the Royal Victoria Hospital. Dr. Flegel, who is a Professor and Consultant Internist at the MUHC and McGill University, is a slight man with dirty blond hair parted to the side, thin-rimmed glasses and a soft and deliberate way of speaking. He acknowl-edged that there is likely a link between under-reporting, irresponsible conduct

and medical errors. “If you’re not having people reporting in a transparent way and giving clear and considerate advice, that’s a recipe for bad things to happen which probably could include patient errors,” he said.

He also said that the hierarchical culture, which he acknowledged borders on medieval, is gradually softening vis-à-vis professor-student power relations. “I think that the faculty is trying hard to engender that atmosphere,” said Flegel who is also the Senior Associate Editor of the Canadian Medical Association Jour-nal. “The clinical world graduated a lot of them [senior doctors] a long time ago, so it sometimes takes a while for new attitudes and policies to penetrate.”

In 2010, the McGill Faculty of Medicine was threatened with probation by some of the medical school accrediting bodies due to a failure to meet 13 of 132 national standards. One of the charges against the university was the insuffi cient promotion of independent learning. Approximately two years ago, the McGill Faculty of Medicine recognized that verbal abuse and intimidation had become serious issues and launched an in-depth study of the mis-treatment of med students and residents, resulting in the development of a new code of conduct. In an email to The Dominion, Dr. David Eidelman, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, pointed out that the code is widely promoted among faculty, students and residents.

Dr. Nataros is still on leave from his family practice and has stopped speaking to the media. The independent ombud-sperson has yet to make a decision about the report that he fi led in November 2012. In March, Dr. Nataros told The Dominion that certain errors will never be docu-mented unless doctors feel that it is safe to speak up without jeopardizing their careers. “We need to provide protection for whistleblowers because they will identify the errors,” he said. “And as long as they are not severely penalized, you will protect and save patients’ lives.”

Brendan K. Edwards is a Montreal-based freelance journalist who has written for Art Threat and the Montreal Media Co-op.

Cover Story

SALT SPRING ISLAND, BC—Board games form centerpieces on round wooden tables at The Gathering, a restaurant on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia. Opened in May 2013, the games-and-food restau-rant is the fi rst of its kind on the island. The establishment is also the fi rst to pay 10 per cent of staff salaries in Salt Spring Dollars (SSD).

This latter initiative is the ticket to saving one of North America’s oldest and most successful community curren-cies. As alternative methods of payment, community currencies can take the place of national currencies, such as Canadian dollars, in some daily transactions. Since SSD’s launch 13 years ago, the multi-colored bills emblazoned with local heroes have inspired community currencies glob-ally—modeling a path for depressed towns to reclaim their economies.

By design, community or alternative currencies, such as Toronto Dollars or Calgary Dollars, require people to spend at local participating shops, retaining more money in the community rather than having it fl oat away to larger commercial centres. Printing one’s own method of payment is perfectly legal, as long as busi-nesses using the currency disclose income and pay taxes.

Community currencies also serve as backup for a national currency in crisis. For instance, alternative currencies have woven through Greece in recent years as residents have struggled to adapt to the Euro. And in the wake of a collapsed peso, two million people in Argentina used alternative currencies and barter networks in 2002.

“We’re on the verge of an explosion in community currency globally, especially in other countries where people are suffering more,” said Michael Contardi, president of the non-profi t Salt Spring Island Monetary Foundation (SSIMF) that administers SSD. Contardi receives frequent calls from communities the world over asking how to replicate the SSD system.

Although well-known, SSD have not gained as much traction in the Salt Spring community as was hoped. Founded as

a tourism initiative, few people have adopted them for daily purchases on the island where millionaire homes line the seascape.

For a community currency to strengthen the local economy, it must circulate in the community like blood in a body. But on Salt Spring Island, SSDs are converted into Canadian dollars nearly as quickly as they’re taken out. The benefi t to the local economy winds up being minimal and the SSIMF can’t store up a signifi cant pool of funds to lend to local businesses, or donate to charities.

“We’re trying to discourage conver-sions, because conversions are the foil, the enemy, of community currencies. There’s always a trade-off between ease of convertibility and acceptance rates,” said Contardi.

The Gathering’s decision to pay some staff salaries in SSD keeps the currency fl owing much more than a restaurant that accepts SSD from clients, and promptly converts the bills into Canadian dollars.

The concept was an easy sell to The Gathering’s owner, Bryan Dubien. The new restaurant’s opening is partially the result of an SSD 2,000 interest-free loan, the fi rst loan the SSIMF has granted. Spending the currency locally on some salaries, food and alcohol fi ts right into Dubien’s community-minded ethos.

“We’re really committed to the local everything,” said Dubien. “ [SSD] is specifi cally invested in trying to make our local economy grow. And anything to keep spending money here is worthwhile. And if the extra tax to me is that I have to make more relationships in the community, and build up a better relationship with those that produce actual food, that’s a good tax to me.”

The additional 1,200 SSD per month that is estimated to be in circulation due to The Gathering’s staff salary payments is a huge boost to the currency, which cur-rently sees 5,000 to 7,000 SSD purchased every month. Last year, before Contardi launched a fi ve per cent tax on businesses for conversions and a fi ve per cent charity donation for everyone who withdrew SSD

from the brand new SSD ATM, purchases stood at SSD 2,000 per month.

Salt Spring Island’s strong economy, propped up by a reliable fl ock of summer tourists, may not need a community cur-rency the way an economically depressed town might.

“We probably get more inquiries from people outside of Salt Spring, more interest from communities wanting to do what we’re doing, than we have inter-est internally, because people still have enough cash [here]. It’s not that scarce,” said Contardi.

But the problems facing community cur-rencies are the same the world over, says Contardi.

“They adopted models that are similar to our old model, but it’s not going to be effective until you get out of the idea of conversions,” said Contardi. “You want the people to spend the money and you want the businesses to re-spend the money. You don’t want them to convert it back to Canadian dollars.”

For Dubien, at the end of the day, com-munity currencies have one big advantage over national ones: accountability. Dubien can’t call up the National Bank of Canada to insist that banks maintain a safer debt-to-savings ratio. But he need only walk down the street to knock on Contardi’s door to express a concern about Salt Spring Dollars.

Alina Konevski is a journalist in the Fraser Valley.


17

Economy

Reviving Homegrown DollarsHow BC’s Salt Spring Dollars inspire community currencies the world over

by Alina Konevski

Bryan Dubien (far right) and staff pose at The Gathering, the fi rst establishment to pay partial staff wages in Salt Spring Dollars. Photo by: Alina Konevski


PETERBOROUGH, ON—The deadly disease was previously unknown on the island, but in October 2010 doctors in Haiti began to recognize the telltale signs of cholera among their patients. Cholera, which causes acute watery diarrhea and can kill in a matter of hours, quickly spread across the country after a fi rst outbreak caused by poor sanitation at a United Nations peacekeeping base contaminated Haiti’s largest river.

Haitians are looking for restitution and reparations for the cholera outbreak, hoping to fi nd justice in world courts. They’re also using international courts to push for justice concerning the country’s odious debt.

Lawyers from the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), which represents 5,000 Haitian cholera victims, gave notice to the United Nations in May that it had 60 days to respond adequately to a complaint fi rst issued in November 2011. The IJDH now intends to fi le law-suits in various national courts after the UN again refused on July 5 to accept the complaint.

Alleging that the United Nations Mis-sion to Stabilize Haiti (MINUSTAH) peacekeeping force is responsible for introducing the previously unknown disease of cholera into Haiti, the 2011 complaint demanded that the United Nations (UN) install a national water and sanitation system to control the epidemic, compensate individual victims of cholera for their losses and issue a public apology. The UN has repeatedly denied that it had any responsibility for the medical crisis. Over 8,300 Haitians have died and more than 680,000 have taken ill since cholera was introduced to Haiti in October 2010.

Days after the cholera action was renewed, lawyers from one of France’s leading anti-racism organizations fi led legal proceedings against the Caisse des Dépôts (CDC), a French state-owned bank, seeking reparations for the indem-nity that Haiti had to pay to their former slave owners two centuries earlier. The

Representative Council of Black

Associations (CRAN) initiated legal pro-ceedings on May 13 of this year against the bank after French President François Hollande refused to consider any form of reparations for France’s history of slavery and colonialism.

The lawsuits followed respective refusals by the UN and France to acknowledge that they had any role in shaping Haiti’s cur-rent reality. Both are potentially prece-dent-setting cases that will force foreign powers to pay reparations for the devasta-tion they wrought upon Haiti. If success-ful, the cases will each set a new standard of accountability for colonial crimes, both new and old.

Brian Concannon, Director of the IJDH, told The Dominion over the phone that “any country supporting peacekeeping missions will be held to a higher standard when it comes to protecting vulnerable populations” if his organization’s lawsuit is successful. “Claiming responsibility would set a precedent that the UN has a legal accountability for various things that its forces do around the world,” he said.

The French lawsuit deals with a more historic matter, but CRAN hopes that it too can set a new standard through its legal advocacy. “Our goal is clear: the return of [the] $21 billion extorted from the Repub-lic of Haiti,” Luis-Georges Tin, CRAN’s president, told The Dominion.

Haiti was a French colony until a slave revolution overthrew white control in 1804. France demanded an indemnity of 150 million francs to reimburse slave owners for their loss of property—in this case, enslaved people—before Haiti was recognized as an independent country. CRAN accuses the CDC of profi ting from those damages, which are estimated to be equivalent to at least $21 billion in today’s dollars. “This is the bank where the money was deposited, which is why we are attack-ing it in the courts,” Tin explained to The Dominion over email.

In order to afford the levy, which had been imposed under threat of a new invasion, Haiti had to borrow funds from French banks at highly unfavourable

terms. It took 122 years (until 1947) to fi nish paying the indemnity. Haiti made the payments faithfully until that time, even during the 19 years that Haiti was occupied by the United States. The pay-ments were made at the expense of other government functions, such as sanitation and health.

In October 2012, Tin claimed, the French government promised that a minis-terial meeting would be held the following month to consider a policy of reparations. CRAN’s president said that his organiza-tion was forced to pursue a settlement in the courts after the government refused to fulfi ll that promise. A press release quoted Tin as saying, “Without a political solution, we conduct the debate on the legal plane.”

Concannon said that his organization had similarly hoped for a solution that didn’t involve the courts. When cholera’s origin in Haiti was traced to improper sewage disposal at a MINUSTAH base near the Artibonite River, “there were calls for action from our Haitian partners, but we thought initially that what Haiti really needs is doctors,” Concannon told The Dominion. “It wasn’t a good use of resources for lawyers to get involved.”

That changed after the UN’s own investigative report into the matter was made public in May 2011. “It looked like a whitewash... There were 29 pages of facts pointing to the UN, with the thirtieth page saying don’t pay attention to the previous pages,” said Concannon.

While the report does fi nd that the source of the cholera outbreak was the Mirebalais MINUSTAH camp, it argues that “the introduction of this cholera strain as a result of environmental contamination with feces could not have been the source of such an outbreak without simultane-ous water and sanitation and health care system defi ciencies.” As such, the UN report found that no single group was responsible for the outbreak.

With its sister organization in Haiti, the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), the IJDH signed 5,000 victims of cholera onto a class action complaint, which was

Haiti in the Time of CholeraInternational push for justice and reparations heats up

by Matthew Davidson

International


19

delivered to the UN in November 2011. “The UN took 15 months to respond for-mally,” noted Concannon.

In February of this year, the UN rejected the complaint, stating that it was not receivable pursuant to Section 29 of the Convention on the Privileges and Immuni-ties of the United Nations.

After being presented with the IJDH’s ultimatum the UN again rejected the complaint on July 5, saying that there is no basis for engagement on the issue. “We now have no choice but to take the UN to court to stop cholera’s killing and seek justice for victims and their families,” Con-cannon indicated in a July 8 press release.

“The UN has an entrenched culture of impunity, at odds with its own ideals about the rule of law,” Concannon told The Dominion. He said that it is clear that the world body has been hiding its involve-ment in bringing cholera to Haiti.

Canadian writer Yves Engler concurs. “The lawsuit is clearly a rebuke of the UN’s specifi c ambivalence towards Haitian life,” he told The Dominion over the phone. “The cholera lawsuit is a pretty direct indictment of Canadian policy in Haiti, given that MINUSTAH’s presence in Haiti stems from the 2004 coup against President [Jean-Bertrand] Aristide, which Canada supported,” said Engler.

Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority, which Engler co-wrote, describes how Canada helped orchestrate the overthrow of Haiti’s democratically elected president in 2004. “The point of the 2004 coup was to stamp out a move-ment that made minimal moves toward a more just Haiti,” he told The Dominion.

The book also details how MINUSTAH, widely seen as an occupying force in Haiti, was used to prevent Aristide’s party, Lavalas, from taking part in the subse-quent elections, disenfranchising Haiti’s vast poor majority. On June 20, 2013, Canada announced that another platoon of Canadian soldiers was being sent to Haiti to reinforce MINUSTAH forces.

Haiti solidarity activist Isabel Mac-donald suggested that the coup and the reparations issue are connected. One of the moves that Aristide made prior to his ousting was to press France to pay repara-tions for the indemnity Haiti paid in 1825. “Soon after, Aristide was overthrown in a coup supported by France, the USA and

Canada,” said Macdonald.Macdonald thinks that Aristide’s call

was received very badly by the French government. Though she is not optimistic about the new case succeeding, she thinks it is hugely signifi cant.

“This opens up the broader question of reparations even beyond Haiti,” said Mac-donald. That also happens to be exactly what CRAN intended.

CRAN is seeking to have the Caisse des Dépôts, which was created in 1816, pay 10 million euros (CAD$13 million) to fund research and education on France’s colonial history. Specifi cally, CRAN is hoping to have French textbooks updated to explain the consequences of French imperialism. The group also hopes to see a slavery museum built in France.

The organization expects the French government to delay the lawsuit in the courts for as long as possible, so no resolu-tion is expected any time soon. At press time the IJDH continued to prepare their case, which they expected to fi le in New York and Europe.

Regardless of what happens with the case, “Countries that are donors to Haiti are eventually going to have to come up with the money to address cholera,” Con-cannon told The Dominion. He also noted

that the solution need not come from a court order.

“Haitians are asking that countries like Canada that are investing in unneeded peacekeeping forces, in a country that has never had a war in our lifetime, reinvest that money into health and sanitation projects instead.”

Matthew Davidson is a graduate student at Trent University. His research focuses on health, development and imperialism in Haiti.

International

At a 2009 demonstration against MINUSTAH, a banner reads, “Long Live Haiti Without Occupation. Justice And Reparations For The Victims Of Cholera.” Photo by Ansel Herz, Creative Commons 2.0

Toronto Media Co-op

LONDON, ON—On July 24, London police raided a house and confi scated thousands of dollars worth of computers and video equipment. Their justifi -

cation: a single act of graffi ti.Mike Roy and Bailey Lamon are both

members of The Indignants, a media col-lective that covers stories relevant to the marginalized and under-represented. Roy is a founding member of The Indignants; he and Lamon have traveled far and wide covering Indigenous, social, environmental and animal rights issues. The Indignants is probably best known for their breaking coverage of Occupy London Ontario; the protests around the closing of the Caterpil-lar’s London manufacturing plant; and of Idle No More actions in the London area. Mike Roy and the Indignants are also con-tributing members of the Media Co-op.

New details emerged late on the night of July 25 with regards to the arrests. It would seem that Lamon’s partner, who was eventually arrested later, was origi-nally allowed to leave. He was arrested a short time later when he returned with Roy. At some time during their overnight incarceration, Roy and Lamon were offered early release if they agreed to a number of conditions. They were asked to sign a paper stating that they would not access the internet, associate with each other or participate in activism; they both refused to sign. This is part of a pattern of police attempting to silence and frighten activists using minor offenses. They were

released after a hearing on the afternoon of July 25 with conditions to not possess markers or paint and keep the peace.

The London police have released a statement that the two are being investi-gated for graffi ti, specifi cally graffi ti on a downtown building reading, “I’m not just another brick in the wall.” Roy and Lamon are being charged with mischief and pos-session of “marihuana” (sic), as is a third person. The confi scation of computers and other devices was also noted in the police statement.

“A house raid and the confi scation of equipment is an overblown reaction to an eventual charge of graffi ti on one wall,” Sakura Saunders, an activist and journal-ist with ProtestBarrick told the Toronto

Media Co-op. “Mike and Bailey are social justice media makers, covering activist movements. It seems obvious to me that the police are using petty charges to violate privacy and gain intelligence on social movements.”

This fi ts in with a pattern in London, ON, of persecuting activists severely for minor charges. In the lead-up to the G20 protests in 2010, activists were arrested and jailed overnight for putting up posters in London.

Roy and Lamon are next scheduled to appear in court for a hearing on August 15.

Megan Kinch and Darryl Richardson areeditors for the Toronto Media Co-op.

Activist Journalists Arrested at London HomeComputers and video equipment confi scated over graffi ti charge by Darryl Richardson and Megan Kinch

Bailey Lamon and Mike Roy (fi fth and sixth from right, standing), are greeted by supporters after a court hearing in London, ON. Photo by Zach Ruiter

The Ontario Hep C Action Coalition held its fi rst rally, calling for the removal of barriers to Hepatitis C treatment in Ontario. Photo by J. Den

SEE FULL STORY OPPOSITE PAGE

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TORONTO—Follow-ing the comprehensive raids that were carried out in numerous apart-ments in three Dixon Road buildings on the

morning of June 13, the Toronto Police Services (TPS) have permanently stationed a “Somali Liaison Unit” in the neighbour-hood, in response to the community’s outrage against the raids. Many of the families living in the neighbourhood were very distressed, particularly those from the Somali community who appeared to be the main targets of the raids. The massive mil-itary-like operation was carried out before dawn and involved dozens of police from multiple divisions using fl ash grenades, battering rams and rubber handcuffs to forcibly enter apartments and harass and arrest many of the residents who were still sleeping in their beds.

The raids follow the Rob Ford crack scandal that had the mayor’s offi ce scram-bling for weeks, with many speculating that the “Project Traveller” raids were conducted in retaliation against the Dixon

community for exposing Ford through the alleged video of the mayor smoking crack. Although Rob Ford denied any knowl-edge that the raids were to be carried out, several residents reported that when the police were searching their apartments, they told them that, “we’re here because of Rob Ford”.

As a result of the aggressiveness of the police, destruction of property (ramming residents’ doors in), and the false arrests of numerous people, leaders in the Dixon neighbourhood and in the Somali com-munity have come out against the Toronto Police Services. At a press conference, community elders spoke about the con-tinued victimization and harassment that Somalis face from the TPS, citing a long history of violence dating from the 1990s when police would use attack dogs against neighbourhood residents.

The Somali Liaison Unit functions to cool down residents’ emotions, but also to gather information, win over the commu-nity and to recruit Somalis into the police forces. This pathetic attempt to manipu-late the community has so far involved the

police in activities like handing out candy, going to sports events, working with reli-gious fi gures and playing soccer with kids.

Local InPDUM organizer Kabir has been very critical against the Project Traveller raids and the Somali Liaison Unit, stating, “We need to end the vulnerability to attack on our communities by the police as a result of the neighbourhood being divided and disorganized. The state feels that they can get away with invading our communi-ties and we need to put a stop to this. It’s not just about reacting to being attacked, but being organized enough so it becomes impossible for the police to attack the community in this way ever again.”

Undoubtedly, the history of violence by the hands of police that the Somali community has known will foil the weak PR-attempts of this police unit to gather themselves some legitimacy in the eyes of this terrorized community.

Shafi qullah Aziz is a Membership andAdministration Coordinator with theToronto Media Co-op.

Raids Terrorize Dixon CommunityFlash grenades and battering rams distress mostly Somali community by Shafi qullah Aziz

Toronto Media Co-op

TORONTO—Members of the recently formed Ontario Hep C Action Coalition (OHAC) gathered outside the Ontario Ministry of

Health and Long Term Care to deliver a petition demanding the removal of barri-ers to Hepatitis C treatment on the eve of World Hepatitis Day, July 26, 2013.

The petition had over 300 signatures and was accompanied by a letter to Assis-tant Deputy Minister and Executive Offi -cer, Ontario Public Drug Programs, Diane McArthur, outlining the denial of funding for treatment experienced by those with Hepatitis C Genotype 1 and demanding a response by Aug. 31. The treatment crite-ria for the Exceptional Access Program—designed to cover access to drugs for those

who receive Ontario Works (OW), Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) or those with limited private insurance—often rejects providing access to those it deems “too sick” or “too healthy,” as well as those over the age of 72, regardless of other health conditions.

The Ontario Hep C Action Coalition was created by community members with lived experience with Hepatitis C and allies to advocate on behalf of all those with Hepa-titis C. They aim to focus not just on treat-ment issues facing those with Genotype 1, but also restrictive changes to the Special Diet provided to those on OW and ODSP and other treatment barriers.

“Everyone who has Hep C has special dietary requirements that cost money and it’s not just if your body mass index is below 25. It’s different things we see that

are inequitable,” explained OHAC member Jennifer.

“The new medications are increasing the effi cacy and clearing rates of Hep C,” she said. “The treatment for Genotype 1 is 48 weeks long and the treatment for Geno-types 2 and 3 are 24 weeks. I think from the Ministry’s standpoint it’s an issue of money. But how much is it costing us by not treating? And keeping people sick with Hep C?”

The Ontario Provincial Police barred access to the doors of the Ministry of Health and OHAC was unable to deliver their petition as a group. Representatives from the Ministry briefl y met with OHAC members but gave no guarantees regard-ing further meetings.

J. Den is a Membership and AdminCoordinator with the Toronto Media Co-op.

“We Want Our Meds!”Ontario Hepatitis C Action Coalition demands access to treatment by J. Den


MONCTON, NB—It was standing room only July 8 in Courtroom 2 of the Moncton provincial courthouse, as support-ers of Elsipogtog War

Chief John Levi came to show solidarity with one of the key voices against SWN Resouces Canada’s attempts to explore for shale gas in Kent County, New Brunswick.

Levi, who was jailed Friday, July 5 on charges of mischief and obstructing justice related to events on June 21, appeared July 8 for a bail hearing, and it was clear from the outset that the Crown would be arguing against Levi’s release.

Levi’s charges had also breached the conditions of a May 30, 2012, conditional sentence, related to an altercation with Department of Fisheries offi cers, where it is alleged that one offi cer hit Levi’s son with a paddle.

Crown prosecutor Roy–who from the outset was ill-prepared and forget to share her documentation with defense lawyer T.J. Burke–argued against Levi’s release, based on the Crown’s estimation that Levi was likely to re-offend, as well as that his detention was necessary to maintain confi -dence in the justice of the Crown.

Roy’s fi rst witness was a Constable Berube, who testifi ed that Levi had “a history of violence against police offi cers and offi cers of the law.” Berube apparently based this determination upon the alterca-tion with fi sheries offi cers, a June 4, 2013, seizure of a Stantec truck in Elsipogtog, as well as the alleged charges related to June 21.

Burke was quick to reduce Berube’s testimony to little more than ill-formed conjecture. Berube had not been present at the altercation between Levi and the fi sheries offi cers; no charges had ever been laid related to the June 4 truck seizure; nor was there any damage to people or property; nor was there any proof that Levi had even driven the seized truck. As for the charges related to June 21; they remain nothing more than

allegations.

Roy’s second witness, Troy Sock, was Levi’s probation offi cer. It is unclear why Roy called Sock to the stand as a Crown witness, because the probation offi cer was quick to endorse Levi as an “ideal client” who was “timely and showed up to every meeting.”

Sock noted that for the past 13 months Levi had met every one of fi fteen condi-tions laid out for him in his conditional arrest, including several calls daily to Sock during an initial six months of house arrest.

T.J. Burke’s only witness to the stand was John Levi. Those in attendance learned that Levi had been sober for over 5 years, was readying himself for his duties as a Sun Dance leader, and was slated to be married to his partner of over 27 years, who is also the mother of their three chil-dren, in late July.

Roy’s cross-examination of Levi appeared to be based more in a curiosity for a traditional way of life than any pos-sibility of proving that the War Chief was likely to re-offend. At one point Roy asked Levi: “What is a smudge?”

Roy also appeared interested in trying to bait Levi in strange, philosophically-based questions related to his opinions on protesting. She asked several times whether Levi thought that protesting was “an absolute right.”

For the record, Freedom of Assembly is embedded in Section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights of Freedoms.

Recognizing that the Crown’s case to keep Levi incarcerated was beat, Roy then appeared to turn to the fantastic in what must be interpreted as a Hail-Mary attempt to keep the War Chief muzzled.

In asking for conditions to be applied to Levi upon his release–in what may well be a fi rst in any Canadian court of law at any level–Roy asked that Levi “not be allowed to provide advice to any member of the community.” This request provoked guffaws and chortles of laughter from the packed courthouse.

At this point both Burke and the judge agreed that this would be in effect remov-ing Levi’s constitutional right. No one, Crown included, seemed to know exactly how they would in fact ensure that this condition was met.

Finally, it was agreed that Levi would be released immediately, with no bail. His conditions are to keep the peace and be on good behaviour, and not be within 100 meters of SWN Resources Canada’s equip-ment.

Upon release, Levi was met by a cheer-ing crowd of about 60 people.

Miles Howe is a journalist and member of the Halifax Media Co-op.

John Levi Released After Weekend in JailCrown stumbles in attempt to incarcerate Elsipogtog war chief, asks that he give no advice to community

by Miles Howe

John Levi hugs his wife Toby after being released from custody. Photo by Miles Howe

Halifax Media Co-op

23

ELSIPOGTOG, NB—In their continuing attempts to seismic test over 1.1 million acres of New Brunswick, the dominant discourse

being proffered by Southwestern Energy (SWN) is that no harm to the environment or to humans can result from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking as it is commonly called. This view places fracking as sepa-rate from the pre-drilling process, as well as the post-fracking wastewater disposal. As there are no legal documents confi rm-ing which stage of the process is to blame for the overwhelming number of cases of water contamination as a result of hydrau-lic fracturing, SWN has been able to keep boasting its “spotless” reputation.

Despite the statement on the SWN website stating their dedication to “safe and responsible natural gas exploration,” evidence of contamination has been inves-tigated on multiple occasions. Many cases have been brought to court addressing violations of code, as well as contamina-tion of wells as a result of the hydraulic fracturing process.

In 2008, an inspection revealed evi-dence of drilling fl uids found in a nearby stream of an SWN site in Ozark, Arkansas. This discharge was not authorized, and violated the sediment control section of SWN’s permit, as there were no sediment controls at the site to prevent contamina-tion of water. In 2009, another inspection of the same site exposed cracks in the levee of the reserve pit, as well as spilling of drilling chemicals in the area.

In January 2010, SWN faced a fi ne of $50,000 to the Susquehanna River Basin Commission for its failure to obtain a permit from the commission prior to installing a well conductor pipe.

Two years prior to this, SWN was in a lawsuit due to contamination of drinking water in Susquehanna County, Pennsylva-nia as a result of using hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling to extract natu-ral gas. Landowners initiated a lawsuit including violations of the Hazardous Sites

Cleanup Act, negligence, private nuisance, strict liability, trespass and seeking to set up a Medical Monitoring Trust.

Matt Sura, an environmental attorney in Boulder, Colorado, who represented conservation groups, stated in a report: “because they’ve bought everyone’s silence, they often state that they haven’t damaged anyone.”

Along with the monetary settlements, formal confi dentiality agreements have been enforced for the people and fami-lies including clauses preventing them from voicing a connection between health problems and hydraulic fracturing. In one instance, SWN paid $600,000 to three families in Arkansas in 2010 to avoid the unfolding of a legal case.

When Southwestern Energy began seek-ing to drill in New Brunswick to look for natural gas, Tim Holton, the lead lawyer handling a multi-million dollar class-action lawsuit in Arkansas, and dozens of cases fi led against SWN by families in Pennsylvania, gave warnings to the New Brunswick government regarding allowing SWN to hydraulically fracture.

SWN shareholder reports suggest that they’d rather keep New Brunswick in the dark as to the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, and their reputation. A recent shareholder brief included the following:

“In the Province of New Brunswick in Canada there are presently no hydraulic

fracturing regulations, however the pro-vincial government has been working on a new comprehensive regulatory framework that is expected to be released to the public in late 2013.

“Increased regulation and attention given to the hydraulic fracturing process could lead to greater opposition, including litigation, to oil and natural gas production activities using hydraulic fracturing tech-niques. Additional legislation or regulation could also lead to operational delays or increased operating costs in the produc-tion of oil, natural gas, and associated liquids including from the development of shale plays, or could make it more diffi cult to perform hydraulic fracturing.”

SWN’s public brochure notes “The short answer to any questions with regards to health, safety and the environment is this: We will not do it if it can’t be done right.”

This brochure, full of pictures of contented workers, gleaming quotes and pristine natural vistas, was one of the main components of the information package recently handed out to Elders of Elsipog-tog First Nation in order to secure their signatures on a ‘consultation process.’ Elders also confi rm that they were prom-ised $200 for attending this ‘info session.’

Sarah Slaunwhite initiates improv with unsuspecting strangers.


Halifax Media Co-op

The Cost of SilenceHow Southwestern Energy has purchased its reputation

by Sarah Slaunwhite with fi les from Maxime Daigle

Bronson Acquin, in the summer of anti-shale gas in New Brunswick. Photo by Miles Howe


KANEHSATÀ:KE MOHAWK TERRITORY—On the 23rd anniversary of what has become known as the 1990 Oka Crisis, a hundred people

gathered at Oka Park, on traditional ter-ritory of the Kanien’kehà:ka (Mohawk) people of Kanehsatà:ke, to mark what organizers called the start of a new battle against unauthorized development on Mohawk land.

“We have neglected this part of our ter-ritory, thinking that what the white man calls a reservation is where we’re entitled to live. Today we see the exploitation, appropriation of our lands, by companies like Enbridge, who already have their pipes in the park, by Gazoduc who fracked without our knowledge,” said Ellen Gabriel, a member of the Kanien’kehá:ka nation–Turtle Clan and an outspoken voice in favor of Indigenous sovereignty. “And so it’s really important that today, this be the beginning of many kinds of demonstrations from our people. Not just Mohawks, but all people. We only have one planet, we must protect Mother Earth. And that is what this is about.”

The rally served to send a message to oil company Enbridge about their un-approved excursion into Kanehsatà:ke territory, to inspect their oil pipeline running through the nearby town of Mirabel, Quebec. The inspection, which includes drilling deep into the ground,

is part of Enbridge’s prepara-

tions to reverse the fl ow of this pipeline, known as Line 9. The change in direction will allow the company to pump oil from west to east, rather than the current east to west, giving them the ability to move oil from Alberta all the way to ports on the East Coast. The reversal is currently being reviewed by National Energy Board (NEB), and is already being met by large amounts of protest and criticism.

The company’s application to the NEB asks for approval to ship not only con-ventional crude oil through the pipes, but heavy oil as well. Many, including oil industry observers, believe the goal is to eventually send tar sands crude through Line 9, since routes west like the North-ern Gateway pipeline (from the tar sands to BC’s coast) have been delayed due to review, protest and popular pressure.

Critics of the Line 9 reversal are con-cerned that the pipeline will allow the tar sands to expand even more quickly. They are also opposed to the transport of dirtier tar sands bitumen through their communi-ties, which they say will increase the risk of devastating oil spills. Three years ago, an Enbridge pipeline leaked 832,000 gallons of tar sands bitumen into the Kalamazoo river in Michigan, severely damaging the local ecosystem. That spill is still being cleaned up today.

In June, there was a six day occupation of an Enbridge installation along Line 9 in Hamilton to protest the reversal, and municipalities across eastern Quebec and in the northeastern United States have

been speaking out and passing resolutions in hopes of blocking Enbridge’s plans.

The fact that Enbridge’s exploration came on the anniversary of the Oka Crisis was not lost on those who attended.

“Twenty-three years ago it was about development on our lands. Twenty-three years later, it’s the same issue, except now we’re aware that Gazoduc is there [doing natural gas exploration], GDB Construc-tion is trying to build more condos on this beautiful fi eld that we see behind us, and Enbridge has their pipelines which they want to use to bring in dirty oil,” said Gabriel. “So you know, we’re here as front line protectors for our present and future generations. And we need people to know that the government lied to them. They did not settle the issue as they promised us during negotiations in 1990.”

The 78-day stand-off of the Oka Crisis was sparked by the decision of the munici-pality of Oka to extend a golf course and build luxury condos on land that was part of the traditional territory of Kanehsatà:ke, including a burial ground. Mohawk war-riors established a blockade, and eventu-ally the Canadian military was called in to try and put an end to the confl ict. The standoff ended in September 1990, and the federal government purchased the land in question to stop further develop-ment. They have, however, refused to transfer the land to the community of Kanehsatà:ke.

Many other groups were present at the demonstration to express their support

Enbridge No More, says rally on Kanehsatà:ke territory23rd anniversary of “Oka Crisis” rally tells oil company to stop developing without Mohawk community consent

by Tim McSorley

Montreal Media Co-op

A rally of about 100 sent a clear message: Enbridge can no longer develop without consent on Mohawk territory. Photo by Arij Riahi


Montreal Media Co-opand to speak out against Enbridge’s plans, including Idle No More-Quebec, the Montreal chapter of the Council of Cana-dians, Greenpeace, the Regroupement de solidarité avec les Autochtones (which was founded during the Oka Crisis) and Climate Justice Montreal.

“Today is a remarkable day. It marks the 23rd anniversary of the so-called Oka Crisis. It’s the fi rst day in which Enbridge plans to drill and inspect its pipeline,” said Mike Finck, from Climate Justice Mon-treal. “For the people here, it represents the struggle behind as well as the struggle ahead. For corporate interests, it repre-sents business as usual. As far as corporate interests go, Enbridge is an ambassador of one of the worst of them, the Alberta tar sands. We stand here in solidarity with Indigenous communities who are most impacted by dirty energy extraction and climate change. Indigenous peoples have been resisting destructive resource extrac-tion for longer than anyone else and when their rights are respected, all of us benefi t.”

Following the speeches, people at the protest decided to move to the street. Led by a trio of Mohawk women drummers, they walked to highway 344 which runs past the park and started a round dance.

Traffi c on the busy road was signifi cantly slowed down. As one of the organizers with Idle No More-Quebec said, it sent a strong message: “You can no longer pass

us by without recognizing -and respecting- our presence.”

Tim McSorley is an editor with the Media Co-op and a member of the CMM collective.

The issues today are the same as they were 23 years ago, during the Oka Crisis, says Kanehsatà:ke community member Ellen Gabriel. Critics say that Enbridge’s plan to reverse its Line 9 pipeline to bring Alberta tar sands bitumen to the East Coast will spell environmental disaster. Photo by Arij Riahi


Comicby Heather Meek

27

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Letters

Corporate International Development AssistanceOne must be absolutely cynical or completely daft to take as partners in helping the Third World large Canadian corporations exploiting their resources. Yet this is the approach taken by the Harper government by recently amal-gamating the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) under the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (“Cyanide Dreams” by Rachel Deutsch, Issue 89: July/Au-gust 2013).

The Harper Government is divert-ing Canadian development assistance to corporations whose interests are opposite–in principle and practice–to the well-being of the poor. He is thus making another dangerous right turn in favor of the very rich, whose fi rst vic-

tims will be the poorest of the world.I hope pressure from the public, from opposition parties and from members of Harper’s own party will force the Conservatives to change their approach towards CIDA and to adopt a human approach towards the poorest of the world.

—Bruno MarquisGatineau QC

Proudly Canadian, eh? Canadian min-ing companies are destroying habitat and disrupting communities all over the world, lying through their teeth about what they are doing, AND are aided by the current Canadian government. No proud Canadian here. This is disgusting.

—Bill Tillandvia Facebook

Got a little backtalk for us? Send letters to [email protected]. Letters and comments may be edited for length and clarity. Anonymous letters and comments may not be published; those with an accompanying address will be prioritized.

BACK TALKCompiled by Moira Peters

F E R N W O O D P U B L I S H I N Gc r i t i c a l b o o k s f o r c r i t i c a l t h i n k e r s w w w. f e r n w o o d p u b l i s h i n g . c a

Continental CruCibleBig Business, Workers and Unions in the Transformation of North AmericaRichard Roman & Edur Velasco Arregui, Preface by Mel Watkins 9781552665473 $19.95“This insightful, revealing, and passionate book is a must read for workers and union activists all over the world in their efforts to develop strategies to overcome neoliberalism.”

— Alejandro Alvarez, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

everything is so PolitiCalA Collection of Short Fiction by Canadian Writersedited by Sandra McIntyre, Foreword by Fred StensonRoseway 9781552665497 $19.95“Brimming with wild imagination and stunning variety, this is one of those beautiful literary anthologies that comes along once a generation, that we’ll look back upon as the beginning of a whole new vision of Canadian fiction.”

— Lee Henderson, The Man Game

What lies aCross the WaterThe Real Story of the Cuban FiveStephen Kimber 9781552665428 $29.95”This book removes the thin fabric of lies around the case of five Cuban intelligence agents who came to Miami to fight terrorism ... This book has the detail and the analysis. Read it.”

— Saul Landau, Director, Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up?

tailings of Warren PeaCeA Novel by Stephen LawRoseway 9781552665152 $19.95“Takes the reader on a scintillating and mysterious journey that twists and turns from Canada to Guatemala, war to peace, and loss to love. This book is a celebration of the human spirit. “ — Garry Leech, Beyond Bogota

In the 1980s and 1990s, Conservative federal governments closed about 1500 public post offices. Just this year and last, there have been about 35 closures in urban areas, and more are expected.

Tell your MP to insist that the government keep your post office open — before it is too late.

Join the fight to protect public post offices at www.publicpostoffice.ca

THE CANADIAN UNION OF POSTAL WORKERS

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