A Commentary by Doug Draper
Believe it or not, Canada used to be a world leader when it came to environmental protection.
Many Canadians under the age of 40 may have a hard time believing that, given how much our country’s environmental protection services have been hollowed out over most of their adult lives. But back in the 1970s and 80s, Canada was truly a beacon on the green front.
This wack job of a Canadian Natural Resources Minister, Joe Oliver, might just as well be walking around with tomb stones in his eyes, as the old Steppenwolf song goes. Canada’s Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper lets this moron go around calling environmentalists enemies of our country. How nuts can you get.
Not any more.
One government after another, beginning with the Conservative government of Brian Mulroney and continuing with the Liberal governments of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, chipped away at the budgets of Environment Canada and its sister agencies. Their services were sliced and diced to a point where they are barely a shadow of what they were when, a mere three decades ago, their scientists – our Canadian scientists, I must emphasis were doing leading edge research on a number of fronts, including toxic pollution in the Great Lakes that played a major role in motivating governments in both Canada and the United States to launch cleanup programs for savng treasured water bodies like the Niagara River from near ecological death.
Yet as much as the governments of Mulroney, Chretien and Martin let our environmental services emaciate through one budget cut after another, they now almost seemed greener than the Green Party compared to the government that is calling all of the shots in Ottawa in now.
The Conservative government of Stephen Harper –more unleashed than ever since racking up a majority of seats in in last year’s federal election – has done everything but come right out and declare a war on the environment. It is cutting and gutting environmental programs and regulations with a glee this aging environment writer has not seen since the Mike Harris government in Ontario in the 1990s.
It confirms that these characters, going back to their Reform Party days, never believed human activity has anything to do with climate change and have always believed that the ‘tree huggers” are nothing less than a cancerous assault on the unfettered exploitation of our natural resources. These tree huggers, as Harper’s natural resources minister Joe Oliver recently put it, are enemies of this country with “radical ideological ends.”
Indeed, Oliver could not have got away with such Joe McCarthy-like-of-U.S.-black-list-fame’ comments about environmentalists without them first being filtered through the prime minister’s office. By now, we should all now, that everything almost up to and including one of his Conservative MPs clearing their throat, is filtered through the prime minister’s office.
So Oliver, no doubt received clearance to dissolve environmental groups in Canada of any charitable status they may have for raising fundng if they oppose projects like pipelines that carry that crude crud from the Alberta tar sands to the U.S. or to the B.C. shores where it can be shipped on for refinement to fuel the wealth of countries there. Notice, there is zero interest on the part of this supposedly business-smart federal government to refine this stuff here, to make our country more energy independent and put more Canadians back to work at the same time.
David Suzuki, a Canadian scientist, environmentalist and host of CBC’s award-winning nature of things, took the threat of the loss of charitable status seriously enough that he recently quit his own David Suzuki Foundation, an organization that, according to its own mission statement, “work(s) with government, business and individuals to conserve our environment by providing science-based education, advocacy and policy work.”
Sad to say that when Suzuki left his foundation so he could speak more freely on environmental issues, some of our fellow Canadians wrote to blogs for major newspapers saying things like; Thankfully, Canadians are getting rid of a snake oil salesman,” he’s a “stooge,” a “scammer” and a “shanky, enviro wacko, fear-mongering alarmist.”
I’d still like to think that the people who wrote those notes are in a minority. I spoke to a large class of university students recently and I did not get the impression most of them felt it’s a good idea for our government to pull out of the Kyoto Accord on climate change or gut a federal Fisheries Act that has been a powerful tool for protecting our waters and a vital web of the foodchain we depend on for our survival.
There is something terribly wrong when a government of a developed country in the 21st century can’t see one wit of sense in balancing economic growth with good stewardship of natural resources that made Canada such a great country to live and work in the first place.
Is this where we want to go as a nation? Canadians who have some love for our wealth of natural resources – our Great Lakes, our forests and diversity of wildlife – have got to stand up against the war this government is waging on our environment.
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post below.)
Niagara At Large 
I have seen this movie before circa 1980s, President Ronald Reagan and Vice-President George Bush Sr, When they put several anti- environment people in charge of the EPA they trashed the whole department, they made war on the very things they were supposed to be protecting , Harper and Oliver are using the same prayer book and singing the same stupidity, of their idols the Republican Party of the USA,This is why we are all at risk , just as George Smitherman destroyed our Ministry’s of health,energy and broke the back of our Province , Oliver the willing and dangerous ax man of Stephen Harper will start chopping away at our hard fought for, environmental laws, The dreaded omnibus bill will drive like a bulldozer over our beloved Canada and destroy everything that we hold dear, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau will no doubt be rolling in his grave at this war on our country.
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Great article, but there were some things I didn’t understand or agree with, if anyone would care to enlighten me I’d appreciate it.
About the government not balancing economic growth with good stewardship. That’s true the Harper government has been making the economy the top priority since the recession hit. I think it’s what most people want them to be doing right now.
The story about David Suzuki leaving his own charitable organization. It sounds like the government is trying to separate lobbyists from being charitable organizations.
This article’s narrative about the environment seem to contradict the article itself, which I found odd. Apparently in the 70’s and 80’s the Niagara River was a near ecological disaster. Our Canadian Scientists were doing “cutting edge work” on the problem. This motivated the Canadian and American governments to launch major clean program to save the Great Lakes
From everything I read it sounds like the effort was a success. There’s a common problem in government where agencies are “ramped up” to deal with specific problems and later on the government can’t get the agency ramped down again. The governments that have difficulty with this are usually the ones we criticize as being wasteful and overspending.
I think the verdict is still out on the Harper government on this one, but we can see. If people are not happy they can vote him out next election.
A Note from NAL publisher and writer of this post, Doug Draper – I thank Matthew for his thoughtful comment nd wish to address the point he raises about the Niagara River being in bad shape at a time 30 and 40 years ago when we had cutting edge environmental programs. I can understand why some may ask a question like – ‘Well, if the programs were so great then, how come the Niagara River was so polluted?’
The brief answer to this question is that the accumulation of leaking chemicals plaguing the waterbody at that time did not occur overnight. Many of the worst sources, inlcuding the Love Canal dump in Niagara Falls, New York, were creating in the 1950s, before we had agencies like Environment Canada and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or clean water legislation and a binational water quality agreement for the Great Lakes. This is one of the things we have to be mindful of with any kind of environmental degradation, whether we are talking about dumping contaminants in our rivers and lakes, or emitting contaminants to the atmosphere. We might think we are getting away with it for years, then suddenly the system begins to crash. That makes it difficult to get public suport for action. Unfortunately, that support usually only comes when you have the buried chemicals of the Love Canal finally leaking out and destroying a middle class neighbourhood or something on that scale or larger. – Doug Draper
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Dear Matthew, The River does look clean, but looks are deceiving. the clarity of the water is the color of Vodka,that is because of filteration of our water by an invader called the Quagga and Zebra mussel.these intruders came from Eastern Europe in the ballast water of ships going to the Ports of Chicago and other notable Great Lakes cities.We once had an insect adopted by Fort Erie Council as a symbol of the Town, they breed in fast flowing water, “The Sandfly” they no longer do that, the nutrients they need has already been consumed by the foreign mussels , meanwhile some fish, the common Goby another intruder consume these mussels which are now filled with toxins and other poisons ,are then eaten by fish eating birds, thousands of dead birds are now washing up on the Lake shores, source (GLU) a watchdog of our waterways. We now have huge growths of blue/green algae which clog up our beaches, this algae is highly toxic and harbors botulism , this organism has killed many people in Brazil and the United States, There has been and still is on the Great Lakes, remedial work going on, Cleveland, Toledo , Buffalo and Chicago with emphasise on sewer and harbor clean up,.separation of the sewer system from storm runoff and raw sewage. Our Premier Dalton McGuinty promised last election $59 million dollars for cleanup of our waterways.
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Actually Doug, from what I can tell, Ontario was a world environmental leader … in the 1960’s … when pollution was measured in Parts Per Million.
We started to slip when technology improved to measuring Parts Per Billion, and everyone is failing since we now measure Parts Per TRILLION, which is apparently the concentration of vitamins we need in our bodies….
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And we keep electing these Idiots —– wake up people the whole damn system has to change — it’s not working and neither is writing articles about it !!!!!!!!!!1
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Respectfully Mr. Snyder, I agree, but where are we to get new idiots to run? How can we channge the system? You complain but what do you present as viable options for us all? What ideas can you put forth? I wish I knew how to get rid of these creepy politicians too. How can you soar like an eagle when you flock with turkeys?
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It is amazing that so few people will admit they voted “FOR” the Provincial Liberals and of course the Federal Conservatives, but then as reality goes it must be so very. very difficult for those “JONES” to come down to earth especially when it seems their whole life is only centered on the proverbial Me, Me, Me and to hell with Canada and the rest of the blue collared slobs who happen to live within its borders.
There is no National pride involved any more as they will sell Canada out to feather their own nests and think “HOW GREAT IT IS”.
I do not carry a Political affiliation card thus I can say this;
We have had on “RARE” occasions “GENTLEMEN” in politics Federal and Provincial whose aspirations and goals were for the betterment of all the Citizens, not the select “FEW” who would poison the very “AIR we breathe and the “WATER” we rely on for life and all for the GOD ALMIGHTY “BUCK”.
The Aboriginal peoples of Canada along with environmentalists are constantly fighting government dictates Federal and Provincial dictates that are aiding and abetting the “MASS” pollution and destruction of this great country, this wondrous planet and as they struggle they are being subjected to ridicule and defamation by most corporate media in league with the assassins of Mother Nature.
Harper has changed the face of Canada and our only hope is that it is NOT TOO LATE to reverse the damage done by “HIS” dictatorial assault on NATURE, PEACE, COMPASSION and CITIZEN’S RIGHTS. for if it is not realized soon the future will become disgustingly bleak for the future of our children and our grand children.
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The Harperites are very poor economic managers. One example from a recent government study: Between 33% and 37% of manufacturing employment loss due to exchange rate developments between 2002 and 2007 (the study period) is related to the “Dutch Disease” phenomena. ( I have many more examples…)
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The Harper Regime’s push for the China Pipeline is another poor economic/environmental decision:
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You may have examples of “Dutch disease” but where’s the proof?
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This is sure to be an on-going issue, since Mulclaire has taken up the cause. Here’s an example from Resource And Energy Economics.
http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/politics/story/2012/05/18/pol-cp-dutch-disease-industry-canada-jpbs.html
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Mark great research!!!! I always had a feeling that our petro dollar was affecting our manufacturing sector , especially after John Deere pulled up stakes, This Tom Mulcaire of the NDP is growing on me.also his bona- fides was as a environment Minister in Quebec. so has a lot of street crediblity.nice work Mark.
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The war on the environment also looks like this:
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Not us so much, but our children and grandchildren stand to pay a heavy price for our current governments’ lack of real concern respecting the preservation of our environment. Just look at all the plastic floating in our waterways. If there is a buck to be made, big business — and little business, too — all too often gets a free hand. We have seen the consequences many times over but seem determined to continue to repeat the abuses. In the end, however, it is us that are to blame; we want the stuff they make possible for us to have. And, when it no longer pleases us or serves our purposes we throw the stuff away. Out of site out of mind. Only it doesn’t stay out of site, and it will come back to haunt us … or sadly, our children’s children.
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Here’s an interesting article which seems to have avoided media radar, and somehow, our “anti-environmental-government” is part of it. Maybe we can’t believe everything we read, eh:
“G-8 to Eliminate Fossil Fuel Subsidies, Curb Climate Pollutants”
Environment News Servic — WASHINGTON, DC, May 21, 2012 (ENS) –
Leaders of the world’s most developed economies, the Group of Eight, have agreed to Phase Out Government Subsidies for coal, oil and gas and pursue sustainable energy and low carbon policies “in order to tackle the global challenge of climate change.”
Hosted by President Barack Obama at the presidential retreat Camp David in the Maryland woods near Washington, DC, the leaders of
Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the European Union met on Friday night and continued working through Saturday, issuing a declaration on Saturday night.
As the G-8 meeting concluded, President Obama said, “We discussed the importance of pursuing an all-of-the-above strategy for energy security in a safe and sustainable way.”
-much more online: fukushima, offshore-drilling, globalisation, etc-
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2012/2012-05-21-01.html
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Want to clean up the Great Lakes , and are tired of waiting for the Government to act then change the rules of the game that negatively affect our water quality! Then get some good friends and adopt a local creek, stream or watershed in your area. You can do things like Bio engeneering ( using the materials at hand rocks , tree branches, and native plantings to secure the bank from erosion ). Taking the plantings futher afield you can provide a vegetative buffer from the creek water and land use operations. You will have a direct impact on the quality of water entering the Great Lakes by turning what was once a drainage ditch into a natural filtration system! So if your tired of the in action of governments and of all the frustrated comments on all those blogs their is a way YOU can make a differance!!!!!
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Fort Erie is home to a group of volunteers called “Friends of the Creeks” these people took the bull by the horns, became registered as a none profit group,they literally waded into Black and Beaver creeks with a barge and removed everything from tires, stoves and motor cycles, to the proverbial kitchen sink, i wanted to join them but was fighting for my life at St.Josephs Hospital Hamilton with an auto-immune disease. the Friends of the Creeks even ran Bingos to finance this enormous task. the waters are running and support fish , that could not breath before, no stagnant water, just water inimpeded.by garbage. Kudos to the Friends!!!!!
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THIS is what Harper fears:
http://www.frankejames.com/debate/?p=11818
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That’s right George. Kudos to the friends of all the creeks ,back in the late 80’s and 90’s I was a member of a group called FRIENDS OF THE FORTY in Beautiful Grimsby . Every one in that group accomplished so much and brought so much awareness to our watersheds . Tree plantings , cleanups, Yellow fish road programs, Creek within Creek studies, Bio engeneering projects, Trail enhancements, Water quality studies , Naming and tagging trees (Carolinian spieces) with the use of braile so the blind can feel and learn, and hopefully bringing awareness to the degredation that exists in our watersheds. To me there is such a critical need to go beyond the volunteer stage that there should be opportunities for our youth to be employed in restoring and enhancing our watersheds. People have to start looking at these creeks and stop seeing dirty ditches but future NATURAL FILTRATION SYSTEMS___!! WHICH will be the fastest way to clean up Our Great Lakes!!!
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