Anti-fracking protest becomes violent

Forty arrests were made after an anti-fracking protest on Oct. 17 turned violent outside the Elsipogtog First Nation reserve in New Brunswick. The protesters called for the energy company Southwestern (SWN) Resources to stop seismic testing in the area. The development of their traditional land was planned  without sufficient consultation with Indigenous peoples, as required by federal law.

The two-week long demonstration consisted of campers and a road blockade barring access to an energy compound owned by SWN Resources. The RCMP moved in last Thursday to enforce a court injunction ordering the removal of the blockade.

The RCMP has defended their actions, saying that the protest was not a peaceful demonstration as weapons were on site.

According to Elsipogtog First Nation Councillor Robert Levi, who was arrested last Thursday, the protesters will try to remain on site, despite the ongoing injunction.

Elsipogtog Chief Aaron Sock met with New Brunswick Premier David Alward and RCMP Commander Roger Brown after the incident to try and resolve the issue and ensure that future protests are peaceful.

 

Supreme Court upholds family’s right to choice in life support case

Last week, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that doctors involved in the case of 61-year-old Hassan Rasouli, who is living with severe brain damage, are not permitted to remove him from life support without the consent of his family.

The doctors argued that, under Ontario’s 1996 Consent Act, consent from the family was not required because life support did not provide any medical benefit to the patient, who was diagnosed to be in a vegetative state. Physicians at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto have predicted that there is no hope of recovery for Rasouli and that the medical complications he faces will increase as his condition progresses.

Rasouli’s wife, Parichehr Salasel, has refused to end life support for her husband, citing religious reasons and her belief that Rasouli’s eye movements indicate a level of minimal consciousness.

Judge Beverley Machlaclin wrote that treatment could not be confined to what a doctor considered to be medically beneficial to a patient. She also wrote that the dismissal of the case did not close the ethical debate surrounding the recurring issue, when wishes of family members contradict doctors who feel that they are doing more harm to the patient by providing life support.

 

Free trade agreement announced between Canada and the EU

Last Friday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and European Union (EU) President Jose Manuel Barroso announced the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) in Brussels, Belgium.

The agreement plans to remove 98 per cent of tariffs between Canada and the EU, encourage labour movement, and increase foreign investment. CETA is predicted to boost Canada’s GDP by $12 billion and create 80,000 jobs. Canadian companies and farmers will also pay less for goods made in Europe, while European companies will be able to bid on provincial and municipal government contracts.

The agreement is not finalized, as it has yet to be approved by all 28 member states of the EU and all of Canada’s provinces and territories. Both Barroso and Harper have expressed confidence that all parties involved will agree to CETA, and that it will be in place by 2015. They have also stated that the agreement could be adopted provisionally until it is fully ratified.

Canadian dairy farmers have raised concerns that the agreement will negatively affect their livelihood, as the EU’s share of the Canadian cheese market is set to increase from 13,000 to 30,000 tonnes per year. According to the federal government, a compensation plan for dairy farmers is in the works.

 

British Columbia becomes final province to regulate groundwater

On Oct. 18, British Columbia’s Environment Minister Mary Polak announced the province’s Water Sustainability Act, which makes B.C. the final province in Canada to regulate the large-scale usage of groundwater.

The legislation to govern the allocation of groundwater is the first of its kind in the province since the 1909 Water Act, and is a result of a four-year consultation process, which included Indigenous peoples, industries, and communities of B.C. The government has cited climate change, shale gas fracking, and the commercial sale of water as incentives for this act, which also legislates governmental power regarding water allocation in times of water scarcity.

The act imposes fees of 85 cents per 1,000 cubic metres of ground water used by large-scale industries such as Nestle, which bottles 319.5 million litres of water every year. Although the act has not been finalized and the provincial government is seeking input from the public until Nov. 15, it is expected to add $5 million to provincial funds.

 

Senator Pamela Wallin takes legal action against suspension

Senator Pamela Wallin announced last Thursday that she will be taking legal action against the Conservative Party, who suspended her from her position as a Senator after she was found to have filed $140,000 in fraudulent travel expense claims. Wallin has since re-paid the sum and has also not been criminally charged.

Wallin’s lawyer Terrence O’Sullivan, has criticized the way the party has dealt with Wallin’s case.

“If they want to suspend her, they should do so after she’s had the full opportunity to answer the allegations in the motion, to see what evidence they rely on, and to cross-examine their witnesses, and bring evidence of our own,” he said.

O’Sullivan has argued that Wallin’s suspension without a hearing would leave the province she represents—Saskatchewan—lacking representation in the federal government, depriving the province of a constitutional right.

In light of this recent suspension as well as those of two other conservative senators, Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau, discussion has been growing about reforming the power that the Senate and the House of Commons currently have to make their own rules of conduct.

 

The Human Rights Commission of Quebec has publically opposed the provincial government’s proposed Charter of Values, according to a statement released on Oct. 17.

While the Commission does not have the authority to prohibit legislation from moving forward, it said that the proposal would not stand up in court.

The Commission argued that prohibiting public sector workers from wearing conspicuous religious symbols would infringe on the freedom of religion and the right to equality guaranteed through the province’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, as well as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“The proposed prohibition puts forward precisely the sort of distinction that would have the effect of excluding individuals from a significant number of jobs, based on the wearing of a religious symbol and inferred perceptions of that symbol,” the Commission’s statement reads. “Consequently, the proposed prohibition of conspicuous religious symbols would infringe directly not only upon the right to exercise one’s freedom of religion, but also upon the freedom of speech and the right to equal access to employment.”

The Commission also spoke against the argument that the proposed charter promotes equality between men and women, saying that restricting freedom of expression is not the solution.

“There is no denying that we have a long way to go to achieve true equality between women and men,” the statement reads. “To achieve this, it is not enough to produce more and more declarations of principles or statements of values. Rather, the aim should be to ensure the effective realization of the rights already recognized by the Charter [of Human Rights and Freedoms], particularly by strengthening economic and social rights.”

Bernard Drainville, Parti Québécois (PQ) member of the National Assembly of Quebec and the minister responsible for the proposed Charter, told the Montreal Gazette that his party does not share the opinions expressed by the Commission.

“We don’t share the same perception of reality,” he said. “The commission proposes to keep the status quo. It is opposed to a clarification of the rules on religious accommodation. We disagree. We think a much clearer framework on religious accommodation is needed because the people who deal with accommodation requests, like teachers, principals and school boards, are asking us for one.”

As a minority government, the PQ cannot enact the proposal as law unless another party chooses to support it. In order to possibly gain majority seating in the National Assembly of Quebec, Premier Pauline Marois would have to call a general election in the upcoming months.

McGill has filed an appeal to an Oct. 7 ruling made by the Commission d’accès à l’information, a decision that denied the university’s request for the ability to deny future Access to Information (ATI) requests at its discretion. The Quebec Court of Appeal will announce whether they accept the motion at a hearing on Dec. 4.

Last December, McGill filed a motion asking for the discretionary power to deny ATI requests that the university deemed “overly broad” or “frivolous.” McGill argued that an increase in ATI requests over the last year were causing the university financial strain and reducing efficiency.

“Following last week’s decision, McGill had a deadline of 10 days to file a motion which seeks permission to appeal that decision,” said Stephen Strople Secretary-General of the university. “This is part of the procedure, and we met that deadline.”

Kevin Paul, a McGill law student and respondent in the case, said he had expected McGill to file an appeal.

“I’m not surprised given that we already knew that McGill was very intensely pursuing the authority to deny future ATI requests,” Paul said.

Paul also emphasized that students should question the funds the administration is spending on the case.

“Students should really be asking how much money the administration is going to be spending on legal fees on this case,” he said. “This [appeal] adds dozens of hours to the lawyers’ fees […] and this is at a time of supposed austerity budget cuts and underfunding.”

Isaac Stethem, a masters student in political science and another respondent in the case, said these developments in the case place more financial strain on the students involved. He said respondents have so far been supported by donations.

“We, as students, are in a situation where it is very difficult for us to take on that kind of fight,” Stethem said. “I think that may well be the case that McGill assumes—that students, being people who generally don’t have the kinds of resources to deal with this kind of legal case, would just let things go and it would be much easier for them.” Regardless of legal fees, Paul said the respondents plan to move forward and contest the appeal.

In addition, McGill’s request to deny specific requests from 19 McGill students and alumni is ongoing, and will be decided through a mediation process that is expected to begin on Nov. 27.