Research and technology won’t feed starving southern resident orcas
More funding was announced by Fisheries and Oceans Minister Dominic LeBlanc on March 15 for initiatives to protect southern resident killer whales, the iconic orcas off the southern coast of British Columbia that are slowly starving to death. While funding for technology and research is important, a cash infusion alone won’t feed the 76 orcas […]
National action urgently needed to save sharks from shark finning
Shark finning is the brutal and ecologically devastating practice of cutting fins off a shark and throwing the animal back into the ocean to die slowly. Canada prohibits this practice but continues to import products of shark finning. In fact, Canada is the largest importer of shark fins outside Asia. Sharks are integral to the […]
Strong, integrated, modern transportation system ‘fundamental’ to Canada’s future prosperity: Garneau
Transport Minister Marc Garneau has some heavy lifting to do with a few signature pieces for the Trudeau government’s environmental agenda. Most notably, Mr. Garneau’s (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Westmount, Que.) department is responsible for taking the lead on legislation barring crude oil tankers from traversing British Columbia’s ecologically sensitive North Coast, working with provincial and territorial governments to […]
Why the world needs a little less Canada in 2018
Barack Obama, then United States president, told Parliament in 2016 that: “The world needs more Canada.” Banners in Chapters bookstores proclaimed the same message in 2017, by way of celebrating Canada’s 150th anniversary. But considering the harm to nature that Canadians cause, the inconvenient truth is that the world needs less Canada. Indeed, if the world’s other species could vote on which humans should be voted off Turtle Island, Canadians would be […]
It’s high time to upgrade the Fisheries Act
If once upon a time the belief that fisheries were an endless natural resource was common, it is now abundantly clear that it is not. Fisheries are declining fast around the globe, and Canada is not exempt from this. For example, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), an independent advisory […]
It’s Canada’s time to lead on a renewed Law of the Sea
In 2003, George W. Bush’s administration established a novel initiative to prevent attacks on American interests from the sea, or to prevent transport of fissile materials that could be used in weapons of mass destruction. It was called the Proliferation Security Initiative, or PSI. Two events were uppermost in American minds when it came to […]
Feds in serious danger of betraying environmental assessment reform promises
Unless the Trudeau government takes a sharp turn, fixing Canada’s environmental assessment law will be just one more bold commitment it won’t deliver on. The recent discussion paper outlining the federal government’s plans suggests little more than tinkering with the 2012 devastating re-write of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act by Stephen Harper’s Conservative government. The […]
Canada’s ocean protection ripple could become a wave
Last week, a Canadian delegation joined world leaders in New York to support the United Nations’ goal to conserve and sustainably use the world’s oceans, seas and marine resources. Canada borders three oceans and has the world’s longest coastline, so marine protection should be central to our international reputation. A World Wildlife Fund poll shows 83 per cent of people in Canada are […]
New fishery closures key to feds’ 2017 marine protection goal
The federal government will lean on new fishery closures to meet its goal of protecting five per cent of Canada’s marine territory by 2017, an ambitious plan that has the opposition Conservatives and some people in the fishing industry nervous about possible restrictions on their livelihood. The Liberal Party campaigned last year on a promise […]
Coast guard’s aging fleet ‘risks falling below international standards’: Internal brief
The agency responsible for the search-and-rescue fleet patrolling Canada’s waters has trouble meeting the expectations set out for it by the government, often sacrificing “needed investments in fleet and shore-based maintenance” in its ships and relying on temporary funding to make ends meet. The Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) is under rising pressure to replace old […]
