The Dominion - The Media Co-op

Toxic Mine, Poisoned Park
Canada Jails Refugees
Child-first funding reserved
The Dominion
news from the grassroots
The Media
Co-op
www.mediacoop.ca/join
$5
issue
July
89 Aug
2013
Tailors, Textiles and T-shirts: How Haiti’s clothing
market became ground zero for globalization, p. 16
www.dominionpaper.ca
Contents
3
Front Lines
4
Environment
5
6
8
May in Review
by Media Co-op
Contributors
From Terminal City to
Transition Town
by Kerry Hall
Farming
Carving the Prairie
Commons
by Sheldon Birnie
Vancouver
Media Co-op
Building Resistance
by Rising Tide
Vancouver—Coast
Salish Territories
Original Peoples
Jordan’s Principle
Funding in Limbo
by Moira Peters
The Dominion is a pan-
10
Migration
12
Migration
14
Montreal
Media Co-op
16
18
Welcome to
Prison Nation
by Karina Fortier
Borderless Cities
by Aaron Lakoff
“Status for All” Rings
From Four Corners of
Montreal
by Tim McSorley
COVER Story
Made in Haiti,
Dumped in Haiti
by Isabeau Doucet
Mining
Cyanide Dreams
by Rachel Deutsch
20
Halifax
Media Co-op
21
Halifax
Media Co-op
22
Toronto
Media Co-op
23
Toronto
Media Co-op
24
Comic
25
All Out for Alfalfa
by Miles Howe
Who Will Be Seen?
by Hillary Bain Lindsay
Fresh Blood
by Geordie Dent
No Legroom for Striking
Porter Workers
by Megan Kinch
Bees on the Road
by Heather Meek
LETTERS
Back Talk
Compiled by
Moira Peters
Often highly caffeinated, Vancouver local editor Sandra
Cuffe is leaving the Editorial Collective as this issue goes
to print, after a fun and rewarding year. She has been a
long-time contributor and an active member of the Vancouver Media Co-op. A freelance journalist and incurable
vagabond, Sandra is headed to Saskatchewan for the
summer to chase uranium tailings and to connect with
some amazing folks who initiated a local working group
of the Media Co-op in the province. She has seen the
Media Co-op grow over the past few years and feels lucky
to have had the opportunity to get to know the organization well, from local organizing to the production of
The Dominion. Sandra encourages anyone interested
to get involved with the co-op at any level. Especially in
Saskatchewan. Jus’ Sayin’.
Printed by Kata Soho Design & Printing, www.katasoho.com, in Montreal.
Board of Directors
Maryanne 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 Collective
Sandra Cuffe
Roddy Doucet
Miles Howe
Nat Marshik
Tim McSorley
Tara-Michelle Ziniuk
Fact Checkers
Garson Hunter
Nadeem Lawji
Dawn Paley
Arij Riahi
Copy Editing
Co-ordinator
Ashley Fortier
Copy Editors
Claire Abraham
Oliver Fugler
Simon Granovsky-Larsen
Alison Jacques
David Parkinson
Lisa Richmond
Join Sandra and the growing ranks of people from all walks of life who are choosing to own their
media by becoming a member today! Each and every member in our network helps make the
news happen. We are the Media Co-op. Go to www.mediacoop.ca/join to join us today!
The Dominion is printed on Enviro100 100 per cent post-consumer paper.
The Dominion
Newspaper Co-operative
Correy Baldwin
Stefanie Gude
Stephanie Law
Hillary Lindsay
Martin Lukacs
Dru Oja Jay
Michèle Marchand
Dave Mitchell
Dawn Paley
Moira Peters
Sandra Cuffe—contributor, editor
2
Publisher
Editors-at-Large
Member Profile
To find new subscribers, we occasionally exchange mailing lists with like-minded organizations for one-time mailings. If you prefer not to receive such mailings, please
email membership@mediacoop.ca, or write to the address in the masthead.
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.
info@dominionpaper.ca
PO Box 741 Station H,
Montreal, QC, H3G 2M7
Graphic Design
ALL CAPS Design
Cover Artist
Ben Clarkson
ISSN 1710-0283
www.dominionpaper.ca
www. mediacoop.ca
Front Lines
Corporate Seeds Spurned, Oil Pipelines Protested
by Media Co-op Contributors
Marchers in Vancouver joined hundreds of thousands around the world in
March Against Monsanto in Montréal.
a march against agri-business chemical giant Monsanto. Photo by D.M. Gillis
Photo by Lëa-Kim Châteauneuf
Thousands of people in cities across Canada, including
Saskatoon, Halifax, and Vancouver, joined tens of thousands
worldwide in a global March Against Monsanto to protest
the environmental and health impacts of the chemical giant’s
products.
The campaign to stop the reversal of Enbridge’s Line 9
pipeline, which would bring tar sands crude to the east coast
of Canada, continued in Sarnia, ON, where dozens of protesters
marched on and disrupted an investors’ conference at a local
hotel.
Hundreds of Montrealers marched from four corners of the city
as part of an annual Status for All event in support of migrants’
rights. This year, the march voiced support for the ongoing
Solidarity City campaign.
In Vancouver, Idle No More activists held a march to mark the
death of Elijah Harper, a Cree activist and former Manitoba
MLA. Harper gained recognition for standing up in the legislature
while holding an eagle feather to block the passage of the Meech
Lake Accord.
The Gitga’at First Nation told Enbridge to leave its territory,
after the company and a team of oil spill response surveyors
showed up uninvited during the nation’s annual food harvesting
camp, a time of rich cultural activity and knowledge sharing.
After Gitga’at councillors voiced their displeasure at not being
consulted by Enbridge on an oil spill response survey, company
representatives were instructed to leave Gitga’at council
chambers and territory.
Terrorism charges were dropped in a year-long case against
four Montreal students who were accused of throwing smoke
bombs in the city’s metro last May. The incident prompted the
complete closure of the Montreal metro for the first time since
1989, bringing rush hour to a standstill.
The Dominion July / August 2013
Workers and locals
at the Nova Scotia
Government and
General Employees
Union’s (NSGEU)
biennial passed the
hat, the union matched
donations, and over
$11,000 was raised to
cover the costs of living
for recently dismissed
Just Us! baristas Shay
Exnuga and Elijah
Williams. Exnuga and
Williams allege they
were dismissed from the
Halifax café because of
their attempts to unionize,
a contravention of the
Trade Union Act.
Saskatoon residents gathered for a demonstration outside
Jenny’s Bridal Boutique to show support for Rohit Singh and for
transgender rights in Saskatchewan. Singh, a transgender
woman, visited the boutique to try on dresses in preparation for
her wedding, and was discriminated against by the shop owner.
PM Harper’s bodyguard Bruno Saccomani was tapped to
become Canada’s ambassador to Jordan. According to the
Toronto Star, Saccomani, a member of the RCMP, faces several
ongoing investigations for workplace harassment.
Eight riot police and one activist were injured during a protest
in northern Greece against a Canadian gold mining project.
The Vancouver-based company, Eldorado Gold, has faced
opposition to the mine since 2011.
Migrant rights activists in Mexico visited various points along
the railroad tracks used by Central Americans migrating to
the US. Mass kidnapping, murder, and extortion by organized
crime are all too common along these routes, where criminals
operate with total impunity. In a report they produced following
their visits, the activists stated “all of Mexico is a graveyard for
migrants.”
Dr. Henry Morgentaler, a physician and abortion provider who
played a key role in ensuring the decriminalization of abortion in
Canada, died at age 90.
Be sure not to miss any of our on-line coverage!
For example, did you catch Jen Wilton and Liam Barrington
Bush’s article on Idle No More taking root in New Zealand?
Check out how the fight for self-determination, environmental
stewardship and Indigenous right have found common allies
across the sea. Check it out here: http://www.mediacoop.ca/
story/idle-no-more-takes-root-aotearoa/17353
3
Environment
From Terminal City to Transition Town
How Vancouver residents are dropping fossil fuels and adopting resiliency
by Kerry Hall
VANCOUVER―In neighbourhoods across
Canada, people are organizing at a grassroots level to make the transition to a
less energy-dependent way of life and to
become more skilled in supporting that
lifestyle.
Creating what are known as Transition
Towns, the initiative moves communities away from high energy consumption,
carbon emissions and environmental
impact. First developed by permaculture
designer Rob Hopkins in Ireland, the
concept was moved to England in 2005,
where Hopkins expanded on it. Since then,
the movement has spread to more than
450 locations around the world.
There are recognized transition initiatives across Canada, including 10 in British Columbia, nine in Ontario, two in New
Brunswick, one in Nova Scotia and one in
Quebec. BC hosts the oldest as well as one
of the largest transition communities, with
about 2,500 registered members, called
Village Vancouver.
Ross Moster, a local resident with 20
years of experience running a food co-op,
started it in 2008.
“I’ve always been a student of how to
create effective change,” Moster told The
Dominion. His idea was to connect people
and community in a fun and celebratory
way. “There’s a wealth of knowledge and
expertise in our neighbourhoods, but if
you don’t know your neighbours, you can’t
tap into it,” he said.
Moster describes the Transition Town
movement as a grassroots response to
climate change and economic inequality.
He said Village Vancouver helps neighbours meet one another and develop selfreliance. “The reason [Transition Town]
has resonated is we encourage people to
pursue their own ideas rather than tell
them what to do [and] we focus on having
fun. It’s a winning combination.”
Transition Town members sponsor
more than 250 activities per year, including workshops, events, potlucks, seed
libraries and collaborative gardening.
Members are respectfully aware that
they’re on Indigenous land,
says Moster,
and feel they
can learn much
from Indigenous peoples.
Regular gatherings are hosted
in several Vancouver neighbourhoods,
like Kitsilano,
Mount Pleasant
and GrandviewWoodland.
Jason Mertz
is one of the
organizers in
Sandra Ignagni hosts the monthly Sew Op, where community members can drop
Grandviewin for free, at her home in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighbourhood. Photo by Kerry
Hall
Woodland,
munity.
where they host
Sandra Ignagni lives in Kitsilano. After
a monthly potluck and workshop at his
meeting members of Village Vancouver
co-op housing complex just off Commerwho encouraged her ideas, she started a
cial Drive. Workshops are decided on colspin-off project called Sew Op, a monthly
lectively and members lead the sessions.
“These things work by neighbours teaching sewing group she hosts in her home. With
donated sewing machines and supplies,
neighbours,” he said of the efforts to build
it’s free for people to drop in and create.
people’s skills, adding that this is part of
“[There are] so many people who know
being resilient.
how to sew and are willing to share,”
At the May event, a couple of members
Ignagni told The Dominion. “The social
taught the group how to make kefir and
relationships are what’s at the heart of it.
kombucha, which are fermented waterGetting together with the community to
based beverages easily made at home.
reach out and share in a de-commodified
Previously, members have taught bike
way.”
maintenance, vegetable fermentation and
In April, Village Vancouver partnered
seed starting. Upcoming topics and events
with UBC on the New Economy Summit, a
include how to raise backyard chickens
three-day event to contribute to a socially
and a canning workshop.
just and ecologically responsible economy.
Jordan Bober is another one of the
As part of the city’s Car Free Day in June,
members and organizers in the same
the group will set up a demonstration
neighbourhood. While he participates in
Transition Town with everything they
a number of activities, his main effort is a
would like to see in their neighbourhoods:
project called Seedstock, which spun out
seed libraries, solar panels, backyard
from Village Vancouver’s local economic
chicken coops, collaborative gardening,
working group. Launched early this year,
composting and more.
it is an alternative currency system with
“If we had a mantra, it would be ‘Talk to
more than 60 businesses involved.
your neighbours, see what happens,’” said
“We’re creating more resilience for local
founder Moster.
economies and local people,” he said. The
project supports non-profit organizations,
Kerry Hall is a freelance journalist based in
encourages local supply chains and keeps
Vancouver.
the currency circulating within the com-
4
July/August
The Dominion July/
August 2013
Farming
Carving the Prairie Commons
Ranchers divided on federal divestment from community pasturelands
by Sheldon Birnie
Ranchers are divided on impending changes to the management of 62 community pastures in Saskatchewan. Photo by Sheldon Birnie
WINNIPEG—Prairie community pastures
and grasslands amounting to one and a
half times the size of Prince Edward Island
may soon be privatized, and ranchers’
reactions are mixed.
In April 2012, Minister of Agriculture
Gerry Ritz quietly announced that the federal government was divesting its interest
in the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA). The PFRA was established in 1935, at the height of the “Dust
Bowl,” to help combat erosion of pasture
and farm land by managing the number
of cattle grazing the land. Eighty-seven
community pastures were established on
land deemed unsuitable for cultivation;
62 in Saskatchewan, 26 in Manitoba, and
one in Alberta. Since then, the PFRA has
successfully preserved 2.3 million acres of
pastureland, much of which is endangered
tall grass prairie, while providing ranchers with well-managed land for grazing at
reasonable rates.
By 2018, the 87 PFRA-operated community pastures in Western Canada will be
transferred to the provincial governments,
beginning with 10 pastures this year in
Saskatchewan. Not only will the provinces
be saddled with this new responsibility,
they are free to manage PFRA land as they
see fit.
The conservative Saskatchewan government has made it clear it is interested in
leasing or selling the land at market value
to individual patron groups. Ranchers
who wish to keep using affected pastures
would have to invest in the purchase of the
land and would then make the decisions
regarding pasture management.
With such a dramatic change to how
the 1.78 million acres of affected land
in the province are managed, reaction
from ranchers in Saskatchewan has been
mixed. Fears of mismanagement have
been voiced, as well as the possibility
that the land might fall prey to mineral
development. Others believe that outright
ownership of the land is the only way
for ranchers to escape from the current
“peasant rancher” relationship with the
government.
Gord Vaadeland is a third-generation
rancher near Big River, Saskatchewan,
and the executive director of the Saskatchewan chapter of the Canadian Parks and
Wilderness Society (CPAWS). Vaadeland
expressed deep concern for management
of PFRA pastures under a private system,
especially with regards to species at risk,
which are a federal responsibility.
“There’s a real risk, first of all, of the
whole responsibility of management
and the costs associated with that being
offloaded onto the producers,” he told The
Dominion. “Those are costs that will fall
then directly onto the landowners.”
“My perspective, as a rancher and a conservationist,” continued Vaadeland, “is in
the end does it matter to me who owns the
land, so long as it is managed properly and
management is still done to the same high
standard? Probably not. But there is no
indication of that. The best managers we
have out there are the pasture managers
and riders we have out there right now.”
Harold Martens disagrees. Martens
is also a third-generation rancher, on a
family-run operation near Swift Current,
Saskatchewan. He is also the president of
the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association, which lobbies government on behalf
of the cattle industry.
“There are a lot of acres that are native
grass in Saskatchewan,” Martens told The
Dominion. “This PFRA part is about 1.8
million acres. In total, there is a volume
of 17 million acres of native pastureland
in SK, and about 14 million of that are
privately owned. So there is a significant
amount of native grasses that are managed, I would say, extremely well in that
context.”
Martens believes the greatest challenge
for ranchers in Saskatchewan dealing with
the changes to the PFRA pasturelands
is not management, but co-operation
between members of the new patrons
association leasing or purchasing the land
from the provincial government.
“We, as ranchers, are constantly aware
of environmental issues and we deal with
nature on a day to day basis,” he said. “The
biggest challenge will be that individuals
will need to learn to work together.”
The federal government’s decision to
transfer the PFRA lands is part of a wider
trend toward transferring and discontinuing federal programs, notably the Experimental Lakes Area, which is similarly
concerned with sustainable management
of the natural environment. The process
also coincides with the federal government’s announcement that it is abandoning the UN Convention to Combat
Desertification at the end of 2013, making
Canada the only member country not
involved.
Sheldon Birnie is a freelance writer and
editor living in Winnipeg, MB.
5
The Dominion July / August 2013
Vancouver Media Co-op
The Unist’ot’en Camp is a resistance community set up to protect the sovereignty of the Wet’suwet’en territory by stopping all pipelines. This year, they
are working on permaculture gardens. Photo by Rising Tide Vancouver - Coast Salish Territories
Building Resistance
Vancouver activists visit communities threatened by resource mega-projects
by Rising Tide
COAST SALISH TERRITORIES—Members of
the Rising Tide activist
collective organized a
tour of northern BC to
expose the true costs of
fracking and support frontline community
resistance to pipeline expansion in rural
areas.
On the eight-day day tour, in May 2013,
we visited communities that had invited
Rising Tide to share and gather information, opinions and stories about fracking.
These communities included Kamloops,
Prince George, Smithers, Moricetown and
the Unis’tot’en camp of the Wet’suwet’en
Nation, Burns Lake, Fort St. John and
Fort Nelson. Along the way, the Building Resistance tour heard about not only
fracking and pipelines but also mining
and the planned Site C hydroelectric dam
mega-project.
You can’t visit the Peace River Valley
and not hear about Site C—even if you are
on a fracking tour.
We learned this even before we met
with any of the residents of Fort St. John.
The closer you get to the city, the more
billboards indicating opposition
6 to the mega dam speckle the
highways and streets. “Stop Site C” and
“Keep The Peace” are some of the clear
messages we saw entering town.
We were able to meet with two key
members of the Peace Valley Environment
Association (PVEA). PVEA has existed for
about 37 years and has been fighting the
Site C project since its inception. Yet the
fight against the mega dam is much older—
PVEA board member Andrea Morrison
told us that residents have been mobilizing
for over 50 years.
After so many years, however, this project inspires new and pressing concerns. It
is currently undergoing an environmental
assessment (EA) again, and the public
comment period has recently closed. With
the help of a few organizations such as
LeadNow, Sierra Club BC, and Yellowstone
to Yukon (Y to Y), residents of the affected
areas and activist groups such as the PVEA
were able to get thousands of letters of
comment to the Canadian Environmental
Assessment Agency with respect to the
project. People in BC are starting to wake
up to the magnitude of this project, particularly because they are becoming more
aware that this $8 billion project would be
used to fuel proposed liquefied natural gas
(LNG) facilities on the Pacific Coast.
But residents have concerns beyond dollars and cents.
Site C would require the flooding of
approximately 5,340 hectares of land and
over 100 kilometres of river valley along
the Peace River and its tributaries. This
flooding would affect over 3,000 hectares
of wildlife habitats, heritage sites, and
“Class One” and “Class Two” agricultural
land. Ranchers, farmers and residents
are aware that the Peace River Valley is
unique, with its long growing season and
ability to provide “a hundred mile diet for
local residents given the valley’s microclimate,” as Andrea from PVEA said. Ken
(PVEA board member) said that “you can
even grow cantaloupe!” If this project were
to go through, agricultural land and wildlife habitat in the area would be decimated,
and numerous families would be forced
out of their homes and off their land.
What continues to be troubling is that
both BC Hydro and the provincial government are aware of these impacts “but
don’t seem to care,” said Morrison. She
explained how the EA acknowledges the
damage the dam could cause but does not
include plans to mitigate these impacts.
Even if the potential impacts were not
acknowledged in the EA, people do not
The Dominion July/ August 2013
Vancouver Media Co-op
have to look far to understand them.
The WAC Bennett Dam was constructed
in 1967, 23 kilometres upstream from the
proposed Site C dam, and it has caused
flooding, forced people out of their homes,
destroyed agricultural lands and changed
the climate of the region, causing stronger
winds as far as Prince George, located at
least a five-hour drive away. Additionally,
Site C would destroy First Nations burial
sites. This history is definitely not worth
repeating.
Treaty 8 First Nations boycotted the
official announcement for Site C at the
Bennett Dam in 2010. West Moberly First
Nation is also considering legal action to
oppose the dam proposal. During our trip,
we were fortunate to meet some Indigenous organizers at the at the Saulteau
First Nation band office. There we saw
the seven boxes of EAs for the proposed
Site C dam and were shocked to learn that
two people are responsible to review all
resource extraction projects and often only
have 30 days to file objections to projects
proposed on their territory. If they are
unable to respond in time, the band’s
consent is assumed, and the projects are
quickly approved.
At different times, project proponents
have said that the energy generated from
the dam would be for different industries,
such as mining, or for export to the US.
Now we are hearing it is for LNG.
Regardless of the intention of the project, people who would be impacted are
aware of that possibility and are willing
to put up a fight. They want to protect
themselves as well as those who would
be implicated by associated projects.
Site C opposition has not been limited to
discussing the impacts on the Peace River
Valley. People have also been concerned
about where this energy would go. “Why
would we allow this dam to go fuel LNG
on the coast and allow a pipeline to be put
through that gorgeous land?” said one
rancher we visited.
We agree. That is why we won’t let it
happen.
On day four of the Building Resistance
tour, we traveled from Smithers to the
Unist’ot’en Camp located 66 kilometres
down a logging road just outside of Houston, BC. To access the camp, we crossed
a bridge over the Morice River, where we
asked for consent to enter the territory.
The Unist’ot’en Camp is a resistance community set up to protect the sovereignty
The Dominion July / August 2013
The Site C dam would require the flooding of approximately 5,340 hectares of land and over 100
kilometres of river valley along the Peace River and its tributaries. Photo by Rising Tide Vancouver Coast Salish Territories
of the Wet’suwet’en territory by stopping
ALL pipelines.
Whether at the proposed site of the
Enbridge Northern Gateway or the Pacific
Trails Pipeline (PTP), the resistance camp
stands along the exact route of these pipelines in order to stop their construction.
We were lucky to have been there during
the spring work camp and had the opportunity to meet all the people volunteering
to expand the blockade. The cabin built on
the initial pipeline path has forced industry to reroute the pipeline to much more
difficult terrain. The resistance community
is now working on building pit-houses and
an impressive permaculture garden on the
new path of the proposed PTP.
We were told the the camp was recently
visited by RCMP officers who accused
the camp of blocking a “public” road. The
Indigenous land defenders reminded them
that the RCMP were not permitted on the
unceded lands, which are Unis’tot’en territory. We also heard that suspected RCMP
planes were circling the camp, the location
of the pit-houses, and the permaculture
gardens—indicating ongoing surveillance.
It is clear that the blockade is posing a
serious threat to those invested in constructing the PTP.
This pipeline would transport unconventional gas from fracking operations
in the Liard and Horn River Basins to
a processing plant in Kitimat where the
gas is liquefied and shipped overseas on
supertankers. This pipeline would bull-
doze precious habitat through unceded
Indigenous lands and increase the risk of
contamination from pipeline leaks and oil
tankers. The proposed PTP would be part
of fracking expansion in BC. Fracking is a
source of energy that, in its complete life
cycle, can rival coal in terms of greenhouse
gas emissions. In addition to environmental devastation and major climate change
contributions, PTP would pave the way for
the Enbridge tar sands pipeline.
For the Rising Tide Vancouver Coast
Salish Territories tour, it was essential to
stop by the Unist’ot’en Camp. The formation of our group was greatly inspired by
our members’ experiences and relationships from the summer action camp last
year. We were compelled to take action
in solidarity with frontline communities
when we returned home.
Most members of Rising Tide are settlers to this land, and with that position
comes a tremendous amount of privilege
and power. We have a responsibility
to confront the settler colonial state of
so-called Canada as well as the corporate
and capitalist forces which seek to further
pillage and steal the land from the rightful
stewards.
Rising Tide Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories, is a grassroots environmental justice
group committed to fighting the root causes
of climate change and the interconnected
destruction of land, water, and air.
7
Original Peoples
Jordan’s Principle Funding in Limbo
Crown appeals historic ruling on First Nations child-first policy
by Moira Peters
HALIFAX—A federal court ruling last
month might have relieved Maurina
Beadle of Pictou Landing of her worries.
She and her band council have been struggling to keep her 18-year-old son Jeremy
Meawasige—born with multiple disabilities—at home with her. But the court
victory, which mandated the Government
of Canada to fund the teen’s home care, is
now being appealed by the Crown.
“I’m not surprised, not one bit,” said
the First Nations mother shortly after the
appeal was announced on May 5. “They
say one thing and mean another. That’s
why I didn’t let my guard down. I didn’t
celebrate too much.”
The court victory had been difficult
for the First Nations mother to celebrate
wholeheartedly in the first place. In an
interview with The Dominion a few days
after the ruling was announced, Beadle
said that health care funding for her son
should have come through long ago.
“But it doesn’t work that way, does it?”
she said.
In an effort to obtain those funds,
Beadle and the Pictou Landing Band
Council (PLBC) filed an application
against the Canadian government in June
2011, stating that Jeremy was entitled to
the same health care that would be provided to an off-reserve Nova Scotian child
in the same situation. Specifically, they
were looking for funding to keep Jeremy
at home with his mother, who had been
his sole care provider until a double stroke
in May 2010 left her physically unable to
perform the tasks required for Jeremy’s
care.
In a precedent-setting ruling on April 4,
2013, Justice Leonard S. Mandamin of the
Federal Court of Canada ruled in favour
of Beadle and the PLBC, ordering Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development
Canada (AANDC) and Health Canada
to reimburse the band council beyond
the loosely defined $2,200 respite cap in
Nova Scotia. However, the ruling does
not specify the reimbursement amount.
Paul Champ, the lawyer representing
Beadle and the band council, said
the ruling likely means they can expect a
full reimbursement for all the home care
services they have paid for themselves and
legal fees.
“This is of course a great victory for the
family,” said Champ of Mandamin’s ruling.
It’s a victory that removes the threat that
the band’s money could run out at any
time, which would force Jeremy into an
institution outside his community, he said.
“For the band, it’s vindication.”
Before the recent ruling, the band took
a courageous stand to provide Jeremy
with the care he needs, said Champ, even
though those expenses took up 80 per cent
of the band’s designated budget for such
services.
The federal government’s recent appeal
of the court ruling means the case will
move to a higher court, where any decision
will set a higher precedent. “And the facts
are bad for government, and good for the
family and the band,” said Champ.
In arguing their case, Beadle and the
PLBC invoked the Canadian Charter and—
for the first time in a Canadian court—Jordan’s Principle.
Jordan’s Principle is a child-first policy
designed to address the elusive jurisdictional and legal frameworks governing
social services for a specific demographic:
First Nations children with multiple
disabilities. Providing these vulnerable
citizens with health services at the provincial standard, which is the responsibility
of AANDC and Health Canada, is complicated by their Aboriginal status. Applicants must not only convince provincial
bodies—which normally do not operate
on-reserve—to perform an assessment, but
also convince the federal bodies to meet
the directives of the provincial assessment, and then pay for the costly services.
Coordinating this process is complicated
and lengthy for families already exhausted
by the high levels of care their children
require, and it often ends with the children
receiving long-term institutional care.
Jordan’s Principle is named after Jordan
River Anderson, a Norway House Cree
child from Manitoba who was born with
a rare neuromuscular disorder. He was
hospitalized for more than two years while
provincial and federal departments fought
over which was responsible for funding his
home care. Jordan died at the age of five
without having ever gone home. Recognizing the tragedy of his case, the House of
Commons unanimously passed Jordan’s
Principle in 2007.
The policy has never been successfully
invoked.
However, Mandamin’s ruling stated
that Jeremy’s case “engages consideration under Jordan’s Principle,” setting a
precedent for dozens of cases like Jeremy’s
across Canada.
“This decision gives legal force to
Jordan’s Principle so child advocates,
families and organizations can hold governments legally accountable when they
fail to ensure First Nations children can
access government services on the same
terms as other children,” wrote Cindy
Blackstock, executive director of the First
Nations Child and Family Caring Society of
Canada, in an email to The Dominion.
In Manitoba alone, more than 50 cases
of First Nations children are seeking
funding through Jordan’s Principle. They
will now have the legal clout to demand
public services, according to Philippa
Pictou, Health Director for Pictou Landing
First Nation, who first suggested applying Jordan’s Principle to Jeremy’s case.
Pictou recently returned from Winnipeg,
where she was guest speaker at a Manitoba
chiefs’ conference on Jordan’s Principle.
In 2011, a tripartite agreement on implementing Jordan’s Principle was reached in
New Brunswick and a bilateral agreement
was reached in British Columbia. Similar
efforts continue in other provinces.
The federal government has been able
to avoid adhering to its policy and funding
care for Jordan’s Principle applicants by
simply denying, in every instance, that a
jurisdictional dispute between federal and
provincial governments exists. Without
a jurisdictional dispute, the policy does
not apply. In Jeremy Meawasige’s case,
Aboriginal Affairs officer and federal point
8
The Dominion July/ August 2013
Halifax Media Co-op
Maurina Beadle had to drop the fight to
Maurina Beadle (right) and Cindy Blackstock
A recent federal court ruling awarded Maurina
close down a pulp mill that was polluting her
attended a rally in support of Jordan’s Principle
Beadle’s (foreground) band council funding to
community in order to care for her disabled son.
in Halifax in October 2011. Photo by Moira Peters
keep her son Jeremy at home at an amount
equal to that which would be provided to a
Photo by Moira Peters
non-Native Nova Scotian in the same situation.
Photo by Moira Peters
person on Jordan’s Principle Barbara
Robinson concluded that the principle
didn’t apply because both the federal and
provincial governments agreed on, and did
not dispute, the $2,200 monthly amount
to be provided for Jeremy’s care. Justice
Mandamin disagreed.
“The Nova Scotia Court held [that] an
off-reserve person with multiple handicaps
is entitled to receive home care services
according to his needs,” reads Justice
Mandamin’s ruling, which cites a case in
which a 34-year-old non–First Nations
Nova Scotian successfully sued for inhome care above the provincial norm.
“His needs were exceptional and the SAA
[Social Assistance Act] and its Regulations provide for exceptional cases. Yet
a severely handicapped teenager on a
First Nation reserve is not eligible, under
express policy, to be considered despite
being in similar dire straits.”
Mandamin went on to point out that if
both levels of government are wrong about
what services ought to be provided to a
First Nations person, they cannot then
deny the correct services by claiming they
agree in order to avoid a jurisdictional
dispute.
The judge concluded that Robinson,
despite her “specialized expertise in this
matter,” was “unreasonable” in her conclusion that Jeremy’s case did not meet the
criteria for a Jordan’s Principle case.
The successful avoidance of any “jurisdictional dispute” has also meant that
The Dominion July / August 2013
an $11 million fund set aside in the 2008
federal budget for Jordan’s Principle cases
was never touched before it was dissolved
in the 2012 federal budget by the Harper
government, according to a briefing
package for the Ministry of Health dated
April 23, 2012, obtained by Cindy Blackstock through a Freedom of Information
request.
“This surprises me,” wrote Blackstock,
“because everywhere I go, people are able
to readily identify cases where children are
being denied or delayed receipt of services
because of federal-provincial disputes on
payment.”
Throughout Jeremy’s court case and
even in the wake of the court victory, Maurina Beadle has maintained that, for her,
the process has never been about money,
or winning, but rather about fighting
government greed and neglect of human
rights, and leading the life she and her son
deserve.
“I had to drop a lot
of things to look after
Jeremy,” she said,
citing the legal battle to
close the Northern Pulp
Mill in nearby Pictou
that has used her community as a dump for
its toxic effluent for the
past 50 years. “I had no
time, no social life.... I
was spending so much
time in the hospital, because Jeremy was
my number one priority. But I’m going to
pick up where I left off—that damn pulp
mill has to go. It’s a long battle but someday it’s going to have to close.”
First, though, Beadle has to face another
round in court with the federal government.
“This is nothing new to me,” she said of
the Crown’s appeal. “If they want to play
that game, I’ll play. I’m not one bit afraid.
We won the first round. It’s all out in the
open that the government doesn’t want
to be doing what they’re supposed to be
doing. I’ll stay on every step of the way.”
With files from Philippa Pictou and Cindy
Blackstock.
Moira Peters lives and bikes in Halifax.
Working towards a more
sustainable future for all
Canadians!
,
Migration
Welcome to Prison Nation
Canada uses prisons to detain newly arrived asylum-seekers
by Karina Fortier
MONTREAL―After arriving in Canada in
2007 and settling in Montreal, Uma, a Sri
Lankan Tamil refugee, learned that some
of his peers had been sent to jail. “We
didn’t think we would be put in jail,” he
told The Dominion. “We come because we
don’t have freedom in our country; and
then we don’t find freedom here.”
Three years later, when 492 Tamil refugees arrived in Vancouver aboard the MV
Sun Sea in 2010, all the adults were placed
in high-security provincial jails. Many
of them had experienced severe trauma
during the Sri Lanka Civil War and on
board the Sun Sea.
It is often believed that only criminals
go to jail. But most people are not aware
that provincial jails also hold a very different segment of the population: newly
arrived asylum claimants.
The Canadian Border Services Agency
(CBSA) may detain asylum seekers upon
their arrival for three reasons: if it believes
they pose a danger to the public, if it
believes that they will not appear at their
immigration proceedings or if it hasn’t
established their identity—often due to a
lack of documentation.
Arriving in Canada with all the documents required to file a refugee claim is
difficult for Sri Lankan Tamils, according to Uma. “Most people come illegally.
They don’t have a visa or ID, but it’s hard
to get it because the [Sri Lankan] government doesn’t like the Tamil. My friend is
in Montreal now, but he was put in jail in
Vancouver. He found it very hard to ask
for help there.” He paused, adding with
a chuckle, “But the government here is
better than the government in Sri Lanka.
They kill you there.”
Detained asylum seekers are sent to one
of the two CBSA holding centres, in Laval
and Toronto, or to the temporary detention centre in Vancouver. When these
detention centres have attained maximum
capacity, or when asylum seekers end up
in a region other than Montreal, Vancouver or Toronto, they are placed in
non-CBSA detention facilities—otherwise
known as provincial prisons.
According to the 2010 CBSA Evaluation
Report, one third of all prison detainees
were asylum seekers that year.
“There are generally enough spaces in
the CBSA Immigration Holding Centres
for ‘lower-risk’ detainees [i.e. those lacking
proper documents],” wrote CBSA representative Esme Bailey in an email to The
Dominion. However, while those refugees
considered “high risk” and deemed to
present a danger to the public are especially prone to being placed in a prison,
the CBSA report reveals that “32 per cent
of the detainees considered ‘low risk’ were
also held in non-CBSA detention facilities.”
“The CBSA takes very seriously its obligation to ensure the health and safety of
the individuals in detention,” wrote Bailey.
She noted the Canadian Red Cross monitors detention conditions in provincial
detention facilities in “several provinces,”
and that detention liaison officers visit
provincial detention facilities in order to
review the complaints of refugees “in some
regions.”
However, the 2008 Auditor General’s
Report on the Detention and Removal of
Individuals revealed that although the
Canadian Red Cross has provided oral
reports to CBSA officials on the conditions at its facilities, the Agency “has not
monitored the extent to which the facilities
meet its standards at a national level.”
In official detention centres the CBSA
does apply international protocols, said
Janet Cleveland, a psychologist and McGill
researcher on refugee policy. “The international guidelines are minimum guidelines,” she said.
Cleveland noted that asylum seekers
detained in prison “do have access” to the
services normally offered in detention centres, such as lawyers and medical services.
However, the CBSA itself says respect for
international guidelines is not systematic
in provincial prisons. “There are a number
of challenges related to the use of provincial correctional facilities, including the
fact that the facilities can restrict advocacy
groups’ access to the facility to monitor
the well-being of the detainees,” reads the
2010 report.
In an email to The Dominion, the CBSA
representative clarified that “the CBSA
works closely with its provincial correctional partners to ensure limited interaction, where possible, between immigration
detainees and individuals detained for
criminal reasons.” However, the 2008
Auditor General’s report noted “detainees
who are held in prisons are not always
separated from other inmates, and must
abide by the same rules and conditions,
such as the wearing of a uniform.”
Cleveland asserted that the use of
prisons is improper in the case of refugees, regardless of whether or not they are
separated from other inmates. “The basic
fact of detaining refugees in prisons is very
questionable in itself, because inmates are
detained for their crimes, anybody on the
street will tell you that,” she said.
Holding undocumented asylum-seekers
in prisons blurs the distinction between
what’s illegal and what’s criminal, said
Cleveland. “I guess it’s technically illegal
to enter the country without papers, even
though the [Geneva] Convention allows it.
From there, it’s easy to say ‘illegal’ is like
‘criminal,’ and therefore these persons
have done something that’s kind of criminal.” According to Cleveland, this kind of
slippage is constantly used by Immigration
Minister Jason Kenney in order to lure the
public into a false equation.
This, in turn, appears to bolster support
for harsh new legislation.
Bill C-31, Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, was implemented
on December 15, 2012. Among other
measures, it introduced a clause whereby
the minister of public safety now has the
power to designate groups of asylum seekers as “irregular arrivals.” The minister
can apply this label to any group of two or
10
The Dominion July/ August 2013
Migration
more people who have obtained documents from smugglers. Groups may also
be labelled as irregular if the minister feels
that a regular procedure would be too
time-consuming.
“Basically they’ve given themselves the
power to designate foreign nationals, and
therefore the power to detain people for
six months at a time without review,” said
Mitchell Goldberg, vice-president of the
Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers
(CARL). “Mandatory detention is a serious
human rights violation. Asylum seekers
are sent to jail without even facing criminal charges.”
Because the law has not yet been used
on a large scale, it is difficult to gauge
whether the number of detainees sent to
prison will significantly increase or not,
according to Goldberg. However, he said
that it is likely to increase in the case of
“large-scale arrivals” (as occurred in 2010
with the arrival of the MV Sun Sea).
In attempting to speed up the processing of refugee claims, the new law has
“greatly sacrificed fairness in the refugee
determination process,” Goldberg told
The Dominion. He noted that the percentage of asylum claimants in Canada has
gone down 70 per cent since Bill C-31 was
implemented last December.
“Even the government recognizes that
placing people in holding centres and prisons is not cost-efficient,” said Cleveland.
The cost of housing detainees in provincial
jails ranges from $120 to $238 per person
per day, according the Auditor General’s
report (on the other hand, the cost of
detaining a refugee in a detention centre
is $122 per day, according to a UN study).
The report also noted that while the
average time spent by detainees in CBSA
detention centres was 80 days, the average
time spent by those placed in prisons was
144 days.
“Under six per cent of asylum seekers are even suspected of criminality
or dangerousness,” said Cleveland. “So
the remaining 94 per cent are detained
because the CBSA agent was not satisfied
with their identity, or because they posed a
flight risk.”
In Cleveland’s opinion, asylum seekers
should not be detained except in the rare
cases when there are serious reasons to
suspect dangerousness. As an immediate
No One Is Illegal-Vancouver dropped a “Canada Jails Refugees” banner during morning rush hour in
Vancouver, in opposition to the government’s anti-refugee Bill C-4. Photo by David P Ball
measure, the use of supervised residential
facilities should be encouraged, especially
for families with children, she adds. In
European countries such as Belgium and
Denmark, such facilities are operated
by social workers or NGO workers who
enforce curfews and have the obligation to
report a missing person.
“This allows people to move ahead and
do everything they need to do when they
arrive, and yet be at the disposal of the
state fairly easily,”
said Cleveland.
However, problems arise when
community groups
do not want to
take on such
obligations, she
admitted.
Other alternatives are available,
noted Cleveland,
including releasing people with
conditions. Conditions often include
the use of bonds.
But the CBSA
report found that
“the use of bonds
as a condition
of release has
decreased over
the past five fiscal
years.”
According to refugee lawyer Goldberg,
the current government’s attitude towards
refugees is more predatory than protective. “I think this government has been
doing a great deal to deter refugees from
coming to Canada, and has gone to great
lengths to be harsh towards vulnerable
people.”
Karina Fortier is a recent graduate from
McGill University in political science.
11
The Dominion July/August 2013
Migration
Borderless Cities
Sanctuary cities for migrants taking root across Canada
by Aaron Lakoff
MONTREAL—Undocumented migrants
face significant barriers when it comes to
accessing education, healthcare, food aid
and other essential services in Canada. A
new campaign to build “sanctuary cities”
across the country, however, is making
urban services more accessible to those
without papers.
Being without papers impacts the dayto-day lives of migrants in countless ways,
presenting a series of challenges that many
Canadians would find hard to manage.
Migrant justice groups won a significant
victory on February 21, 2013, when the
Toronto City Council passed what is
known as the Access Without Fear motion.
The motion has begun to dismantle some
of the hurdles undocumented migrants
face, and the effects are already visible.
Syed Hussan, a member of No One Is
Illegal-Toronto (NOII-Toronto), a collective that supported the motion, gives the
example of funerals. “The city funds people’s funerals. But many undocumented
families are quite poor, and it costs at least
$3,000 to die in Canada. [Undocumented
migrants’] funerals were generally not
funded by the city, but now [since the
Sanctuary City motion was passed], we’ve
heard of families who were able to access
this funding...So there has been a shift in
terms of direct experience.”
The motion stipulates that the city of
Toronto will open up all its services for
undocumented migrants and will advocate for changes to immigration policy
at the provincial and federal levels of
government. According to NOII-Toronto,
this will be a historic step forward in the
struggle for immigrant rights in Canada.
“What we’re most excited about is that
it’s not just a commitment, but it actually has a detailed set of implementation
protocols,” says Hussan. “In the actual
motion, it says that the city has to do an
internal audit to find out the ways that
city services are being made inaccessible,
and then do a training for the 15,000 city
workers.”
The motion passed by a vast majority,
with only three councillors out
12 of 45 (five were absent) voting
against it. Even to Hussan, the amount of
support the motion received was surprising. “This just shows really implicitly that
the work we’ve been doing in the city over
the last 10 years has really made inroads
into councillors at the municipal level,”
says Hussan. “We never intended to go get
a motion passed at the city level. That was
never our plan. Our plan was this agencyby-agency, school-board-by-school-board,
health-centre-by-health-centre approach.
We wanted to really root this at all levels of
the city.”
The “access without fear”
principle argues that
undocumented migrants
should be able to use these
services without having to
worry about being thrown
in jail, or sent back to their
country of origin.
According to Hussan, the strategy of
“sanctuary cities”—opening up city services to undocumented people—is beginning to spread across Canada. “We’ve now
been contacted by people in nine cities
across Canada who want to pass similar
motions, two of which are actually city
councillors themselves.”
Currently there are services and programs that many Canadian citizens and
permanent residents take for granted
but which non-status migrants have
difficulty accessing. These include educational institutions, shelters, food banks
and healthcare services. In recent years,
Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA)
officials have shown up at such institutions
to apprehend and deport undocumented
migrants. For example, Briarpatch magazine reported that in 2009, immigration
enforcement entered a community garden
outside a Toronto food bank and deported
one of its users.
The “access without fear” principle—one
of the principles that a sanctuary city is
based on—argues that undocumented
migrants should be able to use these services without having to worry about being
thrown in jail or sent back to their country
of origin.
Working hand in hand with “access
without fear” is the principle of “don’t ask,
don’t tell,” which says that no one should
need to show proof of immigration status
when accessing a service.
The concept of sanctuary cities recognizes an important reality in Canada: there
are an estimated 500,000 undocumented
migrants living in the country, the vast
majority of them in Toronto and Montreal,
according to Solidarity Across Borders
(SAB), a migrant justice network in Montreal. If authorities had the ability to fully
enforce immigration law, those 500,000
people living undocumented in Canada
could be subject to deportation. Migrant
justice groups argue that the economies
of urban centres would crumble if this
happened: hardly anyone would be left to
drive taxis, clean office buildings or work
in restaurant kitchens, among other essential tasks carried out by migrant workers.
On the heels of the Sanctuary City
motion in Toronto, community organizers
with SAB are pushing towards a similar
goal in Montreal. While no motion has
been put forward at city council, SAB
has been circulating a Solidarity City
declaration since 2011. SAB is encouraging local service-provision agencies such
as food banks, housing rights organizations and community centres who work
with undocumented migrants to sign on.
The declaration commits these organizations to endorse SAB’s main demand of a
regularization program for all non-status
people, so that they can become permanent residents and stay in Canada. In the
short term, the letter also asks organizations to ban CBSA authorities from their
premises, allowing undocumented people
to access their services without fear. So
far, 25 different organizations have signed
SAB’s Solidarity City declaration, including student groups, labour unions and
women’s centres.
Work around granting access to a
specific city service is being done with the
larger goal of ensuring all undocumented
migrants have the same rights as other
The Dominion July/ August 2013
Migration
Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
Emergency food-provision agencies
are critical for undocumented people,
says Leah Freedman, a member of the
Food For All committee of SAB. “One of
the main barriers is asking for identification documents in order to access food
services—be that proof of income or proof
of residency—because a lot of food banks
only serve people in their catchment
areas.”
“For a lot of people living without status
in the city, there are many basic survival
needs that need to be met,” says Freedman. “Often people without status are
living in isolation and poverty. So just
accessing basic services is really difficult.”
While Sanctuary City campaigns have
a lot of wind in their sails in Toronto and
Montreal, migrant justice organizers in
other cities are adapting to their own local
needs.
Harsha Walia, a writer and activist with
NOII-Vancouver, explains that, historically, fewer migrants in Vancouver are
without status than is the case in other
large urban centres like Toronto and
Montreal, although an increasing number
face the problem of precarious status.
For example, there are many temporary
migrant workers who have overstayed
their visas and risk deportation or are
otherwise denied full access to services.
“I think it’s really important for people to
realize the different terrains in different
cities. That being said, there is no doubt
that regularizing status for all migrants,
ensuring full and equitable access to services, and a broader systemic conversation
about displacement is necessary everywhere,” says Walia.
As an example of migrant justice campaigns taking different forms across the
country, NOII-Vancouver has put much
of its organizing in recent years towards
building links of solidarity between
migrant and Indigenous communities.
Some examples of this in recent years have
included mobilizing migrant communities
in support of the Indigenous-led opposition to the Vancouver Winter Olympics
in 2010, as well as organizing demonstrations against oil pipeline development
through Indigenous territories.
Despite the Sanctuary City victory in
Toronto, and with momentum growing
in Montreal and elsewhere, the migrant
In Canada, there are an estimated 500,000 undocumented migrants; most do not have access to the
most basic of services, including healthcare and education. Image by Al Blair
justice organizers The Dominion spoke to
know their work is far from done.
NOII-Toronto used its May Day march
to ramp up the momentum behind
the Sanctuary City motion but also to
denounce pieces of federal anti-immigrant
legislation. Amongst many regressive
measures, Bill C-31, officially known as the
“Protecting Canada’s Immigration System
Act,” has introduced mandatory detention
for many asylum seekers.
With another two years of a Conserva-
tive majority government, similar antiimmigrant measures could still come
forward. However, while federal legislation is moving Canada further away from
an amnesty program for undocumented
migrants, activists are hoping to build
regularization from the ground up with
Sanctuary Cities.
Aaron Lakoff is a radio journalist, DJ and
community organizer living in Montreal,
trying to map the constellations between
reggae, soul and a liberated world.
13
The Dominion July / August 2013
Montreal Media Co-op
“Status for All” Rings
From Four Corners of Montreal
Hundreds march in support of thousands of undocumented people
by Tim McSorley
MONTREAL—On a sunny
afternoon in mid-May,
hundreds of people set
out on marches from the
four corners of Montreal
to voice their support for
migrants, refugees and non-status people.
While their action was almost cut short
by police, they successfully traced their
routes to downtown Montreal, chanting
and handing out thousands of flyers along
the way.
“Today there are thousands and thousands of people who live in this country
without status. They’re fighting for a better
life, fighting against the capitalist system
that is forcing them to leave their homes.
Together we’re united and together we can
take the streets and fight for status for all,”
said Andrea Figueroa, of No One Is Illegal,
at a speech during the march.
Dubbed the Status for All march, the
decade-old event was organized this year
by Dignidad Migrante, Mexicans United
for Regularization, the Immigrant Workers’ Centre, No One Is Illegal­–Montreal
and Solidarity Across Borders. Starting
in Villeray, Verdun, Côte-des-Neiges and
Hochelaga, all four groups converged
at a downtown square for a community
festival. By the time the last group arrived,
hundreds were already there with balloons, food, banners and pinatas.
While festive in mood, the event meant
to highlight serious concerns about
the persecution and marginalization of
immigrants – both those with and without
official status. The event’s four primary
demands were: Status for all, meaning
that all residents of Canada should be
able to obtain the documents allowing
them to receive necessary services and
rights afforded to everyone else; an end
to deportations, especially those breaking up families; an end to all immigration
detention; and an end to what is dubbed
“double punishment”: when migrants face
criminal convictions, they also
face possible deportation.
This year, the march also showed support for Solidarity City, a campaign to
ensure that residents of Montreal have
access to essential services in the city.
Solidarity Across Borders and other
groups have been campaigning vigorously
on this issue over the past year, asking the
Commission Scolaire de Montréal to allow
all students to enrol regardless of immigration status. Currently students need to
present proof of citizenship or residency
to register for school in Quebec. Montreal
food banks have been another point of
focus. Few people are aware that food
banks often ask for documentation proving a person’s immigration status before
providing food.
At the heart of many of these demands
is the fact that migrants are searching for a
better life, often because they are displaced
by economic difficulties, war and violence.
Christina Xydous spoke of the ongoing
anti-immigration backlash in Greece as an
example of what we need to be vigilant of
in Canada.
“You’ve certainly heard a lot about the
problems taking place right now in Greece,
with the sharp rise of the extreme right,
fascism and intolerance, racist attacks
from Neo-Nazis toward people who are
simply trying to escape a miserable existence in their own country,” she told the
crowd at a stop in the march near Rosemont metro station.
Xydous is the daughter of Greek immigrants to Canada and has lived in Canada
and in Greece. She continued: “What I
want to share with people today is that
[what is happening in Greece] is nothing special. It’s something that could also
happen here if the economic situation
deteriorates. It’s not because Greeks are
particularly vicious or anything; it’s that
the economic conditions result in a situation where fear reigns, and it’s against
fear that we must fight. [And we also fight]
to point clearly to the real people at the
root of our misery: those who have the
resources and the wealth while the rest of
us are forced to fight over crumbs.”
While the protest primarily focused on
the plight of migrants, also at issue was
the simple right to protest. Since March,
Montreal police have been strictly enforcing municipal bylaw P-6, which requires
demonstrators to provide their itinerary to
police in advance of any event. If not, each
participant in the demonstration faces
a fine of $647. The police have taken to
kettling large groups of protesters – up to
300 at a time – for several hours in order
to end protests and process participants
for tickets.
Organizers of the march interviewed
said they recognized early on that this
would be a concern for the demonstration,
particularly for those already in precarious
legal situations because of their immigration status. After internal discussions,
though, they decided to support the ongoing campaign against P-6 and refused to
give their itinerary to the Montreal police.
As they explained in a pamphlet handed
out before and during the march: “We do
not believe our principled position [opposing P-6] will result in police interference
with our march. Member organizations of
the Status for All coalition have organized
family-friendly marches in past months,
without notifying police, and there has
been no police interference... Although we
believe this will be a perfectly safe march,
we don’t want to take any risks. We have
therefore prepared a number of safety precautions, including protocols for decisionmaking teams and police liaisons in each
contingent. If we believe that the march is
becoming unsafe, we will make that clear
to participants so that anyone who wants
to can leave.” They also pointed out, in
the same pamphlet, that since an infraction of P-6 results in a ticket, not criminal
charges, it cannot be used against those
awaiting a ruling on their status during an
immigration hearing.
14
The Dominion July/ August 2013
Montreal Media Co-op
People marched from the four corners of Montreal in support of migrants’ rights at the annual “Status for All” protest in May. Photo by Tim McSorley.
Concerns about police actions were well
founded, as marches at three of the starting points – Villeray, Côte-des-Neiges,
and Verdun – faced pressure from the
police not to march. It is not clear if all
the threats were under P-6, as Mostafa
Henaway, who was at the Côte-des-Neiges
gathering point, said police threatened to
ticket people under traffic laws. Montreal
police have in the past also given out
$450 tickets under a law against blocking the circulation of traffic. As Henaway
pointed out, the police ended up blocking more traffic while they made sure the
demonstration remained on the sidewalk
than if they had simply let the gathering
of 80 or so people walk in the streets. At
other starting points, such as Villeray and
Verdun, police clearly threatened to use
P-6.
In Côte-des-Neiges, a neighbourhood
with one of the largest immigrant populations in Quebec, the contingent was the
most heavily made up of migrant folks and
people of colour. According to Henaway,
who works at the Immigrant Workers
Centre in Côte-des-Neiges, police officers
kept saying they were in favour of allow-
ing people to have their say, but that
they could do so only from the sidewalk,
a stance he described as hypocritical. “If
they were really in support, they would
have let us take the streets,” he said.
Instead, the 80 people assembled
remained on the sidewalk. Spirits
remained high, according to Henaway,
particularly when a Chilean woman passing by stopped to share her story. She happened to be one of the 70 Chilean refugees
who sought refuge in Montreal’s Saint
Jean de la Croix Catholic Church in 1998
in order to highlight problems in the Canadian immigration and refugee system.
Eventually, about 50 people got on
the metro and joined up with the march
coming from Verdun, in front of the federal immigration offices at 1010 St-Antoine
and marched together to Phillips Square.
While Henaway believes the action in
Côte-des-Neiges was successful, he says
that such police actions unduly limit the
ability of immigrants and non-status
people to voice their concerns. “These
laws have a particular impact on migrants,
people already more vulnerable...It places
even more pressure on folks who want to
be able to express themselves on migrant
justice. It makes it virtually impossible,”
he said.
The fact that police pressured demonstrators not to march, but then allowed
them to proceed, shows the hypocrisy
in how police patrol protests, said Jaggi
Singh, one of the organizers who was
present when police tried to stop the
march at the Villeray starting point, in an
interview. He pointed out that while none
of the demonstrations gave the police
their routes, police spokespeople have
told media outlets that three out of four
marches did provide itineraries. “They [the
police] are making arbitrary applications
of P-6, clearly,” he said. “There’s no reason
to lie about what we were saying. We were
openly saying that we would not provide
our itineraries...The point is that [P-6]
gives police arbitrary powers, and they are
trying to mask it through misinformation.”
Tim McSorley is a member of the Media
Co-op editorial collective and writer based
in Montreal. He is active with the Montreal
Media Co-op and CKUT 90.3FM Radio.
15
The Dominion July/ August 2013
Cover Story
Workers make T-shirts for export in the SONAPI free-trade industrial zone on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Photo by Isabeau Doucet
Made in Haiti, Dumped in Haiti
Global demand for cheap clothing sabotages local garment trade, workers’ rights
by Isabeau Doucet
MONTREAL/PORT-AU-PRINCE—In Haiti,
people wear T-shirts bearing unlikely English messages: “We’re the 2% who don’t
care,” says one; a respectable-looking
grandmother dons a T-shirt emblazoned
with “Crack is Whack!”; a little boy without shoes or pants wears a “Save Darfur”
T-shirt; while training an illegal militia,
a tough former army lieutenant sports a
“Varsity Cheerleader” T-shirt.
The absurd messages on these garments—by-products of globalization—are
often lost in translation for Haitians,
but the crueler irony is that decades of
neo-liberal measures have pushed Haiti
to expand its apparel industry to export
T-shirts to US markets. Garments are
then branded with various designs, sold,
consumed, discarded, and shipped back
to Haiti, along with other used clothes, for
resale in local markets, undercutting and
decimating Haitian tailors and their trade
in traditional-style clothing.
Decades of tariff-free food imports and
flooding of food aid sourced from heavily
subsidized US farmers has similarly sabotaged the Haitian agriculture sector, forcing people into urban slums, where they
compete for jobs in the garment
assembly sector. In the 1950s, agriculture
made up 90 per cent of Haiti’s exports;
today, 90 per cent of exports are from the
apparel sector, while more than half the
country’s food is imported.
These days, demand for Haitian-style
clothing designs has been reduced to
uniforms, church clothes—for those
practicing Vodou and members of other
religious groups—or high-end fashion and
tourist boutiques. And the streets throughout the country look like a protracted,
open-air friperie, where clothing made
cheaply all over the world—bought, worn,
and discarded in Montreal, New York, or
Dallas—is shipped to the Caribbean and
can be seen billowing in the exhaust fumes
of busy Haitian high streets or clogging
canals, adding to the Haiti’s water and
sewage crisis.
“Professional tailors who do haute couture are disappearing from the country,”
says Daomed Daniel, a tailor who has run
his own shop in Cité Soleil for 30 years.
Daniel says he used to have full-time work,
but the expansion of the used-clothing
market, locally known as pepe or contrebande because it is often smuggled and
dumped illegally, has forced him to live
mainly on commissions earned by making
children’s school uniforms.
Members of the Association des Tailleurs et Couturiers de Port-au-Prince
(ATCP), a network of independent tailors
operating out of houses around Carrefour,
complain they can’t compete with the
excess of garments made in China, Honduras, and Bangladesh that are then dumped,
second-hand, in Haiti. But tailors willing
to work in the export garment-assembly
sector have to do just that.
In a 2009 report, Oxford economist Paul
Collier argued that Haiti’s poverty and
deregulated labour market made it “fully
competitive with China, which is the global
benchmark.” Haiti’s poverty and low minimum wage make it an appealing competitor in the global commodity chain, and it
is also conveniently located at the doorstep
of North America.
Preferential free-trade deals signed
between Haiti and the United States—
named HOPE (Haitian Hemispheric
Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act, 2006), HOPE II (2008)
and HELP (Haiti Economic Lift Program,
2008)—have been part of a push to expand
Haiti’s apparel industry by branding
16
The Dominion July/ August 2013
Cover Story
“Made in Haiti” garments as somehow
humanitarian, socially responsible, and
good for Haiti’s “development,” while also
giving duty-free access to US markets.
After the devastating earthquake in
Haiti in 2010, the international community pledged an unprecedented $5 billion—
at the time, the largest pot of post-disaster
reconstruction money ever pledged.
However, the centrepiece of this postearthquake reconstruction fund was not
the creation of jobs, rebuilding of houses,
nor the construction of water and sanitation infrastructure to prevent the spread of
and death from the worst cholera epidemic
in modern history, but rather to build a
giant, Korean-run, $300 million industrial
park for apparel manufacture in Caracol,
far away from the earthquake-affected
area and at the heart of an environmentally protected region, which is also home
to some of the most fertile agricultural
land in Haiti.
A new minimum-wage law was passed
in the fall of 2012 to ensure workers in
the Haitian garment-outsourcing sector
would earn 300 gourdes for an eight-hour
day (around CAD$7). But according to an
audit released in mid-April 2013 by Better
Work, a labour and business development
partnership between the International
Labour Organization and the International
Financial Corporation (ILO-IFC), 100 per
cent of apparel manufacturers evaluated in
Haiti failed to comply, continuing to pay
the previous wage of 200 gourdes (around
CAD$4.70).
In order to earn 300 gourdes, a team of
18 workers must reach a quota of 3,600
T-shirts per day, which often takes well
over eight hours, according to Telemark
Pierre, the coordinator of Syndicat des
Ouvriers du Textile et de l’Habillement
(SOTA or Union of Textile and Clothing
Workers), formed in September 2011.
“The state hasn’t done anything to force
the minimum-wage law to be respected,”
says Pierre. “Workers do revolt, but timidly, and factories put a lot of pressure on
workers to not join the union.”
In a market driven by the profit-making
of multinationals, the garment sector isn’t
about creating jobs for Haitians so much
as displacing jobs from one poor country
to another, poorer one, making Haiti’s
poverty its “comparative advantage.”
The Korean clothing giant Sae-A, which
produces for Walmart, Target, and Gap,
has been accused of anti-union repression,
including “acts of violence and intimidation” in Guatemala and, more recently,
in Nicaragua. It closed its operations in
Guatemala due to union disputes, before
setting up shop in Caracol, Haiti. Richard
Lavallée, Better Work Haiti’s program
manager, says Better Work managers in
Nicaragua hear from their producers that
“Haiti is a real threat....When we speak
to producers in Haiti, it’s El Salvador, it’s
Nicaragua that poses a threat. So, there’s
no doubt they watch each other and are in
competition.”
In early February 2013, a Haitian
workers’ union, Batay Ouvriye, reported
that Leo Vedél, a worker at the Premium
Apparel assembly plant in Port-auPrince, which subcontracts exclusively
to Montreal apparel company Gildan,
was assaulted and then fired when he
demanded he be paid the legal minimum
wage.
Gildan is the leading producer of blank
T-shirts for the North American market
and has subcontracted to manufacturers
in Haiti for a decade. Geneviève Gosselin,
Gildan’s corporate communications director, told The Dominion she hadn’t heard of
the new minimum-wage law, nor of Better
Work’s latest findings. “Our company is
committed to respecting labour rights and
international labour standards,” she said,
but “the way the law is drafted creates
confusion locally [and has] never been
clarified by the appropriate authorities.”
When the Haitian labour minister’s
assistant director, Marie-France Mondesire, was asked by The Dominion why
so few companies in the export garment
sector respect the new minimum-wage
law, she replied, “That’s your interpretation of the law,” and hung up the phone.
In contrast, speaking at a press conference on April 29, Haitian Labour Minister
Charles Jean Jacques said, “Significant
strides have been made in the implementation of the law on the minimum wage,”
citing Better Work’s finding that 16 per
cent of workers in the outsourcing sector
now earn the minimum wage.
“The minister has either not understood
the report or is not telling the truth,” said
Yannick Etienne, Batay Ouvriye’s lead
national coordinator, speaking with The
Dominion from a May Day march in Oua-
naminthe, the free-trade assembly zone in
northern Haiti.
“It’s a regression,” said Etienne, pointing out that 90 per cent of workers should
be earning the new minimum wage. In
a country with an unemployment rate
estimated between 40 and 80 per cent,
Etienne says that workers are so desperate
that they tolerate the breach of minimumwage law.
According to a 2011 study by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of
Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the
estimated cost of living in Port-au-Prince
is $29 a day. Two hundred gourdes for
an eight-hour work shift is one-sixth the
AFL-CIO’s estimated living wage. Transport to and from work and a modest lunch
could easily cost a worker 120 gourdes.
Indeed, Haitians earn less today than they
did under the Duvalier dictatorship; wages
have barely increased and are worth half
their 1984 purchasing power.
Port-au-Prince’s largest and grimiest
meat, vegetable, and clothing market,
Croix-des-Bossales, located downtown by
the seaport, receives unregulated weekly
cargoes of used clothing. Rummaging
through the multicolour mounds, one can
easily find dozens of T-shirts originally
“Made in Haiti” for export, now dumped
and being resold in Haiti for around
$2.50. On the other hand, new, traditionally Haitian-style linen shirts are scarce,
don’t sell for less than CAD$50, and might
actually have been made in Miami.
The absurdity of a Haitian worker
spending half of his or her wage on a
second-hand T-shirt imported from the US
that might say “Thank you, Paine Webber”
(referring to the now-defunct Wall Street
stock brokerage firm) could be lost in
translation; the cruel irony of the worker’s
poverty—a condition of working for a
sub-poverty wage in the global commodity
chain—is not. Neither is the fact that Haiti
is the only country in modern history to
have been founded by a successful slave
rebellion.
Isabeau Doucet is a freelance journalist, TV
producer and anthropology MA who spent
over a year in Haiti after the earthquake.
Her work has appeared in The Guardian,
The Nation, Al Jazeera English, the New York
Times, and Briarpatch Magazine, among
others.
17
The Dominion July / August 2013
Mining
Cyanide Dreams
Eco-tourism and mega-mining don’t mix in Honduras
by Rachel Deutsch
The San Martin Foundation’s artistic rendering of its eco-tourism project was not an exercise in
mimesis. Photos by Rachel Deutsch
EL PORVENIR—There are some things
Goldcorp would probably rather forget
about its San Martin mine in Honduras.
But Oneyda Velásquez can’t forget. She
lives three kilometres from the mine site
in the Siria Valley, Honduras. She told The
Dominion how both she and her children
were tested and found to have heavy
metals such as lead, mercury and arsenic
in their blood. She said that since the
opening of the mine, her family’s health
has gotten worse and the farming isn’t the
same either. “[My children] are constantly
sick with the cold, headaches, and they
have marks on their skin. [Goldcorp
subsidiary] Entremares is the mine that’s
killing us,” said Velásquez.
The San Martin gold mine operated
from 2000 to 2008, but local residents
continue to feel its impacts. As production was winding down, Goldcorp, a
Vancouver-based mining firm, claimed
that the site would be converted into an
ecological centre under the name of the
San Martin Foundation—an attempt to rebrand the former mine as an ecotourism
site. According to Goldcorp, the company
has constructed an ecotourism hotel, a
training centre for local communities and
a sustainable business.
But the reality on the ground is a long
way from the stories told in company
documents and press releases.
A visit to the site in early 2013 revealed
no evidence of a thriving hotel or ecotourism project. Instead, tall fences
with barbed wire surrounded a space of
land on the hill down from the mine. It
cost $20 to enter the area and there were
security forces guarding the site.
Goldcorp created a promotional video
for the site that is featured on their company website. “Chickens, pigs and cattle
are farmed on the 1,500 hectare former
mine site, providing functioning ecosystems, sustainable jobs and skills training
to the people of the Valle de Siria,” the
company claims.
Locals say they’ve watched the video,
and that the people in it—who wave at
the camera, play soccer and work in the
hotel—are not from around there.
The International Ecotourism Society
(TIES), the foremost international body
that registers ecotourism projects defines
ecotourism as “responsible travel to
natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local
people.”
The San Martin Foundation is not
registered with TIES. When told about the
foundation, TIES communications director
Ayako Ezaki said that while an assessment
by TIES has not been made, if the details
presented were true, then “utilizing the
term ‘ecotourism’ to describe the centre
would be a clear case of green-washing and
irresponsible and misleading marketing.”
Residents claim that Goldcorp’s San
Martin Foundation should not fall under
the definition of ecotourism. Members of
the Siria Valley Environmental Committee
fear that the site is acting as a placeholder
for the mine to re-open in the future once
new mining regulations come into place.
From the time of its arrival in the Siria
Valley, Goldcorp framed mining as development. In its global operations, the company has collaborated with NGOs funded
by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), particularly the
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and CARE.
Goldcorp boasts of these collaborations in
its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
reports, but no such projects have been
undertaken locally in the Siria Valley.
Goldcorp claims to work with and fund
CARE to “refine and expand the sustainable community investment guidelines,
and optimize new opportunities to benefit
local communities and national economies.” CARE receives CIDA funding for its
work in Honduras and elsewhere; CARE
received $5 million from CIDA for its
water and sanitation projects in Honduras
between 2006 and 2012, as well as close to
$53,000 for general operations in Honduras, and another $13 million for further
projects for 2010 to 2017.
According to the Siria Valley Environmental Committee, CARE representatives
explored the possibility of working in the
Siria Valley and met with several local
officials. However, there was significant
community opposition to CARE’s presence
because of its affiliation with Goldcorp,
and no project was ever realized.
WWF and Goldcorp have also collaborated on projects, including exchanges
such as a $50,000 donation by Goldcorp
to WWF for research into North American
economic dependence on water resources
and the provision of a company expert for
a WWF study examining gold mining and
its water footprint. CIDA has also funded
WWF. An ongoing $15 million CIDA project in Mozambique, for example, included
a $74,000 contribution to WWF for civil
society participation in a CSR debate. The
same CIDA project provided technical
assistance to the Mozambican Ministry of
Mineral Resources (MIREM) for policy
development regarding the mining and oil
18
The Dominion July/ August 2013
Mining
According to the sign, a hotel, restaurant, pools, hot springs, sports fields
Many Siria Valley residents say they are still living with the health,
and more are only three kilometres away.
environmental and other impacts of Goldcorp’s mine in Honduras.
and gas industries.
Back in Honduras, Siria Valley residents
say that before the mine opened, company
representatives held parties, gave out gifts
and offered notebooks and piñatas to the
children. The controversial consultation
process was followed by the opening of the
mine, which went ahead despite widespread dissent.
Pedro Landa, the human rights and
environment program coordinator with
the Honduran Centre for the Promotion of
Community Development (CEHPRODEC),
called the marriage between mining and
development agencies a strategy of war.
“First you do a project about water, talk
about sustainability and development,
promise to help the children,” Landa told
The Dominion in an interview in Tegucigalpa in February 2013. “Then, they will
say that Goldcorp is a good neighbour and
try to tell people that the mine will be good
for their community.”
The work of NGOs in collaboration with
mining companies can have a coercive
effect on prospective or established mining
communities since certain projects appear
to, and may actually be connected to the
presence of the mine, according to Jamie
Kneen, communications and outreach
coordinator at MiningWatch Canada.
NGOs end up covering costs that would
otherwise have to be covered by the company and in many cases, at least part of
their funding comes from Canadian public
funding, through CIDA. This marks a shift
from the way things were done in the past,
said Kneen.
“Individual NGOs have been involved
with mining companies for decades, but
not with CIDA funding these activities,” he
told The Dominion. “Until last year, CIDA
was not allowed to fund private companies, only civil society organizations,”
noting that a previous specific CIDA
program for commercial support, CIDA
Industrial Cooperation Program (CIDAINC), ran from 1978 to 2005 and failed.
CIDA now openly emphasizes the
private sector and particularly mining;
the agency has started providing direct
funding for specific projects that directly
involve mining companies. “While mining
companies may also contribute funds,
the projects are mostly funded by CIDA
through public funds,” said Kneen.
In turn, he explained that most NGOs
have traditionally stayed at arms-length
from government and industry, and were
able to work with communities affected by
mining in providing support and analysis
for environmental and health struggles.
Now NGOs feel pressured to work with
mining companies or lose funding, and
some NGOs that are critical of mining
have recently lost CIDA funding for their
stance on mining, said Kneen.
In Honduras, CIDA has also worked on
mining policy and helped shape the new
Honduran mining law. Ratified by the
National Congress in February 2013, the
law has been critiqued by widespread local
organizations as being overly protective of
mining companies and too pro-mining.
In a report published in June 2012, Jennifer Moore, MiningWatch Canada’s Latin
America program coordinator, wrote that
Canada’s involvement in the new mining
law raises “questions about Canada’s conflict of interest in advising another country
on its mining law and exposes the Canadian government’s policy for the overseas
extractive sector as one of convenience—
not responsibility.”
Fabricio Sandoval is an activist, writer
and a young member of the LIBRE political party, which was formed in 2011 by a
broad coalition of organizations opposed
to the coup d’etat. He told The Dominion
that development has become a hot topic
in the lead-up to the November 2013 elections in Honduras.
“When foreigners and mining companies speak of wanting to bring development, what they are bringing is capitalist
development,” said Sandoval, adding that
job creation is minimal and supplies are
often imported. “The word ‘development’
is a front.”
Tatiana Lara, a Honduran economist
who specializes in non-profit organization
and finance, spoke with The Dominion
regarding foreign NGOs in Honduras.
“One problem with development is that
foreigners who donate to NGOs such as
CARE do not understand the complexity
and power structures at local levels. They
think that painting a school or giving a
scholarship to children is development,”
she said. “This is not what people want
or need. It simplifies reality and the way
that NGOs and foreign governments like
Canada are involved and interfering in
local power structures.”
Rachel Deutsch has worked in human
rights, the arts and social work with communities. Recently, her work has focused
on contamination from Canadian industries
both in Canada and in Latin America.
19
The Dominion July / August 2013
Halifax Media Co-op
Organic farmer Cammie Harbottle feeds a horse some organic hay that has not been genetically modified. Photo by Miles Howe
All Out For Alfalfa
Farmers and activists struggle against Monsanto’s alfalfa
by Miles Howe
TATAMAGOUCHE,
NOVA SCOTIA—Forage
Genetics Inc., an Idahobased company that
has made its fortune
dealing in alfalfa seeds,
is close to having a genetically engineered
(GE) alfalfa seed ready for market. The
company has publicly noted it will not
have its glyphosate-resistant seed (more
commonly known as “Roundup Ready,” a
Monsanto-patented technology whereby
herbicide resistance is bred into the seed)
ready for 2013 sowing. All that is standing between themselves and fields of GE
alfalfa, however, is for the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency to register their seed
variety.
In Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta
and BC, resistance to GE alfalfa has been
fierce and has largely been framed in economic terms. Canadian exports of alfalfa
seed and dehydrated alfalfa feed—largely
concentrated in the prairie provinces—are
consistently valued at tens of millions of
dollars per year.
“The predominant concern is the contamination,” said Lucy Sharatt, coordinator with the Canadian Biotechnology
Action Network. “There are very particular
biological characteristics of alfalfa, which
mean that it would be particularly difficult
to manage or contain contamination.
“It’s a perennial crop pollinated by bees.
It has small seeds and a small, deep root
structure. The fact of contamination into
the future is known as inevitable.
20
So the question then is ‘What does that
mean for farmers in Canada and Eastern
Canada?’”
Recent conferences, such as one
organized by the Canadian Seed Trade
Association, have seen Forage Genetics switch strategies from cross-Canada
acceptance to a regionally-tailored plan of
attack. Rather than deal with the economic
block of the large-scale Western Canadian
alfalfa exporters, the company has instead
chosen to focus on Eastern Canada, which
accounts for a much smaller percentage of
the export market.
Forage Genetics’ message to the Eastern Canadian markets has been simple:
There’s no export market to taint. And on
top of that, most of the alfalfa grown out
East will never come to seed, so crosscontamination will be kept to a minimum
by virtue of the fact that the crop will be
harvested as a forage, before the plant
invests its energy into seed production.
No seeds, no cross-contamination, no
fuss.
It’s an argument Cammie Harbottle,
organic farmer and youth president of the
National Farmers Union, doesn’t buy for a
second.
“The export market [in Eastern Canada]
isn’t as big, but I think another implication is that it affects organic certification,”
said Harbottle. “If there’s a farmer that is
trying to feed their animals organically and
is growing their own alfalfa, and crosscontamination happens, they aren’t going
to be able to feed their animals organic
alfalfa anymore. I think it’s inevitable that
some seed from some plant is going to
cross contaminate, and it takes so little.
Even a few plants that would go to seed,
rogue plants that get out of the field, would
be a big risk.”
Harbottle also noted that while Eastern
alfalfa isn’t necessarily bound for export,
there isn’t a ground swell of desire—or
apparent need—for a GE product, even at
a local level.
“Even non-organic farmers, conventional farmers that might be growing
alfalfa in their forage mix, they say there’s
no need for Roundup Ready alfalfa,” said
Harbottle. “It’s not a crop that you’re going
to spray. You don’t spray a hay crop to kill
weeds.”
The Harper government has been awash
in petitions calling for a moratorium on
GE alfalfa, from both its own members
and opposition MPs. May 25, 2013, was an
international day of action against Monsanto, which included Marches against
Monsanto in over 50 countries.
Harbottle hopes that actions like
these turn the tide against GE crops and
Monsanto, and ultimately allow people to
regain control of the food system.
“I would say that corporate control of
our food system is why [GE alfalfa] is happening,” said Harbottle. “It’s happening in
every avenue, and it’s one more seed that
[Monsanto] can have control over.”
Miles Howe is a contributing member of the
Halifax Media Co-op and is an editor with
The Dominion.
The Dominion July/ August 2013
Halifax Media Co-op
Who Will Be Seen?
Harper meets with Parsons, ignores countless others
by Hillary Bain Lindsay
HALIFAX—On the one
hand, Cheryl Maloney is
glad the Prime Minister met with Rehtaeh
Parsons’ parents in May
2013. The meeting was a
result of public outcry following Parsons’
suicide, which occurred after she said she
had been gang raped and then relentlessly
bullied.
On the other hand, Maloney, president
of the Nova Scotia Native Women’s Association, can’t help but notice the families
Harper refuses to see. “What about all our
cases?” she asks.
Maloney is calling for an inquiry into
missing and murdered Aboriginal women
in Canada. According to Sisters in Spirit,
a research, education and policy initiative led by Aboriginal women from 2005
until 2010, there are at least 582 missing
and murdered Aboriginal women in this
country.
“I would love for the Prime Minister
to make a comment about missing and
murdered Aboriginal women or to meet
some of our parents and our families,”
says Maloney.
Nine provinces are supporting the call
for an inquiry, but the response from
the federal government has been “dead
silence,” according to Maloney.
Bridget Tolley volunteers with Families
of Sisters in Spirit, a grassroots non-profit
led by families of missing and murdered
Aboriginal women and girls. The organization was created after the federal government ceased funding to Sisters in Spirit in
2010.
She echoes Maloney’s account of what
happens when an Aboriginal woman goes
missing or is murdered. In 2008, two
young women went missing from Tolley’s community, Kitigan Zibi, in Quebec.
“When these two girls went missing,
nobody cared, nobody came, there was no
media, no search, nothing. The police said
they were runaways, that they’ll be back.
But they never came back.”
Tolley too has mixed reactions to Harper’s meeting with the Parsons. She is glad
the case is being taken seriously. “But we
get treated differently,” she says. “Native
people get treated differently. When
something happens like this, we don’t get
to meet the Prime Minister.”
According to Rene Ross, it’s not just
Native women being treated differently.
“I’m talking about black women, sex workers, women on income assistance. This
is about everybody,” says Ross, executive
director of Stepping Stone, an organization
that supports sex workers in the Maritimes.
“We can judge the health and safety of
our communities by the health and safety
of our most marginalized,” she says. And
according to Ross, Nova Scotia is not a
safe place, “it’s a provincial crisis.”
“Countless women and girls in the the
last 20 years alone have died as a result of
this crisis,” she says. “We are talking about
rape, suicide, murder, attempted murder.
Some of the most horrific activities in our
society have been happening in our province...We’ve been telling policy makers and
government for years and years.”
According to the Avalon Sexual Assault
Centre, Nova Scotia has the highest rate of
sexual assault, per capita, in Canada.
In 2008, a report was published, entitled Suffering in Silence: An assessment of
the Need for a Comprehensive Response to
Sexual Violence in Nova Scotia. The report
details the prevalence of sexual violence
and outlines steps that need to be taken
from the perspectives of survivors and
professionals.
“Reports [on violence and sexual violence] continue to be ignored,” says Ross.
Maloney hopes that the outrage and
sorrow surrounding Rehtaeh Parsons’
death are signs that we are at a turning
point. “It’s awoken Canadian society to
violence against girls in this country.”
“I would hope that [the Parsons family],
in their grief and sorrow, know that there’s
so many people out there,” says Maloney.
“They have a good opportunity to advocate for all missing and murdered women,
women who died from violence or bullying, including Aboriginal women.”
There are 582 missing and murdered Aboriginal
women in Canada. Chances are Prime Minister
Stephen Harper will not meet with their
families. Photo by Hillary Bain Lindsay
As Leah Parsons, Rehtaeh’s mother,
posted on Facebook after meeting with
the Prime Minister, “it could have easily
been anyone’s daughter. The cruelty is
out there...We need a cultural shift in our
attitude towards the treatment of other
human beings, towards rape...we need it
now before someone else is affected.”
Hillary Bain Lindsay is a contributing
member of the Halifax Media Co-op and
an organic farmer in Tatamagouche, Nova
Scotia.
21
The Dominion July /August 2013
Toronto Media Co-op
Fresh Blood
Joe Fresh shut down during May Day protest
by Geordie Dent
TORONTO—May Day
protests in Toronto
forced Joe Fresh and
their parent company,
Loblaws, to close a
location in downtown
Toronto, as the company faced a backlash against their sweatshop labour practices.
On May 1st, the day Loblaws announced
a 40% increase in their profit, workers
at the Rana Plaza factory site in Savar,
Bangladesh announced an updated death
count of over 400 people. The death
count has since gone over 1000 people.
Hundreds of students in Bangladesh
have donated blood in Savar after doctors
appealed for help.
In April, garment workers in the
8-storey Rana Plaza were killed as the
factory collapsed. In an interview with
Democracy Now!, Kalpona Akter, the
Executive Director of the Bangladesh
Center for Worker Solidarity, noted that
factory employees were forced to return
to work, even after cracks appeared in the
foundation and workers fled. She said, “on
the Wednesday morning, they were forced
to go inside the factory, and someone
with a hand mic said, “One crack doesn’t
matter. The factory will be—there will be
nothing happen.”
Bangladeshi workers are paid less than
$3 per day and work in dangerous conditions making cheap clothes for companies,
most of which are located in Western
countries. There have been massive
worker’s rights protests in Banlgadesh
including major May Day rallies.
Several major garment producers
have been identified as having garments
made in the factory including Joe Fresh,
a Canadian brand owned by Loblaws
(which is partially owned by the Canadian
Weston family), Cato, The Chldren’s Place,
United Colours of Benetton, Primark (also
partially owned by the Weston family) and
Mango.
In solidarity, Toronto’s May Day march
saw over 1200 people demonstrate in front
of the Queen Street Loblaws location,
which is located in a commer-
22
cial area of the city’s downtown core.
“Joe Fresh and the the other companies
have to take responsibility,” said Farah
Kabir of Action Aid, a group that was part
of ‘Toronto Community Organizers of the
Emergency Action to Support Bangladeshi
Workers Killed Making Clothes for Joe
Fresh.’ “Savar could have been prevented.
This is caused by the constant demand for
low cost production. Toronto: Hold your
companies responsible for their investments. Invest in safety and security!”
Organizers noted that worker security
and safety, along with the right to organize
unions, are severely lacking in Bangladesh. They called upon Loblaws and other
companies to identify the owners of the
garment factories.
Organizers tried to present a letter to
the management of the Loblaws store,
but management refused to accept it. The
store was under lockdown several hours
before the protest arrived, with many
police officers expressing concern about
the smashing of windows. Officers were
overheard recommending the main Joe
Fresh sign for the store be covered with
cardboard.
Passersby had mixed feelings about the
protest. Kate, a frequent shopper at Joe
Fresh, felt conflicted. “On one hand I feel
guilty about what happened [at the factory], while at the same time loving what
they do with their clothes.” Kate noted
that Loblaws took “immediate responsibility” by agreeing to provide compensation
to the families of the affected workers —
something that other companies had not
done.
Also speaking on Democracy Now!,
Charles Kernaghan, Director of the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights,
outlined what conditions are like for garment workers in Bangladesh.
“Well, Bangladesh now is the secondlargest garment exporter in the world,
right after China. And as a matter of fact,
the Chinese garment factories are moving
to Bangladesh because of the low wages,
14 cents an hour up to about 24 cents an
hour. The workers are hard-working; they
work 14 hours a day. They’ll work often
“Blood” streaks the window display of Joe Fresh’s
Queen St. location in Toronto on May Day. Photo
by Sharmeen Khan
seven days a week. There are no unions
with collective contracts. And the labels,
you know, like a Wal-Mart, you know,
maybe they’ll pay nine cents for a garment.
I mean, that’s all they care about.”
During the protest, Kabir asked why
companies like Loblaws couldn’t pay more.
“When you charge $40 for a t-shirt, why
can’t you pay an extra 10 cents for safety
and security for workers? “
Vijay Prishad, writing in Counterpunch,
related the situation in Savar to garment
workers struggles in early-twentieth century North America:
“It is well worth mentioning that the
death toll in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City of 1911 was one
hundred and forty six. The death toll here
is already twice that. This “accident” comes
five months (November 24, 2012) after the
Tazreen garment factory fire that killed at
least one hundred and twelve workers.
The list of ‘accidents’ is long and painful.
In April 2005, a garment factory in Savar
collapsed, killing seventy-five workers. In
February 2006, another factory collapsed
in Dhaka, killing eighteen. In June 2010,
a building collapsed in Dhaka, killing
twenty-five.”
The pressure on companies has partially
paid off. A legally binding agreement has
been signed by 35 retailers, mainly European, including Primark. The agreement
requires safety inspections, money for factory repairs and forces companies to stop
buying from unsafe facilities. The UNI
Global Union and labour group Industriall are counter-signors to the agreement.
Many US multinationals like GAP and
Walmart have rejected it outright.
Geordie Dent is a Toronto Media Co-op
editor and contributor.
The Dominion July/ August 2013
Toronto Media Co-op
Billy Bishop Airport is Porter Airlines’ main hub, located on Toronto Island, just South of downtown Toronto. Photo by q_e_d
No Legroom for Striking Porter Workers
Airline sues union for $4-million dollars
by Megan Kinch
TORONTO—Porter Airlines is playing hardball.
Rather than negotiate with their striking
refueling workers, they
are choosing to use any
legal means available to
avoid dealing with them.
In April, Porter and the Toronto Port
Authority partially lost a court injunction
which had sought to prohibit leafletting
and noise, even in a public park. That very
afternoon, they announced a civil lawsuit
of $4-million against the union, whose
bargaining unit at the Porter airport represents only 22 employees.
The Media Co-op spoke with Glenn
Wheeler Ontario Legal Representative
of COPE (Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union), the union which
represents the fuel workers. “Earlier we
had two people charged with trespassing
and actually handcuffed and arrested for
leafletting in front of the terminal door,
which is quite outrageous. That won’t be
happening any more because of the court
order, as the judge said that you can leaflet
in the building.”
Wheeler was surprised Porter even tried
to get such a restrictive injunction: “We
were surprised they took the position that
they did because we have a decision of the
Supreme Court of Canada saying that an
airport, for the purposes of union messages, is a public place.”
A draft of the injunction referred to
several named parties, such as the union
and its officials, as well as “persons presently unidentified.” According to COPE,
the injunction would have severely limited
demonstrations in Little Norway Park, a
public park near the ferry docks, which
was being used for leafletting.
Wheeler said that the temporary order
“imposed some restrictions - but not the
restrictions that the Toronto Port Authority and Porter were seeking and the union
feels very good about the result because it
means that our constitutional rights were
preserved and we can carry on our lawful
picketing activities.” After the court decision, Porter went public about the lawsuit
against the union, specifically speaking out
about posts on twitter from the union’s @
PorterStrike account.
Its no coincidence that the airline has
targeted social media; Twitter, Facebook
and phone campaigns against Porter have
been widespread and effective—and have
included parodies of Porter advertisements.
Even city councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam
has been tweeting about the strike, writing
“I’m a Porter client & always pay my own
way. Not impressed with them lately: tax
arrears, labour disputes, jets & now robopolls. #smartenup.”
Carrie Sharpe, who has been helping
coordinate support for the workers, spoke
to The Media Co-op about the attempted
injunction. “What’s scary is that it was
even on the table. This is an attempt to
shut down dissent. Porter is trying to
discourage dissent at a time when they
have an application to have jets fly out of
the airport and to fill in some of the lake
for runways. This injunction process has
already had a chilling effect on mobilization: there will be people afraid now to
protest island expansion. The very ambiguity of the injunction is in itself a weapon.
They are doing all this in order to shut
down protests over use of public assets for
profit.”
Porter has been using scab workers
during the strike. The highest paid fueler
at Porter earns $16 per hour. Workers
start off at $12 per hour, or $14 if they
hold a DZ license. Health and safety,
including the procurement of basic equipment like safety vests, has also been a key
union demand.
In late-May, the union filed a statement
of defense claiming that the lawsuit is
simply about silencing and restricting the
union and its members.
The union claimed in its statement:
“the intended purpose of this litigation is
to intimidate the defendants so that they
abandon their legitimate criticism of the
plaintiffs.”
Megan Kinch is a movement journalist
based in Toronto.
23
The Dominion July / August 2013
Comic
by Heather Meek
24
The Dominion July/ August 2013
Letters
KCAB TALK
Compiled by Moira Peters
No car, no service
I grew in a place called Seal Harbour.
I know in Seal Harbour...you are a
one hour drive from Antigonish which
would be the nearest town with all
essential services (“Rural Nova Scotia
Facing Unique Poverty Challenges”
by Robert Devet, Issue 88: May/June
2013). Anyone needing mental health
services in Guysborough County, Antigonish is where they need to travel.
Those living in Guysborough County
who do not have a vehicle, they have
to rely on others to drive them places.
The last few years when my father was
living in this community, [he] used to
volunteer to drive his nelghbours to the
food bank once a month, [of] which the
nearest was a 45 minute drive from Seal
Harbour.
—Kendal Worth
Crazy wisdom
Horizontal, de-proffesionalized, community-based healing (“Call Us Crazy”
by Greg Macdougall, Issue 88: May/
June 2013) that positions those who
struggle as the “experts”: that’s a kind of
movement to get behind.
—The Fruitlands, via Facebook
Disable sub-minimum wage
The only way to get money from greedy
CEOs is to raise minimum wage (“Subminimum on the Prairies” by Sheldon
Birnie, Issue 88: May/June 2013). We
should be no less than $18 per hour,
better at $22 per hour. Bring back some
sort of justice to monetary distribution
and save our middle class.
—Sheila Rea, via Facebook
Informing industry
Don’t just take it for granted that government and business works together.
It takes specific forms and, thankfully,
Tim Groves details one form here
(“Spies that Share” by Tim Groves, Issue
88: May/June 2013). There is a need to
pry open the world of business activities because they are so consequential
and largely hidden from us. Thank you
for documenting one small part of that
world, where it transects the spy world.
—Troy Cochrane, via Facebook
25
The Dominion July / August 2013
television
and the earth
Not a Love Story
Jennifer Ellen Good
9781552665527 $22.95
Stories have always been vital to how
we make sense of the world. Mediated
communication has changed the source
and content of our stories. And no mediated
storyteller continues to have a greater impact
on our lives than television.
making PeaCe
With the earth
Vandana Shiva
9781552665664 $24.95
This compelling and rigorously documented
exposition demolishes the myths propagated
by corporate globalization in its pursuit of
profit and power and shows its devastating
environmental impact.
Continental CruCible
Big Business, Workers and Unions
in the Transformation of North America
Richard 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
Climate@Work
edited by Carla Lipsig-Mummé
9781552665640 $29.95
This book systematically tackles the question of the impact of
climate change on work and employment and by analyzing
Canada’s conservative silence towards climate change and the
Canadian government’s refusal to take it seriously.
F E R N WO O D P U B L I S H I N G
c 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 ke 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
26
The Dominion July/ August 2013
Upcoming Programs at Tatamagouche Centre
Mi’kmaq Herbal Healing
June 28-30
Identify, gather and
prepare herbal medicines
with Traditional Mi’kmaq
Elder Judy Googoo.
Authentic Management
June 5-7
Become the excellent and effective
manager you need to be with
Anima Leadership’s Shakil Choudhury.
1-800-218-2220
www.tatacentre.ca
Own your Media.
Join the Media Co-op!
The Media
Co-op
www.mediacoop.ca/join
27
Yukon
Northwest
Territories
558
Nunavut
We’re
creating a
neW union!
British
Columbia
27,800 Alberta
17,359 Sask. Manitoba
12,280
Ontario
10,000
155,878
Labrador
Québec
52,090
330
P.E.I.
9,000
Nfld.
Nova
Scotia
New
Brunswick 11,800
6,160
coast to coast!
The Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW)
and the Communications, Energy and
Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP)
are in the process of building a new union
together.
Members will come from backgrounds as
diverse as the Canadian mosaic.
The new union’s geographic and
economic reach as well as the depth of its
locals in communities across the country
will create the base for a powerful,
stronger and more dynamic union.
Keep up to date at
newunionproject.ca
The new union will have more than
300,000 members coast to coast.
Founding Convention begins Aug. 31.
Keep up to date at: newunionproject.ca