6:43 PM - 09.01.05
Cause Celebre
What a difference a year can make. The International Waterkeepers arrived for what seems to be an annual visit over the weekend. It is headed by Robert Kennedy Jr and aims to help protect natural water supplies from pollution or exploitation. Last year the local press was sniffy at best, wondering why they didn't mind their own business, that slight taint of "Yankee go home" permeating the editorial page. Of course, that was when Conrad Black and the Missus still used their ownership and monopoly of Canadian newspapers to help their political and corporate buddies loot our country - for a cut and future considerations, of course. I'm not certain that jail time will do them much good, but maybe paying back and off what they purloined and maybe being required to work directly with the agencies who helped the people they hurt most pick up the pieces would be a more appropriate form of restitution.
This year the news coverage was at least welcoming although the understanding of the issues being raised is still a bit weak. One can only admire anyone who deliberately chooses to visit our mountains on what is usually the coldest week of our year yet still ski and toboggan - outside - too. Kudos to Mr Kennedy and the celebrities who cared enough to try to help local environmentalists here with our government - it does make a difference. Robin Williams always comes across extra special, but the rest of the organization all deserve our thanks too. Poor Meg Ryan was supposed to be the hedliner, but it appeared she was felled by the flu - rotten conditions to have to deal with it, but it just proves that celebrities have their own problems too.
One of the things I think the media has to investigate more aggressively is the contamination of groundwater and the aquifer system that informs this province. There is no doubt that the rivers are critical to this provinces' environmental stability but even moreso the health and stability of all of the system are underpinned by what we can't see. Start with the manipulation of Buffalo Lake, or the questionable Paddle River Dam that is still being investigated by the Saskatchewan government. Take a second unbiased look at what the Oldman River Dam is really about. Ask the farming community about the contamination of their wells and the damage to the water table - things that are as critical to the survival of agriculture as anything to do with the BSE crisis. Start digging a bit - literally as well as figuratively. Look at what the regulatory bodies are aggressively forcing resource development industries to be accountable to them for even for damage done a century ago and ask why? Check the air quality guidelines - especially the particulate matter - at the same time. A lot of buried treasure and skeletons there - puns intended of course.
In the local news the best story was about how much Canadians have donated as individuals to the tsunami victims. Over $100 million with the Canadian Government promising to match that dollar for dollar and allow those donations to be tax deductible past the usual cut-off of December 31. Shows committment by both taxpayers and our leaders. This was one of the more unique ways of raising funds - selling off a URL.
The worst news is how little people learn from past examples. It is close to -30 C every day and the raods are treacherously icy. For those of you who are winter challenged think of taking your vehicle to the local ice rink and driving at about 60 miles an hour in conditions simulating rush hour. Uh huh. That's what drivers here are doing. The accident rate is extrmely high, yet entirely preventable. On Friday on the bus on the way home some dippy woman tried to pass our bus on the inside lane, I was reading something, but when I felt that sideways spin starting I looked up in time to see the power pole that should have been on the bus' right appear right in the front window. Lucky our driver was so skilled. He not only managed to catch a snow drift to stop the spin on the island where the light standard was located but vey smoothly slid back into the stream of traffic with hardly a hitch. I think the surrounding drivers must have slowed immediately or we would have had a major pileup with the bus full of 50 people as the focus of the crash. Some people should never be allowed behind a wheel. Maybe the Australian approach might help Parkingfees might discourage some drivers.
Add to that that the donations to the homeless have dropped off now that Christmas is over. One man froze to death some time Friday morning and another is in critical condition in the hospital still. They were both sleeping net to the underpass about a block from one of the shelters. When the cab took me into the downtown Friday we had wondered what three police cars, the ambulance and the coroners' vehicle were dealing with as we drove by that homeless shelter - that was it. Both men had just light summer clothing on and the shelters say they are really in need of things like coats, boots, hats and gloves just to give their clients a fighting chance to survive. No one who is out in weather like that chooses to be there, it is just a measure of how desperate some people's circumstances are in this very wealthy city.
For the most part I don't think that is how Calgarians really feel about the less fortunate - I don't think they begrudge anyone basic needs. Consider that the greatest number of visits to our Province's official website - enough to cause it to crash - occurred on Friday when it was announced that the lieutenant governor of Alberta - the Queen's representative - died due to complications from cancer. The flags before the court house had been at half mast on Thursday but the announcement hadn't reached the media until a day later. Lois Hole was someone who advocated continuously for the respect of all our citizens with special care being provided to those who had less strength or resources to look after themselves.
What I remember most about her happened in 1999 when she was Chancellor of the University of Alberta. There was a conference on poverty sponsored by the university and organized by the research institute they sponsor - the Parkland Institute - held in March. I attended, representing one of the volunteer agencies from our city. Most of the attendees and presenters were teachers, nurses, social workers, and the people who were caught in the cycle of poverty that is systemic for some segments of our society - the First Nations community, single parents, the disabled or chronically sick, New Canadians. The intent was to look at more effective means to address underlying causes rather than just put bandaids on the symptoms and blame on the victims - people don't choose to get cancer, for example, no matter what our health ministers like to imply from time to time. Anyway our esteemed Premier really showed his true colours when reporters asked him to comment on the problems being discussed. He threatened, obliquely, at one point in a letter delivered to the chair of the conference while we were in a plenary session to remove the University's charter and it's funding for allowing "Anti-Albertan" ideas to be expressed. Yes, just like McCarthy's "unamerican" witch hunt. Some of the comments quoted in the press also implied a threat of retaliation to anyone - including several Canadian Senators in attendance - who attended, spoke or supported the conference. That notwithstanding, shortly after that little bit of spite, our Prime Minister appointed Lois Hole to the position of Lieutenant Governor even as she was standing up to the premier for his threats to her institution. The fact that more Albertans have shown unwavering support for her while she went about her duties and the fact that her foremost issues were always those supporting the social contract and safety net that Albertans over the past 100 years have worked hard to create and maintain should deliver a strong message to the "every man for himself" and the "to the victor go the spoils" cabal that call themselves our provincail government. Can't hide that meanness behind Mr Black anymore now can they. Maybe they should join him and the missus - Birds of a Feather. I know I'm going to miss our Lieutenant Governor a great deal. I hope our new Prime Minister is as good to our province with appointing her replacement as the previous Prime Minister was who appointed her.
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