Not Easy Being Green - New Media and Politics

Any excuse to play a Kermit the Frog song will do. Sadly Canada's Senate has decided to ignore the vote taken by Parliament on Bill C-311 which passed by a vote of 149-136 and requires the government to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 25 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050.

NDP MP Bruce Hyer who drafted the bill says he has been told by Conservatives that the government has decreed that the bill cannot be passed into law. Mr. Hyer said it would be disappointing and “undemocratic” if the Conservatives killed the bill for what he called ‘ideological” reasons. But what else is there to be expected from the Tories? 

 Happily for Montreal's trendy Plateau district, they have a mayor, Luc Ferrandez, with the courage to stand up and fight for the right to make the urban environment he governs a greener and more welcome place for it's inhabitants and less so for automobiles. Even though he is being beset by attacks from all manner of interests he has, so far, stuck to his principles - “There is an inalienable right to have peace in the city. You have the right to raise kids here, you have the right to live here,” he says.

Canada's head of CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) Richard Fadden, gave an interview to the CBC wherein he alleged that the Chinese government was infiltrating Canadian political bodies and that this influence extends to municipal and political bureaucrats and politicians and even a couple of unnamed cabinet ministers. So on Monday he was asked to testify, back up the allegations and name names. he says he will do so but only behind closed doors.

There was some good news for Omar Khadr on Monday as the Federal Court of Canada ruled that the government has seven days to come up with a list of remedies to its breach of Mr. Khadr’s constitutional rights. I can't stress this enough, Stephen Harper would do the same to protect any of us as he has for the 15 year old boy who was snatched off the Afghan battlefield and charged with killing an American soldier. That is nothing.