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[Michael Matthys]

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In This Issue: ·       The Brief ·       Action Alerts ·       Water ·       Tar Sands ·       Logging Castle Wilderness area ·       Government & Politics ·       Nuclear Power ·       Blogs     Connect With Us:   Subscribe to our E-Sierran Emails by clicking here	The Brief Greetings Sierrans, and happy New Year! Apologies for the delay following the previous newsletter.   Tensions are mounting in the Castle standoff with a court order being issued against those individuals who barricaded Castle and prevented it being clear-cut. Read more about the issue in this press release here. A link to Sierra Club’s campaign page, including an action alert, is here and to CPAWs page here.   In the video Alternative Water Futures, produced by Our Water Is Not For Sale network, Jeremy Schmidt from the University of Western Ontario makes a well presented and clear argument for non-market solutions to water allocation in Alberta. Building on the criticism that Alberta’s present system is based on a narrow view of water rights, Schmidt argues that we develop a water allocation system that recognizes the complexity of competing claims while retaining a critical element of adaptability to compensate for our imperfect knowledge of the hydrological cycle. Schmidt supplies a lucid analysis of the history of water rights in Alberta that will prove useful to anyone concerned about this issue. Watch the video here.   Action Alerts Tell the UofA not to grant honorary degree to Nestlé chair Peter Brabeck-Letmathe. The University of Alberta plans to award an honorary degree to Peter Brabecl-Letmathe who has openly claimed his company is in talks with the Alberta government to adopt a water exchange market.   Attend award ceremony and tell Peter Brabeck-Letmathe he doesn’t deserve the degree and we don’t want a market solution for water allocation. March 1, 2012. Timms Centre for the Arts, 112 Street and 87 Ave, University of Alberta, Edmonton.   One earth. One Chance. Text the word SIERRA to 45678 to donate $10 to Sierra Club Canada. Water Video – Alternative Water Futures: The Need for non-market solutions to Alberta’s water crisis Jeremy Schmidt, Department of Geography, University of Western Ontario Tar Sands Long awaited Tar Sands monitoring plan to be unveiled Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent and his Alberta counterpart Diana McQueen will take the wraps off a new oilsands monitoring program Friday afternoon. Environmental groups are anxiously awaiting the details of the plan which has been in the works for more than a year. The Executive Director of Sierra Club Canada says it's imperative the plan be totally independent of government and industry interference.John Bennett says Canadians also want assurances that industry is covering the cost of the ramped up air, land and water pollution monitoring, pegged at roughly $50-million a year.     Castle Wilderness Area Court Adjourns Castle logging issue in order to give time to hear the full case Commenting, "I have a court room full of people, there is a significant issue going on here,” Court of Queen’s Bench Justice, Rosemary Nation, concluded that there should be court time scheduled to expeditiously hear all the arguments regarding the closure of the Castle Special Management Area to public use in order to allow clear-cut logging and the area residents that blocked the logging equipment from starting.   “This is a highly contentious matter.” Both the lawyers for four of the five residents named on the January 30th Court Order and for Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (SRD) agreed that they would like the case heard on February 24th.  Justice Nation directed them to the Chief Justice to discuss scheduling of a court date and that has now been set for the 24th at Court of Queens Bench in Calgary. . Government & Politics “Scary time” for Canada ForestEthics whistleblower Andrew Frank claims that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office is resorting to threats to quell environmental opposition against the Northern Gateway pipeline. There have been conflicting reports on what actually happened at Frank’s organization, but for others in the environmental community his serious allegations come as no surprise. In an open letter and signed affidavit, the former ForestEthics communications manager recounted how representatives from the Prime Minister’s Office attempted to silence pipeline critics, alleging that they blacklisted the environmental group as an “enemy of the Government of Canada”. Frank claimed that the PMO threatened the charitable status of the prominent Tides Canada Foundation, unless they agreed to pull funding from ForestEthics. Fired Environmentalist sees conspiracy A B.C. environmentalist claims in a sworn affidavit the Harper government labelled him and his organization, ForestEthics, an "enemy of the government of Canada" and an "enemy of the people of Canada" and threatened to pull the charitable status of its funder, the Tides Canada Foundation, because of ForestEthics' opposition to the Northern Gateway pipeline and tanker project exporting tarsands oil to China. Tides Canada is a major social-policy and environmental organization tackling poverty, climate change and social justice issues. Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson is a former board member. Foreign Funding Poll: British Columbians Worried about Foreign Investment In Canadian Resources, Not Philanthropic Support for Environement Groups VANCOUVER -- A poll released today by BC environmental groups shows that almost 75 percent of British Columbians are worried about foreign investment in Canadian natural resources. The poll results show that only a small minority of British Columbians (15%) are concerned about charitable funding provided by US philanthropic foundations to Canadian environmental groups. Nuclear Power Japan’s former premier takes anti-nucler campaign to Davos TOKYO—Former Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan returns to the world stage this week, part of a campaign to reinvent himself as a global antinuclear activist nearly a year after he oversaw his government's widely criticized handling of the Fukushima Daiichi accident. "I would like to tell the world that we should aim for a society that can function without nuclear energy," he said in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, previewing his speech scheduled for Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Deadline passes for steam generators Bruce Power’s licence to transport steam generators containing radiation for recycling expired Friday. The nuclear power generator has not reapplied and said in a news release Friday it will do so “when it’s appropriate.” It also said there is “no urgency” to ship the generators. Company spokesman John Peevers declined to answer questions about it. “Bruce Power continues to believe recycling offers the best environmental solution for reducing our footprint and is something we remain entirely committed to,” the company said in a statement.… Interveners at hearings in September 2010 decried the lack of an environmental assessment despite changes to original plans of leaving the waste on site.   Blogs We need regulators, not cheerleaders Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent and his Alberta counterpart Diana McQueen are expected to unveil a new Tar Sands monitoring program Friday afternoon. “It's time politicians put down their oil industry cheering pompoms and start enforcing the rules and regulations that are already in place,” says John Bennett, Executive Director of Sierra Club Canada.   While Sierra Club Canada is not against an improved monitoring program, Mr. Bennett says: “It's imperative the $50-million a year program be totally financed by big oil and completely independent and free of government and industry interference.”   Sierra Club Canada welcomes Obama Administration decision on the Keystone XL pipeline "We welcome the decision by the Obama Administration to say no to the Keystone XL pipeline," said John Bennett, Executive Director of Sierra Club Canada. “Obama listened to Americans and shared their concerns about the environmental and social impacts. He made the right decision.” Open Letter in response to Joe Oliver The Federal Government is engaged in an unprecedented campaign to damage the credibility of the environmental movement. In the latest move, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver (apparently replacing Environment Minister Peter Kent as the chief anti-environmentalist government spokesperson) submitted an “open letter” to the media. In it, he links “radicals and environmental groups” and charges they are against everything.  As a father of three grown daughters and grandfather of one beautiful baby boy, I struggle with being called a radical. It’s true I work for a conservation organization. Sierra Club was founded in 1892 and has a long track record of drawing public attention to environmental issues and, perhaps more importantly, helping governments develop laws and policies to protect Canada’s magnificent natural heritage. Nearly every day I’m am contacted by individuals or groups asking for help with an environmental issue in their neighbourhoods.
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