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Adam MacIsaac's Blog
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This Will Follow Them Home – Report from Sierra Youth Coalition members at the UN Climate Change Convention.
About this event: U.N. Climate Change Conference 2007
Related to country: Indonesia
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

In December of 2007, seven Sierra Youth Coalition members changed the course of history. We were part of the groundbreaking Canadian Youth Delegation to the United Nations Climate Convention in Bali, Indonesia. The Canadian youth presence was a visible voice of reason, ensuring that Canadians knew what their government was doing in Bali and that our government negotiators heard the concerns of young Canadians. We followed the talks closely and kept our finger on the meaninfgul policy decisions. We met with the Canadian negotiators as well as leaders from many countries. We presented a petition of what is now over 105,000 Canadians asking for Canada to take on a constructive role in Bali. We blew the story on the Minister of Environment's failure to present the government's climate change plan. We staged dynamic and creative actions that summed up in one image more than could be said in hours of rhetoric. We were leaders in coordinating the international youth movement to fight climate change. We provided a window to the world, and especially to Canada, by sharing our honest and informed perspective through over seventy media interviews and features, blogging articles, online video posts, and viral messaging – reaching an audience of millions.

Unfortunately, we witnessed a dismal performance by our government at these talks. This will follow them home. Thankfully not all of us have to go to an international negotiation to be effective (and we shouldn't). The real action happens inside Canada – we need to let our government know we will not compromise on our future. Let's be smart and knowledgeable and strong and they will have no choice but to move forward. The times are changing.

But what actually happened in Bali? Well, world leaders met to discuss the future of negotiations that govern the international effort to slow down climate change. Progress was slow and halting, mostly due to the uncooperative stances of a few countries (Canada being one of them). Thankfully, final decisions don't have to be made until 2009, when we need to nail down the details of the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol. Yes, we could have done more in Bali, but considering what was at stake and the reluctance of countries like ours to accept the inevitable switch to a decarbonised world, the fact that the talks didn't fall apart is a cause for celebration. We have to keep the momentum up.

What we need is an international consensus to eliminate fossil fuels in our lifetime. Scientists (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to be specific) are calling for "world leaders and their policymakers to take all necessary steps to cause average global greenhouse gas emissions to peak by 2015 and then to decline quickly afterwards". And if we don't, we've heard the story: severe food shortages causing large scale human starvation, displaced communities and mass species extinction of plants and animals. Even the most ambitious targets talked included in these negotiations only ensure a 50% chance of preventing dangerous climate change. Who in the world is willing to take that risk? We're certainly not. As young people we must be adamant that runaway climate change will not be part of our future. And given that over half the world's population is under 30, in just a few years we'll be a majority. Yep, the times are definitely changing.

Adam McIsaac attended the Bali talks along with other SYC leaders Liz McDowell, Joanna Dafoe, Josh Darrach, Rosa Kouri, PJ Partington, and Lise Richard.

See their videos and blogs from Bali and visit the Canadian Youth Delegation site for additional Canadian Youth Delegate information. For more information on the Sierra Youth Coalition please visit here

January 25, 2008 | 7:55 AM Comments  1 comments


Facebook bans union organizer for ... organizing
Related to country: Canada
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Most people with an interest in the internet and the international trade union movement (yes, all five of us…) will have noticed the name Derek Blackadder more than once. Derek is a CUPE (Canada’s public services union) organiser and one of the leading lights of LabourStart (as well as an all-round stand-up guy). He’s used to running campaigns on behalf of workers the world over, so I think it’s high time we started one in support of him.

Being a forward-thinking chap, Derek has been investigating the use of social networking for union organising and campaigns for some time, and barely a week goes by without my Facebook inbox getting a request from him to sign up to one very worthy labour cause or another. Not for the last couple of weeks though.

Derek got a note from the good book, telling him he was trying to add too many friends, and should calm down a bit, or else. Now as a union organiser, he’s quite likely to want to add lots of friends - it’s kind of what he does. So he waits a bit and tries again, and is told he can’t add any more at the moment and to wait and try later. Fair enough. He waits a bit more and tries again, same message. By now, he’s probably frothing at the mouth and muttering “must organise, must organise”, so he has another go to see if the coast is clear, and promptly gets himself a ban.

That being a ban from Facebook itself - no more profile, no access to the stuff he’s built up, no appeal.

Okay, he was probably being a little over-eager, but Facebook is definitely the poorer for not having him, and this is a bit of a stumbling block for unions wanting to use the tools to organise. Add to this the SEIU Canadian profile that got closed down (admittedly they too had been stretching the terms of use), the 1,000 group mailing cap and you’re left wondering if your time investment in it is all about to go up in smoke - it seems the better you do, the riskier your position.

So let’s try to get Derek back in. Come join (what else…) the Blackadder solidarity Facebook group. A very slim chance I grant you, but worth a pop to lobby Facebook on this one. Any ideas you’ve got for making this work - let us know!

If we do manage to get him reinstated, it’ll make Facebook a much safer place for all unions and activists to network (it‘s hardly going to inspire you to put in the effort if you only get kicked out for it). Just don’t ask Derek to add you as a friend though, or they’ll boot him out again

January 24, 2008 | 11:56 AM Comments  0 comments


France Showcases World's Fastest Rail Train
Related to country: France
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

The world's fastest rail train, racking up to 574 KPM. With advances in technology such as this it allows for the reduction of flights as a means of transportation and an alternative to discount flights which are adding to increasing green house gas emissions.

January 22, 2008 | 7:47 AM Comments  0 comments


Canada removes U.S., Israel from torture watchlist
Related to country: Canada
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Here is an article that shows that Canada puts its allies before Human Rights for others. It is shameful for Canada to remove countries that use torture as a means to gain information, even more shameful to remove countries on the grounds of expressed unhappiness. The full article is below.

Article by David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's foreign ministry, responding to pressure from close allies, said on Saturday it would remove the United States and Israel from a watch list of countries where prisoners risk being tortured.

Both nations expressed unhappiness after it emerged they had been listed in a document that formed part of a training course manual on torture awareness given to Canadian diplomats.

Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier said he regretted the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual, which also classified some U.S. interrogation techniques as torture.

"It contains a list that wrongly includes some of our closest allies. I have directed that the manual be reviewed and rewritten," Bernier said in a statement.

"The manual is neither a policy document nor a statement of policy. As such, it does not convey the government's views or positions."

The document -- made available to Reuters and other media outlets -- embarrassed the minority Conservative government, which is a staunch ally of both the United States and Israel.

U.S. ambassador David Wilkins said the listing was absurd, while the Israeli envoy said he wanted his country removed.

Asked why the two countries had been put on the list, a spokesman for Bernier said: "The training manual purposely raised public issues to stimulate discussion and debate in the classroom."

The government mistakenly gave the document to Amnesty International as part of a court case the rights organization has launched against Ottawa over the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan.

AMPLE EVIDENCE OF ABUSE

Amnesty International Canada, which says it has ample evidence that prisoners are abused both in U.S. and Israeli jails, said it was disappointed by Bernier's announcement.

"When it comes to an issue like torture, the government's main concern should not be embarrassing allies," Alex Neve, the group's secretary-general, told Reuters. The U.S. embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Under "definition of torture," the document lists U.S. interrogation techniques such as forced nudity, isolation, sleep deprivation and blindfolding prisoners.

It also mentions the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where a Canadian man is being held.

The man, Omar Khadr, has been in Guantanamo Bay for five years. He is accused of killing a U.S. soldier during a clash in Afghanistan in 2002, when he was 15.

Other countries on the watch list include Syria, China, Iran, Afghanistan, Mexico and Saudi Arabia.

The foreign ministry launched the torture awareness course after Ottawa was criticized for the way it handled the case of Canadian engineer Maher Arar, who was deported from the United States to Syria in 2002.

Arar says he was tortured repeatedly during the year he spent in Damascus prisons. An official inquiry into the affair showed Canadian diplomats had not been trained to detect whether detainees might have been abused.