Must Reads from Last Week

The Must Reads will not be publishing again for a while due to all available efforts being put into Mark de Bruijn’s election campaign. The hope is that the campaign will be able to put out a periodic newsletter, which all subscribers will get.

Events around the riding

Comox Valley March for Climate

Two great stories on the Youth Environmental Action March for Climate on May 3: Comox Valley Students ‘Stand Up, Fight Back’ for climate action and Orca and a dinosaur join Comox Valley youth in climate march.

And this piece in the Comox Valley Record, profiling Nalan Goosen, one of the student organizers..

World Community film: What is the electric car?

DATE/TIME: May 14, 7 pm
LOCATION:  Stan Hagen Theatre, NIC, Courtenay campus

This entertaining and educational film looks at some of the myths people have about electric cars (speed, range, etc.) and gives thought-provoking information to consider. Vendors, drivers, and enthusiasts share their views. People who watch this film may soon end up driving their own electric vehicle. Admission is by donation.
To watch trailer – www.worldcommunity.ca

Comox Valley’s first electric vehicle event

DATE/TIME: Saturday, May 18, 10 am to 4 pm
LOCATION:  Comox Valley Sports Centre parking lot

Come check out everything you need to know about electric transportation in the Comox Valley! Test drive an electric car or ebike, talk to EV owners, see a Tesla up close and find out about incentives for purchasing electric vehicles. Sign-ups for test drives will be first come, first serve. (Hosted by Watershed Sentinel)

Consent Culture training

DATE/TIME: May 19, 10:30-5:30
LOCATION:  TinTown (TBA)

From Facebook: “Would you like to learn more about how to talk to people about Consent and Consent Culture? Are you looking for tools to improve your interactions and relationships with others?

Consent culture is defined as one in which consent—and respect for individual autonomy— is considered paramount. But what would that look like? How do we go about creating a culture of individuality within the context of a nurturing community?

In this workshop we will examine:

• “Rape Culture” and “Dominance Culture”
• What Consent Culture would look like
• Specific ways we can, both individually and collectively, work to create cultures of consent.
• Examples of consensual communication and skills you can put into practice immediately!

This workshop aims to dive into a deeper understanding of consent culture; explore some of the more subtle ways that current cultural norms detract from it; and collectively brainstorm how each of us can work consent into our daily lives.
PLEASE REGISTER IN ADVANCE!  Payment is on a by-donation basis, suggested donation $10-$30.  No one turned away for lack of funds.
Check us out at www.theconsentcrew.org”

Cowspiracy Screening

DATE/TIME:  Friday, May 17, 2019 at 6 PM – 8:30 PM
LOCATION:  Powell River Public Library

Cowspiracy is a powerful documentary that explores the connection between animal agriculture and environmental degradation. After the screening there will be a Q&A/discussion. Delicious plant-based snacks will be included! TICKETS ARE FREE BUT LIMITED SEATS ARE AVAILABLE!
Hosted by Meatless Monday Powell River and We are Climate Action Powell River Society

Courtenay-Alberni Green Party EDA 2019 AGM

DATE/TIME:  June 15, 1pm - 4pm
LOCATION:   Port Alberni, at the Hupacasath Hall

North Island-Powell River Green Party EDA 2019 AGM

DATE/TIME:  June 22, 1-3 pm
LOCATION:  Comox Community Centre, Room B, 1855 Noel Ave., Comox
RSVP

The NIPR Executive is focused on the election campaign until October 21. However, we are required by law to have an AGM and to elect a new Executive/Leadership Team for the next year. Also, life will go on after the election and the NIPR team plans to continue being active, so if you’d like some information on what being on the Executive entails, please contact Megan Ardyche.

Our speaker will be the NIPR candidate, Mark de Bruijn. There will be a campaign event - possibly group canvassing - immediately after the AGM. This is a perfect time to meet the campaign team and other volunteers. It’s also a perfect time to try out canvassing with no stress. Everyone will be paired with an experienced canvasser. And it’s always exciting to go canvassing when the candidate is out there as well, ready to talk with people at the door about what matters to them.

RSVP to let us know you’ll be attending.

North Island Pride Festival

DATE/TIME:  June 22, 11 am to 3 pm
LOCATION:   Spirit Park, Campbell River

Mark your calendars and start planning your outfits. Family Friendly Free Fun for ALL in Spirit Square & please join us in the evening for the CR Pride Party 2019 w/ Art d’Ecco | Tidemark Theatre!

Mark de Bruijn’s NIPR election campaign

Mark de Bruijn’s campaign is getting organized. Mark and his campaign manager, Mark Tapper, held a meeting with volunteers in Campbell River on Friday and and are meeting with volunteers in Powell River today, Sunday. If you would like to get involved, no matter where you live in the riding, contact Carol Thatcher, Volunteer Coordinator, at niprgreenvolunteers@gmail.com. Or go to NIPR’s website and read the job descriptions for various volunteer positions. Training will be provided for all roles.

Reconnaissance Trip to Campbell River Fish Farms

On May 4, 2019, a small contingent of North Island-Powell River Green volunteers and their candidate, Mark de Bruijn, were invited by Hereditary Chief Gigame George Quocksister Jr. of Campbell River’s Laichkwiltach Nation to accompany him onboard a fish boat for a reconnaissance trip to some the fish farms north of Campbell River. Also along were Hereditary Chief Bill Wilson of the Musgamamgw Nation from the Broughton Islands, as well as several of Chief George’s family and supporters.

Salmon farming is an important industry on northern Vancouver Island, much of it headquartered in Campbell River. It employs several hundred people, and does significant business with local suppliers and trades people. The industry has been in an ongoing conflict with people dependent upon the wild fishery, as well as conservationists concerned over the impacts of declining salmon on the larger coastal marine ecosystem.

Salmon farms have been implicated in the drastic decline of wild salmon stocks by the spread of parasites and pathogens, as well as excessive entrapment and feeding by the farmed fish on young salmon and other species as they attempt to migrate past the farms enroute to the open Pacific. The decline of wild fish has severely impacted both the commercial wild fishery and the sports fishery, which combined employ a very large number of people and generate hundreds of millions of dollars.

The ongoing presence of these industrial farms in unceded First Nations territorial waters is of grave concern to First Nations up and down Vancouver Island. Chief George Quocksister Jr. and others have been in a long struggle with the federal and provincial governments to have these farms removed from their waters. Salmon have been the cornerstone of coastal First Nations for millennia, and this is being lost. Not only have the farms affected a major source of livelihood for First Nations people, but it is disrupting access to salmon as an important food source, and for traditional cultural and ceremonial purposes.

It was a highly educational experience for de Bruijn and his fellow Greens, giving a rare opportunity to view this struggle through the eyes of First Nations people as they take control of the stewardship of their territories. Mutual understanding through friendship may prove to be invaluable in the ultimate resolution of this serious issue on our coast.

Provincially

BC Greens convention

DATES: June 7-9, 2019
LOCATION:  Anvil Centre, 777 Columbia St, New Westminster
Google map and directions

Check it out here. A preliminary schedule is available here.

Green party targets use of tax money for political attack billboards

Motorists travel over the Alex Fraser Bridge as an electronic billboard paid for by the B.C. Liberal caucus, placing blame for high gas prices on Premier John Horgan is seen in Delta, B.C., on Saturday May 4, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

“Green party Leader Andrew Weaver is calling for a ban on the use of taxpayer money for political attack ads after the B.C. Liberals bought billboards blaming Premier John Horgan for a spike in gas prices. The digital billboards along commuter routes on the Lower Mainland say “Gas prices?” and “Spending more to commute?” followed by “Blame John Horgan.” It’s not the first time a provincial political party has used its caucus funding for partisan purposes and Weaver says that needs to change.” Read more.

2 Indigenous leaders explain why they are on opposing sides of the Trans Mountain debate

Chief Judy Wilson is opposed to the Trans Mountain pipeline, and Stephen Buffalo supports the pipeline. Both are First Nations, but this divide illustrates the trade-offs some are willing to make to provide jobs and feed their families. The federal government last month pushed its deadline for making a decision on the future of the project. The new date for a decision is June 18. Read more.

Broadband For All: Closing the Digital Divide in BC Without Big Telecom

The April 20, 2019, edition of Must Reads brought you information on 5G and its hazards. That edition also talked about Connected Communities, a project to hard-wire homes on a community-by-community basis to avoid the health risks of wireless radiation. In that vein, the April 23 edition of the Watershed Sentinel has an article by Claire Gilmore on that very idea. Read more.

Excerpt: “Over the next few years, the Connected Coast project plans to bring high-speed internet to 155 coastal BC communities, but there’s a hitch: the project’s sub-sea fiber-optic cable will only reach the shore of each community involved. From there, communities must decide if they will connect to the cable, and if so, how they will finance and implement the “last mile” of their new information highway. They must decide whether they want to create a their own Internet utility or become customers of large Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and choose what kind of last-mile connection will serve them best in the long run: wired or wireless.”

Nationally

Paul Manly wins in Nanaimo-Ladysmith

“It’s really a message election…It’s a chance to tell Ottawa how we feel,,,[It] signals a sea-change since the 2015 election, as well as frustration with the current political template.” Read more from Maclean’s and from the Green Party of Canada website.

Green representation across Canada

“April 23, 2019 marked a significant milestone for Green representation in Canada: the first time a Green Party has achieved Official Opposition status.  The candidates of the Green Party of PEI won 8 of 27 seats with 30% of the vote. This less than two years after three BC Greens assumed the balance of power on the west coast with 17% of the vote. The chart below shows the history of Green representation across Canada, including the first member elected by province, and these major milestones.  After a cautious start, Canadians are electing a growing number of Greens.” Check out the interesting chart.

Greens are racing NDP to the climate-change punch

This is an interesting article on the Greens staking claim to the conscience of Parliament at NDP expense. Especially interesting is the brief narrative of how the NDP have, over time, ceded any claim to being protectors of the environment.

As We Have Always Done: Nishnaabeg Anticapitalism

This book excerpt talks about centuries-old ways of thinking about what colonial cultures currently call capital, resources, and excess. Read more.
Excerpt: “When Nishnaabeg are historicized by settler colonial thought as “less technologically developed,” there is an assumption that we weren’t capitalists because we couldn’t be – we didn’t have the wisdom or the technology to accumulate capital, until the Europeans arrived and the fur trade happened. This is incorrect. We certainly had the technology and the wisdom to develop this kind of economy, or rather we had the ethics and knowledge within grounded normativity to not develop this system, because to do so would have violated our fundamental values and ethics regarding how we relate to each other and the natural world. We chose not to, repeatedly, over our history.”

Colten Boushie film wins at Hot Docs festival

Film on Colten Boushie case wins $10,000 prize at Hot Docs
A film about the killing of a young Indigenous man in Saskatchewan has won a top prize at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. Tasha Hubbard’s nipawistamasowin: We Will Stand Up has won the best Canadian feature documentary award …

Colten Boushie documentary makes history as Hot Docs …
Hot Docs kicks off its latest edition in Toronto on Thursday by shining a light on inequity and systemic racism in the Canadian legal system and efforts of Colten Boushie’s family to push for change.

Film on Colten Boushie case wins $10,000 prize at Hot Docs …
A film about the killing of a young Indigenous man in Saskatchewan has won a top prize at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.

Colten Boushie documentary to open Toronto’s Hot Docs …
A documentary on Colten Boushie, who was killed on a rural Saskatchewan farm, will open the Hot Docs festival in Toronto.

Colten Boushie documentary to open Hot Docs 2019 - NOW …
Colten Boushie documentary to open Hot Docs 2019. Nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up leads the lineup, which also includes docs about the Quebec City mosque shooting, Aung San Suu Kyi and Wu …

Hot Docs 2019: Director Tasha Hubbard makes history with …
Hot Docs 2019: Director Tasha Hubbard makes history with her searing look at the Colten Boushie case Barry Hertz

Documentary on Colten Boushie case to open Toronto’s Hot …
Debbie Baptiste, mother of Colten Boushie, holds a photo of her son during a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on February 14, 2018.

The Pact for a Green New Deal

On May 6, a new Green New Deal for Canada was released. This one seems to be made-in-Canada rather than made-in-the-US. And it truly seems to be non-partisan. Check it out.

Excerpt: “We need an ambitious plan to deal with multiple crises at the same time. A bold and far reaching plan to cut emissions in half in 11 years in line with Indigenous knowledge and climate science, create more than a million good jobs you can support a family with, and build inclusive communities in the process. We need a Green New Deal — for everyone. And we need everyone to be a part of building it.”

Mike Pompeo: Canada’s Claim To Northwest Passage ‘Illegitimate’

Read more.
Excerpt: “Canada’s claim over the Northwest Passage is “illegitimate,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday in a major speech to the Arctic Council that Canadian experts called both provocative and frequently inaccurate…We recognize that Russia is not the only nation making illegitimate claims. The U.S. has a long-contested feud with Canada over sovereign claims through the Northwest Passage.”

Millions of Canadians unable to reach federal government on the phone: Auditor-General

The federal government can’t fix the Phoenix pay system so that employees get paid; now they don’t have enough employees to answer the phone. Any chance there could be a connection? Read more.

Globally

UN recognizes resistance crisis, but soft pedals solutions

“At a bare minimum, all countries should put an immediate end to squandering all human-class antibiotics just to help livestock producers fatten up animals a little more quickly. This change has already been instituted in Europe and the U.S. without any negative economic consequences. And the European countries that have gone much further have done so without harming farmers or their economy. While there is a lot that the UN report gets right about the scale of this global problem, it missed an opportunity to push the conversation forward in a way that could truly solve it. Baby steps of yesteryear will not cut it. Meat producers worldwide must stop wasting our miracle drugs on livestock when they are not sick, before it’s too late.” Read more. Also read NYT superbug series underscores meat industry need to act.

World Press Freedom Day: With crucial elections ahead, we need to protect our free press

The article states, “For a democracy to thrive, the press must not only be free from harassment, but must also have the resources to do its job properly — which is why the announcement of support for local journalism the federal budget is welcome.” But don’t you think for democracy to thrive, there need to be a multitude of press voices, rather than the concentration of media control in the hands of a few corporations (or hedge funds or online retailers) whose only motive is profit. The pursuit of maximum profit necessarily will result in less resources provided to journalists to do adequate reporting, or to do fact checking. To expect a government to adequately support all media is pie-in-the-sky thinking. They will support those media who support that party. That’s not good for democracy.

Excerpt: “The theme for this year’s World Press Freedom Day is “Media for Democracy: Journalism and Elections in Times of Disinformation.” It’s a perfect theme for these times. No democracy is complete without access to transparent and reliable information. It is the cornerstone for building fair and impartial institutions, holding leaders accountable and speaking truth to power,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said.”

Also read this 2018 piece, titled “The cost of reporting while female,”

World Press Freedom Day: Editorial cartoonists have their say

Check out these cartoons for World Press Freedom Day. It’s a dark humour.

Knock Down the House on Netflix: Watching a U.S. political revolution unfold

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a primary subject of the new Netflix documentary Knock Down The House.

You know election fever has hit when we start to watch political shows in our down time...read this article, go for the show. AOC and 3 other women, working class democratic candidates featured. Looks good!

Thought of the day:

Women are angels, and if you break our wings we continue to fly…on broomsticks.

We’re flexible like that. (Author unknown)