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Parksville Area Residents Dump in Pristine Forest

25/5/2015

Forest pathways

There's a beautiful section of Vancouver Island. Wildlife lives there. The spring flowers are blooming. Soon edible berries will be ripening. You can see from the photos that it is an attractive place. These photos were taken inland from a small town on Vancouver Island, Parksville.

People have been going to the top of a hill called Little Mountain and dumping garbage off the sheer cliff that dominates this little slice of paradise. The photo below shows a small fraction of the mess that people have made here.

The photo at the very bottom of the article was taken from the top of the cliffs of Little Mountain. The view, as you can see, is stunning.

Why people would choose to dump their unwanted fridges, TVs and old mattresses off the cliff beggars the imagination. There are numerous places to legally dispose of unwanted items.

Some people have tried to prevent the garbage dumping. Some have tried to get government help to clean up the mess. To no avail.

Salal in bloom

If the land were privately owned, the owner of the property could be ordered to clean it up, unfair but true. The problem here is that the land is Crown Land, owned by the Province of British Columbia.

So even if the concerned citizens raised the money to hire trucks and equipment and volunteered their labour, they don't have permission to proceed.

In our current political climate in this province, that seems as elusive as the cougars that live here.

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Crude oil spill threatens California beaches

23/5/2015

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An onshore pipeline carrying crude oil ruptured Tuesday, dumping its goo into nearby storm drains and into California’s coastal waters. Apparently the rupture went undetected for several hours. Beaches and state parks have been closed. Animals are dying.

The ruptured pipeline belongs to Plains All American Pipeline, a company that has been cited for 175 safety and maintenance infractions in the past ten years. The company operates 28,600 km of pipelines all over the US.

This will be the third largest oil spill on US territory. The biggest was the blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, the next largest was the Exxon Valdes. This spill is estimated at around 400 000 litres in the water.

Since the oil gushed into the coastal waters on Tuesday, efforts have been made to rescue animals and to clean up the oil. Clean up crews report difficulty in corralling the oil due to choppy water and now, three days later, a sheen of it has spread over 25 km2 making clean up even more difficult.

Governor Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency for the area around Santa Barbara. Authorities have ordered Plains All American to cease operation in that pipeline and to drain it so that it may be inspected.

The company spokesperson has stated that that pipe was inspected May 5th and passed.

California has mined its petroleum for decades, but has changed policy since a spill in 1969. Offshore drilling is now banned, but the state only has jurisdiction for the first three miles of coastal waters. Oil rigs are located outside their jurisdiction.

This latest spill will serve to increase opposition to Royal Dutch Shell’s bid to drill in the Arctic. Those opposing more petroleum pipelines being built will also stiffen their resolve to oppose them. Canadians are facing proposals to add more pipeline capacity as well as new pipelines in order to ship bitumen to overseas markets.

Some environmentalists are taking up the mantra – A solar spill is described as a very nice day.

Sources:
Think Progress
CBC News

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Canada suspected jihadists arrested

22/5/2015

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Ten teens were briefly arrested at Montreal’s Trudeau airport. They were believed to be attempting to travel to Turkey and Syria to join the jihadist movement there. The teens’ passports were seized and they were released.

Police were tipped off by the parents of one of the teens.

The National Defense minister had the following to say about the teens’ behavior:

"The truth is that some young individuals have been seduced, often online, by an entire ideology of violence," he said. "There is no excuse for this. Every one of those individuals has grown up in this incredibly tolerant peaceful, pluralistic, prosperous, free society."

The phenomenon of Canadian children becoming enamoured of the idea of Islamic jihad is worrisome for both parents and society as a whole. This year there have been sporadic attacks on Canadians in Canada by its own citizens. And some plans have been disrupted.

A group of six teens are believed to have left Canada to join the jihadist in mid-January. One father reported the departure to the police. He was worried about his son and had confiscated his son’s passport but the boy reported it stolen and was issued a replacement.

Currently there is an investigation and trial ongoing in British Columbia in which a couple, John Nuttall and Amanda Korody are accused of plotting to blow up the legislative buildings in Victoria, BC. They are further accused of conspiracy to commit murder, of possessing explosives on behalf of terrorists and of planting pressure cooker type bombs on the legislative grounds.

Unknown to Nuttall and Korody, the ‘jihadists’ that they met were undercover police. The bombs were duds.

According to Public Safety Canada, they are aware of at least 80 people who have returned to Canada after travelling to areas where terrorists operate. They have some information of extremist travellers’ fate, but all are male. It is know that some young women travel to join the jihadists. At least one apprehended on Tuesday was female. No information on young women.

Some Canadian Extremist Travellers
·         Xristos Katsiroubas, dead
·         Ali Medlej, dead
·         Mahad Ali Dhore, presumed dead
·         Ali Mohamed Dirie, presumed dead
·         Damian Clairmont, presumed dead
·         Andre Poulin, presumed dead
·         Hassan El Hajj Hassan, wanted for murder in Bulgaria

Sources:
CBC News
Victoria Times Colonist
Public Safety Canada

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Avian flu epidemic spreads in United States

11/5/2015

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Bird flu is burning through the American mid-west. Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin are particularly hard hit. Minnesota has declared a state of emergency and the National Guard has been deployed. At this time more than 26 million birds have died from the disease or been euthanized in order to stop the spread.

The virus in this case has been identified as variety H5N2. It was first seen in N. America in British Columbia and then popped up in Washington and Oregon States. This virus is not considered very adept at passing on to humans.

The virus is believed to have originated in Asia and passed into Europe and N. America via migratory birds. Ducks are known to harbour the virus without seeming to get sick. Domestic fowl seem particularly vulnerable to it.

The USDA recommends a strict separation of domestic and wild birds. People who raise poultry in outside areas where the birds can access greens and insects are considered at risk for the avian flu. Scientists are not sure how the disease is spread in this instance as many of the casualties are caged and never go outside.

There is speculation that careless biosecurity methods have helped spread the sickness. This was found to be the case in BC about ten years ago. Another idea put forward by biologists is that infected droppings dry out and the viral particles are distributed by wind. One more way the virus could be spreading is farmers may be inadvertently using water contaminated with the virus to clean and wash down buildings.

In any case, aside from the early deaths of the animals, the economic losses are mounting up. The poultry industry in Minnesota is worth US$1 billion each year. Exports of meat and breeding birds have been stopped. Product stops going to store shelves and the knock on effect sees people laid off from their jobs. The federal government has already set aside US$330 million in emergency funding.

Part of the problem in the spreading of avian flu lies in the very success of the commercial poultry industry. Birds are kept caged or crowded. One facility hit by the virus contained 5.7 million birds. They are stressed. They are bred to produce whether it is meat or eggs and have lost much of their robust good health.

While this variety of avian flu seems harmless to humans, health practitioners are keeping a close eye on it.

Sources:
National Geographic Magazine
KARE 11 TV
US Department of Agriculture

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Omar Khadr granted bail

8/5/2015

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Omar Khadr was granted bail today. He has been able to leave prison custody in Alberta after 13 years. Khadr was captured and imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay black prison in 2002, later transferred to maximum security prison in Canada and then to minimum security in Alberta.

His bail comes with conditions while he awaits his appeal for his conviction of crimes committed while he was in Afghanistan. Some of the conditions are as follows.

·         He must continue to see his psychologist

·         He has a curfew from 10pm to 7am

·         He must live with his lawyer in his home in Edmonton

·         He must wear a tracking bracelet

·         He has limited contact with his family

·         He has limited use of computers and the internet

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the following statement following the court’s decision to grant bail:

"Omar Khadr pleaded guilty to heinous crimes, including the murder of American army medic Sgt. Christopher Speer." CBC

Dennis Edney(Khadr’s lawyer) statement:

My view is very clear," said Edney, "Mr. Harper is a bigot. Mr. Harper does not like Muslims."

The ruling has brought out acrimony on all sides. Omar Khadr was accused of the killing of a US military medic during a fire fight in Afghanistan. He is also accused of blinding a soldier in one eye during the same incident. During the same incident, Khadr was shot three times and blinded in one eye.

Khadr was 15 years old at the time. Canada has signed the UN resolution on child soldiers. This means that people younger than 18 years of age cannot be treated as adults, but steps need to be taken to rehabilitate. Khadr and his family are Canadian citizens and entitled to protection under the country’s laws.

Instead, with the collusion of Canada’s spy agency, Khadr was transferred at the age of 15 to the notorious off shore prison on Guantanamo Bay where military rules.

The extent of torture that he was exposed to is unknown, but in video of him being interviewed by Canadian representatives, he is pleading for medical care.

While Khadr was imprisoned the US changed a law that made it a war crime to oppose US troops. The firefight took place in Afghanistan where the US military was the invading force.

Canadian courts have consistently ruled that Khadr’s rights as a Canadian citizen were violated.

Khadr pleaded guilty to murder and war crimes in a plea-bargain session August 9, 2010. I would like to remind people that those American pilots downed and captured in N. Vietnam 45 years ago confessed to dreadful crimes while being held in inhumane conditions too. People captured by Al Qaeda operatives have confessed to amazing crimes while being held outside the law as well.

Opinion
We cannot know how Omar Khadr will fare in our modern Canadian society, whether he will be a model citizen or not. If we value the rule of law in this country, then we must respect what those entrusted with our justice system have decided.

Sources:
CBC News
CTVNews
CBC News

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Parksville Area Residents Dump in Pristine Forest

Crude oil spill threatens California beaches

Canada suspected jihadists arrested

Avian flu epidemic spreads in United States

Omar Khadr granted bail

Barbara McPherson

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