The last of Charkaoui’s conditions were struck down in September 2009, and in November his lawyers asked the government to issue him an apology and grant him both citizenship and reasonable reparations for the damage caused by his six-year ordeal.

“They asked the government to respond within 10 days – they didn’t, which left him no choice,” said Mary Foster, a member of the Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui.

“Adil’s struggle is extremely inspiring, and the fact that he is asking for an apology is symbolically important,” Foster said. “[His] life has been damaged, and there has to be some recognition for the rights violated in such a horrendous way.”

In 2003, Charkaoui was detained under a security certificate, a piece of immigration law that allows the government to use secret evidence to detain non-citizens indefinitely under threat of deportation. The Quebec Bar Association and the Canadian Bar Association have both released detailed statements opposing security certificates.

In his role as the attorney-general at the time, Liberal MP Wayne Easter signed the certificate and was personally named in the lawsuit.

Easter said he was not aware that Charkaoui’s lawyers had asked for an apology and reasonable reparations before launching the suit. “[Charkaoui is] exercising his legal right in a democracy, and it will go wherever it will,” he said.

Easter added tht the government has to take a balanced approach to security issues. “Government has a responsibility to protect its citizens, and it has to take all measures to do that. At the same time, [we] do not want to infringe on people’s liberties,” he said.

In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled security certificate legislation unconstitutional, but delayed the effects of its decision by one year. The following year, the Harper government introduced a new security certificate law and issued Charkaoui another certificate, although the conditions instituted under the old law stayed in place.

Throughout this time, Charkaoui, a French teacher and father of four, was forced to wear a GPS-tracking ankle bracelet – which he has called his “bracelet of shame” – and was not permitted to leave the island of Montreal. He also had to be accompanied at all times by one of his parents.

“The toll this has taken on me and on my children is incalculable,” Charkaoui said in a press release. “That is why my three oldest children – aged eight, six, and four – who lived through this nightmare with me, are also named as applicants.”

The lack of evidence presented by government lawyers and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) prompted Quebec judge Danièle Tremblay-Lamer to lift the conditions and later remove the certificate in fall last year.

Hassan Almrei, whose certificate was also struck down, has also demanded an apology from the government.

Three Arab Muslim men, Mohammed Harkat, Mohammad Mahjoub, and Mahmoud Jabballah, continue to live under house arrest due to security certificates.

Charkaoui’s suit names CSIS, the Canada Border Services Agency, the attorney-general of Canada, and the ministers of justice, public safety, and Immigration. Conservative MP Stickwell Day and Liberal MP Denis Corderre are also personally named.

Corderre did not respond to The Daily.

The post Charkaoui sues federal government appeared first on The McGill Daily.

From the proposed metro expansion into Laval, Longueil, and Anjou, to the redevelopment of the Turcot Interchange in the Southwest, and the perennial promise of the streetcar resurrection, transit has once again emerged as a central issue in the city’s political scene.

“In a way, transport makes the city,” said Étienne Coutu, an architect and urban designer working with Projet Montréal at City Hall.

A central tenet to the burgeoning municipal party’s platform is the installation of 250 kilometres of tramway track to the city, ten per cent of which they hope to have completed by fall 2012. Mayor Gérald Tremblay, meanwhile, has pegged the opening of a tramway line connecting Côte-des-Neiges to downtown and the Old Port for 2013.

“With a tramway, we’re giving space back to public transit,” Coutu said.

“The point is the experience – it’s calm, and it’s stable,” he said, adding that building tramways in Quebec would create jobs, and would also provide an incentive to redesign the streets around the new lines by widening sidewalks and adding green space.

Under Projet Montréal’s plan, a tramway would return to Parc – the most frequently serviced bus route in the city, and a major streetcar artery until the City swapped streetcars for buses in the mid-fifties.

At an estimated cost of $40- to 60-million per kilometre, however, others are not convinced that tramways are the best option for the city.

McGill urban planning professor Ahmed El-Geneidy favours increased bus frequency and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems.

“Exclusive bus-only lanes still take space away from cars – and cost much less,” said El-Geneidy, whose Transportation Research At McGill (TRAM) group works closely with STM, the regional transit authority, and the Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT) on projects such as the implementation of the express bus route 467 along St. Michel.

On January 22, the STM issued a press release stating it was about to finalize a $3-billion contract with the Consortium of Bombardier-Alstom SA for 765 new cars to replace its aging fleet, with an option for an additional 288.

However, the plan has stalled while China’s Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive attempts to join the bidding process with its steel-wheeled trains. These wheels can run outside, and are regarded as more energy-efficient than the rubber tires currently used in Montreal’s metro system, which is set to expand soon.

Last September, Quebec premier Jean Charest announced that the provincial government would move forward with a plan to connect the orange line in Laval, extend the yellow line by five stops into Longueil, and add five kilometres on the east side of the blue line, at a potential cost of about $150 million per kilometre.

With the majority of the construction on the North and South Shores, however, both Coutu and El-Geneidy expressed concern that the proposals could clog the already-congested east side of the orange line.

El-Geneidy stressed that for the extension into Anjou to be successful, the metro expansion must be coupled with a land-use plan to attract retailers, offices, and businesses around the metro lines.

“Without a land use plan, it will succeed at the same level as the old blue line,” he said.

Coutu added that Projet Montréal would also like to see the west side of the blue line extended through Snowdon to connect to Montréal-Ouest, and a tram connecting Trudeau Airport to downtown.

As for the yellow line, “Longueil is going to be a joke,” said El-Geneidy, adding that he would rather see an enhanced BRT service to feed into the existing metro.

However, recent squabbles between the STM, Laval, and Longueil over operating costs suggest the expansion may hit more political roadblocks in the future.

Laval withheld its annual $1.5-million share of operating costs until Longueil joined them in the TRAM 3 fare zone. Longueil is threatening to do the same.

“It’s like we’re in kindergarten, and no one wants to pay for the service,” said Coutu.

The argument raises the issue of the multitude of transit operators and fares in the region, with the STM’s single-fare metro and buses, the AMT’s multi-fare zone commuter trains, and separate suburban bus services like the Réseau de transport de Longueuil on the South Shore.

El-Geneidy said that competition between the agencies is a positive thing, but that the AMT should designate a consistent fare-zone system across the region.

The post Uncertain future for MTL mass transit appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Any trip beyond the extended McGill bubble reminds me that this is exactly what has defined Canada’s (predominantly sub)urban landscape for the past 60 years. While trekking around Montreal for the better part of the summer and fall conducting a walkability survey of neighbourhoods in nearly every borough, I was struck by how much of the city resembles the stereotypical suburban layout I thought I’d escaped after bidding farewell to the sprawling, monotonous blob that is “outside Toronto.” This would be far less important if the issue was purely one of aesthetics. However, as study after study shows, the way we build our environments can have a significant influence on our health.

Sprawling cities have lead to sprawling waistlines. Our reliance on cars as opposed to our feet or pedals is central to the decreasing rates of exercise – especially that which is incorporated into the daily routine. Automobile emissions in turn affect air quality, leading to smog days in cities and respiratory illnesses in residents.

“It’s probably not that my grandparents went to the gym more, or that our genetic disposition has changed significantly over the past 30 years,” explains University of Washington pediatrics professor Brian Saelens when I ask him why he focuses on understanding the built environment’s effect on health. “If I’m to explain increased rates of obesity and inactivity, the only plausible thing is that we’ve changed our environment.”

The transition from dense, streetcar-connected cities to ones with segregated land use patterns, a hierarchy of streets, single-detached homes set back from the often sidewalk-free cul-de-sac, and the low-lying strip malls and parking lots on which they depend (and the traffic congestion they cause) has been anything but accidental. Interestingly, the types of environments partly responsible for North America’s obesity epidemic – and associated conditions like type-2 diabetes and heart disease – were initially built to curb the spreading of infectious disease. Yet chronic diseases have long since surpassed them as the greatest killer of North Americans and Europeans.

In Health and Community Design: The Impact of the Built Environment on Physical Activity, lead author and prominent public health researcher Lawrence Frank outlines this unwitting irony. Citizens of industrial cities were plagued by infectious disease that thrived thanks to unsanitary and cramped quarters situated next to smoke stacks. First, the rich were privy to new developments in pastoral settings that allowed for air flow – the presumed remedy for most urban ailments. Post-WWII suburbanization only intensified this trend, as strict zoning bylaws kept homes away not only from industry, but from every other type of land use, such as commercial, institutional, and office. Hence the drive to work – and school and the grocery store.

“A fantastic amount of energy has gone into making the cars happy and providing capacity for more traffic, as if there were no other important issues in the city,” explains architect and urban designer Jan Gehl. Recorded by CKUT-Radio, Gehl’s talk at McGill this past July draws heavily on his experiences making Copenhagen one of the world’s most people-oriented cities, as an example for Montreal to follow.

The urban designer also emphasizes the role that quantitative traffic data collected and analyzed by traffic bureaus plays in putting the interests of the car above those of the people. “People who use the city have been invisible and poorly represented in the planning process,” Gehl says. This may explain why, to reduce traffic congestion, cities choose to add a lane – which only invites more traffic and more fumes to the area – as opposed to eliminating parking spots. Quoting his traffic engineer colleague, Gehl says, “If they can’t park, they won’t drive.”

Businesses, however, often claim that if customers can’t park, they won’t shop. Though this line of thinking is often used to derail the installation of bike lanes, data proves these fears illegitimate: other modes of transport increase the number of passersby – to the tune of 8,000 more per year on some Copenhagen streets, Gehl says.

Remarking on the removal of parking spots at a gradual rate of two to three per cent each year starting in the seventies, Gehl told the audience that he has witnessed the adjustments Danes have made to access and experience Copenhagen’s city centre. The latest numbers show that only 30 per cent of commuters drive to work, while 27 per cent take public transit, 37 per cent bike, and the rest walk. Compare that profile to Montreal – often considered one of North America’s most walkable cities – where about 74 per cent of morning commuters drive or take other motorized transport, 19 per cent take public transit, and 10 per cent walk or bike, according to a 2003 origin-destination survey.

Understanding the vital role that data plays in influencing policy and planning circles, public health researchers started amassing it in hopes of pinpointing structural features that influence healthy, active lifestyles. Saelens explains, “We got tired of doing interventions that didn’t modify the environment, that tried to modify attitudes and preferences.”

The majority of studies attempting to measure the built environment’s effect on physical activity compare the physical attributes of different neighbourhoods with the residents’ walking or biking habits. Though meta-reviews of the research are difficult due to the varying methodological approaches, a small yet significant correlation is consistently found between the neighbourhood’s built environment – land use patterns, transit systems, and design characteristics – and utilitarian walking.

After reading Saelens’s recent review of reviews on the subject, I ask whether studies that seemingly state the obvious – people walk more in walkable areas – are still worthwhile. “Yes,” he says. “There are likely 10,000 built environment factors. There are important levers in a handful of them, some of which are more readily modifiable, and we need to know what those are.” Still, he and co-author Susan Handy, an environmental science and policy professor at University of California at Davis, both emphasized the need to help establish causality.

Studies would involve observing the same group of people living in two different types of environments and monitoring their behavioural change. “I don’t have the resources [to do my ideal study],” Saelens says, jokingly adding, “I can’t assign people to live in certain places – for some reason we can’t do that.”

Longitudinal studies would also allow researchers to test the idea that people self-select certain areas based on their behavioural preferences. The logic goes: someone who loves driving chooses suburbia, while someone who wants to walk to work lives downtown. The problem with that, however, is that with such a large percentage of housing in Canada and the U.S. laid out in suburban tracts, it’s hard for people who want to walk to express that desire. This could be true in Montreal, where more than 80 per cent of trips in West Island boroughs are made by car, and only 40 per cent of trips in the Plateau.

The flaws in the logic of self-selection lead many researchers, including Frank and Saelens, to counter that the supply of housing stock in walkable areas either does not meet the demand or is too expensive. “I love the argument – and you hear it from these building organizations: ‘We’re just building places that people want.’ That’s just not true. It might’ve been true before, but it’s not true now,” Saelens says.

Handy adds that changing the normal course of development is difficult: “I think there’s a lot of inertia in development community.” And even when an ambitious developer wants to incorporate features that will make areas more walkable, outdated zoning bylaws often restrict what they can do.

For now, the majority of longitudinal evidence is anecdotal. Shawn Micallef, an associate editor at the urban design magazine Spacing, blogged about the effect that scale had on his travel habits after returning home to Windsor last Easter. He kept to the usual routine of driving around town to see what has and hasn’t changed (“There’s no other way to get anywhere”) until he drove by the old auto plants.

Driving by the plants every day, he notes, “the thing just zooms by – you never get a sense of its magnitude.” So Micallef had a friend superimpose the areas taken up by GM and Chrysler auto plants over Toronto’s downtown grid to better understand the difference between the layout of his old and new home. When I ask him how much of Windsor’s pride he thinks is tied up in auto manufacturing, he explains the purpose of the project: “This was a way of making that symbolic thing into something physical. Attaching it to downtown Toronto, the Chrysler plant went from Front to Bloor. There’s so much stuff in that area – an encyclopedia’s worth of urban junk in there – but in Windsor it’s one thing. It’s a minivan plant…[which I found] striking and radical.”

Micallef’s take on the difference between city and suburban living resonates with my experience. Referring to the changes he’s experienced from driving around Windsor to walking around Toronto, he says, “I’d never thought critically about how I moved around Windsor until I went back.” Similarly, though I’ve noticed a profound shift in the way I perceive daily travel, growing up in the moribund ‘burbs never demanded I think outside that box on four wheels.

Proponents of more liveable cities can find common ground with environmentalists who decry the increased carbon emissions and energy use predicated by suburban living; so can local food advocates fed up with the conversion of arable land to parking lots, buildings, and chemical-addicted lawns. The same is true for teachers and parents who see a correlation between their child’s health and academic performance. “There’s lots of synergies there, but if [the message is] splintered, it’s not going to be nearly as effective,” Saelens notes.

Since the implementation of all this information produced in academic fields still rests outside institutions, connections between public health researchers and other advocates for liveable cities are key. There are encouraging signs that this message is getting out there: the U.S. Centre for Disease Control (CDC) recently published 26 different strategies for preventing childhood obesity suggested by researchers, and the Active Living By Design organization links planners with public health researchers to advocate for healthier living through infrastructural change. Further, Projet Montréal’s success in the mayoral elections suggests the growing popular appeal of people-oriented planning.

At a conference discussing the CDC report, Saelens was asked what change would have the greatest impact over the built environment. His response? “Making gas $10-12 gallon, and the reason isn’t because I don’t want people to drive – there is some utility in it.” With people paying the real price for their behavioural choices, Saelens argues, “then you can have serious conversations about land use and true public transportation.”

The post Walking life appeared first on The McGill Daily.

A permanent resident, Charkaoui spent two years in prison after he was arrested on suspicions of terrorism in 2003. He was detained under Canada’s security certificate legislation, which permitted the federal gov- ernment to detain him indefinite- ly or even deport him on secret evidence.

The judge’s announcement came in the wake of the federal government’s July 31 admission that the evidence in Charkaoui’s secret file was inadequate. Five months ago, federal lawyers retracted confidential wiretap evidence that had been used to implicate Charkaoui.

Charkaoui emerged from the courtroom flashing the peace sign, and said that he was extremely satisfied with Tremblay-Lamer’s decision. He also asked when the government officials responsible for his two-year detention – and subsequent four-year ordeal – would be held accountable for their mistakes, and the detriment they have caused to his life, reputation, and freedom.

“Today I’m celebrating,” Charkaoui said. “Though I hope we’re all going to talk about accountability.”

Johanne Doyon, Charkaoui’s lawyer, said that the security cer- tificate issued against her client was wholly unreasonable, and that Charkaoui has been severely stigmatized. “Their ‘proof’ is empty,” Doyon said in French. Judge Tremblay-Lamer allowed the federal government the opportunity to lift the security certificate in advance of delivering her ruling. Federal lawyers left the decision to the judge – a move that would allow the government to appeal the decision at a later date.

When hearings resumed on Thursday afternoon, Doyon recounted the federal government’s and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s (CSIS) abuses against Charkaoui. They have been accused of using unreliable evidence and presenting false information in court. Moreover, the government is alleged to have used information acquired under torture, such as evidence gathered from Abu Zubayda, a high level CIA detainee who was subjected to water boarding.

The restrictions imposed on Charkoui have also prevented him from continuing his career as a French teacher these past two years. Though he was released from prison in 2005, he was subject to a strict set of bail conditions that forced his parents to accompany him at all times. He was obliged to wear a GPS tracking bracelet – what he has called his “bracelet of shame” – and forbidden the use of cell phones, fax machines, and the Internet. He was prohibited from travelling off the island of Montreal, and police were permitted 24-hour access to his home.

Despite being denied access to the Internet since 2003, Charkaoui completed his Master’s in French in 2005 and is working toward his PhD.

Tremblay-Lamer’s ruling thus signifies the end of the economic stranglehold faced by Charkaoui’s family, which comes just as he and his wife expect their fourth child.

“This is a huge day,” Charkaoui said.

“After two victories in the Supreme Court, it’s clear this law is against [the Charter and indi- vidual rights].”

Charkaoui’s mother Latifa was also elated by the news.

“We had faith in Allah and con- fidence in the judge – we knew it would happen, and now it has,” she said.

Sophie Harkat, whose hus- band Mohamed Harkat is one of the other four Canadian Arab Muslim men named under security certificates, said she was ecstatic for the Charkaouis.

“It’s fantastic for all security certificate detainees – it gives us hope that we can pull through,” Harkat said.

Harkat had a similar victory last Monday, when the government’s own risk assessment con- cluded that her husband was no longer a threat, and removed most of the conditions currently imposed on him. He must, how- ever, continue to wear his GPS tracking bracelet.

In February 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that security certifi- cate legislation is unconstitution- al, but delayed implementation of the ruling by one year. In the year that followed, the Harper government pushed through new security certificate legislation, Bill C-3, which patched loopholes in older legislation, adding a provision that would allow for a special advocate who would be privy to confidential information, but unable to disclose this information to the detainee.

Legal critics, such as Mohamed Harkat’s lawyer Yavar Hameed, have maintained, however, that this addition does not satisfy the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Quebec Bar Association has argued that security cer- tificates under Bill C-3 remain unconstitutional.

The post Charkaoui mostly free appeared first on The McGill Daily.

A similar event took place at 12:18 p.m. at the Roddick Gates Monday, signalling the last day of talks to be held at COP15, the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Copenhagen from December 7 to 18 this year.

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Judge Daniele Tremblay-Lamer announced her ruling midway through the public hearing at the Federal Court in Old Montreal today, five months after the government’s lawyers retracted secret wiretap evidence from Charkaoui’s file.

The judge also hinted that the the court will annul Charkaoui’s security certifcate next Wednesday.

Full story coming Friday.

The post Charkaoui is nearly free appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Max Halparin
U3 Geography
Former Daily editor
Chairman of the DPS Board of Directors

The post Your puns are puny appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Some of the basic freedoms restored to Charkaoui include the following: his parents need no longer accompany him whenever he leaves the house; he is now free to use the Internet, cell phones, and fax machines; he no longer has a curfew; and he is permitted to leave the Island of Montreal.

Despite these changes, Charkaoui is still required to wear a GPS tracking bracelet whenever he leaves the house.

Mary Foster, a member of the Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui, said the ruling has given the Charkaoui family a great sense of relief.

“They can have a much more normal life; it means they can go outside the home without always being together,” Foster said.

The ruling comes after months of public trials during which Charkaoui’s lawyers presented half a dozen witnesses and argued for the abolition of the conditions.

While Charkaoui’s lawyer, Johanne Doyon, recognized the significance of the ruling on her client’s day-to-day life, she emphasized that it did not deal with the fundamental problems in Charkaoui’s case – specifically that Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) agents destroyed original evidence and operational notes in Charkaoui’s file.

“Through the cross-examination of two witnesses, we established that [CSIS] did destroy evidence,” Doyon said.

Knowing this, Doyon explained, the defence was in a position to stop the proceedings altogether, something the judge’s ruling failed to address.

In Tremblay-Lamer’s decision, however, the judge wrote that the evidence before her does not indicate that Charkaoui poses a threat or danger to others, nor that he is likely to commit criminal actions.

Throughout the public hearings leading up to the decision, the government’s lawyers failed to present a single witness and presented no evidence dated from 2000 onward. Instead, they largely relied on the same information included in a public summary of Charkaoui’s file released in February 2008.

In her report, Tremblay-Lamer also responded to CSIS Assistant Director of Intelligence Ted Flanigan’s testimony that Charkaoui was not a sleeper agent, but “fit the profile” of one.

“If (Charkaoui) had had the profile of a sleeper agent nine years ago, it is obvious that it could no longer be the same today in light of the publicity surrounding his case,” Tremblay-Lamer wrote.

Charkaoui, a PhD student and father of three, spent nearly two years in prison without charge after being named under a security certificate in 2003. Security certificates, which fall under federal immigration law, apply only to non-citizens, allowing the government to detain them indefinitely using secret trials and evidence under threat of deportation.

In February 2007, the Supreme Court ruled security certificates unconstitutional, but postponed the effect of their ruling by one year. The Conservatives tabled the new security certificate legislation, Bill C-3, in October 2007, and two months later the Canadian Bar Association stated that it considered the new legislation – which added the provision of a “special advocate” and addressed minor problems in the first law – unconstitutional.

A year after the Supreme Court’s decision in Charkaoui’s favour, C-3 became law. In November 2008, the Quebec Bar Association was permitted to intervene in the unconstitutionality of C-3, and has since released detailed arguments against C-3.

In light of these objections to security certificate legislation and the two-tiered system of justice it entails, Foster said Charkaoui’s case raises broader social questions for Canadians.

“I think it’s a question of how we want to see the rights of everyone in this country,” Foster said.

“It’s a question about racism, what it means to be a member of society, how that’s sanctioned under law, how rights are protected – formally and informally. Those are the fundamental questions behind this.”

The public hearings resume next Tuesday and Wednesday, March 10 and 11, at 9:30 a.m. at the Federal Court, 30 McGill St., in Old Montreal.

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Introductory speeches by Principal Heather Munroe-Blum and Associate Vice-Principal (University Services) Jim Nicell emphasized the importance of environmental, economic, and social sustainability at McGill, as well as the Office’s potential to help students and staff build on previous environmental initiatives and undergraduate research.

“This will remain an individual and collaborative effort on all our parts,” said Nicell, an environmental engineer by training.

SSMU VP University Affairs Nadya Wilkinson acknowledged the amount of progress needed to green McGill, but expressed optimism for the Office to facilitate this progress, likening it to a potluck rather than a sit-down dinner.

“No, we don’t have all the staff some think we need to get things done…. We don’t have a library, or a newsletter. But these aren’t just theoretical questions anymore, they’re questions for today,” said Wilkinson, who has been involved with the Sustainable McGill Project – the student group which originally proposed the office’s concept – since 2005.

Sustainability Director Dennis Fortune explained many features around the Office, located in Ferrier 216, that incorporate some of the tenants of structural sustainability – such as waste diversion, energy reduction, and recycling – that could be implemented around campus.

The furniture was recovered from elsewhere on campus, six of the original 19 light fixtures were removed, and the plywood around windows facing the hall meet Forest Stewardship Council standards. As well, materials such as the tiled floor made from recycled drywall, and the carpet made of 72 per cent recycled material – one-third post-consumer carpet – were donated from various businesses. The Office also has two composters, in which students can place leftovers such as the baked goods and apples served at the event by Organic Campus.

Nicell explained afterwards that none of the Office’s $200,000 budget to support investments and ideas came from the University operating budget; instead, the money was raised through two 15 per cent increases in on-campus parking fees over the past two years. Drivers were both informed and supportive of the reason for the increase.

Nicell also praised the economic viability of sustainability initiatives, such as a $12,000 pilot project with light dimmers in the James Administration Building that will pay for itself in a year and a half.

“It’s not a choice of hard times versus sustainability,” Nicell said, later adding, “We have a moral responsibility not to [delay sustainable initiatives to future generations].”

Powerhouse Supervisor Alain Fournier gave students who attended the opening several tours of McGill’s powerhouse, which supplies the majority of the University’s buildings with heating and electricity, totalling 25 megawatts.

He also showcased a web site that displays and stores real-time data on different types of energy consumption, and easily creates daily, weekly, and monthly consumption profiles.

“I think it’s important for students to have access [to the site], but it’s not my decision,” Fournier said. He said the University has expressed concerns over some sensitive information being available online.

When asked about the future of the Office, many students and administrators focused on the Office’s role as a hub for students interested in environmental projects, to connect them with relevant staff and administrators.

Master’s Geography student Alexandre Poisson – who worked on last year’s Sustainability Report Card and sat on the Office of Sustainability Steering Committee with Wilkinson, Nicell, Fortune, and U2 Environment student Jonathan Glencross – stressed the Office’s place in making undergraduate coursework relevant and useful, and offering adequate guidance to volunteer efforts.

“In the end, students need to assert leadership,” Poisson said. “There’s so much opportunity to use classes to do projects and solve problems.”

During her opening speech, Munroe-Blum recalled the welcoming she received from the SSMU Environment Committee on her first day in office six years ago.

“From the minute I arrived, students were leaders in sustainability,” Munroe-Blum said.

In opening a sustainability centre, McGill follows a long list of other Canadian universities, such as University of British Colombia, the University of Toronto, and Queen’s University.

“It’s a huge step toward our goal as a community to support tangible change,” Wilkinson added.

The post Sustainability Office opens its doors appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Following the hearings Wednesday, Charkaoui was frustrated with the government’s failure to present a single witness throughout the hearings.

“They don’t do anything, [they] just sit back while we present all the evidence. But in the end they can present secret evidence to convince the judge I’m not innocent,” Charkaoui said.

Charkaoui’s lawyers brought Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Assistant Director of Intelligence Ted Flanigan to the stand Monday. He stated that Charkaoui fit the “profile of a sleeper agent,” despite being unable to define the term, and also acknowledged that a report describing Charkaoui as a sleeper agent was incorrect, according to a Federal Court Watch report of the day’s proceedings.

At an October 27 presentation at McGill Culture Shock, Charkaoui explained that in the first public summary of evidence against him in 2003, he had such a profile because he was a young, Arab, Muslim, married, internationally-travelled, university student and business owner, with a black belt in karate.

“These are the eight characteristics of ‘sleeper agents,’” he told the audience.

Last week, Charkaoui was also vexed with the inclusion of Moroccan prisoner Nourredine Nafiaa and Guantanamo inmate Abu Zubaydah in public summaries of evidence against him.

Nafiaa wrote to Radio-Canada in 2005, explaining that he had never met Charkaoui, but was forced to sign a confession while blindfolded and under torture in Morocco. In December 2007, retired CIA agent John Kiriakou admitted Zubaydah had been tortured at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“What’s really disturbing [is that we] recognized part of the evidence was obtained from Guantanamo,” Charkaoui said, “On the same day that Obama announced [Guantanamo] will be closing, it’s a shame for Canada to be using evidence obtained under torture.”

Despite having signed off on the February 2008 public summary of evidence against Charkaoui – in which Nafiaa was referenced – Flanigan said he didn’t remember Nafiaa’s name being included in the report.

In 2003, the Ministry of Immigration found that Charkaoui would likely face torture if deported to Morocco, but Flanigan said he was unaware of these risks.

Following the court proceedings Wednesday, Charkaoui’s father echoed his sentiments regarding the vagueness of evidence.

“All this…it has to stop. They have nothing. Nothing,” he said.

Flanigan, who claimed to have conducted a thorough review of Charkaoui’s file last February before naming Charkaoui under a new security certificate, deflected many questions while on the stand.

“It was a lot of, ‘I don’t recall,’ ‘I wasn’t in a position to know,’ or ‘[because of] National Security,’” said Mary Foster, a member of the Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui, which has worked on clearing Charkaoui’s name since he was first detained under a security certificate in 2003.

Foster added that Flanigan’s testimony confirmed many of the suspicions the Coalition has had regarding the secret evidence in the case.

“The government’s position seems to be that without a trial, under a law that’s been declared unconstitutional, without any information of substance being shown publicly, it’s normal for someone to be [under those conditions],” she said.

Security certificates introduce a two-tier system of justice whereby the government uses secret evidence to detain and deport non-citizens. In February 2007, the Supreme Court ruled in Charkaoui’s favour, agreeing that security certificate law is unconstitutional, but delayed its decision by one year.

The Harper government pushed through new security certificate legislation, Bill C-3, in February 2008, which patched some loopholes and added the provision of a special advocate. Legal critics have maintained that this addition does not satisfy the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Quebec Bar Association has released detailed arguments outlining C-3’s unconstitutionality.

That same year, the Supreme Court ruled that CSIS can no longer destroy evidence, and that they must provide the Ministers who sign the security certificate and the Judge who reviews it with original evidence, not just their interpretations and opinions.

After being detained under a security certificate in 2003, Charkaoui spent nearly two years in prison, and has since lived under strict conditions of house arrest. He cannot use the Internet, fax machines, or any phone but his home phone, must respect a curfew, and cannot leave the island of Montreal. He must also wear a GPS tracking bracelet at all times, and one of his parents must accompany him whenever he leaves his home.

During the testimony, Charkaoui’s mother, Latifa, explained that after four years, these conditions have financially crippled her family. She added that her husband can no longer hold employment in his field as a machinist because of the time-consuming supervision requirements.

Charkaoui agreed with his mother after her testimony.

“The conditions have a huge impact on my life and my family – they have to stop,” he said.

Four other Arab Muslim men named under security certificates – none of whom, including Charkaoui, have ever been charged with a crime under the Criminal Code – live under similar conditions in Ontario.

Foster said she was surprised that the government asked witnesses how the conditions, including the GPS tracking bracelet, infringed on Charkaoui’s liberty.

“It was really shocking the way they asked that question – [the government’s lawyer] was just stunned by a request to have the conditions abolished,” Foster said. “That mentality is really anti-democratic – frighteningly so.”

Charkaoui’s mother testified that her son had never broken the conditions, since doing so would break the trust of his family and his community. She became hysterical when asked what the consequences would be if her son were to deported.

“I know [my son] better than anyone; he’s not dangerous,” she said. “He’s against any form of violence – he’s a humourist, the kind who makes you laugh, tells us jokes. I’m don’t understand why he has the ‘profile of a sleeper agent’ – it’s another person.”

These sentiments appeared in court earlier that day with the testimony of a family friend and supervisor of Charkaoui.

The last witness to appear on Wednesday, the principal of the school where Charkaoui taught from 2006 to November 2008, explained that she had to reluctantly let Charkaoui go after the Ministry of Education denied his teaching permit, citing his ongoing case with the federal government.

The principal said Charkaoui is an excellent teacher, and that students were sad to see him go. She added that her decision was influenced by the risk of losing a government subsidy if Charkaoui remained employed at the school.

Foster was hopeful that the Judge will abolish the strict conditions imposed upon him after the legal arguments are made next week.

“I’m very optimistic…because the government didn’t present anything, in a non-biased court you’d hope that would be something that the judge would [recognize].”

Foster also encouraged McGill students, especially those in Law, to attend the hearings themselves.

“People who came down to court would observe the requirement of being innocent until proven guilty not being represented,” Foster said.

The hearings will resume on Wednesday, February 4, at 9:30 a.m. at the Federal Court, 30 McGill St.

……………………………………………………….

Charkaoui timeline

1995
The Charkaoui family arrives in Montreal as Permanent Residents.

1999
Adil Charkaoui and his wife apply for citizenship.

2000
RCMP officers surround and search Charkaoui, his mother, and wife at the Trudeau airport en route to Morocco for a family visit.

2001
FBI agents remove Charkaoui from a plane returning from Morocco to New York. Following an eight-hour interrogation, an agent states that the FBI has nothing against him, they are acting on the request of CSIS.

2003
In May, Charkaoui is detained under a security certificate and sent to prison. The public summary of Charkaoui’s file points to, among other things, his religion, marriage, and black belt in Karate as reasons for having a “profile of a sleeper agent.” Realizing the impossibility of mounting a defense against secret evidence, Charkaoui and his lawyers choose to challenge the constitutionality of the law.

2004
Charkaoui and his lawyers learn of a Pre-Risk Assessment completed the previous year by the Ministry of Immigration which found that Charkaoui would likely face torture, cruel and unusual punishment, or death if deported to Morocco.

2005
Still without any charges laid, Charkaoui is released from prison under strict conditions of house arrest. Among many other restrictions, these require him to wear a GPS tracking bracelet and for one of his parents to accompany him at all times outside his home.

2006
Charkaoui completes his Master’s degree in French despite not
having access to the Internet.

2007
In February, the Supreme Court rules security certificate law unconstitutional, but postpones the effect of their decision for one year. In October, the Harper government introduces the “new” security certificate legislation, Bill C-3.

2008
C-3 passes, despite constitutional objections from many MPs, community members, and the Canadian Bar Association. New certificates are issued for Charkaoui and the others under the new law, but they remain under conditions imposed under the old law. Charkaoui has a second victory in the Supreme Court, and CSIS asks the judge for six months to put together some evidence. Charkaoui loses his job as a French teacher after the Ministry of Education refuses to grant him a teaching permit, citing his ongoing issues with the federal government.

2009
Public proceedings of Charkaoui’s case continue, with he and his lawyers arguing for the abolition of the conditions imposed on him for the past four years. CSIS agent Ted Flanigan testifies that Charkaoui has the “profile of a sleeper agent” – which he distinguishes from “being a sleeper agent” – but cannot define the term.

Source: Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui. For a more comprehensive timeline, see adilinfo.org/en/timeline.

Compiled by Max Halparin with the permission of the original author.

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Take Rolling Stone, the once-relevant music and lefty politico mag, which seems to have felt obligated to include other former heavyweights Metallica, Guns ‘N Roses, and AC/DC in their best album list as an homage to 1987. Strangely, in the same issue, Axl Rose’s Chinese Democracy was rightly described as an overproduced disappointment – yet it was also the 12th best album of the year. What I’d like to tell Rolling Stone in this piece they’ll never read is: just because the favourites of yesteryear release new albums doesn’t mean you have to care.

The real purpose of year-end lists may be to distinguish all-too-similar media outlets. After reformatting to a smaller page size, Rolling Stone now looks remarkably similar to SPIN, but it goes one step further by offering the same subpar content in its few dozen pages that reads like what the guy in sales knows the text-messaging kids want these days. Also like SPIN, RS chose TV on the Radio’s Dear Science as the year’s best album. Fair enough, it’s damn good, with soothing layers of fuzz, acoustic and electric drum beats that can be DAF (dancy-as-fuck), and bold vocals that could give MJ “satisfaction” when they shift to falsetto. (The older, born-white MJ.)

But that’s beside the point. When I was in a rush and trying to quickly determine if a publication knew what it was talking about regarding music this year, I used the statistically significant Bearded Folk (BF) test. It’s a little complicated, but the gist is, if a list included Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago, and Fleet Foxes’ self-titled album in their top ranks, it knew what it was talking about. And boy you can guess what happened when the two albums weren’t included! (The source didn’t know what it was talking about.) It turned into a simple exercise with which many are familiar: scanning print and online pages for your personal favourites to read more about what you already know. But goddamn those two albums were so good.

Turns out the BF test isn’t foolproof, as some who passed it sadly only pretend to know what they’re talking about – RS being one of them. Hopefully it’ll focus on its political musings, which are at least vaguely original.

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The BQ asked to intervene in favour of Charkaoui two months after he contested the constitutionality of the security certificate law. The government uses security certificates to detain non-citizens under threat of deportation, even when it is understood that their deportation may lead to torture or death in their home country.

“He should not be under these conditions because the law under which he is detained is not constitutional,” said Johanne Doyon, Charkaoui’s lawyer, after the proceedings.

Charkaoui – a Moroccan-born father of three who has lived in Montreal since 1995 and completed his Master’s degree in French in 2006 – has never been charged under the Criminal Code.

He spent two years in jail after being named under a security certificate in 2003, and currently faces strict conditions of house arrest. For instance, Charkaoui must wear a GPS tracker-ankle bracelet and be accompanied by one of his parents at all times. He does not have access to the Internet, cell phones, or fax machines and cannot leave the island of Montreal.

When the public hearings resume on December 9, Charkaoui’s lawyers will challenge these severe conditions, and also focus on the problems with the summaries of evidence against Charkaoui provided by Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

In June, Supreme Court stated that CSIS must provide real evidence – more than just summaries of evidence in security certificate cases.

“We will cross-examine the government witnesses to show failure of disclosure by the summary,” Doyon said.

When Tremblay-Lamer ordered CSIS to submit its evidence to her in a secret trial on October 27, CSIS requested an additional six months to do so.

The Judge has not yet seen CSIS’s evidence against Charkaoui, yet the public hearings continue. Further, in the nearly six years Charkaoui has been under a security certificate, neither he nor his lawyers have seen the evidence against him.

During the proceedings, Tremblay-Lamer introduced the idea of two “phases” to the public hearings, one without, and a second with CSIS’s secret evidence – a notion Doyon dismissed.

Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui member Mary Foster said the Tremblay-Lamer used the “phase” idea in an attempt to legitimize a public trial without any evidence.

“It’s like a parallel universe where there’s no legal precedence,” Foster said of the hearings.

About 40 people attended the proceedings, during which Tremblay-Lamer routinely interrupted Charkaoui’s lawyers, who, at different times, specifically requested they be able to complete their sentences.

Following the proceedings, Charkaoui also noted the lack of definitions for terms like “terrorism,” “groups,” “contacts,” and “national security” as a major problem in security certificate law.

“In this Medieval law, nothing is defined,” Charkaoui said in French.

Despite C-3’s introduction of a Special Advocate – a lawyer privy to secret evidence, which they are not allowed to share with detainees, and who has no obligation to client confidentiality – the new security certificate law still violates Section 7 of the Charter of Rights & Freedoms.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled the certificates unconstitutional in February 2007, but suspended their decision for one year, and the Conservatives were able to push C-3 through before the Supreme Court’s decision came into effect this February.

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Even by then, I’d discovered Blind Melon a few years too late – in 1995, singer Shannon Hoon passed away after snorting one too many eight balls. In hindsight, “No Rain” might have foreshadowed his fate. Throughout the video, his jittery mannerisms suggest a dabbling in the drugs that eventually took him, not to mention the not-so-hopeful opening verse, “All I can say, is that my life is pretty plain/ and I like watchin’ the puddles gather rain.” The band never found a replacement, and broke up in 1999, never to be heard from again (except in the form of less successful side projects).

Well, maybe not. In 2002, they released a Classic Masters collection, followed by a Best Of CD/DVD three years later. This is especially impressive considering they only put out two proper studio albums, plus a compilation of covers and B-sides.

And then, in some kind of weird sci-fi scenario where you’re suddenly a university student at the same time that your favourite band is still playing live, Blind Melon regrouped with an otherwise unknown dude named Travis Warren. Guitarist Chris Torn and bassist Brad Smith were producing some songs for Warren, who evidently was also a big fan of Blind Melon and the Mark Wahlberg epic Rock Star. Oh, and Warren happened to sing just like Hoon, with the same soulfully pained ability to reach notes most men would only attempt with falsetto.

After gaining momentum with a few small tours, in the spring Blind Melon excitedly released For My Friends, their first album in 12 years. It’s actually pretty good – though, to be honest, had the band played their cancelled show tonight in Montreal, I only would’ve gone to hear the old stuff. So what happened to the show? Well, two weeks ago, Warren – who turns out to be a bit of an asshole – got fired.

In all their liner notes, the band includes the line, “Written and performed by Blind Melon as one” – but as they explain in a heated blog post from November 6, Warren never quite understood the whole “as one” idea. The band goes on to say that over the past two years, Warren complained of being overworked and underpaid, threatened to quit several times, and, most recently, flaked out on a doctor’s appointment the band had set up to help him with his recurring throat problems. The last straw came after he went completely AWOL for two weeks.

Fortunately, they’re not taking this latest vocal upset as badly as they did in 1995, and they’ve already begun searching for a new singer. They’ve also made it clear that they’re not interested in “clones, drones, jokers, clowns, or drama queens.”

I definitely won’t envy whoever gets the job, as they’ll always be under Hoon’s shadow. The late singer continues to have a huge presence in the Blind Melon world, with fans continually posting eulogies on their message board, always calling Shannon by his first name.

And don’t forget about that bumblebee. She’s back, but instead of being a young girl finding solace in the music of some talented hippies, she’s a sultry cartoon vixen smoking a cigarette at the top of the band’s MySpace page. I really hope somebody changes that; it’s just not tasteful.

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“We have very racist – and I’m using the word racist – mentality inside government, inside CSIS [Canadian Security Intelligence Service] agents, inside courts of justice…and we have horrible laws from the Middle Ages called security certificates,” said Charkaoui, a Moroccan-born French teacher who has lived in Montreal since 1995.

In 2003, Charkaoui was detained under a security certificate, which allows the government to detain non-Canadian citizens without trial under threat of deportation. He spent the next 21 months in jail, and has lived under a strict set of house arrest conditions since his release in 2005.

These conditions forbid him from leaving Montreal, using fax machines, the Internet, or any phone but his home phone, allow police 24-hour access to his home, and require one of his parents to accompany him at all times. Charkaoui must also wear a GPS-tracking ankle bracelet – which he referred to as his “bracelet of shame.”

After two weeks in jail, Charkaoui received a 400-page file qualifying his detention that contained biographies of Osama Bin Laden and news articles on 9/11. Only 14 pages pertained to his case.

“Nothing [was] against me or linked to me,” Charkaoui said, adding that the document identified him as a sleeper agent – a spy awaiting assignment – for eight reasons: he was young, Arab, Muslim, married with children, had a business, attended university, was a martial arts expert, and had travelled around the world.

Charkaoui, a father of three, has still not seen the secret evidence against him, and has never been charged under the Criminal Code.

“Tonight, after five and a half years, I cannot get justice in this country,” he said.

Charkaoui criticized the government for fully cooperating with states like Syria and Sudan, who brutally treat their detainees, while condemning them publicly.

“Behind those big and beautiful slogans, we have a lot of hypocrisy – full coopertaion, collaboration, and complicity in torture,” he said.

In 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that security certificate laws were unconstitutional, but decided that the ruling would not come into effect for one year. In late October 2007, the Conservatives introduced Bill C-3, a new security certificate law that Charkaoui described as a carbon copy of the old law, only worse. It closes some loopholes and introduces a false notion of legitimacy with the “Special Advocate” – a lawyer privy to secret evidence in the case, but cannot relay this information to the detainee.

The Conservatives passed C-3 in February.

Charkaoui’s recent experience with Special Advocates highlights key problems with the process, which denies attorney-client confidentiality. He had to choose his Special Advocate from a list of eight lawyers – though, after little research, Charkaoui found that one candidate was friends with the judge, and that others were defending CSIS at the Supreme Court or had strong Conservative links.

Mary Foster, a spokesperson for the Coalition, detailed several recent examples similar to the high-profile case of Maher Arar, in which Canada chose to deport non-citizens despite evidence showing the detainees could face torture or death in their home countries.

“We should really rethink deportation as exile – all these people have their families and their whole lives here,” Foster said.

About 50 people attended the event, which was co-hosted by the Coalition and QPIRG-McGill. Bilingual banners used at past protests hung on the walls, as were photos of demonstrations from 2003 onward.

To hear Charkaoui’s talk, check out the October 28 edition of Off The Hour at ckut.ca.

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Living in tightly-packed conditions with a near absence of light, pigs are unnecessarily fed hormones and sub-therapeutic antibiotics to make them hungry, and these enter surface and ground water supplies.

This process is standard in Quebec industrial pork production – a province home to more pigs than humans – where government subsidies to the pork industry average one dollar per pig, totalling about $9-million annually, Dressel said.

“This is unhealthy food coming from unhealthy animals that causes disease, pollutes our water, and smells terrible,” Dressel said, adding that liquefying manure is unnecessary and dangerous because it contributes to the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant diseases among humans, evidence of which the government often ignores.

Dressel, who has written several books with David Suzuki, including the recent Good News for a Change, lives in St. Chrysostome, Quebec, close to the new 2,800-pig farm.

“Every time, this is presented as a local or rural issue, or about us being ‘fussy,’ when really we’re terrified about our children’s health,” Dressel said.

Jean-Guy Vincent, the president of the union representing Quebec pork farmers (FPPQ), a subsection of the union of Quebec farmers (UPA), said he was not aware of any specific complaints over manure odour and public health. He pointed to improvements in manure-spreading technology that aim to lower odours.

“Pork producers have adopted low-beam spreaders to spread liquefied manure right into the ground…. So it helps to lower odours,” Vincent said in French.

Daniel Green, an environmental scientist with the Sierra Club, has found that in areas where there is more manure to spread than available land, cases of hospitalized gastroenteritis were 30 to 50 per cent higher than areas not in excess of manure.

These manure surplus areas were also associated with high levels of chloroform, which when inhaled can cause internal organ damage, dizziness, and headaches.

Dressel explained diseases linked to hog farms, including MRSA, a staff infection similar to flesh-eating disease, C. difficile, E. coli, and Swine flu, a species-jumping disease exacerbated by pigs’ cramped living quarters.

Dressel, whose most recent book, Who Killed the Queen?, focuses on public health care, also pointed to a study by John’s Hopkins University that found asthma rates quadruple in areas near industrial hog farms.

“You want to get porkchops from an animal who had a life and saw the sunshine. And yes, you’ll pay a little more – but you won’t be put at risk,” Dressel said, adding that to ban similar disease-spreading industry practices in the U.K., the government simply banned the use of crates which prevent female pigs from moving.

In 2002, the Canadian Media Association called for a moratorium on expansion of industrial hog production, similar to plans enacted in Iowa and North Carolina, the two largest hog-producing U.S. states.

Green has developed and distributed analytical kits with the WAVENET program, or VIVRE in French, that allow citizens to monitor total chloroform and E. coli contents in nearby water sources.

Johanne Dion, a resident of Richelieu, a town about 40 minutes southeast of Montreal, has fought the introduction of industrial pig farms in her area with a citizens’ group. The town is flanked in three directions by pig farms that spread liquid manure. One of the farms has a capacity of 5,800 pigs.

“Every time it rains, it’s a real E. coli soup,” Dion said of the Richelieu river – the biggest southern tributary of the St. Lawrence.

Dion noticed that the citizens’ group – which at one time boasted more than 600 members – has become less active after their efforts yielded few results.

“People realized there’s nothing we can do. We don’t have enough money to sue the government or the farm. The laws do not help us; they cannot help us – the laws have been written by the UPA and the FPPQ,” Dion said, adding, “The only thing we can do to fight back is to eat organic….it’s the best thing we can do.”

Dion also criticized the Quebec government’s weak environmental laws for providing no real enforcement mechanisms.

UQAM PhD student Denise Proulx, who co-authored Porcheries! La porciculture intempestive au Québec with Dion and others, said she was most concerned with the industry’s effect on water quality, antibiotic resistance, and climate change. With 63 per cent of pork exported from Quebec, she suggested agriculture practices should follow Quebec’s 2007 law on sustainable development.

Proulx urged Quebeckers to make eco-conscious consumer choices.

“I think people have to take individual action to contribute to change more rapidly…. Eat food in connection with our seasons,” she said.

Green claims that the province has ignored recommendations for sustainable and healthy agriculture presented in the Commission sur l’avenir de l’agriculture et de l’agroalimentaire québécois (CAAAQ), of which he was a part.

“We know that the Quebec government will not act aggressively with hog farms that pollute the environment,” Green said. “The fines are so small; it’s almost a license to pollute.”

But Clément Salardeaux, a spokesperson for the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food, said that some of the suggestions from the CAAAQ report had been incorporated into government policy.

Green also emphasized the UPA’S influence in Quebec politics, and said that even areas in surplus of manure have been given additional hog permits. He said that while the CAAAQ asked for major reforms, the UPA made its interests clear to the government.

“We don’t think the government will have the political courage to change the agriculture regime in this province,” Green said, adding, “The UPA wants to keep status quo, and the Quebec government does not want to take on the UPA.”

Dressel noted that economic benefits for Quebec as often cited are reason to continue hog expansion – despite few jobs being created with industrial operations.

While Vincent estimated that a farm with 1,000 pigs would have about four to eight employees, Dressel estimated the number was closer to three or four employees for farms like the 2,800-sow farm in Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague.

Vincent also said he was not aware of any pig farms in Quebec with more than 2,000 pigs.

Dressel echoed Green’s sentiments about lax government policy, and criticized the provincial Liberal government for rescinding the moratorium on hog expansion in December 2005. The moratorium, introduced under the Parti Quebecois four years earlier, prevented expansion of the industry onto new lands.

“We have regulations in place, and they’re wonderful – my favourite part is they’re not enforced,” Dressel noted sarcastically, adding, “The whole thing is ludicrous…. There are no fines, no consequences, no means of measuring to see whether farmers are in compliance, so what is the point of having regulations?” she said.

In Quebec, municipal governments and the Ministry of Environment regulate hog farm expansion, but Dressel said the Ministry rarely denies a permit.

Lisa Bechthold and her community of Forty Mile County in Alberta successfully stopped what would have been one of the largest hog farms in Canada eight years ago. Bechthold said her community was successful in organizing through mailouts, door-to-door education programs, garnering media attention, and putting adequate pressure on local governments.

Bechthold is a consultant with Beyond Factory Farming, a group that created a community guide for citizens’ groups who are interested in fighting the introduction of an industrial farm. She advocates for the government to invest in small-scale, mixed-farming that grow vegetables and grains as well as some livestock.

“We need to change the production system, and get away from specialization and the liquid slurry system,” Bechthold said.

Dressel also explained the divisive social and political impacts that Quebec’s hog industry can have on communities.

“This is a very unpleasant industry, known to threaten and bully people, likely to get hold of your farmers who are having a rough time and say, ‘Let us spread all this poop on your farm.’ Most go bankrupt, at which point, a large company takes over the land – it’s happened so many times it’s heartbreaking.”

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