International Events

Any event that involves two or more nations.

Help Santa Keep His Home This Christmas

- Adam Clare

ice melt
The David Suzuki Foundation has launched a campaign to raise awareness of the lack of ice coverage at the North Pole. Where Will Santa Live? is a fun spin on a serious issue and looks like a good way to talk about ice coverage while keeping the conversation entertaining.

“We’re asking Canadians to do something novel and give a gift to Santa this holiday season,” says David Suzuki. “We have to help Santa, the elves and the reindeer evacuate the North Pole and find a suitable temporary workshop in Canada.”

Why give?

We hope you'll forgive us for having some fun with a beloved holiday figure. But climate change is no laughing matter.

Global warming is a serious problem, and poses a very real risk to all the winter traditions and experiences we as Canadians hold dear.

By supporting our “Where Will Santa Live?” campaign, you will be helping us develop a clean, renewable energy plan for Canada, affect climate policy decisions at a national and provincial level, and provide more resources to Canadians on how to go carbon neutral at home and at work, among many other initiatives.

Learn more about our work to turn back climate change and how you can take action to be part of the solution.

Follow the Durban Climate Conference

- Adam Clare

OneClimate has a good collection of live coverage from the Durban Climate Conference, also known as COP17. The conference started a few days ago and runs until the 9th of December.

You can follow it here:

Climate Vulnerable Forum Starts Soon

- Adam Clare

The Climate Vulnerable Forum is a group of countries that are particularly sensitive to climate change and rising sea levels. Every year they meet to find ways to make humanity as a whole more sustainable and more respectful of the environment. Their next meeting is November 13-14.

The Forum’s Dhaka ministerial meeting, at the threshold of the Durban climate change talks, will provide a significant platform for the growing activities of the participant states, with global powers including China, the US and the UN taking part as observers. The Dhaka meeting aims to lay the path for what will become a series of regular interactions for raising awareness on the dangers of climate change and expressing the shared concerns of vulnerable countries in all relevant global forums.

The group intends to maintain concerted pressure for enhanced low-carbon leadership among industrialized countries, and external support for adapting to climate stresses and for pursuing independent green development through a combination of finance, capacity building and technology transfer – none of which have been adequately forthcoming from 16 previous annual conferences on climate change since parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) first met in Berlin in 1995.

The Climate Vulnerable Forum’s official website

Canadians Like the Occupy Movement

- Adam Clare 2 Comments

Even the right-leaning Canadian press can’t disagree that the Occupy Movement is a positive thing in and of itself. A new poll reveals that almost 60% of Canadians view the movement in a positive light, while some others tend to have problems because it is “leaderless”.

It’s great to see Canadians (who have not suffered as much as their neighbours to the south) talking about the concerns that the Occupy Movement has brought up. Issues like subsidies to big oil, the problems with current financial markets, joblessness, and even democratic accountability are all being discussed in the mainstream media.

Without the Occupy Movement these issues would in all likely hood not have been brought up. You should go to your locally occupied park and see what you can do to help.

Can’t get to a local occupy camp? Here’s what you can do online.

From the Globe and Mail:

Occupy activists have pitched tents in at least eight Canadian cities, building on a protest movement that started in New York’s financial district nearly two months ago. Participants have no official demands, but are advocating for a variety of social justice and economic issues, including nationalizing Canadian banks, closing tax loopholes for the wealthy and increasing the minimum wage. Most say they are frustrated that a small number of people control most of the world’s wealth.

“For many Canadians, they might not necessarily agree with those views, but they think that they are valid. Those are legitimate concerns that are being raised about our democratic and financial system,” Mr. Nanos said.

The most significant demographic that views the Occupy movement favourably is people who are between 18 and 29 years of age, the poll found, which may be reflective of a tough job market for new workers. Nearly 73 per cent of people under 30 said they have a favourable or somewhat favourable impression of the protests.

Read the rest.

Still don’t know how to help? Here’s 10 simple ways to help the Occupy Movement.

UN: Canada Prevented Torture

- Adam Clare

The Afghanistan war that has been going for 10 years(!) has caused a lot of horrible things to happen to all the belligerents. The American forces have been accused of torture and other horrible actions to Afghanis, and in Canada a few years ago there was accusations that Canadian forces let people be tortured as well. Unlike the American government, the Canadian government has been found by the UN to actually stop torture form happening!

“For those arrested by Canadians, two NDS officials were allocated for further interrogation and those interrogated by them never complained about ill-treatment by NDS officials.”

Between 2009 and 2010, Canadian and British forces reportedly handed over some 2,000 detainees to Afghan authorities, according to the report, with caveats and monitoring in place to ensure they were not tortured.

The treatment of Afghan detainees became a political issue for the federal government after allegations of abuse and mistreatment first arose five years ago.

Read more.

Thanks Janet!

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