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Monday, Sept. 10, 2012
A failed assassination An assassination attempt was made on the elected leader of a Canadian province on Sept. 6. Normally, this would have warranted front-page news in every daily newspaper in the country and would have been the top item in every newscast. But that province was Quebec and the attempt came at a victory rally for the Parti Quebecois, back in power after 10 years of opposition, and for La Belle Province’s first female premier, Pauline Marois. The initial reports were more about guards pushing Marois off in the middle of her acceptance speech, then dismissed as a “security incident” than it was about shots fired and an attempted arson. As the story developed, it was revealed one person was dead and another critically wounded. Marois continued to downplay the whole thing on Sept. 7. “Never, never will I accept that Quebec is associated with violence,” she said. “It is an isolated event and it does not represent who we are... Quebec is not a violent society. One act of folly cannot change this.” Call it folly, call it election night
OTHERVIEW euphoria, but Marois should also know that a fellow Quebecer tried to kill her on Sept. 6. Mariois’s pronouncements on Sept. 7 that she plans to toughen up the province’s language laws and freeze tuition hikes to appease students will be -- and should be -- discussed far more extensively than the attempt on her life. Still, there are some people in Canada taking what happened Tuesday seriously. The security squads for every other provincial premier and the prime minister are no doubt studying the news reports and talking to their counterparts in Quebec. Where did security fail? Where did it succeed? Did security personnel respond correctly? Where were the mistakes made and by whom? Would Stephen Harper’s team or Christy Clark’s detail have been prepared? It’s no secret that more money and effort was plowed into security for the premier under Gordon Campbell than
his predecessors. Seeing the stereotypical team of men in dark suits with ear pieces, scanning a crowd in Prince George was startling at first but it’s come to be expected, just like the black SUV left running outside at any public appearance by the premier. Meanwhile, back in Quebec, Marois is trying to project an aura of calm and professionalism by brushing off the attempt on her life but she’s also dismissing a serious issue and ignoring recent provincial history. Quebec’s separatist movement will forever be remembered across Canada for the October crisis of 1970, when Pierre Trudeau had to send in the military to help restore order and security after the kidnapping and assassination of deputy premier Pierre Laporte. The Parti Quebecois was born from this violent episode, out of a desire to seek power and ultimately independence through more peaceful means through the political process. But the anger and intolerance runs through the PQ to this day. After the last referendum vote, PQ Premier Jacques Parizeau bitterly declared in a televised address that “money and the ethnic vote” were to blame for the narrow loss. In Quebec,
that’s code for the Jews, the First Nations and the immigrants. During Marois’s speech, loud boos broke out whenever she even mentioned the English population or Quebec federalists. Her own party faithful threatened to drown her out when she had the nerve to include a few sentences of her victory speech en Anglais. Even the most notorious acts of violence in Quebec history have been politically motivated. When Marc Lepine murdered 14 women at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal in December 1989, his actions were quickly dismissed as the isolated action of one insane man. But he was making a statement, separating his victims from the men, and he made it perfectly clear what he thought of the “radical feminists” in his suicide note. Marois was also saying on Sept. 7 her would-be assassin had mental health issues but she ignores, at her peril, the political statement he was trying to make with the barrel of a gun. Even violence can be political and Quebec’s history is loaded with it, whether the new premier wants to admit it or not. From the Prince George Citizen
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A worrisome wet wake-up call from the Arctic Arctic sea ice has already melted more of the sun’s energy, which would to a record low this year, in thickness normally be reflected back by the ice, and extent. And summer’s not over yet. is absorbed by the dark water, speedAccording to the U.S. National Snow ing up global climate change and and Ice Data Center, record warming the oceans. The melt has occurred for the Arctic is now heating at alpast six years. most twice the rate as the Both the NSIDC and the rest of Earth. European Space Agency say There’s also the danice is thinning at a rate 50 ger that methane could be per cent faster than scienreleased as ice and pertists predicted, mainly bemafrost melt. It’s a greencause of global warming, house gas far more potent and that summer Arctic ice than carbon dioxide, so this could soon disappear altowould accelerate global gether. warming even further. SciThe implications for entists believe methane global climate and weather, may also be uncovered by DAVID and for animals and people the warming Antarctic. SUZUKI in the North, are enormous. The Arctic ice cap also One would think the urhelps regulate weather, afgency of this development fecting ocean currents and would draw a swift and colatmospheric circulation. laborative response from government, “This ice has been an important factor industry, media, and the public. in determining the climate and weathInstead, news media have down- er conditions under which modern played the issue, the only mention civilization has evolved,” NASA chief made of climate change at the recent scientist Waleed Abdalati told AssociRepublican National Convention was ated Press. to mock the science, and many governA study in the journal Geophysiment and industry leaders are rubbing cal Research Letters concludes that their hands in glee at the thought of oil melting Arctic ice could lead to more and gas extraction opportunities and extreme weather events, includshipping routes that will open up as ing drought, floods, heat waves, and the ice disappears. cold spells – especially in Europe and We just don’t get it. As ice melts, North America.
SCIENCE
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This not only threatens our future and that of our children and grandchildren; it could also have tremendous negative economic impacts. Because climate change affects agriculture and food supply, energy systems, water availability, and weather conditions, it will be expensive. A study conducted for the Pew Environment Group concludes, “In 2010, the loss of Arctic snow, ice and permafrost is estimated to cost the world US$61 billion to $371 billion in lost climate cooling services. By 2050, the cumulative global cost is projected to range from US$2.4 trillion to $24.1 trillion; and by 2100, the cumulative cost could total between US$4.8 trillion and $91.3 trillion.” That doesn’t take into account the effects on the animals and plants in the Arctic — including polar bears, whales, seals, and walruses — and the people who depend on them. What’s the solution? During a recent trip to the North, Prime Minister Stephen Harper confirmed that sovereignty and resource extraction are his government’s priorities for the region. And as Guardian writer George Monbiot points out, companies largely responsible for the climate disaster are scrambling to get as much profit from the situation as they can. Oil companies including Shell and Russia’s Gazprom are taking advantage
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of the melt to speed up exploratory drilling. Greenpeace activists recently chained themselves to Gazprom’s supply ship in an attempt to stop that company’s activities. We can’t all chain ourselves to ships, so we have to tell our elected representatives, as well as people in the media and industry, that we expect better than short-term gain for longterm pain. Doing all we can to combat climate change comes with numerous benefits, from reducing pollution and associated health-care costs to strengthening and diversifying the economy by shifting to renewable energy, among other measures. From year to year, environmental changes are incremental and often barely register in our lives, but from evolutionary or geological perspectives, what is happening is explosive change. Politicians and businesspeople focused on short-term agendas continue to ignore or downplay the hazards. But the more we stall, the worse it will get. The Arctic warnings provide an opportunity to get things right. Written with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Editorial and Communications Specialist Ian Hanington. Learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org.
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