It's time to give a damn, not build a dam

Yesterday I had a great privilege and honour to fly to the JENPEG dam and join the people of Pimicikamak Cree Nation (of Cross Lake) in their "March of Power" as part of their month long encampment near the JENPEG dam (see cbc story). The people of PCN are calling for the Northern Flood Agreement, signed in 1977, to be implemented. The Green Party of Manitoba stands by the people of the north and have offered help in any way possible.

They are protesting thirty years of the governments of Manitoba and Canada, and Manitoba Hydro dragging their feet, offering scant piecemeal solutions, and failing to live up to their end of the agreement. Let's not forget this agreement was signed after major flooding occurred and was signed with the four other communities making up the Northern Flood Committee, Norway House, Nelson House (now Nisichiwayasihk Cree Nation), Split Lake (Tataskweyak CN) and York Factory. Since legal advice holds that the NFA is a treaty, it is both constitutionally guaranteed and also a responsibility of all of us citizens of the south, who are by virtue of the Crown, responsible for one end of the treaties. Not to mention the beneficiaries of cheap Hydropower.

The people of Cross Lake do not have clean drinking water. Their water comes in bottles, or it makes the people sick. Some buy water filters at Canadian Tire.

The people of Cross Lake cannot predict ice conditions any longer. Children holding white wooden crosses marked all the people who have fallen through the ice on their snowmobiles and been killed, as Hydro's controlled water levels fluctuate. Jenpeg is the Southernmost control structure on the Nelson R. system, effectively the stop that makes Lake Winnipeg one giant reservoir. More on the Hydro-Lake Winnipeg connections in another email; as of yet I have not heard much said about Hydro's altering of the natural drainage of Lake Winnipeg. Should be investigated further.

The people of Cross Lake - Pimicikamak Cree Nation - have experienced thirty plus years of intense struggle, hard times in the truest sense. AND YET, what I experienced was still a joyful, proud, strong, inspiring people, people who lit their sacred fire and said we will stand up to the bullying treatment of a government and its utility based in the south, whose votes come not from them but from us who love our cheap Hydro. And yet still the New Dam Projects (NDP) roll on, unconscious of justice, unconscious of the soft path of energy that calls for demand side management - ie. conservation, and putting a limit on our total consumption.

Who is the conscience politically right now for energy justice in Manitoba? Reading Dan Lett's Free Press article you might think I could say the Green Party of Manitoba, but we are but a sole committee and ally in the struggle. It is actually the state Legislature of Minnesota who, thank to years of relationships built between Minnesotan activists and northern Cree, who thanks to the Minnesota-made film Green Green Water, who thanks to an awakening consciousness amongst citizens of Minnesota's ethical responsibilities as a large energy purchaser (customer of 40% of MB Hydro's exports), passed a state law this week calling for MB Hydro to report annually to the state legislature on the ecological and socio-economic impacts of Hydro on the north and on Hydro's implementation (or lack thereof) of the NFA.

It is a shame that the Minnesotan government has to be the conscience of Manitoban business-as-usual politics. We Canadians always claim gloriously to be "not the Americans" but really we could look to the south to see what ethical politics looks like now and then, and move beyond our wasteful consumption and ethical apathy patterned on our "lowest Hydro rates in the world."

The people of Pimicikamak Cree Nation reminded me that Manitoba is a water-based province, and when water has been so greatly mucked up, shorelines eroded, and a water-based lifestyle damaged, then how can a society experience health? We in the south had better look to the damage of the North to understand how our decisions in the south are both affecting them, but also what the impacts will eventually be for us too, who also depend on water. Water is life, and access to clean water is a basic human right. We, by virtue of our government and our exuberant use of Hydro power in Winnipeg, have denied the people of Pimicikamak their basic human rights. And yet their struggle through all this inspires us to wake up and start to hold our government accountable.

It's time to give a damn, not build a dam.

Photos to follow in next post on Sunday, once I hook some cables up and press a few more buttons.

Promises, Slogans - A Disrespect to Voters

I truly believe that if democracy meant more than a tick on the ballot in an archaic voting system every four years, media and voters would not tolerate the juvenile nature of massive election promises. They would be seen for what they are: incredible, unaffordable, and populist attempts to catch the passing gaze of an otherwise asleep populace. Sure, there are many people in Fort Garry quite engaged in politics in many levels of the society, be they school, workplace, community groups, but then every four years: out trot the talking heads at election time, and the media chases them around, without much criticism of the ridiculousness of the whole charade.

Let's look at today's announcement: McFayden says "We will bring back the Jets!" What else will the Tory resurrect from their government days? They brought us frozen food for healing in hospitals, let our parks be logged, and now they seek to rethermalize the Jets? I don't know about you, but I have seen ticket prices for NHL games around the league and am happy to not be chasing those playoff memories, when I could be spending my money on local arts, spending warm spring evenings bicycling around town, playing sports, attending public meetings.

McFayden shows a lack of understanding of young people if he thinks that psychologically we will keep young people close to making six-figures here if they can attend Jets games. Translation: we need a playground for the elite because Winnipeg is not good enough as it is for them. We need a lifestyle image created outside of Manitoba - outside of reality really, on TV. That is not the leadership this province needs but desperate populism.

Not too different from the NDP hiring out of province to rebrand Manitoba as Spirited Energy, as if Manitobans ourselves could not have come up with a slogan to express our diversity, our endurance, our creativity.

The No Difference Party ('new' and 'democratic' having long ago taken sick leave) meanwhile has become mired in empty slogans after 8 years of governing like Conservatives. "Green and Growing" basically seeks to capitalize on the two biggest themes in our society - the old and the new. "Growing" is a testament to economic growth, the unanalyzed mantra of our economy - growth at any cost.

Growth means growth in GDP and is a quantitative measurement, telling you how much we produce, how many patients we treat, how much we recycle, etc. It does not tell you if people are living more healthy lives, have more leisure and less stress, or if our waterways are being systematically gutted by policies based on profit margins, acquiescence to large corporations, and a 20th century centralized mega-project mentality. Read economist Herman Daily's Farewell Speech to the World Bank to consider how economic reform is possible. There are other indicators out there, qualitative ones, that Greens would adapt.

And NDP "green"? As if it is easy enough to just put on green lenses as in the government greenwash ads, and all our ecological missteps would magically disappear. Still Manitoba Hydro forges ahead with megadams rather than adjust Hydro rates to create a disincentive for consuming so much. And why are the lights always on in large buildings, even in an atrium on a sunny day? This the agenda that turned Lake Winnipeg into a giant freshwater reservoir.

The slogan 'forward, not back' borrows terms from the traditional international Greens vision of 'not left, not right, but forward,' coined by the earliest Greens, the German die Grunen. Meanwhile, "forward" in this case means leaving the car running and driving on, but without a clear direction in mind. In means forward into the abyss of overconsumption, the end of Lake Winnipeg, and forward with the Hydro agenda, regardless of whether the Northern Flood Agreement was ever settled with the people of Cross Lake. Forward with a road and bridge over the Bloodvein River, without first protecting the East Shore Wilderness from industrial activity, the largest remaining intact tract of boreal forest left on Earth.

Greens would rethink progress, focusing on well-being, not growth.

We would have forced the hog industry to prove the sustainability of their industry before permitting massive growth, and not hold superficial hearings 8 years into the mandate, following the shifting of onus of proof onto proponents of development under the precautionary principle (more on that later).

We would engage all Manitobans through citizens assemblies and regular constituency forums, so that Manitobans can help set goals for this province, not advertising executives in Toronto board rooms.

If we were the ones setting the goals, the old grey parties' leaders would not stoop to such superficial promises at election time, but would run on their records, which we would be more clear on.

We Manitobans deserve better. We are not gullible and we need to know that not only can we change policy and change direction, but we can also change the way we elect politicians and set policy in this province. Electoral reform, an actively engaged citizenry, and a governmental policy of substance: these would be at the heart of a Green government.

The way promises and slogans are flying around here, 'Green and Growing'/Bringing back the Jets puts Hugh and Gary2 in good company with Pinnocchio. Unfortunately we will only hold them accountable with a single X on a ballot four years from now, and not six months after the election and not a year later. But by then the damage of short-sighted policies will have been done - again.

WHY I AM RUNNING AS A GREEN IN FORT GARRY...

I am running because we are together living through a crisis but lacking the political will to address it. In a political climate that is more about rhetoric than what's right, more and more voters are becoming disaffected and disassociated from the process. The ecological crisis is profound, but there is also a social erosions taking place. I may not have all the answers but together we can find another way. I think we first need to ask the right questions, in a respectful manner.

We need to trust, to work together, to build networks for creating positive change. This is the role of an MLA and his/her staff, not simply towing the party line and following the 'leader'. A representative should first and foremost represent his constituents.

Elected officials work for YOU. What I want to bring back is awareness of the sacred public trust that we - YOU - as the hiring committee are putting in their hands. I want to empower local community-generated bodies. Decisions need to be made by those most immediately affected by them. Does your MLA truly represent all 8295 electors in the riding? What about the future? We need to ask ourselves how we can redesign our politics to match how the world has changed. And you, and everyone in this riding, is a part of, the big picture. No voices should be left unheard. You are the hiring committee, and I am applying for the job of MLA. Please consider all applicants equally.

Alon Weinberg,
Your Green Party Fort Garry candidate.