The Livable Blog

Barred Owl seen from the South Fraser Witness Trail

Activists get gritty in protest over Gateway Program
By Matthew Burrows

Some of the sand put in place to stabilize the ground for the planned $1-billion South Fraser Perimeter Road—part of the Gateway Program—will soon be headed straight for B.C. Transportation Minister Shirley Bond.

Long-time Surrey resident Bernadette Keenan, a founding member of the Bridgeview Community Action Group, told the Georgia Straight that she and other local activists are behind a campaign they’re calling Sand for Shirley. Keenan said she has already collected recycled envelopes, and now she’s getting people who are concerned about the construction of the SFPR to sign a form and scoop sand into an envelope for Bond. The envelopes will be hand-delivered rather than mailed, Keenan added.

“Why sand? It is a symbol,” she said by phone. “They’re dumping it on us. It’s in our faces, and you can’t drive anywhere around our neighbourhood without seeing it. There used to be trees growing there. There were plants and houses, and people that I know and respected are gone now because of that sand. Basically, I hate it.”

[snip]

Full article with video and comments
http://www.straight.com/article-334740/vancouver/activists-get-gritty-protest-over-gateway-program

I missed this back in June. It is great to see that Vicki Huntington sees how much trouble Campbell and his South Fraser Freeway is in, and is fighting back. This province would be a much better place if all MLA's were as vocal in defending their constituents' interests.

Huntington Challenges Minister on Direction of South Fraser Perimeter Road

Thursday, June 3rd 2010

Victoria BC – Delta South MLA Vicki Huntington grilled Transportation Minister Shirley Bond today about the South Fraser Perimeter Road, laying out unanswered questions and increasing doubts about this troubled project. Using the last day of the legislative session to focus on this massive road development, Huntington raised serious concerns about the project and the real reasons for the one-year delay in completion.

“In a rather bizarre press release entitled ‘South Fraser Perimeter Road Moves Forward,’ the government announced a delay in the Delta portion of the project. I think we can all rejoice in that the government has finally admitted that in moving forward, it’s going backward,” Huntington stated during question period.

The official explanations for the delay - that the Environmental Assessment and Land Commission decisions took too long - are ridiculous, according to Huntington. She asked whether the preload was proving unstable, or if there has been a complication in the tendering process. Other possibilities are that the consortium, or the government, has run out of money for this project, or that a new environmental concern has emerged.

Huntington asked whether a better use of the existing road and distribution system (extending to 18 hours a day for example) had been considered. She also asked whether a widened Panama Canal (expected to be complete in 2013) will reroute container traffic to east coast ports, or if a delay in the development of Deltaport Terminal 2 means this massive four-lane divided highway is no longer justified.

“The government has announced a delay it is unwilling to explain. Delta is the community that must suffer this road and we’d like some transparency in the backroom discussions that affect us,” said Huntington.

- 30 –

For information, contact:

Delta South Constituency Office
4805 Delta Street
Delta BC V4K 2T7
ph: 604-940-7924
vicki.huntington.mla@leg.bc.ca

Green Stormwater Infrastructure:
"We live in one of the most beautiful areas of the world, and being involved with efforts like the Green Seattle Partnership shows your commitment to preserving and maintaining the beauty and health of our city. Green Stormwater Infrastructure is a new way of managing stormwater that supports the health and sustainability of our local environment by “slowing the flow” of stormwater into our local water sources and away from harmful toxins or other pollutants. In addition, Green Stormwater Infrastructure promotes a revitalized ground water system, further promoting a healthier Seattle.
http://www.seattle.gov/util/Services/Drainage_&_Sewer/Keep_Water_Safe_&_Clean/RestoreOurWaters/

Senate Moves Forward to Restore America's Great Waters restoration plans for seven Great Waters across the country. The Committee also passed a re-authorization of the National Estuary Program to benefit smaller estuarine systems.
http://www.waterefficiency.net/the-latest/senate-restore-water.aspx

From The Dependent:

Land use and transportation, historically the concerns of engineers and politicians, have begun to seep into the public conscious as Vancouver works to maintain its status as one of the world’s most livable cities.

City councillor for sixteen years, influential blogger, recognized global speaker and Director of the City Program at SFU – Gordon Price is one of Vancouver’s foremost authorities on the built environment.

–

What would you say is the biggest planning issue facing our region today?

The vulnerability to the basic commodity upon which our entire world has been based: oil.

Let’s just cover that off: oil has some particular features that if not making it unique, the combination thereof is extraordinary: it’s liquid and stable at room temperature and it’s incredibly energy intensive. So while people may talk about alternatives, there isn’t any alternative that combines all of those particular features.

We’ve come to accept that our world can function in a certain way based on the particular characteristics of a limited resource that’s been so cheap – bottled water is more expensive – that it’s now in every aspect of our lives: food, clothes, transportation, construction materials, and just about everything that we process has an element of oil in it. [snip]

Full text at http://thedependent.ca/featured/gordon-price-on-gateway-choice-and-the-volatility-of-oil/

Photo Timothy Neesam/CBC - Black clad protestors in Toronto.

The G8/G20 farce is starting to unravel, and hopefully it will unravel Harper at the same time. Not only is this clique of the powerful and corrupt meeting as oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, as we wait for the first hurricane of the season. Not only is their main agenda stimulating increased consumption and production of consumer goods like cars, and infrastructure such as freeways, which is only possible with increased rates of oil and coal extraction. But once again, our police forces seem to have engineered incidents to justify imposing a police state to stifle dissent during a major international event.

Photo Timothy Neesam/CBC - Environmental Justice Now banner held by more dangerous protesters.

As John Hillary of the prestigious UK newspaper the Guardian writes in a June 27 article titled May Toronto's G20 be the last:

Many Canadians have become suspicious of police tactics since the Quebec police force admitted that it had disguised three of its own officers as rock-wielding anarchists in an attempt to provoke violence at a peaceful protest in the town of Montebello two years ago. Somewhat farcically, the three were exposed as agents provocateurs when they were found to be wearing official issue police boots identical to those of the uniformed officers "arresting" them.

There are concerns that similar skulduggery may have played a part in Toronto this weekend, where the burning of three police cars quickly became the defining image of Saturday's otherwise peaceful demonstration. Questions are being asked as to why the police chose to drive the vehicles into the middle of a group of protesters and then abandon them, and why there was no attempt to put out the flames until the nation's media had been given time to record the scenes for broadcast around the world. . . .

As an invitation-only club whose membership was literally drawn up on the back of an envelope, the G20 never laid any claim to legitimacy. Now it is also in danger of losing any credibility as a forum for global economic governance. Its failure to address any of the structural problems that caused the financial and economic crises of the past three years has certainly not gone unnoticed in Toronto, let alone its complete refusal to deal with the challenge of climate change.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/27/g20-toronto-policing-charade

Another report states:

A number of police cars which were set on fire. They were abandoned in the middle of intersections beforehand, and stripped of all their equipment by police--the cars were discovered to have been damaged previously, which led to reports that the police had purposefully left the cars there as bait, hoping to tempt protesters into set the cars on fire, in order to justify their own violent acts. Later accounts have led many to believe that the fires themselves were set by undercover police, or agents provocateurs.
http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/story/erosion-rights-quick-descent/3886

The Harper-led G8 / G20 meetings have not just been about avoiding the subject of the climate crisis. They seem to be focused on finding ways to make it worse. What is going on behind the rows of robo cops and millions of dollars of fences is heinous climate crime.

Even if every bit of the photogenic destruction was just the result of justified rage at the crimes being committed inside the fence, a few dozen broken windows and three trashed cars does not justify police attacks on anyone who steps onto the street.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaYbq484abs&feature=player_embedded

On the streets police are attacking and arresting anyone and everyone near protests, including journalists, seniors and young women. It does not seem to matter if they are protesting this crime scene, or just committed the crime of walking down the sidewalk in a Canadian city. People are even having police burst into their bedrooms at 4 am. They are raiding university dormitories and hauling away dozens of people of all ages away in buses. And this is what the world is seeing of Canada – climate (and other corporate) crime backed up with brute force.

Photo Toronto Star - Injured protester after police attack.

Today is a day to be proud of the people who are still out on the streets of Toronto expressing their belief that Another World is Possible. It is also a day that makes it very clear that Another Canada is Necessary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Heb9BXjYcII