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from the New YorkTimes

"WE will need fossil fuels like oil and gas for the foreseeable future. So there’s really little choice (sigh). We have to press ahead with fracking for natural gas. We must approve the Keystone XL pipeline to get Canadian oil.

"This mantra, repeated on TV ads and in political debates, is punctuated with a tinge of inevitability and regret. But, increasingly, scientific research and the experience of other countries should prompt us to ask: To what extent will we really “need” fossil fuel in the years to come? To what extent is it a choice? …"

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from the Georgia Straight

"On August 4, 1961, an earnest Clarence Earl Gideon stood before a judge in Florida, accused of stealing $5 in change and a few loose bottles of beer and soda from a closed pool hall. His voice was too low to be recorded in many instances, but he told the judge that he was not ready to go to trial because he did not have a lawyer and felt he needed one. The judge asked him if he knew his matter was set for trial. He replied that he did. The judge then asked why he had not made arrangements to have a lawyer. Gideon replied that he did not have the money for a lawyer. He then requested that the court appoint a lawyer because the US constitution provided him with that right. The trial judge declined to do so. Gideon was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison, the maximum legal sentence.

"He appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. Those nine judges agreed with Gideon. At his second trial, with a lawyer able to point the jury to weaknesses in the prosecution’s case, Gideon was acquitted.

"Today in the US, any person accused of a crime has the right to a state-funded lawyer if he or she cannot afford one.

"In Canada, we have a similar right, although it is not nearly as broad as in the US Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms has been interpreted to allow for state-funded counsel where the accused can prove that trial without a lawyer would be unfair and where the accused cannot reasonably afford a lawyer. …"

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from the Vancouver Observer

"First Nations leaders from across the US and Canada converged on Parliament Hill this morning to meet with politicians and add their signatures to two anti-oil sands documents, the Save the Fraser Declaration and the International Treaty to Protect the Sacred From Tar Sands Projects?.

"Organized by the Yinka Dene Alliance, a coalition of First Nations in northern BC, the signing and subsequent press conference was intended to strengthen the two legal documents as well as create an opportunity for discussion between leaders and members of parliament. …"

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from the Winnipeg Free Press

"Ottawa’s tough-on-crime stance is costing the taxpayer a whole lot more than we ever bargained for, a Manitoba social agency says.

"Commenting on a new Parliamentary budget study out today, the John Howard Society says the worst predictions it made back when the Harper government was loading anti-crime bills into the Commons are now coming home to roost. And it’s the taxpayer who’s stuck with the bill.

"The new study says spending on criminal justice climbed 23 percent over the last decade, just as crime rates fell 23 percent. …"

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from Vue Weekly

"Canada's First Nations are facing a water crisis — in fact, it has been going on for many years. Twenty-three of the 49 First Nation reserves in this province are on a boil-water notice — Bragg Creek has been on one since 2000. Another reserve has a cyanobacterial bloom (blue-green algae) and the O'Chiese First Nation in Bremmerville cannot consume its water at all.

"A lot of indigenous communities are facing development projects such as oil and gas drilling or pipelines, which really impacts the water quality in their community," says Emma Lui, a water campaigner with the Council of Canadians. …"

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