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It's time for a green energy transition, not more pipelines

We don’t need another pipeline, but Mark Carney doesn’t seem to agree. The Liberal government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, that announces plans for a new Alberta to BC pipeline with construction to begin as early as next fall. Leadnow hopes that if we create an immediate public outcry, we can empower Liberal MPs to stand with us in opposition to this pipeline and create an internal party fracture that Carney cannot ignore. I added a few spicy bits and sent a letter. Will you send one too? Ms Dabrusin, there is no patience left for your excuses and deflections. I am writing to demand that you stand up against the proposed Alberta to BC pipeline. At a time when we need to be transitioning to a clean economy, Mark Carney and Danielle Smith's MOU is moving us in the wrong direction. I am asking you to represent real people, stand up to Big Oil, and do everything in your power to stop this disastrous proposal. There is not i...
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Our pensions for genocide? No!

Just Peace Advocates has found that as of 31 March 2026 (fiscal year end 2025/2026), the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board had over $54 billion invested in 120 companies complicit in Israel’s genocide, war crimes, and apartheid. This represents 6.9% of CPPIB’s total holdings in 25/26. They're trying to fund our retirements by profiteering off mass murder. I'm not okay with that. Are you? Read Just Peace Advocates’ report Send your own letter to let them know. I am writing today after having learned about CPPIB’s 2026 Annual Report. I am disgusted by what I have learned.  After the millions you spent on a cross-country consultation tour, you are ignoring every voice that cajoled and begged and pleaded that you not invest our money in genocide. We'll be happy to have smaller returns if it means our funds aren't causing children to die at the hands of a wanton, sadistic genocidal state. An analysis of CPPIB’s holdings shows more than $54 billion invested in com...

If it's illegal, what's the consequence?

Once again, it takes joint action from other cowardly Western states before Canada is willing to say anything the slightest bit critical of Israel, no matter how meaningless. “ International law is clear: Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal, ” they say. And yet they have absolutely nothing meaningless to offer as consequence for said illegality.  Government of Canada release So, another letter, of course! Your statement "businesses should not bid for construction tenders... should be aware of legal and reputational consequences of participating in settlement construction" is not worth the paper it is written on unless you promise *real* consequences *you* are prepared to levy, not just "should"s and "reputational consequences." It is long past time for sanctions on Israel in response to ongoing violations of international law and the continued expansion of illegal settlements, and more importantly, for *your* government to divest from th...

Bread not bombs

Yesterday, I saw a post from a Dutch antiwar organization: Geen Bommen maar bomen. “Not bombs; trees instead.” I love it.  Today, I saw a campaign from MCC: “bread, not bombs.” So I wrote adapted their letter to write to the prime minister et al.: Sure, money is important, but even more crucial is air to breathe and food to eat.  War makes money for a tiny fragment of human population, but for the vast majority, war means displacement, loss, deprivation and at worst death. Even for those far away from war, like here in Canada, every bomb that drops leaves not only a crater in some distant soil but also further deepens the desperate carbon crisis we are in, which will exact its retribution faster and faster in wildfires, droughts and floods.  That is why I am writing to you today.  Canadians did not vote for war in the 2025 election.  War does not lead to security.  How could the hunger, displacement, and worsening impacts of climate change lead to sec...

Keep Israeli warmongers out

Dear Mr Carney After promising to follow international law and arrest Benjamin Netanyahu, you lost your nerve and failed to deny him passage through Canadian airspace.  However, you finally spoke up after Minister Ben Gvir's egregious display of sadism. Now you have another chance to keep that backbone tall, standing against genocide, by preventing the representatives of Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries from attending CANSEC in Ottawa on May 27 – 28, 2026.  This request was recently brought to your attention by ICJP and Just Peace Advocates. In their request, they provided significant evidence in support of our position that entry ought to be denied under section 35(1) of the IRPA, on the basis of the companies’ ongoing cooperation with the Israeli military during its alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide perpetrated against the Palestinian people in Gaza since October 7, 2023. Elbit is Israel's largest private defence contractor. Its finan...

C-9 again

“The Liberal government introduced Bill C-9 , the Combatting Hate Act , in September 2025. Although it is aimed at preventing hate crimes, it instead threatens the Charter rights and civil liberties of all people in Canada, including those communities that the government wishes to help protect,” writes the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group.  The House passed it but the Senate is not finished with it yet, and thus it is not beyond the possibility of at least alterations.  So I wrote adapted the template to send this letter.  I am alarmed that the proposed Combatting Hate Act (Bill C-9), which the government has said is meant to prevent hate crimes, will instead threaten the Charter rights and civil liberties of all people in Canada, including those communities that the government wishes to help protect. We already have laws against hate speech. If hate speech is on the increase despite them, is it possible that adding legislation is not the answer? If we ar...

Biking in 2025

According to Strava, I did 587 bike rides covering 3,807.3 km in 2025. Additionally, I did 81 walks covering 238.2 km in 2025. For comparison, in 2024, I did 643 bike rides covering 3,824.7 km and 75 walks covering 260.4 km. Neither of these were “normal” years for me as I spent 3 months in Europe both times.  2024 includes a few days of tourist traipsing around Istanbul and a 30 km walk from Amsterdam to Utrecht in solidarity with the people of Gaza. In 2025, I did an epic 70+ kms of biking around North Holland, but otherwise went absolutely nowhere many days, living at a retreat centre where my work was just steps away from my sleeping quarters. By contrast, in 2023, it was 761 bike rides covering 4247.4 km.