Category Archives: Environmentalism

Foreign environmentalists fail in their bid to halt a Canadian project in Jasper.

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The trend of foreign environmental lobby groups meddling in Canadian affairs has been disturbing. The recent efforts of the Delaware based lobby group Avaaz (multi-million dollar company) in their campaign of misinformation about a project in Jasper national park was nothing less than repugnant in it’s venom and it’s complete lack of hesitation to use horsecrap to try and make their case.

Thankfully our federal government finally stepped in and approved the project pictured below for Jasper national park.

There is an existing parking lot in the parkway which will be utilized for this project. An incredible viewpoint will be created where people can look through a glass floor for a unique Rocky Mountain experience. Yes, a fee will be charged for a guided tour (welcome to the real world). Mountains of impact studies have been performed and it is clear that this project will have minimal environmental impact. It is just a bloody viewpoint folks.

The hyperbole, misinformation and hysteria from the environmentalists on this one was outstanding. I remember getting a message on facebook that warned of Harper privatizing our National Parks, how common people would not be able to afford to visit and how this was all being done by a nasty foreign company. All of the allegations were utter crap but sadly many people fall for shallow pap so the American lobby group indeed managed to get over 100k people to sign an online petition against the project.

I grew up in Banff. I attended high-school there and still often return to the area to visit. What really has me going on this one was the attempted demonization of Brewster Travel Canada. Brewster was portrayed as some evil company that was going to turn our national parks into some kind of fast food outlet.

Now let’s get some facts out there. The Brewster family and company has been operating in Canadian National Parks for well over 100 years! The Brewster family is still operating in the Bow Valley. The family and the company are a large part of the entire park history. To demonize and portray this group as a foreign monster is ludicrous. If any company should be moved to the head of the line in operations within Western National Parks is should indeed be Brewster.

Another fact: We already have to pay to enter national parks! There has been an admission fee for national parks for as long as I remember. The operations of companies within the park have nothing to do with this nor will their expansion of operations have any impact on park entry fees. This reality did not stop the environmentalists from spreading BS however.

Here is a fact: National parks are loaded with private businesses that make profits within the park!! Is fuel free in Banff? Are all of the hotels nationalized? Does the government mandate non-profit status for restaurants? Is it immoral to charge green fees on the golf courses? Commercial operations in national parks are nothing new at all. It is the services provided by private interests and the taxes that they pay that allow a broader number of people to experience the parks themselves. The environmentalist set tries to portray this as some sort of new trend of park privatization.

There is an extreme element out there that loathes humanity and feels that we have no place developing anything anywhere and they will oppose all development based on that principle. These groups will not hesitate to completely depart from reality and there are hundreds of millions of dollars to be made in the lobby groups that work for the environmentalist set. When we see a bunch insistent on spreading outright lies as we do with these environmentalists, I think it is pretty easy to decide which groups to disregard.

What are our national parks for if not to allow Canadians to experience them? Environmentally friendly viewpoints such as the one being built in Jasper are harmless and add to the experience of the park. Environmentalists like to pretend that there are only a few valleys in the entire Rocky Mountains and that humanity is impacting them all. Have a look at a road map of Western Canada. You will find that there are literally thousands of mountain valleys that are completely inaccessible. The highways that pass through the mountains are very few and utilize a tiny percentage of the undeveloped and protected lands of the mountains. Developments within national parks have increased scrutiny and environmental standards to be abided by.

Nobody wants to see ugly, uncontrolled and rampant development in our wilderness areas. That is why such development simply is not happening despite the fearmongering of extreme foreign environmentalist lobby groups.

Whether it is the Northern Gateway pipeline, or Castle area logging or small developments in national parks we seem to have a problem with environmentalists spreading BS and trying to stunt approval processes. Again, if deciding who to believe look to see who insists on breaking the rules and spreading the myths. You will find it generally is not the private business interests.

Thank you Harper for stepping in and getting the Jasper walkway going despite the hyperbolic opposition by environmental extremists. I hope you continue to cut through the crap and allow responsible development to continue in Canada.

 

OMG! OMG! We’re surrounded!!!

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The hyped hysteria from the anti-progress crowd who oppose the Gateway Pipeline project has been hitting a fever pitch as hyperbole and utter fabrications are being spread about pipelines.

One would think that this was the first major oil pipeline ever built. I do understand however that your average person really has little to do with oilfield and pipelines and that is understandable. It does make people impressionable however and it is time for a reality check.

To begin with, there are over 825,000 km of existing oil and gas pipelines in Canada.

More excellent information on Canada’s pipelines and their safety record can be found here.

 

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If we want to go further into buried utilities and add small natural gas service lines, water lines, sewage lines and such the number goes into the millions of kilometers. They are around us all the time everywhere you go even if you do not notice it.

Have you ever noticed that pretty much every city seems to have long narrow parkways that are often used for bikepaths, dog parks and golf courses? Ever wonder why such oddly shaped parks were designed? Well, more often than not those parks are actually right-of-ways for large pipelines. While it is indeed perfectly safe to have a large high pressure pipeline go through a city, we can’t build houses and such right on top of them so the land is often used for parks. Have we heard of any massive blowouts? Cities destroyed by leaking oil?

With the millions of kilometers of pipelines throughout North America it is pretty easy to cherry pick some incidents of leakage to try and paint all pipelines as being unsafe. For the few kilometers of pipeline that spring leaks every year, one should keep in mind the millions of kilometers of pipeline that do not. That is not to say that it is acceptable to have pipelines leaking but the scope and scale of things has to be kept in mind. We are very good at moving products through pipes and we are getting better all the time. Companies are heavily fined for pipeline breaches and they lose product. Rest assured companies that own buried utilities have utterly no incentive to have them leaking.

Next I am going to point out something utterly shocking.

 We have had a crude oil pipeline running from Alberta to the West coast for almost 60 years!!!!

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The Trans Mountain Pipeline has traversed the Rocky Mountains since shortly after World War II and the world has not come to an end. Well over 200,000 barrels per day of crude has been flowing through some very sensitive regions of the mountains without an environmental catastrophe and that pipeline is old. Newer ones are much safer. Demand is far outstripping the capacity of that pipeline today.

How has this large pipeline snuck under the radar for so many for so long?

Well to begin with, it’s buried. I am being serious here. Many people are under the misimpression that these pipelines are above ground. That myth has been happily fed by people in opposition to development as surface pipes paint an ugly and intrusive picture. Again, with most people not spending time in the oilfield, their impressions are formed on the pictures that media put out.

Below is a picture that accompanied an article about the Keystone Pipeline in FFWD magazine a little while ago.

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Isn’t that perfect? A nice pristine mountain background broken by an unsightly and intrusive surface pipeline. Never mind that the picture has utterly no relation to either the Keystone or Gateway pipelines which will be buried. It gives nice negative optics to be reinforced. May as well use pictures of sewage pipes spewing into oceans. It is just as relevant.

In my job I have to occasionally pop out to locate buried utilities. As can be seen in the picture below not only am I cold and wearing a safety vest that is ill fitting, I am holding an electronic locating wand. That is because pipelines buried in isolated areas are actually quite difficult to find so I have to begin at the wellhead as I did below and locate the pipe from there.

 

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Below are the stakes I placed to indicate the location of the line. As can be seen, one would never even know it is there had I not marked it. That is the case with most pipelines and is much of the reason that so many people do not realize just how much pipeline infrastructure they are surrounded by every day. The dead trees are due to a forest fire a few years ago by the way. It had no impact on the pipe and as can be seen the natural regrowth is coming along very well. Some anti-progress types like to wrongly imply that a forest that has been cut or burned is gone forever. Trees grow back.

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Modern pipelines are buried following very strict quality and environmental standards. Riparian buffers are observed. Bores are used to bypass water bodies without threatening the water itself. Sensitive areas are avoided and construction is timed to avoid migratory wildlife.

Pipelines are a reality of life and they have been moving oil and gas in North America since the turn of the century. They are nothing new and they really do not cause much harm despite the hysteria of opponents of development.

The need and demand for energy is a fact of life as well. The oilsands are not going away and they are not going to be shut down. The product from the oilsands will be transported to market one way or another. Pipelines are by far the safest means of carrying that product.

If we do not use pipelines, product will continue to be moved with tanker trucks or trains as pictured below.

 

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Basic

 

There are real concerns and issues that need to be heard regarding the Northern Gateway pipeline. Unfortunately those legitimate concerns are being drowned out by groups who are determined to derail all forms of progress with any means possible. These people will not stick to facts in their crusade against energy and they are harming an important process.

Lets face the reality that we will be moving oil products through pipelines and try to stick to a realistic goal of trying to move product  as safely as possible. That means we need to stick to the facts.

Using the process to kill progress.

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During the Joint Review Panel hearings for the Mackenzie pipeline environmental activists learned that they could delay and bind up the process through taking advantage of the open hearings process. Time was dedicated at the hearings for people concerned with the pipeline to speak and ask questions and the registration process was simple to encourage locals to come to the hearings. Unfortunately, few locals managed to get those spots as they were crowded out by activists from all over the nation who flooded the applications and bogged the entire progress.

 The environmentalists did not care about local input from people who actually could have been impacted by the project. The activists cared only about shutting down all development at any cost and through any means. The Joint Review Panel went years over their allotted time in the hearings. By the time the findings for the seemingly endless hearings were released (the pipeline was approved), costs had escalated so much and the economy had dropped by so much that it simply was no longer feasible to break ground on the pipeline. Poverty and unemployment are rampant in the Mackenzie Delta region as many Inuvialuit people had trained to work in what was supposed to be a growing energy sector that the environmentalists had essentially shut down. The eco-radicals really don’t care about the human fallout in their cult-like opposition to all forms of progress.

 Credit has to be given to the environmentalist radicals, they learned from the experience. Now anti-progress groups have expanded outside of Canada’s borders and have flooded the entire process with 4,500 applications from people from all over the world to speak against the project.

 Again, clearly the environmentalists do not care whatsoever if local people who truly may be impacted by this project get to speak and be heard. The eco-crowd is pushing all rational discussion to the side as they abuse the entire process at the cost of it’s very legitimacy.

 It has now been found that environmentalist groups had been signing up people as interveners without their consent or knowledge.

 In a religious sort of fervor, the opponents of the project set aside all ethics and honesty as they will utilize any means to try and halt the entire process. These people are not rational nor are they principled. These people have no interest in discussion or study of the issues nor are they interested in any form of compromise. The opponents of the Northern Gateway pipeline are primarily extremists who want nothing less than a complete shutdown of Alberta’s oilsands. They have failed to stop the oilsands directly so now they are trying to block all means to sell the product. I wish the environmentalist set would one day realize that their welfare cheques are heavily funded through taxes paid by oilfield workers.

 Yesterday I saw an interview with a crackpot representing the Sierra Club who took offense to having been called a radical. He then went on a rant directly comparing those who use fossil fuels to people addicted to heroin. Sorry pal, you are the complete and perfect picture of a radical. Get over it.

 While the anti-progress groups have learned from past hearings, it appears that the regulatory bodies have not. There has only been one day of hearings so far and it is clear that the process will be a long and expensive waste of time if we have to give 10 minutes of speaking time to 4500 extremists who have filled out an online form. The process needs to be completely revamped so that the foreign extremists are filtered out while people with legitimate concerns are still able to address the panel.

 From the statements coming from the Prime Minister and our Environment Minister it is pretty clear that the government sees how a well meaning process has been hijacked by the extreme and they are not impressed. It is too bad that Sheila Leggett (panel chair) could not see this obvious flaw in the process. I expect and hope that the federal government intervenes and gets this project back on the rails as clearly the panel is not capable of it.

 The extreme will always be with us and they have a right to speak. We need to stop catering to them every time they begin wailing however. These groups oppose every possible form of energy generation on simple principle. They are not rational and will never add anything of worth to realistic processes.

 We have a growing population and a global market. Until a perpetual motion machine or something is invented, conventional energy development is nothing less than a necessity and we have to stop letting radical extremists hinder reasonable developments.

I wish the environmentalist set would look at the real offenders.

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The small Metis community of Conklin Alberta made headlines around the continent a couple years ago when twelve black bears had to be shot at their local garbage dump. Outrage was expressed by many towards Sustainable Resources and the officers who had to do the cull. The officers can’t be blamed in this circumstance. When bears have been spoiled by humans, there is no rehabilitation and relocation for them. Black bears will travel hundreds of kilometers to find new human created sources of food once spoiled and they will be increasingly dangerous and irritable once that trip is completed.

The bottom line is that a ready food source was made available to the bears for years due to irresponsible waste management in an area highly populated with bears. To be honest, I don’t know who’s responsibility the garbage dump is but the past (and current) management of the facility is completely unacceptable and will be leading to more bear shootings soon. The municipality is Wood Buffalo and the village is Conklin. I imagine that among those two entities one is responsible for waste management.

Below is a picture of black bears eating at the Conklin dump a couple years ago. Following that picture are pictures that I took of the “improved” Conklin garbage facility a few days ago.

Clearly international embarrassment has not been enough of a motivator for this community to solve it’s garbage problem.

 Bears at Conklin dump pre-2009

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Open unprotected bins at Conklin dump January 2012

 Conklin dump

Below are pictures of the garbage I found that animals had dragged from the dumpsters into the nearby trees.

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 The bush surrounding the dump area is nothing short of disgusting. Garbage is strewn for acres as entire bags have clearly been pulled from the open dumpsters and dragged into the trees by animals for consumption. Ravens then spread the smaller pieces even wider.

There indeed is no longer an open landfill at the Conklin dump. They have put up a partial fence and a warning sign about bears along with the open, unsupervised bins packed with domestic waste.

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The sign goes into detail on the small print about how people should not approach or feed bears. The fence stretches about 30 meters to either side of the gate and stops. It is meant to keep people out of the dump area after hours. The fence is not meant as any form of animal deterrent. There really has been no deterrent measures put in place at the dump.

The Conklin dump is providing a virtual buffet for animals and it is doubtless that more animals will become spoiled and will die as a result. Foxes, coyotes and wolves are being harmed by this mess too.

I was fortunate enough to grow up in Banff Alberta. I remember well as a kid in the late seventies and early eighties tourists being directed to hit certain parts of town on garbage day to see black bears and people were directed to the dump out by Lake Minnewanka to see grizzly bears. Part of the summer routine was often to clean up the garbage out back before school as the coyotes and bears had gotten into it.

Banff got it’s wakeup call in the early 80s when a grizzly terrorized the town for weeks with five people mauled and one killed in a series of attacks before the bear was located and destroyed. I hated that period as a kid as we loved playing in the bush but understandably our parents kept us all well within the townsite until the bear had been killed.

After that tragic happening, Banff transformed quickly into a town that did not feed the bears. Home collection of garbage ended as bear proof bins were placed around town. Open landfills ended with transfer stations where domestic garbage was taken to a bear proofed site for disposal.

 If a town of 5000 (with 15,000 tourists) in the mountains can responsibly manage their garbage in the 1980s, why the hell can’t an oil-rich community of a few hundred do the same in 2012??

It only takes a short trip through google to see how many communities in areas with bears have learned to keep bears from their dumps in cost effective ways. There are many solutions out there if a community wants to seek them. Conklin apparently is not interested in seeking a solution unfortunately.

Now where is the outcry from our environmental crusaders on this? Well they are busy yelping at the big bad oil industry whether justifiably or not.

I am currently in a camp in the Conklin area. The energy industry is very careful to mitigate wildlife impact in every possible way while working. Garbage containment is actually one of our easiest areas to deal with. Our industry rarely gets credit for it’s responsible and ethical environmental practices unfortunately.

Throughout our camp we have bear proof garbage cans for spot disposal of small amounts of garbage. These are the exact same bins that are present in Banff.

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Larger volumes of waste go to a compactor to be trucked out to a proper landfill.

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 There are about 750 people in my camp. There is not so much as a french fry left out for wildlife to get at. Is it too much to ask a town of a few hundred to do the same?

Where is the outcry on towns and their shoddy waste practices? It is lost among those loudly and wrongly targeting the oilfield. Rest assured if we (oilfield) behaved like the town of Conklin in our practices, our operation would be quickly shut down and we would be heavily fined.

I strongly suggest that people concerned about wild animal welfare contact provincial authorities and demand that they crack down on towns with irresponsible waste practices. Put down your signs protesting the oilsands for a minute and try to make some realistic and worthwhile change come about. We sure heard loudly from groups when some ducks died.

Lets hope my next series of pictures does not involve shots of dead black bears.

Busy days.

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I have just been swamped in the field lately. Have some new pics and posts coming but have not had time to do them. It is good to see the Alberta field recovering from the Progressive Conservative’s assault on it a few years ago. It has been awhile since I have worked in Alberta.

 To substitute for my lack of updates, I will post a link to a great blog post that breaks down and exposes the utterly ridiculous levels that anti-energy sorts will go to in cooking their statistics. The assumptions taken by this “Center for Global Development” group in their “study” are nothing less than ridiculous.

 Environmental groups, labor groups and other left-wing groups have really taken to spawning countless “think tank” type organizations that regularly release this trash data. They love cloaking them in harmless sorts of names such as this “Center for Global Development” and “Policy Alternatives”. Lazy media members often take data from groups such as this at face value and it is unfortunate considering how far from reality these groups and their cooked statistics often are.  

 I appreciate that Andrew Leach took the time to debunk that garbage so effectively. I strongly recommend that you read the posting linked below and keep it in mind when seeing other reports from the anti-progress set as they try to fabricate a case against development.

Canadian crude oil production to increase 3300% by 2100

Another day in the park.

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Well, as we heard yesterday warnings were posted at Olympic Plaza telling our squatters that they had 24 hours to remove tents and unused materials as per city bylaws. My nature dictated that I had to go down there in person to witness and document the event today. While the tents still remain (hopefully not for long), the day was indeed eventful as bylaw officers and police came to the park to provide written warnings to our illegal squatters.

The nasty corporate media (yes tongue in cheek) was there in abundance so there is little reason for me to report on the minutiae of the happenings. Sun News did give me a chance to express some of my thoughts as did other outlets.

What I want to report on is the personal and individual nature of the attitude of the “occupiers” when it comes to myself. Some occupiers actually told me to get the hell out of “their” park. It was an exceedingly funny tweet to see upon arriving home. You see, these “occupiers” shun being covered by any form of media whether formal or alternative as their hypocrisy tends to be exposed pretty quickly. Were I that confused and vapid in my nature, I doubtless would avoid the public spotlight too.

Now, upon arriving at Olympic Plaza I was beset upon by a variety of “occupiers” and exchanges occurred. Again, due to there being literally dozens of cameras and microphones in the area pretty much everything was documented by formal and informal media alike. Tiring of the inane ramblings of our occupiers, I did try to wander the park to get more footage and to see what was happening as warning tickets were being handed out by bylaw and police officers.

As I wandered I was continually tailed and harassed by Occupy Calgary representative James Bullock. For those with better things to remember, James Bullock is the young martyr who was recently ticketed for throwing down a lit cigarette butt in the park. With all the dry and dead grass in the area, people can understand why this offence is taken pretty seriously. Occupy Calgary has already cost taxpayers more than $40,000 through combined damages and enhanced monitoring of the park. I could not imagine what may have happened if a grass fire were to rage through a pile of closely packed nylon tents. James pouted later that he should not have to pay as he could not afford it.

Now as I said, young James continually followed and hounded me throughout the park. His agitation as I ignored him became evident to the point where police officers began following us as it was evident that James may indeed become violent. James kept claiming that he wanted to speak yet got belligerent whenever his speaking may be recorded.

Now to you occupy folks I am going to post a video below. You will now understand why I constantly carry a video camera with me as your representatives have a terrible time sticking to the truth.

Below in his own words is James Bullock, Occupy Calgary representative as I give him time to air his thoughts: I apologize for the poor camera angle. I had to keep my face unobstructed as it is evident that James may have been ready to strike me.

Now how exactly am I supposed to explore dialog and reason with a guy like that?
 

Note that while occupiers claim that they want dialog that they cover their faces and become belligerent as soon as somebody tries to engage in such.

Now on the official occupy Calgary blog I see statements claiming such pap as my having referred to James as a “retard” among other things.

For some reasons that are personal and that I will not expand on, I can say with 100% confidence that I have never called anybody a “retard”. I say so with such confidence simply because I know I never use that term.  The rest of their blather is simple fabrication as well of course.

Were I of a vexatious nature I guess I could howl that I was slandered. To be honest, I am only concerned when people with even a shred of credibility say bad things of me and Occupy Calgary simply has no credibility.

Occupy Calgary supporter Marcus Arseneault appears to have done an absolute terrible and fraudulent forgery of his boss’s email as he unsuccessfully tried to create a scandal claiming he was fired for involvement in occupy Calgary.

I reported on flags being purposely hung upside down by occupy Calgary supporters recently.

Occupy Calgary supporters claimed the flags had simply been blown down by mistake. That lie was blown out of the water when pictures of the defaced flags that were weeks old were presented (Occupy Calgary again has hung the flags upside down again by the way).

What we see here is a pattern of ad hominem attacks against people who report on Occupy Calgary with no substance and that are easily disproved. Can these people and their unfounded and libelous accusations about me be taken seriously this time? Absolutely not.

In my blog postings I provide pictures, video and real quotes from people to add to the integrity of what I write. This is why I attend events in person as well. I like to see and report my views on what I see directly.

As I said before, there were dozens of cameras and microphones around me all day. Astoundingly not a single on recorded my alleged statements to Mr. Bullock.

I will say this now. I was certainly not kind to Mr Bullock when he abrasively kept trying to get in my face. I do say that he is lazy with a deep sense of entitlement and victimhood and he blames the entire world for his own shortcomings. I may have said that directly to him today and I do not regret having said so. I never said the trash that our desperate occupiers are trying to claim however.

Bullock may indeed have some extra challenges in life. If that is the case I hope that he seeks help rather than sitting in a park smoking and whining about his tough lot in life as it clearly is not serving him well. Taxpayers spend millions (rightly) on programs to help the disadvantaged. Squatting in a park is not the way to seek help.

Now tomorrow I will be heading down to the garbage dump in Olympic Plaza that we call “occupy Calgary” and I will directly document the action/inaction that may happen. At least we can be assured that I will remain within the bounds of the truth as opposed to “occupy Calgary” and their supporters.

I do look forward to seeing them dragged from their tents kicking and screaming so that their “movement” can end in as infantile a manner as it began.

I may post some more video and thoughts of today later this evening but for now I am going to kick back with a glass of the fine single-malt that I do love and earned the money to buy. 🙂

Petition time.

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Just yesterday Mayor Nenshi outright told “occupiers” that camping in Olympic Plaza is illegal. While it is good to see that Mayor Nenshi has acknowledged that the activity of these squatters is breaking our laws, it appears that there still is no will on the part of city hall to enforce our laws. Can we get out of compliance with city bylaws simply by claiming that we are expressing ourselves for some vague cause? I don’t think so.

Here is a court ruling from 1994. People tried to camp on Parliament Hill in order to protest and claimed it was protected by the charter. It was ruled that camping in parks is not a Charter protected form of expression twice.

We can all rest assured that the City of Calgary will enforce the law if we do not clear the snow from our sidewalks, park illegally or ride the train without paying. Why is an exception being made for a small group of squatters who have caused thousands of dollars in damage to Olympic Plaza while disrupting legitimately booked events?

Mayor Nenshi and city hall are hoping that our Calgary weather will do their job for them. This is a cowardly approach to their responsibility as guardians of our public property and we as citizens need to speak up when our elected officials shy away from their jobs. Even if a cold snap disperses the “occupiers”, how can we be assured that somebody will not simply set up camp again when the weather breaks? Some of these “occupiers” are on the extreme end of things and may stay out there in any weather. Could we be legally on the hook if an “occupier” gets frostbite or worse while camping in our park?

We need to speak up. Call 311 to register a complaint with city hall. Please register your support on the petition linked below as well. We can have our park cleaned up if we speak up and make our elected officials address this ongoing issue.

Petition requesting equal enforcement of civic bylaws in the city of Calgary.

 

Reality calling.

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I don’t quite celebrate the erosion over even outright loss of naive ideals that comes about through life experience. We need those starry goals and ideals when young in order to keep ourselves optimistic and pursuing outcomes even if they may be impossible in reality. Growing past the unreasonable ideals is a part of growing up as well and it is an important one. We do see people who never managed to outgrow their ideals on occasion. They usually are sporting thin, greying braids and a buckskin jacket with a tie-dye shirt underneath. The rest of the folks of that idealistic generation learned through life experiences that one has to compromise to “the man” to a degree and pursue the less savory but very important things in life such as a career and independently sustainable lifestyle.

Some years ago I listened to a radio documentary on CBC where some former residents of a 70s commune outside of Edmonton related their stories of their time pursuing the ideal hippy lifestyle. None sounded regretful and most looked back at it as a growing experience for themselves. They all were utterly confident in the futility of the socialist communal lifestyle as well. Nothing drives those lessons home better than trying to live the idealistic dream. As with countless other communes in the 60s/70s this one fell apart within a couple years. Tensions grew quickly as it was soon discovered that a small portion of the folks were doing the majority of the work while a larger portion sat around smoking weed. The free-love concept was wonderful until somebody actually saw somebody of romantic interest literally enjoying the sexual embrace of another in front of them. Resentment grew, people came and went and the whole thing faded away. The reality is that human nature does not allow for any true communal living no matter how pretty the ideal sounds.

The only communes that are or have had much success and staying power have had a unifying factor keeping in the people together and motivated. That is most often religion as with Israeli kibbutzs or even Hutterite colonies. A vague notion of inequity and socialism has never been enough of a unifying power to keep other communes together.

A generation later and we see the same sort of doe-eyed pursuit of impossible ideals in our “occupy” movement. The ideas of consensus and the talking points are the same. Unfortunately for them, there has been utterly no unifying factor in this disparate gathering of the discontented. There is anti-capitalist mutterings, vague general inequity ramblings, statements about homelessness the environment, currency systems, electoral systems and on and on and on and on. There is no war such as Vietnam to pull these guys together nor any common religious link. There are no social inequities such as there were for black people in the USA in the 60s and there is no dictatorship as the folks in Arab Spring dealt with.

Due to this lack of a cohesive cause and lack of any real identifiable general hardship in Canada, the “occupy” movement simply has not taken off in Calgary. Very few Calgarians are supportive of the campers in Olympic Plaza and outright opposition is growing to the squatting as we see estimates of the damages to the park rise and we hear of more legitimate events and groups being compromised due to the squatters in the park.

What this has left is pretty much a small group of the hardcore of their movement. These are likely the folks we will see still sporting braids in a couple decades as they simply will never let their ideals go no matter how inane or impossible they may be.

What has been interesting to see though is that some of them are learning some lessons. These are hard lessons but they are important ones. In the larger (and arguably much more legitimate) protest in New York, the ideals abounded to begin with. The poor souls displaced by capitalism could find sanctuary in a nice big communal campground near Wall Street where volunteer chefs could feed them organic free range beans and lentils or whatever. Unfortunately, before long it was determined that many who were eating the food were not underprivileged. Many mouths were simply those of freeloaders. The Chefs of Occupy Wall Street have now begun to refuse to cook for the freeloaders. The ideals are waning.

On a local level we can see that these lessons are happening to a degree with our Calgarian Occupy crowd. I thank Lonnie Taylor for tweeting some of the resolutions from yesterday’s occupy Calgary meeting. I honestly would like to attend one of these things but am caught working in Eastern Pennsylvania for a few more days. Should we be unfortunate enough to still have people squatting in our park when I get back, I will be sure to pop by for a visit.

Now apparently a fellow named “Paul” has taken it upon himself to enforce security around the encampment. An unfortunate reality is that when one shuns conventional forms of security such as our city police, we will either have anarchy grow or people will take things into their own hands. When people take things into their own hands they often are not as fair, controlled, predictable or restrained as proper law enforcement officers despite the often collective loathing of occupiers of “The man’s” police force. Many people drawn to these encampments have some serious issues and a degree of control is simply needed. There was a bizarre incident with the occupy camp in Toronto for example where a fellow was sneaking into tents in order to sniff women’s feet.

Now apparently the occupiers have resolved to no longer provide tents and food to those who have not been a part of the movement. How membership in this movement is to be determined may be dicey. I thought that the movement was directly tied into the occupation in itself so wouldn’t simply being present mean one is part of the “movement”. Does one have to tweet about their involvement to be included? Is there a formal means of membership?

Look I understand why the occupiers are having to make these tough decisions. Some have tried to cloak this movement into being a thing about homelessness. Many felt that if misunderstood homeless people were simply invited into their commune and shown love that these people will act in control and will happily participate with the occupation. Reality is unfortunately dealing a hard slap in the face to naive idealism here.

Yes, homelessness is a problem in Calgary. There are homeless people in every city in the planet. We have had homeless people since the first human fabricated a shelter and we will have homeless people until an asteroid or something ends life on earth. I am not dismissing homelessness by any means nor do I think for a second that we should stop efforts to reduce it. I am just saying that if we really want to deal with chronic homelessness we need to work within the bounds of reality.

The reality is that the majority of the homeless people encountered on the streets of Calgary are suffering either from addiction or mental health issues. These people have had an extremely rough time and are not able (or often even willing) to try and integrate with society in a settled home. These people can be volatile and even dangerous at times. A deeply addicted person will not hesitate to steal from or lie to other people if they think it may lead to their next fix.

Certainly some people simply have a bad chain of events or decisions and they find themselves homeless for a time. These people are the ones most likely to take advantage of the programs and housing we have available and these people are likely to climb out of their rut with some help. These people are not the chronically homeless and these are not the ones we see moving into the “occupy” camps.

I suspect that the occupiers are learning that the aforementioned people do not belong in a communal tent camp. Simply welcoming these people with open arms and good intent has and will backfire. Complex counselling and treatment by professionals is required for these people. We certainly can discuss whether society is providing enough of these services to these people. Personally I think it is a gross embarrassment that we have followed a foolish and idealistic trend of deinstitutionalization of people with mental impairment which has led to many unfortunate souls being either on the streets or in the correctional system. I am digressing however.

What I am getting at is the point that no matter how good the intentions may be, the occupy Calgary is doing absolutely nothing for the homeless.  The group is not raising awareness of the issue because the group is spreading dozens of messages in a shotgun approach to all that they see as the ills of our society. In light of the recent meeting resolutions thing many of the remaining “occupiers” are realizing this.

What the rest of the “occupiers” need to realize now is that their little campout is really doing utterly nothing for whatever cause they may be claiming to represent. Camping in a park is simply wasting time and pissing off your fellow man who is paying the bill.

Retain your ideals guys. Go out and fight the inequities. We have all sorts of groups whether charitable, government, religious or even political that work to ease all sorts of problems in our city and country.  All of these groups happily welcome contributions whether through volunteering or fiscally and all can claim at least some degree of measurable success.

Yes it is a lot of work to take part in these groups though. It can be tiring and thankless. It is not nearly as easy as squatting in a park for a campout.

Are the occupiers truly interested in making real changes or are they simply kids camping?

Personally I think the productive have already moved beyond this group. How many are really there now? 20? 30? It is time for the rest of them to move on to better things.

I do hope that the city gets around to enforcing our bylaws and kicking the occupiers from our park before they do more damage. I am happy to see these guys learning life lessons. I am tired of seeing this learning experience happening on the backs of the taxpayers as our park continues to get damaged and other citizens have their rights to use the park displaced.

Reality is often hard but is always much more productive than blind ideology.

As long as it takes!!

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Well we are certainly seeing discussion heating up on the collection of kids squatting in Calgary’s Olympic Plaza. The Muslim Heritage Festival had to share their space with a bunch squatters and got to enjoy a lower turnout (probably due to squatters in area) and a distracted event as a result. Other events are coming where groups have booked and paid for Olympic Plaza and those events are now at risk of cancellation due to these squatters. An estimated $40,000 in damage to the park from ground damage to washroom vandalism to damaged paint has occurred due to the squatters and that number can only be expected to grow.

There are only two ways the squatting in our taxfunded park is going to come to an end. One way is if the city stops politely asking the squatters to leave and actually enforces city bylaws on them as they do for the rest of us. The other way will be for Canada as a whole to accept and cave to the demands of these 20 some hipsters and radically change our entire national system. The squatters have already demonstrated that they are more than willing to camp indefinitely in our park and live on the goodwill of the productive. The squatters have repeatedly said that they will stay as long as it takes until their demands are met.

Lets look at the demands that we must meet.
Demand 1:

“We want a Canada that is not looking down the barrel of the same economic rifle that has already fired on the United States. Where the fiat currency with which we currently operate — a currency with a value based solely upon government regulation and law — and the fractional reserve banking system through which it operates, where the required reserves are defined as “nil” by the Bank of Canada Act section 457 (4), are brought to an end.”

Wow. These kids won’t leave our park until we completely change the entire system of Canada’s currency back to the gold standard or something. Yeah, that should happen right away.

Demand 2.

“We want an Alberta that grows its wheat, raises its cattle, cuts its timber and pumps its oil in a manner that is sustainable and to the benefit of the land and to every person, not to the benefit of corporations abroad.”

Hmm pretty broad. Do they mean we should end all exports or all foreign investment in Canada? Both perhaps? OK yeah, that will happen right way there kids.

Demand 3.

“We want a Canada where the debt per-capita does not double in the next decade”

Hmm. I guess we will need to legislate against personal borrowing somehow. This one could be tough but hey, we can get right on that.

Demand 4:

“We want a Canada where every single person is given the democratic representation they deserve, not representation based on mob rule of the majority”

Hmm, a magical system that does not rely on counting individual votes or something. Will the 20 kids determine which representation is deserving? How far will the electorate bend in ending this terrible democratic ruling by uhhh yes the majority.

Demand 5:

“We want a healthcare system based on healing, not on the perpetuation of illness for the sake capital gain.”

Hmm, now we are getting into a conspiracy realm where these folks believe that people are purposely being kept ill for capital gain. Uhhhh OK kids. We will talk to the Illuminati and the Freemasons and see if they can relax that control on people’s health.

Demand #6:

“We want a Canada Where our system of exchange no longer embodies
the logic of a cancer cell.”

Hmm, not sure where to go with this one. Maybe if we ask nicely we can convince cancer cells to change their logic. I see that happening sooner than changing our system of exchange.

Demand #7:

“We want a media that delivers information honestly, no longer filtering it through the lens of corporate or political agendas.”

Hmm. Media conspiracies. OK so we will nationalize all media. That should happen right away. Pravda was such a great paper of the past.

Ok above is just a few of some of the gems these guys are demanding. If you want to go to the source head here. I strongly suspect that it will all make a great deal more sense with the massive consumption of some sort of mind-altering drug however because it sure as hell makes little sense sober. There are all sorts of other broad demands such as ending “systemic inequity” though none can point to direct examples. Some have said they want the oilsands totally shut down while others are on about pipelines. The list of demands appears to be as infinite as the schedule of these squatters.

I guess another thing that can happen is that we let these kids and pretty much anybody with a chip on their shoulder camp in our public spaces any time they want in perpetuity.

This is getting totally unreasonable people. The demands being made are totally in outer space and the damage being caused by the squatters is increasing. Whatever point these guys may have had to be made has been made. We need to move these squatters out of our park.

In the posting on this blog prior to this one there is contact information for making bylaw complaints and for contacting individual aldermen. Call 311 and let the city know that this foolishness has gone on long enough.

We need to equally enforce our bylaws for all.

 

Fear factor.

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One odd trait that I will never understand is humanity’s enjoyment and pursuit of being frightened. The reason for fear in itself is pretty self-evident in evolutionary rationale. We have (or should have) a natural inclination to avoid things that may harm us. Despite this worthy instinct, we go out of our way to put ourselves into fearful situations. We participate in extreme sports and we put ourselves on midway rides that have been assembled by carnies of the most questionable mechanical merit in our pursuit of the thrill that fear gives us. An entire genre of fearful storytelling has evolved from Dante’s Inferno to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to movies such as Nightmare on Elm Street.

Writers who want to thrill their readers with fearful creations have realized that one of the most fearful realms for that of humanity is the fear of the unknown. Dante Alighieri crafted an epic trilogy dealing with the afterlife. Mary Shelley wrote on the possible outcomes of work with electricity which was poorly understood at the time and the creators of a Nightmare on Elm Street made a frightening movie based on what happens while we dream.

The aforementioned stories (and many others) were quite successful in playing on the fear of readers as they took an area where people generally have a lack of understanding and they filled that void with a terrifying explanation.

Unfortunately, it is not simply novelists and movie creators who take advantage of societies fear of the unknown. The media and special interest groups take advantage of this human tendency all the time and often to our detriment as a whole.

Take heavy metals for an example. It has been long known that ingesting quantities of many of these elements can harm or even kill people. There seems to be quite an ignorance displayed by some on how one does ingest these metals and how much is dangerous.

I will always remember a news story on TV that I saw a couple of years ago leading up to Halloween. A woman had purchased some mechanical porch decorations and put them outside in preparation for the evening of little ghouls and goblins. These decorations were robotic sort of witches and such that moved and made sounds. In a moment of revelation this gal decided to fully read the packaging on her purchase and much to her horror she discovered that THE PRODUCT CONTAINS LEAD!!!!

Oh dear oh dear. What to do? Return the item? Call a hazmat crew for removal? Call the Prime Minister? Call Ghostbusters? Nah, this lady called the media. A crew rushed down and filmed this woman fearfully and indignantly ranting on how her entire block has been put at risk by this toxic product. Children could very well have dropped dead walking up her steps and birds could have fallen from the sky.

Now lets inject a touch of reality here. The lead contained in the products was in a solder within the circuitry of the units. A person would literally have to take the things apart, extract the lead and eat it from multiple units in order to be harmed. These were not baby toys in the crib, they are porch decorations. Has a person ever noticed that most fishing tackle boxes will include some lead weights? Has anybody ever wondered what that fast oxidizing grey metal is on their car battery posts? We are surrounded by lead people and we always have been. It is an essential metal to us in many ways and is pretty much harmless when we utilize it properly.

Now back to the main issue; did the reporter do the simple research to dismiss and move beyond this hysteric claim of mass poisoning? Of course not. She needed a story that would scare people and facts would certainly ruin that. An expert was quoted on what the harmful effects are due to mass consumption of lead (but he never explained how one ends up consuming so much) and a protectionist labor leader was interviewed to explain the evils of importing products from other nations. The story actually ran over multiple days so I guess viewer reviews were positive. Sad.

Now on to a bigger scale we are seeing a renewed hysteria about nuclear energy due to the tragic events in Japan. Aging hippies are gleefully feeling justified in their attempts to liken nuclear power generation to nuclear bombing as they have done so for decades. Again facts are being completely left aside as media and special interests swarm over this story and try to instill a fear of Armageddon in society at large. Iodine is selling out in Calgary despite their being utterly no risk of radiation exposure in Alberta and “health” stores are eager to fill this irrational demand as they prey on unfounded fears.

Now lets get back to reality. Currently there are 442 nuclear power plants in operation in over 30 countries. Nuclear power has been used for over 50 years. There have now been 3 incidents. Three Mile Island is often cited. People need to remember that the death toll of the Three Mile Island is ZERO. Chernobyl was certainly a disaster. Due to the communist tendencies of hiding facts, we never will know the true human cost of that tragedy. People have to keep in mind though that the Chernobyl reactor was created and run by a communist regime that was completely dysfunctional to the point of being incapable of manufacturing a good clock radio.

The contributing factors in the TWO nuclear generation incidents must be kept in mind and it is foolish to try and blanket what is statistically a very clean and safe industry. The earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan were exceptional and rare occurrences. Despite this, I see Alberta activists trying to use that example to fight potential nuclear power generation in Alberta. How about this folks, I am offering $10 million insurance coverage for tsunami damage within Alberta for the paltry premium of $100 per month. Contact me for details.

Interest groups are comparing apples and oranges and leaving aside facts as they take advantage of public fear in their opposition to pretty much every form of power generation known to man. Wind farms kill birds and whales, dammed rivers flood habitats, coal is evil, natural gas is evil, solar requires masses of mined heavy metals from third-world countries and of course nuclear energy is created by Satan Himself.

These groups preying on public fear never offer alternatives to things. They simply create hysteric theoretical outcomes. Keep in mind, if you are fundraising for an environmental group your efforts will be far more successful if you portray a mushroom cloud frying millions of people as opposed to the kinda sorta possibility that a few people may get hurt reality involved in power generation. Many people have died building dams, in oil/gas exploration and in coal mining. No form of energy comes with no cost.

The best case that I have seen against nuclear power generation in Alberta has been the economic one. If nuclear generation is unviable without government grants, then it is not a feasible form of generation. When the element of fear is set aside and a person thinks rationally on the issue, that is the simple and correct outcome.

Fear sells but I hope we can try better to move away from letting it impact our choices on important issues. We need to do our own research on issues. Whether it is an irrational fear of vaccinations or of types of power generation, if we make any decisions based on fear rather than fact we will almost invariably make the wrong choice. Remember, most fear is based on the unknown. We can make many of our fears go away simply by educating ourselves.