A huge multinational company is threatening CRAB Park Dubai Ports World, operators of the Centerm container terminal beside much-loved CRAB Park, plans to extend its terminal westward with 7 acres of infill in the ocean right in front of the Park. CRAB Park is the only green space for the vast majority of Downtown Eastside residents, almost all of whom live in SROs or small apartments. It is home to the monument in memory of Downtown Eastside missing and murdered women. Downtown Eastsiders and their allies have struggled successfully for 33 years for CRAB Park, to create it, to ensure disabled access, to stop a casino funded by big Vegas money, and most recently to prevent a massive soccer stadium/entertainment venue from planting itself beside the park Now Centerm’s expansion threatens to transform CRAB’s natural setting into a heavy industry zone with its attendant air, water and noise pollution. It will bring in more hazardous cargo to a heavily populated neighbourhood that already endured a huge chemical fire from Centerm’s terminal in March 2015. The Port of Vancouver is not accountable to any level of government. It alone has the power to stop this expansion. Let’s show the Port how important CRAB Park is to us. Sign the petition to convince them to rethink their development plan.

Scientists tell us that Grassy Narrows’ river, their lifeblood, can be made safe again. We should seize this momentous opportunity. Get the facts / sign up to get alerts / take action / join the River Run www.freegrassy.net The provincial and federal governments are talking of forging a new relationship with aboriginal peoples. This requires righting outstanding wrongs, something that is an urgent imperative in Grassy Narrows. Ontario and Canada must take decisive action to resolve the ongoing legacy of mercury poisoning in Grassy Narrows, and all other outstanding issues. This includes apologizing, cleaning the river, providing state of the art care for mercury survivors, adequate compensation for all who have been impacted, and establishing a Grassy Narrows run environmental health monitoring station. To ensure that this never happens again we must respect Grassy Narrows' decisions for their territory. Never again should harmful decisions be imposed on Grassy Narrows people and the territory that they depend on.

Food is life. You are what you eat. People need vitamins and minerals that are increasingly hard to maintain through diet with over-farming and conventional farming practices. Not to mention the pesticides act as estrogen and are also making the current generation sterile. Why does "organic" labelling cost so much? I can understand minor price increases based on season and availability, but most of the cost is to cover the 3rd party "organic" labelling costs or just plain price-gouging. This 3rd party should be abolished and conventional farming practices should be converted to organic farming practices. Every person should be able to afford properly grown foods within their salary regardless of class or social rank. With increasing evidence supporting poor diet promotes depression, this would make the greater population happier and less dependant on toxic/deadly pharmaceuticals.

In the throne speech on May 17, 2016, Premier Wall announced to the world that he disagrees with 97% of climate scientists and still believes climate change is a hoax. His words, given by the Lieutenant Governor through the Throne Speech: "It is troubling that today, there are some in this country who, given the opportunity, would shut down major parts of Saskatchewan’s economy and put thousands of hard-working Saskatchewan people out of work, all in the name of some misguided dogma that has no basis in reality. "There are those who are not comfortable with and even oppose much of what we produce in Saskatchewan and how we produce it. They would prefer that those sectors did not exist. They look at those jobs like they are somehow harming the country and the world." Unfortunately Mr. Wall, there is now a firm global consensus that fossil fuels are harming the world. When you say climate change is a "dogma" you are going against the Pentagon, the World Bank, the Pope, and the leaders of 177 countries around the world who recently signed the Paris climate agreement last month. It is time to join with the rest of the world, realize the limits of the fossil fuel economy while it slowly phases down, and start to invest in high quality, safe, clean energy jobs to ensure Saskatchewan has a strong, resilient and modern economy for the future.

Life as they know it is over for many workers in Fort Murray. A few days ago they were working. Today, many have no home, no job, and none of their personal items. Workers in Fort McMurray come from Newfoundland, PEI, Nova Scotia. Some temporary foreign workers have come from as far as the Philippines. Not everyone worked in the oil sands. These are Tim Horton workers, gas station attendants, and caregivers. Right now many of them cannot get Employment Insurance because of stiff rules. The Federal Government needs to relax the EI rules so that workers can get the income they need to get back on their feet. Sign this petition to support ALL worker evacuees from Fort McMurray. Migrant workers have additional restrictions. They come to Canada on a closed work permit. Under immigration laws, they are only allowed to work for one employer, at one location, at one time. But their workplace has likely been destroyed by a fire. Many migrant workers paid agencies over $8,000 to come work in Canada. Many took loans for those fees and are under massive debt. They’ve been sending what little they can save from their minimum wage job to their families back home. Many migrant workers sick parents, or children or siblings that need them to keep sending money. Migrant workers are ready to look for work, to get back on their feet to support their families and continue to build Alberta’s economy. They just need the federal government to fix the rules that are stopping them from doing so. Sign this petition and please share it. This tragedy shows how broken rules are for migrant workers. The federal government is currently reviewing the temporary foreign workers program. Find out more and take action at http://migrantrights.ca/

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WHEREAS In the last 12 months there have been three notable crashes on Seymour street between Dunsmuir and Pender (Cambie Hostel, mangled bike racks, window of A&W); WHEREAS The intersections at Dunsmuir and Pender streets are areas of high pedestrian traffic, with pedestrians occupying all corners throughout the day; WHEREAS Dunsmuir St is an arterial bicycle route that forms part of the AAA (all ages and abilities) bicycle network in downtown Vancouver and a public bike system is planned for Summer 2016; WHEREAS It is common to see drivers of motor vehicles attempting to enter the Dunsmuir separated bike lane when turning from Seymour St; WHEREAS There were 9 pedestrian fatalities in Vancouver in 2015; WHEREAS Traffic crashes are fixable problems, caused by dangerous streets and unsafe drivers; they are not accidents; THEREFORE, we the undersigned petition the City of Vancouver as follows: That the City of Vancouver conduct an assessment of current traffic patterns and possible traffic calming measures for Seymour street downtown in order to avoid pedestrian injuries or fatalities in the area.

The 2016 federal budget - the Trudeau government's first - is the perfect opportunity for the government to show that they're living up to a campaign promise to end massive subsidies for polluting oil, gas and coal companies. Canada's federal government hands out over $1.6 billion every year to fossil fuel producers. On top of this, Export Development Canada - wholly owned by the government - provides as much as $6 billion per year for dirty energy producers to continue fueling the climate crisis at home and abroad. Canada first promised to put an end to these wasteful and polluting subsidies in 2009 along with the rest of the G20. And yet, little meaningful action has followed. Even under the new Trudeau government, Export Development Canada just offered a $750 million bailout to fossil fuel companies. This is bad climate policy and bad economic policy. The last thing the country needs right now is to lock itself further into the volatile oil market that is wreaking havoc on livelihoods across the country. Bailing out oil producers is not the solution - the real answer is breaking our dependency on this boom and bust sector that is taking the climate down with it. It is high time for Canada to instead get serious about building the prosperous clean energy economy that must power this century. Now is the Trudeau government's chance to lead. China and the US are already moving, promising to establish a deadline for a fossil fuel subsidy phase-out, and Canada could show its true climate colours by leading by example with an ambitious 2020 deadline to end these reckless handouts. 2016 is set to be a promising year for Canadian climate action, but we can’t let it be undermined by continuing to use taxpayer dollars to fund the very problem we are trying to tackle. Let’s start the clock by signaling an ambitious phase out of polluter handouts by 2020 in your upcoming budget.

The Paris Climate Conference is our last best chance to avoid runaway climate change. For the last ten years Canada has been actively derailing international climate talks, and now has a responsibility to the communities most vulnerable to climate change to take swift, bold action in an effort to mitigate the worst impacts of this catastrophe. With a new government, we can change Canada's course on climate action. As an affluent country, Canada has the resources and the technology to make a just transition to a 100% renewables-based economy that honours the Free Prior and Informed Consent of Indigenous peoples. We want to see true climate leadership from the Canadian government. Time’s running out. We need more than aspirational statements -- we need real action. Preventing a global rise in temperature by 1.5 degrees celsius means reaching zero emissions by 2050 -- and we need a just transition to a clean energy economy to get there.

An independent panel has been appointed by the Minister of Natural Resources, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to conduct a public review and advise the Minister on the socio-economic and environmental implications of the hydraulic fracturing process. However, the Minister of Natural Resources and his department focuses clearly on natural resource development and supporting regulations and not health, safety and the environment. Three of the Hydraulic Fracturing Review Panel members prior to their appointment have stated publically that they supported approval of hydraulic fracturing with appropriate regulations. These three members constitute a majority and are clearly not independent. They believe fracking can be done safely. The drillers' dreams of fracking New York succumbed to the growing mountain of proof that this dangerous process causes birth defects and respiratory illness, while polluting the air and drinking water with carcinogens like benzene and formaldehyde. Why did Minister Dalley appoint a biased panel to conduct an "independent review" when jurisdictions like New York, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have already studied the issue and determined Hydraulic Fracturing to be unsafe? Newfoundland and Labrador has placed a moratorium on all hydraulic fracturing applications pending this review. The review panel is flawed. Here is a link to a list of jurisdictions worldwide that have banned hydraulic fracturing. http://keeptapwatersafe.org/global-bans-on-fracking/ The citizens of Newfoundland and Labrador deserve the same respect and leadership from their elected representatives as do the citizens residing in the communities on the fracking ban list. This issue is a moral issue. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33182065 These companies poison water without remorse - Please Share http://youtu.be/j5kn8qL5G-w #fracking #environment #ClimateChange

The Harper government allowed this relatively small spill to become a serious tragedy by closing the Kitsilano Coast Guard station, and they’re inviting even worse tragedies if they allow expanded tanker traffic on the B.C. coast. Kinder Morgan is proposing a pipeline and tanker that would bring hundreds of huge tarsands oil tankers through Vancouver’s harbour each year -- putting us at risk of a catastrophic oil spill when we weren’t even prepared for a spill that would be considered small by industry standards. In the wake of the Vancouver oil spill, thousands of people are looking for answers. If we raise our voices together now, we can expose how the Harper Government’s negligence turned this spill into a tragedy. With an election coming up, Conservative MPs in the Lower Mainland will be under tremendous pressure to give us a real plan to protect the B.C. coast. Sources: [1] Fuel oil spill from freighter in Vancouver harbour triggers cleanup. http://www.surreyleader.com/news/299210961.html [2] Now-closed Kisilano Coast Guard Base would have responded to oil spill instantly (Vancity Buzz). http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2015/04/now-closed-kitsilano-coast-guard-base-responded-oil-spill-instantly/

**Update*** Wow! Thanks to your pressure, we just learned that the AER was going to reject CNRL's application, so CNRL withdrew it. But the battle isn't over yet: CNRL filed another application as close as 500 metres away from one spill site for high-pressure injection. The AER is currently considering this application but pressure from us could stop this project for good. ---------- Did you know that for nearly a year, and potentially longer, there have been four unstoppable underground oil leaks at tar sands operation near Cold Lake, Alberta? The only reason the public knows that nearly 2 million litres of oil have spilled -- one of the biggest spills in Alberta’s history -- is because a government scientist risked their job to speak out and raise the alarm.[1] Now Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL), the massive company that owns the project, is quietly applying to the Alberta Energy Regulator for permission to start highly pressurizing the ground for more tar sands again even though the spills haven’t even stopped – they are still spilling![2] We need your help to stop CNRL. The Alberta Energy Regulator is extremely sensitive to public opinion right now because of how it is handling this spill. 80% of Alberta’s oil can only be mined using in situ methods -- this means that to keep expanding the tar sands, they need to prove to the public that in situ is safe and clean. In reality, the process is like fracking: the ground is blasted for weeks or months with super-high pressure steam, and the whole process is powered by burning massive amounts of natural gas and drains water from the whole region. A massive public outcry could stop this project in its tracks and stop industry’s plans to massively expand this type of oil extraction. Period. Together, we can ensure that this oil remains underground for good, and stop millions of tonnes of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere. Sources: 1. 'Nobody Understands' Spills at Alberta Oilsands Operation. Toronto Star. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/07/19/nobody_understands_ongoing_spills_at_alberta_oilsands_operation.bb.html 2. Integrated Application Registry, Alberta Energy Regulator. https://www3.eub.gov.ab.ca/eub/dds/iar_query/ApplicationAttachments.aspx?AppNumber=1787672 Further Reading: 1. Why An Accidental Leak Should Send Shivers Up Big Oil's Spine. The Globe and Mail. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/why-an-accidental-leak-should-send-shivers-up-big-oils-spine/article16929877/