ACT FAST
SPP’s not the only threat. It’s time to unleash your rebellious spirit if we’re to avoid a bleak, desolate, Blade Runner future. Portraits of five movements that urgently need you - at your most fierce
BY Wendy Glauser, Lauren McKeon and Ron Nurwisah
Photography courtesy Warner Bros Studio
It’s easy to be apocalyptic these days. The challenges we
face are so overwhelming and unpredictable that it sometimes seems the only sane
reaction is to ignore them. It’s all too easy to imagine a future that looks
like bad science fiction. But before you throw up your arms, consider the
positives. Unlike in the 20th century, when activism was most often about the
rights of a certain group, such as women, homosexuals or minorities, the major
threats Canadians face today don’t discriminate. Dissenting voices in the next
100 years will therefore be more collective, more mainstream, more likely to
force timely political action. And because 20th-century crusaders brought much
needed tolerance and understanding to this country and to the world, we can now
stand up together to fight for causes that are vital to all of us. Read on and
see how Canadians are rising up, 21st-century style, bringing to the forefront
movements that were largely unheard of 10 years ago. All aboard?
21ST CENTURY MOVEMENT: TO TAKE BACK RESOURCES
FIRST TARGET: WATER
While the world’s population tripled
in the 20th century, water consumption increased six-fold as expanding the food
supply required heavily irrigating crops. If current consumption, global warming
and pollution trends continue unchecked, two thirds of the world’s population
won’t have adequate access to clean water by 2025. Those living in third world
countries will be hit hardest. The UN predicts that most of Africa’s 677 lakes
will become swamps in the next two decades. But that’s not to say we’re in the
clear—the Geological Survey of Canada predicts Calgary could face a water
shortage in the next 10 to 15 years.
More than five million people die from water-borne diseases each year, 10 times the number of people killed in wars, and water scarcity poses a huge threat to food security. An international body has been created to ward off biblical-like droughts but the World Water Council, as it’s known, inspires little confidence among waterrights activists. It’s dominated by companies and organizations that tend to let the market sort out social inequities, including the water bottling companies, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Across the globe, citizens’ groups battle for control of local water supplies. In several townships of South Africa, people are fighting exorbitant water costs thanks to privatization; in Michigan, lobby groups are demonstrating against Nestle’s highly extractive bottling practices; and in India, protesters are calling for a boycott of Coca-Cola, which has contributed to water scarcity in rural areas. On a larger scale, several organizations, including the Council of Canadians’ Blue Planet Project, spearheaded by Maude Barlow, are calling for a water council that isn’t dominated by corporate interests.
GEAR UP FOR: Fights to oppose water privatization, campaigns for more appropriate eco-management of water and fewer showers.
MOVEMENT: TO STOP UNNECESSARY WASTE
FIRST TARGET: PLASTIC BAGS
Ontarians alone use 7 million
plastic bags every day. In Toronto, the plastic film from grocery bags,
dry-cleaning bags and the like accounts for three percent of landfill waste,
according to officials at the city’s waste management program. Less than five
percent of bags are recycled, mainly because the low quality plastic used in the
bags makes recycling inefficient and not economically viable.
Plastic bags, and plastics in general, are troublesome not only because of their volume in landfills but because of their resilience. It can take up to 1,000 years for a plastic bag to completely decompose and countless numbers of birds and fish die every year after eating shiny plastic pieces that block their digestive systems. Even in the remote Canadian arctic, Canada’s Wildlife Service found plastic in the stomach contents of 30 percent of northern fulmars—a type of seabird—they examined. Plastics are the main component of what’s euphemistically known as the “garbage patch,” a floating trash pile twice the size of Texas, located where opposing currents converge in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii.
After Leaf Rapids, Manitoba, pop. 600, banned single-use plastic bags in early April, other small towns, including Rossland and Tofino, B.C., proposed either following suit or slapping a levy on the environmental nuisances. Then in early May, the Ontario government called for a voluntary 50 percent reduction in plastic bag usage, asking retailers to offer other options and consumers to consider them. Total or partial plastic bag bans have been issued in many other countries as well, including Ireland, Rwanda, South Africa, India and the U.K. Perhaps seeing this as the first sign of a shifting perception toward plastics in general, the Canadian plastics industry has responded with MyPlasticBag. ca, a website that claims “the Canadian plastics industry has a great track record in product stewardship and environmental responsibility.” Birds everywhere are choking on the statement.
GEAR UP FOR: Boycotts on companies that over-package, activist-driven waste audits on corporations and even more recycling and repurposing.
MOVEMENT: TO STOP ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMICAL POLLUTION
FIRST TARGET: HORMONE DISRUPTORS
In the past 25 years, the scientific community has
identified an alarming number of industrial chemicals that have
estrogen-mimicking qualities. The chemicals include, but aren’t limited to,
bisphenol A (BPA), found in hard plastic water bottles and the inner linings of
cans; phthalates—chemicals that make plastic flexible—and nonylphenol
ethoxylates, chemicals used in industrial detergents and cleaning products.
Many researchers believe xenoestrogens are responsible for a significant chunk of North America’s more unsavory health trends. In animal tests, scientists have linked exposure to the extremely low concentrations of BPA found in water bottles to prostate cancer. New research also suggests xenoestrogens are behind earlier puberty rates, lower sperm counts and higher breast cancer incidences over the past few decades. These pseudo-hormones are thought to be causing biological mayhem in the animal world as well. In fish and turtle populations found near chemical plants or sewage run-off, scientists have discovered males that are producing eggs.
Earlier this year, the lobby group Environmental Defence called for a ban on BPA after Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group discovered one in 10 cans contained BPA levels 200 times higher than what the U.S. government has deemed safe. BPA is one of the 200 substances the Conservatives put under review, meaning that if it’s found to be dangerous, BPA will be put on the federal toxic substances list early next year. But such a designation doesn’t necessarily mean we’re safe, according to Dr. Kapil Khatter, president of Canadian Physicians for the Environment. “The government can classify something as toxic and still do absolutely nothing about it,” he says, noting that DEHP, an endocrine disruptor that is on the toxic substances list, is still permitted for use in vinyl flooring and intravenous tubing.
GEAR UP FOR: More class-action suits against companies that make toxic products, such as one already launched against baby bottle manufacturers in the United States; further chemical product bans; and shopping for new floors.
MOVEMENT: TO PROTECT PRIVACY
FIRST TARGET: POLICE CAMERAS ON THE STREETS
Many Canadian
cities—including Montreal, Hamilton, Kelowna, Edmonton and Antigonish, Nova
Scotia—currently use closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras. Last year,
Toronto launched a pilot CCTV project at a cost of $2 million, and several other
cities have since followed. The cameras can rotate 360 degrees and can zoom in
to see such detail as a logo on a cigarette package.
The argument that only criminals need to worry about public surveillance cameras falls apart when you consider who’s watching the live feeds—bored, and potentially corrupt, officials. In the U.S., police officers have used internal databases to blackmail married patrons of gay bars, track estranged spouses and stalk women.
The cameras also open the door to racial discrimination. In their book, The Maximum Surveillance Society , Clive Norris and Gary Armstrong found UK police had no cause for singling out 36 percent of the individuals they tracked. Blacks were more than twice as likely than whites to be singled out under the category “no obvious reason.”
While there is no national organization lobbying against CCTV, local groups like the Toronto Public Space Committee (TPSC) and the Vancouver Public Space Network have been petitioning their mayors in city council and bringing awareness to the issue through website and media campaigns. “Cameras change the role of the police from protecting the community to catching a criminal after they’ve committed a crime. I want to make sure the crime isn’t committed in the first place,” says TPSC’s Daniel Quinn, who notes that research shows cameras don’t reduce overall crime levels, as public space crimes are not often premeditated.
GEAR UP FOR: Protests to stop cameras from entering all public spaces, opposition to biometric and other technology-based identification and chronic references to George Orwell’s 1984.
MOVEMENT: TO KEEP THE INTERNET PUBLIC
FIRST TARGET: NET NEUTRALITY
What if your internet service
provider could control how fast you use the internet or even how you could use
it. In the last few years, large telecommunication companies in the U.S. and
Canada have been trying to do just this.
The greatest thing about the internet is that it’s a level playing field. In theory, the website of, say, a small independent magazine should appear on your screen just as easily as the site for a large corporate-owned media outlet. If large telecommunications companies are able to disregard net neutrality, this level playing field is effectively destroyed.
Internet expert and University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist reported that Rogers customers who try to use BitTorrent, a popular file sharing program, have found their service slowing down to a crawl as the service provider tried to “shape” traffic. In 2005, Telus users were prevented from seeing an anti-Telus site run by a member of its then-striking union. In both cases, a Canadian internet service provider was breaching “net neutrality,” the idea that internet traffic should be transmitted regardless of its content, creator or origin.
In Canada net neutrality has been a stealth issue. But the concentration of media ownership in this country makes it an even more crucial one. For now the issue of net neutrality remains the domain of internet experts like Geist and Andrew Clement, a University of Toronto professor of information studies. Canadians would do well to look toward American activists, who have been fighting this battle in Congress. SaveTheInternet. com, for example, has a petition with more than 1.5 million names on it. It’s also one of the few places where you’ll see a letter of support signed by members of both the conservative TV watchdogs Parents Television Council and the American Civil Liberties Union.
GEAR UP FOR: Campaigns calling for strict controls on web ownership, stepped-up “hacktivism” and reprisals on corporations that try to control web results or track browsing habits.
MOVEMENT: TO CONTROL REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
FIRST TARGET: PRENATAL SCREENING
Following in the
footsteps of its American counterpart, the Society of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists of Canada (SOGC) released new recommendations this year that all
pregnant women undergo first-trimester screening for genetic abnormalities,
including Down syndrome. Screening can now be done sooner and with much greater
accuracy than before, and disabled rights groups are alarmed by the eugenic
potentials for these kinds of technological advances.
The SOGC maintains identifying Down syndrome will help to ensure special considerations are met during pregnancy and delivery, guaranteeing the child is born healthy, but tales abound of doctors informing moms-to-be that a child with DS will never read, speak or be toilet trained. Studies show abortion rates are about 80 to 90 percent when Down syndrome is detected, and the implications of new technologies lead down a hazy and unsure line between a woman’s right to choose and a systematic redesign of society.
The Canadian Down Syndrome Society agrees screening should be used to provide improved health care for mother and child—and only that. Its task force, Voices at the Table: Advocacy (VATTA), comprised of 11 adults across Canada with DS, is working to generate an image of people with DS that is closer to reality. As VATTA chair CariAnn Olsen says: “People with Down syndrome are going to school, working and getting married—it’s wrong to assume that we would be simply a burden to families, to the medical system or to the community.”
GEAR UP FOR: An even murkier abortion debate as technology gives women increasing amounts of information in the first trimester, resistance to cloning and a future that could star Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke.
