Op-ed Idiot wind

by David Shanahan

It’s no secret that I really don’t like Facebook; for all its benefits in keeping friends and family in touch and updated, there’s so much negativity, misinformation and plain nastiness there that I just stay away. But sometimes, I get sent something that has been posted about me, or this paper, or staff, and I feel that I have to respond, and this is one of those times.

The Times recently received a Letter to the Editor from someone who has been published here numerous times over the years. But this one was different: quite simply, had we printed it, both the Times and the writer would have been wide open to a lawsuit for libel. You just can’t accuse people in public life of accepting bribes and being corrupt unless you have solid evidence, or even the smallest bit of support for the accusation.

So the letter was not printed, and the writer just threw a hissy fit. As is now the usual response to anything that goes against someone’s wishes, the writer ran to Facebook to condemn the Editor of the Times, making the remarkable statement that “...now I know that I can’t write articles for the NG Times anymore as the paper is too close with Council.” There are at least two things that are wrong about that statement: no one has ever told that person that they can’t write for the Times again. After literally dozens of letters and articles published to date by this person, this seems a rather extreme reaction to one letter being rejected.

Of course, no context was given, no background or reason for the decision not to publish, just an aggrieved moan about how unfair it is, and all because the Times “is too close to Council”! Believe me, the decision not to publish was not to protect Council, it was to protect the Times and the writer from serious legal jeopardy, something not revealed in the Facebook posts.

Naturally, the usual suspects jumped into the fray, declaring that the Times “adores this council”. Interesting accusation to make from defeated candidates for Council, and it shows a remarkable ignorance of recent history in NG. Anyone

Environmental Racism

by Zara Zrudlo

who has been around for more than ten minutes will remember previous mayors and councils and the many, many attacks made on the Times and its predecessor.

I have two favourites: one was when I was escorted out of a Council meeting for pointing out that the Mayor of the day was turning off the microphones of anyone he disagreed with. The other was when the previous Council to this one declared, in writing, that the NG Times was a threat to democracy in NG, and that neither the Times, nor anyone else in the community, had the right to question or criticise Council. And they put this in an article they submitted to the Times! Ah, those were the days!

Compared to some of those other councils, this one is relatively benign. No, we don’t “adore” them, and once or twice we’ve been criticised (on Facebook!) by members of the current council. I know that the current Editor has no personal relationship with anyone on Council, although my soul mate chats with many of them regularly; but then, she chats with half of NG

Racism isn’t just one simple idea, there are many different parts to it. One of the parts is environmental racism. Environmental racism is how the actions of people with ‘higher’ status, impact the people with ‘lower status’, usually focusing on people of visible minorities.

All over the world there are a lot of mines, toxic waste disposal sites, refineries, chemical plants, and other facilities that are dangerous to people’s health. On Turtle Island, what is now known as North America, most of them are right next to communities with a high population of people who are Black, Indigenous, or persons of regularly, so that means less than you’d think. Personally, I haven’t seen or spoken to the Mayor since the night of the election!

But, to go back to the main point: Facebook has become a place where people just shout into the ether about whatever upsets them. There are allegations without substance, gossip of a malevolent nature, group think where people talk to like-minded obsessives in their own personal echo chamber. Of course, there are some worthwhile uses for the platform, as long as it lets you access something other than what their algorithms select for you.

The kind of exchange of views that are exemplified by the ones I refer to here are all too common these days, and allow people to become vindictive, mean-spirited, and increasingly uncivilised and ignorant. They may be the kind of people Bob Dylan wrote about many years ago:

“Someone's got it in for me, they're planting stories in the press. Whoever it is I wish they'd cut it out quick; but when they will I can only guess.

Idiot wind. Blowing through the buttons of our coat. Blowing through the letters that we wrote. Idiot wind. Blowing through the dust upon our shelves. We're idiots, babe, it's a wonder we can even feed ourselves.” color. These types of facilities can cause rare and dangerous kinds of cancer and other diseases.

Is there any chance that we can, as a community, leave all that behind and learn to actually talk to each other again, to discuss differences and opinions rationally and sensibly? Or are we doomed to continue listening to the idiot wind?

Because the communities mentioned above don’t always have access to good health care, or because of racism IN the healthcare system, these diseases and their causes often get ignored. A survey taken in BC found that 84% of Indigenous folks have experienced racism in healthcare. Stats similar to this are not confined to BC, or Indigenous people. People of color and black people have experienced similar things. Racism existing in all levels of government and services make it even harder for environmenal racism to come to light.

In Ontario, more than 60 refineries and chemical plants have surrounded Aamjiwnaang First Nation since the 1940s, creating what’s known as “Chemical Valley.” Chemical Valley is one of the most polluted places in the country. The journal ‘Cancer’ did a study in 2019 and found that a certain part of myeloid leukemia is more common there than anywhere else in the country.

While communities affected by environmental racism aren’t always widely acknowledged, there is a lot of research into the effects of the toxins found in waste sites, thermal generating stations and pulp and paper mills. The toxins used in these facilities—heavy metals, volatile organic compounds, fine particulate matter, and mobile gases—are associated with a long list of health issues including cancer, birth defects, and damage to most of the vital organs.

The air pollution caused by many of these facilities has been studied, and linked to a lot of heart diseases which cause 14,600 premature deaths in Canada per year. Based on maps and statistics, we can assume that a lot of these are from marginalized communities.

Environmental racism can sometimes be more subtle than other types of racism. You have to look at maps and find the pattern of where the dangerous facilities are positioned, otherwise it just looks like a coincidence.

Another example is the Gaslink pipeline that is going straight through the Wet’suwet’en territory. It is not only atrocious, but illegal. The people in that territory were never consulted and they never ceded their land to the Crown. According to The Indian Act, the government/ Crown is not allowed to take land from the Indigenous Peoples without treaty negotiation or trade of some sort.

The Indian Act is racist and horrendous. It treats the Indigenous Peoples like they are barely human. It is shameful that it exists, however, the least the government can do is follow the rights for Indigenous Peoples that are set out in it.

According to Wet’suwet’en law, the Hereditary Chiefs have jurisdiction over the land. This is supported by the 1997 Supreme Court of Canada Delgamuukw decision. This law states that provinces can’t extinguish Indigenous land titles (which includes rights to natural resources), and oral history is legitimate evidence of land claims. The Hereditary Chiefs have said that the construction of the Costal Gaslink pipeline is a violation of their law, and have issued the company an eviction notice that has been ignored. The construction of the pipeline has also caused many Wet’suwet’en people to be removed, sometimes by force from their homes on their traditional lands.

More than 150 countries have updated their environmental laws to include a provision that having a healthy environment is a human right. Hopefully Canada will soon follow. For now, what we can do is continue to learn, protest and call the government and industries out on what they’re doing. To learn more about environmental racism in Canada, you can check out Elliott Page’s movie, “There’s Something In the Water”. You can also look at an article the magazine Chatelaine called “This Is Where Canada Dumps Tons Of Its Toxic Waste, Tailings Ponds—And Racism”.

Zara Zrudlo is a homeschooled, fourteen year old resident of Kemtpville. They love writing, art, acting, reading and anything to do with music. Ever since they were little they’ve cared a lot about activism and social justice, and hoped to make a difference in the world. Zara has written two and a half novels, and ran a newspaper for their friends and family for three years. They love hanging out with their dogs and chickens and spending time imagining having dinner with various book characters.