streetfestival

On Aug. 22, the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) announced Imperial Oil must pay a $50,000 administrative penalty related to tailings water leaking from the Kearl oilsands facilities in northern Alberta, about 137 kilometres northeast of Fort McMurray.

Last year, it came to light that toxic tailings had been seeping from the Imperial Oil-owned site for nine months and downstream communities were not properly notified. It took a massive spill of 5.3 million litres in February for the long-term seepage, which Imperial Oil first noticed in May 2022, to be made public through an environmental protection order. This sparked outrage from Indigenous communities, the public and politicians.

“A $50,000 penalty for a company that made $20 billion in profits over 2022 and 2023, to me, is a feeble slap on the wrist from an industry-captured regulator,” Liberal MP Patrick Weiler told Canada’s National Observer in a phone interview.

For a company like Imperial Oil, $50,000 is “pocket change,” said Aliénor Rougeot, program manager of climate and energy at Environmental Defence, in an interview with Canada’s National Observer. “I don't even know that they would notice that. It's probably a rounding error,” Rougeot said.

In the second quarter of 2024, Imperial Oil reported $1.13 billion in profit.

I grew up in the 90s and aughts. These containers were frequently around cash registers in convenience stores and perhaps other small businesses. I don't remember them being so consistently branded, but my experience then would have been limited to going into a handful of stores in the same locale. Of course, Canada ditched pennies (1 cent pieces) from cash transactions just over 10 years ago (we now round for cash transactions).

A penny felt like a meaningful amount of money to me as a child. More than anything, when I look back at them, these little containers stimulated my understanding of karma and perhaps theory of mind (e.g., mentalizing a future customer helping themself to an available penny and how they'd feel as a result). Looking back, I think that's pretty neat.

I don't know why, but these things popped into my head as I was doing the dishes. I was assured that, thankfully, there's a Lemmy community for this :D

For everyone from Donald Trump to the United Nations, Canada’s system is seen as a highly effective way to control and manage migration for the needs of the corporate class

These racialized workers generate great wealth for the corporate class inside countries like Canada because they’ve been made exploitable through a restrictive immigration regime designed to ensure they remain vulnerable, docile, deportable and disposable.

Capitalists tend not to be fundamentally anti-migrant but rather seek to control and manage migration for the needs of business. They envision migration to be a kind of kitchen faucet that can be turned on and off according to labour market fluctuations. These include some of the largest corporations on the planet like Uber, Amazon, Walmart, and giants within the Canadian economy like Loblaws and Dollarama. Corporations in critical sectors like logistics, warehouses and distribution rely on the same strategies in the Global South as they do in the Global North: when the industries cannot be offshored, they rely on a precarious workforce of migrants.

But over the last two decades, both Liberal and Conservative governments had made this possible, constructing an immigration regime that prioritized temporary migrant labour. Increasingly restrictive for asylum seekers and those living with precarious status or without status, it ensures the disposability of certain categories of migrants, while opening the door to permanent migration for those deemed “deserving.” In the process, Canada’s model has drawn the attention of other governments and agencies around the world—in many ways, a model immigration regime to service global capitalism.

https://mstdn.social/@JenniferJorgenson/112980223753797988

My Blue Birds are at Wrigley Field today. I learned that the Cubs have a tradition of a guest person leading the crowd in singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in the middle of the 7th inning. Today it was Stephen Colbert! But even without such a big name, I thought that was a really cool and unique feature of Cubs games. (Edit: Cubs also have a song for walk-off wins, which is pretty sweet.)

In Yankee Stadium, they do a roll call in the top of the 1st inning while the Yanks are on the field. The fans cheer each players name 4x, interspersed with clap-clap clap-clap-clap, greeting all 9 players on the field (any maybe the manager too? Did it start this year?). I think it's brilliant - from business, fan enjoyment, and perhaps even competitive and player enjoyment angles.

Anything else?

The Israeli military says it’s looking into what happened last month when its soldiers were filmed planting explosives and destroying a water-processing facility in the city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering.

The government of Ontario estimates nearly a quarter of a million people — roughly three of every 200 residents — are homeless, according to information contained in a housing ministry document.

When the NDP government came into power in 2017 and committed to raising B.C.’s carbon tax, it made special provisions for industry. Their increased carbon taxes would be fully returned to “best-in-class” companies and through supporting projects advancing industrial decarbonization.

As of April, a new system — the output-based pricing system — is in place.

The name is somewhat confusing, but the key point is that it is a system of managing carbon pricing for big polluters by exempting a portion of emissions from taxation.

This new system exempts 65 per cent of industrial emissions from the carbon tax.

Canadian emissions rose for the third straight year in 2023, according to the seventy-fourth edition of the venerable “Statistical Review of World Energy” report. The reason I’m turning to data in this report is because Canada won't release its 2023 numbers until next year. This delay, which can exceed two years, keeps Canadians in the dark about where we are and where we are headed.

Many of Canada’s peers in the Group of Seven (G7) nations have already published their 2023 emission estimates — including the United States (U.S.), European Union (E.U.), France, Germany and the United Kingdom (U.K.).

So, to try to provide some current insight into where Canadians are now in the climate fight — and what it will take now to hit our 2030 climate target — I’ve gathered all these numbers and created a series of charts.

The dizzyingly steep path to Canada’s 2030 target
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Fossil fuel companies and their industry associations lobbied the federal government an average of five times per working day in 2023, according to a new analysis from Environmental Defence.

The environmental watchdog tracked 31 companies and industry associations over the course of last year and identified 1,255 separate meetings. The top lobbied departments were Energy and Natural Resources Canada (NRCAN), Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and Finance Canada, with 313, 253 and 118 meetings respectively.

It’s no surprise the three departments most responsible for the country’s emission reduction efforts are the target of intense lobbying, according to the study’s lead author, Emilia Belliveau.

Booker cited Brazilian meat giant JBS in the video, which is the world’s largest meat processor. JBS is notorious for driving more than 2.4 million acres of Amazon deforestation and putting record amounts of methane in the atmosphere. The company’s estimated carbon footprint is higher than the entire country of Spain.

Despite this, JBS announced late last year that it would be seeking an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, which would give it access to far more capital than it already has. The move was heavily criticized by environmentalists, and Booker was one of its most prominent opponents. He led a bipartisan group of senators pressing the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to decline JBS’ Initial Public Offering (IPO) because of its “history of corruption and greenwashing.” “Thanks to that pressure, JBS was forced to delay their listing, and I’m hopeful that they are beginning to take steps towards good governance and meeting their climate commitments,” Booker said in the video.

RJ Barrett led all scorers with 24 points in the victory. He shot 8-for-14 from the floor and added seven rebounds, five assists and two steals. His 24 points were the most by a Canadian at the Olympic Men’s basketball tournament since Steve Nash had 26 points in 2000.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander overcame early foul trouble to finish with 16 points on 8-for-10 field goals, adding four rebounds, three assists, three steals, and two blocked shots in 26 minutes, while Dillon Brooks scored 16 points. Lu Dort added 11 points while playing stellar defence in the second half as Canada pulled away.

Canada’s defensive pressure in the second half helped to force Australia into 18 turnovers in the game, while Canada had 11 miscues of their own. Canada held a 28-10 advantage in points scored off turnovers.

"I think we came back with a purpose in the third quarter," Fernández said. "We did a great job, 22 deflections in the second half, only 16 points in the paint allowed and that ignited our offence. The way we ran the floor, we scored a lot off of their turnovers. It starts with the defence.”

“The resiliency and how relentless this group is [was the difference],” Fernández said. “The way they fought in the second half, Lu Dort was amazing. Dillon was amazing. I think Khem Birch gave us great minutes, Dwight [Powell]with nine rebounds. It was a great team effort. It wasn’t perfect, but for game two, we’re still growing, and we’re about to face one of the best programs in the world.”

The men's next game (vs Spain) is Friday at 11:15 am ET. The women's next game - hopefully a bounce back one after a blowout loss to France to start the group phase 0-1 - is Thursday at 7:30 am ET and they'll take on Australia.