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CMAJ on PMRA, November 2023 |
EV as empty vessel in car sewers, Eric Reguly, Globe & Mail, May 20, 2023 |
Comic Piccini opera, Redux, Ontario auditor general Env Report, Globe & Mail, May 18, 2023 |
Venal or Venial? letter to Globe, May 16, 2023 |
"Cry me a river over a few bats", Redux, Globe & Mail, May 12,2023 |
Greenbelt "Scam": Barbarian Ford invasions, Globe & Mail, May 12, 2023 |
Barbarian Ford invasions case: City of Belleville Bell Creek dvlpt, Intelligencer, April 25, 2023 |
Road building projects in Wales, UK, cancelled as climate clangers, the Guardian, Feb 14, 2023 |
Unpublshed letter to Globe, 1996 opioids revisited, February 6, 2023 |
Cathal Kelly on climate charade, Globe & Mail, January 27, 2023 |
Ontario Bill 23, letter to the Premier, and Todd Smith MPP, Nov 24, 2022 |
Canola conundrum, letter to Globe & Mail, October 2022 |
3rd (Canadian) arm of U.S. Air Pollution Health Effects Study, the Guardian, Aug 12, 2022 |
Atomic awe and Boris blight, letter to Globe, July 11, 2022 |
Your !!*^%! car, Part II, Globe and Mail editorial, July 16, 2022 |
Your !!*^%! car, Part I, Globe and Mail, June 20, 2022 |
CAPE report on fossil fuels, Globe and Mail, June 9, 2022 |
Traffic Air Pollution Health Effects report, CAPE, April 2022 |
EU Bans Toxics, the Guardian, April 2022 |
Comic Piccini opera: Ontario Auditor General Environment Report, November 2021 |
......RIP Trillium...... November 16, 2021 |
Covid-19 Parlour Sessions 2020/2021, April 1, 2021 |
Mitch Podoluk, Obituary, Globe and Mail, September 2019 |
Notice to (Big Bay) Mariners, August 2019 |
Air Head, Globe and Mail, August 2019 |
Leon Redbone, RIP, June 2019 |
Ontario Endangered Species Act at risk, letter to Rod Phillips, April 2019 |
Slide to Extinction, Chris Humphrey, letter to Globe, October 31, 2018 |
Peter Galbraith, FRCP, obituary, October 2017 |
White Pines on Death Bed, Bruce Bell, Intelligencer, July 17,2018 |
Thucydides Trap, letter to Globe, May 2018 |
Great Lakes toxics down, SUNY Oswego/Clarkson U, April 2018 |
Machine subversion of democracy, letter to Globe, April 2018 |
Air Pollution overrides Ancestral Genes, Globe, March 2018 |
Olympian Cathal Kelly, letter to Globe, March 2018 |
Environmentalists seeking unemployment, letter to Globe, February 2018 |
Less is more on Bike Lanes, National Post, January 2018 |
Tramadol, 10 years on, Globe and Mail, November 2017 |
White Stripes: Belleville bicycle lanes, letters, November 2017 |
Occupational Cancers, CCO research results, Globe and Mail, October 2017 |
Big Pharmoney and Canadian Drug Use Guidelines, Globe and Mail, June 21, 2017, Kelly Grant |
Oxycontin, 20 years on, letter to Globe, May 2017 |
Lake Ontario wind turbines to remain on hold? Feb 2017 |
Obituary, Raold Serebrin, September 2016 |
Sartorial slip or signal? letter to Globe editor, October 2016 |
Weapons of mass distraction, letter to Globe editor, Oct 2016 |
Point O turbines 99% Down the Drain, CCSAGE, July 7, 2016 |
Point O turbines Dead and Damned, PECFN, July 6, 2016 |
Rabid diplomat, letter to Globe, May, 2016 |
More on bats: rabid rocker? letter to Globe, January 2016 |
Lighthouses of eastern Lake Ontario, new book by Marc Seguin, March 2016 |
Continuing corporate windpower malfeasance: Windstream and Trillium Corp, Feb 2016 |
Amherst Island: the next fine mess, Feb 2016 |
Valerie Langer: Thirty years of effort pays off on the B.C. coast, Feb 1,2016 |
Trillium log, 6th annual ELO expedtion, September 2015 |
Trillium Wind Corp intent on Spoliation of eastern Lake Ontario and Main Duck Isle, June 2015 |
Turtles rule? Ontario Court of Appeal Decision: Turtlegate, April 2015 |
Obituaries, Mary Terrance (Luke) Hill, January 2015; Valerie Ingrid (Hill) Kaldes, July 2015 |
Ontario Court of Appeal turtle hearing, December 2014 |
Trillium Log, 5th annual ELO expedition, September 2014 |
Planetary public health manifesto, The Lancet, March 2014 |
Ostrander Bioblitz, butterfly inventory walk, August 10, 2014 |
Victory at Cape Vincent: British Petroleum withdraws turbine proposal, February 2014 |
Stay of execution granted by Ontario Court of Appeal, March 2014 |
Never say die: Will the Court of Appeal let the Ostrander Phoenix fly free again? March 2014 |
Divisional Court ruling in Ostrander: turtles belly up, Trojan horses win, February 2014 |
Lafarge 2020, pushing the air envelope again, Hazardous waste as cement kiln fuel proposal, Jan2014 |
Another fine mess in Port Hope: municipal waste incinerator proposal, January 2014 |
Ostrander: fiasco, or snafu? you decide, December 2013 |
Ostrander rises again, Noli illegitimi carborundum, December 2013 |
British Petroleum backing off Cape Vincent after a decade of aggression? December 2013 |
Turbines best Bald Eagles in U.S law, December 2013 |
SARStock 10 years after, letter to Globe, August 2003 |
Trillium log September 2013: Surfin' USA: Hanging Ten in a Hughes 29 |
ERT Post mortem: Garth Manning lets it all hang out, August 2013 |
ERT post mortem: Cheryl Anderson lets it all hang out, August 2013 |
ERT Post Mortem: Ian Dubin lets it all hang out, August 2013 |
Great Lakes United turns thirty, goes down, RIP GLU, July 29, 2013 |
ERT decision, Ostrander turns turtle, goes down, July 3, 2013 |
PECFN Thankyou, and Appeal for funds, July 6, 2013 |
Minister of Env on Lake Ontario Off shore wind turbine status, June 2013 |
Lake Ontario water level control plan, June 2013 |
Play by Play, Part II, APPEC Ostrander ERT Appeal, June 2013 |
Ostrander ERT June 2013, Appendix VI, an indirect cause of human morbidity and mortality ? |
ELOERG Presentation to Ostrander ERT, Part II, Human Health, May 2013 |
The Dirty E-Word, Terry Sprague, Picton Gazette, April 2013 |
Toxics in Great Lakes Plastic Pollution, April 2013 |
Bill Evans on Birds and Wind farms, April 2013 |
Mayday, Naval Marine Archive, April 2013 |
Experimental Lakes Area, Kenora, Closing by Federal Gov't, March 2013 |
Fishing Lease Phase out on Prince Edward Point, March 2013 |
Windstream makes $1/2 Billion NAFTA claim, March 2013 |
Play by Play, PECFN Ostrander ERT Appeal, March 2013 |
Offshore Wind turbine moratorium 2 years later, The Star, Feb 2013 |
ELOERG ERT submission on Ostrander: Appendix V: Pushing the Envelope of the MoE SEV, Feb 2013 |
Wente on Wind and Bald Eagle mugging, Globe and Mail, February 2, 2013 |
Sprague on Wind and Bald Eagle mugging, Picton Gazette, Jan 25, 2013 |
Cry Me a River over a Few Bats: Submission to Env Review Tribunal, ELOERG, January 2013 |
Lake Ontario's Troubled Waters: U of Michigan GLEAM, January 2013 |
Letter to Minister of Environment re: Ostrander, January 2013 |
No Balm in Gilead: Ostrander IWT's as Trojan Horses, January 2013 |
Ostrander Turbines: another Christmas gift by the MoE, Dec 2012 |
Occupational carcinogens: Ontario Blue Collar breast cancer study, November 2012 |
Fresh water fish Extinctions, Scientific American,November 2012 |
Great Lakes Toxics revisited, November 2012 |
Frack the What ? November 2012 |
$ 2 1/4 Billion Trillium Power lawsuit knockback Appeal, November 2012 |
Canada Centre for Inland Waters decimated, October 2012 |
Birds, Bats, Turbines, and the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, October 2012 |
Ecological public health, the 21st centurys big idea? British MedicalJournal Sept1,2012 |
Trillium log, Sept 2012 |
George Prevost, Saviour of the Canadas, 1812 - 1814. June 2012 |
The Victory at Picton: Bicentennial Conference on War of 1812-1814, Differing Perspectives, May 2012 |
Carleton Island and the 1812, letter to the Globe, October 2011 |
Queen's Fine Arts Department Succumbs, letter to Principal, December 2011 |
Mr. Kumar and the Super 30, November 2011 |
Letters, Articles and Projects from the Nineties |
Alban Goddard Hill, web site manager |
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Comic opera from "impactful" Piccini and Ecocide from Doug the 'dozer
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Ontario "automatically" okays permits that harm at-risk species
Jeff Gray, Queen's Park Reporter
Published November 22, 2021 The Globe and Mail Newspaper
Ontario's Ministry of the Environment automatically approves permits for developments expected to harm at-risk species,
the province's Auditor-General says in a series of reports that also chastise the government for failing to recoup millions
in costs for investigating toxic spills, and for breaking its own law on public consultations.
In an annual batch of environmental reports tabled on Monday, Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk said the province is failing
to protect wildlife from developers and resource industries. The Environment Ministry, she added, is "essentially facilitating
development rather than protecting species at risk."
Since 2009, the first full year Ontario's Endangered Species Act was in force, the annual number of approvals for projects
that harm species at risk has risen from 13 to more than 800, the audit says. While the projects are approved with conditions,
the government has never completely turned down a permit because of the harm it would do to an at-risk species. The number
of species at risk has increased 22 per cent over the same time period.
"We believe that the public would expect a ministry named the Ministry of the Environment to take the lead and be
pro-active in ensuring that Ontario's environment is protected for future generations," Ms. Lysyk told reporters. "However,
our work indicated that there are many areas where this is not the case."
The auditor's report shows that the number of approvals to impact at-risk species had risen rapidly under the previous
Liberal government, hitting 802 in 2017. In 2019, under the current government, 972 such permits were issued. Another 827
were issued last year.
The audit also says the ministry's species-at-risk advisory committee "is now dominated by industry representatives."
Environment Minister David Piccini defended his government's record. He told reporters that Ontario is the only province
in Canada that is "anywhere close" to meeting its 2030 emissions reduction targets. But Ms. Lysyk has previously
warned that the province is unlikely to hit those targets. In a follow-up report issued Monday, she said Ontario's own estimates
show that, under its current commitments, its 2030 greenhouse gas emissions would fall by just 3.4 megatonnes below the province's
business-as-usual forecast, well shy of its 17.6-megatonne goal.
Ontario's Progressive Conservative government introduced changes to the Endangered Species Act in 2019. One of the new
provisions allowed developers to contribute cash to protect habitat across the province, rather than mitigating environmental
damage caused by their own building projects. Environmentalist critics labelled the idea "pay-to-slay."
On the issue of protections for at-risk species, Mr. Piccini said the new, developer-funded government system to pay for
habitat and mitigation projects is not yet fully up and running and therefore cannot be judged.
"Through this fund, we're going to see incredibly impactful actions to preserve species at risk," Mr. Piccini
said. He added that development permits are subject to "robust oversight" and conditions to protect species.
Opposition leaders seized on Monday's reports, calling them more evidence that Premier Doug Ford's government doesn't
care about the environment. When Mr. Ford came into office in 2018 he cancelled green-energy projects and railed against the
federal government's carbon pricing scheme. While he has in recent months called for Ontario's auto sector to become a leader
in manufacturing electric cars, he has also once again drawn the ire of environmentalists by promising to build two new highways
in the Greater Toronto Area. An election is set for June.
Another of Ms. Lysyk's new reports says various government ministries, including the Ministry of Environment, "deliberately
avoided consulting the public on environmentally significant decisions" over the past year by failing to post decisions
online for citizen feedback. This, the report says, defied the province's Environmental Bill of Rights. The findings echoed
a recent Ontario Divisional Court ruling on a challenge launched by environmental groups. The court declared the government's
moves unlawful.
The government policy changes on which consultation wasn't done included amendments to the Environmental Assessment Act,
a move to weaken the powers of local conservation authorities and a boost to the authority of unappealable ministerial zoning
orders (MZOs), which the government frequently uses to fast-track approvals of development projects.
Another of Ms. Lysyk's reports says that the province sought to recover its costs for investigating and monitoring the
cleanup of only three hazardous spills between 2011 and 2020, out of 73,000 spills that occurred during that time. Even then,
it only sought half of the total $1.3-million it spent.
Looking at a sample of 30 other spills, the report says the province spent $4.5-million on staff time and laboratory tests,
but failed to recover the money from polluters. (In most cases, polluters must bear the costs of the actual cleanups themselves.)
On recycling, another report warns that Ontario could run out of landfill room in as little as 11 years because it hasn't
done enough to boost the diversion of industrial, commercial and institutional waste. While about 50 per cent of residential
waste is diverted, only 15 per cent of industrial and business waste is kept from winding up in landfills, the report says.
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Eastern Lake Ontario Environmental Research Group
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