And Good Sunday Morning! Our last May weekend, and tomorrow is June!
Before diving into the tumultuous political events of this past week, I want to share good news. This is a First Nations victory on an issue with which I have been deeply involved. It never received much, if any, national news attention. This is the APTN coverage of our press conference held October 7, 2025.
Here’s the Cole’s Notes version:
Back in the Harper era, our old friends at SNC Lavelin, now Atkins Realis, bought Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. for the bargain basement price of $17 million. The company is so corrupt it is banned from many international agencies, and now operates as Canada Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) with private sector partners (including some from the US involved with nuclear weapons). CNL has a problem with low-level nuclear waste from the Chalk River reactor. It received permits from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to allow near-surface disposal within 1.1 kilometres of the Ottawa River! The watershed of the Ottawa River (in Algonquin, “Kichi Sibi”) provides drinking water to millions of Canadians. The area selected is critical habitat for endangered species, including Blanding’s Turtle, Little Brown Bat, Northern Myotis, Tri-coloured Bat, Canada Warbler, Golden-winged Warbler, Whip-poor-will, Eastern Wolf, and Black Ash. The proposed site consists of mature forests, wetlands, streams, and critical habitat that have remained largely undisturbed for decades. So Environment Canada obligingly gave CNL a permit exempting it from protecting the species at risk.
The Algonquin nation on whose territory this affront is planned, the Kebaowek FN, with support from the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility and the Sierra Club of Canada (for whom I served as executive director from 1989 – 2006, now run by the brilliant Gretchen Fitzgerald) took Environment Canada to court. In March 2025, they won on the first round with the Federal Court (Trial Division) issuing an order that Environment Canada revisit the decision to give CNL permission to ignore the Species at Risk Act. CNL appealed. On Thursday, the Federal Court of Appeal upheld the ruling in favour of Kebaowek First Nation and allies!
Chief Lance Haymond of Kebaowek First Nation said “The Federal Court of Appeal has confirmed that Environment Canada must go back and do its job properly. This decision reinforces what we have been saying from the beginning: decisions that threaten endangered species, sensitive ecosystems, and our sacred river must be based on a transparent, rigorous, and lawful process. Kebaowek remains committed to protecting the Kichi Sibi, defending our responsibilities to future generations, the drinking water of millions of citizens of Quebec and Ontario, and ensuring that Indigenous rights and environmental protections are respected every step of the way.”
I worry that every win for endangered species under current laws is driving the Carney initiatives to dismantle such protections.
This week we had a mere three hours of debate on the spring economic update legislative changes, Bill C-30. I never had a chance to speak in the Second Reading debate when the move came to shut it down and move to a vote. In the designated half hour to debate the vote on moving to an accelerated vote I did ask the Minister of Finance about division 8 of C-30, giving Cabinet the right to overrule any decision that a pesticide was too dangerous to be used. C-30 will allow the use of such pesticides if in the national interest. Minister Champagne did not explain why weakening pesticide regulations was even in the bill. Of course, with the Liberal majority, the move to shut down debate carried. So my only chance to speak was in moving to “applying the vote.” Things are so bad that I had to swear to get anyone to notice what is going on in Parliament: Thanks to Greenpeace for putting this on its Instagram.
Of course, this was a tough week for me. My old friend Steven Guilbeault made the decision to resign from Parliament altogether. He told me on Tuesday. I tried to talk him into staying. To being at least one vote with me on key issues, to crossing over to the Green Party, sitting as an Independent, anything but leaving. But he made me understand his decision was made. Just as I have shared with you in this letter, the multiple discussion papers and new MOU with Alberta in May were the very last straws for our former Minister of the Environment and Climate Change. He had negotiated a speaking slot at 4:30 the next afternoon for one last address to Parliament. Shortly after we met, trying to find a quiet spot in a back corridor, I was asked to appear on CTV Power Play. Vassy Kapelos had obtained his confirmation that Steven planned to quit.
The next day Steven delivered this speech. And here is my response immediately following his speech.
What I found quite telling was the number of Cabinet members, current and past, who moved from their normal seats in the House, to surround Steven in this critical moment. As you can see from the video clip, the Hon. Melanie Joly chose to sit right next to him. Other current Ministers Gregor Robertson and Rechie Valdez joined the group sitting nearby, as well as many former ministers – Karina Gould, Jonathan Wilkinson, (soon to leave parliament to become Ambassador to the EU), Jean Yves Duclos, Ginette Pettipas Taylor and new Halifax MP, chair of the Environment Committee Shannon Miedema, David Milne (new Liberal MP for Fredericton), Elizabeth Briere, Marcus Polowski, Karim Bardeesy, and a good number more, all showed support by changing seats to be nearby. The Prime Minister was not in the House – not for Question Period and not for Steven’s farewell address.
As in any parliamentary week, my work covers a wide range of issues. I am including these two clips as they touch on issues of concern: questioning the minister of immigration on ICE, Gaza and other hot topics. The process you will see in this clip is unusual. It is called a review of main estimates. Periodically ministers are on the hot seat for hours after the normal business of the day has ended. It is not a normal parliamentary session with the Speaker in his raised throne. It is “committee of the whole” with the chair at ground level and MPs asking questions able to do so from any spot in the chamber. My 7.5 minute slot took place after 10 PM on Thursday night. Questions to Minister Diab.
My efforts to prepare for and, if possible, avoid an Alberta referendum on separation from Canada took place relatively late in the evening, in the daily, “adjournment proceedings,” colloquially known as the “late show.”
As the dust settles following Steven’s resignation, I wonder if there will be any impacts on the Prime Minister’s extraordinary popularity? I still harbour hopes for some Liberals to join me and sit as Greens. As Steven Guilbeault pointed out when he was on CBC’s Power and Politics, the Liberal platform is not being implemented. The platform the Liberal MPs ran on had 28 references to climate change and none to pipelines. But in politics what matters is polling. I am appalled that the Liberals can abandon so many pledges – for climate, for human rights, for Indigenous reconciliation with, apparently, no price to be paid.
Still, I sense cracks are appearing. The climate crisis is worsening. Atmospheric chemistry and physics are not impacted by public opinion polls.
Have a good week ahead. Stay well and take of yourself and all that you love.
Love and gratitude,
Elizabeth
P.S. Please help me get thousands of signatures on this petition to get the National Gallery to finally host an exhibition of Robert Bateman!