The Daily GRRR! December 11, 2014

Welcome, I am your host Trish Holmes and you are listening to The Daily GRRR! on 100.3fm, CKMS in Waterloo, Ontario, soundfm.ca on the web, today is December 11, 2014.

The Daily GRRR! is a project of the Grand River Media Collective; and is supported by the Community Radio Fund of Canada and CKMS.

Opening Song: John Lennon - Instant Karma

1. Oilwatch

2. Once more: why is oil falling - it's all politics

3. The impact of the drop in the Canadian oil industry

4. Stevie H calls climate regulations on oil and gas sector ‘crazy economic policy’.

5. New AFN chief

6. The Comprehensive Land Claims Policy (consultation period EXTENDED TO DEC 31)

1. OILWATCH
Oil prices have fallen nearly 40 per cent from their peak in June, and yesterday the Price of Oil fell to 61 dollars.
End of Oilwatch

2. Once more: why is oil falling - it's all politics Now last week I talked about OPEC’s role in refusing to alter production, thus providing a glut of oil and sending the price down.
The economist had a nice backgrounder this week on why the price of oil is falling, http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/12/economist-expl...
The article says (and I quote)
The oil price is partly determined by actual supply and demand, and partly by expectation. Demand for energy is closely related to economic activity; spikes in the winter in the northern hemisphere, and during summers in countries which use air conditioning. Supply can be affected by weather (which prevents tankers loading) and by geopolitical upsets. If producers think the price is staying high, they invest, which after a lag boosts supply. Similarly, low prices lead to an investment drought, which is where we are now.
Four things are now affecting the picture.
Demand is low because of weak economic activity, increased efficiency, and a growing switch away from oil to other fuels.
Second, turmoil in Iraq and Libya—two big oil producers with nearly 4m barrels a day combined—has not affected their output.
Thirdly, America has become the world’s largest oil producer. Though it does not export crude oil, it now imports much less, creating a lot of spare supply.
Finally, the Saudis and their Gulf allies have decided not to sacrifice their own market share to restore the price. They could curb production sharply, but the main benefits would go to countries they detest such as Iran and Russia. Saudi Arabia can tolerate lower oil prices quite easily. It has $900 billion in reserves. Its own oil costs very little (around $5-6 per barrel) to get out of the ground.
We’re not hearing very much about the international relations aspect of the oil price drop, but this is what this about. It’s been completely manufactured. Whether you think that is a good thing or a bad things depends on what side you’re on.

But one of the reasons for the manipulation in the first place includes the switch away from oil to other fuels. So how are we going to switch to alternative fuels if we’re held prostrate by the oil industry in this way. Is this growing pains or is it proof that the old hegemony has been paying lip service to change and are now throwing their weight around, illustrating not only that they aren’t going to go quietly, but reaffirming that any change may require a concentrated fight from those of us who want change.

3. The impact of the drop in the Canadian oil industryAnd how is all of this impacting Canada? Oil companies are feeling the heat and reducing their operations. this is 3 minute piece from Jeffrey Jones and Affan Chowdhry of the Globe and Mail.
video 3:04 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/video/video-the-impact...
so it looks as though there is going to be a reckoning of sorts in the oil patch. The only concern is what kind of companies are going to be left, large hulks of unethical operations and impermeable to change or even argument.

4. Stevie H calls climate regulations on oil and gas sector ‘crazy economic policy’. Speaking of large hulks of unethical operations, Stephen Harper, our fearless leader, this week called climate regulations on oil and gas sector ‘crazy economic policy’.

Environment Canada has said this week that, without a new course of action, Canada will not be able to reduce greenhouse gases by the 17 per cent that Harper pledged he’d do from 2005 levels by 2020. Between 2005 and 2020, emissions from the booming oil sands are expected to grow by 45 megatonnes, almost completely offsetting progress in the electricity sector, where Ontario shut down its coal-fired power plants.
But with the fall in oil prices energy companies in Alberta are expected to cut their capital spending for 2015, which could result in slower oil sands expansion and lower-than-anticipated greenhouse gas emissions. Which has Harper in a corner, and suddenly, if anyone had any doubts beforehand, it’s clear as day now, that economic policies that consider climate are only important when the cash is coming in.
IN a fairly heated exchange between the PM and New Democratic Party environment critic Megan Leslie, Ms Leslie accused the Prime Minister of breaking his promise to regulate the oil industry, and generally failing to provide leadership on the fight against global warming
Here’s the exchange…http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/harper-it-would-be-crazy-to...

Midway Music: Talking Heads - (Nothing But) Flowers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOEIRI5HSuQ;

5. New AFN chief On Wednesday Perry Bellegarde was been named the new national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and why that chief is not allowed representation in the House of Commons or the Senate is a mystery. But anyway
He used his first speech as AFN leader to send a message to Canada that First Nations people would be demanding a share of the resource wealth of the country.
“Canada will no longer develop pipelines, transmission lines or any infrastructure on our lands as business as usual. First Nations peoples will oppose any development which deprives our children of the legacy of our ancestors.”

6. The Comprehensive Land Claims Policy (consultation period EXTENDED TO DEC 31) In reading about Bellegarde’s election, I found several other articles dealing with issues of indigenious rights in Canada and Ontario. One of the most robust and interesting articles was by Martin Lukacs in the Guardian on October 21. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/true-north/2014/oct/21/the-indige...
Lukacs’ article discusses the playout from this summer’s Supreme Court of Canada decision, which recognized the aboriginal title of the Tsilhqot’in nation to their land in central British Columbia – not outright ownership, but the right to use and manage the land and to reap its economic benefits.
The ruling make aboriginal title a reality and affects all “unceded” territory in Canada – those lands never signed away through a treaty or conquered by war. Which means that Bellegarde’s idea of responsible land stewardship, is probably more possible than at any time in the past.
But the Canadian government’s response is hardly one of compassion, understanding or in any way embracing these newly recognised indigenous land rights, instead they are trying to accelerate their elimination. Remember we have an oil man in power and what’s at stake here is the land at the heart of Canada’s resource extraction.
The government’s response is the Comprehensive Land Claims policy. In this policy, Lukacs describes how “the government is demanding that First Nations trade away – or in the original term, to “extinguish” – their rights to 95% of their traditional territory. Their return is some money and small parcels of land, but insidiously, as private property, instead of in the collective way that indigenous peoples have long held and stewarded it. And First Nations need to provide costly, exhaustive proof of their rights to their own land, for which they have amassed a stunning $700 million in debt – a debt the government doesn’t think twice about using to arm-twist.”
The supreme court is directing the government to reconcile with First Nations and share the land but this matters little to the government. The policy was released in September and a consultation process was led by Douglas Eyford, who has been Harper’s advisor on getting tar sands pipelines and energy projects built in western Canada.
This past week Stephen Harper has shown himself to be the lackluster singleminded politican he is when he called climate concerns a crazy economic policy. By reengaging with the comprehensive land policy, by ignoring the supreme court he’s shown himself to be the most mundane and dangerous prime ministers, and it’s no wonder he refuses to institute a missing woman’s inquiry.
The public commenting period regarding the lands claim policy has been extended from two months to a whole three months, it closes the end of this month and anyone can comment at the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) website, https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1405693409911/1405693617207.
I love this quote Tsilhqot’in chief Roger William gave Lukacs, “The land is the most important thing, Our songs, our place names, our history, our stories – they come from the land that we are a part of. All of it is interrelated with who we are.”

we are now moving into the feature portion of our broadcast.

Ursula K. Le Guin accepts the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at the 65th National Book Awards on November 19, 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et9Nf-rsALk
“I think hard times are coming, when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies, to other ways of being. And even imagine some real grounds for hope. We will need writers who can remember freedom: poets, visionaries—the realists of a larger reality. Right now, I think we need writers who know the difference between production of a market commodity and the practice of an art. The profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable; so did the divine right of kings. … Power can be resisted and changed by human beings; resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art—the art of words. I’ve had a long career and a good one, in good company, and here, at the end of it, I really don’t want to watch American literature get sold down the river. … The name of our beautiful reward is not profit. Its name is freedom.”

This was the The Daily GRRR! for December 11, 2014. We are on weekdays from 9-10am on 100.3fm CKMS in Waterloo region, and http://soundfm.ca on the web.

Check out all our past shows and other Grand River Media Collective work on our webpage http://grandrivermc.ca

The Daily GRRR! is supported by the Community Radio Fund of Canada and CKMS.

Stay tuned in for more Grand River Radical radio after we close the podcast with a song, here is Bandwith "Song".

Thanks for Listening.