Stop the Bayer-Monsanto Mega-Merger

https://cban.ca/take-action/stop-the-mega-mergers/If companies Monsanto and Bayer are allowed to merge, the new company could control around 30% of the world’s commercial seed market and 25% of agricultural pesticides. The merger could increase the price of seed, decrease choice in the marketplace for Canadian farmers, and stifle research and development.Europe approved the merger on March 21, 2018 but Canada and other countries around the world need to approve the merger before it can happen.Please send an instant letter to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development today.In Canada, the Competition Bureau will review the proposed merger and announce a decision at some unknown time. Canada’s Competition Bureau has already agreed to let Dow and Dupont merge, and Syngenta and ChemChina  merge.
The Monsanto-Bayer merger is the last of the current proposed mega-mergers in seeds and pesticides which will mean four companies will control about two thirds of the global seed market and around 70% of pesticides. 

Federal government not doing enough to manage risk of fish farms, environmental watchdog says

The federal government isn't doing enough to manage the risks associated with salmon farming — and is failing to set national standards to prevent fish escapes and regulate how much drugs and pesticides companies can use. That's the conclusion of a report tabled in Parliament Tuesday from Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development Julie Gelfand.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/federal-environment-commissioner-spring-report-1.4632864

"I suggest that the department is at risk of being seen to be promoting aquaculture over the protection of wild fish," Gelfand said at a news conference. She pointed to a number of imbalances in Ottawa's approach to salmon aquaculture, such as lax enforcement of existing regulations and the absence of a requirement to monitor the ocean floor beneath fish farms. The report also points to a lack of clear national standards for nets and anchoring equipment — something Gelfand said is vitally important in Atlantic Canada, where escaped farmed salmon have begun to interbreed with declining wild salmon populations. Nets are often damaged by severe storms off the East Coast, so more farmed fish escape into the surrounding water there than on the West Coast, the report says

The commissioner also found that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans wasn't doing enough to monitor diseases and had only completed one-tenth of risk assessments for known diseases to understand the effects of salmon farming on wild fish. As a result, the report states, the department has no way of knowing how salmon farming has affected the health of wild fish stocks.

COC: Deny pit mining permit

https://secure.canadians.org/page/21656/action/1

Ask the Government of Ontario to deny the application by CRH Inc (Dufferin Aggregates) for renewal of the Permit To Take Water No. 5003-APFH26. The Teedon gravel pit is located in the heart of the Waverley Uplands. This area is a critical groundwater recharge area and granting this permit will endanger water quality and quantity in local aquifers.

Last year, Ontario amended the aggregate licence for the Teedon Pit to allow a huge expansion of both the area of excavation and the depth of excavations. This shortsighted decision will result in the company clearcutting a designated significant forest area, stripping away the soil and scooping out the gravel and stone that together make up the “filter” that keeps the groundwater so pure. The amendments also allow the import and storage of asphalt and other construction materials on the site, increasing the risk of contamination to the aquifer.

Renewing the permit to take water will affect the traditional territories of the Anishinabe people of Beausoleil First Nation. The Crown and the proponent are required by law to consult with the Anishinabe people over the project and obtain their free, prior and informed consent, but have not done so.

The Waverley Uplands need to be protected from industrial activities that threaten groundwater. Climate change is expected to cause significant changes to precipitation patterns in Ontario and groundwater recharge areas such as the Waverley Uplands are especially vulnerable to the cumulative impacts of those changes and gravel pit operations.

Protect water: Boycott Nestlé

Your voice is urgently needed. The Council of Canadians has just learned that Big Oil giant BP is in the process of moving a massive oil rig to offshore Nova Scotia where it has received approval from the Canadian government to begin drilling exploratory wells. BP could start drilling just days from now – and the risk of an environmental disaster is simply too great for you and me to ignore. To make matters worse, BP is on the move without obtaining a final permit from the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB), an unelected board of mostly former oil industry executives with a conflicting mandate of both promoting oil and gas development and protecting the marine environment. This is the same board that would be given more power in federal environmental assessments under Bill C-69, currently being debated.

 please add your name to our national petition calling on Prime Minister Trudeau to reverse the federal approval of BP’s offshore drilling. Sign the petition

 If the name BP sounds familiar it’s for good reason. It’s the same company responsible for the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico – the largest marine oil spill ever recorded.Now BP is eyeing new sources of oil offshore Nova Scotia and has federal approval to drill nearly twice the depth of the Deepwater Horizon well. A spill would be devastating to area marine life, and the fishing and tourism industries that are the lifeblood of Nova Scotia’s economy. For example, BP intends to drill 70 km east of the Gully Marine Protected Area and 50 km Northeast of Sable Island National Park, threatening endangered species like the Right Whale and thousands of sustainable fishery and tourism jobs. The risk is even greater offshore Nova Scotia, where stopping and containing a ruptured well is made more difficult by virtue of the harsher conditions of the North Atlantic.