John Bennett's blog

I, like most Canadians, don't like it when a member of the family misbehaves in public and I feel it’s necessary to apologize on their behalf (for the good of the family name).

Well this is one of those occasions. So here goes:

On behalf of Canadians, I would like to extend a full and sincere apology to Dr. James Hansen (or “Jim” as his friends call him). He is owed an apology for recent derogatory remarks by Joe Oliver, the Federal Minister of Natural Resources.

So what’s this all about? Oliver, Canada’s Oil Minister (as the UK Guardian recently dubbed him), was in Washington last Tuesday flogging the Keystone XL pipeline yet again. While speaking, he dropped the veneer of sober economic pragmatist and diplomat, and the real Joe emerged.... Read more »

By John Bennett

I want to alert you to the most recent attack on environmental protection and democracy in this country and share with you a letter I wrote to Gaetain Caron, Chair and CEO, National Energy Board of Canada (NEB). I was spurred to write after a frustrating experience last week.

The NEB is now operating under NEW rules created by last June’s omnibus bill and, as predicted, democratic participation has suffered – in this case regarding the environmental review process concerning Enbridge’s proposal to reverse its old “Line 9” pipeline (that has been transporting light oil from Montreal to Sarnia for decades). Enbridge wants to use Line 9 in reverse to pump corrosive Tar Sands bitumen from Sarnia to Montreal and beyond eastward (exactly where we don’t know).... Read more »

By John Bennett

I'm often asked to explain why people should support Sierra Club Canada? “Because we provide one of the best, most up-to-date sources of information on issues impacting the Canadian environment,” I often reply.

For example, late last night I received a high-priority email from our in-house climate expert Paul Beckwith (Paul is a climatologist, physicist and part-time professor with the University of Ottawa). In his email Paul wrote: “John, it’s urgent you see the new NASA satellite visualization of the cracking sea ice between February 17th and March 18th…this has never happened before! Normally the ice just melts at the outer edges but in this case almost the entire ice sheet is on the move and breaking up (which is indicative of the extreme thinness, and slushiness, and weakness of the ice). March is always the time of year when the ice should be strongest ... this is REALLY bad news!... Read more »

By John Bennett

A few weeks ago, the US Ambassador to Canada hinted that Canada would need to clean up its environmental act if it wanted to see the Keystone XL Pipeline approved. The ambassador was then followed by newly appointed Secretary of State John Kerry, who left a similar impression at a news conference. Of course, all this came on the heels of very strong statements on climate change by President Obama in his recent State of the Union address.

Greenwash Action Plan... Read more »

By John Bennett... Read more »