CSIS head advised Trudeau to invoke Emergencies Act during convoy, inquiry hears | Globalnews.ca:

The head of CSIS recommended Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoke the
Emergencies Act during the so-called ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests earlier
this year, an inquiry into the decision heard.

David Vigneault, the head of the Canadian Security Intelligence
Service, told the Public Order Emergencies Commission about his advice
to the prime minister during a closed-door interview earlier this month,
according to an unclassified summary.

That summary, released on
Monday morning, said Vigneault did not believe the convoy posed a
national security threat under the CSIS Act but that invoking the
Emergencies Act was still necessary.

“Mr. Vigneault explained that
based on both his understanding that the Emergencies Act definition of
threat to the security of Canada was broader than the CSIS Act, as well
as based on his opinion of everything he had seen to that point, he
advised the Prime Minister of his belief that it was indeed required to
invoke the Act,” the summary of Vigneault’s interview with the
commission read.

Draft COP27 agreement fails to call for ‘phase-down’ of all fossil fuels: This story was originally published by The Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

The United Nations climate agency published a first draft on Thursday of what could be the overarching agreement from the COP27 climate summit in Egypt. However, much of the text is likely to be reworked in the coming days.

The reaction from some nonprofits has been swift and frustrated, with one Greenpeace representative saying it paved the way for “climate hell.”

The document, labeled a “non-paper,”
indicating it is still far from the final version, repeats the goal from
last year’s Glasgow climate pact “to accelerate measures towards the
phase-down of unabated coal power and phase out and rationalize
inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.”

Last year was the first time a decision agreed by all parties even mentioned fossil fuels and coal as part of the climate.

But it does not call for a phase-down
of all fossil fuels, as India and the European Union had requested. The
text does not include details for launching a fund for loss and damage, a key demand from the most climate vulnerable countries such
as island nations. Rather, it “welcomes” the fact that parties have
agreed for the first time to include “matters related to funding
arrangements responding to loss and damage” on the summit agenda.

It does not include a timeline for
deciding on whether a separate fund should be created or what it should
look like, giving time for negotiators to continue to work on the
contentious topic.

Why is Canada inviting fossil fuel lobbyists to COP27? | Ricochet: here are eight known fossil fuel lobbyists in Canada’s official party
delegation to COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. In fact, the number is
up a record-breaking 25 per cent from last year — more than 600 are
fossil fuel lobbyists and executives.

Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, drew
ire from delegates when photos were snapped of senior vice president of
RBC, John Stackhouse (Canada’s largest investor in fossil fuels) and
Suncor Vice President of Sustainability (one of the largest crude oil
companies on the planet), Jon Mitchell, standing in the Canada Pavilion.

After years of back-to-back human rights atrocities and environmental
disaster in so-called Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s proud
declarative “Canada is back” to climate negotiations ahead of COP21 in
Paris, feels like a fever dream.

From the militarized invasion of Wet’suwet’en, to the recent drilling under their sacred river, to the approval of the Bay Du Nord oil project, and mass federal investments into the science fiction technology carbon capture and storage (CCUS) to prolong fossil fuel extraction as long as possible, the phrase “Canada is back-sliding,” feels more on the mark.

‘Freedom Convoy’ had to be removed to avoid major economic damage: officials – National | Globalnews.ca:

The ‘Freedom Convoy’
blockades at major border crossings across the country had to be
removed quickly in order to avoid serious, long-term damage to Canada’s
economy, finance department officials said Thursday.

The demonstration against COVID-19
public health measures in February saw major ports of entry in Ontario
and Alberta blockaded, resulting in a daily trade loss of “around $56
million per day,” finance officials told the Public Order Emergency Commission in an interview, according to a summary.

        Read more: 
            <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9283583/cbsa-warned-threat-to-attack-ontario-schools-freedom-convoy/" title="Canada border officials warned of threat to ‘attack 2 schools’ amid convoy: memo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
            Canada border officials warned of threat to ‘attack 2 schools’ amid convoy: memo                </a>

Every day the protests continued, the financial hit Canada’s
economy took compounded, warned Michael Sabia, deputy minister of the
department of finance.

“Whatever we could do, we wanted to do
quickly because doing it quickly meant shortening duration — and
shortening duration meant avoiding the worst economic consequences that
we were concerned about,” Sabia said as he testified before the
Emergencies Act inquiry.

Canada Hits Bottom Tier in Climate Change Performance Index:

The Trudeau government’s climate action landed
fifth from the bottom in the annual ranking of 59 countries plus the
European Union, not far ahead of Russia, Korea, Kazakhstan, and Saudi
Arabia. Top performers included Denmark, Sweden, Chile, Morocco, and
India. The lead non-profit behind the annual index, Germanwatch,
explained that the top three spots were left open because no country’s
performance was close enough to aligning with the emission reduction
goals in the Paris agreement. (So, slightly confusingly, Canada placed
58th out of 63 in an assessment of 60 jurisdictions including the EU.)

“Canada has a long way to go,” said Niklas Höhne, co-founder of the
NewClimate Institute, which worked with Germanwatch and Climate Action
Network-International to compile the index. “Canada has agreed to phase
out coal, which is good, but it’s the smallest problem.” It’s the
country’s oil and gas production that must be phased down, Höhne added.

Published
annually since 2005, the CCPI “aims to enhance transparency in
international climate politics and enables comparison of climate
protection efforts and progress made by individual countries,” say the
report’s authors. “Every year, the CCPI sets off important public and
political debates within the countries assessed,” which together account
for 92% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.