Shaping the Southern Ontario Landscape: A Presentation

The Greater Golden Horseshoe Food and Farming Alliance has put forth the Agricultural Action Plan 2021, citing challenges facing a more sustainable food and farm sector that need to be overcome if farming communities are to persist in Southern Ontario. Such challenges include fierce competition for land, transport congestion effecting the efficient movement of goods, lack of integration across the sector, gaps in infrastructure preventing such integration, and an expanding urban form impacting farmers’ abilities to farm efficiently, among others. This presentation seeks to explain the historical development of these challenges in hopes that with renewed understandings of how we have developed as a region we can then make strides in implementing the Food and Farming action plan, achieving what the 2021 action plan calls “growing the food and farm cluster” in sustainable fashion. Moreover, with renewed understandings of how we have developed as a region we can also implement stronger policy in regards to a whole range of issues towards building a more sustainable and resilient regional landscape: from what will come out of the Greenbelt Plan review, to the outcomes of the Canada-EU CETA negotiations, to realizing the full potential of the Rouge national urban/agricultural park.

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Strengthen the Greenbelt by Promoting a Sustainable Food System

Many across the province have lauded the Greenbelt Act for its ambitious commitment to the conservation of Ontario’s prime agricultural lands and natural heritage. Nevertheless, the Greenbelt Plan (GBP) has caught the ire of strident criticism from several priority stakeholders. The upcoming 2015 Greenbelt Review will undoubtedly be a politically charged process, with the ecological and agricultural values of the region hanging in the balance.

Progressive Greenbelt reform includes specific positions that align food producing and environmental interests in ways that strengthen the GBP. This can be achieved by promoting a broader vision of a more sustainable, regionalized food system. Land use regulations within the GBP need to be reformed to be more conducive to sustainable food and farming within the protected area, and emphasis on sustainable economic linkages between regional urban and rural communities is required.

Specific amendments to land use regulations can include, but are not limited to: 1) re-designating “secondary agricultural use” to “on-farm diversified use” as per changes in the 2014 PPS; 2) requiring public hearings for any new designations of “natural heritage features” within the protected area; and 3) providing a more precise definition of “key hydrological features” within the GBP. Overall, these are positive potential reforms that will help maintain agricultural land in agricultural use.

Moreover, throughout the review process there will be stakeholders vying to reduce the protected area of the GBP, or push back the boundaries of the GBP in the interests of urban expansion in the inner suburban ring. It is important that these interests are strongly opposed. Only 4.5% of Ontario is designated prime agricultural land (Class 1, 2, and 3 lands), a third of which is already dedicated to non-agricultural use. The objective of the GBP to protect farmland has to be emphasized, by calling for all Class 1, 2, and 3 lands in Ontario to come under Greenbelt protection, a bulk of which lies in the inner suburban area known as the whitebelt.

The Greenbelt is a central pillar of a vibrant food cluster in Ontario. Sustainable development not only depends on incentives for intensification of urban areas, but also on the development of a local, sustainable food cluster. In other words, sustainable development focuses on the flows and connections between urban, suburban, and rural communities, especially with regards to food production, processing, consumption and waste.

Throughout the Greenbelt review process it is important to emphasize and advocate for tangible visions of a green, healthy, and accessible regionalized food system. In this way ecological and agricultural values can align to improve and strengthen the GBP for a more sustainable future. 

As a Canadian Election Looms, Please Consider the Following:

If negative campaign ads really work, then the prospect of speaking truth to power has never seemed to be more – well – beneficial. Specifically regarding Canadian federal politics, the Harper Government has made it frustratingly easy to create such an ad, providing ample fodder to opponents of Stephen Harper.

In short, any campaign ad made by anyone opposing the Harper Government has an opportunity to be both truthful and negative. Simply providing a list of activities undertaken by the Harper Government in the last six years is campaign gold for anyone wanting establish that Stephen Harper is actually bad for Canada. The list in such an ad would inevitably remind Canadians of Stephen Harper’s undemocratic, even autocratic tendencies, his inescapable social conservatism, his short-sighted – if not impractical – policy initiatives, and even a dismaying ability to waste money.

By its very nature an ad providing such a list would have an advantage over the negative advertising of the Conservative party because, unlike negative Conservative advertising it would not need to be taken off the air, because unlike the negative Conservative advertising it would not have to stretch the bounds truth. I don’t know for whom this campaign would be most effective.

What I do know is that anyone with the initiative to take Stephen Harper to task in any sort of coherent, straightforward, and honest manner would be one step closer to attaining my vote.

Consider This List:

Contempt of Parliament – The Harper Government can possibly be held in contempt of parliament in TWO separate instances. The first ruling would be over the government’s breach of parliamentary privilege by refusing to fully disclose cost estimates for its tough-on-crime agenda, corporate tax cuts and plans to purchase stealth fighter jets. The second ruling would be in regard to the International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda’s breach of parliamentary privilege by misleading MPs about an altered document. The Harper Government would be the first Government of Canada to ever be held in contempt of parliament.

Breaking Election Laws (twice) - A recent scandal to become public is the renowned “in-and-out” scheme, where Harper’s Conservative party broke campaign funding laws in the 2006 election. In the 2008 election, the Harper Government broke the Fixed Elections Act that the Harper Government itself legislated.

Proroguing Parliament (twice) – Facing the possibility of a non-confidence vote in the House of Commons, the Harper Government stopped and reset parliament (prorogued) to avoid the vote, becoming the first Prime Minister ever to do so. The Harper Government prorogued Parliament again less than 12 months later.

Prisons – Harper insists that mandatory minimum sentences reduce crime, and that we need to build more prisons for… wait for it… unreported crimes. It was only recently released that this is set to cost $631 million — on top of $2.1 billion already announced for expanded prisons. (The Toronto Star)

New Fighter Jets – The Harper Government wants to buy 65 new F-35 Joint Strike Stealth Fighter Jets at a cost of nearly $30 Billion. (The Toronto Sun)

Corporate Tax Cuts – Although Canada already has lower corporate tax rates than the United States, the Harper Government intends further corporate tax cuts from 18 per cent in 2010 to 16.5 per cent in 2011 and then to 15 per cent in 2012, costing Canadians an estimated $10 Billion. (Ottawa Business Journal)

G20 Security - The Harper Government spent $1 Billion dollars on security alone for the G20 Summit in Toronto, which oversaw a suspension of many civil rights for thousands of people in the Toronto area and the biggest mass arrest in Canadian History - more that 1000 people were detained. (Canadian Civil Liberties Association)

The Census – The Harper Government restructured the long form component of the census. It is now more expensive to administer and less significant. This happened despite criticism from business, social and academic groups as well as Statistics Canada, without any discussion in parliament. (The Globe and Mail)

United Nations Snub – The Harper Government oversaw Canada’s first failed attempt to be voted onto the UN Security Council, reflecting a nontraditional attitude of the international community towards Canada. (GlobalReaseach.ca)

Maternal Health Aid Omits Birth Control– The Harper Government has pledged $1.1 billion toward maternal and child wellbeing on the condition that money not go toward birth control. Minister Tony Clement is quoted as saying that the aid package “does not deal in any way, shape or form with family planning.” (Toronto Star)

Politicizing CIDA - The Canadian International Development Agency, the government organization that distributes Canada’s development aid, has been restructured to deny funding to NGOs and Non-Profit organizations that do not align with Harper’s ideology. For example, NGOs have been told to remove the words “gender equality” from their proposal if they wish to receive funding. The scandal involving Minister Bev Oda (the “not” affair) as well as the maternal health funding condition also reflects this Harper Government behaviour. (The Globe and Mail; MacLean's Magazine)

Blocking the Kelowna Accord­ ­– The Accord, established over 18 months of negotiation between the Government of Canada, Provincial Premiers, Territorial Leaders, and the leaders of five national aboriginal organizations intended to secure funding for education, housing, health services and economic development in First Nations communities. The first budget ever tabled by the Harper Government in 2006 blocked the implementation of the Kelowna Accord, providing a fraction of the funding instead. (CBC)

Abolishing the Court Challenge Program (CCP) – The Harper Government terminated the Court Challenges Program in 2006. The CCP provided financial assistance to court cases that advance language and equality rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Importantly, the CCP budget was mandated for historically disadvantaged groups providing accessibility to justice for those who may not have been able to protect their constitutional rights otherwise. (Montreal Gazette)

Extending the Afghanistan Mission – The Harper Government passed a parliamentary motion in 2008 to remove Canadian troops from Afghanistan in 2011. But in 2011, the Harper Government extended the mission for three more years, until 2014, maintaining a presence of 1000 troops in the country. (Bloomberg)

Obstructing Access to Afghan Torture Files – The Harper Government refused to allow parliament uncensored access to files related to the possibility that Canada knowingly submitted Afghan detainees to torture by transferring them to the Afghan National Army. The action, cited to reasons of national security, nearly lead the Harper Government to face a contempt hearing when the Speaker of the house ruled that MPs had an absolute right to view the documents. (Global)

Filling the Gaps: What Terra Nullius Really Looks Like

By: Jo Jinho

Empty land is a funny thing. The Europeans considered North America empty when they first arrived. This, we know, was surely not true. But nevertheless Terra Nullius – Latin for empty land – provided the Europeans a philosophical and moral justification on which to base colonization of the new world (Asch 2002). Jump ahead to today and the line that land is simply empty remains, legitimizing purchases of vast tracts of land in far distant, mostly African, countries by contemporary governments, transnational corporations, and hedge funds (GRAIN, 2009). This latter trend, often labeled land grabbing, is alike to past colonization except it succeeds under a different flag, that of global capital. The "empty" land being acquired today by agribusiness and financial speculators is just as "empty" as the Americas were at the time of Europe’s arrival: it's not! In cases of modern land grabbing the structured, but perhaps informal, agreements with which local communities establish the land’s use is disregarded and the land subsequently bought up. In such cases what is often considered empty land is rather just land not subsumed by formal regimes of private property.

This absurd arrangement of ‘empty land’ has continued for too long, and it is important that Terra Nullius be considered from a different perspective. A perspective that understands ‘empty land’ as a concept only existing in the condition of private property, rather than in its absence. From this perspective the function of space in today's society can be better reflected, and for what purpose and for whom the function of space currently serves is more clearly seen. Only when land is enclosed, taken away from the public, can land sit idle and truly empty. Certainly not all private property is empty – but much of it is. In places, for example, where a fence demarcates a plot of land and the plot is protected by the state, but the land just sits there literally unused. The land in these circumstances is unused by its owner, except perhaps as a financial asset (as an artifact) but more crucially it is rendered useless by society because any value to be cultivated by the community is disallowed. This is urban actually empty land.

In so many places do plots exist as nothing but a place for garbage and trespassing because the monetary incentive for the land to stand idle acts contrary to its development. This takes away so much from the potential of the community. It takes away from the land’s potential to act as a place to gather or reap, affirming it only a blemish on the face of society. This land must be converted, and more must land in such circumstances inside urban space be recognized as empty. If not, and local space is wasted then urban hubs continue to expand into their surrounding areas that once served to grow food. Worse yet, land will continue to be snatched up abroad, and on a deceitful premise, to make up for the land nearby already devoured. Moreover does land grabbing abroad displace people and just force more into ill-established urban space, only deepening a cycle.

But for urban space to reach its potential, and provide as a place to exist going forward, the gaps must be filled in. Importantly, it must be acknowledged that food can indeed be grown within the confines of urban space, and to an extent that it can contribute to local needs. This is to forgo a perceived obligation to expand the urban outwards. For this, incentives must be demanded so new forms of space relations can take place. It is true that space is constantly being reinvented, but this must happen in a way that the urban empty is conceived and urban empty plots fashioned to be interconnected with the surrounding community.

References:

Asch, Michael (2002) From Terra Nullius to Affirrmation: Reconciling Aboriginal Rights with the Canadian Constitution Canadian Journal of Law and society Vol 17 (2)

GRAIN (2009) www.grain.org

Intellectual Property Rights play a New Role in International Trade

By: Jo Jinho

A landmark trade agreement between the US and Brazil has put intellectual property rights (IPRs) centre stage in a role IPRs have never played before – as a major bargaining chip of emerging economies. In 2008 Brazil won a trade dispute resolution at the World Trade Organization (WTO), in which the arbitration committee found that US subsidies for domestic cotton production violate global trade laws. This sparked a round of settlement negotiations between the two trading partners that seems only now finally settled. The New York Times reported that an agreement came one day before Brazil was to impose WTO-authorized trade retaliations, amounting to nearly $830 million. Along with tariffs on a number of American goods, these retaliations threatened to suspend IPRs.

This settlement is particularly remarkable because IPRs have often been scrutinized as a mechanism that protects the interests of agribusiness and pharmaceutical companies. However, this episode of bilateral trade negotiation, which marks the first time a country (Brazil) has threatened the suspension of IPRs with authorization from the WTO, seems to have induced a fairer trade deal with an economic giant (the US). The Brazilian action to suspend IPRs, which for example would have broken pharmaceutical patents prematurely, could have cost American businesses up to $239m.

As the NY Times reported, retaliation in trade has traditionally been the preserve of the largest developed countries. But Brazil has displayed that threatening to suspend IPRs is a trade retaliation mechanism that gives leverage to small and emerging economies as well.

Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) have been a contentious issue in international trade for quite some time. Those in favor of strict intellectual property regulation propose that strong IP regimes promote innovation by securing copyright and patent laws. Critics of current IP regimes, however, highlight problems where unequal access to these regimes have allowed corporate interests to privatize traditional knowledge, including folklore and other aspects of the scientific commons like genetic materials. Known as biopiracy, pharmaceuticals have been criticized for patenting “medical discoveries” that in effect were derived from traditional knowledge of local plants of indigenous communities. The companies with the access and ability to follow through the patenting procedures have been the beneficiaries of these discoveries, while the sources of these alchemic practices are never fully compensated. Furthermore, in the global food system and agriculture, IPRs have had far-reaching effects. Biotechnology companies use IPRs to monopolize seed banks, charging small producers technology fees and threatening farmers with legal action when patented seeds are used without a license, even if crops are infiltrated through ecological processes.

Nevertheless, while the ability to threaten the suspension of IPRs in trade negotiations does not curb the way companies manage to wield IPRs in their own interest. It does signify new dynamics among nations in trade negotiations. Because securing IPRs in the poorest countries is paramount in generating profit in the richest countries, some leverage is now provided to small and emerging economies where it never existed before. Brazil, in this case, managed to demand concessions in the cattle industry vis-á-vis the US, and negotiated to receive a technical assistance fund – a token that represents the value of retaliation the WTO had authorized. This development will certainly be acknowledged by trading partners everywhere, especially African cotton producers who as well have grievances regarding American cotton subsidies. IPRs can now be recognized as a major chip at the negotiating table for emerging economies. 

Haiti Reconstruction Locking Island in Global Hierarchy.

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By: Jo Jinho

Early Feb 2010

Despite the scarcity of food, water, shelter and electricity in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, the Export Processing Zones (EPZ) that provide cheap labour to North America’s apparel industry is quickly being refurbished.

EPZ play a key role in the global division of labour. They are small enclaves within a nation where lesser corporate taxes and tariffs apply. Poor countries designate EPZ to attract foreign direct investment for manufacturing centres hoping this will provide wage labour to its citizens.

Before the earthquake, purporting the need to spur development, Secretary General of the UN Ban Ki-Moon and Bill Clinton, Director of the Special UN envoy to Haiti, made a joint recommendation to expand EPZ in Haiti. Yet despite the fact that circumstances and humanitarian priorities have drastically changed, the development strategy to create cheap wage labour jobs, the fruits of which are enjoyed outside the country, has not. In fact, following a trend of post-crisis development that Naomi Klein (The Shock Doctrine, 2007) has eloquently pointed out before, the current humanitarian crises is being used to entrench the role of Haiti as a source for cheap labour going forward – locking the island nation in the bottom rungs of the global hierarchy. 

What is needed to curb the humanitarian plight in Haiti is well known. Interest free money (grants not loans), cash-for-work programs (Haitians are paid daily cash to work rebuilding the streets of Haiti like tidying debris or planting trees), and focus on creating a central government capacity to disburse funds (this is a tough one) is paramount if the well being of Haitians is really the world’s concern. The President of the World Bank acknowledges this (Zoellick, 2010). But the actual practice of the World Bank and those involved in supplying Haiti with development aid does not follow suit. That’s the rub.

Haiti is stifled by a staggering $1 Billion debt, and in a manner so ludicrous the interest accumulated on this debt can exceed the aid and donations that manage to come Haiti’s way. But creditors of the richest countries continue to line up to provide money at a cost to Haiti. Aid that does not align with western interests, from donors in the Latin American and Caribbean region, is being blocked from entry into the country by American military forces.

But what can Haiti do with the money that it does get? Haitians no longer have a parliament building let alone a functioning government body able to create and execute budgets. The history of government mayhem and international meddling that has obstructed democratic process in Haiti cannot be justly described here. But what can be said is that no amount of aid in the world can “reconstruct” Haiti without Haitians being given the policy space to create a country for themselves.

Aid, donations, and expertise can operationalize in a way that empowers Haitians. It is just not occurring. The top rungs of the global hierarchy, the G8 and G20, will be meeting in Muskoka and Toronto respectively in late June this year. Haiti will be a topic of discussion in one capacity or another, possibly working to keep Haiti in the grasp of poverty for good.