Growth in GDP is antithetical to environmental protection
By Terri Chu
From an environmental point of view, the most disappointing aspect of this election campaign so far is that all parties, even the Greens, are still talking about economic growth like it matters.
If we were honest with ourselves, we would admit that the end state of capitalism is a monopoly. The bean counters have somehow gotten society to accept that 3 per cent growth year over year is not just possible, but normal. How can we keep chopping down 3 per cent more trees every single year? Every tree that gets turned into a chair counts towards GDP but every tree that gets left behind to suck out pollution does nothing for our “economy”. Guess which one Bay Street prefers?
Buying a new T-shirt contributes to economic growth. Washing an old one doesn’t. One is exponentially more harmful to the environment than the other. Let’s stop talking about economic growth like it’s a metric that should matter anymore. The system is coming to an end game. The system needs to change and I’m looking for leadership to steer that change.
Not even Silicone Valley billionaires believe our economy can continue in its present form. They have been at the vanguard of calling for basic income schemes. They know that infinite growth is unviable, they know that AI, deep learning, and automation will replace a lot of jobs. Sure, basic necessities can be met with machines, but people should still work you say? Doing what? Creating artificial demand for sexy lingerie? Programming the next hit video game? Manufacturing consent? If we don’t need people to do meaningful work, let’s not force them to do pointless work for the sake of maintaining a system that is doomed to failure. In the long run, we’re all dead, right?
Find some courage. Tell people we can’t grow exponentially anymore. Be honest. Tell people that buying clothes endlessly is not only awful for the environment, it’s pointless. Let’s rebuild an economic system that doesn’t need us to consume for the sake of consumption. Fundamentally, Canadians are fed, clothed, have access to education and healthcare, and almost all they need to build a foundation for a good quality of life. Replacing cell phones that still work, clothes that aren’t ripped might make some people richer, but fundamentally does little for either our quality of life or our happiness.
I at least respect that the Green party’s platform includes “Measures well-being, rather than gross domestic product, as a sign of progress.” The need to move away from GDP cannot be understated. Sadly, even Elizabeth May falls victim to the crushing weight of appeasing old school capitalists and still talks about economic growth like the idea is gospel.
While we stare down the barrel at human extinction, our political leaders need to emphasize that we are no longer in a position of “growing” anything other than food. We need to find ways to occupy less land and return some of it to nature. We need to find ways to consume fewer resources: oil, concrete, fibres, food, etc. We need to find ways to decrease our consumption. This doesn’t mean we go back to the Stone Age, but rather appreciate what’s already one of the highest standards of living in the world.
For the most part, Canadians enjoy a very high standard of living and having “more” is bordering on pointless.
To our South, in the name of convincing people what we have isn’t enough, CNBC recently published a story about the middle class struggle on the $350,000 US a year income. The horrors and sacrifices of such a life include two vacations a year and a $5,000 a year budget on new clothes. This kind of “journalism” should be a crime against humanity. Our kids are on the streets every Friday begging us to do something and we come up with this drivel to remind them that so long as we have a strong economy, we don’t care we are consuming their resource share. We know full well we are depleting resources faster than the Earth can replenish them.
I’m looking for leadership that’s bold enough to tell Canadians that this isn’t the path forward. I want a leader who will boldly say that GDP is a pointless metric, growth is no longer our reality, and we must all work together to create a new economy that is not premised on growth. Churning through resources won’t raise our quality of life nor will it make us happier.
This election isn’t even offering inspiration anymore. We had a prime minister in a climate protest against…himself. Running against him is the science denier. In a distant third is a unionist who will still vote to protect high paying, polluting jobs, and finally, still treated as a fringe party, is a leader who is pushing environmental solutions but is muted by her own need to appeal to the voters who would rather live out their lives without rocking the boat than not know where they might land in the hierarchy of a new world order.
Our kids are on the streets every week begging us for better. Human extinction could happen in their lifetime. We delivered slogans because it’s 2019.
Terri Chu is an engineer committed to practical environmentalism. This column is dedicated to helping the community reduce energy use, and help distinguish environmental truths from myths. Send questions, comments, and ideas for future columns to Terri at terri.chu@whyshouldicare.ca.
October 8th, 2019 · Comments Off on ON THE COVER (Sept. 2019)
The leadership of the Makom synagogue, located on College Street, quad-cycled through Kensington Market recently to herald the coming of the Jewish high holidays. Blowing the shofar in front is Alexandra Sipos-Kocsis, managing director. Traditionally, only men are permitted to blow the shofar, a ram’s horn, but in Makom’s interpretation of the faith women are included in leadership roles. BRIAN BURCHELL/GLEANER NEWS
Comments Off on ON THE COVER (Sept. 2019)Tags:Annex · News
October 8th, 2019 · Comments Off on NEWS: City fails to maintain park (Sept. 2019)
Staff unresponsive to concerns about Paul Martel Park
A graffiti-stained map depicts what once was of the Paul Martel Park. BRIAN BURCHELL/GLEANER NEWS
By Juan Romero
If you are on Madison Avenue, just north of Bloor Street West, you will see on the west side of the street a place with benches and grass right behind the Spadina bus station; that place is Paul Martel Park, a spot that the city has apparently forgotten about.
Paul Martel is an architect who volunteered and helped design many parks in the Annex and the rest of the city. Back in 2014 the former Ecology Park was renamed in his honour.
However, most people wouldn’t know the name of the park or its original purpose because there is no sign that indicates them. It was removed following a vandalism incident last year, and has yet to be replaced.
Paul’s granddaughter, Rosalyn Farina-Martel, has contacted the City of Toronto regarding the sign’s absence by phone and email on numerous occasions.
“My main frustration has been the lack of response from the city over the sign, because it has been over a year now, I think,” says Farina-Martel. “There has been no sign in the park and the renaming of the park was such a good tribute to all the contributions that my grandfather has made for the Annex and it’s very disheartening.”
She says that someone returned one of her calls last January, and told her that a new sign had been ordered and would be installed within a matter of weeks.
Apart from the sign not being there, the current state of the park is awful. It is one of the worst maintained parks in the Annex and in recent years our yearly park reviews have not ranked it any higher than a “D”. This year it garnered an F grade and the following unenviable description: “Overall this park seems to have been forgotten by the city.”
On the Gleaner’s visit to the park, the grass was covered in litter, and there was no sign of any garden maintenance having been done. We also found a pillow on one of the benches and a mattress behind one of the trees.
In the first few months following the park’s renaming, Paul Martel visited every Saturday with a gardening group to take on some of the maintenance of the space. When Martel decided he could not continue the work, the city took responsibility for the maintenance, and that’s when the state of the park began to deteriorate.
Micky Fraterman was part of the volunteer group who worked with Martel on the maintenance of the park, and is also a member of the Annex Residents’ Association (ARA). She says the ARA has made efforts to bring attention to the park’s condition but has been told there is a lack of city staff to maintain parks. She says this response is surprising, because while Paul and his volunteer group were maintaining the park, the city would help them out a lot.
“To be honest it was always a partnership. Paul would talk to Brian Green, a former area park supervisor, and ask for certain things that needed to be done. The city would actually maintain the park when we did not have time to do it. Things seems to have changed at the city,” says Fraterman.
Farina-Martel says that for her, the situation points to a disrespect for her grandfather’s legacy.
“My grandfather has been a huge contributor to the Annex for decades and he has spent a lot of work and a lot of effort into making it a wonderful place,” she says. “It is really sad to see the decline of the park. I only hope this will change soon, and we will see a sign in place as soon as possible.”
The Gleaner reached out to park supervisor Peter White through email and phone numerous times for comment, with no response forthcoming.
READ MORE ON ANNEX PARKS:
GRADING OUR GREENSPACE: Park it here (August 2019)
October 8th, 2019 · Comments Off on NEWS: Bike lanes to extend to High Park (Sept. 2019)
Annex advocacy group wants to hold city to its promise
Bike lanes have an abrupt ending at Shaw Street westbound on Bloor. JUAN ROMERO/GLEANER NEWS
By Juan Romero
The City of Toronto has approved the extension of the bike lanes on Bloor Street from Shaw Street to High Park and a local activist group is trying to make sure the project gets fulfilled.
Bells on Bloor was founded back in 2007 with the express purpose of getting bike lanes on Bloor Street. The city conducted studies in 1978, 1998, and 2008 about the construction of potential bike lanes in the city, and all three years the results were positive. Yet, nothing came of it until 2016 when they installed the pilot lane on Bloor Street.
Albert Koehl is an environmental lawyer and co-founder of Bells on Bloor. He has seen approved projects such as these get dropped along the way by the city, so he is cautiously optimistic about plans to extend the lanes.
“We have been involved in this long enough to know that when we hear positive things from city hall, whether it is another study or another report, it doesn’t necessarily translate into a bike lane,” says Koehl. “So we are not celebrating yet, what we are is optimistic that things are moving in the right direction.”
Bells on Bloor has collaborated with Cycle Toronto’s Robert Zaichkowski and the local Cycle Toronto ward group on a letter with more than 110 signatures, including 65 from Bloor Street store fronts, assuring the city that businesses along Bloor are in favour of bike lanes.
“Our objective with the letter was to pre-empt the usual, tired narrative that businesses don’t want bike lanes,” Koehl said. “We were quite happy with the reception that we got.”
Members of the groups went to door to door to speak to every business owner to see if they supported the extension.
The group has made various arguments as to why the bike lane extension is important.
“The immediate extension is very important because now what we have is a bike lane stub. It basically goes from Avenue Road with no eastward connection and it goes to Shaw with no westward connection. We know that the current bike lane has been hugely successful, even that short 2.4 km stretch, but we want to increase the success, and that means allowing more people to have access to that route safely,” Koehl said.
Among other reasons, Koehl says that building a bike lane on Bloor that goes east to west could serve as the potential “spine” for a bike lane network all across the city. It also would serve as an alternative to the subway, as there is no street car service on Bloor Street.
Despite the wide support from most people in the area, some business owners think it might not be too beneficial to the way they run their businesses. Dominic Pietropaolo is the co-owner of Strictly Bulk, located near the intersection of Bloor Street West and Ossington Avenue. He says he is not in favour of the extension because it will affect his deliveries.
“I have no problem with bike lanes, but in my case as you can see it is going to affect my deliveries. If they build bike lanes there won’t be any room for the trucks to park,” says Pietropaolo. “Other businesses on Bloor have alternative routes and alleys but here we don’t. So unless the city can do something about my case, I won’t be in favour.”
Pietropaolo gets deliveries to his store every day of the week except Monday, and he says dealing with them is a big part of his job. From the perspective of sales, he admits that the bike lanes might actually be beneficial.
Bloor Street businesses located on the current bike lane seem to indicate that lanes are not affecting business sales for the most part. Ward 11 councillor Mike Layton said that according to current research, the bike lane extension should be a good addition.
“We researched by using debit card usage information from businesses in the area and it suggested that the pilot area actually performed quite well,” says Layton. “So with all those considerations I don’t think there is much data that would suggest that an extension is not a good idea.”
Bells on Bloor is pushing for the construction of the extension to go ahead prior to the next municipal election cycle. The city has actually announced that it may be done by as early as next summer. Koehl, however, says he’s waiting for the approval and installation of the lanes before he starts celebrating.
“We won’t be celebrating until there is a bike lane on Bloor Street. The city is saying we could have the bike lane as early as next summer, but that could also mean as late as the end of 2021,” says Koehl. “Once you get into another election cycle these things often go echoing in different directions. So our objective right now is to keep pushing very hard.”
Comments Off on NEWS: Bike lanes to extend to High Park (Sept. 2019)Tags:Annex · News
October 8th, 2019 · Comments Off on CHATTER: Gas pains on Harbord, Tabares honoured (Sept. 2019)
Last spring, long-time Harbord Village business owner Tino Tabares learned that the building that housed his gas station, Torreira Import Auto Service, was going up for sale. With the business under threat, the neighbourhood stepped up to help, but in the end, it was not enough.
The chair of Harbord Village Resident’s Association (HVRA) Gus Sinclair says that over the years, he witnessed Tabares go above and beyond for his customers, and for the community. Like the countless times he would deliver or even pick up cars from customer’s houses, just to provide them with great service and make their lives a little easier. It was something he did not need to do, but did so anyway because it was “just the way he was” with people in the community.
Torreira Import Auto Service operated out of a building on the corner of Harbord and Major for 34 years, and was a rare example of a downtown gas station.
“He was really special for the community. You have no idea what kind of luxury, you could drive up there, walk home, and then very soon he would call you and tell you that the work was done or sometimes he even delivered the car,” says Sinclair. “He was honest, and he was good. I had every confidence that when my car was getting fixed by him, it was getting done right.”
This was all part of the reason that the HRVA wanted to honour him with a Community Builder Award. Before they did, they learned that Tabares and his business were in trouble.
The owners of the property at Harbord and Major had been content, for years, to rent their property to Tabares. When that changed, they offered to sell it to him, but the price was out of reach.
When he declined to purchase the property, the owners gave Tabares two months notice. Many people including the HVRA tried to intervene on his behalf in response to the timeline. Yet, despite these efforts they received no response from the property owner.
Gus Sinclair says he felt terrible and decided to set up a “Go Fund Me” page for Tabares.
“I sent emails to thirty people I knew were his clients and asked them to pass it on to other people,” says Sinclair. “In the end we got 85 people and they all contributed to the fund which we called ‘The Tino Fund.’”
The fund managed to raise $4,300 dollars, which was presented to Tino Tabares alongside his Community Builder Award.
As of right now Tino has plans for opening up a new shop; however, he does not yet have a location or timeline for when this is going to happen. The old signs are still up at his former location, which is empty at the moment. The building was sold to an unknown party and the buyer has been very private about what is going to happen with that location.
—Juan Romero, Gleaner News
Comments Off on CHATTER: Gas pains on Harbord, Tabares honoured (Sept. 2019)Tags:Annex · News
October 8th, 2019 · Comments Off on CHATTER: ARA Cornfest Delights (Sept. 2019)
The Annual Annex Residents’ Association Cornfest took place at Jean Sibelius Park on Sept. 15. Joey, pictured above, enjoyed a free sweet cob! TERRI CHU/GLEANER NEWS
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October 8th, 2019 · Comments Off on CHATTER: Heart Garden to honour residential school victims (Sept. 2019)
The congregation at Trinity St. Paul’s United Church at 427 Bloor St. is awaiting an overhaul of its garden. Located at the corner of Major Street and Bloor, the new garden will be dedicated to victims of the residential school system and the legacy of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
More than 80 similar gardens, known as Heart Gardens, have already been planted across the country. Hearts are scattered throughout these gardens, each one representing a child who attended residential school. In 2017, more than 4,500 hearts were placed in gardens across the country.
At the closing ceremony of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in 2015, Marjie Calla said a prayer in to explain the purpose of Heart Gardens:
“Help us open our hearts to others, pay attention to our thoughts, words, and actions, notice when we have hurt others and change our behaviour in the future. With this Heart Garden we honour the children who were lost or survived the Indian Residential System.”
The design of the new Heart Garden at Trinity-St. Paul’s was done by Annishinaabe artist and designer Solomon King. The garden will have a wooden screen behind it designed in a wave pattern to symbolize energy waves shaped by the circle of creation. It will also have poetry of regeneration written by various Indigenous writers inscribed into it.
The Church had planned for the landscaping to begin in August of this year but the large number of construction projects on Bloor Street have forced a delay. Lynn Jondreville, a member of Trinity-St. Paul’s Indigenous Rights Solidarity group, expressed disappointment over this delay but says that the contractor is committed to beginning work on the garden in the spring of 2020.
October 8th, 2019 · Comments Off on FOCUS: Annex’s own little Italy (Sept. 2019)
Institute promotes Italian culture for all
Not just another former Annex mansion, this building located at 496 Huron Street (just north of Bloor) houses the Italian Cultural Institute of Toronto. Sponsored by the government of Italy, the centre offers a rich array of programming. JUAN ROMERO/GLEANER NEWS
By Juan Romero
If you have ever been fascinated by Italian culture then you are in luck, because your opportunity to immerse yourself into it is closer than you think.
The Italian Cultural Institute of Toronto (Istituto Italiano di Cultura Toronto) was established in 1976 and is located at 496 Huron Street near Bloor Street. It is an office of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and they are funded by the Italian government. It serves as a centre for cultural and academic activities related to Italian culture. According to the 2016 census there are 182,500 people of Italian heritage living in Toronto alone.
“30 per cent of students have Italian background… The other 70 per cent want to learn the language mostly for cultural reasons I would say”
—director of the Institute Alessandro Ruggera
The current director of the Institute, Alessandro Ruggera, explained what their purpose is.
“What we do is promote Italian culture to the Canadian public. We promote the culture, promote the study of the language, and also support the collaboration of Canadian and Italian culture,” he says.
The institute contains classrooms, an Italian library, and an art gallery. The gallery hosts exhibitions, lectures, films, and video screenings throughout the year. The exhibitions are always a collaboration of Italian and Canadian artists and aim to facilitate a cultural exchange through art.
“The main goal is to present Italian culture here and to support institutions that are interested in inviting Italian artists,” says Ruggera, “whether they are visual artists, musicians, or scholars. We work with the institutions that invite them to Canada to participate in conferences or different events.”
Non-Italians are always welcome to visit and get a taste of the culture. Their most popular offering is Italian language lessons. The institute offers four sessions of classes throughout the year, one during each season and they run for the entirety of each season. Classes are usually twice a week; these have usually a maximum of 13 students and are taught by qualified instructors who are native Italian speakers.
Ruggera says the classes are usually formed by a mix of Italians and non-Italians.
“I would say 30 per cent of students have Italian background. These are people who may want to improve their language or maybe they have lost the language. Maybe they were never taught by their parents. The other 70 per cent are Canadians who want to learn the language mostly for cultural reasons I would say.”
Ruggera adds that throughout the year, between 1,200 to 1,400 students enroll in Italian language classes.
If you are interested in taking part of these sessions, or finding out about other educational opportunities, check out the institute’s website or pop by in person at 496 Huron St.
Comments Off on FOCUS: Annex’s own little Italy (Sept. 2019)Tags:Annex · News
October 8th, 2019 · Comments Off on EDITORIAL: How not to manage the retail sale of pot (Sept. 2019)
Just ask Doug Ford. Ford lost $42 million selling pot last year. Then he botched the roll-out of retail licences so badly that it is now under judicial review. Illegal pot is widely available and is in fact necessary to satisfy the market demand that the province has failed to meet.
New figures released about the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) show that despite revenues of $104 million from the online sale and distribution of weed, the Ontario government found a way to lose over $40 million. That the loss comes without a brick and mortar investment and when the government essentially held a monopoloy is quite an achievement, really. The province also lost customer data in a cyber-theft that they blamed on Canada Post. Curiously, other provinces did not suffer the same fate. Hmmm….
Recall that Ontario’s plan, right from the start, was to hand retail sales to the LCBO which had an existing network with a professional and accountable approach to doing business. Then Doug Ford got elected, threw that Liberal plan out of the window, and started applying his own business prowess to the new industry.
To be fair, Canada is only the second country, after Uruguay, to legalize marijuana. So there’s no guidebook on how to launch the sale of legal marijuana. There have been challenges, such as a lack of legal cannabis, across the country, but the absence of stores is a Doug Ford made-in-Ontario problem.
In January, the province held a lottery for the first licences for retail stores, offering up 25 stores for a province with 14 million people. The winners of that lottery did not require any relevant experience. In late August the province announced the results of a second lottery to apply for a retail store licence. Potential store owners were required to set aside $300,000 to be able to apply and 42 applicants were given the green light to proceed to the next level. Innisfil, a bedroom community of Barrie, scored three winners. One winner in our area was 11180673 Canada Incorporated, which proposes to set up shop at 104 Harbord Street, the site of a unlicensed pot dispensary called CAFE which has been raided numerous times by police who ultimately blocked its doors with large concrete barricades.
The rules of the lotteries were supposed to exclude applicants who had been running illegal operations, but not here, apparently. Now they operate on the sidewalk, in full view, causing much hardship for the community according to the residents’ association and their BIA. Highlife is another applicant who submitted bids, some six hundred, apparently for the same 15 addresses in Northern Ontario, despite having contravened the rules. If Highlife had $300,000 set aside for each application, they would have required $180 million in speculative investment. This is not Doug Ford allowing mom-and-pop retailers into the marketplace. This is the myth of Doug Ford supporting the little guy.
Not all successful lottery winners in round two made it through initial scrutiny. The Alcohol Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) emailed each winner telling them they won the lottery and what they needed to do next. Eleven of the winner’s emails bounced back, so the AGCO sent them the same message by registered mail. Those winners tried to comply with the requirements of these letters but were then told that registered mail was meaningless and they were disqualified because their email was not deliverable. The government appears to be making things up as they go along.
Now the courts have entered the fray, halting the roll-out of the lottery’s second round while it attempts to unravel yet another Ford-spun mess. How sad, and unsurprising.
Throughout my time at City Hall I have worked hard to increase the quality of life for Toronto residents and to make living here more affordable. This year, the Ford government has been going out of its way to reduce quality of life and make it more unaffordable to live in Toronto, through their many service cuts and downloading.
They need to explain why they are allowing for the destabilization of our childcare system.
The cuts which will have the greatest impact on families in our ward will be to childcare provisions, to which the Conservatives have confirmed significant cuts are coming in 2020. These will come in the form of eliminating subsidies to low-income families, subsequently making costs higher for all parents, and cancelling plans for thousands of new childcare spaces.
Toronto is already one of the most expensive cities to live in in Canada. As it is, there aren’t enough affordable spots for the families that need them, but Ford has put a plan in motion that will raise fees for the limited spaces we already have, and will also eliminate many more.
With their most recent announcement made this August, the province has officially backed away from funding 51 new daycare capital projects that were already planned, and that families were counting on. This means we will lose 3,049 new childcare spaces, on top of cuts to occupancy grants that have been in place since 1998 and have helped countless families afford childcare and allowed them to return to the workplace.
What is especially troubling about these cuts is that they do not represent any savings for Ontario residents. The plan, in reality, moves the source of funding away from the provincial government, which raises most of its money through income taxes, and pushes it onto municipal governments, which raise most of their money through property taxes. It is a move that gives the province a false sense of accomplishment. They are acting as if they have cut the deficit, when they are really just transferring the costs to a system that has less equitable resources to draw from.
After the initial announcement in May about these cuts, the City Manager shared that this situation will create additional budgetary pressures that may put other vital city services at risk. In the coming year, the city will be forced into a position of making increases to our capital budget and potentially raising property taxes simply to maintain services, while continuing to fight back against a government that refuses to prioritize vital services.
Childcare advocates, parents, and local politicians are working together to raise awareness of the cuts and to pressure the province to stop them. This pressure led to a delay in implementation, and continued advocacy will make an impact again.
I put forward two motions at the July City Council meeting on Occupancy Agreements and Capital Funding for Childcare, directing council to tell the province to restore funding to support all future provincially-funded childcare projects. This included funding for the 51 daycare capital projects that are now at risk of not proceeding, and proposed finding a way to fund these programs if provincial funding is not restored.
On a council where most items are divisive, these motions both carried unanimously. I am proud to be able to bring all sides of this debate together to improve quality of life for our residents.
As a parent and ardent childcare advocate, I know that these cuts are forcing families to make tough choices in wards across the city. They are harmful and fiscally irresponsible.
I want to stress that we cannot let Toronto Conservative MPPs off the hook — they need to explain why they are allowing for the destabilization of our childcare system, and why they are supporting a future that will push young families out of our city. I will continue to work to find a way to make childcare more affordable for the residents of Toronto, and encourage you to join me.
Mike Layton is city councillor for Ward 11 University—Rosedale.
October 8th, 2019 · Comments Off on FORUM: Defending the free press to preserve democracy (Sept. 2019)
Concrete measure protects truth, complexity, and journalists
By Chrystia Freeland
This autumn we will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Those of us who lived through that time, as I did, remember it as a euphoric moment. It was hard to imagine that liberal democracy was anything less than both inevitable and eternal.
A free and independent media in all of its disputatious, cantankerous glory is one of the cornerstones of liberal democracy.
That was such a seductive idea, but it has proven to be an illusory one. It is clear today that liberal democracy and the rules-based international order are under greater threat than at any time since the Second World War.
As Robert Kagan argues in his recent book The Jungle Grows Back, “If the liberal order is like a garden, artificial and forever threatened by the forces of nature, preserving it requires a persistent unending struggle against the vines and weeds that are constantly working to undermine it from within and overwhelm it from without. Today there are signs all around us that the jungle is growing back.”
I agree with that so profoundly.
There is no part of our liberal democratic garden that is more threatened by the jungle’s resurgence than the free press. The danger is often specific and physical. The troubling reality is that journalists and other members of the media are increasingly the target of abuse and attack.
This must stop.
Journalists must be able to do their work safely and without fear of reprisal.
I’d like to pause and address the elephant in the room, the seeming paradox of elected politicians coming together to support a free press. We politicians may seem to be surprising champions for the media and that’s because of the inherent structural conflict between the press and the government.
The job of journalists, after all, is to hold our feet to the fire—and as someone who is regularly on the receiving end of that treatment I can assure you it is not a very pleasant experience. But it would be a terrible mistake for any politician, smarting perhaps from that discomfort, to conclude that journalists are the enemy; quite the contrary.
A free and independent media in all of its disputatious, cantankerous glory is one of the cornerstones of liberal democracy. The truth, to be sure, is that it is harder to be a politician, to be a government, in a country with a free and independent media. That’s the point.
By holding us—their governments—accountable, journalists make us better than we would otherwise be. Facts matter. Truth matters. Competence and honesty among elected leaders and in our public services matter. These assertions may seem so obvious as to be trite but the objective of authoritarianism is to undermine the very idea of fact, of truth. We need to fight back, with specific collective and practical steps.
The first step we have already taken is the Global Pledge for Media Freedom. We must seek accountability for crimes against journalists. That is why Canada has used sanctions as a tool to address abuses of media freedom. Following the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Canada imposed sanctions on 17 people. As an extension of the pledge, we are also launching a Media Freedom Coalition that will connect governments with civil society organizations and members of the press to save journalists and media workers at risk.
This coalition and the Media Freedom contact group are cousins to the rapid response mechanism launched during Canada’s G7 presidency last year to address malign disinformation.
On World Press Freedom Day this year, Canada announced $12 million for the organization Journalists for Human Rights. On July 11th, at the Global Conference for Media Freedom in London, I announced another $10 million annually to promote and protect democracy.
This funding will focus on supporting electoral processes, reinforcing democratic practices by combating disinformation, and strengthening civic engagement. An initial one million dollars will go to the new Global Media Defence Fund housed at UNESCO, including an independent panel of legal experts to support and advance media freedom worldwide.
I outline these actions, not as an exhaustive list, but as examples of some first concrete steps we can take together.
Canada has been delighted to co-host this year’s Media Freedom Conference with the UK and we are honoured to serve as next year’s host.
We all need to defend our independent press—even, and perhaps especially, when it criticizes us—as a central institution of democracy. We need to fight for an open society against a closed one. We need to fight for the complexity of democratic truth rather than the beguiling simplicity of authoritarian rhetoric. Then and only then will we have tended our democratic garden, preventing it from being swallowed by the persistent weeds that seek to undermine it.
Chrystia Freeland is member of parliament for University—Rosedale and serves as Canada’s Minister of External Affairs.
Comments Off on FORUM: Defending the free press to preserve democracy (Sept. 2019)Tags:Annex · Opinion
