February, 06 2015, 04:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Dylan Penner, Media Officer,E-mail:,dpenner@canadians.org
Support the Call for an Inquiry on Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women
WASHINGTON
Over the past three years the Council of Canadians has repeatedly called for a national inquiry on murdered and missing Indigenous women.
Indigenous women make up 4.3 per cent of the Canadian population, but they account for 16 per cent of murdered women and 11.3 per cent of missing women in Canada. Over the past 30 years, 1,026 Indigenous women have been murdered and 160 are missing. We believe an inquiry is needed to understand the root causes of this situation and to develop a national action plan.
On February 26, the families of murdered and missing Indigenous women will be gathering in Ottawa. Some of them will then also participate in a roundtable meeting on this issue with provincial premiers and Indigenous organizations on February 27.
We are asking you to take action in the lead up to this by:
- writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper to express your support for a national inquiry,
- letting your Conservative MP know that you want you them to support a national inquiry (the New Democrats, Liberals and Greens have already supported the call),
- requesting your municipal council to pass a resolution in support of a national inquiry.
A sample letter to the editor that you can send to your local newspaper can be found here. A municipal resolution recently passed by Winnipeg city council is here and can be used as a draft submission for your municipal council. The Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association, Saskatoon city council and Prince Albert city council have also passed similar resolutions.
Thank you to the Council of Canadians chapter activists from across the country who have already indicated to us that they have submitted a letter to the editor, written their Conservative MP, and intend to participate in a local solidarity march.
For more information, please click here.
Founded in 1985, the Council of Canadians is Canada's leading social action organization, mobilizing a network of 60 chapters across the country.
Office: (613) 233-4487, ext. 249LATEST NEWS
IEA Says 'Unprecedented' Clean Energy Surge Has Kept Key Warming Target Alive
"The pathway to 1.5 °C has narrowed in the past two years, but clean energy technologies are keeping it open," said International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol.
Sep 26, 2023
The International Energy Agency said Tuesday that the rapid acceleration of clean energy growth worldwide has kept the Paris climate accord's critical 1.5°C warming target alive for now—but warned the continued burning of fossil fuels poses a dire threat to efforts to stave off the worst of the planetary crisis.
In a new report, the IEA noted that the adoption of clean energy technology has "surged at an unprecedented pace over the last two years," with solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity additions growing by close to 50% and electric car sales rising by 240%.
"This progress reflects cost reductions for key clean energy technologies—solar PV, wind, heat pumps, and batteries—which fell by close to 80% on a deployment-weighted average basis between 2010 and 2022," according to the IEA's report.
Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, said in a statement that "the pathway to 1.5°C has narrowed in the past two years, but clean energy technologies are keeping it open."
"With international momentum building behind key global targets such as tripling renewable capacity and doubling energy efficiency by 2030, which would together lead to a stronger decline in fossil fuel demand this decade, the COP28 climate summit in Dubai is a vital opportunity to commit to stronger ambition and implementation in the remaining years of this critical decade," Birol added.
The IEA's report comes on the heels of a record-hot summer that saw catastrophic extreme weather events across the globe—disasters that scientists say will increase in frequency and intensity if world leaders don't take immediate action to phase out planet-warming fossil fuels.
The World Meteorological Organization warned in May that there's a 66% chance that, over the next five years, global temperatures will rise beyond 1.5°C of warming above pre-industrial levels for at least a year.
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In its new report, the IEA makes clear that despite some encouraging progress, nations—particularly the wealthy countries most responsible for fossil fuel emissions—aren't doing nearly enough to curb their polluting activities and transition to renewable energy.
The report finds that global carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector "remain worryingly high," hitting a new record last year. Additionally, the report observes that fossil fuel demand and investments in supply have increased, "spurred by the energy crisis of 2022 after Russia's invasion of Ukraine."
"The energy sector is changing faster than many people think, but much more needs to be done and time is short," the IEA said Tuesday. "Momentum is coming not just from the push to meet climate targets but also from the increasingly strong economic case for clean energy, energy security imperatives, and the jobs and industrial opportunities that accompany the new energy economy. Yet, momentum must be accelerated to be in line with the 1.5°C goal and to ensure that the process of change works for everyone."
If nations don't rapidly scale up their climate ambitions, the IEA warned, keeping warming below 1.5°C by the end of the century would require "massive deployment" of unproven carbon removal technologies.
"This report reaffirms a stark truth: To limit global temperature rise as agreed upon internationally, there's no room for new oil, gas, or coal fields," Kelly Trout, research director of Oil Change International, said in a statement Tuesday. "The time for a swift, equitable, and fully funded phase-out of fossil fuels is now, with rich countries moving first and fastest and paying their fair share to finance a global just transition."
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In addition to calling for U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez's resignation over federal bribery charges, Sen. John Fetterman is planning to return $5,000 that the New Jersey Democrat gave to Pennsylvania Democrat's 2022 campaign.
"We are in process of returning the money," Fetterman spokesperson Joe Calvello toldThe Messenger on Monday, "in envelopes stuffed with $100 bills."
While a Menendez spokesperson did not respond to the outlet's request for comment, the embattled senator—who on Friday temporarily stepped down as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—was defiant on Monday in response to demands for him to resign from the chamber, publicly saying that "not only will I be exonerated, I will still be New Jersey's senior senator."
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Menendez and his wife are accused accepting bribes in the form of "cash, gold, payments toward a home mortgage, compensation for a low-or-no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other things of value" in exchange for helping three businessmen and the Egyptian government.
According to the indictment unsealed Friday, federal agents who raided the Menendez home found various pieces of possible evidence, including "over $480,000 in cash—much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe."
Fetterman on Saturday was the first senator to join a growing number of House Democrats and Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy in calling for Menendez—who is up for reelection next year—to resign now.
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In a series of posts on social media Monday, Calvello noted that "more senators, both Republicans and Democrats, have forcefully denounced how John Fetterman dresses than have called for Menendez to resign for being corrupt."
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The Lever's David Sirota declared Monday that "the jorts-and-hoodie senator has the only rational anti-corruption position here, while all the fancy-suit senators complaining about dress codes but saying nothing about Menendez now look ridiculous."
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) on Monday afternoon became just the second senator to urge his indicted colleague to willingly exit the chamber. He simply said that "Sen. Menendez has broken the public trust and should resign from the U.S. Senate."
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This post has been updated with comment from Sen. Peter Welch.
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U.S. Sen. John Fetterman said the aim of the bill is to "stop humiliating kids and penalizing hunger."
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As children across the United States have started a new academic year over the past month, many families have had to contend with federal lawmakers' refusal to guarantee universal free meals and the resulting "lunch shaming"—which three U.S. Senate Democrats hope to partially combat with new legislation to cancel student lunch debt nationwide.
"'School lunch debt' is a term so absurd that it shouldn't even exist," Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) declared in a statement Monday. "That's why I'm proud to introduce this bill to cancel the nation's student meal debt and stop humiliating kids and penalizing hunger."
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Fetterman—who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry's Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition, Specialty Crops, Organics, and Research—is leading the fight for the School Lunch Debt Cancellation Act with Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.).
"No child in Rhode Island—or anywhere in America—should be penalized for not being able to afford school lunch. It's that simple," asserted Whitehouse. "Our legislation will eliminate lunch debt in schools, supporting every child's access to a healthy meal and positioning them for long-term success."
Welch agreed, saying: "Our students shouldn't have to worry about how they're paying for lunch—full stop. I'm proud to partner with my colleagues Sen. Fetterman and Whitehouse on this commonsense bill, and urge my colleagues to stand with us."
Congress initially responded to the Covid-19 pandemic by enabling public schools to provide free breakfast and lunch to all 50 million children nationwide, but Republicans blocked the continuation that policy last year. Instead, lawmakers passed the Keep Kids Fed Act, a bipartisan compromise that increased federal reimbursement rates for programs serving low-income students. However, as Common Dreamsreported in January, only around a quarter of districts that responded to a survey from the School Nutrition Association said those levels are sufficient, and 99.2% had concerns about raised rates expiring.
Further burdening American families trying to feed children amid food companies' price gouging, congressional Republicans and right-wing Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) also killed the pandemic-era expansion of the child tax credit—a move that contributed to the U.S. child poverty rate more than doubling in 2022 compared with the previous year, according to data released this month.
"Prior to the pandemic, some schools had resorted to tactics that embarrassed kids, such as stamping their hands to remind parents of unpaid bills and substituting cold cheese sandwiches for hot meals," Civil Eatsreported Monday. "Sometimes meals were thrown out in front of the children. And while experts say that fewer districts have resumed these practices—often dubbed 'lunch shaming'—they haven't gone away entirely either."
Crystal FitzSimons, director of school and out-of-school time programs at the Research and Action Center (FRAC), told the outlet, "Schools, families, and states really did not want to go back to having the complicated school nutrition operations where some kids have access to free meals and other kids do not, and they have to struggle with unpaid debt."
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California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Vermont have all guaranteed universal free school meals, and Nevada has a policy in place for the 2022-23 school year only. While lawmakers in other states are working to pass similar bills, advocates have called for federal legislation to ensure all schoolchildren are fed.
In addition to the new debt cancellation bill, Fetterman is among the co-sponsors of the Universal School Meals Program Act, reintroduced in May by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).
"It is downright cruel that we are letting our children in America go hungry," Fetterman said at the time. "No child in America should be worried about if they are going to be able to get breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I am proud and honored to co-sponsor this bill that will finally make sure that our children are fed."
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