One of Harry Potter’s biggest magic tricks was letting the world know about the Forest Stewardship Council. When J.K. Rowling announced that the final instalment of her beyond bestselling saga was going to be released on FSC certified paper, it was hard to miss the existence of an international organization that was founded in Toronto back in 1993 to look for better ways to manage the world’s forests.
And when Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty made switching government papers to FSC certified paper part of his recent reelection campaign, it was a major triumph for Antony Marcil, president and CEO of FSC Canada since 2005.
Before taking over FSC Canada, Marcil spent 10 years as president and CEO of the World Environment Center. In 1997, he was included in the first worldwide listing of “The Top 100 Figures in Environment, Sustainable Development and Social Issues” by The Earth Times. He did a two year stint as “planner-in-residence” at the School of Planning, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo after devoting five years of his life to an unexpected way to save the planet: tax reform.
I met Marcil at the FSC office in downtown Toronto to talk about the history and future of the FSC, how tax reform could save the world and why he’d trash Canada’s Ministry of the Environment.
And when I checked in just before posting this he was thrilled to tell me that there’s so much demand for FSC-certified paper that FSC certified mills can’t produce it fast enough. Fortunately, we don’t need to worry about that since you’re reading this online. . .
We’ve been holding back over the last two weeks only to bring you a comprehensive new 3-part podcast!
On January 29th, 2008, Mohamed Harkat was re-arrested for allegedly violating his bail conditions by the Canada Border Services Agency and Ottawa police. Harkat, an Algerian refugee, had been released on bail with a long list of draconian conditions after being arrested under a ’security certificate’. These controversial certificates allow authorities to hold permanent residents and refugees as suspects indefinitely, without trial, and neither they nor their counsel are permitted to know and therefore be able to challenge any of the evidence that is used to detain them. Harkat, along with four other Muslim men dubbed the “Secret Trial Five” were detained in a penitentiary in Kingston, Ontario known to human rights groups as Guantanamo North.
This audio-podcast delves into the topic of Canada’s security certificate legislation and its (non)constitutionality, featuring three prominent voices on the topic: A. Wayne MacKay OC , Professor of Law at Dalhousie Law School, Barbara Jackman L.L.D., distinguished immigration and refugee lawyer and Matthew Behrens, grass-roots organizer and community activist.
It should be noted that the new security certificate legislation, Bill C3 (passed in February 2008), attempted to rectify constitutional deficiencies with the security certificate regime identified by the Supreme Court of Canada. Already, the Canadian Bar Association, the Federation of Law Societies of Canada and the Quebec Bar Association, all regard this legislation as probable to fail to meet the Charter’s test and vulnerable to another constitutional challenge.
A timely piece dealing with complex and emotional issues surrounding security measures, terrorism, Islamophobia, and government secrecy, this three-part podcast is available for streaming here, or for download at the links below. All three parts were produced by AR Khan and narrated by Dave MacMichael.
