{0 eateriainnent is back with pure pleasure...

 

EXPO

 

  
  
 

 
     

to 16,000 Canadians die
prematurely from air pollution
every year, says a recent report
by the David Suzuki
Foundation. But Ottawa's only
response so far has been a lot of
hot air, the group says.

Two weeks prior to the Joint
Ministers of Energy and
Environment meeting last week
in Halifax, the environmental
foundation released its SO-page
report detailing the growing
impact of air pollution and cli-
mate change on Canadians’
health.

Entitled “Taking Our Breath

s, by 2020,
n green-
house gases by the same year.

The report, which was co-
authored by two epidemiologists
and an air pollution expert, also
indicated that Canada is the sec-
ond highest per capita emitter
of greenhouse gases in the
world, and that Canadians use
as much coal, gas, and oil per
year as the 750 million people
living in Africa.

Using federal government fig-
ures, the report estimates $10
billion a year could be saved if
smog is reduced in Canada’s
major Cities.

number because it’s trivial when
you compare it to the much,
much larger number of people
who experience chronic damage
to health or short-term episodes
of damage like asthma,” he said,
referring to the results of a fed-
eral government study.

That study revealed a 28%
increase in hospitalization for
asthma among boys between
1980 and 1990, and 18%
among girls during the same
period.

Last says while there's no
conclusive evidence that air pol-
lution causes asthma, it’s beyond
doubt that air pollution exacer-
bates the problem.

At last week's joint ministers
meeting, federal and provincial
ministers signed the Canada-
Wide Acid Rain Strategy, an
agreement that commits govern-
ments after the year 2000 to
establish targets for the reduc-
tion of sulphur dioxide emis-

national emissions trading,
where low polluting nations
would be rewarded with cash
from high polluting nations. —

But the problem, says Suzuki
Foundation outreach co-ordina-
tor Alex Boston, is that Ottawa
hasn't implemented any mecha-
nisms to directly address the
problem here in Canada.

“Tt would permit Canada to
increase or maintain current

    

emissions,” he said of the agree-
ment. “It basically allows
Canada to not clean up its back
yard and pay for the right to do
so.”

International emissions trad-
ing are expected to top the
agenda of the Conference of th
Parties summit in Buenos Aires.
Canada is sending a delegation
to the summit, which will run
from November 2 to November
Pik

" Dr John Last, a co-author of
Away, the report and epidemiology
the professor at the University of
raion Ottawa, that says while 16,000
per deaths seems like a high num-
a - ber, it’s minute compared to the
50% number of those who have con-

oragrowth tracted other health problems
mre eae pollution.
ticulate “T feel vaguely uncomfortable
emis-

Alp }

MOLSON |
J

a

Human Rights Commission dismisses complaint

ERIN GAWNE

VICTORIA (CUP)—The
women’s studies department at the
University of Victoria is breathing a
collective sigh of relief after the BC
Human Rights Commission
dismissed a discrimination case
brought against a member of the
department by a former student.

Kathleen Westergaard attracted
national attention in June 1995
when she complained she was sexu-
ally harassed by an assignment in
her women’s studies class known as
the “lesbian walk.”

The lesbian walk was part of a
course taught by Dr. Michele Pujol,
who died of cancer last fall before
the commission was able to exam-

 

ine the case brought against her.

Pujol asked students to walk
around campus holding hands with
another student of the same sex
and to reflect on taking on a sup-
posed lesbian identity.

Those who did not wish to par-
ticipate were instead asked to reflect
on their resistance to assuming a
lesbian identity.

Westergaard said she felt a class
assignment which asked a student
to walk around with another. class

-nsoontinued from page 3 PIECE Of rainforest

While the Las Nubes site is
small with respect to the forest in
which it is-found, its location near
the perimeter is crucial in protect-
ing the wooded land on the other
side from further depletion.

Fisher, 64, says he hopes the
secured property will be a political
tool. “A terrorist act is designed to

about dramatizing that kind of

sions.

member “acting in an affectionate
manner,’ was harassment.

“I don't think any prof should
be asking any student to do any-
thing sexual,” she told the Martlet
three years ago.

Westergaard filed a complaint
against Pujol and the University of
Victoria with the university's anti-
harassment officer and the BC
Human Rights Commission.

The university's anti-harassment
officer eventually found that the
lesbian walk did not constitute sex-
ual harassment because the exercise
was not graded and the professor
made participation optional.

~ After three years, the BC Human
Rights Commission has come to a
similar conclusion, dismissing
Wastergaard’s complaint on the
grounds that it disclosed no reason-
able basis to justify a referral to the
BC Human Rights Tribunal for a
hearing.

Last week, the department of
women’s studies said it was happy
Pujol’s deep commitment to a ped-
agogy founded on equality has been
recognized by the commission.

But it was hesitant to view the
decision as a victory because it cau-
tions against an uncritical accept-

coerce governments into acting,”
Fisher said. “I consider this my act
of terrorism.”

The physician bought the farm-
land after learning about the defor-
estation taking place in Costa Rica.
He says the government wasn't
moving fast enough to protect nat-
ural habitats.

They also discussed reducing

greenhouse gases through inter-

   

ance of rulings made under human
rights codes.

Hester Lessard, acting chair of
the women's studies department,
says the neutrality of human rights
language often allows commissions
to exploit the people they are
intended to protect.

“Often human rights language is
framed in neutral terms, allowing
someone from the mainstream to
use the language that is meant to
protect to cause stress,” she said.
“(Westergaard] lost, but often peo-
ple win.”

Shawna Farkas, director of the
campus women’ centre, was also
pleased with the decision to throw
out the complaint.

“This never was a human rights
case,” said Farkas. “No one was
forced to do anything. Because of
Wastergaard’s ability to press the
case unjustly, many people suf-
fered.”

But the ruling is encouraging,
she said, and will hopefully send a
message that people can't direct
their fears and prejudices at others.

“Tt is each individual's responsi-
bility to deal inwardly with their
prejudices. This decision clearly
shows that.”

“We're fiddling our way into
extinction,’ the Muskoka, Ontario
native said.

“I wanted to see the land pre-
served. Now it’s going to be used to
promote education, research and
international cooperation. It has
matured into something more sub-
stantial than I ever dreamed.”

 

Page 4 November 4 1998

 

The Other Press