Environmentalist Brad Komishke finds ways to improve environmental performance from within the walls of industry

By Joey Podlubny

In 1989, Brad Komishke was working at Husky Energy’s asphalt refinery in Llyodminster, Alberta, doing analytical support, when he volunteered on a project with the focus to use moss to clean up asphalt spills at the plant. There weren’t too many options for disposal at the time, and Komishke wanted to find an effective method. So, he gave his time to help come up with a way to get the natural bugs from moss to eat up a spill.

Things went a little slower than expected. During the experiments, the bugs were not producing at a fast enough rate. The system was proven to work, but it lacked efficiency and speed. Studying the tanks that housed the mixture of bugs and asphalt, Komishke considered ways to speed up growth.

He remembered his fish tank at home. Taking an aeration pump, he blasted oxygen into the tanks. They were in business. It was efficient. They did it. No more asphalt in the landfills, no more burning the stuff. There was positive impact on the environment that came from within the walls of industry, not outside of it. “That’s when I realized what kind of impact I could have working from within an oil company,” says Komishke.

More censorship in Canada

Friday, 20 March 2009
Galloway: ‘This idiotic ban shames Canada’ WORLDPRESSNETWORK - 20 March 2009 Respect MP George Galloway today vowed to use “all means at my disposal” to challenge the decision by Canada’s pro-war, conservative immigration minister, Jason Kenny, to refuse him entry to the country to give a series of speeches. Galloway is this afternoon exploring with organisers of his speaking tour and with legal advisors avenues to challenge the decision, which he brands “irrational, inexplicable and an affront to Canada’s good name”. Galloway was not informed of the decision until after it had been given to journalists. The grounds provided by a spokesperson for Mr Kenny for the ban are that Galloway’s opposition to the deployment of Nato troops in Afghanistan make him “inadmissible” to Canada. Galloway says: “This decision, gazetted in Rupert Murdoch’s Sun, is a very sad day for the Canada we have known and loved – a bastion of the freedoms that supporters of the occupation of Afghanistan claim to be defending.
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Suppression of Criticism of Israel

Wednesday, 18 March 2009
This statement was rejected by both the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail (as an op-ed). Please help this important statement get into broad circulation - pass it on to your networks (faculty, community, MPs, university presidents, unions etc.). You may also wish to write to the Star and Globe editorials and express your dismay that they have chosen not to publish it. Jewish Canadians Concerned About Suppression of Criticism of Israel James Deutsch, M.D., Ph.D. Judith Deutsch, M.S.W., R.S.W. Miriam Garfinkle, M.D. Over 150 Jewish Canadians signed a statement expressing their concerns about the campaign to suppress criticism of Israel that is being carried on within Canada. The signatories include many prominent Canadians, including Ursula Franklin O.C., Anton Kuerti O.C., Naomi Klein, Dr. Gabor Mate, and professors Meyer Brownstone (recipient of Pearson Peace Medal), Natalie Zemon Davis, Michael Neumann, and Judy Rebick. The signatories are particularly concerned that unfounded accusations of anti-Semitism deflect attention from Israel’s accountability for what many have called war crimes in Gaza. They state that B’nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress have led campaigns to silence criticism of Israel on university campuses, in labor unions and in other groups. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff unquestioningly echo the views of these particular Jewish organizations.
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Jack Hayden's Attack on Democracy

Friday, 13 March 2009

You better get informed about Bill 19

Posted By Edwin Erickson, Buck Lake

Jack Hayden: Provincial Land Thief?

If you thought Bill 46 was a threat to property owners and the democratic rights of all Albertans, Bill 19, presented by Drumheller-Stettler MLA, Jack Hayden, for first reading in the Alberta Legislature on March 2, makes its predecessor look like a babe-in-arms.

This Bill takes the notion of expropriation to a whole new level.

Bill 46, passed by PC MLA’s in the middle of the night on Dec. 5, 2007, stretched the limits of democracy by effectively taking away the rights of citizens to a public hearing; to fair and timely notice of any potential hearing, and even changed the name of the EUB, to distance that government Board from its prior illegal use of spies, bias, etc., against the public.

But, apparently, that was not enough to keep utilities corporations and the new AUC (read EUB) safe from the perils of the Alberta citizenry.

The new Bill 19 will further allow any cabinet minister, through the lieutenant-governor, to make regulations “respecting the removal of any buildings, improvements, materials or animals from the project area.”

In other words, as I read it, you WILL BE REMOVED from your property, at the discretion of the minister.