A woke water main break, blame the climate cult, the myth of objectivity, and a heinous appointment
The week’s “Hair on Fire” summary: June 1-9, 2024 (Correction made June 10.)
My Scottish/Irish ancestors arrived on the east coast of so-called “Canada” in the late 1700’s or early 1800’s and were part of several waves of genocidal colonization of the Indigenous people who were already here. We arrived uninvited on the traditional unceded territory of the Wəlastəkewiyik (Maliseet) whose ancestors along with the Mi’Kmaq / Mi’kmaw and Passamaquoddy / Peskotomuhkati Tribes / Nations signed Peace and Friendship Treaties with the British Crown in the 1700s. I like to start every new post by explaining my family’s history and keeping this foremost in my mind (and my writing) at all times. I know I have benefited as a result of colonization, and I find the history deeply troubling. It is what motivates me to understand the true history and advocate for real reconciliation. As a child in the 1970’s, I moved west with my family and am grateful to be writing this newsletter now in Moh’kinsstis, and the traditional Treaty 7 territory of the Blackfoot confederacy: Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, as well as the Îyâxe Nakoda and Tsuut’ina nations. This territory is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3 within the historical Northwest Métis homeland. I recognize that the land I now work and live on was stolen from these nations (truth) and I support giving the land back as an act of reconciliation. Lands inhabited by Indigenous Peoples contain 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity. Indigenous Peoples’ traditional knowledge and knowledge systems are key to designing a sustainable future for all.
The big news in Calgary this week was the mega water main break in the community of Bowness on Wednesday night.
The Emergency Operations Centre was activated that evening as a large area of the community just west of downtown began flooding. The province blasted out an emergency alert to everyone’s phones at 6:36 the next morning with instructions:
All residents and businesses must conserve water.
Do not shower or bath.
Do not wash dishes or run appliances that use water.
Meanwhile, the City of Calgary’s website was much less dramatic. Instructions were posted for voluntary indoor water restrictions:
Use the dishwasher and washing machine only when required and with full loads
Limit showers to three minutes or less and keep baths shallow if you’re able to do so (e.g., people with mobility challenges).
Turn off humidifiers, ice machines and automatic sprinkler systems
Scrape your plate clean rather than rinsing off food
Wash vegetables and fruit in a partially filled sink or pot and then rinse them quickly
Keep drinking water in your fridge. Don’t run the tap to get ice-cold water
Turn off the tap when brushing teeth or shaving
Two levels of government trying to coordinate on messaging - enough said.
For an idea of just how big of a deal this was:
Update June 10 - As it turns out, this image was not completely accurate as actual photos of the water main show a slightly smaller pipe diameter - one that would better fit a small motorcycle rather than a truck!
After a couple of days, the situation looked pretty serious.
“If we do not reduce our water use, we are at risk of running out,” said Calgary Emergency Management Agency Chief Sue Henry.
Read more:
https://livewirecalgary.com/2024/06/07/calgary-must-reduce-water-consumption-by-25-per-cent-or-risk-running-out-city/
As crews worked to find and repair the water main, news of the water main break was slow to spread, while conspiracy theories took off like a bat outta hell.
By the weekend, it had become clear that there were some communication “challenges” with the water main situation.
“Our communications need to be clear, and they need to be plain language,” the mayor said.
“We need to provide people with real examples of how to conserve water. We need graphics and we need visuals that demonstrate what the situation actually looks like. In a nutshell, we need to do a lot better for Calgarians.”
Read here:
https://livewirecalgary.com/2024/06/09/its-time-to-step-up-our-game-mayor-gondek-apologizes-for-poor-communications-relays-feeder-main-repair-plans/
Innocence has little to do with misinformation
Related to this, I heard a presentation recently by Candyce Kelshall. Kelshall is the president of the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies (CASIS) Vancouver. She argues that misinformation is often defined as “innocent or an honest mistake” but this fails to recognize that it is a deliberate action with negative impact.
Kelshall says misinformation is shared recklessly to telegraph identity and shouldn't be considered innocent. People who spread it should not be relieved of responsibility for their actions.
Read more here:
https://journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/jicw/issue/view/395
The chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Richard Wagner, would likely agree with Kelshall as he called out elected leaders this week at his annual news conference in a story reported by CTV News.
"It is one thing to express disagreement with a decision," he said Monday.
"But it is another thing altogether to criticize it because of who the judge is or how they were appointed. Comments like this undermine public confidence in the justice system."
Read here:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/elected-leaders-should-read-supreme-court-decisions-before-speaking-says-top-justice-1.6911491
We need to address mis- and disinformation as intentional, not as innocent mistakes. There is plenty of evidence of bad faith actors pushing lies deliberately, including politicians acting for personal gain.
Villains and Christian nationalists
Speaking of bad faith actors, if you want to read a horror story that could become real life, the Washington Post had an article this week about Russ Vought, the guy who would likely be Donald Trump’s chief of staff.
Vought has called for “mass deportation” of illegal immigrants and a “Christian immigration ethic” that would strictly limit the types of people allowed entry into the United States.
He has said “immigration only increases and exasperates (sic) the divisions that we face in the country.”
This is classic scapegoating. Reading about the upcoming election in the U.S. and what might happen is terrifying.
Gift link:
https://wapo.st/3VyftdG
Closer to home, David Parker, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s personal friend and mentor, was Xittering the hellsite with his trash talk this past week. Parker is behind Take Back Alberta, which now dominates the United Conservative Party's governing board.
Parker is probably not referring to the Russian theory of abiogenic petroleum. Nor is he referring to the fact that oil is formed from fossilized plankton and algae, rather than dinosaurs (as Mastodon user @Chigaze pointed out to me). It’s more likely he’s in agreement with Nick Fuentes, who believes God gave us oil and it is infinite. Parker, along with Fuentes are both white supremacist Christian nationalists.
Parker would probably also get along well with Azerbaijan's president who recently described his country's gas reserves as a "gift of the gods" and pledged to defend other fossil-fuel economies wanting to extract more oil and gas.
You may be thinking “who cares about either of these guys?” but keep in mind that Azerbaijan is hosting COP29 this November in the capital city of Baku.
Read more:
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-cop29-climate-hosts-theyll-fossil.html
And no post about climate villains would be complete without a mention of Suncor’s Rich Kruger who appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development this week repeating this tired (and incorrect) advice for Canadians:
“The world will not consume one less barrel of oil simply because Canada chooses not to provide it. That barrel will come from somewhere else. In most cases, somewhere with less commitment to responsible development, democratic ideals, social accountability, and climate action.”
He then proceeded to claim the following were “myths:”
Myth #1: Oil and gas prosperity comes at the expense of the planet. This is false. Profits and the planet are not mutually exclusive; they are mutually dependent.
Myth #2: Canadian energy companies are doing little on their own, but rather resisting the energy transition and decarbonization. This is also false.
Myth #3: Canada can demonstrate global leadership by restricting its oil and gas sector for the benefit of the planet. This is perhaps the most concerning falsehood.
If you can stomach it, the full speech is here:
https://boereport.com/2024/06/06/suncor-energys-rich-kruger-urges-canada-to-seize-the-opportunity-its-energy-resources-provide/
Journalism is inherently biased by the status quo
For news and journalism geeks out there, there is a podcast episode about objectivity in journalism that is worth a listen.
Lewis Raven Wallace, author of “The View from Somewhere: Undoing the Myth of Journalistic Objectivity” was on Movement Memos and here are some of my favourite quotes:
"...sometime around the 1920s, people started talking about journalism as almost like the science of news that you would go out and objectively study. And the problem with that was, is, always has been, that these assumptions about what is a neutral question? What is an unbiased approach? What two sides should be included in a both sides story? Those questions have always been inherently biased by the status quo."
"So normalizing the experience of white, straight, cisgender men and often excluding and ignoring the experiences, and importantly, I think, the ideas, of Indigenous people, Black people, queer people, gay and trans people. And as objectivity became a more central framework for journalism in the United States, it was almost immediately used to suppress organizing, silence voices of color and Black voices and gay and then later on trans voices."
In particular, Raven Wallace’s thoughts on how journalists cover the police are so insightful:
"And so this idea that police and safety are equivalent, which is just a straight-up lie. But I think that’s the result of a lot of very successful propaganda on the part of police and police organizations over, now, many decades."
Read or listen here:
https://truthout.org/audio/objectivity-in-journalism-is-a-deadly-myth-that-serves-israeli-military-and-cops/
A clever distraction while the far right scores another win
Something was missing in the outrage over Alison Redford's appointment to the Invest Alberta crown corporation this past week. While everyone was reliving Redford’s flight itineraries from 10 years ago, some recent terrible news got lost.
Rob Merrifield, a former Conservative MP, was appointed to the board of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta. Merrifield, who is not a medical professional, enjoys a green light rating with the pro-life, anti-2SLGBTQIA+ organization Campaign Life Coalition.
As @pvjennybean commented on Threads:
In the Edmonton Journal story, Health Minister Adriana LaGrange praised Merrifield’s history of serving on various health and hospital boards while her government claims the healthcare system was dysfunctional under leaders like him.
This is both shuffling the deck with the same old folks (Merrifield is 70, by the way) and rewarding friends no matter how they actually performed in their role.
All while claiming the government is "improving" healthcare.
Read more:
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/former-alberta-premier-alison-redford-appointed-to-board
Once per year pedestrians are allowed to roam free on the Red Mile
On a final note, Lilac Festival in Calgary last weekend saw 100,000+ people walking down the full width of their favourite streets, enjoying a huge variety of food, live music, and shopping for handmade or unusual items. Since cars have been allowed to own these Beltline streets, pedestrians can only do this ONCE PER YEAR.
Even though it is super crowded, it is raining, and their dogs are stressed...they still show up in the tens of thousands.
Because to repeat - once per year.
Meanwhile, the City is surveying Calgarians asking whether pedestrian-friendly options for 17th Avenue are desired.
I'd suggest they head down to Lilac Festival to get their answer.
**See more of my 17th Avenue photos here.