akaashmaharaj

[akaashmaharaj]

The Green Budget Coalition 2024 AGM

The Green Budget Coalition held our AGM in a deconsecrated church.

Discussing the federal budget's impact on ecological stewardship in that setting seemed apt: a commingling of the sacred and the profane.

The Coalition is made up of Canada's twenty-two leading environmental organisations.

🌱 https://greenbudget.ca/

#green budget coalition #budget #gbf #environment #green #ecology #canada

[akaashmaharaj]

Canadian Olympic Committee April 2024 Session

I attended the final Session of the Canadian Olympic Committee, before the Paris Olympics and Paralympics.

We covered a great deal of ground: a new strategic plan; implications of the recent federal budget; the coming "Future of Sport in Canada Commission".

The Paris Games will focus public attention on high performance sport.

This increases the opportunity for the Olympic movement to make the case for sport as a public good, worthy of public support; it also heightens the urgency for sport institutions to put their houses in order, in protecting athlete rights, fostering greater inclusion, and improving governance.

🍁🏅 https://olympic.ca/

#paris2024 #olympics #olympic #paralympics #paralympic #canada #sport

[akaashmaharaj]

With the Privy Council at DemocracyXChange

Since the Privy Council Office's DemocracyXChange discussion on combatting foreign disinformation, one issue has continued to gnaw at my thoughts.

The vast majority of online disinformation are crude lies and vulgar slurs.

They proliferate not because of sophisticated deception, but because too many of us are too eager to thoughtlessly spread content that reinforces our own views or debases those who disagree with us.

The fight against disinformation is not only a fight against malign foreign governments; it is also a struggle with our own societies' worst impulses.

[akaashmaharaj]

Nature Canada Responds to the 2024 Federal Budget

My Nature Canada colleagues and I welcome the federal budget commitments to increase care for natural spaces, especially to expand national protected areas:

Central Coast NMCA Reserve;

Ojibway National Urban Park;

Pituamkek National Park Reserve.

But there are also many areas where the government continues to announce ambitions, without taking steps to fulfil them. It repeats its longstanding promise to end corporate welfare to fossil fuel and logging corporations; I await the day when it will keep that promise.

Canadians are struggling with inflation for necessities.  And too often, nature is pillaged for the few, rather than preserved for the many.

I am glad the government acknowledges it can only solve these crises together.  I hope its deeds will eventually match its words.

🍁 https://via.maharaj.org/budget24

#nature canada #canada #conservation #budget 2024

[akaashmaharaj]

Combatting Foreign Disinformation

I enjoyed participating in a Privy Council Office workshop on resisting foreign disinformation, at the DemocracyXChange. The timing was exquisite: we met in parallel with Canada's Foreign Interference Commission hearings.

Authoritarian states use disinformation to widen our social divisions, both to weaken us and to persuade their own citizens that democracy is failing creed.

Because democracy anywhere, is a threat to tyranny everywhere.

We will report on our discussions in the coming weeks.

🍁 https://democracyxchange.org/

#DXC24 #democracy #disinformation #misinformation #foreign interference #elections

[akaashmaharaj]

Springtime in Almonte

Spring has sprung in Almonte!

We are enjoying our annual allotment of two weeks of bliss: the evanescent period after the ice and snow retreat, but before the biting insects charge forward.

🍁 https://fb.com/TheTiltYard

#thetiltyard #Almonte #Ontario #Canada #spring #springtime

[akaashmaharaj]

International Day of Sport for Development and Peace 2024

Bello, Jumblie, Floof, Cody, and I are delighted to join Peace and Sport's White Card challenge, on International Day of Sport for Development and Peace.

At its best, sport retains the capacity to inspire us to the better angels of our natures: fair play; equality of opportunity in the pursuit of excellence; humility in victory and grace in defeat.

I have seen the power of sport to draw bitter enemies together across borders, as peers in a shared passion, and foster mutual understanding.

That power only grows more vital, as the world grows more violent.

🏇🏻🐴🐶😺🦜 https://peace-sport.org/

#whitecard #championsforpeace #sport #peace

[akaashmaharaj]

Canada's Two Billion Tree Programme

The government of Canada's two billion tree programme could significantly reduce atmospheric carbon and increase biodiversity.

But only if the government redesigns the programme to serve outcomes instead of sloganeering.

UQAM Professor Christian Messier, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, and I spoke with Catherine Cullen on CBC Radio's The House, in this excerpt.

🌳 https://via.maharaj.org/2btrees

#two billion trees #2 billion trees #carbon capture #trees #planting #biodiversity #climate change

[akaashmaharaj]

On CBC Radio's The House

Canada's federal government claims it is on track to keep its promise to plant two billion trees, to reduce greenhouse gases.

Canada's federal Environment Commissioner says the government is using "creative accounting" to obscure massive shortfalls in plantings, and that the programme itself will increase greenhouse gas emissions until 2031.

CBC's Catherine Cullen and I discussed the reality behind the numbers.  Our conversation will air on CBC Radio's The House, this Saturday.

📻 https://cbc.ca/thehouse

#cbc #cbc radio #the house #trees #two billion trees #2 billion trees #greenhouse gasses

[akaashmaharaj]

Commonwealth Debate on Sport and the Sustainable Development Goals

The 8th Commonwealth Debate on Sport and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be tomorrow, online.

They will debate, "Artificial Intelligence is the answer to accelerating the power of sport to help achieve the SDGs by 2030."

🗓 Tuesday, 26 March 2024 🕑 14h00 UTC 🔗 https://via.maharaj.org/idsp24

It will be well worth watching for anyone with an interest in the ability of sport to serve the public good.

#idsp #idsp24 #sport #commonwealth

[akaashmaharaj]

State Funeral for Brian Mulroney

Brian Mulroney's state funeral today certainly marks the end of an era.

I was not enamoured by most of his policies, but I deeply admired his moral resolve in standing up to Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, to help topple apartheid in South Africa.

I reflected on this in an article for the Globe and Mail, years ago.

🍁 https://via.maharaj.org/thatcher

#canada #brian mulroney #state funeral #margaret thatcher #ronald reagan #apartheid

[akaashmaharaj]

Reddit's IPO

I enjoyed speaking with CNBC's Jonathan Vanian, about Reddit's decision to become a publicly-traded corporation. It will appear on the NYSE today.

Reddit is unusual in being run largely by unpaid volunteers. I lead its Equestrian community, as one of 60'000 volunteer Moderators.

For better and for worse, that gives Reddit an entirely different culture from other social media.

We shall see if that culture survives its transition to the stock market.

💸 https://via.maharaj.org/jv_rddt

#reddit #ipo #rddt #socialmedia

[akaashmaharaj]

Life, Death, and Free Trade

I am at the Canada-European Union discussions on the CETA free trade treaty.

Trade agreements are the most boring instruments in international affairs. But that belies how important they are to our lives.

They decide whether societies can generate enough prosperity for their peoples to live in dignity. They decide whether some people can live at all.

🇨🇦🇪🇺 https://via.maharaj.org/ceta

#ceta #canada #eu #europeanunion #freetrade #trade #diplomacy #negotiations

[akaashmaharaj]

The Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)

I am with representatives of Canada, the European Union, and citizen organisations, to discuss the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) treaty.

The treaty is extraordinarily complex, with more than 1'600 pages of less-than-lyrical prose.

But can it be implemented in a way that will dismantle barriers to competition, while still reinforcing environmental protections, consumer rights, and labour standards?

🇨🇦🇪🇺 https://via.maharaj.org/ceta

#ceta #trade #canada #eu #europeanunion #freetrade

[akaashmaharaj]

With the US Ambassador to Canada

I enjoyed speaking with US Ambassador David Cohen, about Canada-US cooperation in service to our common values.

Our countries are both grounded by the depth of our pluralism and the breadth of our natural heritage. That foundation is being put to the test by potent forces.

We thus share an imperative to strengthen social norms, to look to our fellow citizens with hope rather than with fear, and to protect nature for future generations rather than devour it in our own time.

🇨🇦🇺🇸 https://ca.usembassy.gov/

#canada #unitedstates #us #usa #diplomacy #northamerica #pluralism

[akaashmaharaj]

Meet the Boss

My Nature Canada colleagues and I had a productive conversation with Laurel Collins, the NDP Environment Critic, about our upcoming Nature on the Hill exercise.

We will bring local nature groups from across Canada to Ottawa, to ask parliamentarians to implement and enforce the UN Biodiversity Convention.

We were just pressing Laurel on whether the Liberal-NDP Supply and Confidence Agreement is serving the public interest, when her boss — her daughter Éowyn — turned up to enforce the party line.

🌱 https://naturecanada.ca/

#naturecanada #natureonthehill #laurelcollins #canada #nature

[akaashmaharaj]

Reddit Roadshow in Toronto

I had a lovely time at Reddit's IRL Roadshow in Toronto.

Trying to guess who the other attendees were from their resemblance to snoovatars tended to amuse rather than flatter them.

The event swag included a travel mug of such gigantic scale, that I feel I ought to cry "fee-fi-fo-fum” before using it.

🌎 https://2024modevents.splashthat.com/

#reddit #irl #roadshow #snoo #snoovatar #snoovatars #toronto