The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.oakvillebeaver.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, November 26, 2009 · 6 The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5571 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate.The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Commentary Guest Columnist NEIL OLIVER Vice-President and Group Publisher, Metroland West DAVID HARVEY Regional General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution SARAH MCSWEENEY Circ. Manager WEBSITE oakvillebeaver.com We need direction Max Khan, Ward 6 Town/Regional Councillor / Oakville Federal Liberal candidate In the coming weeks world leaders will converge on Copenhagen, Denmark to pursue what is tantamount to the Holy Grail -- a binding agreement on climate control. While the odds of finding the Grail may be better, we cannot lose Max Khan track of the importance of the process. Consecutive Canadian Liberal governments have tried to carry the torch, some to their own detriment, while others with some success. However, the minority Conservative grip on government has stymied any conversation as to the future direction of combating climate change both nationally and internationally. Even this past week, Prime Minister Harper has decided to avoid any environmental movement until after the conference; waiting to see what the Obama administration does. Unfortunately for Canada, the Obama environmental train has already left the station. To date, the Obama administration has spent six times more per capita than the Canadian government on greenhouse gas initiatives. The Harper government claims its environmental strategy will coincide with America's. In reality, it contains no binding agreements and a preference for intensity reductions instead of any absolute caps on greenhouse pollution to appease the oil sands. The Suzuki Foundation notes Canada uses more energy than all the inhabitants of Africa combined -- 760 million people -- yet we still have no strategic direction as to how, or even if, we are going to change. While this is not inconsistent with past Conservative approaches, it has become increasingly embarrassing for Canadians internationally. Recently the co-winner of the Nobel Prize with Al Gore in 2007, now head of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachami stated, "In the last couple of years, I'm afraid, Canada has not been seen as sitting at the table." Canada has trammelled ahead directionless not just on environmental leadership, but on real economic strategic approaches. The need to find viable alternative forms of renewable energy, combined with strong economic incentives to produce them, has long been at the foreground of successive Liberal governments. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change -- predecessor to the Kyoto Protocol -- came to fruition under the leadership of numerous world leaders most notably Jean Chrétien and Bill Clinton. Under the stewardship of Paul Martin, the 2005 budget brought forth not only a surplus, but the greenest budget in Canadian history, melding smart economic policy with smart environmental policy. It was Stéphane Dion who broke a five year deadlock at the United Nations with his Montreal Action Plan to facilitate the implementation of Kyoto, only to see the Conservatives stall the year after and derail the process. Canadians have higher standards than those espoused from their current government and these stan RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville TV AUCTION ERIC RIEHL / SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER INSPIRING: From left, Brianne Kuschei listens while Jack Kessig takes a break from reading, as children's author Tina Powell reads her best-selling book Freddy and the Blue Jays to preschool students at the Montessori School at Sheridan College. Powell recently stopped by to read her book to the Montessori preschool and the Children's Centre that operate at Sheridan's Oakville campus. See Falling page 7 Romancing without responsibility and partying like it's 1967 T he bison on Santa Catalina Island just off the coast of California are being given birth control pills -- liberating the heavy-headed hairy beasts to canoodle without consequences, frolic without fear, romance without responsibility, and giving the Catalina cows (that is, female bison) control over their own fertility. For the bison on Catalina Island it's like the 1960s all over again. Psychedelic music, far-out fashion, and free love, baby, yeah. Okay, I fabricated portions of the previous paragraphs. Truth be told, the bison are not at all in control of their own fertility. Their fertility is being manipulated by local conservation authorities. Why? Well, apparently the rigorous Just Say No and Abstinence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder campaigns failed, thus there's a bit of over-population. Also, as human beings, we just can't seem to resist messing with nature -- from cloning to culling to modifying and monkeying -- even though the results are oftentimes unsuccessful, if not disastrous (see: importing killer bees, assorted river diversions and, of course, celebrity plastic surgery). Ah, the age-old match-up of Human Nature versus Mother Nature. American researchers at Georgia Tech-Emory University recently revealed that they have developed the "Gorilla Tough Cuff," the world's first device for safely taking gorilla blood-pressure readings. Gorillas everywhere exalted at the news, saying that they haven't been this happy since researchers introduced them to the Ape Hefty Hose colonoscopy device Andy Juniper back in 2001. Think of it, they said, humans can now invade our habitat on a regular basis, take our blood pressure and, if they find us to have elevated readings, they can put us on hypertension medication, advise us to cut down on our salt intake and recommend appropriate lifestyle adjustments: lose weight, quit smoking and, of course, limit alcohol intake. Darn. Okay, maybe I'm getting slightly cynical in my dotage, but do you not think we could better help gorillas by refraining from clear-cutting their environment -- oh, and poaching them, occasionally for meat, but typically for sport? The other day, I read where scientists believe they are on the cusp of cracking the genetic code and bringing dinosaurs back to life like some real-life Jurassic Park. To what end? I mean, why would you bring back a species that evolution has eliminated and whose natural environment has been altered (if not actually destroyed)? Seriously. Don't you have to wonder whether invaluable time and resources would be better spent trying to save the species we already have that are endangered? I know, I know, now this sounds like I'm advocating further meddling. Actually, I'd like to see us leave the animals alone, but, rather, protect their shrinking environments so that they have a legitimate shot at survival. It's the old saying: nature knows, and humans only think they know. We'll give the bison birth control. Then some insidious disease will come along and wipe out the herd and we'll be left to think that maybe we should have left them alone. Maybe what they needed to survive is what they currently have: numbers. Andy Juniper can be visited at www.strangledeggs.com, contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com, and followed at www.twitter.com/thesportjesters.