MONTREAL — Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s ultimatum to the Quebec government on caribou protection is a sign Ottawa is losing patience with provinces that aren’t upholding their responsibility to protect wildlife, experts say.
Rachel Plotkin, a caribou expert with the David Suzuki Foundation, says Guilbeault’s threat to unilaterally create protected habitat in Quebec for declining herds is a “shot across the bow” that shows Ottawa is ready to get tough after years of playing nice.
“As a campaigner who’s been involved in trying to uphold the tools under the Species at Risk Act, I’m very excited to see that a minister looks like they are finally willing to put those tools into play,” she said in a recent interview.
Plotkin says the federal government asked the provinces to produce plans to protect critical caribou habitat in 2012. However, she said, Ottawa has been reluctant to force them to comply, even as the herds have continued to decline because of habitat destruction.
“This shows that the federal government is tired of waiting for provinces to do the right thing (and) their patience is being tapped out,” she said.
In a letter dated April 8, Guilbeault gave the Quebec government until April 20 to provide him with its plan to protect the caribou and their habitat. If the plan is deemed insufficient, Guilbeault said he’ll recommend cabinet issue a decree protecting portions of the animals’ habitat on Quebec territory, regardless of the province’s objections.
Speaking Thursday north of Montreal, Guilbeault said that while Ottawa has recently reached an agreement with Alberta regarding a protection plan and is negotiating with British Columbia and Ontario, “unfortunately, there seems to be little will on the part of the Quebec government to find common ground.”
He stressed that he was still hoping to reach an agreement with Quebec that would avoid the need for a decree.
Jeremy Kerr, a biology professor with the University of Ottawa, said Guilbeault’s move was “a sharp wake-up reminder that provincial ministries of environment actually have to follow through on their responsibilities.”
He said the federal environment minister would not take a decision lightly to force Ottawa’s will on a province — especially the province that most vehemently objects to federal interference.
“If the federal minister is willing to enter into this kind of potentially contentious situation with Quebec, then the minister is willing to do it potentially anywhere,” Kerr said in a recent interview.
Anne-Sophie Doré, a lawyer with environmental law group Centre Québécois du droit de l’environnement, said Ottawa has issued emergency orders to stave off immediate threats to a species, including by halting construction projects in southern Quebec to protect the Western chorus frog. But the action being mulled by Guilbeault hasn’t been taken before, Doré said.
Unlike emergency orders, a decree would protect “habitats in their entirety” and could last five years, she said. The Species at Risk Act, she added, sets out penalties for failure to comply with the order, adding that there’s a chance Quebec would try to contest them in court.
Guilbeault said Thursday that the protection order would cover about 35,000 square kilometres in Quebec. The entirety of the land wouldn’t necessarily need to be left untouched, he said, but “additional measures” would need to be put in place to ensure caribou survival.
Kerr said the decree could contain a number of different elements, “ranging from a cessation of land-use activities that impinge on caribou survival in those areas, to a kind of requirement that management of those areas be very different than what it is today.”
He said that countless research has demonstrated that caribou need thick, old-growth forests that provide a food source and cover from predators.
But governments have been reluctant to curtail industrial activities such as logging, which have replaced older trees with younger ones and created trails that allow predators easy access to prey on the caribou. In order to protect the caribou, there’s no doubt industrial work in their territory would need to be significantly reduced, Kerr said.
Quebec Premier François Legault said Tuesday that Guilbeault’s ultimatum is another example of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government meddling in areas of provincial jurisdiction. Quebec, he said, has an independent commission looking into caribou protection that seeks to find a balance with “protecting jobs that are important in certain regions of Quebec.”
But Kerr, Plotkin and Doré all say that successive Quebec governments have shown they’re unwilling to take meaningful action unless their hands are forced.
“The status quo can’t continue if we want to have a future where wildlife survive and recover,” Plotkin said. “Hopefully this federal shot across the bow will instigate those changes.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 17, 2022.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
