Law Times

Page 6 April 28, 2014 • lAw Times www.lawtimesnews.com COMMENT Refugee policy on Syria a failure ith Syria's civil war having passed the three-year mark, Canada's policy on accepting Syrian refugees is coming under scrutiny. It's clear Canada has failed on this issue. Writing in the Toronto Star recently, Liberal MP John McCallum noted that despite a federal vow to give priority to Syrian refu- gees and admit 1,300 of them by the end of this year, only 10 of them had so far arrived in Canada as of a month ago. e progress so far refl ects Canada's slow-moving refugee system, something the government needs to move quickly to fi x in light of the humanitarian crisis in Syria. e situation in Syria has deteriorated to such an extent that the Unit- ed Nations decided in January to stop reporting the death toll there as conditions on the ground made it too diffi cult to accurately estimate the numbers. But as for refugees, the numbers of Syrians fl eeing to Lebanon alone has passed the one-million mark, according to a report this month from the Offi ce of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Refugees from Syria now equal almost a quarter of the resident popula- tion, according to the UNHCR. ere are three main ways countries like Canada can help Syrians suff ering as the civil war drags on: fi nancial humanitarian assistance in the Middle East, help to the rebel groups, and taking in refugees. Western nations have legitimately been careful about helping rebel groups given the concerns about the long-term implications of as- sistance to those parts of the resistance movement with connections to extremists. When it comes to fi nancial help, Canada has a decent Politics trumps logic as north faces powerless future here will be few surprises this week when the government ta- bles its budget bill: It will spend more money, go deeper into debt, and introduce new programs, all on purely political grounds. e only sus- pense is whether it will trigger an election. It's classic Ontario Liberal policy. Since the Liberals took power, politics has trumped logic, whether it's reinvent- ing the wheel at eHealth Ontario, scrap- ping gas plants to save seats, making deals with the large public sector unions or touting a new pension plan. Yet when politics drives the agenda, common sense goes out the window. Take coal-fi red power generation. Granted, coal isn't the sexiest of subject matters but it has served the Ontario Liberals well as a bogeyman by branding it "dirty" at every mention. By freeing Ontario of coal-fi red plants, they claim they're preserving the environ- ment for generations to come. But it's all voodoo science. Coal is a viable source of energy and there's a 100-year supply that's easily available. It's safe to transport and it's possible to burn it cleanly with a little investment in technology. Germany, for example, is investing in new coal-fi red power plants to ensure a stable electricity supply. Sas- katchewan, a province bere of the hydro resources we have in Ontario, is building a massive coal plant. In Ontario, we have bill 138, the ending coal for cleaner air act, that would ban the use of coal from now on at generating plants. It wouldn't, however, ban coal for making cement. In fact, the cement industry is now the biggest coal-burning sector in the province with the downsiz- ing of the steel industry. Without coal in our electricity sec- tor, we rely on a mix of nuclear (about 50 per cent), hydro (27 per cent), gas (16 per cent), wind (eight per cent), and less than one per cent from solar and other sources. Now we're adding advanced biomass pellets to that group of other sources. ey're wood pellets we'll be importing from Norway to feed the under Bay, Ont., generating station that formerly ran on coal. But wait. You're in the heart of Ontario's forestry industry and you're import- ing wood? Well, yes, but that's because there's no local pellet producer, although a plant is in the works nearby. So why not wait until that local plant is on stream or at least keep the coal unit going in the in- terim? e answer is politics. Across the way, the Atiko- kan, Ont., power plant will run on white wood pellets. However, its contract to supply power as of January 2015 has a caveat: If it ran at capacity, says under Bay Coun. Iain Angus, it would exhaust its fuel contract for the year in 4.2 days. "Both these plants are designed only to run at peak times," says Angus, who has been front and centre in the discussions with Ontario Power Generation. "We tracked the generation at the under Bay generating station and it took them three weeks to generate 3,000 megawatts of power with coal — that's burning 24/7. But that 3,000 megawatts is all that the new plant can produce with 15,000 tonnes of advanced biomass in a year, though it will run only eight hours a day, fi ve days a week, Monday to Friday." What's in place today may be just enough, says Angus, as long as a storm doesn't take out a transmission line and there isn't a drought that would lower water levels and choke off hydro power. ose issues notwithstanding, Northern Ontario may need to pull power from other jurisdictions at a premium. at power would, ironically, come from U.S. coal-fed plants. While that might be OK for today, what Angus fears is tomorrow. ere are currently 23 area mines at various stages of planning and approvals. Some are close to starting up and they'll all need power. So where is this power going to come from? " ey're not taking us seriously in the north," says Angus "If the power is not there, the mines will think twice about opening. e province doesn't under- stand the urgency here." LT Ian Harvey has been a journalist for 35 years writing about a diverse range of is- sues including legal and political aff airs. His e-mail address is ianharvey@rogers.com. ©2014 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or stored in a retrieval system without written per- mission. The opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the publisher. Information presented is compiled from sources believed to be accurate, however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Law Times disclaims any warranty as to the accuracy, com- pleteness or currency of the contents of this pub- lication and disclaims all liability in respect of the results of any action taken or not taken in reliance upon information in this publication. Publications Mail Agreement Number 40762529 • ISSN 0847-5083 Law Times is published 40 times a year by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. clb.lteditor@thomsonreuters.com CIRCULATIONS & SUBSCRIPTIONS $179.00 + HST per year in Canada for print and online (HST Reg. #R121351134), $145 + HST per year for online only. Single copies are $4.50. Circulation inquiries, postal returns and address changes should include a copy of the mailing label(s) and should be sent to Law Times One Corporate Plaza, 2075 Kennedy Rd. Toronto ON, M1T 3V4. Return postage guaranteed. Contact Keith Fulford at ........... 416-649-9585 or fax: 416-649-7870 keith.fulford@thomsonreuters.com ADVERTISING Advertising inquiries and materials should be directed to Sales, Law Times, 2075 Kennedy Rd., Toronto, ON, M1T 3V4 or call: Kimberlee Pascoe ...............................416-649-8875 kimberlee.pascoe@thomsonreuters.com Grace So .............................................416-609-5838 grace.so@thomsonreuters.com Joseph Galea .......................................416-649-9919 joseph.galea@thomsonreuters.com Steffanie Munroe ................................416-298-5077 steffanie.munroe@thomsonreuters.com Director/Group Publisher . . . . . . . . . . . . Karen Lorimer Editor in Chief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gail J. Cohen Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Glenn Kauth Staff Writer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Yamri Taddese Staff Writer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charlotte Santry Copy Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mallory Hendry CaseLaw Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adela Rodriguez Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alicia Adamson Production Co-ordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . . Catherine Giles Electronic Production Specialist . . . . . . . Derek Welford Law Times Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. One Corporate Plaza, 2075 Kennedy Rd., Toronto, ON • M1T 3V4 • Tel: 416-298-5141 • Fax: 416-649-7870 www.lawtimesnews.com • clb.lteditor@thomsonreuters.com • @lawtimes • clb.lteditor@thomsonreuters.com • @lawtimes u Editorial obitEr By Glenn Kauth record. According to federal government informa- tion on its Syrian activities earlier this year, Canada has committed more than $350 million to interna- tional humanitarian assistance eff orts in Syria and neighbouring countries since the start of the con- fl ict. It could and probably should do more, but the amounts provided so far are reasonable. But on refugees, Canada has fallen short. While it has accepted some Syrian refugees outside of its promise to prioritize admitting 1,300 of them this year, the need is far greater and urgent. As McCallum noted, Canada has launched major refugee eff orts in the past, most notably following the invasion of Hungary by the Soviet Union in 1956. While it may not be realistic to expect an eff ort of that scale by this government, it's entirely legitimate to expect it to live up to its commitments by removing the bureaucratic roadblocks in the immigration system. And beyond that, Canada has a moral duty to do more. — Glenn Kauth W T Queen's Park Ian Harvey

• Cover