The latest issue of Canada Watch, "A Remarkable Turning Point: Post-neoloberal Latin America and the Shadow of Obama" is now available. The issue is edited by Daniel Drache, Associate Director, Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies and Diana Tussie, head of the Latin American Trade Network at the Latin American School of Social Sciences (FLACSO), Argentina.

The issue features:

Editorial

Daniel Drache: The remarkable turning point: Out from under Washington’s long shadow

The Risks and Opportunities of Fundamental Political Change

John W. Foster: Obama, Canada and civil society: South and North

Jorge Heine: A historic electoral triumph: Why now?

Jean Daudelin: U.S. policy in Latin America and the Caribbean: Where have all the Yankees gone?

Post-Neoliberal, Macro Economic Fundamentals and New State Practices

Ed Dosman: Raoul Prebisch: A man of our times

Kathryn Hochstetler: Brazil’s GINI coefficient: Can it be beaten?

Pía Riggirozzi: Regionalism in Post-neoliberal Latin America

The New Framework: Beyond Pragmatism and Realism

Sean Burges: The odd couple? Lula and Obama

Laura Macdonald and Arne Ruckert: The post neoliberal mix: New state practices in Latin America’s big three

Pablo Heidrich: Short on vision: Canada’s foreign policy for the new Latin America

Public Policy Pitfalls and Other Disasters

Albert Berry: The natural resource curse in 21^st century Latin America

Eduardo Bianchi: Income distribution, export patterns and poverty alleviation

Marcelo Saguier: Natural disasters: A fresh look at corporate accountability

New Security Threats and the Military

Rut Diamint: Defence is a civil matter first and foremost

Francisco Rojas Aravena: Impunity and Violence in Central America

The Regional Imperative for Political Co-operation

Josette Altmann: The Bolivarian Chavez effect: Worth a second look

Doris Osterlof: A tepid partnership: Free trade and labour rights in Central America

Teresa Gutiérrez Haces: New barriers to investor state relations post-NAFTA

Beyond Traditional Ideas About Macro Economic Stability and Political Change

Celso Amorim: A new world map and Brazil’s foreign policy

Federico Merke: Argentina’s turnaround

Pablo Trucco and Diana Tussie: When the IMF is not longer the epicenter the hemisphere breathes a little easier

Check it out at:

http://www.yorku.ca/robarts/projects/canada-watch/pdf/Canada_Watch_Fall_2010.pdf

IRIS Climate Justice Fellow and Political Science PhD candidate, Jacqueline Medalye and Political Science PhD candidate Ryan Foster will be attending the upcoming United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP16) conference in Cancun Mexico being held from November 29 to December 10, 2010. They will be representing York University thanks to IRIS’ NGO accreditation.

On December 7^th, at Klimaforum, a grassroots response to the official conference, Medalye and Foster will present their recent research on the topics of climate change, Canadian policy, and the Arctic. Expected in attendance will be a wide community of actors involved in the multi-disciplined field of climate change.

At COP16, Medalye and Foster will be observing the proceedings for their research on financing structures in the Global South. At Klimaforum, they will be active participants presenting their research on the Canadian government’s plans for adaptation to climate change. Currently, Canada is identifying its risks associated with climate change and how these can be translated into benefits for financial markets. Specifically, Medalye and Foster are looking at the melting of sea ice which is resulting in the unlocking of resources.

Medalye and Foster’s goal is to expose this strategy to the international climate justice community. Through networking and informing key stakeholders about these adaptation strategies they hope to create partnerships that will lead to mobilization against these plans.

As an IRIS representative, Medalye will be distributing a report describing the proceedings and outcomes of an Ecojustice Conference organized by IRIS at York in 2009.

Follow Medalye on the IRIS blog: Turning Up the Heat as she applies a critical eye to the COP16 proceedings. As a veteran of the COP15 conference in Copenhagen these perspectives will be contrasted with the next two weeks’ events.

To hear more about COP16 please check this space in the near future for details on the IRIS debrief event in January 2011.

Former industrial sites can be a hard sell if their redevelopment value is less than the cost of remediation, wrote the Orillia Packet & Times Nov. 18, citing comments by Mark Winfield, a professor in York University’s Faculty of Environmental Studies.

There is also the “liability risk” a potential buyer faces after taking title of a property, Winfield points out. What sort of work will the Ministry of Environment require after a sale?

Elsewhere in Ontario, municipalities are facing the same dilemma with no choice but to foot the bill for remediation should they want to redevelop.

But Winfield is a firm believer in breathing new life into former industrial sites. “From a broad-interest perspective, there’s no question this makes a huge amount of sense.” The alternative is paving over the periphery, creating more sprawl and, in the process, “suck-ing the life out of downtown.”

Click here for YFile link

The International Secretariat for Human Development (ISHD) will be hosting a photo exhibit in February 2011 and is looking for submissions. The exhibit will feature the Global South capturing lives, experiences and struggles of inequality.

This exhibit will  be comprised of 10 panels, with 3'x4' photos accompanied by text.  Submitted photographs should be at least 12"x16" or larger and each photo should showcase 500 words of text with a font size of 24.

If you are interested in participating, please send your pictures to Ananya Mukherjee Reed at ananya@yorku.ca by December 10, 2010 or visit their web page for more information.

IRIS is delighted to announce the release of the International Ecojustice Conference Report. The conference  took place at York University in April of 2009, bringing  together activists and engaged academics from Brazil, India, and South Africa, as well as Canada, represented by Inuit and First Nations.

The Ecojustice Conference represented York's response to a challenge to host a conference that ran directly counter to the norm of international climate meetings.  At our conference, members of the Global North heard voices from the Global South, as well as Canada's North, as speakers told of challenges and inequities faced by people who are already experiencing the result of climate change.

The impacts of climate change are unevenly distributed, with the most vulnerable groups experiencing the worst effects, including droughts, floods, threats to food security and other extreme environmental events. Our Ecojustice-themed conference created a space where concerns and opinions regarding climate change could be voiced. The stories that emerged were hopeful ones of resilience and adaptation, but also of the need for resources, information sharing and self-determination.

The conference report outlines some of the key issues that emerged from the conference, including a list of recommendations. They included: building international solidarity with disenfranchised peoples, putting pressure on our governments for fair and ethical international negotiations, and reducing consumption levels in the Global North.

For more information on the conference, please visit photos or download the report here: Ecojustice Conference

Since 2006, the Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS) has conducted annual campus sustainability-related surveys.  The first IRIS survey asked students, staff and faculty what they knew about climate change and the results of this survey led to carbon neutral, environmentally friendly course kits . York University was the first Canadian postsecondary institution to introduce this as a part of a larger carbon neutral program.

Past surveys have the value of the urban forests at Keele, students’ food choices and needs, and lastly the York community’s understanding of and values regarding waste on campus.

This year we are proud to launch IRIS’s fifth annual survey which will address volunteerism and engagement on campus. During Earth Hour at York U!, an event which was co-sponsored by IRIS in March 2010, members of the York community expressed an interest in exploring volunteerism and engagement on campus. From these discussions came the idea for this year’s survey.

The goal of this survey is to establish the York community’s core values, interests, and engagement with organized groups, so that on-campus initiatives can be better catered to the priorities of the York community.

York students, staff and faculty will have an opportunity to voice their opinions in early 2011. To participate, look for IRIS survey stations across both the Keele and Glendon campuses or check back at irisyorku.ca.

Interested in getting involved? Contact us to find out how you can complete the survey or help collect survey responses across York University.