Yesterday afternoon National Chairperson Maude Barlow, Regional Organizer Mark Calzavara, London Chapter activists Gary Brown and Don McLeod and I arrived in Sarnia for our fifth stop of the Great Lakes Need Great Friends tour. We spent the afternoon seeing a part of Sarnia that the typical tourist doesn't see. Ron Plain, an activist from the Aamjiwnaang First Nation, lead the five of us on a ‘toxic tour' of Sarnia which is also known as Chemical Valley. Our first stop was the Shell compound, a massive cluster of facilities spanning many blocks.

Last night, the Council of Canadians kicked off the second week of its 8-city tour. Almost 100 people gathered at Queen's University in Kingston for the fourth stop of the tour. Betty Carr-Braint from the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte began the event with a welcoming which set the tone for an inspiring and moving evening.

Mark Mattson, President of Lake Ontario Waterkeepers, was the first speaker and gave an engaging speech about the claw back of environmental reviews and regulations over the last several decades. The most recent example is the gutting of the Fisheries Act in Bill C-38. He stressed the need for audience members to take protection of the Great Lakes into their hands and make governments and corporations truly accountable to them.

On Friday, Andrew Nikiforuk, the keynote speaker for 'Our World, Our Responsibility: Translating Knowledge Into Action,' opened the day's conference by giving an in-depth and engaging presentation on the Alberta tar sands. Three hundred people, mostly students, packed themselves into a lecture theatre at the University of Toronto Scarborough to learn about Canada’s largest and dirtiest energy project.

Nikiforuk, author of Tar Sands Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent, showed powerful images of protests against the Northern Gateway pipeline, the tar sands themselves and the pristine landscapes threatened by tar sands development and pipelines that will transport the bitumen to China.

On Tuesday May 15, the Council of Canadians will formally launch the Great Lakes Need Great Friends speaking tour in Toronto.

Maude Barlow, the National Chairperson for the Council of Canadians, will be joined by special guests in eight cities in the Great Lakes Basin to discuss pressing water issues threatening the lakes such as multi-point pollution, water withdrawals, industrial abuses, invasive species and nuclear waste storage and shipments.

On Sunday, I had the honour of speaking at the Earth Day Every Day event organized by the Earth Mothers and the Foundation for the Great Earth Peace. Despite the chilly weather, up to 50 people gathered on Petrie Island just outside of Ottawa to hear a variety of speakers and participate in workshops on permaculture, food sustainability and solar energy.

Francine Payer, Madeleine Vézina and other Earth Mothers lead the water ceremony at 9 a.m. with over 20 people participating. The Earth Mothers then opened the event with drumming and singing.

Amidst reports of human rights violations and massive public opposition to the environmentally destructive operations of Barrick Gold around the world, it is shocking that the Canadian Museum of Nature would undertake a partnership with the notorious multinational mining company.

The Canadian Museum of Nature is a largely publicly funded institution that states the following about its objectives: The purpose of the Canadian Museum of Nature is to give Canadians an opportunity of discovering and understanding the natural world and how to live in balance with it.

Join us to celebrate Earth Day on beautiful Petrie Island just outside of Ottawa this Sunday, April 22, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be workshops, information booths, live music, and more! Kid-friendly, bring the whole family! This is a "leave no trace" event, so we encourage bringing no-waste lunches. See schedule below:

9h Water ceremony -- ladies, please wear a skirt as this is a women's ceremony, men are always welcome, bring your water bottle, no plastic water bottles

10h opening ceremony and speakers (see list below)

The 2012 federal budget, Economic Action Plan 2012: Our plan for jobs, growth and long-term prosperity (EAP 2012), was released late yesterday afternoon. The details of how the various cuts will impact public service jobs and federal departments will be revealed over the coming months.

The 2012 federal budget is a gift to the mining industry and a curse on the environment.

With major growth expected in the mining and energy sector, proposed amendments to environmental regulation will allow companies to skip steps and fast-track approval and permitting processes.

The so-called “one project, one review” measure aims to bypass current environmental assessment, which arguably leaves much to be desired, and download responsibilities to ill-equipped provincial governments or do away with them altogether.

The federal budget is expected to start a series of cuts to critical public services as well as public service jobs. Here's what to look for in some water-related areas.

Drinking water for First Nation communities