The Conservative Party of Canada’s lawyers yesterday filed a second motion to dismiss the legal challenges of individual citizens seeking to overturn federal election results in seven ridings -- this time because it alleges the Council of Canadians’ support for the cases is “improper.”

The more than 750-page “omnibus” motion is nearly twice the size of the “budget” implementation act, Bill C-38, which seems concise by comparison at only 420 pages.

Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow will begin an eight-city tour in defence of the Great Lakes this Tuesday in Toronto.

Advance media on the tour has been good:

The St. Lawrence Coalition issued a press release Monday denouncing numerous errors in the oil spill simulation submitted by Corridor Resources for its exploration permit in Old Harry.

Old Harry is an ecologically sensitive area of the Gulf of St. Lawrence that Corridor Resources has a permit to explore for offshore drilling. For more background, see this recent blog.

Last week was the second-year anniversary of the devastating BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The release of at least 4.9 million barrels of oil, which BP then used at least 1.9 million gallons of toxic Corexit dispersants to sink, has been described as the largest human-caused environmental disaster in the U.S.

BP disaster still being felt

While the legal battle over responsibility and compensation for the BP spill still unfolds (BP has agreed to pay 7.8 billion in settlement, but further court challenges loom), new evidence is coming to the surface about the spill's ongoing impacts.

The federal government released this year's greenhouse gas inventory report on April 11.

Environment Minister Peter Kent insists this is a good news story, that Canada's 692 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2010 being down from 731 in 2005 demonstrates Canada is on track to de-coupling emissions growth from economic growth.

Danielle Smith of the Wildrose Party has been quoted extensively talking about health care in the Edmonton Journal and Globe and Mail, among others. The Wildrose is running on a platform of creating a two-tiered system of health care in Canada. They claim that offering private health care creates more options, reduces wait times and protects and strengthens public health care. Each one of these points is false and not backed by evidence from the science and health research community. I'm going to attempt to separate myth from fact in the paragraphs below. I hope you'll read more.

Myth: Private care reduces wait times

Council of Canadians staff are now combing through the almost 500-page Budget 2012 and we will be issuing our second "media availability" release shortly so that campaigners may be contacted for interviews on the budget measures, including:

The Canadian Press
PRO-FREE TRADE
- “Thursday’s federal budget, the seventh since Stephen Harper took office, is the first with an overtly pro-trade and resource development bent and a dearth of voter-friendly goodies. A majority mandate with three full years before the next election will do that for a conservative-minded prime minister.”

AN AUSTERITY BUDGET
- “It’s an austerity budget, whatever the government claims.”

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s budget speech, interrupted by chants of ‘where are we in your budget?’ delivered a fierce blow to environmental protection in Canada and undoubtedly put smiles on the faces of Big Oil executives.

The Harper government will deliver their first majority government budget today and there is a lot of anxiety going into this budget with big cuts expected. While the government is denying it is an austerity budget, leaked documents have certainly set this tone with deep cuts to the public service, changes delaying eligibility for Old Age Security and more. For a broader look at what is being reported in the media about this budget, see Brent Patterson's blog.

It's federal budget time again and everyone from the Council of Canadians to allies, politicians, news outlets and the Twitterverse seems to be abuzz with concerns over what this Harper budget will contain. The world of health care is equally concerned, although much of its fate was laid out by Flaherty at the Finance Minister's meeting in mid-December.

Much like with the health care accord, the federal government is able to tie federal dollars to new programs, services, national standards and benchmarks at any time. The budget gives the Harper government an opportunity to strengthen and expand health care in Canada -- but I'm feeling rather pessimistic that they'll take this opportunity.