Zain Haq

Zain Haq, a Pakistani national who came to Canada in 2019 on a study permit, has been arrested at least 10 times, convicted of mischief charges, and has been pretty open about his role in leading a foreign-funded “rebellion” against the Canadian government. And now, after a years-long effort by the Canada Border Services Agency to secure Haq’s deportation, his removal was stayed at the 11th hour, potentially due to the intervention of the Trudeau government. Haq was scheduled for deportation by no later than Monday, April 22… But on Friday, Haq received a cryptic call from the office of Joyce Murray — the Liberal MP for his riding of Vancouver Quadra — telling him to stay by his phone. He was soon contacted by a CBSA case officer telling him he could stay in the country. Haq’s lawyer, Randall Cohn, suspected someone in the federal cabinet was “listening and paying attention to the timing.”

Provincial figures peg the total cost of planting 50 million trees this year at $75 million with the province’s share being $55.5 million. The rest of the money is coming from an agreement with Natural Resources Canada. B.C.’s forests ministry released that figure last week as part of marking the planting of the 10-billionth tree since the start of the reforestation program in 1930. The ministry said two billion of those were planted in the past seven years. Last year, 305 million seedlings were planted in B.C. forests and one of these seedlings was the 10-billionth planted since work began almost a century ago. …This year’s season is starting against the backdrop of what may turn out to be a worse fire season than last year’s, which caused significant damage to provincial forests.

In the past 10 years the idea that trees communicate with and look after each other has gained widespread currency. But have these claims outstripped the evidence? …Peter Wohlleben’s bestseller, The Hidden Life of Trees, has inaugurated a new tree discourse, which sees them not as inert objects but intelligent subjects [with] thoughts and desires that converse via fungi that connect their roots “like fibre-optic internet cables”. … In 1997, a Canadian forest ecologist named Suzanne Simard co-published a study in Nature describing resources passing between trees, apparently via fungi. …The title of the article was almost impeccably dry – “Net transfer of carbon between ectomycorrhizal tree species in the field”…The journal’s editors sensed promise. They made it Nature’s cover story, commissioned a foreword by a leading botanist, and affixed an indelible pun: this was the “wood-wide web”. It wasn’t Simard’s metaphor, but she has pounced on it.

On a rainy Friday this month, industry executives and government officials were sitting on the fourth floor of a Vancouver casino hotel. From the stage, a pitch for the future of forestry was on repeat: what if logging companies could be the heroes who saved British Columbia from wildfires? …David Coletto, head of the market research firm Abacus Data, presented the results from a poll he designed with COFI. After Canada’s most destructive wildfire season on record, the results suggested the B.C. public was ready to accept a narrative that the forestry industry could act as a saviour. …Jamie Stephen, the managing director of the energy and resources consulting firm TorchLight Bioresources, put it another way. “Counterintuitively, if governments and the public want forestry to contribute to climate mitigation in Canada, we have to harvest more, not less,” he said.

A Manitoba First Nation is taking the provincial government to court to halt logging at Duck Mountain Provincial Park until it provides an approved plan for how it will protect the area and fulfil its Treaty 4 obligations. Minegoziibe Anishinabe, also known as Pine Creek First Nation, filed the application on April 12 in the Court of Kings Bench. It seeks an order to terminate the province’s decision to extend its agreement with Louisiana-Pacific Canada Ltd. that allows it to harvest timber in the western Manitoba provincial park. The province quietly extended its agreement with the U.S forestry giant through an order-in-council at the end of March. The application names the province and Louisiana-Pacific. …At the heart of the argument is a forest management plan (FMP) that the First Nation alleges has not been approved and goes against Manitoba’s Forest Act.

The Province, First Nations, local governments, municipal fire departments and FireSmart BC are coming together to help B.C. communities prepare for the wildfire season. Building on recommendations from the Premier’s Expert Task Force on Emergencies, the FireSmart Wildfire Resiliency and Training Summit brings together hundreds of local and municipal firefighters to collaborate and train with the BC Wildfire Service. “People are feeling the impacts of climate change and longer wildfire seasons, and we know that the only way forward is to work together. Communities bring critical knowledge, skills and relationships to the table, and we’re growing their role in wildfire preparedness,” said Bruce Ralston, Minister of Forests. …The five-day event includes two days of collaborative training between local fire departments and the BC Wildfire Service. Classroom and field work will focus on fire line operations, deployment of fire engines, large water-supply operations and overall approaches to structure protection in the wildland-urban interface.