Canada Today: Pipeline Expansion, Musical Comedy and Identity

View in [Browser] | Add [nytdirect@nytimes.com] to your address book. Saturday, December 3, 2016 [The New York Times] [NYTimes.com/Canada »] [Canada Today] Saturday, December 3, 2016 [Pipeline Expansion, Musical Comedy and Identity] By IAN AUSTEN [A march in Vancouver, British Columbia, in November against a proposed pipeline expansion. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau later approved the plan.] A march in Vancouver, British Columbia, in November against a proposed pipeline expansion. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau later approved the plan. Chris Helgren/Reuters Opponents of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have said that he lacks the necessary nerve to take polarizing positions on heated issues. If nothing else, that line of argument came to an end this week after Mr. Trudeau approved the [expansion of a pipeline] that links Alberta’s [More articles about oil sands.] to a tanker port in British Columbia. The move buoyed the energy industry, Premier Rachel Notley of Alberta and oil workers across the country. It infuriated environmentalists, some of Mr. Trudeau’s political allies and many residents of British Columbia. In announcing the decision, Mr. Trudeau reminded Canadians that he had always promised to strengthen the energy sector while also tackling climate change and improving other environmental protections. “There is not a country in the world that would find 170 billion barrels of oil and leave it in the ground,” [he said]. The prime minister’s simultaneous decision to cancel another proposed pipeline between Alberta and British Columbia — which was already on life support after a legal challenge by indigenous groups — did nothing to mollify environmentalists. Nor did an earlier announcement of a [new tanker-spill cleanup program] and government claims that the expanded pipeline will not undermine [More news and information about Canada.]’s carbon-reduction efforts. With several groups promising to stage large and protracted protests and legal challenges almost inevitable, the approval of the pipeline expansion is most likely just the beginning of the political battle. Roller Coaster “Ride The Cyclone” has an unlikely premise for a musical comedy. It hinges on a roller coaster accident that takes the lives of six teenage members of a chamber choir from Uranium, Saskatchewan. The show was first produced by [Atomic Vaudeville] in Victoria, British Columbia. Now it’s playing Off Broadway in New York, and a New York Times theater critic, Charles Isherwood, has made it a [Critics’ Pick]. “For a musical about dead teenagers, it’s high-spirited and just plain fun from start to finish — like an all-access pass to Disneyland,” he wrote. Ancestry Craig Smith went to Little Bras d’Or, Nova Scotia, to explore [the thorny question of who is recognized] as an Indian and can thus receive the treaty rights, including tax savings, that come with that status. He found a confused and sometimes contradictory situation, including a family where the son has Indian status while his father does not. Flighty Canada marks its 150th anniversary as a nation next year. But somehow over that time, it never got around to picking a national bird. An effort to rectify that during the sesquicentennial has prompted puzzlement over the [proposed bird], complaints about experts overruling the public and grievances about the United States’ power over ornithology. Watch for my story soon about the national bird debate. Widespread A survey of 43,000 active members of Canada’s military found [disturbingly high rates of sexual assault] and a low rate of reporting. The rate remained high despite the introduction of a program to stamp out inappropriate and illegal sexual behavior within the armed forces. Blocked [Ed Ou], a photojournalist from Vancouver, British Columbia, has made some tough border crossings during a career in which he’s covered war and civil unrest in the Middle East, Islamic courts in Somalia and the legacy of the Soviet nuclear program in Afghanistan. But Mr. Ou, who is a contributor to The New York Times, recently found [a border he couldn’t break] through. When Mr. Ou tried to travel to the pipeline protest at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, he was detained by American border guards for six hours, his phones were seized, documents he was carrying were copied and he was ultimately denied entry to the United States. United States Customs and Border Protection, citing privacy laws, declined to comment. Bundled Up For a [Times Critical Shopper] column, Jon Caramanica visited the New York outposts of two Canadian winter coat makers: Canada Goose and Arc’teryx. He left more impressed by the latter. Atonement In Opinion, Stephen Marche wrote about the concerns of indigenous people over mercury pollution from [a dam under construction in Labrador] and [explored a broader question]: “How serious are we about the process of truth and reconciliation?” Here are some articles from The Times, not necessarily related to Canada, that I found interesting this week: —When he was a correspondent for the paper, Anthony DePalma provided informed reporting and sparkling writing from several countries, including Canada and Cuba. His expertise reappeared in The Times this week in the form of [an authoritative obituary] of Fidel Castro. Mr. DePalma, now a writer-in-residence at Seton Hall University, wrote it in 2000 and had been revising it ever since. —“[The camera of truth]” is found in Berlin, weighs three tons, is worth about $1 million and takes life-size selfies. —In the world of more conventional photography, [William A. Christenberry], whose evocative color landscape photos documented one of the poorest counties in the southern United States, died on Monday at the age of 80. —While there’s no precedent in the United States when it comes to Donald J. Trump’s potential business-related conflicts of interest when he becomes president, [James B. Stewart wrote that Silvio Berlusconi] provides something of a preview from his nine years as Italy’s prime minister. A native of Windsor, Ontario, Ian Austen was educated in Toronto, lives in Ottawa and has reported about Canada for The New York Times for over a decade. Follow him on Twitter at [@ianrausten]. [»]  HOW ARE WE DOING? We hope you enjoyed this weekly roundup of Canada Today. Tell us what you think and what you’d like to see, at [CanadaToday@nytimes.com]. LIKE THIS EMAIL? 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