Submitted by Daniel T'seleie

So I'm sitting here in the new NGO workspace in downtown Copenhagen. They've just completed the Fossil of the Year ceremony; a dubious honour bestowed by over 400 NGOs on the country that has done the most to block progress. Who won? Canada, of course.

We're downtown because, like most of the 18,000 civil society representatives, we've essentially been kicked out of the UN conference. By "civil society" I mean youth delegations, trade unions, indigenous representatives, NGOs, faith groups, and pretty much any citizen who cares enough about the outcome to make the trek to Copenhagen.

We were pretty upset with this development because it meant we could no longer attend the daily briefings with Canadian negotiators. These are essential for any Canadian who cares about the outcome of this conference.

Fortunately, we have some friends on the inside. A few members of the NWT Legislature are on the Canadian delegation, are still inside the conference, and graciously agreed to ask questions on behalf of the Canadian Youth Delegation (CYD).

Yesterday they asked Canada's negotiators to comment on the sit in Canadian youth were engaged in the previous day, considering that Canada is blocking progress. Canada's chief negotiator responded by specifically asking the CYD to explain to him how Canada is blocking progress.

In a nutshell, our country's minority government insists on holding fast to unreasonable positions that are openly condemned by the vast majority of countries involved in this consensus process, like terminating the Kyoto Protocol. Harper is slapping down untenable positions that, in order to be accepted, would require nearly every other country on earth to make major concessions on their positions. This is like walking into court and telling the judge you want to sue someone for one hundred million billion quadrillion dollars. It's never going to happen and you know it (but if you've got good lawyers you can tie up the system for a while).

Well, if I wanted to give you the full story of how Canada blocks progress this blog would be a thousand pages long. So I'll wrap it up by suggesting you search the internet for CYD's response to this question for more detail.

Remember that we must hold Stephen Harper and the other world leaders accountable for the outcome of these negotiations. And don't be fooled by thinking any "agreement" is a good thing. We need a fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement, not a last-minute whitewash document that does nothing to combat global warming.