Shucking Oysters: Towers of Power
By Alex Allen
If it’s not one thing it’s another. Everywhere we seem to be constantly hit with overarching decisions and actions that affect us all but have no control over. We have Trump in his big, bad, beautiful world playing whack-a-mole. And closer to home, we have our governments willing to destroy our country and throw away the protection key – all for the almighty dollar. What we are witnessing is an ever-growing unhealthy relationship between big business and big government, where one partner has more power over the other. And I’ll give you a hint, it’s not the government.
And so it is with no surprise, that the federal government’s industry-friendly agency, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) has reached out for public consultation on proposed amendments to cell tower siting requirements. Let’s be clear, ISED may be asking for public “consultation” but they set the rules and ultimately have the final say on where cell towers are built. So, why bother?
What has the telecom industry lobbied for now? The most worrisome is pushing to streamline the approval process even further. Big business, no matter how big their basket is, can now jump ahead to the express lane and screw the rest of us. Other proposed changes include, centralizing all proposals online, which could replace traditional, local newspaper or mail notifications. They also want to limit how long municipalities can respond, meaning cell towers could be automatically “deemed approved” if a local government misses the 45-day deadline. And forget about local aesthetic or environmental concerns, it’s all about profits to shareholders. Just another blatant example of soul-sucking, business-first, top-down decision-making.
If these changes take effect, it will become even harder for the public to have any opinion, which seems to be the plan. The proposed changes eliminate virtually all meaningful local authority or local knowledge, forcing communities to accept unlimited tower installations with literally no consultation or ability to protect rural community character. Additional proposals include removing requirements for licence holders to invest in research projects, lessening annual reporting requirements for tower operators, and removing federal dispute resolution mechanisms for certain issues around tower sharing.
This approach is far from Canadian. As I keep on saying, every direction our governments take – whether it be policing, dealing with homelessness, big business and so on – we always follow the United way with unintended consequences. All of the proposals have been copied from the US playbook. Citing the current approval process as slow and costly, ISED has proposed a digital online portal where telecom companies can submit applications and communities can provide “feedback.” We call it streamlining approvals, Americans call them “rocket dockets.”
There is no question, 5G is categorically different than anything that has ever existed in the history of the planet. The multi-trillion dollar telecom industry is using the same nefarious tactics as big tobacco and big pharma. Take over the regulating agencies. Discredit or payoff scientists who do legitimate research. Pour on the propaganda to the public. Make your product as addictive as possible. There are so many reasons to raise concerns about the roll-out of 5G – the most basic of which is that the precautionary principle is not being followed. Industry research confirming that these exposures are safe are nonexistent, yet there is considerable evidence suggesting they are not.
5G uses the largely untapped bandwidth of the millimetre wavelength, between 30 and 300 GHz on the radio spectrum, which uses smaller base stations than current wireless technology. As a result, wireless antennae may be placed densely throughout neighbourhoods on lamp posts, utility poles, and buildings. Evidence to inform the development of exposure guidelines for 5G technology is limited, raising the possibility of unintended consequences. The impact to plants, animals, birds and insects – who have no voice – is huge.
Studies have found that trees dry up, have an unhealthy appearance, and experience growth delays when directly facing cell towers. Monarch butterflies are very sensitive to electromagnetic fields. Colony collapse disorder was observed in beehives exposed to radiation for 10 minutes, leaving only the queen, eggs, and a few immature workers behind. Radiation also affects pollinators and honeybees, causing navigational disorientation, lower honey production, and higher bee mortality.
Another study noted that embryos of house sparrows were damaged after being exposed to cell tower radiation for 5 to 30 minutes. Observed changes included reproductive and coordination problems and aggressiveness. White storks, rock doves, magpies, collared doves exhibited nest and site abandonment, plumage deterioration, locomotion problems, and even death. None of the symptoms existed in the neighbourhoods before construction of a cell phone tower. Exposed cows and calves developed cataracts and had defects in their memory. A study on a bat colony found a decrease in the number of bats next to a cell phone tower 80m from the colony.
In a survey of two berry farms in similar habitats, one with no cell phone tower, had abundant signs of wildlife, migrating and resident birds, bats, small and large mammals, and insects including bees. The other farm with a cell phone tower located next to the berry patch, virtually no signs of wildlife, tracks, scat, or feathers were noted. The berries on bushes were uneaten by birds and insects and the berries that fell to the ground were uneaten as well.
Whatever.
Local governments can expect an exponential increase in requests from telecom carriers seeking to install 5G equipment, with industry estimating the deployment of hundreds of thousands of antennas across Canada. In 2018 a grassroots campaign calling for a global moratorium on the deployment of 5G networks and satellites argued that there will be unprecedented global environmental change. The appeal forewarned back then, “If the telecommunications industry’s plans for 5G come to fruition, no person, no animal, no bird, no insect and no plant on Earth will be able to avoid exposure, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to levels of RF radiation that are tens to hundreds of times greater than what exists today without any possibility of escape anywhere on the planet.”
ISED’s consultation will remain open until JULY 16 and then they will TELUS to Roger that.
