Results are Not Always
Immediate—Persistence Makes the Difference!
WCWC: Pre-Election Environmental Education Campaign
Call for Volunteers: Green Party of Canada
We Need You for a Democracy Revolution in BC
Take Action on Federal Electoral Reform
Stop Marine Seismic Testing Under the Guise of "Doing Science"!
Ask Canada to take The 240
Million Tonne Challenge!
MLA Tracking Media
Junkies Wanted
Sign the Online
Petition to Save the Taku Wilderness!
Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge in Danger
Call for
campaign volunteers – Powell River/Sunshine Coast
(a.k.a.
"ECO-ELECTION CAMPAIGN"—from WCWC
Update:
|
Since the Wilderness
Committee launched our Eco-Election Campaign in February, we've been able to
raise the environmental awareness among thousands of British Columbians: 25 000 BC homes have been canvassed by over
300 volunteers; 125 000 educational newspapers and 11 000 leaflets have been
produced and mostly distributed by now; 30 000 educational newspapers have
been inserted into today's issue of Monday Magazine; over 20 000 BC members
and supporters of WCWC have been mailed the educational newspapers; and
significant media attention has been drawn to the BC government's track
record on the environment. However, there are only 5
weeks left until the May 17 BC provincial election, and we're running short
on funds. We still need to reach several hundred thousand more British
Columbians. If we receive the funding, we'd like to: - Print thousands more
educational newspapers and leaflets - Distribute educational materials to
thousands of rural homes throughout BC that are difficult to reach
door-to-door but that can be reached through Canada Post mail drop-offs - Run
major radio ads about key environmental issues Already, the BC government
is undertaking an aggressive and mind-boggling public relations campaign
claiming that they "lead the world in sustainable environmental
management", that the "last 4 years under the BC Liberals has seen
more environmental progress than the previous 10 years under the NDP
government", that they "lead the world in maintaining clean air and
water quality, in fisheries management, and in wildlife protection",
etc. etc. The environmental or
anti-environmental agenda of the next government over the next 4 years will
in large part be determined by what happens over the next 5 weeks. Please donate! Every $100 donation lets us
reach another 1000 BC homes with educational materials. To donate, contact the Wilderness Committee
at: (250) 388-9292 Or you can: - mail-in a
cheque made out to "WCWC" - come down between Your support will help change history in
this most pivotal time for BC's wilderness heritage. BC is the best place on
Earth to live - let's keep it that way. For the Wild, Ken Wu, Cassbreea Savage, |
Original
Notice (WCWC, Feb 17, 2005):
There are exactly
3 months to go until the BC Election on May 17. NOW is
the time to speak up, loud and clear, in defense of Beautiful BC and our
endangered wilderness.
Join the Western Canada Wilderness Committee's (WCWC) Eco-Election
Campaign! We're recruiting 2000 volunteers across BC to reach 200 000
households with leaflets about the BC government's track record on the
environment and to garner signatures on our various environmental
petitions (eg. against a revived Working Forest law, parks
privatization, fish farms, coastal oil drilling, etc.)
You can go as an individual or in a group with us.
To get involved, CONTACT:
In VICTORIA or ELSEWHERE IN BC except Vancouver:
Pearl Gottschalk, Ken Wu, or Cassbreea Savage at:
wc2vic@island.net
(250) 388-9292
In GREATER VANCOUVER, contact:
Nik Cuff nikcuff@netscape.net
Geoff Senenchenko geoff@wildernesscommittee.org
(604) 683-8220
DOWNLOAD LEAFLETS ON THE BC GOVERNMENT'S TRACK RECORD AND PETITIONS AT:
www.workingforest.org
------------------------
TO GET INVOLVED, PLEASE READ MORE ON THE DETAILS BELOW
There are certain times in history when efforts to protect our wild and
beautiful province are most effective - the next few months before the
May 17 BC provincial election is one of those times.
Before an election, politicians of all stripes, whether in government or
in opposition parties, must necessarily be most attentive to public
opinion. Now is the time government must make environmental concessions
and drop bad anti-environmental policies and laws - if the public
awareness and mobilization is great enough. In addition, the platforms
of government and opposition parties for the next electoral term are
greatly influenced by public opinion before the election.
In other words, NOW is the time for YOU to help expand awareness about
environmental issues and the BC government's track record on the
environment far and wide to many other citizens.
The WCWC's Pre-Election Environmental Education Campaign, or
"Eco-Election Campaign" for short, aims to recruit 2000
volunteers
across BC to hand out leaflets on the BC government's track record on
the environment and to garner signatures on petitions (egs. against a
revived "Working Forest" or anti-parks law, against Crown land
sales,
against logging, mining, and privatization in parks, etc.). The goal is
to reach 200 000 households in BC, with an emphasis on selected
strategic ridings where the race between candidates is closest (ie.
where politicians must listen most attentively to public concerns...).
GOALS OF THE ECO-ELECTION CAMPAIGN:
- Act as a brake against the reckless anti-environmental arrogance of
the BC Liberal government, which has engaged in the worst
anti-environmental rollbacks of BC's environmental laws in our history.
- Raise the overall level of environmental awareness among several
hundred thousand BC citizens, so that existing and ensuing governments
will have to make environmental protection and sustainability a major
part of their mandates.
HOW CAN YOU PARTICIPATE?
As an INDIVIDUAL:
- You can act as an "individual free agent", where you can simply
drop
off leaflets door to door and garner signatures on petitions. You can
also leaflet and petition your classmates, co-workers, fellow church
goers, at other meetings, etc.
- For now, you can download the leaflets and a petition against forest
privatization from the website www.workingforest.org
- You can then make photocopies of the leaflets - enough to give to
every household you reach
- OR you can pick-up copies at our
or starting later next week, at our
- OR we can mail you a bundle. Email us at wc2vic@island.net or
call
(250) 388-9292 with your mailing address and how many you want of each
(leaflets and petitions)
- You can also call us if you need any advice.
- For other petitions on parks and fish farms, call the
at (604) 683-8220. You can download the Ban Coastal Oil Development
petition at www.bcoilslick.org
- Please return all petitions to our Victoria office address (see
address at bottom).
- ***NOTE: If you are going door to door, we advise if possible that
you quickly consult with us first (email: wc2vic@island.net or
call
(250)388-9292) on where you plan to go, so you don't overlap with anyone
else or with our regular door canvass. We can also give you a map on
where to go, areas which haven't been done yet.***
- ***Remember - it is essential to always be polite at the door. Don't
engage in confrontation - just move on if you come across the odd rude
person.***
As PART of an ORGANIZED GROUP:
- This is the most effective way to participate. Our preliminary test
runs have been highly effective at reaching thousands of households in
short periods of time.
- Watch for future emails or check our website at www.workingforest.org
on when and where the group door-to-door outreach campaigns will occur
in selected strategic ridings across BC.
- You will go with group leaders, who you'll meet at a cafe in the
riding with the rest of the group (anywhere from a 4 to a dozen people).
There, you'll be briefed on the key environmental issues and how to
approach people at the door, and get a pile of leaflets and petitions.
The leader will also give you a map on where to go in riding, within
walking distance of the cafe.
- The actual door to door outreach will be about 2-3 hours.
- Afterwards, you'll all meet up again to debrief, hand in your maps and
extra leaflets, and drink beers or coffee and socialize.
- Let us know if you can help in the group efforts (see contacts at
bottom)
BC GOVERNMENT'S TRACK RECORD ON THE ENVIRONMENT
The BC government's track record has consisted of a small sprinkling of
environmental initiatives (egs. protecting 2000 hectares of Burns Bog,
approving a small wind power project on northern Vancouver Island, etc.)
in a vast sea of anti-environmental rollbacks that have weakened most of
our environmental laws. Some examples of the BC government's
anti-environmental track record include:
- Opened provincial parks to commercial logging, mining, and
privatization
- Lifted the moratorium on the expansion of fish farms.
- Lifted the moratorium on the trophy hunting of grizzly bears.
- Watered-down pulp mill pollution standards designed to limit the
production of cancer-causing dioxins
- Weakened forestry practices regulations so that biodiversity
conservation cannot “unduly restrict” access to the timber supply for
logging companies.
- Systematically logged-off the last old-growth forest habitat of
- Pushed the federal government to lift the moratorium on coastal oil
and gas development.
- Moved to sell-off $77 million of public (Crown) lands each year to
private real estate developers, twice the average rate of sale under the
previous NDP government
- Opposed the ratification of the Kyoto Accord
- Promoted dirty coal-fired power production.
- Taken credit for “creating 37 new parks” in BC, which were already
designated as provincial “protected areas” by the previous NDP
government in the Okanogan/Shuswap and Kalum (
Management Plan (LRMP) areas. This is an attempt to absolve themselves
of making new parks, real parks.
- Attempted to implement legally-binding, permanent logging zones (ie.
an “anti-parks law”) known as the “
by widespread public opposition last July, but could be revived
regionally if the BC Liberals are re-elected this May.
A NOTE ABOUT THE
Election?
The Eco-Election Campaign is using the website against the BC
government's Working Forest Policy, www.workingforest.org,
because it
overlaps with a renewed petitioning drive against the so-called Working
Forest where we hope to collect 30 000 more signatures (in addition to
40 000 that we've already collected from the older, previous petition)
on our new petition. Please sign the new online petition on the website
- it's different than the previous petition that you might have already
signed last year.
The Working Forest Initiative was a proposal by the BC government to
establish Legally-binding, guaranteed logging zones for private industry
on all of BC's unprotected public forest lands (ie. an "anti-forest
protection law" or "anti-parks law"). It would have also
rescinded our
existing
procedural and legal barriers that help protect our public lands from
privatization. A major public outcry forced the BC government to back
down from its legal implementation last July.
In the place of the "Working Forest Initiative", they announced a
vague
"Working Forest Policy". The Working Forest Policy involves no
new
legislation or order-in-councils, and has no substance or teeth (ie.
there's nothing new there). BUT, the fact that they still defend the
concept or principle of their "Working Forest" could very well
mean that
they'll use the policy as a "stepping-stone" to legally implement
the
Working Forest later on (likely in particular regions of the province)
or at least some of its pieces if they are re-elected. Only an uproar
NOW can kill their will to keep revisiting this backwards initiative...
TO TAKE PART IN THE ECO-ELECTION CAMPAIGN, CONTACT:
In VICTORIA or ELSEWHERE IN BC except Vancouver:
Pearl Gottschalk, Ken Wu, or Cassbreea Savage at:
wc2vic@island.net
(250) 388-9292
In GREATER VANCOUVER, contact:
Nik Cuff nikcuff@netscape.net
Geoff Senenchenko geoff@wildernesscommittee.org
(604) 683-8220
MORE INFO WILL BE AVAILABLE SOON AT:
www.workingforest.org
as well as on our other websites
Western Canada Wilderness Committee
Victoria chapter and Rainforest Store
651 Johnson St.
Victoria, BC V8W 1M7
250-388-9292
www.wildernesscommitteevictoria.org (Victoria
site)
www.wildernesscommittee.org (main
Vancouver site)
www.bcoilslick.org
www.workingforest.org
Dear Members and Green
Party Supporters:
With the current minority
government situation, the Green Party of Canada is in pre-election mode and will
continue to be until the next writ is dropped. We are working hard at
recruiting a full slate of candidates, raising funds, developing campaign
material....the list is long.
As always, we need
volunteers to help get this long list of work done, in order to be even better
prepared than we were for the last Federal election. Some of our immediate
needs are listed below. However, if you would like to volunteer but don’t see
something that is of interest, please get in touch and let us know what you’d
like to do. This call for volunteers will be the first of many and we’re always
looking for qualified and interested people.
If you are interested in
helping but only have a little time, please consider helping us by increasing
our membership. We have a goal to increase our membership base to 10,000 by the
end of the year. If you would like to organize a membership drive in your EDA
or riding association, or would like to do something on your own, please get in
touch with the office by emailing <info@greenparty.ca> and we’ll send you
as many copies of our new membership brochure as you think you can use. The
brochure will be available before the end of January.
If you are interested in
finding out more information or applying for one of the following positions, please
get in touch with Debbie Hartley by email dhartley@greenparty.ca or call her at
705-645-0048.
Thank you for your time and
interest.
Sincerely,
Wayne Crookes Campaign
Manager
Volunteers needed immediately for:
NGO Outreach:
The Party would like to explore involvement with Non-Governmental Organizations
(such as Pollution Probe, etc.) to determine how we can work together to
further mutual goals. We need volunteers to work with our campaign manager to
develop the overall strategy, identify and contact target organizations.
Youth Outreach:
The Party would like to involve more youth in the political process. We need
people to work with our Youth Coordinator to develop a significant national
outreach program, to recruit local volunteers who will help to implement the
plan and to stay involved with the program throughout the year.
Women’s Outreach: We need volunteers to develop an outreach program aimed at getting the
Green message communicated to women. Working with our campaign manager,
coordinators will be responsible for developing a national plan, recruiting
volunteers at a local level to help implement the plan, find venues for people
to address women’s group, train speakers to deliver a consistent message and
monitor the success of the program.
Outreach to High Profile People and University
Professors: We need volunteers to
identify and contact people to get them involved in the party and the election
process. Volunteers would work with our campaign manager to identify what people
to approach, develop a message and to contact those identified.
Assistant Campaign Manager: We need one or two volunteers to assist our campaign
manager. This is an excellent opportunity to understand and get involved with
the campaign process at a national level; and to be trained to perhaps manage a
future campaign for the Party. Previous political experience, excellent
organizational or management experience would be assets for this role.
Membership Development: The Green Party needs to significantly increase our
membership base. We will be launching a membership development initiative in
January. We need volunteers to work with our provincial organizers to increase
local membership through a variety of initiatives. Estimated time needed for
these positions is 5 to 10 hours a month; or as much time as you are able to
provide.
The Green Party of Canada
http://www.greenparty.ca
Box 997 Station B, Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 5R1, Canada
Phone: 1-866-VOTE-4-GPC 1-866-868-3447
(toll free)
Local (Ottawa) 613-562-4916
Fax: 613-482-4632
Information: info@greenparty.ca
If you want to get involved in the YES campaign contact:
Bernard Schulmann
Outreach Coordinator
Yes to STV Campaign
250-744-0866
<bernard@shama.ca>
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A democratic revolution could be coming to
BC. 160 regular citizens of BC were part of
the Citizens Assembly and they have recommended that we need
to change the way we elect our politicians in BC. After close to
a year of very intense study and
listening to the people of BC, they have
recommended the best system for our province is BC Single Transferable
Vote (BC-STV). The full details are at: www.citizensassembly.bc.ca
The time has come for British Columbians to choose a voting
system. Will
it be the divisive, unfair, unresponsive and obsolete First-Past-The-Post
system, or the democratic, positive and fair BC STV option
proposed by the Citizen’s Assembly? The answer lies with how the
people of BC will vote on May 17th
2005. There are very powerful interests
that would prefer citizens to have less power and not more power,
that we do not get real choices of who will represent us.
A grassroots campaign has started across the province to promote
electoral
change. The “Yes Campaign” is made up hundreds of people,
from across the political spectrum, who want
every vote to count. The proposed system
is as “Easy as 1-2-3”, but getting that message out will
take the help of many people, in both time and money. Our website
is STVforBC.com with the full mailing address
and phone numbers
How you can help:
You can contact the campaign at info@stvforbc.com Or you can join the
campaign and help volunteer@stvforbc.com
Join your local Yes Campaign chapter.
We will need thousands of democracy volunteers to:
Canvas
by phone and door-to-door
Write letters
to the editor and speak to local media
Organize
local education events and fundraisers
Let
your friends and family know that you are for more democracy and choice
Forward
this email to everyone that you know.
Donate
money and in-kind services A full-fledged
campaign is expensive to run. We will need many thousands
of dollars to reach each household in BC with the message that
electoral change is vital. The Yes campaign will gladly accept:
Financial gifts
Donations of advertising space
Staff secondments
Meeting room and organizing venues
In-kind service donations such as printing, polling, direct
mailouts
We have been given a unique opportunity in BC and Canada’s history
to shape
our future. It is up to you to get involved
LINKS:
It's time for a Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform!
Democratize The Vote is a public policy advocacy project aimed at
raising awareness and
garnering support for the creation of a federal Citizens' Assembly on Electoral
Reform. The project's primary avenue of policy influence is through a
campaign targeting members of the Standing Committee on Procedure
and House Affairs (PROC).
During the current session of Parliament, the Standing Committee
on Procedure and House
Affairs (PROC) is studying Electoral Reform. The Committee's mandate is
"to recommend a process that engages citizens and parliamentarians in an
examination of our electoral system with a review of all options."
Democratize The Vote provides an outlet for Canadians to send a
message to the Standing Committee
informing it of their support for a federal Citizens' Assembly on
Electoral Reform as a process that engages citizens in the electoral
reform process. Visitors to the site can use an online form to express their
desire for a Citizens' Assembly to the Committee.
Tell the Standing Committee why you want a federal Citizens'
Assembly on Electoral Reform!
The online form is found here: http://www.nodice.ca/democratize/campaign-en.php
Help spread the word! Links - Add a link to Democratize The
Vote to your website, the address is: http://www.nodice.ca/democratize
Ads - Add a Democratize The Vote banner to your
website, two sizes are available
at: http://www.nodice.ca/democratize/ads.php
Send Page to a Friend - Go to http://www.nodice.ca/democratize/index-en.php,
click on "Send Page to a Friend" at the bottom
of the page an fill out the form to tell your friends about
Democratize The Vote. Forward - Forward this
email to your friends who may be interested
With your support, we can help democratize and modernize
David MacDonald Democratize The Vote http://www.nodice.ca/democratize
democratize@nodice.ca
Please WRITE and CALL now!!
Despite the wishes of an
overwhelming majority of British Columbians who participated in last year's
federal public input process, the BC Liberal government is still aggressively
lobbying the federal Liberal government to lift the decades-old moratorium on
oil and gas development off BC's coast.
BC Liberal Minister of Energy
and Mines, Richard Neufeld, is in
Allowing seismic testing is a
"foot in the door" strategy to eventually get the moratorium lifted.
After companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars to do seismic testing to
locate potential oil deposits, it would be very difficult at that point for the
government to deny them the right to drill "mere" exploratory wells
to confirm the presence of these deposits. The moratorium would have to be
lifted to do so. Afterwards, full-on commercial drilling would follow.
Coastal oil and gas drilling
creates daily chronic pollution (the discharge of toxic drilling fluids and
muds, oil leakages) and major CO2 emissions, and it inevitably results in small
and large oil spills that devastate the birds, fish, and sea mammals. In terms
of jobs, the industry is not looking for unemployed loggers and fishermen in
coastal communities (as the BC government insinuates) but rather for
specialized skilled workers who they will generally hire from abroad.
Let the federal Liberal
government know whether or not you want them to:
- Never issue any seismic
testing permits for the BC coast, - Never engage in any joint
"research" with the BC government that involves the possibility of
seismic testing off the BC coast. - Ban
coastal oil and gas development off BC's coast - Listen to the results of their
own public input process (the Priddle Report) last spring, where 75% of British
Columbians want to maintain the moratorium.
Contact Prime Minister Paul
Martin today by telephone, and let him know that you want to keep the
moratorium in place:
Prime Minister’s Office:
613-992-4211
And send your message by
email to key decision makers. Be sure to include your home mailing address so
they know where you're from:
Hon. David Emerson Minister
of Industry Emerson.d@parl.gc.ca
Hon. John Efford Minister of
Natural Resources Efford.j@parl.gc.ca
Hon. Stephane Dion Minister
of the Environment Dion.s@parl.gc.ca
Hon. Geoff Regan Minister of Fisheries
and Oceans Regan.g@parl.gc.ca
Hon. Andy Scott Minister of
Indian Affairs and Northern Development Scott.a@parl.gc.ca
As importantly, write to your
local federal Member of Parliament (MP) who you can find at:
http://www.gc.ca/directories/direct_e.html or call your local MP toll-free at:
1-866-599-4999
Also, don't forget to sign
our online petition at www.bcoilslick.org
THANK YOU for taking a few
minutes of your day to do this! - Pearl Gottschalk and Ken Wu, WCWC
The Canadian government has
asked individual Canadians to take the “One-Tonne Challenge” and reduce their
personal greenhouse gas emissions by 20%. That’s fair enough. Most Canadians
are willing to accept responsibility and take action in time of crisis. But
this alone is not enough to meet our
If Canadian emissions
continue as usual, they will rise to 810 million tonnes per year by 2010. This
will put us 30% above our legally binding Kyoto target, creating a gap of 240
million tonnes of emissions per year.
Canada is not going to meet
its Kyoto promises unless we make a strong commitment to a realistic plan for
reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.
Take action: Ask
your local Member of Parliament to support The 240 Million Tonne Challenge!
When Canada ratified the
Kyoto Protocol on climate change in December 2002, we agreed to cut our
emissions of greenhouse gases to 6% below 1990 levels by the year 2012.
Following the ratification of the Protocol by Russia in October 2004, the
international treaty became legally binding just over one month ago, on
February 16th, 2005.
While Canada has pledged to
reduce our emissions, we are far behind on our commitments. We have actually
increased our emissions by 20% since 1990. Our emissions have increased to 731
Mt (megatonnes or million tonnes) of carbon dioxide equivalent, while our Kyoto
target is 570 Mt. About 28% of this increase is from vehicles, 28% from
electricity and heat generation, and 22% from the oil and gas industry.
If greenhouse gas emissions
continue on this trajectory, they will likely be 810 Mt per year by 2010,
mid-way through the Kyoto commitment period of 2008-2012. This leaves a 240
million tonne/year gap between our legally binding Kyoto target of 570 Mt.
That is why Greenpeace has
launched The
240 Million Tonne Challenge.
Although the Canadian
government has devised plans for reduction of greenhouse gases, it has relied
mainly on voluntary measures and very limited financial incentives. Large
industrial polluters in chemicals, iron and steel, metal smelting, mining, pulp
and paper, petroleum refining, gas extraction and electricity generation are
responsible for 50% of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions. The government has
failed to place mandatory pollution caps on these industries.
In order to avoid
catastrophic climate change, including disastrous extreme weather events,
Canada will have to go far beyond its Kyoto Commitment. 2004 was the fourth
hottest year on record, and the ten hottest years on record have taken place
since 1990.
Temperature increase in
Canada has already caused extreme weather events – heat waves in southern
Ontario, severe drought on the prairies, ice storms in eastern Canada, flooding
in Manitoba, Québec and Newfoundland, and forest fires and pest infestations in
western Canada (International Energy Agency, Energy Policies of IEA Countries -
Canada 2004 Review, OECD/IEA February 2004, p. 49).
Many individual Canadians are
taking action to fight climate change by reducing their own emissions, and are
stepping up to the government’s “One Tonne Challenge”.
Now ask the Canadian
government to step up to their challenge - Send a letter to your local Member
of Parliament and ask them to take The
240 Million Tonne Challenge!
We've had a good response to
our MLA Tracker where your BC elected official's on-record comments on the
enviornment are captured. You can see it here:
http://www.conservationvoters.ca/mlas
Something interesting - try
Googling your MLA and see if our tracker comes out ahead of his or her own
website!
But, we need your help to
make this work. If your MLA appears in
print saying something memorable on the environment, send it in to us along
with the source. It has to be sourced.
That way, we'll keep up to
date, and your representative will be held more accountable.
Thanks!
Matt Price
Coordinator
Sign the Transboundary Watershed
Alliance (TWA) new online petition at:
http://riverswithoutborders.org/petition.asp
Help protect the Taku
Wilderness in northern BC, the largest unroaded watershed on the Pacific Coast
of North America, from a proposed 160 km long mining road. Please sign!
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is in grave
danger and you can help.
After 25 years of trying, the
Bush administration has the representation it needs in both the U.S. Senate and
House of Congress to approve oil and gas drilliing in Alaska's Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge. The Bush administration and its oil industry backers swear
this is the oil that will free America from its dependence on foreign oil. In
reality, scientists estimate a 6-month supply that won't hit the markets for at
least 10 years. The Refuge has become the symbol of a battle to access all
America's protected wild lands. Unfortunately, the caribou, Canadians and
Americans will pay the price because this is precisely the strip of land that
has been the calving grounds for the 120,000-member Porcupine Caribou Herd, for
27,000 years. This narrow and irreplaceable strip of land provides the perfect
balance of abundant food and protection from predators that create the ideal
place to calve. Will 2005 be the year this changes forever?
From April 8-September 8,
2003, filmmaker Leanne Allison and wildlife biologist Karsten Heuer migrated on
foot with the caribou herd, to see for themselves if the calving grounds are
important to the survival of the herd. Being Caribou was the name of the
expedition. Now it is the name of the intimate, funny, informative, compelling
and award-winning film we are asking you to watch.
In the past, March 12 has
marked the timing of important Senate votes. While it can't be predicted
exactly, it is thought the future of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and
the all-important calving grounds of our international Porcupine Caribou Herd,
will be decided on or around this date.
(Editor’s Note: This motion
was passed by Congress. Paul Martin was
to have addressed Canada’s concerns with Bush last week. I’ve heard no news on this since.)
Click here
to fax your politicians, and strengthen the voice on this matter from the
Canadian side!!
Here are two very convincing
letters supporting this action from MP’s, that I have received from people who
have sent such fax’es:
Letter
1: from Hon. Larry Bagnell, M.P., Yukon
Letter
2: from John Reynolds, MP, West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast--Sea to Sky Country
- Hon. Larry Bagnell, M.P., Yukon
Thank you for your e-mail,
supporting and joining, the difficult crusade that the Canadian Government has
waged over the last several decades to try and prevent drilling in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge.
In spite of our major efforts
over the years, because of the recent electoral change in the balance in
Congress, things are even more critical now, which is why we need and
appreciate your support and efforts.
As you know, Canada and its
Prime Ministers and Ministers have made stellar efforts over the years to
protect the herd. The contributions of a number of federal departments have
provided much funding for lobby efforts of Gwitchin and other Yukonners in
Washington. In fact, the person, outside the Gwitchin, who has contributed more
years to this effort than almost any Canadian, is Sheila Tooze in the Canadian
Embassy in Washington, who has helped 3 generations of Gwitchin in their
struggle (I'm sure she would be touched if you were to thank her for decades of
work to save the Porcupine Caribou Herd).
All the recent Prime
Ministers have brought this up (some with my urging) with the President of the
United States. It was raised during Bush's recent visit, and just this month, I
raised it with Governor Murkowski and Ambassador Celluci ( at one time several
years ago, I got into quite a confrontation with Senator Murkowski during a
Canada/US Parliamentary Association meeting).
As you know, I have also made
a number of trips (at my own expense, as MP`s are not reimbursed for such
trips) to Seattle and Washington to give speeches and lobby the Americans and
Congress against the drilling. This has been one of my biggest missions and
efforts since I was elected.
You may remember I was
lobbying in a congressman's office on September 11th, and subsequently got the
Gwitchin out of the States. I gave speeches and even marched (which I have
never done before) in the pouring rain, onto the Capital building of Congress
in Washington. I have also had Minister's
mention this in Parliament, once on a few hours notice before a crucial
vote in Washington, and of course I have mentioned it numerous times, in
speeches,in the media, and in Parliament.
I also organized and spoke at
an event on Parliament Hill, so that Members of Parliament from across Canada,
could see the presentation of slides and hear the speeches of the Gwitchin and
those trying to protect the herd. And of course Canada continues to stand
steadfast for the protection of the herd and continues to do all it can to that
end.
Some of you have asked Erica or I what you can
do. Certainly, if people have friends or relatives in the States, they can get
them to write to the President and their Congressman, especially their
Senators, as that is where this battle will be won or lost this time around.
People can also probably donate to the Gwitchin, who are the best lobbyists,
because they and their future are so critically affected personally. And
people could consider joining one of the
lobbying trips to the United States, as many of us have done.
One of my most precious
possessions, is one of the gifts I have been given for my efforts, (which I'm
looking at now on my desk), a Conservation Award for "outstanding efforts
towards conservation of the Porcupine Caribou Herd".
In my speeches on this topic,
I made the point (in much greater depth) that we are not just saving a caribou
herd, we are preserving a unique, vibrant, and peaceful culture, that has
existed for generations and that may
contain some keys to help us all survive
our increasingly complex and troubled world.
For all these reasons, and
because we are at an unfortunately critical time, we certainly needed your
support and appreciate your coming on board the battle for this most critical
habitat and culture.
Hon. Larry Bagnell, M.P. Yukon
- John Reynolds, MP, West Vancouver-Sunshine
Coast--Sea to Sky Country
Thank you very much for your e-mail
regarding the Porcupine River Caribou Herd; I always appreciate hearing the
views of my constituents on the issues of the day.
Oil exploration and drilling
on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska
has been under consideration for over 20-years. The question has taken on
greater urgency in the last two years as the U.S. government seeks ways to end
its dependency on imported oil and the state of Alaska faces the prospect of
dwindling revenues (85-percent of Alaska's revenues come from the oil
industry). So far the American Senate has refused to open up the Arctic Refuge
to oil drilling, but its resolve appears to be weakening, with a March vote
ending 52-48 against.
In 1987, the Mulroney
government signed an agreement with the United States recognizing that our two
countries have a joint responsibility to oversee the habitat of the Porcupine
Caribou Herd. As a result, two National Parks - Ivvavik and Vuntut - were
created in the Yukon to safeguard the Porcupine Herd's habitat. Consistent with
the 1987 agreement, Canada has also repeatedly voiced opposition to oil
drilling in the ANWR; the Americans, however, view this as a domestic matter.
Like on so many other issues,
the Liberal's are being hypocritical in their opposition to American drilling
plans. While our Environment Minister is criticizing the U.S. for endangering
the Porcupine Herd, his own government is equally guilty in the case of the
lesser-known Bathurst Caribou Herd. The Bathurst Herd, which many Aboriginal
communities in the Northwest Territories depend upon as a sole source of fresh
meat, migrates from the southern areas of the Northwest Territories to calve in
the area of Bathurst Inlet in the westernmost portion of Nunavut.
With the federal government's
support, Nunavut plans to build a deep-sea port in the calving grounds of the
Bathurst Herd, where it would be used to store fuel supplies for re-supplying
mines and communities and store metal ores for shipment to smelters. The
territory wants to connect the port site to the mineral and diamond rich lands
to the south by a 215 km all-weather road - a road that would pass through the
migratory route followed by the Bathurst Caribou Herd. The Liberals have
already granted over $3-million to this project.
How can the Liberals
seriously expect to pour money into developing our own calving grounds and yet
prevent the U.S. from doing the same?
Thank you very much for
having taken the time to write.
Sincerely,
John Reynolds, MP
West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea
to Sky Country
Please write-in to the
federal public commentary process about proposed new marine seismic testing regulations
that include BC's coast!
The federal Liberal
government has recently released proposed regulations on seismic testing for
coastal oil and gas development in Canadian waters, the very weak and dangerous
"Statement of Canadian Practice on Seismic Noise in the Marine
Environment". The proposed regulations in this document ignore current
science, violate the precautionary approach of our Oceans Act, will put the
health of marine life at serious risk, and will act as a "foot in the
door" strategy for the BC government to eventually get seismic testing
underway off our beautiful wild Pacific coast. The public only has until April
15 to comment on their proposal. Please take 5 minutes and write-in your
comments - it's KEY that YOU do this right now.
Seismic testing, in which
shock waves are blasted by underwater air guns through vast areas of the ocean
in order to locate potential oil deposits below the ocean floor, is one of the
most environmentally damaging activities for marine life. It has been
implicated in fatal whale strandings, large-scale fish kills, driving whales
and fish away from their feeding areas and migration routes, and seriously
harming crabs, squid and other marine life.
The draft standards for
seismic testing are national in scope. Along with the
Allowing seismic testing is a
"foot in the door" strategy to eventually get the 30 year old
offshore oil and gas moratorium in BC lifted. After companies spend hundreds of
millions of dollars to do seismic testing to locate potential oil deposits, it
would be very difficult at that point for the government to deny them the right
to drill "mere" exploratory wells to confirm the presence of these
deposits. The moratorium would have to be lifted to do so. Afterwards, full-on
commercial drilling would follow.
To read the Statement of
Canadian Practice on Seismic Noise, cut and paste the entire following address:
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/canwaters-eauxcan/infocentre/media/seismic-sism
ique/statement_e.asp
For more info on seismic
testing and other key marine issues in BC, check out the Living Ocean Society's
excellent online library at: http://www.livingoceans.org/library/index.shtml#offshore
Some problems with the
proposed "Statement of Canadian Practice on Seismic Noise in the Marine
Environment" include:
- The regulations shouldn't
include BC's
- The proposed mitigation
measures are extremely weak and lacks the scientific evidence to back up the
assumptions upon which these measures are based. There is no scientific evidence to suggest
that the biological and ecological effects of seismic testing on fish,
invertebrates, or marine mammals are expected to be low. Such assumptions, as
stated in the draft document, are entirely inaccurate and are not supported by
international science, nor the science articulated by Fisheries and Oceans’ own
research.
- For example, a recent study
carried out by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans last fall found that
female snow crabs showed short-term and long-term damage such as hemorrhaging
and detached reproductive organs after a 12-day seismic experiment off
- The Oceans Act states very
clearly that planning in the ocean needs to take a precautionary approach, a
commitment to err on the side of caution. Yet these proposed measures do the
exact opposite. Allowing seismic testing in areas of biological significance,
spawning, and whale feeding and breeding regions would be ignoring
international scientific evidence that suggests the need for precaution.
- Within these draft
guidelines there is a blatant acceptance that it is appropriate for marine mammals
and fish to be killed by the practice of seismic testing, as long as they are
not an ‘endangered mammal’ or impacts do not occur at the population level. The
BC coastal waters under consideration for offshore oil and gas support many
marine mammal species including seven ‘threatened’ species, and three species
of special concern. The critical habitat requirements of the 29 marine mammal
species in these waters have not been adequately assessed and very little
baseline data has been collected on most of these species.
- The process to develop the
Statement of Canadian Practice document involved input from industry and the
provincial Ministries of Energy and Mines, but it lacked input from Environment
Canada and any of the provincial ministries responsible for protecting the
environment. The process has shown a lack of transparency, with very little
involvement from the conservation community and independent scientists. As a
result, the outcome has ignored national and international science that identifies
many potential impacts from seismic testing, calls for further research, and
the need for precaution.
IT'LL ONLY TAKE 5 MINUTES!
Write a brief letter to the public commentary process by April 15 - your letter
is crucial to keep our Pacific coast free from the destruction of seismic shock
waves.
Let the federal Liberal
government know whether or not you:
- Think they should
completely discard or scrap their proposed "Statement of Canadian Practice
on Seismic Noise in the Marine Environment" - Believe the proposed seismic
regulations will be used as a precursor for the federal government, under
pressure from the BC Liberal government, to issue seismic testing permits for
BC's Pacific waters. BC's waters shouldn't even be considered for seismic
testing as there is a moratorium on oil and gas development there. Why explore
for oil if it can't be extracted? - Believe that the document lacks scientific
credibility, adequate peer review, and fails to consider key scientific
literature on the impacts of seismic testing. It also downplays the
significance of the ecological impacts of seismic testing. - Believe the
standards are dangerously weak and ineffective.
Send your letter to:
To: Prime Minister Paul Martin pm@pm.gc.ca
CC: Honourable Geoff Regan,
Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Min@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
CC: Mr. Daniel McDougall, Director General,
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
mcdougalld@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
CC: Mr. Roger Wysocki, Oceans Policy Strategist,
Fisheries and Oceans Canada wysockir@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
CC: Honourable Stéphane Dion, Minister of the
Environment Stephane.Dion@ec.gc.ca
As importantly, write to your
local federal Member of Parliament (MP) who you can find at:
http://www.gc.ca/directories/direct_e.html
Please commit to getting one
friend or family member to write a letter, too!
Thanks for helping keep BC's
- Pearl Gottschalk and Ken
Wu,
As you probably know, with
extensive media coverage and the exposure of the leadership debate, our leader
Adriane Carr has an excellent chance of being elected on May 17th as the first
Green Party member at the state, provincial or national level in
As Powell River/Sunshine
Coast is a hotly contested constituency and there is a strong public demand for
outreach and information, we are seeking additional volunteers to help in
Adriane’s campaign from the Gibsons and
To make arrangements to
volunteer, please contact the office as soon as possible at:
1 (888) 473-3686 (toll free)
or (604) 886-1435 (Gibsons)