Hello:
The left social democratic magazine Canadian Dimension, July/August
2006 issue, has recently come out. The focus of this environmental
issue is "The Challenge of Peak Oil" and there are a number of
interesting articles, several of which are available on line from the
web site. (Just Google Canadian Dimension.) This issue also features
six Canadian environmentalists, under the magazine heading
"Environmental Activists who are Changing the World", in the center
fold. The text about the six environmentalists has been scanned from
my printed copy of Canadian Dimension, which came a couple of days
ago. It is given below. Unfortunately, the photos of the activists
are not given although they are in CD.
Best, David
*******
Canadian Dimension Vol. 40, No. 4 July/August 2006, pages 32-33
Environmental Activists who are Changing the World
Don Sullivan first became active in the student movement supporting
Indigenous peoples' and workers' rights. Over the past decade his
efforts to organize for positive change have been largely centered on
the east shore of Lake Winnipeg, one of last remaining and relatively
undisturbed large tracts of boreal forest left in Canada. As the
representative of the Boreal Forest Network, Don's work supports
those First Nations communities in the region seeking to establish a
UNESCO World Heritage Site in order to better manage, control, plan
and protect the resources in their traditional territories.
David Orton came to Canada in 1957 from Portsmouth, England, to avoid
fulfilling his National Service (military) draft obligations. For
over 20 years he has resided in Nova Scotia with his wife and
daughter, living simply on an old hill farm, which has now returned to forest.
David was part of the Marxist-Leninist movement, but in the late
seventies ecological issues claimed his primary allegiance. Forests,
wildlife, energy and marine issues have been among his interests. He
has actively opposed forest spraying and the killing of seals.
David has been involved in developing a Left focus within deep
ecology called "left biocentrism." He gives public talks and
university lectures on these issues, and is actively involved with an
Internet discussion group, Left Bio, which has been running for over
eight years. He serves in the federal Green Party shadow cabinet as
the deep-ecology spokesperson. Says Orton, "I believe that we humans
have to extend our sense of self-identity to include the wellbeing of
the Earth - this is the philosophy of deep ecology. Three key ideas
are: non-human centeredness, the necessity for a new spiritual
relationship to Nature, and opposition to the human conceit of
'private property' in Nature."
Elizabeth May is an environmentalist, writer, activist and lawyer
and, until recently, executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada.
She recently resigned that post to run for the leadership of the
Green Party of Canada. Active in the environmental movement since
1970, she first became known owing to her leadership in the
grassroots movement against aerial insecticide spraying proposed for
forests near her home on Cape Breton Island. The effort prevented
aerial insecticide spraying from ever occurring in Nova Scotia. Her
volunteer work also included successful campaigns to prevent approval
of uranium mining in Nova Scotia, and extensive work on energy-policy
issues, primarily opposing nuclear energy.
In 1986, Elizabeth became senior policy advisor to then-federal
environment minister Tom McMillan. She was instrumental in the
creation of several national parks, including South Moresby. She was
involved in negotiating the Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone
layer, and new legislation and pollution-control measures. In 1988,
she resigned on principle when the Minister granted permits for the
Rafferty-Alameda dams in Saskatchewan with no environmental
assessment. The permits were later quashed by a federal court decision.
Elizabeth is the author of four books: Budworm Bottles (1982),
Paradise Won: The Struggle to Save South Moresby (1990), At the
Cutting Edge: The Crisis in Canada's Forests (1998; 2004) and, with
Maude Barlow, Frederick Street: Life and Death on Canada's Love Canal
(2000). Her focus on the Sydney "tar ponds" and the health threats to
children in the community led her to protest in front of Parliament
Hill over a 17-day hunger strike in May, 2001.
Biologist Claude Villeneuve says he was drawn to his field by a
passion for nature. He became interested in environmental issues in
the beginning of the 1970s, after his first ecology course in
university. When he took his first professional biologist assignment
in Ontario in 1976, he faced agricultural and industrial pollution
issues in the park in which he worked. At the end of that decade, he
worked on acid deposition and the effects of acid rain on fishes. His
first book in 1983, Des animaux malades de l'homme?, summarized the
state of wildlife in Quebec and the effects of pollution and habitat
degradation on fishes, birds and mammal populations.
In the 1980s Claude turned his focus toward environmental education
and sustainability issues, and began his work with UNESCO. In 1993 he
became director of the European Community institute of eco-advising
to teach and revisit the curriculum of its graduate program. Back in
Canada in 1994, he became editor-in-chief of Ecodecision, a post he
held to 1998. He has published books on water, the boreal forest,
sustainability education and climate change. In 1993 he became
director of the European Institute for Environmental Counselling in
Strasbourg (www.ecoconseil.org).
David Martin is Energy Coordinator for Greenpeace Canada. His
environmental activism began with the first curbside recycling
program in Toronto in the 1970s. For the past 25 years he has been a
part of the environmental movement with a particular interest in
energy and nuclear issues. An advocate, organizer and writer, he has
been arrested for non-violent civil disobedience, written numerous
articles, lobbied governments and promoted conservation and energy
alternatives. Through his work he has faced-off against multimillion
dollar corporations and powerful governments who have refused to
honour the right to clean air, water and land. He says that the
constant David and Goliath struggles are to be expected, and offers
future environmental activists this advice: Do not be discouraged,
remain focused, be persistent and consistent. Consistency over time
makes the difference.
Judy da Silva is a mother of five children, earth protector,
traditional Anishinabe. She lives in the forest of northwestern
Ontario by a freshwater lake. Her community is called Grassy Narrows
First Nation.
A blockade in her traditional territory started in December, 2002, to
stop all logging trucks from coming into the area. The youth were the
main instruments to stop the trucks, and she became one of the
spokespeople for the action. The blockade is still there and many
events are currently planned there for this summer. "We are still
against the resource extraction of our territory," Judy says,
"because of the environmental and cultural devastation that occurs
upon the land and the Anishinabek. We are appealing to other
protectors of the earth to take direct action to protect the earth."
Friends of Grassy Narrows, a group formed in Winnipeg to support the
blockade, has changed its name to Winnipeg Indigenous Peoples
Solidarity Movement to reflect their involvement with other First
Nations issues.
"We still work with many different environmental activists and are
currently hosting Rain Forest Action Network summer internship
program right at the blockade site," Judy informed. CD
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