Great Bear Rainforest Celebration
1. “After almost two decades of conflict and then collaboration, a unique partnership of First Nations governments and the British Columbia government along with environmental groups and forestry companies have come to a final long-term agreement on how to safeguard the beautiful Great Bear Rainforest for healthy communities and healthy forest. Celebrate with Greenpeace as 85% of the forested lands of the Great Bear Rainforest is now off limits to industrial logging!” Source: http://www.greenpeace.org/
http://www.youtube.com/embed/ub9o_CS7Xd0?rel=0
2. A First Nations Community tells logging companies “our land is not for sale.”
“The Cree Nation of Waswanipi is fighting to protect its ancestral land from logging. The Broadback Valley, located close to James Bay in northern Quebec, Canada is at heart of these lands and is one of the last intact forests in the region. The Broadback Valley is central to the Cree way of life, to their culture and livelihoods. “It’s in our heart, this is our life.” Less than 10% of their ancestral land remains intact. If protection doesn’t happen soon, encroaching roads and clearcuts will destroy this forest. The Cree First Nation of Waswanipi are asking for help to #SavetheBroadback. “We will do anything that we can to protect it.”
Source: http://www.greenpeace.org/
Video: http://www.youtube.com/embed/mWyfM3ZoKFs?rel=0
3. Grassy Narrows protesters bring mercury fears to the legislature.
Security officials cleared the south lawn of tourists while hazardous materials crews tried to determine what the substance was. By afternoon, security staff said the substance was “determined not to be harmful.”
<Alt text: This is an image of two overturned barrels on the steps of the Ontario Provincial Legislature. The words on the barrel read “Mercury Kills” and the sign ask “When will you clean it up Wynne?”
Source:Keith Leslie The Canadian Press - June 23, 2016
Six protesters supporting the remote Grassy Narrows First Nation were arrested by Toronto police Thursday after they dumped an unidentified liquid outside the front doors of the Ontario legislature.
The protesters were charged with mischief after they unloaded four barrels with skull and crossbones warnings and the words “mercury kills” at the legislature in the morning.
The six members of FreeGrassy.net, wearing protective white coveralls and surgical masks, spilled one of the barrels, dumping a thick grey substance that oozed out over the broad front driveway.
Security officials blocked the legislature’s main doors and cleared the vast south lawn of tourists while hazardous materials crews tried to determine what the substance was.
By late afternoon, legislative security staff said officials concluded the substance was “determined not to be harmful,” but did not say exactly what it was.
Protest spokesman Syed Hussan refused to identify “the chemical spill” on the legislature’s doorstep.
“It definitely looks a lot like mercury, but I can’t tell you,” said Hussan. “If this was in Grassy Narrows, the government would take 40 years to identify it and clean it up.”
Grassy Narrows, near the Manitoba border and north of Kenora, has suffered from mercury poisoning since the Dryden Chemical Co. dumped 9,000 kg of it into the Wabigoon and English River systems during the 1960s.
The government closed the local fishery that formed the basis of the Grassy Narrows economy in the 1970s, but some residents ignored the order to stop eating the fish.
The mercury contamination is blamed for many illnesses and some deaths in the community.
Hussan said the protesters wanted people in downtown Toronto to feel the worry that Grassy Narrows residents have lived with for decades.
“We’re absolutely trying to bring a slight amount of the fear that the people of Grassy Narrows face every day into this community to show the injustice, and to say that just like this (spill) will be cleaned, we want the river system to be cleaned, too,” he said. “It’s not about a stunt.”
Legislative security staff had called in Toronto police and firefighters to help deal with the protest and try to determine exactly what was dumped, but authorities did not immediately treat it as a highly toxic substance that would require evacuations.
The response to the spilled substance at Queen’s Park included the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive Team as well as a Hazardous Materials Team.
A group of Grassy Narrows teens were ejected from the legislature three weeks ago for wearing T-shirts that said “water is sacred.” Wearing T-shirts with slogans is considered a protest, which is not allowed inside the legislature.
Two Ontario cabinet ministers are scheduled to visit Grassy Narrows on Monday to talk with community leaders about various reports on the mercury contamination and find out what should be done to clean it up.
Source: Leslie, Keith. “Grassy Narrows protesters bring mercury fears to the legislature, Associated Press in Toronto Star, June 23rd, 2016.
4. Great Lakes states approve U.S. city's plan to draw water from Lake Michigan.
“A suburban Milwaukee city won a hard-fought battle Tuesday to draw its drinking water from Lake Michigan in the first test of a compact designed to safeguard the Great Lakes region's abundant but vulnerable freshwater supply.”
Source: Associated Press, June 20th, 2016
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/great-lakes-borrow-water-1.3645272
5. Minister McKenna launched the EcoFair 2016 in Ottawa during Environment Week.
The Canadian government signed the Paris Agreement which requires that Canada act to address global warming. In this quick video you can hear different Canadians explaining what they are doing to fight Climate Change at the EcoFair booth.
https://www.youtube.com/user/environmentcan
6. Protecting drinking water in Harrietsfield, Nova Scotia -
Please read the following article written by Ecojustice.
Ecojustice lawyers represented three residents of Harrietsfield, Nova Scotia, in their fight to protect their drinking water from contamination. In several documented cases, residents of Harrietsfield learned that toxic substances such as boron, arsenic, cadmium, and uranium had been found in local groundwater at levels that exceed what is considered safe in the Canadian Drinking Water Quality Guidelines. As a result of this contamination, our clients, Marlene Brown, Melissa King and Jonathan Andrews, were forced to rely on filling up jugs at their local church and at the homes of friends and relatives for their drinking water and to travel to the homes of family and friends to bathe and do laundry.
Companies that operated on the site that is the source of the groundwater contamination have been ordered to clean-up the contamination and monitor domestic wells for uranium and lead.
One numbered company that operated a demolition facility on the site asked the Nova Scotia Supreme Court to be removed from the clean-up order. Marlene, Melissa and Jonathan intervened in this case because they were worried that if the company won the appeal and had its name removed from the order, the remaining companies may not complete the work required to clean up their water.
On May 6, 2015, in a judgment that reflects much of the evidence that our clients brought to the court’s attention related to the adverse health risks posed by the contamination, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court upheld the clean-up order. The company is now responsible for contributing to the clean-up and monitoring of the site with the one exception being that the Minister of the Environment must review one discrete clause of the order to decide whether that particular element of the clean-up order should be removed, changed or remain as-is. Our clients are hopeful that the Minister will review the evidence and decide to keep the clause as-is.
Why did Ecojustice get involved?
At the most basic level, Ecojustice got involved in this case because every Canadian should have access to clean water. We also believe that companies that pollute must pay to clean up the mess.
Finally, we believe that certain natural resources – in this case, the groundwater that residents rely on for drinking – belong to everyone and that elected officials are responsible for protecting and maintaining these resources. Upholding the government’s authority to issue and enforce the clean-up order in this case is consistent with the government’s duty to manage these natural resources for the benefit of present and future generations. It is also consistent with protecting the intervenors’ right to water.
What does this win mean?
Our number one objective in this case was to support our clients in their fight for clean, safe water. On that front, this case is a measured victory. Although the case has been decided in our clients’ favour, the water is still contaminated. After years struggling to raise their young son without safe water, Melissa and Johnathan made the difficult decision to declare bankruptcy and leave their home. Marlene is now urging the companies and the government to move quickly to start the clean-up efforts.
At a more systemic level, the decision in this case refers to two important environmental law principles— the polluter pays principle, which states that entities that cause environmental damage must pay to clean it up, and the precautionary principle, which states that decision-makers should err on the side of caution where assessing potential environmental harms. The Court agreed with our clients that because the parties listed on the clean-up order all contributed to the pollution at issue, they should all be named on the order.
This is an important victory on our clients’ long and continuing road to protect drinking water in the Harrietsfield community.
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