Important- Canadian Conservation - your help needed!

[Sir Adam]

Sent to my by Jim Coffey - an important note for all, but especially Canadian members of our board (and those of us that paddle there!)

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Update - here is the Facebook link, and link for those of us not on Facebook:

- Here is a facebook link http://apps.facebook.com/causes/214743/ ... m=e5767d02 for anyone without a facebook account they should monitor http://ispeakforcanadianrivers.ca for changes coming up this week including a pledge and donate button.

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Hi everyone... below you find a conversation between Doug Skeggs and I about a major "call to Action" by The Canadian Rivers Network for Friday Feb 20 regarding the gutting of the NWPA (navigable Waters Protection Act). We are entertaining the idea of a full page ad in the Globe and Mail... read below for details and rationale. We are open to other ideas if anyone has anything better that we are missing.

You have been copied on this email because you have proven to be a valuable ally and player in river conservation... thank you... but we are going to need your help again. The plan is to amass 1000 people into a group... for this we are using facebook.... causes... save the NWPA! Protect Canada's Rivers. This group was started by Celeste Cote of the Sierra Club and has almost 300 supporters. We need that group to reach at least 1000 people by next Friday.

We will then do a week long fundraising blitz... $10 (or maybe $20) at a time.... to raise $10000 for some type of very direct, very pointed advertisement letting people know that gutting environmental protection (such as NWPA) for ease of infrastructure development is unacceptable for us as Canadians.

Please let me know how you think you can contribute to this action... in particular driving up group membership and raising $... this might be our last significant action before the NWPA is gutted.

thanks again for your continued support,

jim

Jim Coffey
Esprit
canadian rivers network

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Jim:


Perhaps, a campaign like this can happen in different parts of the country, perhaps we can get commercial interests involved.

Maybe we can look at an ad in:

Vancouver
Calgary
Toronto
Ottawa
Montreal

With regional groups doing the work in each area to get the funding and names.

D


On 14-Feb-09, at 12:18 AM, Jim Coffey wrote:


Doug, Will and Stef

From speaking with Doug, my take on the NWPA situation is that it doesn't look very good at the moment.... I understand that the dismantling of the act will go through under the economic stimulus omnibus bill.

We are amassing a large support group of concerned people ... but they are paralyzed in what they can actually do as things are happening so fast... especially as it looks like we are fighting a loosing battle.

So... here is an idea.

Should we consider a one time, full page ad in the Globe and Mail stating our frustration and protest over the gutting of the NWPA. We could VERY STRONGLY state our case and include that our governing officials ARE NOT LISTENING and that we find their actions UNACCEPTABLE.

The bottom half of the page would have the names of all supporters that donated $10-$20 p/p to pay for the ad. We rally 1000 names... through facebook... set up a paypal account and make a call for action for donations and each person gets their name on the ad as a signatory.

For the donors and signatories... so many people feel helpless... at least they could donate $10 to $20 buy the paper and cut out the ad ... show people, scrapbook, frame it......

We could motivate people by asking the question....

Imagine your grandchild asking you.... "why did our waterways get destroyed grandma (grandpa) ... why didn't anyone try to stop it" ... at least grandma/grandpa could pull out the ad and say "Well.... at least we tried"... blah blah blah....

I think we need 1 week to get 1000 names on the facebook causes site... right now we are almost 300. We make a push to get 1000 and 2 days before the bill passes take out the ad. Let those who could de-couple the NWPA from economic stimulus bill... Harper/Baird... and the others who could change things see that there are many people who believe that the way this has been pushed through is unacceptable.

I saw this once by a group called Not In My Name protesting the invasion of Iraq and had famous signatories in a full page ad in USA today. This one would be representative of 1000 concerned everyday people. It would be like publishing a petition... accepting that "they won ... the bill will be gutted" but that we dont condone their actions and will remember come election time.

Anyway... its late.... any thoughts?

jim

On 12-Feb-09, at 10:51 PM, Canadian Rivers Network wrote:


Many people have been asking for a detailed assessment of what
amendments are being proposed to the Navigable Waters Protection Act and
what the actual impact of those amendments will be.

Attached are two articles of interest:

1) Ecojustice Memorandum
Re: Proposed amendments to the Navigable Waters Protection Act and the
erosion of public navigation rights on Canadian waterways
Date: February 9, 2009
Author: Will Amos, Staff Lawyer, uOttawa-Ecojustice Environmental Law
Clinic, with research assistance from Yolanda Saito and Sam Sonshine

2) Research Conclusions Regarding the Amended Navigable Waters
Protection Act, as included in the Budget Implementation Act, Bill C-10.
Prepared by the Lake Ontario Waterkeepers

Please distribute through your networks and encourage people to write to
their MP along with the short list below and the members of the
following standing committees of parliament, insisting on a full public
consultation before amending the NWPA.

- Here is a facebook link http://apps.facebook.com/causes/214743/ ... m=e5767d02 for anyone without a facebook account they should monitor http://ispeakforcanadianrivers.ca for changes coming up this week including a pledge and donate button.

[marclamenace]

Since the conservative government of PM Stephen Harper is there, Canada looks awfully bad on many points surrounding environmental causes, ecology, etc. And it's not just the Tar sand oil VS kyoto case but other important one also like this one.

Sadly enough, this goverment has once again win last elections, Quebec was the only province to massively vote against them.

I know that most Canadians do care about environmental cases according to many surveys, but apparently it just doesn't show up when comes the time to vote.

Some year ago, we we supposedly a country with a significant environmental leadership internationally. (the Chretien era)

I'm so shy to be canadian right now.