StoryFest highlights fight for right to clean water, air
Everybody has the constitutional right to live in a clean environment, yes?No.
There are 110 countries where the right to live in a clean environment is protected by the constitution, but Canada is not one of them. Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms comes close, but the right is not spelled out in so many words.
Author Silver Donald Cameron and filmmaker Chris Beckett present a portrait of the global fight for the right to live in a clean environment in their award-winning documentary Green Rights: The Human Right to a Healthy World.
Cameron will be on hand to intro- duce the film when it opens Greenwood’s StoryFest in Hudson, Sept. 21. Tickets for the literary festival are on sale now.
Narrated and written by Cameron, the film focuses on courageous environmental work being done in Argentina, Ecuador, the Philippines and the Netherlands. Picture David and Goliath scenarios starring brave individuals who face off with governments and corporations and win. Air becomes cleaner and water clearer.
Cameron’s interest in environmental rights resulted in an online subscription series called The Green Interview — co-produced with Beckett — which featured in-depth interviews with “green warriors” from around the world. Theseries begat the documentary, which begat a book entitled Warrior Lawyers, which begat an online Green Rights course, open to all, offered by Cape Breton University. During a recent interview, Cameron said that one of the epiphanies he experienced over the course of his interactions with global environmental warriors was that so many of us mistakenly approach the environment as if it was something separate.
“We are the environment and the environment is us,” Cameron said. “You can’t survive if you can’t breath. No matter how much moneyyouhave.”
The film also turns the spotlight on work being done by green warriors in Canada. Opposition to fracking and oil pipeline expansion rages on. The Mi’kmaq of Pictou Landing in Nova Scotia continue to battle with a local pulp mill about the horrific contamination of Boat Harbour. And the David Suzuki Foundation has launched the Blue Dot campaign to galvanize Canadians coast to coast to push for the constitutional right to a healthy environment.
Cameron’s wife, author Marjorie Simmons, will also attend StoryFest to give a workshop on writing memoirs, Sept. 22. StoryFest highlights include:
Oct 4: Ken Dryden talks about his latest book Game Change.
Oct. 10: Montreal author Catherine McKenzie talks about her latest thriller The Good Liar.
Oct. 13: Author and senator David Adams Richards talks about his novel, Mary Cyr.
Oct. 17: Classical guitarist Liona Boyd talks about her memoir No Remedy for Love.
Oct. 19: Multi-award-winning novelist, poet and TV writer Zoe Whittall will discuss her latest novel The Best Kind of People.
Oct. 20: StoryFest for kids features bilingual storyteller Sylvain Rivard sharing Indigenous stories.
For ticket, festival pass and program details, visit www.greenwoodstoryfest.com.