Annual Daniel O’Hanley Memorial Lecture set for Oct. 28
This year’s guest speaker is David MacDonald
The Latin American Mission Program (LAMP) of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlottetown invites all Islanders to the 27th annual Daniel O’Hanley Memorial lecture on Sunday, Oct. 28, 2 p.m., at Our Lady of the Assumption Church Hall, 151 Stratford Rd., Stratford.
The lecture title is: If You Love This World: Climate Justice and Indigenous Wisdom, and the guest presenter is the David MacDonald, a native Islander, a United Church ordained minister, long-time politician, advocate for rights-based social and ecological justice and an advocate for indigenous rights.
This lecture is especially timely for two reasons. First the need for public policy alignment about global warming has become even more crucial as the fever persists for the unwise extraction of fossil fuels and the ill-advised building of pipelines. At the same time the voice of Indigenous people is raised in protest to this rapid expansion, both as a claim to their rights over the earth and its resources and their commitment to a protection of Mother Earth. Many people see that political grandstanding about remedial tactics such as various options for taxing carbon emissions is missing the point. Climate Justice demands that long term solutions must be found to promote alternative energy sources. Indigenous Wisdom demands that all decisions must be made on the basis of love for Mother Earth.
MacDonald has climate change credentials which go back to the late 1980s. After representing Egmont Riding for five terms as Member of Parliament, he was elected later as MP for Rosedale (1988–1993). In that term he chaired the first permanent House of Commons Standing Committee on the Environment. Atmospheric issues such as acid rain, ozone depletion and most of all, global warming and climate change were the central focus of its five-year mandate. Climate change became a political issue and resulted in a specific call for cuts to carbon emissions.
In November of 1998, he was appointed by the United Church of Canada as a Special Advisor to address widespread Canadian and church concerns arising from the tragic and troubling history of Indian Residential Schools.