Coalition targets Tories on regulatory changes
Environmental groups, natives and unions join forces, call omnibus budget bill an attack on democracy as Conservatives counter- attack
Declaring democracy in Canada is at risk, scientist and activist David Suzuki helped launch a campaign Monday to fight a Tory omnibus bill opponents say weakens environmental protections.
The campaign — which encourages the public to speak out against Bill C- 38 — includes more than 500 environmental organizations, as well as union groups, some businesses and first nations, which represent millions of Canadians, say organizers.
In a symbolic gesture as part of the Black Out, Speak Out campaign, organizations such as the David Suzuki Foundation, Greenpeace, West Coast Environmental Law and the Sierra Club of Canada blacked out their websites for the day.
“We will not tolerate being silenced or shut out of this discussion,” said Suzuki, referring to major industrial developments that include Enbridge’s controversial $ 5.5- billion Northern Gateway oil pipeline from Alberta to B. C.
The federal Conservatives launched a counter- offensive on Monday, having nine cabinet ministers throughout Canada deliver a message that resource development is important to the country’s economy.
The environmental groups believe measures in Bill C- 38 are meant to silence opposition of major resource projects, particularly in the oil and mining sector.
“We want a return to civil society where people will come and be able to speak openly and freely, especially about the biggest development on the planet [ Alberta oilsands]. Surely this is a time to take some deep environmental considerations into this development,” Suzuki
We shall not be intimidated. We shall not be coerced by the Harper government’s drive- by smear campaigns that are being mounted by his cronies in big industry and big oil. GRAND CHIEF STEWART PHILLIP
UNION OF B. C. INDIAN CHIEFS
said at a launch at Vancouver’s Olympic Village.
Former federal Tory fisheries minister John Fraser also joined the campaign launch, as did Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B. C. Indian Chiefs and B. C. Government and Service Employees Union vice- president Lorene Oikawa.
Fraser noted Harper had opposed a similar Liberal omnibus bill when he was in opposition in 2004, and urged the public to put pressure on their Conservative MPs to speak out against Bill C- 38.
“[ Conservative members of parliament] won’t speak up unless the public gets behind them,” Fraser said.
The Conservatives have said they intend to push through the omnibus bill before parliament breaks for the summer.
Phillip called the omnibus bill an attack on democracy and a betrayal of indigenous rights, raising the spectre of highprofile native protests such as Oka in 1990 and Ipperwash in 1995 — both of which turned deadly.
“We shall not be intimidated,” he said. “We shall not be coerced by the Harper government’s drive- by smear campaigns that are being mounted by his cronies in big industry and big oil.”
The groups involved in the Black Out campaign are also encouraging the public to use social media to protest Bill C- 38, and sign a petition.
Earlier this year, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver wrote an open letter describing environmental groups as “radicals” and saying they opposed important major industrial projects.
As part of Bill C- 38, the Conservatives have set timelines on environmental assessment processes, limited protection of fish habitat and increased restrictions on the political activities of charities. The bill also provides $ 8 million to the Canada Revenue Agency for stepped- up audits of charities.
Oliver took the lead in Quebec on the Conservative counteroffensive and similar messages were delivered in Western Canada, including by Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan in B. C.
“Our natural resource industries — energy, mining and minerals processing and forest — account for more than 10 per cent of our gross domestic product and provide close to 800,000 jobs in Canada,” Oliver said at an event in Gatineau, Que. “Responsible resource development will ensure that our abundant natural resources are developed in a sustainable way for the benefit of all Canadians.”