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Dear Sust-Mar list, Sept. 14 A recent letter-to-the-editor in our regional weekly newspaper (the Digby Courier) accuses people of loving to hate the Irving companies. The letter gave a couple members of the environmental group of which I am president the opportunity to write replies which get at the root of why we are active as environmentalists. I'd like to share my letter with you, below. I'd also like to share happy news. Several local activists, me included, feel things are changing in a great way. We no longer feel so alone with our concerns! For example, at recent DNR IRM (Dept. of Natural Resources Integrated Resource Management) information session events in Weymouth and Lawrencetown, people succeeded in getting the format of the events changed (so that notes would be taken, for instance) and we also succeeded in highlighting publicly how much work will need to be done to improve the DNR plan. In addition, people have been expressing their opposition like never before to forest spray programs. Kimberly Clark has apparently decided to stop spraying and we are hopeful this is only the beginning of the end of Vision-coated forests! all the best, Jan ********************************************************* Dear Editor, A letter in last week's paper asks why people love to hate Irving companies. As someone who has had strong criticisms of Irving practices, I would like to reply. I do not hate Irving companies. I am appalled by the practices of many companies, and often of our governments, and I work to change those practices. I am also appalled that so many people let the destruction of our forests and the rest of nature, upon which all life depends, continue. But I understand this apathy too, because not everyone can devote the huge amounts of time and energy that people like myself end up devoting to trying to build a better world. It is not easy to get to the truth; in this letter I would like to underline some facts that not everyone would have the time to ferret out. First of all, Irving is by no means the worst offender. Canadian gold mining companies (Galactic & Cambior) have been responsible for destroying rivers and the livelihoods of people living along these rivers in Colorado & Guyana.* (I plan never again to buy anything made of gold.) A Canadian Crown corporation, AECL, tries to unload CANDU reactors on governments with horrible human rights records at taxpayers' expense! CBC's Fifth Estate program revealed how Monsanto tried to bribe Health Canada officials to approve BGH use on dairy cows without any further testing. The list could go on! Regarding the biocide spray issue: Did you know that when companies such as Irving or Bowater Mersey (which is planning to spray more NS acreage than Irving this year) buy biocides such as Vision, they pay no HST? Worse yet, our Department of Natural Resources SUBSIDIZES these spray programs! (The Canadian military pays no GST either. I guess biocides and militarism are neither goods nor services - they are bad diservices!) More biocides are used in agriculture than in forestry so Enviro-Clare is addressing agricultural use as well. We will be holding a public meeting at the Oakdene Centre on Sept. 30 (or Oct. 1) with an expert on agricultural spray issues, Sharon Labchuk. Aaron Koleszar, a young activist who has gained international recognition, at least partly for his work on GMOs (or genetically modified organisms) will also be speaking. Please contact me (president of Enviro-Clare) at 837-4980 or <jslakov@tartannet.ns.ca> for more information. Sincerely, Jan Slakov, box 35, Weymouth, NS B0W 3T0 * thanks to Probe International for provinding this information. -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- The preceding message was posted on the Sustainable Maritimes mailing list (sust-mar). http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/lists/sust-mar -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Sponsors: Chebucto Community Net http://www.chebucto.ns.ca Sierra Club - Chebucto Group http://www.sierraclub.ca Volunteer moderator: Paul Falvo mailto:sust-mar-owner@chebucto.ns.ca To submit a message to sust-mar, please send it to: mailto:sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca PLEASE SEND MESSAGES TO SUST-MAR IN PLAIN TEXT ONLY MESSAGES CONTAINING HTML (MIME) CANNOT BE POSTED
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