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Tip: Your message to SUST-MAR must be html-free. So, BEFORE you hit SEND, please go to your "Format" pull-down menu and select "Plain text." Thanks! ____________________________________________________________________________ ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2004 07:36:42 -0300 (ADT) From: Green Party of Canada - NS Section <gpcns@chebucto.ns.ca> To: Green Party of Canada - NS Section <gpcns@chebucto.ns.ca> Cc: van ferrier <van.ferrier@elf.mcgill.ca> Subject: Text of SPEECH, Jim Harris, national leader, GREEN PARTY,re OCEANS , DAY 2004, Fisherman's Cove,Eastern Passage,Halifax - 930AM June 7th text of speech - Jim Harris - Fisherman's Cove 930AM Monday June 7th re OCEANS DAY 2004 "Hello, and welcome to this truly beautiful spot. All around us, you see a small fishing village dependent on the ocean for its livihood. Behind me, you see the dramatic skyline of Halifax, the largest metropolitan centre in Atlantic Canada - expanding, dynamic, information-driven. I have asked you here to this spot, to highlight the central theme of the GREEN PARTY's platform - that when the economy of the natural world - all the ocean you see around us - is not surviving ; the economy of the human world - represented by the Big City behind me - will not survive. As you know, Canada has the largest ocean coastline in the entire world. So it is entirely fitting that the very idea of a world OCEANS DAY was first mooted here in this region, in this very city. The UN, at the RIO CONFERENCE in 1992, adopted the idea worldwide. Tomorrow, June 8th, will be the 12th OCEANS DAY. I am here, as a national party leader, to mark those celebrations,to thank the people of Halifax for coming up with the idea, and to help give the GREEN PARTY's assessment of the state of Canada's share of the world's oceans, circa 2004. Our National Shadow Critic for Oceans and the Fisheries, Martin Willison, our candidate in Halifax West, knows much more about the oceans than I will ever learn. But first, let me give you an overview of the GREEN PARTY's assessment. (A) There is a new kind of 'SERF' out on the Ocean - that's serf spelled S_E_R_F . The days of the individual family run fishing boat seems to be going the way of the family farm. Under-the-table, underhanded, so called 'TRUST AGREEMENTS' between desperate fisherman and greedy fish merchants must stop - a condition for retaining licenses must be to forbid this practise. Fishermen in places like Newfoundland lived under the thumb of Fish Merchants for too long in the past, to want to see that regime reinvented for the 21st century ! (B) So called 'Progress' in dragger methods simply means heavier trawls and doors now can smash their way through the rocky fish bottoms we once left alone. These rocky bottoms are the 'nursery' of baby fish - its a fact of Mother Nature that young fish LIKE rocky bottoms, as it allows them to hide from the bigger fish that want to eat them. Modern dragger methods are like 'eating our seed crop' . Geoff Regan and the DFO know this - they must stop 'dragging their own feet' and settle the Ecology Action Centres Court Case and move to protect -not destroy - our fish nurseries today, if we are to have big enough fish to catch for tomorrow. (C) Every schoolchild knows that the Codfish and the Sockeye Salmon are two of the most precious symbols of our Canadian culture - they are right up there with Wheat and the Beaver, the Mountie...and the Moose. Every scholchild knows that - but not DFO. Unless DFO listens to its own scientific advisors - these two precious symbols of Canada - the codfish and the sockeye salmon - might not even make it onto our country's endangered species list along with the whopping cranes - instead they might end up behind a glass case in some museum, along with the passenger pigeon. A sobering thought to conclude my remarks - I will now let Martin Willison, our national Shadow Critic for Oceans and Fisheries address specific questions..." for one-on-one interviews Chris Pare (514) 948-2545 chrispare@yahoo.ca local contact: Michael Marshall ( 902) 422-4968 cell 754-7840 gpcns@chebucto.ca ____________________________________________________________________________ Did a friend forward this to you? Join sust-mar yourself! Just send 'subscribe sust-mar' to mailto:majordomo@chebucto.ca
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