Dear friends,
I hope you'll join me and the Council of Canadians again this year in building a better Canada and fairer world. Your actions and support made a very real difference last year, leading to major victories on water, climate and trade justice.
Members like you signed thousands of petitions, wrote letters to the editor, met with local officials, coordinated community actions, held peaceful demostrations, made generous donations and much more – all of which were crucial to making this important work possible. Thank you!
Looking forward, we have much work ahead of us and I hope I can count on you to renew your Council of Canadians membership in 2012. This year we will be working hard on the issues that matter to you: protecting our fresh water, strengthening public health care, fighting for climate justice and fair trade deals, defending democracy and the values that make us distinctly Canadian.
By renewing your membership:
-
You’ll help save the Great Lakes. We’ll work to have the Great Lakes declared a Commons, a public trust and protected bio-region. I’ll be on a national multi-city speaking tour to inform and mobilize the public to act before this great treasure is harmed beyond repair.
-
You’ll help defeat CETA. We’ll ramp up our campaign to deliver the message both here and in Europe that signing CETA means water privatization, unfettered tar sands expansion and environmental devastation, a massive sell-off of our public services, erosion of democratic rights – all in the name of boosting corporate profits.
-
You’ll help defend Canadian sovereignty and civil liberties. The Council was out front on this issue when news of yet another secretly negotiated perimeter security deal with the U.S. broke in December. With your support we'll keep the pressure on the Harper government and demand that the public and Parliament have a chance to see and debate the proposed deal given the serious threats it poses to our sovereignty and privacy.
-
You’ll save our freshwater lakes and rivers from destruction. You’ll be helping to sustain our legal challenge to have Schedule 2 revoked once and for all and keep all our lakes and rivers free from toxic mining waste.
-
You’ll help protect our environment and fight for climate justice. We’ll strengthen our national campaign to stop fracking, a dangerous shale gas extraction method that that poses serious risks to water and to people’s health. We’ll also demand a strengthening of the rules on oil and gas exploration and drilling in the Arctic and continue to pressure all governments to take meaningful action on climate change.
The work we do would simply not be possible without your continued financial support and commitment. As a membership-based organization we rely on the support of generous individuals like you to run our campaigns. We do our work without a penny of corporate or government funding. This financial independence allows us to take on multinational corporations – and the governments that cater to them – to ensure the values we believe in are protected for future generations.
Please take a moment today to renew your membership in the Council of Canadians for 2012.
Sincerely,
Maude Barlow
National Chairperson,
The
Council of Canadians
P.S. To renew your membership right now using our secure online form, click here. If you have any questions about your membership, please e-mail Member Services at inquiries@canadians.org or call us toll-free at 1-800-387-7177.
