In Memoriam: Pierre Berton
Pierre Berton was a dear man, a recipient of the Order of Canada, a true national icon and a long-time member of the Council of Canadians’ Advisory Board. In fact, Pierre lent his support to the Council at the time of its formation. When I think of Pierre, and his commitment to Canada, the following passage from his Why We Act Like Canadians comes to mind:
"We are a nation of canoeists, and have been since the earliest days, paddling our way up the St. Lawrence, across the lakes, over the portages of the shield, west along the North Saskatchewan through the Yellowhead gap and thence southwest by the Columbia and Fraser rivers to the sea. When someone asks you how Canada could exist as a horizontal country with its plains and mountains running vertically, tell him about the paddlers."
ABOLITIONNOW.ORG
Some terrific work is being done by the Abolition Now Campaign. The Mayors for Peace Emergency Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons, led by the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is enrolling mayors across the globe to come to the May 2-4, 2005 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference at the United Nations in New York City. The Mayors for Peace Campaign is proposing negotiations for a treaty to eliminate nucelar weapons, with global nuclear disarmament implemented no later than 2020. Canadian mayors that are participating include the mayors of Burnaby, Grand Forks, Kamloops, Terrace, Vancouver, Powell River, Toronto, Ottawa, Smith-Ennismore-Lakefield, Montreal, Lethbridge, Edmonton, and Winnipeg. I encourage you to visit their website at www.abolitionnow.org.
The Subanon Struggle
My colleague Victoria Tauli Corpuz of the Indigenous Peoples' International Centre for Policy Research and Education in the Philippines recently contacted me. She wrote, “Our indigenous friends in the south of the Philippines, who are called the Subanons, have long been beset with a problem brought by Toronto Ventures, Inc. (TVI). Since 1994, TVI has applied for a permit to mine their area, but there has been consistent resistance from the Subanon. This place called Canatuan, Siocon, is their sacred mountain and the government has given the Subanons a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title in recognition of their possession of this land.
Unfortunately, TVI has the full support of the Canadian government. The Subanons are in the middle of one of the last remaining rainforests in that region and there is a valley below which is just beside the sea where rice production is very good. The mining company is not yet into full-scale operations but the devastation they are already causing in the community and the valley below is tremendous. Now the farmers and fisherfolk are the ones suffering aside from the indigenous peoples.”
If you would like more information, and a possible tour in Canada on this issue, I encourage you to go to www.tebtebba.org.
Child Poverty
My friends at the Feed the Lambs Child Advocacy Group in Nova Scotia are doing a wonderful job of reminding Canadians that the House of Commons passed a unanimous resolution in 1989 promising to eliminate child poverty by the year 2000. Well, that year has come and gone and the federal government still hasn't adequately addressed the fact that there are more than 1 million children living in poverty in Canada today. To find out more about the work of the Feed the Lambs Child Advocacy Group go to www.millionbrokenpromises.ca .
Best Wishes to Patricia Perdue
After working side by side with me for more than 10 years, Patricia Perdue, my wonderful assistant, retired from the Council at the end of October. Since she began with us, in February 1994, the Council has gone through truly amazing growth and change - in staff, board, chapters and membership. Throughout it all Patricia has remained a constant, experienced, ever-reliable and invaluable support to me and the Council. I want to thank Patricia for her tremendous work and to wish her the very best during a very well-deserved retirement. I am deeply indebted to this dynamic woman who has run my day-to-day life for so long.
Maude Barlow is the National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians.
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