Worst-Canadian-PM-ever Stephen Harper announces the creation of the Hunting and Angling Advisory Panel, which of course is heavily funded and supported by Canadian and American hunting and angling groups. This panel will act as an advisory body to the Environment Ministry.
Given the ongoing catastrophic tar sands crime-against-Nature, the "Environment Ministry" is already for all intents and purposes defunct and worthless. This leaves the hunters and anglers to run the show.
Thus, under the "leadership" of this right wing political puppet, the country slips deeper and deeper back into the Dark Ages, except, given today's high-tech capabilities, he has the power to rape Mother Earth more efficiently than ever before.
Young Johnny Canuck was brought up by very strict parents. They were well to do and their home backed on a river. So strict they were that when he was ten years old, for example, he thoughtlessly threw a candy wrapper out the car window; they pulled the car off the road and told him to walk back to pick it up, plus withheld his allowance for a week. When he was 21, he was on his motorcycle when he saw an empty potato chips bag fly out the window of the car ahead. He stopped his bike, picked up the bag, caught up with the car at a red light, put the bike on its kick-stand, walked to the car with the bag in his hand, knocked on the driver's window and, when it was lowered, he handed the bag to the driver, saying, "Excuse me, but I think you dropped something." The driver said a meek "thank you", and slunk away under the speed limit. He followed the car for a mile before returning to his original route. For the rest of the ride, he silently thanked his parents for his social conscience and manifest forthrightness. But then, one day, he returned home from a trip a week early, and found his father's crew dumping barrels of oily liquid into the river. The first thing he said to them was not "Hello", not "How've you been?", but "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING??!!" Truth be told, in doing so, they saved $1 million in hazardous material disposal fee. Johnny said good bye, and brought with him only one thing: his social conscience.
Since my physics student days I've been many things: mineral explorer, realtor, environmental technologist, environmentalist, animal rights activist and author, among others, from whose viewpoints I've seen many things. I would like to pull three items from the list to make a point. They are: mineral explorer, environmental technologist and environmentalist.
When I was a university student, with some background in physics and geology, I used to work full summers in the deep Canadian bush. I could have worked as a waiter in some plum restaurant in the city, but I preferred the great outdoors, helicopter access only, complete with back-breaking work for 4 months straight without seeing a single woman (or a divorced one haha), when even bears began to look sexy, and high risks of bear attacks. What I was engaged in was mineral exploration as a geo-chemistry and geo-physics technician. What I was exploring for was the precious metals that make some people crazy, from copper and nickel up to molybdenum and especially gold. I would first conduct a geochemical survey of stream and river sediment of an entire watershed in terms of parts per million (ppm) in metallic content. The resulting map would lead me to the source of the metallic presence in these soils - the ore body, if any, which had been slowly leaching into the watershed by natural means through the eons. Then, I would perform a geophysical survey on the grid I would establish over the ore-body, involving the use of land and aerial magnetometers, tests of ground conductance and impedance, etc., to 3D-determine its shape, size and exact location. If head office considers the ore body worth mining, it would then send in a diamond-drill crew to take core samples in the grid to set physical parameters to the eventual mine. As of this points, things were out of my hands, and out of mind.
Some years later, by some turn of fate, I became an ecological technologist working for an environmental laboratory. The main activity of the lab was to analyse pollutant levels in industrial waste including the discharges from mines and pulp mills, the former in terms of metallic content and cyanide, and the latter mostly of organic content including organo-chlorines (OCs), PolyAmoratic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), and dioxins and furrans (the most powerful carcinogens in the world), by means of instruments as advanced as Gas Chromatographs (GCs) and Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometers (GCMSs), down to the parts per billion (ppb) level. The results were compared against a government-issued list of Maximum Allowable Concentrations (MACs) of individual pollutants. Any reading exceeding the MAC could lead to government imposed penalties, crack downs or, in extreme cases, closing of the mine or mill. Our clients included both industry and government, the former to monitor their own discharges, and the latter to monitor them. It was a no-nonsense system for which I had high regard. The company also produced water purification systems employing Reverse Osmosis (RO), which could service hospitals, industries, communities, even entire armies. It was a great job for a great company of a great industry.
It was seen as a misfortune at the time, but there came a corporate merger which eliminated half of the mid-level personnel, me included. In retrospect, it was a blessing in disguise, because it allowed me to become an unrestrained environmentalist.
And now, as I gaze upon the picture of one of the tailing "ponds" of one of the tar sands mines which I personally took in my 3-hour flight over the tar sands,...
... and watch again and again the 50-minute video of the flight I have posted in YouTube,...
https://vimeo.com/39298276
... and seeing how devastating the environmental damage to Alberta is, and how astronomical the pollutant levels are, and how a real environmental assessment of the entire tar sands development has never been done, and how weak the government-without-a-conscience could get, and how powerful the sociopathic corporations are, and now their threat of huge environmental risks to British Columbia by pushing more spill-prone pipelines through the BC mountains and valleys, and more Exxon-Valdezian supertankers into BC waters, again without a real environmental assessment ever having been done, and the "neutral" position the BC government is taking,...
... I cannot help but shake my head in disbelief, and wonder what the hell has happened to the Canadian, Albertan and British Columbian "environmental" ministries.
And what happens to Johnny Canuck? It depends on how like his father he is going to be.
Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org
The Alberta tar sands and their potentially catastrophic impact on the global climate taken as understood, and referring only to British Columbia: as the name "Spills Inevitable" indicates, given pipelines and tankers, there will be spills. It is not if but when, not just probable but inevitable. It has happened many times before and will happen again, and we won't have to wait for long.
Pipeline catastrophes by Enbridge alone, over only the last decade, how about this?:
2001 - Alberta, Canada - 1,003,800 gallons
2002 - Minnesota, USA - 252,000 gal
2003 - Wisconsin, USA - 189,000 gal
2007 - N. Dakota, USA - 9,030 gal
2007 - Wisconsin, USA - 176,000 gal
2009 - Alberta, Canada - 168,000 gal
2010 - N. Dakota, USA - 126,000 gal
2010 - Michigan, USA - 877,000 gal
2011 - NWT, Canada - 63,000 gal
For a sense of scale, the Michigan spill could fill 1.5 Olympic sized swimming pools.
Worse for a tar-sands-crude spill is that, unlike normal crude, the "dilbit" (diluted bitumen) is heavier than water, and therefore will sink to the bottom of creeks, rivers, lakes, seas and oceans, there to poison the entire ecosystem for years to come, in larger cases, for decades if not centuries. They cannot be contained with booms. They cannot be cleaned up without further major damage being done. And their volatile components, such as benzene and PAHs, all carcinogenic, will poison the air around the spill site for miles around. If a spill occurs near a major city, entire city-sectors would have to be evacuated. Take the Kalamazoo spill in Michigan again, even after 2 years and millions of dollars spent, 35 miles of the Kalamazoo River remains a poisonous dead zone.
Likewise for a tanker spill of dilbit into BC waters. Too bad we cannot ask the ex-mayor in Alaska who committed suicide over the Exxon Valdez "spill" of over 11 million gallon (over 19 Olympic-sized swimming pools' worth). The clean-up cost for a major "accident" in or near Vancouver Harbour will amount to $40 Billion (with a "B") or more. The horrific environmental damage notwithstanding, who will pay this bill? Hint: Enbridge takes little responsibility for a spill on land, and zero responsibility for a tanker spill.
The only acceptable outcome is NO SPILL, and the only way to ensure no spill is NO PIPELINES and NO TANKERS.
This Initiative will ask BC voters three questions, on whether they want more Kinder Morgan pipelines in BC, whether they want the Enbridge Northern Pipeline in BC at all, and whether they want more tanker traffic in southern BC and any tanker traffic in northern BC waters at all.
Cast a handful of sand at a glass barrier, or a rock: which will break through is plain to see. This province-wide Initiative is the rock that can break the federal and corporate tyrrany.
According the [Recall and Initiative Act] of Elections BC:
The project, if it goes all the way, will have two main phases: the Initiative Petition and the Initiative Vote.
In the Initiative Petition phase, the Proponent forces are required to collect the certified signatures of at least 10% of the registered voters in each and every one of the 85 electoral districts in the province, with no exception, within a predetermined 90-day period. If 84 electoral districts turned in 15%, and just one turned in 9.9%, the whole Initiative Petition fails. In contrast, WA and OR require only 5% from anywhere in the state, and at that to be collected in 150 days. Obviously, extra diligence and support are required for the success of a BC Initiative, but this is not all.
Elections BC specifies that there should be just one "Proponent", singular, who has to be a BC voter, an individual, i.e. not a group or organization, whereas the "Opponents", plural, can be an alliance or coalition of any number of individuals, groups and organizations. Aside from the blatant inequality, no doubt, the Opponent-forces will have millions of oil-dollars at their disposal.
When the project is ready for launch, the Proponent will submit the application, containing a draft bill, to Elections BC. Upon finalization of the wording in the draft bill, Elections BC will publish a notice in The Gazette, at which point the official clock will start ticking - on the Proponent. Not until then will he receive the formal volunteer canvasser sign-up sheets from Elections BC. He will have the ensuing 60 days to formally sign up the 7000+ volunteers needed to collect all the required signatures in all the 85 electoral districts.
This 60-day Volunteer-Sign-Up Period will be immediately followed by the 90-day Initiative-Petition-Signature-Gathering Period, and not until then will he receive the Initiative Petition forms - one distinct set for each electoral district. In contrast WA and OR use just one standard Petition form for the entire state.
The time frame for this "Spills-Inevitable" Initiative has been set as follows:
November 1 to December 31, 2012 - the 60-day Volunteer-Sign-Up Period,
January 1 to march 31, 2013 - the 90-day Initiative-Petition-Signature-Gathering Period.
If we make the signature quota, we will move on to the Initiative Vote phase in 2014, to prepare for which the momentum of the public outreach will be maintained throughout, to maximize on the public awareness of the truth, and opposition to pipelines and tankers in BC.
Presumably, the Opponents will attempt to do the same, but with lies, but in the end, truth will set us free.
When one moves into a rental house, one has to first pay a damage deposit. Now, before laying one foot (for Enbridge) or one more foot (for Kinder Morgan) of tar-sands-crude-conveying pipeline in British Columbia, where is their damage deposit?
And for how much? For a spill in Vancouver harbour, Rex Wyler estimates a damage in excess of $40 Billion (with a "B"). For a spill in northern BC? Ask the people in Alaska about the Exxon Valdez spill. The mayor there committed suicide. But would the CEO of Enbridge or Kinder Morgan commit suicide over a spill? Would somebody commit suicide while laughing all the way to the bank?
Plus, a "landlord" has the right to refuse any potential "tenant" for planning to store HazMat (hazardous material) on the property, much less traffick in it through the property. So, do we even want their deposit? We say: HELL NO! JUST STAY OUT!!
Note: A tar sands crude spill is different from a normal oil spill in that tar sands crude is heavier than water, and sinks to the bottom of affected rivers, lakes, seas and oceans, while its volatile components, like benzene and PAHs simply evaporate into the surrounding areas, affecting air quality for miles around. The damaged done to the affected areas can be considered semi-permanent on the human time-scale.
From Wikipedia: "The Enbridge or Talmadge Creek oil spill is a spill caused by a rupture in Enbridge Energy pipeline line 6B at 09:45 on 26 July 2010, in Calhoun County, Michigan, that leaked 877,000 US gallons (3,320 m3) of oil sands crude[1] into Talmadge Creek that flows into the Kalamazoo River.[2][3][4] The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) later estimated the spill to be in excess of 1 million US gallons (3,800 m3).[5] On 29 July 2010, the Calhoun County Health Department asked 30 to 50 households to evacuate, and twice as many were advised not to drink their water.[6] / The oil was contained to a 25-mile (40 km) stretch of the Kalamazoo River as several hundred workers took part in the cleanup.[7] Regional EPA Director Susan Hedman estimates that it will take weeks to remove the bulk of the oil from the river, several months to clear oil from the flood plains, and several more months to clean the oil out of the marsh where the spill originated. However, a year later, a 35 mile stretch of the river remains closed.[1] Originally estimated at $5 million,[8] by September 2011, cleanup costs passed $585 million and are expected to rise by 20 percent more.[1]"
Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org
206-259-9679
In 1996, Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC) founder Paul George launched a citizen initiative on banning bear hunting in British Columbia. Those active in BC at the time may recall lead campaigner Anthony Marr driving around the province, holding meetings with local groups, giving townhall presentations, and confronted by hoards of "sport" and trophy hunters at every turn (e.g. 65 in Port Alberni, 130 in Prince George). Paul recalls in his book [Big Trees, Not Big Stumps], "Anthony's blunt and unflappable style infuriated the opposition."
For a blow-by-blow account and newspaper coverage of one of the major confrontations, please see:
http://dearhomosapiens.blogspot.ca/2011/05/part-ii-bear-referendum-ch-21-biggest.html
But the hotter the conflict, the hotter the media news. In all, the campaign generated some 250 local, national and international newspaper articles plus hours of radio debates and television interviews, and over 1700 volunteers. Best of all, it unified the dissociated animal advocacy and environmental groups scattered around the province, and the First Nations, into a single, coordinated fighting force that the trophy hunters found formidable. "United we stand." and "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." could not have been more true as in this case. And in the end, though the Initiative Petition fell short in several electoral districts, the project was hailed as the greatest public outreach campaign on "sport" and trophy hunting ever, and described by the Canadian national newspaper the Globe and Mail as "the highest profile animal advocacy campaign of the year in Canada".
Subsequently, Anthony did receive facial injuries due to a fist attack, but the campaign won a 3-year Grizzly bear hunting moratorium from the NDP (New Democratic Party) government (which unfortunately was overturned by the succeeding Liberal government).
Now, in 2012, the top global issue has become global warming (Paul George published a paper on climate change as early as 1997), the top Canadian issue is the Alberta tar sands, and the top issue in the British Columbia province is the evil trio of the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipelines, expanding Kinder Morgan pipelines and intensified oil tanker traffic in BC waters.
And we are launching a similar province-wide Citizen Initiative "referendum" in British Columbia on these issues, which will ask the public to vote on:
1. whether they want or do not want the planned Enbridge pipeline to be built,
2. whether they want or do not want the existing Kinder Morgan pipeline to be expanded, and
3. whether they want intensified oil tanker traffic in southern BC waters (associated with the Kinder Morgan pipelines), and any oil tanker traffic at all in northern BC waters (associated with the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline).
The exact wording to be determined by our legal team.
This coming summer, Anthony Marr will be going on the road again towards building an anti-pipeline and anti-tanker volunteer force 7000+ strong, this time to confront and be confronted by pipeline advocates, tanker aficionados, Enbridge and Kinder Morgan thugs, eco-carcinogen pushers and even Big Oil itself. When he comes to your city, please give him your support.
This new citizen initiative will be formally launched in the fall, but already, we have received the blessing and actual support from the highly successful 2010 Fight-HST Initiative, which did build a volunteer team over 7000 strong, some of whom have come on board.
How would these two Initiatives compare? We believe that the pipeline/tanker issue could be every bit as hot now as the HST issue was back then, if not even more so. If your group is recipient of this preliminary announcement, you are invited to join this magnificent quest at the foundational stage. We are in process of forming a Central Committee, and specialized talents are sought, including perhaps yours. Now, for example, we are in need of a volunteer web designer.
The organizers of this Initiative honour the work already done by the core groups on these issues, and welcome them into the core of this campaign. At the same time, this campaign should in no way undermine the ongoing campaigns of these core groups, but instead could act as a vehicle to assist and promote them.
We especially honour the heroic resistance by the First Nations of British Columbia, who have stood steadfast and resolute, and united, against the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipelines (2). It has set a tone of righteousness and defiance in the face of temptation and brute force. We aim to join forces with the First Nations in our common fight in defence of Mother Earth.
The rules of engagement according the Recall and Initiative Act of Elections BC are as follows:
The project, if it goes all the way, will have two main phases: the Initiative Petition phase and the Initiative Vote phase.
The purpose of the Initiative Petition is to show Elections BC that there is sufficient interest on the issues in question - as if it is not overly evident already. But rules are rules, and we have to follow them to get what we want. So we will follow them to get what we want.
The rules in British Columbia are much tougher than those in, say, Washington or Oregon or California. BC requires the certified signatures, collected by certified volunteers "canvassers", of at least 10% of the registered voters in each and every one of the 85 electoral districts in the province, without a single exception. If 84 electoral districts turned in 15%, and just one turned in 9.9%, the whole Initiative Petition fails, which was how we "failed" the last time. In contrast, Washington and Oregon required only 5%, and at that they can be collected from anywhere within the state.
Signatures-wise, while WA and OR allowed 150 days to collect their 5% signatures, BC allows only 90 days for its 10%.
WA and OR issue only one petition form applicable to the entire state, whereas in BC, each electoral district has its own distinct petition form, and only one distinct form of a certain electoral district is issued to a volunteer from that district.
Elections BC specifies that there should be just one "Proponent", singular, who has to be a BC voter, an individual, i.e. not a group or organization, whereas the "Opponents", plural, can be an alliance or coalition of any number of individuals, groups and organizations. Aside from the blatant inequality, no doubt, pro-pipeline agents, tanker tycoons and oil companies CEOs will be in the mix.
But funding-wise, both sides have the same ceiling, amount to be determined. In any case, the Opponents will be flooded with oil-money while the Proponent will be on a wing and a prayer. So, please be generous with your donation. This is our only chance.
See Anthony Marr's 3 hour flight over the tar sands in 50 minutes:
https://vimeo.com/39298276
When the project is ready for launch, the Proponent will submit the application, including a draft bill towards banning more pipelines and tankers in BC, to be drawn up by the Proponent's volunteer attorney. Elections BC will have its own legal team analyse the draft bill, and, after the changes have been made to mutual satisfaction, if any, Elections BC will publish a notice in the government paper The Gazette, at which point the clock will start ticking - on the Proponent. Not until then will he/she receive the formal volunteer canvasser sign-up sheets from Elections BC. He/she will have the ensuing 60 days to formally sign up the volunteers.
This 60-day Volunteer-Canvasser Sign-Up Period will be immediately followed by the 90-day Initiative Petition Signature-Gathering Period. So, any time-adjustment means shifting an entire 5-month block.
From now until the commencement of the 60-day Volunteer-Canvasser Sign-Up Period, we will be networking for participation and potential volunteers. Anthony will also be travelling around the province holding meetings with local activists and groups, giving public presentations and holding media events towards raising public awareness on both the issues and the actions ahead.
If we make the signature quota, we will move on to the Initiative Vote phase in 2014, to prepare for which the momentum of the public outreach will be maintained throughout. With due diligence, by the time the vote occurs, the public will be extremely well informed, and anti-pipeline and anti-tanker poll numbers will dramatically rise from the current slim majority. Mind you, the Opponents will attempt to do the same, except with lies. But truth will set us free.
In regards to the timing, we have consulted many individuals and groups, as well as First Nations, and, with only two or three exceptions, "ASAP" is the common acronym. One of those opposed to the project as planned says that it should be held AFTER the provincial election on May 14, 2013, not BEFORE. No one we have talked to concurred with this view. On the contrary, we believe that this project if held BEFORE the election will raise the profile of the issue to make it an election issue, and later will hold the winning party to task and responsibility. Of course, any party holding an anti-pipeline and anti-tanker position will receive our support and benefit from our outreach effort.
Christmas is a problem, but could also be an opportunity, and the time frame has to fit accordingly. In a way, December is good, because the malls will be filled with shoppers, and our mall booths will be heavily visited, especially when the shoppers will have learned beforehand all about the issues from the media we will have generated from the months prior.
Enbridge's ruptured pipeline spilled 4 million litres of oil into Michigan's Kalamazoo River in 2010
As preliminarily set at this point, the 60 day Volunteer-Canvasser Sign-up Period will run from November 1 to December 31, and the Initiative Petition Signature-Gathering period will run from January 1 to March 31. Therefore, we in fact have more than 7 months to amass the 7000+ volunteers - if we start now.
Obviously, this project cannot succeed without the support and participation of concerned individuals and environmental groups in every electoral district across the province. This blog is to first inform, then appeal for your support and participation - basically, no participation, no project. So please, "if you feel like we do" (Peter Frampton :), contact us now and be a part of this Possible Dream from its beginning.
Please contact:
http://youtu.be/FjOZg6J_4K8
Anthony Marr receiving the prestigious Henry Spira Grassroots Activist Award at the 2010 Animal Rights National Conference (www.ARConference.org - ~1000 participants) in Washington DC.
Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
"This is a fight we've been looking for," Canadian federal New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Thomas Mulcair said in an interview on Global TV today. "We see this as a defining element of the next election campaign in Canada."
Mulcair openly, decisively and, might I add, courageously, slams the tar sands (not "oil" sands, a term used by pro-oil pundits in vain-attempt to soften the blow, because oil flows and tar does not, and the tar in the sands is so... tarry... it does not flow) and the Conservative mismanagement thereof - which is to say, as far as I'm concerned, to mine it at all.
In response, pro-oil pundits as well as Conservative ministers promptly label it "anti-West", while they methodically rape the West directly from their armchairs in Ottawa.
Here is a true voice from the West - mine - and I am tell them that not only is Mr. Mulcair's stand PRO-WEST, it is pro-Canada, pro-environment, pro-planet, pro-future and pro-children. He is talking about the ecological integrity of the West versus the dirty-oil-politics in Ottawa at the expense of the West, especially British Columbia.
Some say that Mr. Mulcair's stand will drag down the currently high-flying BC NDP. Again, they cannot be more wrong, though it depends on the courage and wisdom of the provincial leadership. The BC NDP, as well as the city of Vancouver, have both voiced their own anti-pipeline and anti-tanker sentiments and policies. The federal NDP's anti-tar-sands stand simply completes the picture, and cements the NDP's pro-environment and pro-diversity principles. It is a mutual confirmation between the federal NDP and the BC provincial NDP, which should win the NDP even firmer support from the environmentally-conscious on both levels.
To the BC NDP, Mr. Mulcair's declaration of war on the tar sands is not the curse the NDP-demonizers in Ottawa would have it, but a blessing from the Centre.
Read it on Global News: Global News | Mulcair prepares for the long battle on oilsands
http://www.globalnews.ca/canada/oilsands/6442644945/story.html
Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org
As the Canadian Prime Minister should know, given his history of wheeling-dealing in seal furs and filthy oil, any good deal contains a guarantee. So, PM Stephen Harper, where's yours? If you can't give a guarantee that there will be no serious spills or major accidents of any kind, and REALly you canNOT, what kind of a bum deal do you have in mind to force down the throat of British Columbia which, believe it or not, unlike you, we British Columbians love?!
You have shown zero regard for your own home province Alberta, and the destruction is deliberate, so what do we expect?
Sorry, we British Columbians simply do not trust you - not your sincerity, not your integrity, and certainly not your leadership. Even if you don't deliberately try to ruin BC's ecology, remember, no one INTENDS to have an accident. But "shit happens", and that's the rule.
If you treat British Columbians in this fundamentally disrespectful manner, history will tells you that this is usually how secession and separatism movements begin. If you force this on BC, you will compromise the integrity of Canada, and that by definition is treason. Plus, "integrity" has more than one meaning.
"A quick survey of the European Maritime Accident Review finds that since 2005 there have been, in the heavily monitored and regulated waters around the European Union, no less than 2,721 major ships involved in 2,430 accidents defined as "sinkings, collisions, grounding, fires, explosions and other significant accidents." Of these, 106 accidents involved tankers running aground and 155 involved tanker collisions." - Stephen Hume, Vancouver Sun
I am writing to humbly request that the extradition order against Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society be relented, for the reason that Sea Shepherd stands with Germany to preserve the oceans and all sea life for our future generations, and against Costa Rica in its exploition at the expense of our children's children.
Costa Rica is among the top 6 exporters of shark fins (the others being Spain, UAE, Indonesia, Singapore and Taiwan). Half of the world's shark species are endangered and shark-finning is illegal and condemned around the world. Costa Rican shark-finning is therefore by and large a poaching activity. And therefore, Costa Rican fishery is itself in part illegal.
The actions of Sea shepherd in and around Costa Rica was right and just. And the children of Germany will stand to benefit some time in the future. To extradite Captain Watson to Costa Rica will taint the reputation of Germany in the eyes of animal advocates around the world, and win her very few cheers.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
URGENT! Please write to:
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger
Federal Minister of Justice
Deutscher Bundestag
Platz der Republik
11011 Berlin
Telephone 030 - 227 751 62
Fax 030 - 227 764 02
E-Mail: sabine.leutheusser-schnarrenberger@bundestag.de
Please comment on her facebookside: https://www.facebook.com/BMJustiz
Federal Ministry of Justice
Mohrenstrasse 37
10117 Berlin, Germany
Telephone: +49 (030) 18 580-0
Telefax: +49 (030) 18 580-9525
Dr. Guido Westerwelle
Minister of Foreign Affairs
FDP-Bundestagsfraktion
Platz der Republik 1
11011 Berlin
Tel.: 030 / 22771636
Fax: 030 / 22776562
E-Mail: guido.westerwelle@bundestag.de
Please comment on his facebookside: http://www.facebook.com/westerwelle?ref=ts
Bundespräsident Joachim Gauck:
E-Mail: bundespraesidialamt@bpra.bund.de
Since 2003, I have taken 7 long road tours called the Compassion for Animals Road Expeditions (CARE tours), always executed solo except for the 44-states-in-7-months CARE-1 tour (Sep 03 - Apr 04), which was conducted with vegan author Brenda Davis and her the 15 year-old son Cory Davis. No matter how long the route, and however heavy the schedule, and regardless of blown engines and dangerous weather, I have always finished a tour as planned. Except CARE-5 in 2008, which I did cut short, and that was for my mother.
First, let me say that she and I were very close. By the 2000s, my father had passed away (2000), she was already in her 80s and staying in a care home. Because of her ready smile and thankful attitude, she was the darling of the staff, but what she lived for was the once per 2-3 days visitations from me and my brother Matthew (since my sister Wendy was in Hong Kong and had sustained debilitating brain injury). So obviously, for me to be on the road for 5-7 months every year was hard for her, so much so that I always dreaded the day of my departure, when she would always cry. But never once did she say one word to try to dissuade me from my "travelling man's" way of life. On the contrary, she would give her blessing to me and the animals I had set out to save. So, every time I returned to Vancouver, our "mother-and-child-reunion" was extra sweet.
But in September 2008, when she was 89, I was in the US NE, Maryland as I recall, I received news from the care home that she was not doing well, in fact going downhill fast. The tour was scheduled to end in mid-November, and my first impulse was to finish it as planned, as always. But to a person, my friends urged to cut the tour short and go home. Still, I doggedly carried on with the tour until mid-October, cancelled several late-October events, and made a beeline for Vancouver, arriving home on Oct. 18. After crossing the US/CDN boarder, I drove straight for the care home, and was duly devastated to see how weak she had become. She did not have any life-threatening disease; she just ran out of gas. As of that day, for 3 weeks, I went to see her every day, until November 8, when she (1919-2008) passed away peacefully in her sleep. I saw her for the last time on November 7, and we did not even say good-bye.
Had I completed the tour before heading home, I would not have forgiven myself. So, I thank all my friends for their wise and caring counsel.
Let me do a little retro-story-telling. My ancestry was supposed to be northern Chinese, though I was born in Guang Dong, the southernmost province of China. The reason was that when Genghis Khan invaded China, destroyed the Sung Dynasty (960-1279) and established the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), the most enterprising and mobile of the northern Han Chinese moved south to continue the resistance, which made the "Southern people" the lowest in the Yuan's 8-tier hierarchy. After the Yuan Dynasty had been overthrown by the succeeding Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the northern Chinese who traveled south had taken root, and were there to stay.
Both sides of my family were accomplished and prosperous. My father's line was urban and government oriented. My father had a law degree, a rarity of the time, which placed him high in the Nationalist government. My mother's line was rural. Her father owned a small local bank, and her mother's side had an inland aquaculture business complete with irrigated fish ponds and motorized junks. I was born in 1944, the first male child of the family, and heir-apparent to inherit all these substantial edifices and profitable enterprises.
In 1937, Japan invaded China with unspeakable cruelty. Other than the notorious Nanking Massacre, the invaders went into the rural areas to sack villages for food, for blood, for pain, for screams, for lives, and for women. One day, a troop of Japanese soldiers entered my mother's village, and broke into the first house they sawed, where they did find a girl for the taking, a very plain girl, but a girl nonetheless. That girl's mother pulled the traitorous Chinese interpreter aside and told him that if they would spare her daughter, she would tell him where the most beautiful girl in the village was, and that was my mother. The traitor led the Japanese soldiers to my grandmother's house - without sparing the plain girl - but could not find my mother, because a couple of days prior, she, then age 19, had gone to Shanghai, on her own, to volunteer for the International Red Cross. Were she there to be captured, she would have become one of the thousands of "comfort women" - disposable sex slave, often killed after use. Had she not escaped that horrendous fate, I would not be here to write about it.
In 1949, the Communists overran China. Due to my father's high position in the old governmental, my entire family was slated for extermination, even 5 year-old me would be shot to forestall any possible future vengeance. My family escaped down the Pearl River under the cover of darkness in of one of my maternal grandmother's motorized junks. There too, if they were caught, there would be no prisoners. But they made it to the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong not far from the mouth of the Pearl River.
Due to the volume of refugees influx, residential space was at a premium. All we could find was a 3 bedroom suit on the fourth floor of a decrepit wood-frame row-building for our 15 member extended family. Since most of our wealth was in real estate, and since we couldn't take it with us, the prince became a pauper overnight.
My father, though highly capable and experienced, was illiterate in English - the official language of Hong Kong - which doomed him to a job unworthy of his education. So, he poured all his aspirations into his three children. He had wanted to start his own business, but he did not want to risk our education. He kept his 24/7/362 job and slaved away. It was not until I had entered university before he and my mother started their own company, and they were successful.
So here is a toast to you, Mom and Dad, wherever you are, whoever, whatever you have become. More next Father's and Mother's Day.
Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org
