Two Letters

#1

The Honourable Gary Doer
Premier of Manitoba
Legislative Assembly of Manitoba
450 Broadway
Winnipeg MB R3C 0V8

Dear Gary Doer,

My name is _. I am a _. I am writing to you today because industrial developments are advancing quickly into northern Manitoba, there is only a limited amount of time to safeguard the wilderness for future generations. Please do not waste any more time. On December 14th, 2006, six park reserves in Manitoba's spectacular north are expiring, leaving them vulnerable to intensive industrial activities such as clearcut logging and mining. Extending the park reserve designations for these areas now will allow time for the province to fulfill its obligation to work with local communities and the public toward permanent protection from ecologically harmful industrial developments.

Premier, please let me know if you will extend protection of Sturgeon Bay, Pemmican Island, Kinwow Bay, Goose Islands, Grand Island, and Pelican Islands park reserves until full and timely community and public consultations are complete. I would also like to know if you will grant the recent request from local First Nations for park reserve status for Cormorant Islands, a colonial bird nesting haven.

Sincerely,

#2

Rod Bruinooge
2855 Pembina Highway, Unit 27
Winnipeg MB R3T 2H5

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Dear Rod Bruinooge,

My name is _. I am a _. I am writing to you today because it is my conviction that the Canadian Government needs to legislate a national ban on the so-called Terminator gene technology to assure the people of Canada, particularly farmers, that Terminator will never be field tested or commercialized. A national ban is the only way to stop corrupt companies like Monsanto and Syngenta from trying to commercialize Terminator seeds in Canada. Brazil and India have both banned Terminator to protect farmers.

Terminator is an immoral, anti-farmer technology. The only purpose of Terminator is to genetically engineer seeds to make them sterile so that farmers cannot save and replant them. Because the top 10 seed companies in the world own half of the global market, companies have an immense amount of control and could incorporate Terminator into all of their seeds. Genetic seed sterilization would secure a much stronger corporate monopoly for corporations than patents — instead of suing farmers for saving seed, companies would make it biologically impossible for farmers to re-use their harvested seed.

There will always be a risk of contamination with Terminator as the pollen from Terminator plants in the first generation can spread Terminator genes to other plants. Farmers might unknowingly save and reuse seeds that are contaminated with Terminator genes and will not germinate. This would result in unexpected yield loses and farmers could lose trust in their own seed stocks. This could also happen if imported grain contains Terminator genes.

If Canada approves Terminator, it will open the door globally to Terminator and put farmers in other countries at risk. In this respect, the Government of Canada may put the entire global food supply in jeopardy.

Because Terminator offers no benefits to farmers, companies are now trying to promote Terminator by arguing that the technology could be used to stop genetic contamination. Escaped genes from genetically engineered plants are causing contamination and pose threats to agricultural biodiversity and the livelihoods of farmers. For example, Saskatchewan organic canola farmers are suing Monsanto and Bayer for GE contamination (www.saskorganic.com/oapf). However, Terminator technology is a complex system involving multiple inserted genes that all work together in a sequence. Terminator would never work well enough to be used to stop contamination. The technology would need to be 100% effective in order to be used to stop genetic contamination – anything less would allow for dangerous contamination.

I need the government to legislate a ban, because powerful corporations will always try to introduce this technology since it would ensure their monopoly over the seed supply. A legislated national ban on Terminator is the only way to stop Monsanto, Syngenta and other corporations from eventually commercializing Terminator in Canada

Sincerely,

Paraquat

is an extremely toxic herbicide, it poisons tens of thousands of people every year. It is manufactured by the world’s largest pesticide company, Swiss multinational Syngenta. There is no antidote for this dangerous pesticide, yet it is marketed in 100 countries and used in large quantities particularly by farmers in the Southern Hemisphere. Swiss NGO Berne Declaration is holding a virtual “People’s Vote” on Syngenta’s practices and asking for your participation. PAN groups and many others are collaborating in the broad public campaign to bring public attention to Syngenta’s inhuman business policies. Please join me in demanding that Syngenta take responsibility for the devastating health impacts of this highly hazardous pesticide and stop production now. Visit http://www.stop-paraquat.net to read the case against Syngenta and register your verdict of Guilty for Syngenta. Paraquat is one of the world's most controversial herbicides. Not approved for use in Switzerland since 1990 because of the risks associated with it, the poison is increasingly used in countries of in the Southern Hemisphere by plantation workers and small farmers to kill weeds. Thousands of people are poisoned every year because they lack protective equipment and clothing or have insufficient information about paraquat. Thousands die a painful accidental death or commit suicide using this pesticide. The campaign against Syngenta’s irresponsible production and marketing of paraquat needs the support of at least 50,000 people by the end of the year, in order to garner a groundswell that would equal a public referendum on this matter.The Berne Declaration is an independent Swiss non-profit group managing the public proceeding against Syngenta in conjunction with AN Asia Pacific, PAN UK and thirty-six other international environmental and human health organizations.

pm@pm.gc.ca

Dear Prime Minister Stephen Harper,

My name is Timothy Schwinghamer. I am a graduate student at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. I am writing to you today because - from what I have seen - it seems like the Government of Canada intends to stand by and do nothing to address the global climatological crisis. Canada's disregard for the Kyoto Protocol concerns me deeply, as it will likely make life impossible for much of the world. The impact of your inaction will visit disaster largely upon ecosystems including the people and nations least responsible for climatic crisis.

Your government must put a climate change plan into action in Canada. Canada ought to uphold the Kyoto Protocol and show the rest of the world that we do not want to be a contributor to the global climatic crisis. The federal government needs to regulate a reduction of pollution from heavy industry because this accounts for half of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.

If the government fears the economic repercussions of accepting Kyoto, then it must overlook (and not threaten with law or violence) such actions as the people in Canada must take to put an end to the industries that jeopardize their future, and the future of the biosphere.

Sincerely and respectfully,

Hon. Monte Solberg
Minister of Citizenship & Immigration
House of Commons
Ottawa ON K1A 0A6

Dear Minister Solberg,

Re: Hassan Raza family

I am a graduate student at the University of Manitoba. I think it is necessary for Canada to show more compassion towards refugees and uprooted people. The Canadian government ought to act with some compassion toward the Raza family who are in sanctuary at Crescent Fort Rouge United Church in Winnipeg.

Please meet with the leadership of the United Church to find an appropriate and friendly resolution this situation. Deportation to Pakistan is not in the best interests of the six Raza children. Their parents want a safe environment for them. The children speak English and know of Canada as their home. They have already made a positive contribution to the community and want to continue to do so.

Sincerely,

Judy Da Silva and Roberta Keesick,

Indigenous leaders of the Grassy Narrows First Nation, embarked on a week-long tour to share front-line stories from the Trans-Canada Highway blockade and the struggle to stop clear-cut logging on their traditional territory. Sponsored by RAN, the tour reached 450 people in six cities throughout Canada. Highlights included a keynote address by Judy Da Silva at a conference focused on collaborations between Indigenous groups and non-governmental organizations like RAN called "Re-envisioning Relationships," and the unfurling of a banner on the front steps of the Ontario legislature in Toronto.

View the pictures here: http://ga3.org/ct/Q1N23tK1uRhE/

Sign the petition

To welcome the few remaining Vietnamese boat people to Canada:

http://www.sosvietphi.org/

Pacifism

Belief in or advocacy of peaceful methods as feasible and desirable alternatives to war; (espousal or advocacy of) a group of doctrines which reject war and every form of violent action as a means of solving disputes, esp. in international affairs. Also: advocacy of a peaceful policy or rejection of war in a particular instance.

1902 Proc. 10th Universal Peace Congr. 74

“M. Emile Arnaud... Speaking at length, in French,..said:... The negative programme of Pacifism is anti-War-ism.”

1915 National Rev. Mar. 54

"The greatest war in history is now being fought in the cause of Pacifism."

1919 George Bernard Shaw
Heartbreak House, Great Catherine, and Playlets of the War p. xviii

“There was only one virtue, pugnacity: only one vice, pacifism. That is an essential condition of war.”

1935 Fellowship Mar. 3/1

“Pacifism does not renounce the struggle, but carries it on with the more effective weapons of non-violence.”

1941 Aldous Leonard Huxley
Letters 17 Nov. (1969) 470

"In war time, it would seem, psychological conditions are such that the application of pacifism to politics is for all practical purposes impossible."

1957 Alan John Percivale Taylor
Trouble Makers ii. 51

“Even Bright, who was sometimes nearer to pacifism, did not plead ‘that this country should remain without adequate and scientific means of defence’.”

1960 Otto Nathan and Heinz Norden
Einstein on Peace Introd. p. ix,

“He [sc. Einstein] himself once said that his pacifism was not derived from any intellectual theory but was based on his deepest antipathy to every kind of cruelty and hatred.”

1999 Dayton (Ohio) Daily News (Nexis) 23 July,

“He has stood for a pacifism toward Milosevic that has long been discredited by the latter's brutality and refusal to yield to anything but force.”