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It is increasingly clear that the chilling effect of the bully-boy tactic of threatening all non-government groups and all charities with as yet unspecified “new sanctions” (promised at p, 205 of the 2012 budget) is working to silence critics. Where I would expect a phalanx of Executive Directors of the country’s major national conservation and environmental groups blasting back with one voice at the unravelling of decades of environmental protections, there has been a fairly small roar from only the bravest.  This is not intended as any criticism of my former colleagues. When you don’t know what the new rules will be, when you have an obligation to your organization to stay in the black and when money is scarce and threats abundant, it is hard to know how to respond.

Then there is ForestEthics.  Valerie Langer – she of the Kennedy Lake blockade, putting herself in a precarious position chained to a log suspended out over open space, then rallying thousands to the burnt over clear-cuts of Clayoquot Sound over the summer of 1993 to halt the logging of the ancient coastal temperate rainforest, and she, my dear friend of many years – stood up bravely.  Valerie has been working with ForestEthics for years.  Far from the civil disobedience of the early 1990s, she and Forest Ethics had pioneered in market based campaigns, tackling catalogue giant Victoria’s Secret and developing a local economy through toy building with Heiltsuk First Nation.

ForestEthics had found ways to find consensus with the forest industry at the board room tables.  ForestEthics is too effective for the Harper regime. Clayton Ruby has agreed to head up ForestEthics Advocacy – a new organization that will not seek any charitable dollars for its work.  Ruby declared “what we need now is more advocacy for the environment, not less advocacy for the environment.  We need more speech, not less speech.”

The announcement was barely made before the spin doctors of the Prime Minister’s Office issued the following “Info Alert”:

From: Alerte-Info-Alert [mailto:Alerte-Info-Alert@pmo-cpm.gc.ca]
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 07:03 PM
To: Alerte-Info-Alert <Alerte-Info-Alert@pmo-cpm.gc.ca>
Subject: Legitimate Charities/Organismes caritatifs
 
Legitimate Charities

After all, legitimate organizations carrying out legitimate charitable activities would have no reason to do anything differently. From: Alerte-Info-Alert [mailto:Alerte-Info-Alert@pmo-cpm.gc.ca]

Right you are.  Only those with something to fear would be willing to stop being afraid.  Only people with something to hide will object to the warrant-less access to their email address and phone numbers and ISP information.  Right, only someone who is doing wrong will object to mandatory minimum sentences or pre-emptive arrest.

And when a conservation group, unsure how to speak in this Brave New World where the 10% legal advocacy by charities leads to endless harassment with threats of loss of charitable status, decides to voluntarily relinquish its charitable status, it will stand condemned by the PMO. 

This is my country. The actions of this PMO belong in some other county.  Maybe one described by George Orwell where an “Info Alert” could be a tool of propaganda and smear. This PMO spends more on “information officers” than any previous PMO.  Talk about abuse of taxpayers’ dollars; this bunch spends $10 million/year in shadowy political operatives and “Info Alerts.”   This PMO does not belong in Canada.

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As Executive Director of Sierra Club of Canada, I continued to be engaged in many British Columbia conservation campaigns, from Clayoquot Sound to Great Bear Rainforest. Our yearly progress reports, the ‘Rio Report Card,’ allowed me to track and write about the struggle to meet Canada’s international commitments to protect threatened ecosystems.

For at least the last dozen years or so, the work to create the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve has been so very encouraging. Creating a national park in the southern regions of Canada is the most uphill of struggles. Lands are already committed and tied up in different private ownership. Resource allocations have been made. Yet, the threats to habitat are most severe. Creating a national park in the Gulf Islands has presented more than its fair share of challenges.

Our area is within the Garry oak ecosystem, with more endangered species than nearly anywhere else in Canada. In the area, less than 5% of the habitat remains in anything like a natural state. The Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team has been established out of a community-based concern for the recovery of these ecosystems and is able to work within Species at Risk Act provisions to develop policies and programmes to keep the over one hundred endangered species on our area from becoming extinct.

The Garry Oak ecosystem is about far more than the Garry Oak. Species associated with this ecosystem include everything from the Marbled Murrelet to the Golden Paintbrush to Orca whales. And all of those species face threats to their survival. One key component of keeping these species from slipping over the brink to extinction is the existence of the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve.

Despite the fact that we see Parks Canada facilities scattered through the Islands and see the park described and mapped while we travel on the ferries, the park is still not formally established under the Canada National Parks Act. Although it was announced as established in 2003, a number of legal steps are still incomplete. The key factor has been to remove all encumbrances on a large number of separate properties. Much great work has been done. Through a non-coercive process, key lands have been drawn into the park. Much of this is due to the cooperation of the provincial government. The federal government has been able to buy lands to expand the reach of national park status and protection. All told, the park protects about 35 square kilometres of precious habitat.

Meanwhile, some critical issues need to be resolved with First Nations. The designation ‘reserve’ connotes that the establishment of the park does not extinguish aboriginal title. Nevertheless, the proper recognition of First Nations’ traditional use and occupation requires a very high order of meaningful consultation—especially in this case where nineteen First Nations exert some level of claim.

Marine Component

The largest job requiring some new energy and concerted political will is to link all the land-based parts of the park within a marine park. That process has been moving along (or not moving at all) on a parallel track. The creation of a complete network in all 29 marine regions of Canada takes place through the National Marine Conservation Area (NMCA) process. It is, in every region of Canada, woefully behind schedule.

The proposal for the Gulf Islands area is called the Southern Strait of Georgia NMCA and it is currently stuck in what may be the world’s longest feasibility study. The memorandum of understanding between the British Columbia government and the federal government in 2003 launched this process. If you check the website for Parks Canada, you will see the feasibility study is described as underway and likely to take several years. The end point is still identified as ‘sometime in late 2008.’

The beauty of a marine park component linking the scattered bits of protection on Saturna, Mayne, Pender and smaller unpopulated islands is that it would protect key habitat. The levels of protection by law are not particularly onerous. All that is legally forbidden would be off-shore mineral exploration and development. In other words, it does not interrupt the ferries, commercial vessels, nor does it automatically create ‘no take’ fishery zones.

What it would do would be to shift consciousness about the richness of our marine biodiversity. That shift in awareness is being advanced by the newly opened Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre in Sidney. It offers a brilliant array of exhibits to inform and inspire. (If you have not yet visited, make a point of doing so next time you are in the area. About ten minutes from Swartz Bay, next door to the Pier Hotel in Sidney, it is a must, especially if you can bring along children or grandchildren.) Awareness is also being advanced by the move to rename our offshore areas the ‘Salish Sea,’ providing a unity to our mental map and imagining of our home territory. Let’s move to have our marine park created soon. Why not re-name it the Salish Sea NMCA?

It is time for residents of the Saanich-Gulf Islands to start asking some pointed questions. When will we see real progress on the marine component of the Gulf Islands national park reserve? What can we do to help?

Elizabeth E. May is leader of the Green Party of Canada, candidate in Saanich–Gulf Islands and Officer of the Order of Canada.

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