March 12, 2020 (le francais suit)

OTTAWA – Green MP’s held a press conference today to denounce the growing trend to demonize Canadians taking part in non-violent civil disobedience for climate action. On the floor of the House of Commons recently, the Leader of the Official Opposition, Andrew Scheer, said: “These are radical groups, like Extinction Rebellion, an organization that has been listed as a terrorist organization in the United Kingdom.” (February 26, 2020)“In using words like ‘terrorist’, Mr. Scheer increases the risk to non-violent climate activists. It is completely untrue that the Extinction Rebellion has been listed as a terrorist organization anywhere,” said Parliamentary Green leader Elizabeth May (MP, Saanich-Gulf Islands). In fact, the UK’s senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism, deputy assistant commissioner Dean Haydon confirmed to The Guardian, ‘We do not consider them (Extinction Rebellion) to be a counter-terrorism risk.’”

“The truth is, as governments drag their feet in taking action to confront the climate emergency, more and more average citizens are deciding to put themselves at risk of arrest. Leading climate experts, such as Christiana Figueres, have identified non-violent civil disobedience as perhaps the most effective way to move governments.” “The rhetoric coming from Conservative provincial governments echoes the themes of polarization and demonization we hear daily in parliament,” added Jenica Atwin (MP Fredericton). “We need to focus on respectful discourse. We know that the fossil fuel industry must be phased out. We need to speak up for the impacted workers and share the necessity of action.” Similarly, Paul Manly (MP, Nanaimo-Ladysmith) decried Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s branding of legitimate protest as “left-green-urban-radicals” and “foreign funded activists.”

“The truth is the tens of millions of dollars that have been spent on climate propaganda come from foreign multinational fossil fuel companies. That foreign funding far outweighs relatively small grants given to conservation organizations in Canada,” said Mr. Manly

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And welcome to March.

We do have reason to celebrate on this Sunday Morning.

Seven days ago, on a very good Sunday evening, Teck Resources issued a public letter withdrawing its application to build one of the largest oil sands mines in Alberta’s history – the Teck Frontier project.

The Liberal Cabinet never made a decision. They lucked out and had the decision made for them. The howls of indignation from the Alberta government and Conservatives in Parliament took me aback. They actually blamed the Liberals for a business decision driven by the global price for oil. True, CEO Don Lindsay’s letter managed to suggest that the lack of certainty around climate policy contributed to the decisions. Some in the media managed to interpret his letter as either blaming Trudeau or blaming Kenney. No matter. The project went through its review process with a business case predicated on oil at $95/barrel. Demanding a permit for a project set to cause massive environmental damage and somewhere between 4 and 6 million tons of additional carbon dioxide emissions/year until 2066 was an act of astounding irresponsibility.

Still, Conservative MPs demanded – and got – an emergency debate in Parliament that ran until midnight Tuesday night.

I was given a speaking opportunity from 11:15- 11:45 PM. And I was grateful for it.

I began by agreeing that we were in an emergency – but not the “non-emergency” of Teck decision. I reminded parliament of our June 2019 vote for a motion that we are in a climate emergency. I closed with these words:

“This project was never going to go ahead, but the Liberals have lost their chance for moral courage. They lost the chance to say they would never have approved this. This was, in the words of some Liberal MPs, an easy ‘no.’

“For God’s sake, the Liberals need to stand for something while they have time in this place. They need to stand for future generations and put in place a climate target well before we get to Glasgow in November so that Canada can once again be in the lead. Canada as a climate leader is still possible to imagine.

“I listened to the embarrassing response from the Liberals that it really was not their fault that Teck Frontier did not go ahead. They should stand up and say that they would never have approved it. Then we can believe the Prime Minister might have a notion of being a climate leader.”

You can watch my whole speech here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXVIZAnIf4k&t=9s

In other better news, the talks have finally started between the federal and provincial governments (The Crown) and the hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en Nation. Paul Manly has remained in contact with Hereditary chief Na’moks.

We (Green MPs) have all been trying to help as I continued to speak with the prime minister, Carolyn Bennett, Bill Blair and Marc Miller throughout the week. We have been clear with the Liberal ministers from the beginning that a peaceful resolution required 1) getting the RCMP off Wet’suwet’en territory, 2) getting Coastal Gaslink to stop work during the talks and 3) that the ministers go to the territory to meet. Former NDP MP Nathan Cullen has played a very large role behind the scenes in getting these talks to happen.

As I write this, the ministers are in the second day of talks near Smithers, BC. We have to hope and pray that they come to a resolution that removes barricades and allows true reconciliation to move forward. The risk remains of things unravelling and of – my biggest fear – counter protests that lead to violent clashes. The irresponsible statement from Conservative leadership candidate Peter McKay, celebrating illegal vigilante action in Alberta taking down indigenous barricades, was appalling. This statement alone disqualifies him from ever being prime minister. A hot head on either side could cause a dangerous clash. Maintaining the solidarity actions as non-violent is essential.

And more good news for this Sunday Morning. Did you see the court decision from the UK denying Heathrow Airport a third runway? It is the first time that a court anywhere in the world has ruled that their government’s commitments under the Paris Agreement create a legal obligation to stop increasing fossil fuel emissions! It is a major development, and one, believe it or not, celebrated by UK prime minister Boris Johnson.  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/27/heathrow-third-runway-ruled-illegal-over-climate-change

As for Canada’s courts, Monday’s decision from the Alberta Court of Appeal ruled the federal back- stop carbon pricing scheme unconstitutional. This is the first court to do so as both the top Ontario and Saskatchewan courts ruled that the federal government has powers to set a minimum carbon price under the “Peace, Order and Good Government” provisions of our Constitution. The Ontario and Saskatchewan courts had little trouble ruling that the climate crisis is a matter of “national concern.” So watch for the constitutionality of federal carbon pricing to be resolved by the Supreme Court of Canada over the coming months.

And as my father always said on the 1st of March, “In like a lion, out like a lamb.” Wouldn’t it be nice to feel a peaceful and joyful spring just around the corner?

Love and thanks,

Elizabeth

PS The federal council elections for the Green Party of Canada are coming up soon. There are many open positions on the federal council that (unlike the leader!) actually runs the party. Please consider running, and please make sure you are a paid up GPC member to vote in this very important election and the fall 2020 leadership race.

See these links for details: https://www.greenparty.ca/en/council/election-2020

The Rules for council nomination and elections are here: https://www.greenparty.ca/en/council/election-2020/rules

This weekly blog is published by Elizabeth’s EDA in Saanich-Gulf Islands. You can sign up for it here.

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I just spent some time in jail.

Along with friends and colleagues Jody Wilson-Raybould, and Senator Pao Woo and Senator Kim Pate, on Friday morning I visited the William Head prison outside Victoria. In the evening, we toured a hell-hole of a detention centre in the basement of the Vancouver airport. It has served for decades as the “temporary” facility for people on their way out of Canada under deportation orders. It is about to be closed and replaced with a much more humane facility to open soon in Surrey.

Greens work on more than any one issue at a time. Restorative justice and humanity in our correctional facilities really matter. Before being a senator, Kim Pate worked her whole life for the rights of the incarcerated and fairness in our justice system. So she is making it a priority to get parliamentarians to tour jails.

The William Head facility is a model for the world. In the words of one prisoner we met, the place “re-humanizes people who have been dehumanized by maximum and medium security prisons.” Sadly, isolated as it is on Vancouver Island, near Metchosin, it is not celebrated within our prison system. Many of the staff report, not to the warden, but to bureaucrats on the mainland who fail to support the work being done to prepare inmates for a return to society. The prison lacks programmes that used to exist. There are no longer opportunities for getting high school and post-secondary degrees. If not for dozens of local volunteers who assist in the facility, opportunities to travel into Victoria and start making links there to mental health supports and volunteer opportunities would simply not exist. Perched on a tiny spit of land, the prison needs only one fence and gate – the ocean on three sides provides the other “walls.” The programmes for indigenous inmates include a carving shed where amazing artwork is being created.

I have much more work to do to support the amazing staff team there.

Meanwhile, between prison visits I watched the appalling press conference held by our prime minister. I had thought I knew what was going on due to meeting with the PM, meeting with and talking with Ministers Marc Miller and Carolyn Bennett (often through the week) and Paul Manly talking with the hereditary chiefs. The “we have run out of patience” line on Friday seemed at odds with the prime minister’s speech on Tuesday:

“Patience may be in short supply…And that makes it more valuable than ever.” (As also noted in this column from Paul Wells https://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/four-days-worth-of-justin-trudeaus-patience/)

As I write this, I am deeply worried that Justin Trudeau is responding to polls that tell him the Conservative message of impatience is gaining strength.

Until his press conference I thought we were making progress. The RCMP have said they will withdraw from Wet’suwet’en territory. The hereditary Chiefs say they need to confirm that has taken place.

Another hopeful change of circumstance: the BC Environmental Assessment Office has held back construction approval on a length of pipeline through the most contested length of route and asked Coastal Gas Link to return for more consultation. That is another helpful opening.

We need time and space- without construction – for the Crown to meaningfully engage with the hereditary leadership.

We need – as Greens and as supporters of reconciliation – to avoid taking sides within the Wet’suwet’en nation, but to stay with the path to reconciliation as guided by Supreme Court decisions. The hereditary chiefs must be consulted. They cannot be pushed to one side. Premier John Horgan rolled the dice gambling that his government can bulldoze through the objections of hereditary chiefs – whose role in governance of land and title has been established by the Supreme Court (in Delgamuukw) and by the BC government in treaty negotiations (see this interview with a BC treaty negotiator. https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/treaty-negotiator-letter-wetsuweten-1.5469932

Horgan decided to support Coastal Gas Link and ignore the compromise route proposed by the hereditary chiefs. This conflict and all the blockades are directly due to politicians who claim to be committed to UNDRIP, but feel free to ignore it if it gets in the way of their short-term agenda.

Resolving this matter without violence is my number one concern. I remember Oka and Ipperwash. If they clear one blockade with violence, others will spring up. This is a very complicated matter. It is a real test of Canada as a people. It is a test of our leaders. And, so far, they are failing.

I hope and pray that my missive next week can share good news. And I hope that the Cabinet rejecting the Teck oil sands mine is still possible.

Stay the course and never give up.

In love and hope,

Elizabeth

This weekly blog is published by Elizabeth’s EDA in Saanich-Gulf Islands. You can sign up for it here.

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Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands) 2020-02-20 12:42

Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague from West Nova has offended deeply a sense of democracy and allyship that exists across the country. I respect the member enormously, but I have to make it clear that young people, people my age, seniors who stand in solidarity with indigenous peoples are no different, having no big connection. All the Canadians who stood up against apartheid, what was their connection? Whites walked with Martin Luther King. Did they have no connection? Did they have no right to be moved? Did they have no right to speak up against injustice when the groups that faced injustice were almost entirely, and usually vulnerable, and the minority? Those who stand in allyship should not be condemned, as they have been by the motion today by the Conservatives. I ask my friend from West Nova to think again.

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Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands) 2020-02-18 13:58

Mr. Speaker, I rise again today to speak to the Wet’suwet’en situation, and the crisis that is gripping the country and about which this evening we will have an emergency debate. The most useful thing that I can do in 60 seconds is quote from a letter that appeared in the national newspapers from one of my constituents, whom members will know.

Ron Wright, Massey lecturer and author of A Short History of Progress, notes in this letter that in writing his book, Stolen Continents, he spoke of the Oka crisis and he sees parallels. He stated that: …[like] the Mohawks, the Wet’suwet’en have never [lost] their ancient sovereignty as an independent people. Under international law, he added, there are only two ways to lose sovereignty: by armed conquest or by signing it away in treaty. Neither is the case here. He continued: Like the Mohawks, the Wet’suwet’en have an ancient system of self-government that predates European occupation and is still alive.

Finally, he concluded that the elected band councils set up under the Indian Act merely administer the small territories defined as reserves. It is clear that the rule of law in this case is not muddied and only on one side. The Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs also stand with the rule of law.

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This weekend of Valentine’s Day is also a time marking Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. This year is the thirtieth annual series of events and marches.

On Wet’suwet’en Territory, The Hereditary chiefs and matriarchs were holding a ceremony to honour the memories of the missing and murdered indigenous women when they were arrested on February 10, 2020. The hanging of red dresses along fences posts and trees has been a powerful symbol of those missing mothers and aunties and sisters and daughters. No one image spoke so powerfully to me of the failings of our government to meet its obligations to indigenous people as those of RCMP officers removing the red dresses. I guess any reminder of murdered and missing women is a threat to Coastal Gas Link.

There is a connection. The Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls reported its conclusion that large resource projects and labour camps pose a threat to vulnerable indigenous women and two-spirited people. Hitch-hiking is the only mode of transit for those without cars. Greyhound service is gone. And the camps – “man camps” as the MMIWG report labels them – create risks. Not that every construction worker is a threat to women, but some are. Violence and addiction increase in such settings.

This article in The Narwhal by Sarah Cox includes photos of the RCMP taking down red dresses. It also points out that John Horgan’s claim that the company has all the permits it needs is incorrect. https://thenarwhal.ca/rcmp-exclusion-zone-called-unlawful-as-police-arrest-matriarchs-at-unistoten-healing-camp/

This week’s massive response in solidarity actions across Canada have been inspiring – or horrific, depending on where you sit. This week I have heard friends say “we cannot have mob rule.” The news media wants to focus on what this costs our economy. All I can think is, with all the clear warning the BC and federal governments have had, what did they think would happen if the RCMP moved on to Wet’suwet’en territory to arrest Hereditary chiefs? We tried to tell them that full nation to nation consultation was required. Did they think that the resistance was down to a few individuals, who could be easily hauled away to enforce an injunction that turns our national police into private cops?

One of the strongest summaries of the “rule of law” argument came in this strong letter (slightly edited and published in the Globe and Mail) from one of my favourite constituents – Ronald Wright:

“As one who wrote about the Oka Crisis in my book Stolen Continents, I had a strong sense of foreboding when I heard BC Premier John Horgan invoke the “rule of law” to justify using force against the Wet’suwet’en pipeline protesters. Those same words were used often during the Oka Crisis by the government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1990.  Have we learned nothing in thirty years? Of many parallels, these stand out:

“1) Like the Mohawks, the Wet’suwet’en have never lost their ancient sovereignty as an independent people. Under international law there are two ways for a people to lose their sovereignty: by armed conquest, or by signing it away in a treaty. Neither is the case here.

“2) Like the Mohawks, the Wet’suwet’en have an ancient system of self-government that predates European occupation and is still alive. In the BC case, this is exercised by hereditary chiefs, who have consistently upheld their people’s rights since outsider encroachment began.

“3) The elected band councils set up under the Indian Act merely administer the small territories defined as reserves under the Indian Act. They have no jurisdiction over traditional territories beyond those boundaries, and no authority to make ‘agreements’ on what may be done there.

“With the Delgamuukw decision of 1997 and the Tsilqot’in decision of 2014, the Supreme Court has upheld aboriginal rights in BC and has said that the Wet’suwet’en unceded territory –in other words, land never transferred to Canada – may cover as much as 22,000 square kilometres. This means that neither the federal nor provincial government has any right to enforce its will there.  It is British Columbia and the RCMP who are breaking the rule of law.”

We must continue to push back on those who refer to the “rule of law” as though those who respect indigenous rights – and s 35 of the Constitution, for that matter – are outside the law. The fact is that economic damage and inconvenience for many travelers are the cost of Canada continuing to pretend we won a war and can do whatever we want to this land’s first peoples and the land that is their territory. Reconciliation and UNDRIP talk are in the air, but the mind-set of our governments appears hard-wired to fossil fuel extraction.

Meanwhile, there was news from 10 Downing Street. COP26 now has a president, replacing Claire Perry O’Neil, UK’s former Energy minister, whom PM Boris Johnson fired two weeks ago. More senior UK Tories, David Cameron and William Hague refused the role. It falls now to former secretary of state for international development Alok Sharma to steer COP26 in Glasgow to a successful conclusion.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/15/alok-sharma-cop26-success-climate-change?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

A great deal of the success or failure of COP negotiations rides on the skill of the president. To get a successful result in November at COP26, Sharma not only has to build a strong team serving his presidency, he has to start crisscrossing the globe to build relationships, test ideas and press for early commitments to much improved targets and plans. When I look back at the dozen climate sessions I have attended, the character of the president is a huge factor. Laurent Fabius who succeeded in Paris, Patricia Espinoza who rescued climate talks in Cancun in 2010 as well as Stephane Dion who led the COP11 talks in Montreal are all remembered as spectacular chairs. The disaster in Copenhagen in 2009 was largely the fault of Prime Minister Rasmussen who fired his Environment minister half-way through the talks and took over himself. Rasmussen relied on back-room dealing and bad faith negotiation. But to most people watching these cumbersome, lumbering formal sessions, among and between 194 countries, the idea that it can all come down to a handful of people and their own talents may seem far-fetched. The world is depending on someone I had never heard of until yesterday’s announcement. With every day bringing more and accelerating bad news – locusts, storm surges and the hottest January on record, we all need to hope that Alok Sharma is a miracle worker. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/13/january-hottest-earth-record-climate-crisis

Have a great long weekend. Paul and Jenica and I are back in Parliament starting Tuesday!

Love and thanks,

Elizabeth

P.S. some friends asked me to attach links to some of my recent media and articles:

My interview with Evan Solomon on CTV where I try to explain the legal foundation of Wet’suwet’en land rights: https://podbay.fm/podcast/1039513210/e/1581551460

My article on the rising costs of the TMX (formerly Kinder Morgan pipeline): https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/12/opinion/elizabeth-may-asks-what-cost-canada

And lastly, friends have asked for a link to the wiki page leading to a Renaissance of Green Party vision and values. “GreensTogether”.

This weekly blog is published by Elizabeth’s EDA in Saanich-Gulf Islands. You can sign up for it here.

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OTTAWA – Today’s enforcement action in Wet’suwet’en territory is another humiliating stain on Canada’s relationship with Indigenous peoples.

At 5 a.m. this morning, the RCMP moved into Wet’suwet’en territory in northern B.C. to enforce an injunction issued by the B.C. Supreme Court. They arrested Wet’suwet’en clan members and their allies who are blocking work on the Coastal GasLink pipeline project by occupying traditional territory along the Morice West Forest Service road.

“This is a political failure,” said Paul Manly (MP, Nanaimo-Ladysmith) who travelled to the area in January. “Talks could have continued; the hereditary chiefs were willing to continue. There was no reason to enforce this injunction at this specific time.

“Just days ago it was reported that the Coastal GasLink pipeline project is missing a key authorization from the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office. The missing authorization specifically deals with the geographical area where today’s enforcement action occurred. Construction on this project can not move forward without this authorization,” Manly added.

“This enforcement is another black eye on Canada’s relationship with Indigenous people,” said Green Party parliamentary leader Elizabeth May (MP, Saanich-Gulf Islands). “British Columbia has passed legislation to enshrine UNDRIP in B.C. law but so far it has not demonstrated a commitment to honouring that legislation. The federal government, for its part, must not shrug its shoulders and claim that this conflict is not under its jurisdiction. That is not how First Nations see it. That is not how the United Nations sees it. And that is not how the world is going to see it,” she added.

Green Party of Canada critic for Crown-Indigenous relations, Jenica Atwin (MP, Fredericton) said: “The UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination released a report in December calling on Canada to suspend work on this project until proper consent is obtained from the hereditary chiefs. Free, prior and informed consent should not mean Indigenous communities must agree to any and all industrial projects in their territories, or face militarized police action. This is not what Canadians expect from our governments when they say that they want to fix our broken relationship with First Nations.”

# # #

For more information or to arrange an interview, contact us:

Rosie Emery
Press Secretary
613-562-4916×206
rosie.emery@greenparty.ca

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Last night was my last community meeting for January. Today I head back to Ottawa for the resumption of Parliament. Despite a round of significant winter storms, we only had to cancel one of the nine planned gatherings. We will be holding Saturna Island’s meeting in February and we have added another meeting for Sidney as well as so few people were able to make it as the snow kept falling.

I love that in Saanich-Gulf Islands my constituents, at least those coming out for community meetings, are so concerned about the on-going conflict in Wet’suwet’en territory. Overwhelmingly, those who spoke about the situation stand in support of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs.

It is a source of outrage to many that Premier Horgan has refused to meet the hereditary leadership of the Wet’suwet’en, stating that he respects the “rule of law,” as though the hereditary chiefs do not.

In fact, if anything, there are competing laws. On the side of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs stands thousands of years of indigenous government and indigenous law. The legitimacy of their hereditary system of governance has been upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada. In a joint letter to the Prime Minister and Premier Horgan from dozens of indigenous and non-indigenous lawyers and academics, the matter is put bluntly:

“Anyone unsure who to speak to, Indian Act Chief & Councils or the Wet’suwet’en hereditary Chiefs, needed to do no more than take a quick look at the first page of the Supreme Court of Canada’s Delgamuukw decision.”

[https://www.firstpeopleslaw.com/database/images/1997scr3_1010_1.jpg]

“The plaintiffs were the hereditary Chiefs of the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en Houses–not an Indian Act Chief & Council to be seen.”

The joint letter continues:

“If there was still any confusion, a simple scan of the BC Court of Appeal decision in Tsilhqot’in should have cleared things up.”

“The Court held that the determination of who properly holds Aboriginal title is determined primarily from the view point of the Indigenous People making the claim—not the imposition of the Indian Act.”

Open Letter to Prime Minister Trudeau and Premier Horgan Re: Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs’ Opposition to Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project: https://www.firstpeopleslaw.com/index/articles/432.php

I have been so frustrated by most media coverage of the stand-off. It is nearly universally suggested that the Indian Act Chief and Council have greater legitimacy — because they are elected.  The hereditary chiefs are treated as though they are some sort of extreme hippie cult. The legitimacy of their constitutional role has not been explained. The Wet’suwet’en have seen that the Chief and council make the decisions about the reserve area, dealings with government on issues of housing, water and infrastructure.  The hereditary chiefs maintained the role of protectors of the larger territory.

In standing against the injunction, the hereditary chiefs are well within their Constitutional rights under s.35. In addition, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples strengthens their rights.

Set against these court decisions stands the injunction granted to Coastal GasLink.  Injunction law is its own area of judicial exercise of discretion. In a conflict over an injunction to stop anyone from interfering with rights, the general question is which side holds the balance of convenience.  A multimillion dollar corporation will have an easier time persuading a court that getting a project underway is far more often given to corporations than to protesters. In fact, research in the National Observer has documented that corporations are granted injunctions more than 80% of the time while indigenous peoples are granted an injunction less than 20% of the time. https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/11/08/features/courts-deny-most-first-nations-injunctions

Thinking back to my arrest in March 2018, what I was doing – standing in front of Kinder Morgan’s gate in Burnaby – was not illegal in the sense that it broke any provision of the Criminal Code.  Pleading guilty did not result in a criminal record. If Kinder Morgan had not picked up the phone to ask for us to be removed, the RCMP would have let us be. Injunction law essentially converts our peace officers from police serving the public interest to private security. Neither one has a clear claim to respecting “the rule of law.”  Elements of law are on both sides. The fact that it has come to a point of conflict is due to a failure of political leadership.

I am so proud of my MLA, interim BC Green leader Adam Olsen and my federal colleague MP Paul Manly for respectfully entering into dialogue with the Wet’suwet’en on their territory. Paul reported something I had never heard – that the hereditary chiefs had offered an alternative route to avoid the most sensitive ecological and cultural areas. Their offer was rejected. This fact is documented in the injunction decision.
https://www.oktlaw.com/the-b-c-supreme-courts-decision-in-coastal-gaslink-a-missed-opportunity-to-provide-instruction-on-exclusivity-and-consent/

 We will continue to argue for the RCMP to stand down to allow talks to take place.  Please support these calls to de-escalate the tensions and eliminate the threat of violence.

Meanwhile, on a completely different topic, Greens are mobilizing and preparing for a leadership contest and a period of growth and renewal. Over the next 20 days or so, Greens across the country will be invited to engage in producing a vision statement to set the stage for a successful leadership convention.  If you are interested in participating, please email me.

Thank you!

With love and hope,

Elizabeth

This weekly blog is published by Elizabeth’s EDA in Saanich-Gulf Islands. You can sign up for it here.

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