Sierra Club Blog Posts
#BlackOutSpeakOut - A response to Harper's war on nature & democracy
Submitted by John Bennett on Sun, 2012-05-06 17:32
The federal government’s war on nature and democracy means “Silence is no longer an option” for Canadians. So I’m urging you to join with Sierra Club Canada and the country’s leading environmental organizations in a national campaign to force the government to restore the environmental protection and democratic participation. The campaign aims to force the Harper government to retreat and restore the environmental protection and democratic participation it recently gutted.... Read more »
Peter Kent is a big fat liar! Response to “money laundering” allegations
Submitted by John Bennett on Sun, 2012-05-06 00:40
This week Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent has made repeated allegations that environmental groups are “laundering money”. This is a serious charge because according to the federal government’s own website: Money laundering is the process used to disguise the source of money or assets derived from criminal activity.
This is beyond anything in my experience and is absolutely irresponsible. A cabinet minister is going around spouting serious allegations without proof and the media is repeating them without doing anything to investigate the validity of his statements.... Read more »
Melbourne ISTSDay Report
Submitted by Derek Leahy on Sun, 2012-05-06 00:00
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - Slowly but surely the photos from International Stop the Tar Sands Day 2012 are creeping in. Since I had about a 10 hour head start on most ISTSDay events I had time to write this article about ISTSDay in Melbourne. The article has been published on line in DEMOTIX:
http://www.demotix.com/news/1194823/connecting-dots-climate-change-melbo...
The full text of the article is below. More photos of us and our 2 meter tall climate dot are in the DEMOTIX article or on facebook. I will have more May 5th tales for you in the coming days.
Enjoy!
Derek
MELBOURNE - 05/05/2012
... Read more »
The New Story
Submitted by Derek Leahy on Thu, 2012-05-03 08:16
This post is dedicated to the organizers of Intenational Stop the Tar Sands Day 2012. This year was all about you.
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – The last four months have been a blur. I cannot recall a build up to ISTSDay that I remember so little of (no pun intended) as this year's. Obviously, I remember the first year's build up because well, it was the first time. With most things in life you never forget the first time. Moments from ISTSDay 2011 stick out quite clearly especially as I watched with awe and wonder as ISTSDay grew fivefold from nine events in 2010 to fifty in 2011. Here we are in 2012, just a day away from one of the biggest international days of action in human history (largely due to 350.org, but we played a role too) and I have no idea how we got here.
... Read more »
Support the Freedom Train
Submitted by Derek Leahy on Tue, 2012-05-01 00:16
The First Nations Freedom Train against the construction of Enbridge's Northern Gateway Pipeline has begun and we want them to know they are not alone
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - Last year for International Stop the Tar Sands Day we asked people to create the best "Stop the Tar Sands!" banner, poster or artwork they could be muster, take a picture of themselves with their creation and send it in to us for our website. It worked out great! Take a look for yourself:
http://stoptarsands.yolasite.com/ists-day.php
... Read more »
Bigger Picture
Submitted by Derek Leahy on Fri, 2012-04-20 02:41
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - Last Wednesday I was lucky enough to sit in on a coal seam gas (similar to shale gas)/quit coal campaign meeting here in Melbourne. I was really impressed with the level of organisation, and passion this group had and the amount of activities they had planned from the 'Quit Coal-a-palooza' concert to talking to people at farmers' markets. It also made me realize that no matter how much I would love to get these people involved in International Stop the Tar Sands Day in Melbourne most of them would probably be way too busy with their own campaign to participate. As disappointing as that may seem, I was actually alright with it. I just reminded myself of the bigger picture.
... Read more »
Bike Rage
Submitted by John Bennett on Fri, 2012-04-13 15:02
This blog was going to be about “bike rage”. I witnessed an incident yesterday walking to work. I heard an angry yell and an expletive from a woman on bike enraged with the rider in front of her who was dawdling along in the bike lane chatting on his cell phone. The yell was so powerful and heartfelt you could feel the rage across the street. Yet, the dawdler didn’t seem to notice.
Before I could start typing however, I participated in a news conference on Parliament Hill. Yes, if I wear a tie and jacket they still let in the building (for how long?).... Read more »
Who's Next?
Submitted by John Bennett on Wed, 2012-04-04 17:53
Sometimes you just don’t want to be right.
In the Sierra Club Canada national office we are busy preparing our 2011 annual report. As I go through my files from last year (wow – we certainly were busy) I came across an email that rattled me. It was the last email I sent to supporters in December. In it I outlined the disturbing developments we saw in 2011 and what I thought it all meant.
Much like watching troop movements across the frontier, I could see an impending invasion. The email, in fact, documented the beginnings of an all-out assault on environmental protection in Canada - and the protectors. We could see signs of it coming a couple of months earlier (I mused about it in my blog).... Read more »
Thought Bubbles
Submitted by Derek Leahy on Tue, 2012-03-27 22:01
FRANKLIN, TASMANIA – I sat down in a café in Franklin, Tasmania the other day trying to sort out all that has transpired these past few weeks. You see, May 5thcould very well become a massive day of action. A lot of people from all over the world want to make their voices heard the week of May 5th. International Stop the Tar Sands Day’s circle of friends just got bigger.
... Read more »
Government spokesman should apologize for derogatory and inacurate comments
Submitted by John Bennett on Thu, 2012-03-22 15:43
Dear Friends,
Below find a letter that I sent yesterday to Patricia Best of Natural Resources Canada.
It pertains to remarks she made to Canadian Press about Sierra Club Canada, which we feel are inaccurate and derogatory.
Sincerely,
John Bennett, Executive Director
Sierra Club Canada
jb@sierraclub.ca
Patricia Best, Director of Communications
Natural Resources Canada
21st Floor, Room C2-2
580 Booth Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0E4Wednesday, March 21, 2012M
Re: Apology
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