Foes find common ground

John Bennett said that business and environmentalism have had an often-confrontational relationship in the past, but the relationship is evolving.

Bennett, three months into his new job as executive director of the environmental group Sierra Club Canada, was the keynote speaker at the Queen's University's Commerce and Engineering Environmental Conference on the weekend.

"It's changed a great deal and we have a tremendous number of allies in business and industry now, whereas when I first started doing this 30 years ago, there were no allies," Bennett said Saturday in an interview.

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"At Sierra Club, we will do stunts, but we don't do anything where we break the law," Bennett said. "We'll try to do some things to draw attention, but mostly we like now to make a rational argument and be clear and communicate it, and to work with officials in the government."

As for his visit to Kingston, he said it's important for him to get out and talk to the next generation to gauge their concerns.