Media Releases

OTTAWA – This Monday, September 15, 2014, Joseph Boutilier, a 24-year-old from Victoria B.C., will be completing his five-month long cross-country unicycle ride to raise awareness about climate change in Canada.

Boutilier’s one-wheel ride (the “Unity for the Climate Tour”) began on April 5, 2014. So far, his unicycle tour has taken him through five provinces and three U.S. states.

His 5,000 km journey – aimed at making climate change a priority issue in the 2015 election -- will conclude at noon on Monday when Boutilier reaches Parliament Hill.

Joseph planned for his journey to end on the day Parliament resumed with the aim of meeting as many Members of Parliament as possible to discuss climate change policy.

MEDIA RELEASE
September 3, 2014

I have historic news. Today, we start to fight back.

This morning the Ontario Beekeepers launched a lawsuit against Bayer and Syngenta - the manufacturers of bee killing neonicotinoid pesticides.

These companies have raked in billions selling these pesticides in full knowledge of how lethal they are to bees.

So far we have looked to government and the Pest Management Regulatory Agency to enforce the law, but once I sat down with the head of the Agency and key staff in June it became clear to me that the PMRA is infused with inertia and has no sense of urgency.

The national environmental group Sierra Club Canada today announced its support for pesticide-free buffer zones around key public areas on Prince Edward Island.

"This is a minimum standard for protection of public health," said Sierra Club PEI volunteer and national board member Tony Reddin. "The citizens' group Pesticide-Free PEI has asked the PEI government to create pesticide-free buffer zones of at least 25 meters around children's playgrounds, schools, preschools, bus stops, hospitals, and senior citizens' homes. We strongly support this request; and those regulations should be written to clearly apply to all pesticides, not just cosmetic urban applications."

Scientists studying the blue whale in the Gulf of St Lawrence are reporting alarmingly low calving rates from this critically endangered species, says the Sierra Club Canada Foundation. The Sierra Club recently launched a campaign to safeguard the blue whale's critical habitat in the Gulf.

The Mingan Island Cetacean Study (MICS) is a non-profit research organization located on the Gulf of St Lawrence's northern shore and they were the first group to begin long term study of marine mammals in the Gulf. Since their founding in 1979, this group has followed blue whale populations in eastern Canada, the Sea of Cortez and in the waters of Iceland.