|
A coalition of Canada's top environmental groups says close to18,000 Canadians and over 400 organizations have committed toblacking out their websites on Monday a symbolic gesture inprotest of what they see is the government's effort to "silence"environmental voices across the country. In an interview with CBC News on Sunday, Gideon Forman, theexecutive director for the Canadian Association of Physicians forthe Environment one of a dozen environmental groups leading thisonline campaign said "the Conservative government's attack ondemocracy and the environment is unprecedented." The "Black Out, Speak Out" campaign calls on Canadians to raisetheir voices against proposed changes to environmental lawsincluded in Bill C-38, the government's budget implementation bill.Environmental groups say the changes will weaken environmentallaws. Above is an example of the images being used in the 'Black Out,Speak Out' campaign against the Conservative's budgetimplementation bill. (CBC) "We are of the opinion that in order to protect the environmentthere has to be a very robust public debate in energy projects andother controversial projects with big environmental impact, and theConservative government is trying to kill that public participationand that's very worrisome," said Forman, whose group representsover 5,000 doctors and concerned citizens. "It's worrisome for the environment, it's also terribly worrisomefor our democracy." In an interview with CBC News on Sunday, Conservative MP JamesRajotte chair of the House finance committee tasked withexamining the government's budget bill said this is "thelongest" time in memory that a committee has spent looking at abudget bill. Rajotte said "it's a very public process" and noted theConservatives agreed to send the part of the budget bill that dealswith changes to the environment, natural resources and fisheries(Part 3 of Bill C-38) to a finance subcommittee for closerscrutiny. Study of bill 'disgraceful,' NDP critic says But Meagan Leslie, NDP environment critic and deputy House leader,told CBC News that that section of the bill should have been sentto the environment committee. Given that Bill C-38 consists of over400 pages, the time allotted for examining the bill overall is"hardly adequate," she said. According to Leslie, the study of Part 3 of the budget bill was"rammed through" the subcommittee, where witnesses were "rushed"and "attacked" by Conservative members. "It was disgraceful. This was absolutely not democracy." Rajotte said that on Monday the finance committee will look at thesubcommittee's report on Part 3 of the budget bill and then dealwith all of Bill C-38 clause by clause. The New Democrat said the proposed changes are "too much. It's tooradical a change to our existing environmental legislation." "I think it's fair to say that very likely the Opposition will havea dissenting report," Leslie said. Speaking from a Liberal Party convention in Montreal on Sunday,interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae said his party will also join in theonline campaign to protest what they see as the federalgovernment's attempt to "shut down discussion and people's abilityto advocate for better public policy." "This government isn't just trying to attack the opposition, butthey're attacking every institution that is there to protect theindividual rights of Canadians and they're attacking charitableorganizations which are trying to participate in the development ofgood policy for Canada," said Rae. The Green Party and its leader Elizabeth May will also black outtheir websites in support of the online campaign, as will the BlocQu b cois. According to Rajotte, "It comes down to whether political partiesand members of Parliament support these changes or not. It's avalid political debate, but I suspect that in terms of resourcedevelopment and sustainability these will be lively politicalissues for the length of this entire Parliament." While the websites go dark, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliverand nine other cabinet ministers will fan out across the country topromote the government's plan for "Responsible ResourceDevelopment" one of the various measures proposed in Bill C-38. I am an expert from projectors-lamp.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China epson projector lamp , christie projector lamp, toshiba projector lamp,and more.
Related Articles -
China epson projector lamp, christie projector lamp,
|
