How have we slipped so far from securing the future of our offspring through science and common sense?
At one juncture, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans had a policy of ensuring that no negative elements would enter the aquatic environment and should there be a question of negative effects one would side with caution “the Precautionary Principle.” However, with the removal of the science element in aquatic management and the prime principle in play now being, corporate success, our environmental managers are now shareholders in corporate development and growth.
With the signing of inter-corporate agreements that ensure less national control of our water and environment, our federal government has ensured the demise of what we hold dear in Canada, namely clean air to breath and water to drink.
Perhaps the most alarming development is within the system we have for governance, unquestionable party control by the P.M.O. Here on Vancouver Island we have the Conservative Party whip John Duncan and MP James Lunney. Both of these members of parliament live on, or very near, the oceans of concern and yet are incapable of standing up to something blatantly wrong and very dangerous. Our oceans are the circulatory system of the world and we are okaying the introduction of very harmful materials into what keeps us alive as mammals. Lunney attempted claim to fame with a Vitamin D Day, but will not stand up to his party for the welfare of the planet. Of course, Duncan’s job is to control those that would vote against Prime Minister Stephen Harper, but what a poor choice, especially when you see the Salish Sea with increased acidity, due to fossil fuel combustion and now the introduction of pesticides to attempt to control sea lice. This problem can be solved simply by removing open-pen salmon farms from the ocean.
We live in a part of the world that allows us the option to make choices. Failure to make good choices is personal. It is time to wake up and start being heard.
Bob TritschlerParksville
