E-News: Analysis, recent wins, and campaign updates
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Building support for a just transition
Thanks to your support, our Climate Code Red Week of Action was a huge success! We set out to build grassroots support for just transition legislation in the first 100 days of the new Parliament – and with the help of supporters like you, we did just that.
From October 12th to 17th, 54 communities – in 24 locations across 10 provinces – ran petition drives, hosted educational events, and raised the profile of our demands. That number has since grown. (Read more about the week in this National Observer profile.)
As a result of this advocacy, several MPs have already committed to tabling our petition and speaking about it in the House of Commons, including Peter Julian (NDP), Mark Gerretsen (Liberal), Rachel Bendayan (Liberal), Matthew Green (NDP), and Rachel Blaney (NDP).
Almost 6,000 of you also signed our letter to Prime Minister Trudeau asking that he deliver on his promise to introduce a Just Transition Act in 2019. Thank you!
In the months ahead, we hope we can count on your continued support in flooding Parliament with just transition petitions. Many of you are out in your communities, collecting signatures. We look forward to seeing more and more MPs speaking publicly – and frequently – in the House of Commons in support of these petitions.
We are not alone in our demands for rapid and far-reaching climate action. As part of the No More Delays coalition, we released a poll this month that revealed that most Canadians are frustrated with climate inaction. A majority want to see concrete policies aimed at capping oil and gas emissions, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, and delivering a just transition plan.
The broad-based support for bold and ambitious action on climate is clear. With your ongoing support, we expect the impact of our collective efforts to ripple across all parties and across the country.
Join the movement for a Green New Deal!
Children to Trudeau: End Drinking Water Advisories on First Nations!
More than 1,600 elementary school students from across Canada have prepared “Water Drop” messages to Prime Minister Trudeau: hand-written notes and drawings asking that he finally put an end to Drinking Water Advisories on First Nations reserves.
The messages are frank and moving. And on October 27th, we took all of them to Parliament Hill.
With the help of some of the young students who created them, we displayed hundreds of the colourful Water Drops on the fence surrounding the House of Commons. Then we delivered a box containing all the messages to the Prime Minister’s Office just across the street.
After decades of neglecting the deplorable quality of drinking water on First Nations reserves, the federal government has recently made some progress on this issue – but only thanks to constant pressure from civil society. The messages from these children will help keep up the pressure on the Trudeau government to resolve the more than 30 drinking water advisories that remain.
We thank all our supporters who have, for years, helped us in advocating for the right of First Nations to have the sovereignty, resources, and tools they need to ensure their communities have access to safe drinking water on reserves.
Canada must immediately ban thermal exports
Canada’s continuing role as an exporter of thermal coal is putting our emissions obligations in jeopardy.
Our government has been promising for years to champion climate action. And yet right now, Canada is exporting millions of tonnes of American and Canadian thermal coal – the most polluting source of energy – through our ports on the West Coast.
The emissions from these exports add the equivalent of 8 million cars worth of carbon pollution.
While the federal government has committed to ending our dependence on coal-powered electricity by 2030, Canada continues to facilitate the burning of coal overseas through its exports. As long as these exports continue, Canada will be an emissions enabler – not an international climate leader.
That’s why we partnered with nearly 50 organizations last month in sending a joint letter to Prime Minister Trudeau calling for swift action to ban thermal coal exports from and through Canada by 2023. We asked that he announce his government’s coal export ban at COP26, the UN climate conference currently under way in Glasgow.
More than 6,000 of you also signed the Council's open letter to Prime Minister Trudeau to strengthen that demand. Thank you!
Tomorrow, we are delivering that letter to the Prime Minister’s Office, alongside several other national organizations that have also been busy collecting signatures. Collectively, our petitions have brought together thousands of signatories demanding the rapid phase-out of thermal coal exports.
With your continued support, we can end Canada’s toxic relationship with coal for good.
Read more about Canada's thermal coal exports here
Iqaluit water contamination crisis exposes vulnerabilities across Canada
Last month, the city of Iqaluit declared a state of emergency due to the contamination of the city’s main water supply.
The city said last week that an old fuel spill is likely to have contaminated the water and has been working to remove hydrocarbons from the water treatment plant. Residents still don’t know when they will be able to drink the water again.
The emerging crisis with Iqaluit’s municipal water supply reveals the vulnerabilities faced by many communities across Canada, due to the lack of funding for necessary repairs and an absence of national water standards. And extreme weather events due to climate change are already making matters worse.
Our water campaigner, Mark Calzavara, wrote a piece to explain these vulnerabilities. Read his analysis here.
Alton Gas quit!
Last week, Alton Gas announced that it will be decommissioning its Natural Gas Storage Project in Nova Scotia.
After eight years of constant resistance from Mi’kmaw water protectors, grassroots grandmothers, Elders, youth, and settler allies, including Council of Canadians staff and supporters from across Mi’kma’ki and beyond, this is welcome news for our movements!
This is a huge victory for grassroots resistance. Years of organizing, a diversity of tactics, enormous participation by a diversity of people, and a constant commitment to protecting the lands and waters along the Sipekne’katik River have led to this success.
We would like to express our sincere and deep gratitude to the people and communities that worked tirelessly to stop Alton Gas. Through the wise and patient leadership of grassroots Mi’kmaw water protectors, grandmothers, and Elders, we were able to collectively organize a powerful movement that resisted Alton Gas’s proposed project, challenged colonial notions about land ownership and stewardship, and defended the lands and waters of the Sipekne’katik River.
To everyone — including thousands of Council of Canadians members and supporters — who sat on the frontline, built and visited the Treaty Truckhouse and other structures along the river, wrote a letter, signed a petition, donated time and money to the cause, spoke publicly, and shared airtime with this movement: thank you!
Thank you, Molly Kane
Executive Director Molly Kane has stepped down from her role with the Council of Canadians. On leave since March of 2020, she has been diagnosed with a health disability that prevents her from being able to carry out this role. She has made this difficult decision at the direction of her medical support professionals.
We are so thankful for all the ways Molly put her heart and soul into the Council, and we are a better organization because of it – in more ways than we can count. We are especially fortunate to have benefitted from her characteristic patience and grace as she helped us navigate a difficult renewal process that was vital to our continued work on behalf of all Canadians.
“Molly has earned the admiration of everyone in the Council of Canadians,” said Council Chairperson John Cartwright. “Her warmth and generosity allowed everyone to see themselves as a valued member of this important country-wide community.”
Molly’s strong principles and bold vision brought both stability and momentum to the Council. The organization will not be the same without her, but the example she set will have meaningful and lasting impacts for years to come.
Announcing our new Co-Executive Directors
When Molly went on leave last March, the Council’s Director of Campaigns and Organizing, Christina Warner, and Director of Communications, Ravi Joshi, were asked to step in as Interim Co-Executive Directors. They took on these additional roles within days of the initial COVID lockdown, and deftly led the organization through the transition to remote work and organizing. During this time, staff, chapters, members, and the Board of Directors have collectively navigated several provincial elections, a federal election, and countless advocacy campaigns.
Over the last year and a half, the Council has adopted new campaign tools, updated our operations and strategies, and shifted our approach to storytelling. This has seen us move to a Co-Executive Director model for the organization, which we feel aligns well with our commitment to democracy and shared people power.
We are pleased to report that both Christina and Ravi have agreed to continue their current terms as Co-Executive Directors until at least the end of 2022.
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