Growing like a weed
Global climate change conferences such as the one held in Copenhagen in December have accomplished little given the huge investment by countries around the world, says Jed Goldberg, president of Earth Day Canada.
Those mammoth United Nations-sponsored conferences have become magnets for political photo ops, the media and the movement's usual suspects, Mr. Goldberg says, but they have failed to strike a chord with ordinary citizens or generate any real change.
And in an era when nations including Canada are ignoring binding Kyoto Protocol commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, he says money would be better spent supporting countless small, daily efforts of individuals and communities to prevent Earth's degradation.
"What happens where Canadians live is real for them; what happens halfway around the world isn't something they feel connected to," he says. "So whatever we do 'for the environment' has to be something they can see and feel and touch."
Earth Day Canada, which is marking its 20th anniversary today, was originally the coordinating body for festivities in Canada commemorating another 20th anniversary: that of Earth Day, which is now 40 years old.
But the Canadian event proved so popular with schools, community groups and businesses that Earth Day Canada became a permanent charity -- and has grown into a powerhouse.
The organization spends $3.5-million annually developing educational programs for 40% of Canadian schoolchildren, and handing out scholarships and grants to support grassroots activism.
The key to its success has been to reach out to average Canadians, who, poll after poll suggests, view themselves as sensitive to issues of the environment even though they might live in the suburbs and drive an SUV. They are people who haven't felt welcomed by "traditional" environmental activists, Mr. Goldberg says.
The "conference of the future," he says, should look like the one organized in 2005 by Earth Day Canada scholarship recipient Alysia Garmulewicz, who, as a teenager from tiny New Denver, B.C., raised $120,000 to hold her own national conference on climate change in Victoria.
Last summer, before leaving for Oxford, England, on a Rhodes scholarship, Ms. Garmulewicz organized a second conference in Vancouver, called World Changing Careers, brainstorming ways to incorporate environmental goals into education.
Ms. Garmulewicz, who attended Copenhagen last year, calls it a valuable exercise, but says the narrow focus on setting targets for reducing carbon emissions has mostly left the public cold.
"The message has been that we need to cut back on emissions, not what we should build," she says. "The next step has to be to say, 'across all disciplines and areas of expertise 3/8, what are we as a society working toward?'"
Other Earth Day Canada honorees coast to coast have planted thousands of trees, saved neighbourhood animal species from extinction, fought for municipal pesticide bylaws and the protection of environmentally significant forests, halted clear-cutting of mature trees and cleaned up beaches.
They have written plays for children, planted therapeutic gardens, opened second-hand stores salvaging and reselling junk pile finds and secured millions of dollars to clean up abandoned industrial sites near their homes.
And the organization has made progress in positively shaping Canadians' behaviour overall, Mr. Goldberg says.
Backyard composters and rooftop solar arrays, which two decades ago were unheard of, are now commonplace in many communities. Littering and carrying groceries home in plastic bags have become socially taboo. And businesses cater to a burgeoning marketplace for ethically and environmentally sound products, from locavore foods to LEED-certified new homes.
At the same time, there is an increasingly dirty public relations war being waged to try to win over the public, Mr. Goldberg says, with many examples of companies spreading misinformation about their products' supposed green attributes.
Earth Day Canada has been in court several times defending its trademarked name against allegedly unscrupulous marketing. An example Mr. Goldberg cites was when a home building supplier tried to sponsor an 'Earth Day Canada'-themed promotional giveaway of live tree seedlings.
"We don't ever want the name to turn into an opportunity for commercial shilling of who knows what," he says.
David Donnelly, an environmental lawyer and former executive director of the advocacy group Environmental Defense, calls Earth Day Canada's idealism "essential" to support grassroots organizations that are trying to make a difference.
"People who, for whatever reason, feel alienated or distanced from environmentalism need to be brought on board," says Mr. Donnelly, who last year won the organization's 'hometown hero' award.
"And environmentalists need to do everything possible for that to happen."
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National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/Growing+like+weed/2936506/story.html
Citizens' group loses ground in cottage country
Battle between district association, developer over condo project raises issue of SLAPP lawsuits
Canwest News
When David Donnelly took up the fight against developers of a $1-billion condo and marina complex slated for cottage-country north of Toronto, the environmental lawyer anticipated a hard fight.
But after losing before the Ontario Municipal Board in 2007, Donnelly and his client, the Innisfil District Association, were soon battling the developer's claim to recoup $3.2 million in legal costs. Donnelly, named in the claim, felt he was in the fight of his life.
He and other environmental watchdogs considered it a "strategic litigation against public participation" lawsuit, or "SLAPP" -- an example of an increasingly common legal gambit.
"Developers are targeting small town activists, the 'concerned citizens' groups, because they're most vulnerable," said the lawyer, who was named Earth Day Canada's "hometown hero" for 2008 at the height of his legal battle. "So many groups have chosen silence over financial ruin."
Although 26 U.S. states have enacted protections against SLAPP suits, in Canada only Quebec has such a law. But what constitutes a SLAPP suit is a matter of debate. And some provinces -- including British Columbia, which repealed an anti-SLAPP law that was briefly on the books in 2001 -- say existing laws adequately protect citizen protesters against abuse of process.
Developers argue that hobbling the ability to recoup expenses after a court win emboldens anti-development hardliners to defame them or, in the name of environmentalism or another cause, to stall or derail worthy projects.
"There's a misnomer out there, that as soon as there's a lawsuit it's a SLAPP," said Earl Rumm, chief executive of Kimvar Enterprises Inc., the developer of the contested 1,000-slip marina, 2,000-unit condo/ hotel complex and golf course planned for Big Bay Point on Lake Simcoe.
"We went after our costs ... which we were entitled to do. We didn't sue anybody."
By the time Environmental Defense -- the organization formerly helmed by Donnelly -- intervened with the Innisfil District Association to fight the development, the original application filed in 2002 had undergone extensive revisions after a series of public consultations, had cleared three levels of government, and had the backing of 'thousands of pages' of expert scientific and environmental studies, says Rumm.
At the costs hearing, the developer sought an award five times higher than the biggest in Ontario legal history. And protesters scoffed at some of the items in the $3.2-million calculation: they included a slice of chocolate cake, $38 for a 10-litre bucket and a hacksaw, and a $45 bug jacket, among others.
But Rumm estimates he had spent at least $5 million fighting local opposition and securing multiple permissions to develop his land. The fight has been "brutally expensive," he says. Getting $3.2 million back, by his own calculation, seemed a bargain.
"I can assure you that Mr. Donnelly drank the coffee and ate the cake," says Jeffrey Davies, of Davies Howe Partners and counsel for Kimvar, referring to some of the disputed expense items. That's because Kimvar had to pay the facilities costs of the hearings, which were held at an area hotel and included a daily refreshment bar, he says.
Donnelly and the Innisfil District Association also dragged out the fight, according to Davies. "They kept raising all sorts of arcane scientific points, sending us after all kinds of red herrings and we had no choice but to go there."
When the OMB decision was handed down in 2008, Lake Simcoe cottagers and Donnelly weren't ordered to pay the developer anything. But they had spent over a year, and an estimated $1.25-million, defending themselves.
It was a partial victory for the developer as well. The OMB rejected the environmentalists' argument that the high cost claim had been meant to stifle protest -- it wasn't a SLAPP, the judgment said.
Kimvar's development plans have since been grandfathered under Ontario's new Lake Simcoe Protection Act. This winter, over the objections of environmentalists, tree-clearing sanctioned by the Lake Simcoe Conservation Authority and Town of Innisfil went ahead.
Rumm said he feels victimized by groups including Environmental Defense, which "have vowed to use every tactic they can to continue to stall us" in getting further permits, he says.
"They refuse to acknowledge that leading-edge environmental studies have been applied to the development plan," Rumm's lawyer adds.
"They just keep turning a blind eye."
The battle over the future of this cottage country haven continues. At the same time, momentum is building for the creation of a new anti-SLAPP law in Ontario. The province's environmental commissioner Gord Miller has called SLAPP suits "a contagion."
Some 62 municipalities, including the cities of Toronto, Hamilton, Oakville and Aurora, have adopted resolutions demanding legislation to protect grassroots activism. And the province is said to be weighing its options.
Anti-SLAPP laws "can't come too soon," says Donnelly, "because our democracy is suffering, people are really under siege."
More Than 60 Ontario Groups Call For Protection From Lawsuits Designed to Muzzle
Demand grows for law to protect public participation in wake of recent suit against health advocates
Toronto – More than 60 Ontario groups released a letter to Premier McGuinty today asking him to move forward with a new law to protect citizens from lawsuits designed to stifle legitimate public participation in the democratic process. Such suits are often called strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPPs.
"Many of us in the environmental movement have suffered when public participation in the democratic process was threatened," said Gideon Forman, Executive Director of Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE). "So we support anti-SLAPP legislation based on our first-hand experience."
Environmental Defence initiated the letter and had experience with a SLAPP itself when a partner group it works with was sued for opposing a development at Big Bay Point on Lake Simcoe.
"It's courageous enough for citizens and small organizations to stand up for what they think is right," said Dr. Rick Smith, Executive Director of Environmental Defence, "But to be sued for participating in what is supposed to be a democracy? That's scary."
Many of the 60 signatories to the letter have experience with a SLAPP, which can put victims in the position of either backing down or losing everything. The letter to Premier McGuinty concludes that legislation is the best measure to protect Ontarians' rights: "As a community of organizations, we feel our democratic rights are threatened by the existence of SLAPP suits and insist that the only way to protect our right to public participation is through the creation of effective legislation."
Ontario would be joining Quebec, where similar legislation passed last year, and over half of American states that currently have anti-SLAPP laws.
Support for creating such laws has snowballed in recent months, notably with the release of the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario's Annual Report in October. Commissioner Gord Miller labeled SLAPPs a threat to public participation and called on the government to create effective laws to prevent them.
Shortly after, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario resolved to meet with the Ontario government to find solutions to prevent SLAPPs and to avoid undue costs placed on citizens in Ontario Municipal Board hearings. The Association acted after 62 municipalities, including Mississauga and Hamilton, passed resolutions calling for anti-SLAPP legislation, and requested the Association support them.
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For more information, or to arrange interviews, please contact: Jennifer Foulds, Environmental Defence, (416) 323-9521 ext. 232; (647) 280-9521 (cell)
Environmental Defence: http://environmentaldefence.ca/pressroom/viewnews.php?id=738
Enviro-warriors left in the cold
Citizens battling huge development projects face legal, financial threats, says Ontario's environmental commissioner
By Tany Talaga
Queen's Park Bureau - Toronto Star
Citizen groups who take on big developers need enhanced provincial protection from economic intimidation and legal threats, according to a new report from Ontario's environmental commissioner.
Touching on issues from soil erosion to the disappearance of amphibians in Ontario, commissioner Gord Miller's far-reaching report says the land-use planning system is "hugely weighted" in favour of the development industry.
"When the stakes are in the many millions – sometimes billions – of dollars, the resources that developers are prepared to invest to overcome residents' objections far surpass the capacity of most citizens groups (and) environmental organizations," Miller says in his 180-page report.
There are cases of people not participating in public planning discussions for fear of incurring a personal lawsuit, he said.
"That chilling effect, I am fully confident, is widespread," Miller said.
Miller cited problems surrounding a proposed $1 billion luxury resort project on the shores of Lake Simcoe. Concerned residents participated in an Ontario Municipal Board hearing regarding approvals for the Big Bay Point Resort in Innisfil. But citizens faced a claim for costs of $3.2 million – which was denied by the board.
The Big Bay fight led to calls for the Ontario government to develop anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) legislation. Such laws are in force in Quebec and many American states. Miller called for the creation of legislation that would put both sides of development disputes on equal footing and noted it "could serve to halt SLAPP suits in their tracks."
However, when Environment Minister John Gerretsen was asked if he was in favour of enhanced protective legislation for citizens, he deferred the question to Municipal Affairs Minister Jim Watson, who said there is no need for anti-SLAPP legislation.
The track record of the OMB has been "very positive," he added.
"They won't set up a system that is only for the rich and only for powerful corporations," Watson said. "We have to allow individuals who don't have deep pockets to be able to speak freely about legitimate concerns about a development application. To date, I have seen no evidence where individuals have in fact been threatened by coming before the OMB.
Citizens involved in the environmental movement said the government is out to lunch on this issue.
Premier Dalton McGuinty's government should stop punishing its citizens and start rewarding people for showing up to OMB meetings to defend the environment, said David Donnelly, a lawyer and member of Environmental Defence, a non-profit advocacy group.
"Minister Watson clearly has never been to the OMB and doesn't understand what pressures families face when they are being hit with millions in lawsuits by developers. Shame on Minister Watson. He needs to do his homework," said Donnelly.
"This is a burden in communities and on families. It is not true to say the process works well. They have to get on to the job of fixing it."
The report, entitled Building Resilience, also recommends closing the Richmond landfill site near Kingston.
Richmond, an older landfill site, is "arguably one of the worst sites in Ontario to ever locate landfill" and it contains millions of tonnes of waste, Miller said. There is little soil at the site and the limestone rock below is fractured, he said. Waste can run "like water through a pipe," seeping down large distances without being naturally filtered, he added.
"It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to monitor this site."
Also of concern to the commissioner are the declining amphibian species in Ontario such as the spring peeper, Jefferson salamander, pickerel frog, northern cricket frog, bullfrog and northern leopard frog.
"Here is a group of particularly sensitive animals. They are exposed to water, their skins are sensitive to air pollutants and all sorts of disturbances, and guess what? They are dying off around the world at the highest rates," Miller said.
"There are 27 species in Ontario and we should be keeping an eye on them. Somebody should be involved in monitoring their health and looking for ways to mitigate their disturbances."
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Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/706580--enviro-warriors-left-in-the-cold
Sowing green seeds on council
Fundraising network aims to help aspiring city politicians with eco-focused platforms
Tess Kalinowski
STAFF REPORTER - Toronto Star
"Big heart, big brain, big soul – all green."
That's how Toronto City Councillor Paula Fletcher describes lawyer, urban planner and activist David Donnelly, who also happens to live in her Riverdale ward.
Battle plans for many of the environmental skirmishes being fought in communities that shoulder Toronto are drawn on Donnelly's downtown desk. Think Big Pipe, the Oak Ridges Moraine, Boyd Park, Bayview Extension and Big Bay Point Resort.
His small army of allies is growing, thanks in part to the platform and fundraising network created before the 2006 municipal election by Donnelly, first-term Pickering councillor Bonnie Littley, Liberal insider Judy Pfeifer and Richmond Hill naturalist Natalie Helferty.
They dubbed it Green Divas for Council.
The idea was to give a helping hand to environmental candidates willing to take on the developers at municipal councils.
"There's an incredible wealth of very committed, passionate, professional, sophisticated people who are shut out of the (political) process because no one will open the door or give them resources," says Donnelly, 44.
"Municipal politics and federal politics is an elite club, and it's closed to a great extent. ... Even though there is
incredible support and sympathy amongst the voters for independent, environmentally minded candidates, no club exists to help with the fundraising, give them some policy ideas for their platform, and they're not united."
The Divas' Green Agenda, with an introductory letter signed by singer-activist and Donnelly client Sarah Harmer, says a Divas candidate:
- Will not accept contributions from developers;
- Will not shrink the Greenbelt;
- Will promote green building standards.
Donnelly's green heroes aren't all women.
He lists Oakville Mayor Rob Burton among the "divos" and says there are bright spots on the regional landscape, thanks to the work of that council and others, such as those of Ajax and Markham, which are also making progress.
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Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/specialsections/article/577745
Proposed Lake Simcoe Protection Act Applauded
Environmental Defence (www.environmentaldefence.ca)
Lake Simcoe Summit historic success
Toronto –An unprecedented coalition of environmental groups, ratepayer and citizens’ groups is praising the McGuinty government’s announcement of plans to introduce the Lake Simcoe Protection Act. The surprise announcement was made last Friday at the Lake Simcoe Summit in Barrie in front of a cheering crowd representing 65 citizens’ and non-profit groups from around the Lake, and 12 government agencies and elected officials.
“The proposed Act is better than a cool dip in the Lake on a hot day, ”said David Donnelly, counsel to Environmental Defence and to a number of the groups in attendance, and one of the first proponents of the Act.
“All our work to establish a truly great coalition and plan to save the Lake is rewarded with this proposed Act,” said Robert Eisenberg, founding Chair of the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition. “There’s no going back now; the Government of Ontario has recognized the urgent need for an Act and so should everyone else.”
In his announcement, Premier McGuinty covered all the principles of conservation that Campaign Lake Simcoe hoped would form the foundation of an Act. Describing the Act, the Premier told the crowd:
“It will mean that no new development will be allowed to harm the lake. It will set strict limits on pollutants such as phosphorus. It will require stringent sewage treatment. It will support a governance structure that has been recommended by the Lake Simcoe Environmental Management Strategy working group. And it will promote recreation while protecting the health of the lake. We want growth that is good for the lake and the community that depends on the lake.”
“We are so glad that the Premier has listened to the science showing the damage Lake Simcoe has undergone,” said Wendy Francis, Director of Conservation and Science for Ontario Nature.
Lake Simcoe’s southeast shoreline is governed by the Greenbelt Act, leaving about half of the watershed unprotected. Simcoe County has been referred to as Ontario’s “Wild West” of development, with dozens of development applications leap-frogging over the Greenbelt and into south Simcoe County.
The effect of the Premier’s announcement on developments currently seeking approvals remains unclear, particularly regarding the contentious Big Bay Point mega-project near Barrie.
The Greenbelt Protection Act contained retroactive provisions to catch developments that were not yet approved at the time the Act was announced. “The Greenbelt Protection Act is the logical staring point for a new Lake Simcoe Act,” said Donnelly. The proposed Lake Simcoe Protection Act is different from the Greenbelt Act in one key respect, it emphasizes tougher environmental assessment standards to ensure water quality in addition to new land use controls.
The Lake Simcoe Summit was co-hosted by Campaign Lake Simcoe and the Ladies of the Lake (www.lakeladies.ca). Campaign Lake Simcoe is a partnership of Environmental Defence, the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition, and Ontario Nature (www.campaignlakesimcoe.ca).
For more information, or to arrange interviews, please contact:
Jennifer Foulds, Environmental Defence, (416) 323-9521 ext. 232; (647) 280-9521(cell)
Annabel Slaight, Co-Founder of the Ladies of the Lake, (905) 476-7575
Bob Eisenberg, Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition, (416) 484-1250 ext. 220