Seattle - November 30, 1999. What a time to remember. Thousands of activists taking it to the streets. Anarchists in turtle uniforms. That great symbol of American decadence – Starbucks – with its smashed windows. All in the fight against closed door meeting deciding our economic futures. Apparently certain groups did not like the idea of companies suing governments over laws crushing said companies investments. Laws like banning pesticides on lawns. Clearly, not a single ambulance-chasing lawyer was among this group.
At the time it, everyone was caught off guard. Protests and activism was so passé. Little did we know that the styles and trends of the following decade was to be all about retro. But, as this decade draws to a close, the same WTO meetings drew a lot less protest and with much less media coverage. There was not a single story of a Starbucks being damaged.
Maybe, they were conserving the organizational weight for Copenhagen. After all, Greenpeace is always active in keeping activists active. Those crazy we-want-to-save-the-earth do-gooders – don’t they know it is a tradition and our right to pollute?
Smog has been an English tradition for over a hundred years. Heck, the English created the word - brilliantly and cleverly combining the words “smoke” and “fog”. As a proud dominion of the British and now American empires, we are strong supporters of this traditional right to pollute.
Although, not enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, per se, it is an unwritten right. What could be more Canadian that burning fossil fuels to heat our homes and drive our cars?
Had it not been for the extraction of iron and ore, and the raping of the land, we would not have had the resources to build this country. Without these mined resources, there would have been no steel to build the rail roads. Without diesel, there would have been nothing to run the locomotives. Without dynamite, we would not have had been able to clear thousands of kilometres of unsightly trees and rocks. In short, without the destruction of the environment we would have had to no railroad uniting Canada – and therefore, we would have had no Canada at all. This nation is founded upon the destruction of the environment.
If the tough economic times of the past year has taught us anything, it is the fragility of our pensions. Therefore, we should not be so worried about the environment as about creating good solid jobs that will put food on our families tables while we are away working in the oil patch six months of the year. Jobs that strengthen our communities by ensuring our boss’ boss’ boss gets a nice bonus that will pay for their 16 year-old’s new BMW, built in Spartanburg, USA and sold by one of Greater Toronto’s top employers. This is called re-investing in the community.
But Greenpeace knows where it’s at. They may say “stop the oil sands: stop killing the environment and making humans and animals sick.” But what their underlying goal is economic. Take their little banners-on-West-Block escapade that they pulled in Ottawa this morning. Five Greenpeacers got past security, and climbed the scaffolding to unravel anti-Harper and anti-Ignatieff banners. Those banners, appropriately done in French and English, would have cost money, ink and canvas to create. Thereby both employing a printer and using resources. The stunt led a dozen or so police and media trucks idling for several hours, thereby wasting much fuel. And, because of security breach, the Conservatives are sure to increase security by having more cars idling around Parliament Hill manned by more bored parliamentary policy corp. personnel. Greenpeace is doing its part to pull Canada out of a recession.
Not only that, they demonstrated today that Canada is not the pariah that we, as good self-criticizing Canadians, like to believe. Greenpeace targeted multiple countries, thereby indicating that many countries are killing the environment. See Canada ain’t alone. There is a whole group of us that are bad!
