- by Allison Billings
On May 23, 2019, 33 people gathered in Wiarton to spend the evening connecting and communicating about the climate crisis, social injustice and Indigenous sovereignty to inform the creation of a Canadian New Green Deal.
The Pact for a Green New Deal was launched May 6 in Canada, and seeks to communicate a common vision that addresses the climate crisis and rising social inequality. The Pact advocates for the full legislative adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, science and Indigenous knowledge led decision making, ensuring investment in job creation leaves no one behind and insisting that emissions be cut by at least 50% in the next 11 years.
My motivation for hosting the event was primarily that I believe we need a systems-based change to the way we presently do things to ensure the damage already done to the planet is mitigated. We absolutely have to work together to invest in the necessary transitions, and top- level transformation at a national and global level will only be realized if a common purpose is found across traditional Party lines.
Many of the attendees mentioned their accountability to their children’s futures, a feeling of urgency and a responsibility to act now. We had school teachers, business owners, retirees, parents, grandparents, new residents and those with a lengthy tenure in the area, as well as Federal candidates and Electoral District Association members contribute to the discussion. Community activist Leigh Grigg even organized a group cycle commute from nearby hamlets Lake Charles and Oxenden to the meeting.
At the over 150 Town Halls that have been scheduled across Canada, attendees are asked to consider “red lines”, items that cannot appear in the Pact, and “green” lines, issues that must be supported. We started our discussion with identifying major policy spheres, like education or health, and then broke out into smaller groups to define initiatives that fell within that portfolio.
Recognizing water as a human right; subsidizing local, fresh food; wetland and forest protection; investing in retraining, the green economy, and the power grid infrastructure; pricing pollution, regenerative agriculture; waste management strategies; transitioning away from single use plastics were all “green line” ideas (162 were generated!) that must be adopted. On the “red line” side, notably...”No Climate Deniers, No First Past the Post, No Nuclear DGR (Deep Geologic Repository).
Our Town Hall was incredibly fortunate to have Natasha and Andrew Akiwenzie of the Bagida-waad Alliance present. This gave us the opportunity to first listen to an Indigenous perspective, and nine actions to support Indigenous sovereignty were articulated; understand and support the Land Claim cases, support the Fisheries, insist on mandatory Indigenous studies that should also be taught by Indigenous people, support Indigenous language inclusion and learning, address implied and explicit racism, create anti -acism education for the local business community, listen to the wisdom of Elders on environmental concerns, personally invite First Nations to discussions, and take the opportunity presented by all instances of Reconciliation.
The passionate discussions the exercise instigated, and people's eagerness and openness to engaging ideas and learning about each other, underlined my secondary interest in hosting. As a fairly new resident to the Wiarton area, it’s been hard to find ways to connect about sustainability issues. I think we need more opportunities like this, in every community, to listen and talk, bridge divides, find commonality in person. One of the most gratifying outcomes for me was the desire to meet regularly. I am more than happy to continue hosting.
The ideas collected at the Town Halls will be submitted to inform the vision and the principles released later in the summer as The Green New Deal. We may all find that it serves as a rubric against which you can gauge your candidates and their Party’s efficacy to lead. But in the immediate sense, these 33 people listening to each other, laughing and learning from each other, felt exactly like the way we must all continue to grow our advocacy for our future.
To contact Allison : The Canadian Weather www.thecanadianweather.com
For further information about the Green New Deal and other local Green New Deal Town Halls to participate in, please visit https://greennewdealcanada.ca/
photo by Deborah Diebel
