Earth Week in Review

Earth Week started with Halton Eco-Fest on Saturday, April 18th, then moved on to the RBG Earth Week Festival and ended with the Community Clean Up on Saturday, April 25th and the Green Living Show which ran from Friday, April 24th to Sunday, April 26th.

Halton Eco-Fest has grown every year, and this year hosted 110 exhibitors . Themes ranged from education to energy, health to home, politics to products. Of course, members from the Halton, Oakville and Burlington Green Party EDAs were there as well. Many thanks to the organizers for putting together such an informative event!

The RBG Earth Week Festival was a big hit. Students from Halton and Hamilton arrived throughout the day, by bus, to learn how to become more environmentally friendly. There were displays and workshops, as well as an opportunity to stroll around the RBG. I was very pleased to be able to volunteer at the BurlingtonGreen booth, teaching the students about how bottled water impacts our environment. My favourite part of the lesson was watching their faces when I told them that plastic bottles are made out of oil. Most of them were eager to pledge never to drink bottled water again!

Community Clean Up has become a very important community building event in my neighbourhood, and I am happy to say that we see more and more people out every year, pitching in and making a difference. We noticed that there was a lot less garbage this year and hope that this trend will continue.

The Living Green Show, at the Exhibition in Toronto, was a wonderful way to top off an extraordinary week. I met so many Green supporters and had the opportunity to talk to them about their concerns - both environmental and otherwise. There is a tremendous groundswell of support for Green Party initiatives. I feel so fortunate to be a part of the Green movement!

I hope you all enjoyed Earth Week!

Bottled Water

Water is the most abundant natural resource of them all. Clean safe drinking water, on the other hand is more scarce than most Canadians realize.

Even in Canada we are beginning to notice that our fresh water supply is in decline.

On Thursday, I had the opportunity to participate in the Ontario Network on Bottled Water and Public Water discussions that took place in Toronto. I was especially encouraged to know that there are now 33 municipalities in 7 provinces that have restricted the sale of bottled water.

Burlington may become the 34th. On April 14th, councillors will be voting on this issue. There is every indication that they will vote to ban the sale of bottled water at all municipal facilities.

However, the bottled water companies are becoming much more aggressive about defending their right to commodify water. Nestle has an employee, John B Callinor Jr, whose primary function seems to be to sway public officials from restricting bottled water sales. He is often quoted in community newspapers whenever municipalities are considering a ban on bottled water.

This tells me that the Canadian people are winning in the battle to preserve our water, and the right to have clean safe drinking water at the mere turn of the tap.

We are nearing the tipping point. The University of Winnipeg recently became the first University to ban bottled water. Several other Universities are expected to quickly follow suit.

It won't be long before provincial and federal governments start taking a serious look at the bottled water issue.

Amy

The Women and Girls of Afghanistan

Today's news from Afghanistan is very disturbing. President Karzai is supporting new legislation which would make it illegal for a woman to refuse to have sex with her husband, leave the house without his permission, or have custody of her children.

This is so reminiscent of the Taliban regime that I wonder why so many Canadian lives have been put on the front lines in Afghanistan. I thought we were supposed to be helping Afghani women and girls.

The number of Canadians killed or brutally injured in Afghanistan is steadily climbing, but it doesn't seem to have helped anyone. We need to change our tactics. We need to find a way to work with the Afghani people to promote human dignity and peace.

The lives of Afghani women and girls depend on how we respond to this legislation.