Letters
‘On the money’ theme Of all the cover images of Common Ground’s past issues, the October 2012 magazine struck me the most. I was raised a Roman Catholic and remember the story of Jesus whipping and chasing the merchants out of the temple of worship. The image also represents what most people feel about the financial speculators
The image also represents what most people feel about the financial speculators who gamble our future assets away. who gamble our future assets away and when they lose, get bailed out to start all over again. The image is also spiritual, manifesting as a physical social active charge against what is morally, ethically and just wrong thinking and action to the common people. Kudos for the brilliant Common Ground front page image. – Louis Bongiovanni Steven Harper works for corporate Canada 365 days a year I think the main issue is that Stephen Harper works for Corporate Canada 365 days a year; this FIPA deal is just business as usual, he’s not selling us out any more on this agreement than he already has on a dozen other things and will on a dozen more. Big Business runs Canada, they own the media and they control the top politicians, who govern for them. That is the mess we are in, and have got to get ourselves out of. Personally, I think media is very important, so you are doing good work with your magazine. – Jack Elkin, Victoria
Comment The state and fate of this small, blue planet by David Suzuki I was at Kyoto in 1997. India and China were there. The developing world was there. And the rich countries all agreed we created the problem. It was our profligate use of fossil fuels and we were still all collectively the major contributor of greenhouse gases. We were setting the model. If we can’t cap and reduce emissions, why should developing nations behave any differently? We were setting the model. Everyone agreed that we have a responsibility. Everyone understood that. The minute the negotiations were over, back in Canada, the Alberta delegation complained, [saying] well that’s not fair, the Indians and the Chinese are not in, what kind of treaty is this? But we agreed. We agreed that we had created the problem. Mr. Harper clearly indicated that he didn’t give a shit about Kyoto anyway. When he actually formally withdrew, I think that Canadians were pretty upset about that. Every time Mr. Harper has run, one of his main platform planks has
Mr. Harper clearly indicated that he didn’t give a shit about Kyoto anyway. been “Law and Order.” When Mr. Chrétien ratified Kyoto in 2001, he didn’t ratify that as a Liberal, he ratified that as the Prime Minister of Canada. And he committed Canada to that process. And when Putin ratified in 2004, it became international law for all of us who had ratified. For Mr. Harper to come in and say, I’m the law and order guy but I don’t give a shit about Kyoto, then you have to wonder what is going on here? What really does he mean? Maybe it’s not surprising a few years later he passed a law saying we were going to have an election every four years on a set date. And a few months later, he broke his own law and called an election. So we’ve got a renegade government in power and we’ve got to take it back. Excerpted from a talk by David Suzuki at the Vancouver International Writers Festival in October j
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common ground
November 2 012