BLACK OUT SPEAK OUT
Our website will be dark on June 4th.
The Ecology Action Centre has added its support to a campaign that has seen more than 13,000 people and over 100 groups sign up to participate in Black Out Speak Out on June 4.
The federal government’s budget bill C-38 is viewed as an attack on charities and federal environmental laws, which has triggered a groundswell of opposition, as will be seen on June 4 when hundreds of websites and blogs will be blacked out for the day, in symbolic protest.
“For the Ecology Action Centre, this represents an opportunity to stand in solidarity with other environmental groups in a time of government cuts and attacks on the validity of environmental charitable work,” said Louise Hanavan, Internal Director at the Centre.
The Black Out Speak Out campaign is a broad-based democratic protest: it is open to all Canadians to express their concerns regarding the federal direction on the environment and its attack on the democratic choices Canadians make every day.
"We see all around the world what happens when public debate is stifled and dissenting voices are intimidated," said Oxfam Canada executive director Robert Fox. "In Canada when some charities are targeted, all feel threatened and everyone loses out."
“Canadians deserve a government committed to a clean future and a safe climate for our children and grandchildren, not a government that is at the beck and call of big oil,” said Hannah McKinnon of the Climate Action Network. “We are speaking out because it is time for all Canadians to demand a government that works for people and not polluters.”
A diverse list of people and organizations have signed on, including Oxfam Canada, Reclaim our Democratic Canada, Kairos, Modrobes Inc., Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Voices-Voix Coalition, Mining Watch Canada, the United Steelworkers, Project Democracy, the Broadbent Institute, Lead Now, and Ontario Environmental Network. (For a full list of partners, visit http://blackoutspeakout.ca/partners.php)
Launched on May 7, Black Out Speak Out (or Silence, on parle!, in French) invites organizations, businesses and citizens from across Canada to participate in the protest on June 4, by speaking out against changes introduced in the federal government’s budget act (C-38); by darkening their websites; and taking other actions on June 4.
Black Out Speak Out is a joint project of CAPE, CPAWS, David Suzuki Foundation, Ecojustice, Environmental Defence, Equiterre, Greenpeace, Nature Canada, Pembina Institute, Sierra Club Canada, West Coast Environmental Law, and WWF Canada.
