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Harper's Chill Tactics Cause David Suzuki to Step Down From the Board of his Foundation
Sat, 2012-04-14 22:29
#1
Harper's Chill Tactics Cause David Suzuki to Step Down From the Board of his Foundation
Sat, 2012-04-14 22:30
#2
[url=http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/panther-lounge/2012/04/an-open-letter-f... open letter from Dr. David Suzuki[/url]
I am fiercely proud of how the Foundation brings science and solutions to environment problems. I'm determined to ensure that the Foundation continues to have the ability to solve critical environmental issues and bring hope for the future.
But I have reached a point in my life where I would like to consider myself an elder. I want to speak freely without fear that my words will be deemed too political, and harm the organization of which I am so proud. I am keenly aware that some governments, industries and special interest groups are working hard to silence us. They use threats to the Foundation's charitable status in attempts to mute its powerful voice on issues that matter deeply to you and many other Canadians.
This bullying demonstrates how important it is to speak out.
The Foundation's science-based, solutions-oriented research and educational work has enriched our democracy and reflected Canadian values for two decades. While not always happily received by governments or industrial interests, this work is strictly non-partisan, as required by the laws governing charities, and has made the Foundation one of the most trusted environmental voices in Canada.
Our opponents, however, are redoubling their efforts to marginalize the Foundation by getting at me, personally.
So last year, I made the decision to step off the board of directors of the David Suzuki Foundation. I remain one of its most active volunteers and committed major donors. This way I can fulfill my personal mission and the Foundation can continue to build on its inspiring work—for us and our grandchildren—in finding solutions to our shared, and very real, environmental challenges.
Sun, 2012-04-15 01:17
#3
Boom Boom
Yes, saw him interviewed on this subject last week on P&P. He's a hell of a guy.
Sun, 2012-04-15 01:40
#4
M. Spector
From the [url=http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/chrts/bdgts/2012/dglttr-eng.html]Dir... of Charities[/url] at the Canada Revenue Agency:
In recognition of the important contribution that registered charities can make to the public policy development process, they are specifically permitted [by already-existing legislation] to devote some of their resources to ancillary and incidental non-partisan political activities....Budget 2012... proposes to increase transparency by requiring more information about political activities [of charities], including the extent to which funding from foreign sources is used to carry on political activities.
In addition, Budget 2012 will provide the Charities Directorate with additional resources to allow us to enhance our education and compliance activities in the area of political activities.
In other words, as has been reported in the media, the feds are going to spend more tax dollars harrassing registered charities that (quite legally) engage in political activity that Harper doesn't like, such as opposition to environmental destruction.
Evidently Suzuki wants to be free to speak his mind without subjecting the Foundation to this kind of harrassment.
Sun, 2012-04-15 04:47
#5
Foreign sources? Sounds like sedition and general all around political interference. They should be racked and quartered for it!!
Tue, 2012-04-17 21:35
#6
If any group is engaged in political activity, doesn't that make them just another special interest group?
Tue, 2012-04-17 23:32
#7
Boom Boom
Suzuki really ripped Harper apart on P&P tonight.
Wed, 2012-04-18 19:06
#8
Problem is that Suzuki lost all rights to call himself a scientist a very long time ago. He's got no academic qualifications in the area but, that aside, is such an obnoxious individual that he alienates people (and this from someone that was a student at UBC when he was still teaching).
Wed, 2012-04-18 19:22
#9
M. Spector
I have no right to call myself a scientist either. Does that mean I should be criticized for opposing Harper's anti-environmental agenda?
Thu, 2012-04-19 00:30
#10
Boom Boom
Suzuki is probably my favourite Canadian. I've watched him on The Nature of Things since, well, almost from the beginning. I think he's the least obnoxious person I've ever seen on television. I can't think of a politician from any party in Canada in my lifetime (62 years) who comes even remotely close to the affection I feel for Suzuki.
Thu, 2012-04-19 00:32
#11
Problem is that Suzuki lost all rights to call himself a scientist a very long time ago. He's got no academic qualifications in the area
I'm confused.
scientist |ˈsīəntist|
noun
[b]a person who[/b] is studying or [b]has expert knowledge of one or more of the natural or physical sciences[/b].
[b]Suzuki earned a Ph.D in zoology[/b] from the University of Chicago in 1961, and was a professor in the genetics department at the University of British Columbia from 1963 until his retirement in 2001.
[b]Zoology[/b] (pronounced /zoʊˈɒlədʒi/, often incorrectly pronuonced /zuːˈɒlədʒi/[1], occasionally spelt zoölogy), [b]is the branch of biology[/b] that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct.
[b]Biology is a natural science[/b] concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy.
How is he not a scientist?
Thu, 2012-04-19 05:48
#12
Suzuki is preaching about climate change - his academic background has nothing to do with that. If you believe that having academic qualifications or, to be extreme, receiving a Nobel Prize in one field makes your pronouncements in another field credible so be it.
And Boom Boom, his television personna has little to do with his real life personality.
Thu, 2012-04-19 08:16
#13
Boom Boom
abnormal, there's zero chance I will ever meet David Suzuki face to face, just as there is zero chance I will ever meet any of our 308 federal politicians face to face. His television performances are all I have to go by. I've watched Suzuki I don't know how many years now on television, and I like the man. You obviously don't. C'est la vie.
Thu, 2012-04-19 08:47
#14
He's got no academic qualifications in the area but, that aside, is such an obnoxious individual that he alienates people (and this from someone that was a student at UBC when he was still teaching).
Were you one of his students? Were his classes well attended? In what way did he alienate people? Too strident?
Thu, 2012-04-19 09:03
#15
Suzuki can be irrascible. He even does it in front of lots of people.
So what?
Being a public figure does not tend to select for nice, warm, fuzzy, and supportive.
Let alone public figures who are willing to go on being critical in the face of constant flack.
Thu, 2012-04-19 09:06
#16
And Suzuki very clearly speaks as a scientist taking the approach of a good skeptic, not as someone with the academic credentials to do climate change research.
Thu, 2012-04-19 09:11
#17
I met Suzuki when he debated Phillippe Rushton at Western. Formidable opponent and eminent scientist.
Thu, 2012-04-19 11:50
#18
M. Spector
Lloyd George knew my father.
Thu, 2012-04-19 13:51
#19
Suzuki has a right to be pissed off..He and countless others worked hard thru there lives to bring environmental awareness to the world..To have it all scrapped by a divisive 2 bit piece of trash government owned by oil and gas tycoons that is only in power by defrauding the people 2 X is an act of war. Wake up Canada..and don't listen to ignoramous 's out there. It's time to destroy the right before they destroy you.
New http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zky2bn0Gtyg New
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-QvXax88J8
Thu, 2012-04-19 14:37
#20
Boom Boom
By the way, when I worked in Canada Manpower and Immigration in the 1970s, I met Trudeau and Chretien, as well as my bosses (in order) Bryce Mackasey, Otto Lang, and Robert Andras. My memory is foggy, I can't remember if I've met face to face any other MPs other than our BQ guy here in Manicouagan - before he was defeated.
ETA: I shook hands with Governor Nelson Rockefeller in Ogdensburg, NY at the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway project - I think 1959 or 1960, can't remember the exact date, but it was with my parents. I'm trying to remember who the Canadian representative was.
Thu, 2012-04-19 15:31
#21
"As the living systems of this part of the world are under the final assault by the BC Liberal government, you make headlines. You seem to have no idea of what Gordon Campbell is bringing down on us," Morton wrote to Suzuki and others in an open letter.
Morton's first angry response to Suzuki was followed by another less-publicized but equally strong criticism.
"What concerns me is the larger enviro groups have become an unelected bureaucracy that consults no one," Morton wrote. "Both the recent Great Bear Rainforest announcement and the incredibly stupid headline threatening to Punish Carole James are two points on a continuum which seem aptly explained below."
'Do or die'
"Clearly everyone has figured out this election is do or die for our province and while we can create change, we can't do it if the environmental bureaucracy supports Gordon Campbell. You guys have made our job nearly impossible," she said.
"The folks doing this no doubt think this is the way to save earth, but unless they are blind they know others have already thrown their weight in the opposite direction. And so this tack of greening Gordon Campbell is going to produce a standstill. You folks who are supporting Campbell have not factored in the power that the rest of us have and that will negate your own results," Morton wrote.
"Salmon farms in B.C. are a thing of the past, as they do not even own their fish now, but they are sitting pretty under a green umbrella and weathering this storm in comfort and with Campbell elected they will metastasize and don't think for a second that the wild salmon can take this forever," Morton concluded.
http://thetyee.ca/Views/2009/06/09/DavidSuzuki/
I think that Suzuki is one of the reasons we still have a BC Liberal government. He provided a fig leaf for the Libs to hide behind on the environmental file.
I found this article extremely amusing because I have personally met both men and found them both to be extremely arrogant in their self assessment of their own knowledge of any issue being discussed.
Thu, 2012-04-19 21:39
#22
abnormal, there's zero chance I will ever meet David Suzuki face to face, just as there is zero chance I will ever meet any of our 308 federal politicians face to face. His television performances are all I have to go by. I've watched Suzuki I don't know how many years now on television, and I like the man. You obviously don't. C'est la vie.
Call up your MP. It's not face to face, but they must listen to you.
http://www.parl.gc.ca/parlinfo/compilations/houseofcommons/memberbypostalcode.aspx?menu=hoc
Thu, 2012-04-19 23:29
#23
Boom Boom
Can't use the phone. I might visit him if he's in Sept-Iles sometime.
Thu, 2012-04-19 23:48
#24
Hoodeet (JW)Suzuki is preaching about climate change - his academic background has nothing to do with that. If you believe that having academic qualifications or, to be extreme, receiving a Nobel Prize in one field makes your pronouncements in another field credible so be it.
And Boom Boom, his television personna has little to do with his real life personality.
That is one of the most illogical statements I've ever read on rabble. A Ph.D. in science, a lifetime of exploration, research and deep study of issues in science, full engagement as a public intellectual and a concerned citizen... Climate change has scientific explanations; thousands of scientists around the world (biologists and physicists, among to others) have exposed it, expressed grave concern about it, and are actively involved in educating the public about it and combatting it. Suzuki is only one of these. Does that make all those other scientists unqualified?
You use the word "pronouncements" as if they were notions pulled out of thin air. Suzuki has been building his case for protection of the planet for decades, and one position follows from another and from scientific evidence.
It would appear that a case of right-wing, corporate poisoning may have affected your thinking and your speech. Do have it looked at.
Fri, 2012-04-20 00:58
#25
David Suzuki has spoken at an Occupy Vancouver event. He has attended a couple more, without much notice, listening at the back of the room. Perhaps epaulo13 can speak more to this.
Sat, 2012-04-21 08:46
#26
Boom Boom
