Great Lakes Commons Water Forum

April 27, 2013

12 to 5pm

Harbourfront Centre, York Quay Centre, Lakeside Terrace

235 Queens Quay West

* Please note that Queens Quay is under construction.  For updates please visit http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/construction/

We are very excited to have Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow speaking at our fourth annual Water Forum in defence of the Great Lakes.  Alanna Mitchell, journalist and author of Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis will MC the event. 

Other speakers include representatives from On the Commons, Great Lakes Water Walkers, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, IICPH, National Farmers Union - Ontario, and Rising Tide Toronto.

Comments on "Fear of fluoride"

This week's NOW magazine Alt.Health section discusses fluoride. We've sent in our reply!
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 Thank you NOW for bringing the issue of water fluoridation to the forefront in last week's issue. But you missed the mark. It is not ‘fluoride’ that is being added to our water. It’s toxic industrial waste called fluorosilic acid, inherently contaminated with heavy metals. Children in Vancouver and most countries around the world that don't forcibly fluoridate their citizens with this chemical have better dental health than those living in Toronto. The expansion of subsidized dental care programs for the poor shows that fifty years of artificial fluoridation didn’t work.

If the only benefit is from topical use, then purified and concentrated sodium fluoride in toothpaste, approved for this use and carrying a warning label against swallowing or use by young children, will do. Diluting industrial waste in our drinking water is not topical use. It’s pollution that severely overdoses the (toothless) bottle-fed baby. If swallowing fluoride helps teeth, then a cup of tea or teaspoon of salt per day provides it naturally and putting industrial waste in our drinking water is unnecessary.

The Council of Canadians has taken a strong national position against fluoridation on the basis of evidence of health harm to young children and the downstream environment. Toronto City Council ought to be able to do what the Windsor Council did: act on the numerous scientific studies that show adding industrial waste to public drinking water to increase everyone’s fluoride intake is not only ineffective, but unethical.

The Council of Canadians, Toronto chapter
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Link to the original article -  http://www.nowtoronto.com/lifestyle/story.cfm?content=191276

AUDIO: National Telephone Town Hall with Maude Barlow

Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, and Jamian Logue, Director of Development and Member Services, spoke with Council members from across the country about members’ priorities and how they will be reflected in our campaigns and the work we will be doing in 2013 to build a better Canada.

AUDIO: National Telephone Town Hall with Maude Barlow

February 6 - Next TCoC Monthly Meeting

Topic:  Sabotaging Democracy: 'Robocall' Voter Suppression in the 2011 Election
Guest Speaker: Professor Michael Keefer
Wednesday, February 6th, 7 – 9 p.m.
Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen Street West, Room 3 (on the 2nd floor)

Join us for our February chapter meeting. All welcome!

Revelations of widespread fraud and voter suppression around the 2011 federal election are a harsh reminder that as Canadians we cannot take our democracy for granted. Professor Michael Keefer, School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph discusses the May 2011 federal electoral fraud and the robocall issue. Currently eight Canadians are awaiting decision on their legal cases under the provisions of the Canada Elections act at the Supreme Court of Canada. The Council of Canadians has set up the Democracy 24-7 Legal Fund to pay the legal fees and associated costs of the applicants.

The documentary “Hacking Democracy” will be screened.

January 9th Planning Meeting

Join the Toronto Chapter of the Council of Canadians as we create our plan for 2013.

Wed, Jan 9th
7-9pm
Location: TBA

Please RSVP to torontochapter@gmail.com if you plan to attend with 2013 Planning Meeting   in the subject line.

Planet in Focus Environmental Film Festival

Our chapter is pleased to be a co-presenter at the 13th Annual Planet in Focus Environmental Film Festival. This is a terrific film festival with a stellar lineup of screenings, talks and more.

Join us on Sunday October 14, 12:15pm at the TIFF Lightbox for the Toronto Premiere of "Semper Fi: Always Faithful".

http://www.facebook.com/events/473643936013850/

No October meeting - but come to "She Speaks"!

There will be no October monthly meeting. Instead we invite you to join us at the “She Speaks: Indigenous Women Speak Out Against Tar Sands” event on Wednesday, October 3, 6:30 p.m. at the Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil Street.


October 3
She Speaks: Indigenous Women Speak Against Tar Sands

Date: Wednesday, October 3, 6:30 p.m.
Location: United Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil Street
Free!

Indigenous communities are taking the lead to stop the largest industrial project on Earth and Northern Alberta is ground zero with over 20 corporations operating in the tar sands sacrifice zone, with expanded developments being planned. The cultural heritage, land, ecosystems and health of Indigenous communities including those in the Athabasca, Peace River and Cold Lake regions of Alberta are being sacrificed for oil money in what has been termed a “slow industrial genocide”. Infrastructure projects linked to the tar sands expansion such as the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline, Kinder Morgan pipeline, Enbridge Line 9 reversal, and the Keystone XL pipeline threaten Indigenous communities across Turtle Island particularly Aamjiwnaang First Nation and the Haudenausaunee Confederacy here in Southern Ontario.

To build ties of solidarity and resistance, and to create a broad base on informed support, a speakers’ series is being organized in Coast Salish Territories (Vancouver) and in Ontario.

Speakers:

Crystal Lameman is a Beaver Lake Cree First Nation activist and the Peace River tar sands campaigner for the Indigenous Environmental Network in Alberta. Crystal is committed to restoring Native treaty rights and stopping the exploitation of the tar sands.

Melissa Elliott is co-founder of Young Onkwehonwe United, and a youth activist from the Haudenosaunee Territory of Six Nations. Known to most as Missy, she has organized to defend Kanonhstaton (the former Douglas Creek Estates), and to stop development projects on Six Nations territory being pushed through without their consent such as the Line 9 reversal project.

Vanessa Gray is a youth organizer from Aamjiwnaang First Nation, a community that has been named the most polluted place in North America by the National Geographic Society. She founded Green Teens, a environmental justice organization of Native youth to resist the impact of the 63 petrochemical refineries in her hometown and is an active campaigner for the rights of Indigenous people across these lands.

Suzanne Dhaliwal is the co-founder of the UK Tar Sands Network, which works in solidarity with the Indigenous Environmental network to campaign against UK corporations and financial institutions invested in the Alberta Tar Sands.

Moderated by Heather Milton-Lightning from the Pasqua First Nation, Ruckus Society and the Indigenous Environmental Network.

This event is organized by the Indigenous Environmental Network. IEN is an alliance of grassroots Indigenous Peoples whose mission is to protect the sacredness of Mother Earth from contamination and exploitation by strengthening, maintaining, and respecting traditional teachings and natural laws.

It is supported by No One Is Illegal - Toronto, Mining Injustice Solidarity Network, Toronto Bolivia Solidarity and others. For more information, to endorse or to support, please write to firstnationswomenspeakingtour@gmail.com

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