Multi-talented writer Mark Leiren-Young dives into the world of sharks

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT: https://www.yammagazine.com/multi-talented-writer-mark-leiren-young-dives-into-the-world-of-sharks/

“The National Post once described Mark Leiren-Young as someone with a background in pretty much everything.

That’s fairly accurate.

Leiren-Young is a playwright, author, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, editor, podcaster, producer, director, documentarian, comedy performer, satirist, memoirist, university lecturer, occasional actor and full-time environmentalist.” -David Lennam, Yam Magazine.

Corky II — From Orcapedia by Paul Watson & Tiffany Humphrey

By Paul Watson & Tiffany Humphrey

1966 est Born

December 11, 1969
Captured in Pender Harbor, BC

1969
Sent to Marineland of Pacific

1987
Sent to SeaWorld San Diego

Species: Orcinus orca Breed: Northern Resident
Meaning of name: Irish for “hill hollow”
Captivity History: Captured at around age 4 from A5 pod in Pender Harbor, BC
Mother: Stripe (died in the wild in 2000)
Full Siblings: A21, A29, Okisollo, Ripple, FifeOffspring: Calf (1977) first Orca ever born in captivity but died after 16 days, Spooky (1978), Stillbirth (1980), Kive (1982), Calf (1985), Miscarriage (1986), Miscarriage (1987)
Sex: Female
Weight: 8,335 lbs.
Length: 20 ft.

Corky II has been in captivity longer than any other Orca. She is about the same age as Lolita, both with estimated birth years of 1966. She has had seven offspring with Orky II, none of which lived past 46 days.
Corky II is the largest female Orca in captivity. On August 21, 1989 Kandu V collided with Corky II, which caused Kandu V to fracture her upper jaw and bleed to death.

Corky II became a surrogate mother to Kandu V’s orphaned calf, Orkid after this incident. In 1990, Corky II pushed the mid-section of her trainer and again pushed a trainer in 1994, however, she is known to be a very sweet and gentle Orca.

Orcas: Our Shared Future at the Royal BC Museum (Victoria, Canada)

Rhapsody Orca Breaching

Exhibition on now

BUY TICKETS: https://sales.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/DateSelection.aspx?item=35

Dive deep into the stories and science that surround the magnificent orca, spirit of BC’s wild coast and apex predator of all oceans. Follow the currents of ecological activism, popular culture and Indigenous beliefs to gain a new appreciation of these sophisticated animals, long feared in Western cultures as “killer whales.” Discover the complex social structure of orca society and reflect on the surprising consequences of captivity.

The Salish Sea, over which the Royal BC Museum peers, is the historical “coast zero” for both the market in captive orcas and the surge in scientific research about orcas.

Learn which orca populations are thriving and which are at risk, and surface with a new understanding of how orcas and humans are inextricably connected: we are all part of nature, not apart from nature.

Discussing the “Charming” Psychopathy of Corporations with Filmmaker Joel Bakan

By Izzy Almasi 

What do you think of when you hear the word “psychopath?” Is it Norman Bates dressed in his darling mother’s clothes? Perhaps it’s Christian Bale’s handsome face spattered with blood in American Psycho. I’m sure the logo of a large corporation like Nike or Apple wasn’t the first image to pop into your head.

Joel Bakan, the world-famous filmmaker, lawyer, author and esteemed jazz guitarist, has made it his mission to reveal the true psychopathy and dangers of large corporations fed by capitalist pursuits in his latest film The New Corporation.

“We were learning about corporations and we were learning that they were persons, that the law sort of created them, constituted them, recognized them as these artificial beings,” says Bakan in a recent Zoom interview with Skaana podcast host Mark Leiren-Young. “We create this person. And then we imbue it with a personality that says it can only act in its own self-interest. It can’t act in ways that care for others, or for the environment, or for nature, or nonhuman animals, or any of that. It always has to act in its own self-interest. And what is that self-interest, basically? The collective financial interests of the shareholders that constitute the corporation.”

Bakan’s 2003 documentary The Corporation, which won 26 international awards including an Audience Award at Sundance Film Festival, and was based on his book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, reveals the corruption, exploitation, and interference in democracy that came as a result of the rise of the contemporary corporation.

Now at the start of 2021, not only is the film more relevant than ever, but the events of the last decade have unfortunately warranted a documentary sequel, The New Corporation, based on his 2020 book The New Corporation: How “Good” Corporations are Bad for Democracy.

“Here we are, ten years out from [The Corporation] and every single thing that the film addressed — climate change, species extinction, the rise of anti-democratic movements. I mean, everything — inequality, racial, economic inequality, colonialism. Every single issue has gotten worse,” says Bakan.

Bakan identifies a variety of issues that give corporations the power to get away with various crimes, misdemeanors and violations of democracy. It is not only the sheer magnitude of these companies that imbue them with such power, but the recognition of their “personhood” within the eyes of the law.

“The law says what a human being is, all that we recognize [the human being] as a subject of law,” says Bakan. “Sometimes we take large groups of human beings and say, ‘They’re not human beings for the purpose of law.’ And then sometimes we take non-human beings and say, ‘They are persons for the purpose of law.’ And that’s what we do with corporations. And the reason we do that is because capitalism requires that.”

But Bakan maintains hope for the future. The continued efforts of climate strikes, social justice movements, and the presence of progressive politicians in positions of power, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Barcelona mayor Ada Colau, and Senator Bernie Sanders, signals a shift from grassroots activism to exercises in democracy that can wield real change.

“What we’re seeing, I think, is a rediscovery of democratic ‘large P’ politics as something that activists should be doing and need to be doing,” says Bakan. “Not just occupying the streets, not just occupying the squares of cities, but actually occupying the institutions of government and bringing into those institutions values that belie the sort of hegemony of economic and corporate values that have built up and deepened over the last 40 years.”

To listen to the full interview, head to Spotify, www.skaana.org, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher. For more information about The New Corporation, Bakan’s books and his work, check out his website. Be sure to read his 2020 article in The Globe and Mail, and follow him on Twitter (@joelbakan).

World Whale Day- Online Event

Feb 21, 2021 – 2 pm PST

Skaana podcast host, Mark Leiren-Young, shares stories about orca history, orca language and orca love from his award-winning book, the story of Moby Doll – The Killer Whale Who Changed the World.

Join the pod as Mark streams stories from the coast of the Salish Sea – home of the amazing and endangered southern resident orcas – on Facebook live.

To attend this online event, register on Eventbrite using this link bit.ly/world-whale-day 

Carl Safina Talks Critter Culture, Communication and Complexity of Animal Emotions on Skaana

Written by Izzy Almasi 

Have you ever watched an animal in the wild or, perhaps, in a nature documentary and wondered what their life is like? Sure, they live on the same planet as us, breathe the same air, exist under the same sky. But it can feel like they live in another world.

According to renowned ecologist and author, Carl Safina, animals and humans have much in common. It’s actually cultural differences between humans that makes the animal world so similar to our own. “There are a lot of animals that have culture,” Safina told Skaana host, Mark Leiren-Young in a recent Zoom interview. “Culture is the behaviors, the traditions, the habits, the practices, and even the attractions that flow socially. They don’t come purely instinctively. You learn them from a social group.”

Carl Safina is the New York Times bestselling author of Beyond Words, which was adapted into two celebrated children’s books, Song for the Blue Ocean, and, most recently, Becoming Wild. Safina has been featured on NPR, The Colbert Report, and even The Martha Stewart Show. He is the founder of the Safina Centre whose mission is “fusing scientific understanding, emotional connection, and a moral call to action”.

Carl Safina writing underwater in Bonaire

An animal lover from a young age, Safina continues to study- and be astounded by — the complexity of animal culture and communication. When discussing the communication patterns of whales and dolphins Safina said, “It’s a pretty mind boggling thing. If [communication] really happened the way as we observed and described, it means that [whales and dolphins] have a way of saying a lot to each other that we totally don’t understand… They do something that requires detailed communication and we have no idea right now how they’re doing it.”

Not only do animals and people share a reliance on communication to survive, but animals also have ‘careers,’ in order to survive. “I know animals do make a living. What else do they do besides make a living?” says Safina. “Most of the animals we’re talking about are very mobile and they have to go and get their food. So they are making a living.”

Safina is concerned about the scientific community’s resistance to anthropomorphism and how it affects the treatment of free-living animals and conservation. “A rule that says you can’t attribute human thoughts and emotions to non-humans is not scientific. Science is supposed to look at evidence first and then believe what the evidence says. It’s not supposed to tell you ahead of time what you’re allowed to believe,” says Safina. “It’s not a scientific thing to say, ‘You are not allowed to anthropomorphize. You’re not allowed to attribute human thoughts and emotions to other animals.’ Some other animals have thoughts and emotions that are quite similar to ours for reasons that are quite similar to why we have them and how we use them.”

Carl Safina working in Setauket

Above all else, Safina asks people to care about the world around them and to take active steps to make a difference. “The first step is to care, but then you have to translate some caring into some action. Everybody who cares should do something,” he says. “You can’t do everything. You can’t save the world, you can’t solve all the problems. But everybody can do something. Figure out what suits you, what seems amenable to your personality. or your budget, or whatever it is. Everybody can do something.”

To listen to the full interview please visit Skaana at Spotify, www.skaana.org, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher and visit Carl Safina’s website and the Safina Centre’s website for more information about his work and mission and check out Becoming Wild.

2020 Ten Squared Exhibition

Check out Skaana Producer, Rayne Ellycrys Benu’s, art in the 2020 Ten Squared Exhibition at the Federation Gallery! Dec 14-23 2020

“Make memorable moments this season with over 300 original artworks from over 100 Canadian artists. Do you have something for everyone your list? This exhibition has a variety of styles, colours and subjects for everyone – naughty or nice! You know, you should secure a little something for yourself after all these family meals and work parties.

 So what can you expect to see in the gallery? All the paintings in this exhibition are hand-made, original works of art. Each piece is exactly 10″ x 10″ – there is always a little wall space left for a small painting!”

Click this link to check out a preview of the exhibition online!

 

Fish — Friends or Food? Discussing Fisheries and Conservation with Legendary Fisheries Expert Daniel Pauly

Image credit: Ms. Valentina Ruiz-Leotaud

By Izzy Almasi

When you’re eating spicy tuna rolls or fish and chips, do you ever wonder where the fish came from? Do you know if it’s Canadian, Chinese, or Spanish? Daniel Pauly, one of the world’s foremost fisheries experts, wants us to take a minute to consider how well-travelled the fish on our plates may be and how ethically it was sourced.

“Fish consumption has increased globally. It is now 20 kilos per person, per year of fish. It was half of that just a few decades ago. And it is mainly in the developed world,” Pauly said in a recent interview on the Skaana podcast with Mark Leiren-Young. “We don’t produce the fish. We just collect the fish that nature produces. We cannot make fish that we need. We have to take it from somebody else’s stock.”

Pauly is responsible for coining the hugely influential term “shifting baselines,” that is used to describe the slow and subtle degradation of an ecosystem people may not immediately notice, but that can result in catastrophic long-term effects. The UBC Killam professor for the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries has done extensive research on the impacts overfishing and poor regulation has on fish populations around the world. He is author and co-author numerous influential books, including his latest, Vanishing Fish, and over 1000 academic articles.

As an expert who has been profiled by The New York Times, Science Magazine and media around the world, Pauly warns that as we become a more globalized community, these problems need to be considered beyond country borders.

“The main reason why we need to study fisheries globally is because studying them at a local level doesn’t capture the dynamics,” says Pauly. “[Fish] know borders of temperatures, borders of depth. They don’t wander just anywhere. But fishing fleets don’t know borders. They go everywhere legally or illegally.”

The issues surrounding fisheries around the world are complex, and Pauly shares his insight into some of the flaws and challenges Canada’s fisheries face, including the treatment of fellow expert and activist Alexandra Morton who was gaslit by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) after expressing concerns about parasites in farmed fish. “I invested myself in the defense of Alexandra… There were several meetings where I criticized the DFO for the lies that they were spreading,” says Pauly. “Having seen the regular [parasite] infestation of young fish, and then listening to the head of research saying that Alexandra spiked the fish, it makes your blood boil.”

Even though the situation surrounding fisheries looks grim, Pauly believes that by educating ourselves and voicing our concerns to the government, we can create the change we need to see. “The next step is getting organized with people and to be politically active,” says Pauly. “Because at the end of the day, if the stuff that we do is not directed at government and picked up by governments, they will never become effective for the population as a whole. So one has to direct one’s activities at government.”

Learn more about Pauly’s work and the world of ichthyology by visiting www.fishbase.org to explore the vast catalogue of fish species that have been collected by Pauly and many others throughout the years.

To listen to the full interview, please visit Spotify, www.skaana.org, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher . Be sure to tune in to Skaana for upcoming episodes with guests like author and environmentalist Isabelle Groc and renowned anthropologist Wade Davis. To read more about Daniel Pauly’s work, check out his profile on the UBC website and his TED Talk.

Wade Davis’s Thoughts on the Future of America and a Country Divided

By Izzy Almasi

The United States is a country divided into Republicans and Democrats, haves and have nots, Biden and Trump supporters. But what does this mean for the future of America? According to world-renowned anthropologist and best-selling author Wade Davis, it means the American people have some work to do if they want to maintain their country’s status and legacy.

“Whatever happens in November, it won’t mean the end of this incredible schism between the two halves of the American reality,” says Davis in the second part of his interview with Skaana podcast host Mark Leiren-Young. “Even if Trump is resoundingly defeated, there still will be the desperate need to heal the two halves of the American reality.”

As a distinguished professor of anthropology at UBC, National Geographic explorer, and most recently the author of the viral Rolling Stone article titled “How COVID-19 Signals the End of the American Era,” Wade Davis wants the American people to know that this election is about more than which side of the political spectrum you fall on. It is about upholding the democracy that the country was built on.

“I think it’ll be a profound lesson for America that you don’t take your democracy lightly. You don’t vote your grievances, indulging your own indignations. The vote is something more serious than that. It’s a vote as to the destiny of your country,” says Davis. “I think mercifully the vast majority of Americans, good and decent people, recognize that Trump has been a disaster for the reputation of America as a global power and as inspiration to the world.”

Though Davis is clear in his concern for the American legacy and what lies ahead, he calls on people to maintain hope. The country can repair itself to create a positive vision for the future.

“I’m always optimistic because I think pessimism is an indulgence and despair is an insult to the imagination, just like orthodoxy is the enemy of invention,” says Davis. “If Americans don’t find, as Lincoln said ‘the better angels of nature’, if they’re not able to find some path of forgiveness to embrace people of other backgrounds, and if they don’t have any sense of a greater common good, a nation to serve and not just with flag wrap patriotism, but with something far more important — loving, compassionate, and kind acts that resonate through eternity as good. If [the American people] can’t find their way back to that, then this really will be the end of the American era.”

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TO VOTE

Visit the USAGov website to learn more about how to register to vote and how to prepare for the November 4th election to ensure that your voice is heard.

TO LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH WADE DAVIS

Visit Spotify, www.skaana.org, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher. Skaana’s interview with Wade Davis is a two-part special focusing on America under Trump. Be sure to check out the Rolling Stone article. Click here for books by Wade Davis — including Magdalena: River of Dreams.

FOR MORE SKAANA

If you’d like to hear more from the Skaana Pod, tune in to Orca Bites every Monday! And share your stories of the first time you ever saw a whale on our Anchor platform.

Discussing the Symptoms of COVID Culture, Donald Trump, and the American “Empire” with Wade Davis

By Izzy Almasi & Mark Leiren-Young

Does Donald Trump’s irresponsible response to COVID mean the American Era is over? Wade Davis, the best-selling author and world-renowned anthropologist, thinks America’s response to COVID is a symptom that the country is diseased.

“America was the land of Walt Whitman, the Grateful Dead. Abraham Lincoln couldn’t tell a lie. The current president cannot recognize the truth,” David told the Skaana podcast. “If Lincoln called for charity for all and malice toward none, this dark troll of a buffoon, advocates for malice towards all and charity for none.”

Best known for his books like One River and the 2012 Samuel Johnson Prize Winner Into the Silence, Davis made international headlines when he published an article in Rolling Stone titled “How Covid-19 Signals the End of the American Era” that went viral. According to the CBC, the article made nearly 10 million impressions on social media within a week of publication.

“COVID reveals what has been lost. In the same way that Donald Trump didn’t cause any of this, he’s a symptom of the decline… When you look at Americans who deny the science, who deliberately ignore the advice of the medical authorities, who in masses go to beaches and conventions and bars, they think they’re flaunting their strength in their freedom. They’re actually showing the weakness of a people that lack the stoicism to endure the pandemic or the fortitude to defeat it.”

As someone who specializes in the study of human culture, Davis knows that the types of challenges we are facing are not uncommon or unheard of in humanity’s history. In fact, humans tend to repeat ourselves. “The fluidity of memory and our capacity to forget is the most haunting trait of our species,” says Davis. “That’s how we’re able to adapt to almost any degree of environmental or even moral degradation.”

Although his latest book, Magdalena, is about the Magdalena river in Colombia and its ties to Colombian culture, history and ecology, Davis felt he had to share his thoughts on America before the US election on November 4th. “I travel always in pursuit of stories. I’m a storyteller. And, for me, research in the field has always been wondrous, but so too has been research in libraries and archives,” says Davis. “COVID is not a story of medicine. It’s not a story of morbidity and mortality. It’s a story of culture.”

And, in America, it’s also a horror story.

TO VOTE

Visit the USAGov website to learn more about how to register to vote and how to prepare for the November 4th election to ensure that your voice is heard.

TO LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH WADE DAVIS

Visit Spotify, www.skaana.org, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher. Skaana’s interview with Wade Davis will be a two-part special focusing on America under Trump. Be sure to check out the Rolling Stone article. Click here for books by Wade Davis – including Magdalena: River of Dreams.

FOR MORE SKAANA

If you’d like to hear more from the Skaana Pod, tune in to Orca Bites every Monday! And share your favourite whale memories or your stories of the first time you ever saw a whale on our Anchor platform.

 

Join Skaana Host Mark Leiren-Young for the 2020 Victoria Book Prizes Gala!

Mark has been nominated for a City of Victoria Children’s Book Prize and would like to invite you all to join in the online gala happening this year to celebrate!

“Join us for a free online event celebrating our region’s finest authors. CBC Radio’s Gregor Craigie will host the gala in a new format, but it will still include readings by shortlisted authors and the awarding of the Victoria Book Prizes. Please register to attend using the link below.”

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/2020-victoria-book-prizes-tickets-119106748491

For more information go to the the Victoria Book Prize website http://victoriabookprizes.ca/

or the Facebook event HERE

Skaana Talks Animals and Emotions with The Hidden Life of Trees Author Peter Wohlleben

By Izzy Almasi

“We have brothers and sisters in nature,” says German author Peter Wohlleben in a recent interview with Skaana podcast host Mark Leiren-Young. “For many people, that’s a problem because it disturbs business. It disturbs daily life because you have to look at what you have on your plate, you have to look at what you buy and so on.”

Wohlleben is the author of multiple best-selling books documenting the rich inner lives of plants and animals, including 2016’s The Hidden Life of Trees. Through his work, he has become an advocate for recognizing the rights of the natural world. He urges people to look at animals and plants as more than a collection of specimens and potential products.

“I’m hungry and I’m a living being. I also have rights and that’s exactly what it is about. I can also regard my rights. I can enjoy life. But in every case, where it is possible, I take care of other creatures,” says Wohlleben. “I think that’s the fear when we give all those creatures rights, then we have to starve to death. No, that’s not what it is about. It’s about being respectful.”

Wohlleben believes that in order to effectively engage the public in conversations about animal rights and environmentalism, there needs to be an emotional component to remind people that humans and nature are deeply interconnected.

“We have to bring more emotions into the process and the discussions about environmental things and climate change. Because when we just discuss the numbers, it’s emotionally so far away. It doesn’t touch your heart, just your mind.”

As an enthusiastic observer of the natural world, Wohlleben continues to be amazed by the complexity of plants and animals, some of which may be beyond human understanding. He believes that these unsolvable mysteries are what makes nature so wonderful and worth our respect.

“I think animals have abilities that we don’t have, and which can be explained in easy technical terms. And there are wonderful things, like the goats which are able to forecast [volcanic eruptions] … But I think we don’t need to explain everything,” he says.

To listen to the full interview, head to Spotify, www.skaana.org, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher. Be sure to tune in to Skaana for upcoming episodes with guests like renowned ichthyologist Daniel Pauly, and author and environmentalist Isabelle Groc. To read more about Wohlleben’s work, check out his books The Hidden Life of Trees, The Inner Life of Animals, The Secret Wisdom of Nature, Can You Hear the Trees Talking?, and Peter and the Tree Children. And follow Peter on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram for more information.

Real-Life Eco-Superhero Robbie Bond Talks Saving Parks with Skaana

Article by Izzy Almasi

Alberni Valley Words On Fire Open Mic Event

August 26 at 7pm

Come and join Skaana Host Mark Leiren-Young for:

Char’s landing & Federation of British Columbia Writers present via Zoom

Alberni Valley Words On Fire Open Mic Event 

The Greater B.C.-Yukon Eco-Friendly Live Online Quite Determined (video conference) Literary Road Trip 2020

www.charslanding.com Follow the link to the zoom session. Doors at 6:30pm. Sign up ahead of time for the open mic spot (up to 5 minutes). Listeners welcome!

Exploring Animal Emotions with Marc Bekoff

By Izzy Almasi

“It’s not about how smart animals are. It’s about whether they can feel,” says author and animal-rights advocate Marc Bekoff in a recent interview with Skaana podcast host Mark Leiren-Young. “It’s not whether they can talk or think, it’s whether they can suffer.”

A professor emeritus at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Fellow of the Animal Behaviour Society, Bekoff has published 31 books exploring the inner lives of animals. He has worked closely with Jane Goodall and the two co-authored the book, The Ten Trusts: What We Must Do to Care for The Animals We Love.

He told Leiren-Young that he’s always been interested in the lives and emotions of wildlife and domestic pets or, as he refers to them, “non-human animals.” Throughout his career, Bekoff has become a champion for recognizing the rights and personhood of animals.

“Across the world, animals are not seen as subjects of life. They’re seen as objects… For example, legal systems say the word ‘person’ only applies to human individuals. So you’re trying to dismantle long-lasting and well-accepted legal standards if you will,” he says. “I tell people ‘don’t give up.’ The minute you give up, you’re feeding into the people who want you to give up.”

One of Bekoff’s key arguments for recognizing the rights and individuality of animals is to change the language we use when discussing them. By using a discourse that is similar to the way we talk about people, we acknowledge animals as living, feeling, sentient beings. “It’s a matter of who we eat, not what we eat. Who’s for dinner, not what’s for dinner,” says Bekoff. “It’s the animals who eat the animals, who we keep in cages, who we keep in aquariums… Words matter.”

Bekoff maintains that change is always possible if we remain hopeful and diligent. “I just am a glass half full person. I know some people think I’m crazy, but that’s just who I am… What gives me hope is that there are good things happening,” says Bekoff. “And I always say, ‘without hope you’re screwed.’ If you believe that everything you’re doing has no potential benefits or means that things are hopeless, then they will be hopeless.”

To listen to the full interview, visit www.skaana.org, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher. Be sure to tune in to Skaana for upcoming episodes with guests like renowned ichthyologist Daniel Pauly, author and environmentalist Isabelle Groc and inspiring young eco-hero, Robbie Bond. To read more about Bekoff’s work and essays, check out his website and his stories in Psychology Today.

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SRC Virtual Visit: Author Mark Leiren-Young

Explore our Universe this summer with North Vancouver District Public Library and North Vancouver City Library!

Join us for a virtual visit with author Mark Leiren-Young. Mark is the author of Orcas Everywhere: The Mystery and History of Killer Whales, Orcas of the Salish Sea and Big Whales Small World. Tune in to learn about Mark’s books, and of course, orcas!

This program is offered in partnership with North Vancouver City Library.

Registration required as space is limited.

We’re hosting this virtual program on Zoom. An email address is required for registration. We will email you the Zoom link in advance of the program.

What you’ll need to attend: a computer with microphone (or headphones) and webcam OR your smartphone/tablet.

Location:

  • Zoom

Time:

  • Tuesday, August 18, 2020 – 10:30am

Audience:

  • Children

Click HERE to register

Discussing Grief, the Environment, and COVID-19 with Thanatologist Kriss Kevorkian

By Izzy Almasi

“I had this overwhelming sense of grief as I was reading about the destruction of the environment, more whale species just beaching themselves and so on. As I was reading all of this, this grief just kept coming up. And I’m like, I have environmental grief,” says Kriss Kevorkian. Kevorkian is a thanatologist, someone who studies death, dying and bereavement. Despite the last name and area of expertise, she is no relation to Dr. Jack Kevorkian — who became famous in the US for his work on assisted dying.

In a recent interview with Skaana podcast host Mark Leiren-Young, Kevorkian offered advice on how to cope with a world being rocked by COVID-19. “It’s not an easy time for anybody, but if you can find that something just within a moment where you can see any glimmer of hope, build on that and that will hopefully help you keep going… The lessons that I find from grief and from death are appreciating what we have in the now.”

Kevorkian’s key advice for anyone struggling to process the whirlwind world we live in, is to savour the details of our lives.

“Every moment, every person, every loved one, whether it’s nature, humans, whatever,” says Kevorkian. “Appreciate it all, because you never know when it’s going to be gone.”

Kevorkian’s own experiences led her to coin the term “environmental grief” and brought a new perspective to the field by recognizing the similarities between people’s reactions to the death of a loved one, and to the degradation of the environment.

“The way that I defined [environmental grief] was that it’s the grief reaction stemming from the environmental loss of ecosystems caused by natural or man-made events,” she says. “Ecological grief is the grief reaction stemming from the disconnection and relational loss from our natural world.”

Kevorkian is resistant to making these definitions clinical. She wants people to know that the emotional responses they are having to our ever-changing world is normal and takes time to process.

“I don’t want [environmental grief] to be medicalized. I don’t see grief as a disorder. I see it as a life issue and so I wish people would stop trying to medicalize it because I don’t see my environmental grief or ecological grief as a disorder. I see it as a proper reaction to what’s happening on the planet and to species,” says Kevorkian. “It’s part of the anticipatory grief that people have as our roles are changing. Everything that we’re seeing is changing. It’s all different. What is our future going to be? How is it going to change?”

To listen to the full interview visit www.skaana.org, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher. Be sure to tune in to Skaana for upcoming episodes with guests like renowned ichthyologist Daniel Pauly and Paul Wohlleben, author of The Secret Life of Trees, and inspiring young eco-hero, Robbie Bond. For more information on Kriss Kevorkian’s work, visit https://drkkevorkian.com .

Orcas: Love at First Splash

Writing Orca Books for Young Readers

Everybody knows orcas are awesome and they will steal your heart. They are part of the logo of the Vancouver Canucks and the Royal British Columbia Museum will be launching a major exhibit about orcas almost as soon as they’re allowed to open their doors post-Covid.

They are so important that I think it’s now illegal to create a tourism ad for B.C. (or Washington State) that doesn’t feature an orca spy-hopping or soaring above the water in a mind-blowing breach.

The orcas we know best are the “southern residents.” These were the first orcas that humans met in captivity… the orcas that the Canadian government once plotted to exterminate so we wouldn’t have to share salmon with them…

Orcas used to spend all summer long in the Salish Sea. When I discovered that some people believed that “Granny,” the matriarch of the southern residents, might be over a hundred years-old, I set out to make a movie about her.

The southern residents were in the middle of a baby boom. The population wasn’t thriving, but it was recovering from the era when we’d wiped them out by shooting them and taken a generation of their children to perform in marine parks.

Granny had just been elected honorary Mayor of Orcas Island. Almost everyone I interviewed was upbeat, hopeful, optimistic. The moment I saw Granny fly through the air — like she was ready for her close-up — the matriarch and her pod owned me.

Those were ancient times. Justin Trudeau was Canada’s shiny new Prime Minister. Barack Obama was president of the United States. The iPhone seven had just been released. The year was 2016.

That January, the southern residents lost J55 — an orca who died so soon after birth that researchers never confirmed the young whale’s gender or mother. Six more southern residents were gone before the end of the year. The Center for Whale Researchers waited until the start of 2017 to announce the death of Granny.

That’s when we realized these orcas were in trouble. I wanted to do what I could to inspire people to fight for them. So, I was thrilled when Ruth Linka, the editorial director at Orca Book Publishers asked if I’d be interested in writing about her company’s namesake for young readers.

I wanted to share how and why I fell for these whales. I wanted to share stories about how intelligent they are, how they look after each other and what humans can do to help them. I also wanted to write about what humans have done — and are still doing — to destroy them.

I wanted to write a book that would not only surprise and excite readers who were already into whales, but also inspire readers who’d never really thought about them. Equally important, I wanted to let young readers know what they could do to make a difference.

One of the most compelling speakers fighting for the southern resident orcas in Washington State is London Fletcher. For the last few years she’s been battling to breach dams in the U.S. to help save the Chinook salmon — the primary food source for the southern residents.

London is a member of the Society of Marine Mammology and the Acoustical Society of America. She’s twelve and she has told politicians, the media and the public, “We just can’t let them go without a fight.”

But she’s hardly alone.

Ella Grace from Ontario was eight when she was inspired by eco-warrior Rob Stewart to fight for sharks and the oceans.

Powell River’s Ta’Kaiya Blaney from Sliammon First Nation was eight when she started speaking out — and singing — about the dangers of a spill from the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline.

I’ve always enjoyed writing theatre for young audiences because they’re engaged. They don’t just ask questions, they want and, sometimes demand, answers. So, doing Orcas Everywhere was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

In a lot of ways, this book was created as Orcas 101 — for adults, too — as an all-purpose introduction to these magnificent beings. I want to inspire readers of all ages to join with leaders like London, Ta’Kaiya and Ella to fight on behalf of another species.

It all starts with love.

All of my new orca books are available at bookstores and online everywhere or at orcaseverywhere.com

London Fletcher — fighting for orcas

July Book Launch from Playwrights Canada Press

Join Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young for a very exciting launch event on July 9 2020 (9 PM – 10 PM EDT)!

Join Playwrights Canada Press in celebrating the launch of five new plays with a live virtual group author reading from across the country!

IN ORDER TO ATTEND, YOU MUST REGISTER (FOR FREE) AT THIS LINK: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/5415931097353/WN_Mm5eNvYPRJm6CZ1Deho5mw

Starts promptly at 9pm EDT, 7pm MDT, 6pm PDT.

Featuring:
It's All Tru by Sky Gilbert
Speed Dating for Sperm Donors by Natalie Meisner
Bar Mitzvah Boy by Mark Leiren-Young
Quick Bright Things by Christopher Cook
Sequence by Arun Lakra

Want to purchase the books before the event? All print and ebooks are currently 25% off at playwrightscanada.com!

It's All Tru
Love, sex, and pharmaceuticals are put to the test when a gay couple’s open relationship is threatened with dangerous consequences.

Speed Dating for Sperm Donors
Can a lesbian couple find Mr. Right? When Helen and Paige set out to find a sperm donor who can be known to their future child but not involved their upbringing, the normally anonymous challenge becomes even more intimate than expected.

Bar Mitzvah Boy
When a sixty-something divorce lawyer convinces a young rabbi to help him get a quickie Bar Mitzvah, the pair embark on a hilarious crash course that leads them into sentimental reflections on their faith and family.

Quick Bright Things
When a father and son set out for a quick visit with family for dinner, their pit stop turns into a tense weekend-long event when nobody around them understands or knows how to deal with the son’s schizophrenia diagnosis.

Sequence
In a scintillating back-and-forth puzzle of “what if,” the foundations of what we know and how we know them come into question through two interwoven narratives.

Orcas: Love at First Splash

Writing Orca Books for Young Readers

Everybody knows orcas are awesome and they will steal your heart. They are part of the logo of the Vancouver Canucks and the Royal British Columbia Museum will be launching a major exhibit about orcas almost as soon as they’re allowed to open their doors post-Covid.

They are so important that I think it’s now illegal to create a tourism ad for B.C. (or Washington State) that doesn’t feature an orca spy-hopping or soaring above the water in a mind-blowing breach.

The orcas we know best are the “southern residents.” These were the first orcas that humans met in captivity… the orcas that the Canadian government once plotted to exterminate so we wouldn’t have to share salmon with them…

Orcas used to spend all summer long in the Salish Sea. When I discovered that some people believed that “Granny,” the matriarch of the southern residents, might be over a hundred years-old, I set out to make a movie about her.

The southern residents were in the middle of a baby boom. The population wasn’t thriving, but it was recovering from the era when we’d wiped them out by shooting them and taken a generation of their children to perform in marine parks.

Granny had just been elected honorary Mayor of Orcas Island. Almost everyone I interviewed was upbeat, hopeful, optimistic. The moment I saw Granny fly through the air — like she was ready for her close-up — the matriarch and her pod owned me.

Those were ancient times. Justin Trudeau was Canada’s shiny new Prime Minister. Barack Obama was president of the United States. The iPhone seven had just been released. The year was 2016.

That January, the southern residents lost J55 — an orca who died so soon after birth that researchers never confirmed the young whale’s gender or mother. Six more southern residents were gone before the end of the year. The Center for Whale Researchers waited until the start of 2017 to announce the death of Granny.

That’s when we realized these orcas were in trouble. I wanted to do what I could to inspire people to fight for them. So, I was thrilled when Ruth Linka, the editorial director at Orca Book Publishers asked if I’d be interested in writing about her company’s namesake for young readers.

I wanted to share how and why I fell for these whales. I wanted to share stories about how intelligent they are, how they look after each other and what humans can do to help them. I also wanted to write about what humans have done — and are still doing — to destroy them.

I wanted to write a book that would not only surprise and excite readers who were already into whales, but also inspire readers who’d never really thought about them. Equally important, I wanted to let young readers know what they could do to make a difference.

One of the most compelling speakers fighting for the southern resident orcas in Washington State is London Fletcher. For the last few years she’s been battling to breach dams in the U.S. to help save the Chinook salmon — the primary food source for the southern residents.

London is a member of the Society of Marine Mammology and the Acoustical Society of America. She’s twelve and she has told politicians, the media and the public, “We just can’t let them go without a fight.”

But she’s hardly alone.

Ella Grace from Ontario was eight when she was inspired by eco-warrior Rob Stewart to fight for sharks and the oceans.

Powell River’s Ta’Kaiya Blaney from Sliammon First Nation was eight when she started speaking out — and singing — about the dangers of a spill from the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline.

I’ve always enjoyed writing theatre for young audiences because they’re engaged. They don’t just ask questions, they want and, sometimes demand, answers. So, doing Orcas Everywhere was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

In a lot of ways, this book was created as Orcas 101 — for adults, too — as an all-purpose introduction to these magnificent beings. I want to inspire readers of all ages to join with leaders like London, Ta’Kaiya and Ella to fight on behalf of another species.

It all starts with love.

All of my new orca books are available at bookstores and online everywhere or at orcaseverywhere.com

London Fletcher — fighting for orcas

Painter Robert Bateman Makes Waves and Creates Cranes in His Interview with the Skaana Podcast

Written by Izzy Almasi

“My whole life story has been planned around having adventures in nature,” artist Robert Bateman told Mark Leiren-Young, in an interview that was just released on the Skaana podcast.

The iconic Canadian painter met Leiren-Young virtually to talk about his views on the importance of staying connected with the natural world and to share how his passions led him to a career in art.

“All little kids like art and nature. I’ve never met a little kid who doesn’t like art and nature. But most normal human beings grow up around the age of twelve and go on to more grown-up things and I just have not grown up yet,” says Bateman.

Taking a strong interest in art from a young age, Bateman saw painting as an opportunity to capture the beauty of the world around him, leading him to create stunning works of art that capture scenes of wildlife from every corner of the globe. In the interview, he discusses his experiences watching wildebeest in the Serengeti, penguins in the Antarctic and whales in the waters of BC.

“When you look at a piece [of art], it may be thought-provoking, but mostly I just paint what I love and that’s what all artists have done.”

Having recently celebrated his 90th birthday, Bateman continues to paint and create at his home on Salt Spring Island on Canada’s west coast.

As he talked with Leiren-Young, he was working on his latest project: an epic 4-foot by 12-foot scene of cranes at the Platte River in Nebraska — one of the biggest paintings he’s ever created.

“A lot of doing art and, I guess anything, is perspiration rather than inspiration. And not that this is perspiration. I’m just kind of sitting here dabbing away with gray paint on the wings of all these cranes,” he muses while continuing to paint.

The artist also discussed the work and origins of the Bateman Foundation, as well as how the Bateman Centre found its home overlooking Victoria’s inner harbour.

“Our mission is to promote the preservation and sustainability of the environment,” reads the opening statement on the Bateman Foundation’s website. “To achieve this goal, we maintain an art gallery to perpetuate, protect, enhance and promote the artistic and cultural legacy of nature-inspired artists, including Robert Bateman. We also support and develop educational programs relating to the environment and nature-inspired artists.”

For more information about the program and resources offered at the Bateman Centre and through the Foundation, be sure to check out their website at https://batemanfoundation.org.

To listen to the full interview visit www.skaana.org, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher. Be sure to tune in to Skaana for upcoming episodes featuring interviews with renowned ichthyologist Daniel Pauly, Paul Wohlleben, author of The Secret Life of Trees, animal rights expert and advocate, Marc Bekoff and more.

Orca Procession — by Robert Bateman (featured in Mark Leiren-Young’s book Orcas Everywhere)

Orca Storytime with Mark Leiren-Young on July 8

Orca Storytime with Mark Leiren-Young
Join Skaana podcast host Mark Leiren-Young and the Royal BC Museum on July 8th at 11am for a reading of Mark’s new books!

Author and filmmaker Mark Leiren-Young will read from his new books for younger readers – Orcas of the Salish Sea and Orcas Everywhere, sharing stories about the endangered southern residents and answering questions about orcas everywhere and anywhere.

RBCM @ Home (Kids) is hosted by Chris O’Connor.

What you’ll need:

  • Just a comfy spot to listen. As this is a storytime, there will not be a making component to this session

Stay tuned for the Zoom link.

The Zoom Room has a capacity of 500 spots. If you are not able to access through Zoom, we will also be streaming on Facebook Live. Please visit the Royal BC Museum Facebook page.

If you missed past sessions, check out our RBCM @ Home (Kids) YouTube page.

RBCM @ Home (Kids) is like a museum playdate online. Visit with members of the museum staff who are working from home, along with families from across BC, as we make and learn together. Each session will have some kind of making activity, so get your paper and pencil crayons ready. RBCM @ Home(Kids) takes place on Wednesdays at 11 am, visit our calendar for topics, presenters and a list of materials so you can join in with hands-on activities at home.

For adults and youth, check out RBCM @ Home. This program takes place on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12pm and highlights members of the curatorial and collections staff who are working from home during the pandemic and discover how they do their work, how their work is reflected in their homes and what they’re working on now.

Ta’Kaiya Blaney

“Activism doesn’t have to just look like one thing. It can be art, it can be creative resistance, it can be social-media-based. Do what you love to protect what you love.”

“Activism doesn’t have to just look like one thing. It can be art, it can be creative resistance, it can be social-media-based. Do what you love to protect what you love.”

 “I grew up around elders and relatives in my family who made an effort to instill cultural senses of value and what is sacred with our waters and our lands. So the work I’ve done in regards to land defense and advocacy and activism, has really been a result of them.”

“I grew up with people who tried to instill that sense of responsibility to land and to water and to future generations. And so it was never like one moment or something that I read. It was a lifetime of community that led me to care in that way about environment.”

“Commanding action that’s always a very powerful thing, but I think that it’s the work that follows those meetings, that is really the most crucial, you know, when we get together and we’re demanding justice for demanding action how do we carry that momentum forward? And what are the actions to follow?”

“Young people’s voices have such a powerful role in climate justice. It’s our generation that will witness and experience the repercussions of industrial activity, of environmental, the secretion of pollution, of climate change. So putting ourselves out there speaking to our concerns and speaking for our future and our right to live in a world with clean water and clean air and healthy lands.”

Virtual screening of “The Hundred-Year-Old Whale”

Join us on Sunday June 14th at 4:00 pm PDT for a live online viewing of “The Hundred-Year-Old Whale” as a part of oceans week!

To RSVP to the event on facebook click Here!

This event is being held on zoom so to get your link to access the event email skaanapod@gmail.com

For more information visit the oceans week website
https://www.oceansweekvictoria.ca/sunday-14th-salish-sea

“Born in an era when whales were on everyone’s menu and her family members were being harpooned, then shot, then captured and put on display, Granny (J2) miraculously survived in the west coast waters for over a century as the world – and the world of whales – has changed completely. We meet the world’s oldest killer whale and explore her past and her family’s future.”

Robert Bateman
“A lot of doing art, and I guess anything, is perspiration rather than inspiration.”

“All little kids like art and nature. I’ve never met a little kid who doesn’t like art and nature. But most normal human beings grow up around the age of 12 and go on to more grown up things. And I just have not grown up yet.”

“If you’ve got an eye for it, nature is everywhere.”

“One of my missions in life is to get more kids out into nature.”

“A lot of doing art, and I guess anything, is perspiration rather than inspiration.”

“Mostly I just paint things that I love.”

“It’s a great benefit to be out into nature and paying attention to, well, one of the ways I put it, it’s kind of an unselfishness. Becoming involved and very interested in lives that are nothing to do with your life, but you become absorbed by these other lives and maybe you get into conservation and helping them and that sort of thing.”

“I would do an abstract painting and I would look at it and it was fun doing it. And then I would say is that all there is, was not very challenging, just slapping on paint.”

“I think fossil fuels should be left in the ground and we should be putting our money and our interests into an alternative power, wind and water.”

“I think fossil fuels should be left in the ground and we should be putting our. Our money and our interests into a alternative power, wind and water.”

Kriss Kevorkian
The lessons I find from grief – and from death – are appreciating what we have in the now.

“The lessons I find from grief – and from death – are appreciating what we have in the now.”

“What is environmental grief? …It’s the grief reaction stemming from the environmental loss of ecosystems caused by natural or man-made events.”

“Ecological grief is the grief reaction stemming from the disconnection and relational loss from our natural world.”

“I don’t see grief as a disorder. I see it as a life issue. And I wish people would stop trying to medicalize it, or put it as some sort of mental illness because I don’t see my environmental grief or ecological grief as a disorder. I see it as a proper reaction to what’s happening on the planet.”

“Laughter is just one of those things that’s helped us get through dark times.”

“This pandemic is also teaching us that mother nature has a way of managing without us.”

“If Jane Goodall can maintain a sense of hope, then who am I not to?”

“I look at the rights of nature as helping… If a corporation can have rights. I think mother nature should.”

“We need to start putting nature first.”

“When we get rights for the Southern residents, they will be the first species to have rights of nature”

Erich Hoyt
 “If you get to know them as individuals, you get this attachment and it’s beautiful.”


“If you get to know them as individuals, you get this attachment and it’s beautiful.” 


“You walk in to these places and, and maybe you were interested in dinosaurs before because you’ve heard of them, and then suddenly you look up. If you see them in the of natural history and New York or, or you find the room in Edinburgh, Scotland or Toronto, you find the room where there’s a blue whale. And you look at it and you realize it’s a lot bigger than dinosaurs, you know, and it’s alive today.”


“You know, in terms of climate change and everything else there, there isn’t a movement that I know of that’s anywhere near, I mean, there certainly isn’t a movement like what Greta has done with the climate emergency.”


“You know, to be honest, I realized this in redoing my book, you know, we have this sort of natural human desire to get closer and closer. You know, we’re. Visual creatures largely, and we want to fill our frames with, you know, what we see in a way.”


“I think more and more the older I get, the more I’m thinking about, the best way to observe wildlife is to stand off a bit.”


“[in regards to whale watching] the best thing you could do is just kind of stand back in awe and let it happen and try and take notes in your head. About what’s happening.”


“We really need to pay attention to that if we’re going to have these whales and other species around in the future.”

Leah Abramson
“I started researching orcas and was just sort of fascinated by them and their whole social structure and everything. Everything that I researched, I just kept going down rabbit holes until I knew that I had to make some kind of project.”

“When I was really little I had these recurring dreams about a pink beluga whale in a swimming pool, and I don’t know why or how, or it was a very lonely whale and it was pink and I was its only friend, and this was like recurring dreams that I had around the age of, I don’t know, four or five.”


“I started researching orcas and was just sort of fascinated by them and their whole social structure and everything. Everything that I researched, I just kept going down rabbit holes until I knew that I had to make some kind of project.”


“People seem to really respond to it. I mean, I think we’re at a time where people are really waking up to the environment”


“Whales are such a iconic set of animals, especially on the West coast, because, you know, we sort of have this idea of ourselves as wild and, you know, the orcas are jumping and it’s all happy and, you know, we’re obviously in a bit of a, um, crisis with the orcas right now.”


“I know a lot of people have found it quite sad to the project and I don’t know if there’s any way around that, you know, and I think that’s a grief that we have to feel and that it’s important to feel because otherwise we don’t do anything about it. So there’s that as well, you know, like allowing people space and time to feel those feelings of environmental grief, which, you know, you sort of have to slow down a little bit to do sometimes.”

Camille Labchuck
“We’ve got this obligation to animals as a society to try to help them if we can.”

“Canada hadn’t passed any serious new animal protection legislation since the eighteen hundreds. That’s pretty shocking to most people.”

“We’ve got this obligation to animals as a society to try to help them if we can.”

“We never would have come this far, and people never would have known about the industry, if not for Rob Stewart’s Sharkwater film in the first place. I mean, I don’t know about you, but that was definitely the first time that I was exposed to the idea that shark finning existed, and I think it’s what mobilized a lot of people to take action.”

“The problem Mark, is that animals are victims of crime. They can’t report abuse themselves. They can’t speak up for themselves if there’s no one around to listen. And they’re often isolated and kept behind closed doors by abusers and it’s very, very difficult for anyone to know or detect what’s going on.”

“I think the problem is that governments seem to think these days that their role is to protect businesses, their roles are to protect industry — and if some other aspect of our laws, including endangered species laws, it’s inconvenient. To that end, they’re happy just to disregard it.”

“It’s in the economic interests of many humans to keep animals in the position that they are right now and not elevate them to some other sort of status that has rights. So there’s no moral argument for it, and there’s no scientific argument. There really is only an economic argument and I don’t think that’s good enough to deny an entire class of billions and trillions of beings  basic fundamental rights and freedoms, like living in appropriate social groups, like having access to fresh air and water and life.”

“A lot of people say that we need to protect animals because they’re voiceless and we need to speak for them, and I think that’s a mistake too. I think it’s really clear that animals do have voices and they use them. They use them to tell us that they don’t like what they’re doing to us. Every time we see a calf escape a slaughter truck, every time we see a coyote try to gnaw his or her paw off to escape a leg hold trap, when they yell and they scream when they’re being sent to slaughter, they’re telling us that they don’t like what we’re doing to them. So I think it’s important to grant them that agency and recognize that they have voices. We just ignore it and silence those voices.”  

Dr. Jason Colby
Author
“The region that loves them is poisoning them and starving them.”

“In some ways it’s the book I was meant to write and need to write.”

“I wanted this to be an academic book masquerading as a great beach read… I thought about titling this book .“Crazy Shit That Really Happened.”

“I refer to this sometimes as the unthinkable history of the Pacific North West.”

“We have very generational memories about our local ecologies.”

“Ted Griffin is one of the most controversial, fascinating characters in the history of the Northwest.”

“I had to reckon with my family’s responsibility in what is now a northwest tragedy.”

“I don’t think I’ll do anything as meaningful or as personal again in my writing.”

“I want people to understand that everyone lives in their own context and they live their lives forward . . . we don’t know how people are going to view our actions . . . I can imagine fifty years from now when we have an ocean without any fish . . . people will look back on us and say, “How could you have eaten salmon? . . . How could you have killed so many tuna for your sushi? What were you thinking? How could you do that?”

“The region that loves them is poisoning them and starving them.”

Paul Watson
“We’re killing these incredibly beautiful, socially complex, sentient creatures for the purpose of making a weapon meant for the mass extermination of human beings. And that’s when it struck me we’re insane, as a species we’re insane. And that’s when I said I’ll never do anything for people. I’m going to do this for them. (whales)”

“No orca has ever attacked any human being in the wild ever.”

“We’re killing these incredibly beautiful, socially complex, sentient creatures for the purpose of making a weapon meant for the mass extermination of human beings. And that’s when it struck me we’re insane, as a species we’re insane. And that’s when I said I’ll never do anything for people. I’m going to do this for them. (whales)”

 “After being criticized for sinking whaling ships:  “I said, ‘John, I didn’t sink those whaling ships for you or for Greenpeace or for anybody else. We sank them for the whales. Find me a whale who disagreed with what we did and I’ll promise I’ll never do it again.’”

“We’ve never been a protest organization. We’re an interventionist organization. Sea Shepherd is an anti-poaching organization.”

“I felt there was a need for intervention, not protest. I’ve never been a protester.”

“I call what we do aggressive nonviolence.”

“The real fault with the mainstream media is what they don’t talk about.”

“I used to joke that we were the ladies of night of the conservation movement because people may agree with us, but they don’t want to be seen with us in the daytime.”

  

Fin Donnelly
“People don’t always realize just how important the ocean is in terms of producing clean air and doing so many things, maintaining a healthy environment and stable climate to create the conditions that humans need.”

“Back in 2012, I read a United Nations report on a state of the world’s oceans and this is what really got my attention.”

“If you lose those top predators – which take a long time to mature and to give birth – you are really affecting a significant portion of the ocean ecosystem.”

“We’ve got to draw some attention to what’s going on in our oceans and I thought sharks would be a good way to do that.”

“People don’t always realize just how important the ocean is in terms of producing clean air and doing so many things, maintaining a healthy environment and stable climate to create the conditions that humans need.”

“We have the longest coastline in the world. So we’re an ocean nation and we’re blessed with fresh water in our country so that’s, for me, a basis on which you build your community and economy and that has to be maintained in a healthy way.”

“It’s the right thing to do… Once Canada does it, we can put some pressure on the United States and then the EU and Asia and other countries.”

Rob Stewart
“I think the way I can best serve the planet and the environment is just educating people. If I bring everybody up in their knowledge of what’s going on, then they’ll elect different people.”

 

“If people knew that our life support system was in jeopardy, the human species could potentially go down this century, and future generations and millions of species are at stake because of it, then there would be a vote determinative issue.”

“What percentage of the planet would you say, knows about ocean acidification, knows about over consumption, that 75% of the forests are gone, 90% of the fish are gone, that, you know we face this world. Three percent? 90% of our food species are gone. This is happening.”

“I keep optimistic because I think we’ve got the greatest opportunity here. They always say in movies, the hero is only as good as his villain. We’ve got the biggest villain possible.”

“We’ve got the biggest crisis, potentially, that we’re facing, and to defeat it we’re gonna have to grow and we’re gonna have to evolve and we’re gonna have to step it up and learn what it is to be human—to care more about other people and other species than we have in the past.”

“I think the way I can best serve the planet and the environment is just educating people. If I bring everybody up in their knowledge of what’s going on, then they’ll elect different people.”

“What’s next, what’s bigger? Well, save the humans.”

“The reason why we can survive on this planet is because of life. That gives us our food our water and our air… oh my god, all these systems that we’ve built are destroying our food and our water and our air.” “Before, when we set up the systems, when we had 300 million people on earth, we could whatever the fuck we want. And now that we’ve got 7 billion of us, we’ve eaten everything.” 

“Any revolution of the past has been led by the people most directly impacted by the atrocity. It was women for women’s rights, it was black people for racial equality. It was them that hit the road and put their hands in the air. Now it’s gonna be kids, because they’re the ones that are going to be most directly impacted by it. It our future that we’re taking. So I expect kids will be a much bigger role in this than adults.”

“For adults it’s confronting the realization that you’re inherently bad for the planet… and everything you’ve been doing for most of your life has been bad for the planet… it’s tough to let that sink in.”

“My favourite aspect about making a movie is giving the public the information they need to make better decisions.” 

“I think I was passionate about [sharks] from having a goldfish. From the time I was zero, onwards.”

Michael Moore
“I don’t use the words ‘political activist,’ because I think it’s redundant. If I’m a citizen of a democracy, it means I’m automatically a political activist. I have to be. All of us have to be. If we’re not active, it ceases to be a democracy.”

“I wish more Americans would look north and see that there are some things we can learn from you, that we might be better off if we were more Canadian-like in some ways. Not the boring, dull stuff. But there’s something about your core, your values, the way you’re wired. You believe that you’re your brother’s keeper, that you have a responsibility, that you exist as part of a whole. If one of you gets sick, it means that if that’s not taken care of, then we all sort of suffer a bit. I think that’s pretty profound.”

“I’m continually inspired by a lot of things, a lot of people.”

“I hope that the average American will quit thinking that they’re going to achieve the ”˜American dream’, that they too will be rich someday. That’s just not going to happen. I would hope that people get involved—become active, join an organization, run for office themselves, any of a number of things. At the very least, quit participating in the system. Don’t buy shares of stock. Put your money in a credit union. Only use credit cards where you have to pay at the end of the month. Don’t put your pension in the stock market, for Christ’s sake. Things like that.”

“I don’t use the words ‘political activist,’ because I think it’s redundant. If I’m a citizen of a democracy, it means I’m automatically a political activist. I have to be. All of us have to be. If we’re not active, it ceases to be a democracy.”

“I go back over all these movies and things I’ve done where it feels like I’m beating my head against the wall, at some point I just get tired of it.”

“My job is to take a look at what’s going on and to make movies about it”

David Neiwert
“The fight to decide what kind of humans we are going to be, what kind of world are we going to make? Are we gonna be empathetic, decent, kind generous people, or are we going to be cruel and greedy and mean? Or do we want to believe that we can continue to control the world as its lord and master? Or do we maybe need to understand that we are just part of the world and need to find a better way of fitting into it?”

“Killer whales are the consummate northwest environmental story.” 

“…how you deal with the alt-right… you can’t pretend them away.  You can’t ignore them away.” 

“To me the fight against Trump and against hate groups and against the far radical right is very much the same fight that I’m engaged with when it comes to saving the whales – which is the fight to decide what kind of humans we’re going to be. What kind of world are we going to make? Are we going to be empathetic, decent, kind generous human beings or are we going to be cruel and greedy and mean?”

“You can’t go out and change anybody’s hearts and minds to get them to become a more decent person by spewing hate and wishing death on others.” 

“They will go extinct if we don’t take those dams down.”

“They’re just the coolest animals on the planet”

“Public pressure really is  foundational for effect change, but at the same time I don’t think that, ya know can’t we multitask”

“The fight to decide what kind of humans we are going to be, what kind of world are we going to make? Are we gonna be empathetic, decent, kind generous people, or are we going to be cruel and greedy and mean? Or do we want to believe that we can continue to control the world as its lord and master? Or do we maybe need to understand that we are just part of the world and need to find a better way of fitting into it?”

Kelly Iriye
“Since the creation of the orca task force everyone says a lot of congratulations but nobody has decided to actually do anything.”

“If we had more food for the orcas then they’d be able to stay fat and happy and the toxicity wouldn’t enter their blood stream and they’d be fine.”

“[discussing Snake River dam] They are grossly overcharging for what the open market is because they have so much surplus power”

“We watched it get as high as -26 dollars which means we were paying California 26 dollars to take our power” 

“Even still we are watching the numbers not recover (in relation to salmon)”

“Because we’ve made reservoirs we’ve created an environment that favours the lake fish, and not the river fish and the salmon are river fish and their predators are lake fish”

“The guy that actually got to say this is what we’re gonna do, didn’t read the report and just said this is what we’re gonna do” 

“Since the creation of the orca task force everyone says a lot of congratulations but nobody has decided to actually do anything.”

“If they do anything besides dam breaching its gonna be too little, and at this point if they only do dam breaching it won’t be enough but if they don’t do dam breaching its not gonna work”

“But if there’s nothing to forage for they can have a full 24 hrs and still come up with nothing.”

Ken Balcomb
“J-50 is just another example in this story of starvation and ecosystem collapse”

“We gotta get this story out about what’s happening, it’s tragic”

“We are on day 17 now, what is the message to humans?”

“Let’s fix the ecosystem here, we are losing our icons”

“I think there was a great deal of emotions spread around and i think that some of our leaderships and bureaucracies were focused on other things other than their emotions”

“J-50 is just another example in this story of starvation and ecosystem collapse”

“ These are just the symptoms of what’s wrong, there’s been dead babies in the past and there’s gonna be dead babies in the future and the problem is there will be no successful reproduction if we don’t have a viable ecosystem for them to live in”

“They won’t be here if they don’t have anything to eat”

“We know from hormone studies that we’re not seeing 75% of the babies that are conceived.” 


“How fast do we want our governments to extinct everything here?”

Dr. Lori Marino
Neuroscientist, animal behaviour expert, founder and executive director of The Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy and founder and President of the Whale Sanctuary Project
“People do not want to see orcas in concrete tanks.”

“We would keep them safe and healthy for the rest of their lives.”

“I made a concerted decision that I was not going to do any more research on captive dolphins.”

“An orca that was born in captivity doesn’t know that live fish are food.”

“These orcas have been deprived of everything that makes life worth living.”

“People do not want to see orcas in concrete tanks.”

“This is all about the whales.”

Zoe Hopkins Quotes

Zoe Hopkins
Award winning director
“The ocean is a planetary issue, not a First Nations issue.”

“Should tankers pass through these waters, the threat of a spill is not only a potential, it is a certainty. The only uncertainty is how long would we have to wait and how many times would it happen.” (from Kayak to Klemtu) 

“I wanted to make a road movie on the water.”

“I’m gonna send J.T. (Justin Trudeau) a link. We’ll see what he has to say.”  

“The ocean is a planetary issue, not a First Nations issue.” 

“The day after we wrapped an oil spill happened in Bella Bella.” 

“This is a coastal issue. Not a socio-political issue.” 

Aube Giroux
“We have a right to know what is in our food and what is being sold to us.”

“So when I came back to Canada, I couldn’t shake this nagging question, that if GMOs are labelled in 64 countries around the world, why are they not labelled in Canada and the United States? Well, that seemingly simple question ended up raising a whole bunch more  questions, about not just the state of our food, but the state of our democracy, and the influence that corporations have over our politicians and our food policies. ”

“Genetically engineered salmon is the first GMO animal that’s being sold for human consumption. In Canada we’re actually the first and only country in the world that is selling it to consumers.” 

“We have a right to know what is in our food and what is being sold to us.” 

“The Trudeau government came into power with these claims, that they were going to bring on transparency at every level of government.  That they were going to listen to Canadians. And on the GMO issue, we saw the exact opposite on that bill.” 

“I think in time truth always prevails.  And I think that a lot of people are waking up.   I think it’s taken us a long time here in Canada.” 

“The no side did talk to me. I set up an interview in Sacramento, rented a car, hired a camera guy, we drove there, we did the interview, and then when the interview was all done, she wouldn’t sign my release form. “

“If you go on the Health Canada website, you can kind of find out which GMO’s are on the market, but it’s very confusing because they call them plants with novel traits.”

“Canada is now the first and the only country in the world where we are now eating the world’s first GMO animal, and that is genetically modified Atlantic salmon.  It was right after the GMO labelling bill failed last may, that the company that produces the salmon, announced “Oh, we’ve just sold 5 tonnes of our salmon to Canadians”.  But because the bill had failed, they didn’t have to label it. And even though they proudly declared they are now selling it to Canadians, they refused to disclose where it was being sold.”

“So on the one hand, there’s this kind of bragging that “oh we have this wonderful new salmon, it’s safe, it’s great, it’s going to be good for the environment”. But on the other hand there’s this complete, um, refusal, to inform the consumer.  Or to even ask Canadians “do we even want this salmon? Do we want to be eating it?” 

 

Elizabeth May
“All whales matter. All cetaceans matter. All life matters.”

“All whales matter. All cetaceans matter. All life matters.”

“If you’re looking for charismatic megafauna you really can’t beat the amazing creatures that whales are – for their intelligence, for their intricate communications, for their relationships.”

“The most endangered whale species in Canada is the right whale, and what we need to do is stop a company called Bilcon from the United States from getting permission to build a quarry on Digby Neck, Nova Scotia…”

“There are whales at risk all around the world, but our southern resident killer whale population is also extremely endangered. The loss of even one animal could imperil the population as a whole.”

“The number one thing we need to do to protect the southern resident killer whale population is to make sure we don’t see new pipelines that increase the tanker traffic.”

“…the Kinder Morgan proposal particularly was found even by the National Energy Board Environmental Assessment that was woefully inadequate, even they had to take account of Department of Fisheries and Oceans expert testimony that whale strikes from the increase in tanker traffic is a significant risk to the survival of the Southern Resident killer whale population.”

“We need to protect their habitat, we need to protect their food source, which means taking care of our salmon. We need to take care of, and pay attention to, the amount of noise in our marine environment… So we need to pay attention to giving them enough space.”

“…I’ve had some close encounters of the whale kind, just being on the water and being silent, and seeing what happens… When it happens, it’s quite an extraordinary experience and quite powerful, to come eye to eye with a whale.”

“Kinder Morgan’s pipeline is a threat, a direct threat, to the Southern Resident killer whale population.”

“We can’t forget the oceans. The oceans are out of sight and out of mind to those of us land animals. And the multiple threats to our oceans are growing.”

“[Ocean acidification] is a scary threat, and it’s looming, and we don’t know enough about it.”

“They need the three-quarters of this planet that is the ocean. We live on the one-quarter of this planet that’s land. But we can’t live on land without those oceans. Terrestrial species need oceans, and we tend to forget about them.”

“End our addiction to fossil fuels”

“We’re pushing as hard as we can to bring back science and to have Environment Canada have the kind of budget it needs to hire more people, so that we can actually have recovery plans for endangered species that make sense.”

“This generation, humanity now, has an obligation to stop robbing our children.”

Dag Ingemar Børresen
“And of course also because they knew fifty years earlier that they had to stop whaling if it was going to be sustainable…if they wanted it to be sustainable.  So they were quite clear about what they were doing, but they didn’t stop it.”

“It’s impossible to compare the Norwegian whaling industry as it was with the whaling today.” 

“Around 1930, there was about 10,000 Norwegian whalers going to the antarctic every year.  They hunted down ten thousands of whales each catching season. The whaling today is just nearly nothing.  It’s just a few fishermen catching minke whales. It’s just a few hundred minke whales a year. ”

“If you talk to old whalers, you can get, they probably have some stories about killer whales, but it is often related to killer whales who were attacking dead whales who were caught by the whale catchers. 

“Up to the late 1920s [the Norwegian whaling industry] was global.” 

“I don’t know anyone today who eats whale meat.”

“Why should we eat whale meat?  There are so many other things to eat, I don’t know really.” 

“Is it a big deal? No, it’s not a big deal at all. No one cares at all. It’s just a few fishermen up north.  If you ask Norwegians they’re not engaged in anything that you’re asking about, really. It’s only politics, isn’t it.” 

“We’re going to focus a lot on the blue whale and the story of the blue whale, how it was nearly extinct at the end of modern whaling.  It was very close, you know, very close. So it’s a really horrible story. “

“And of course also because they knew fifty years earlier that they had to stop whaling if it was going to be sustainable…if they wanted it to be sustainable.  So they were quite clear about what they were doing, but they didn’t stop it.” 

“It was very short-term. They took what they could and then it ended.” 

About Keiko “I don’t know if anyone cared about it at all.  I guess…Norwegians are not very…. I mean it was just…. a whale.  I don’t think Norwegians have this sort of emotional connection with the whales at all.” 

Alexandra Morton

“We talk about robbing from future generations, but I have an 18 month old grandson,  and it’s really hard to look him in the eyes because we are taking away everything that I love and that he would love. We’re taking away the richness of life. We’re taking away the ability to survive. It really is a form of insanity that we do not act on this.”

“87% of the young salmon leaving parts of this coast… are heavily infected with sea lice.”

“They [First Nations] do not want salmon farms in their territory. They’ve been saying “no” for thirty years and yet one-third of the salmon farming industry in British Columbia is in their territory. And all the waste from these farms is pouring out whether it’s viruses, bacteria, drugs, fish waste.”

“I have to wonder, does he really know that he’s fighting me so that Marine Harvest and Surmac, whose owned by Mitsubishi, can put diseased Atlantic Salmon into the major migration routes of this coast? I just can’t believe that he actually knows that this is going on. Just on the surface, it looks really bad.”

“I was so convinced that if I lined up my words in the right order, remained calm, and gave them [DFO] all the evidence they would say, ‘oh, oh, oh, oh, there’s a better way to do this. Let’s get them off the migration route, let’s put less farms here…’ But no, they never listened to me. That began to concern me.”

“We all had such high hopes, and honestly this Minister is doing worse than Stephen Harper. I mean, we had the worst sockeye return ever in the history of studying sockeye. The DFO did not even blink. They don’t care. They don’t want wild fish. That is my assessment after years, decades of being on this.”

“Canada could become this remarkable leader in land-based aquaculture, which the markets want, and restoring wild fish using genomic profiling. I tell you, every country would come knocking on our door and saying, ‘How did you do that Canada?’”

“Keystone species means that if that species is removed, things start to collapse. It means it’s the key to the lock that opens the door to the whole ecosystem. Some people say to me, ‘ I don’t eat salmon, so I don’t really care.” Well, do you breathe? Because salmon are feeding the trees that make the oxygen that we breathe.”

“You can actually measure the size of the salmon run by looking at the growth rings of the trees.”

“They also feed over 1000 species from bugs, to orca, to eagles and bears, coastal communities. They are essential to First Nations culture and diet.”

“The gains financially, emotionally, spiritually and in every way are so much greater for wild salmon than farmed salmon”

“From the moment the salmon egg leaves the mother’s body, it’s feeding the world around them. There’s not a lot of species that are designed to feed the masses. They can feed all of us and thrive. They are so remarkable and they’re such a gift. They’re so important. They are a bloodstream. I don’t say that lightly. They go out into the open ocean and they are gathering the energy of the sun hitting the ocean. Because the sun hits the ocean and it creates this good plankton bloom which feed little fish, and then the salmon eat those fish. Then they bring that all back home and they defy gravity and they take it up the watershed and they feed the trees. Somehow we have lost that memory, that connection, that understanding. Sometimes the government feels to me like a berserk person on a lawnmower and he’s running over all the power cords and he’s cutting all the lines to our house. We’re not gonna have any hot water. ”

“Honestly, it’s a form of insanity where you cannot see the workings of life. Where you can’t see the gears and all of that is happening. You think you can just break all of that and get away with it. We’re not going to survive with this attitude.”

“People in British Columbia maybe don’t grasp how incredibly fortunate we are that we haven’t taken it completely apart. We’re getting there- we are disassembling it.

“I feel that a place on earth that still make clean air, water and food – whoa a covenant needs to placed on that right now. People in British Columbia  maybe don’t grasp how incredibly fortunate we are that we haven’t taken it completely apart…”

“I believe that Justin Trudeau is a good man… I believe that Dominique LeBlanc, our minister of fisheries, is probably a good man. He probably loves his children. They probably both do. And yet what they are both doing to their children, and ours, and us, and the whales, is unforgivable.”

Caitlyn Vernon
“There doesn’t need to be a dichotomy between protecting postage-stamp areas over here, and then over here, we’re just going to do status-quo, business as usual. We can look at conservation holistically. We can ensure that outside of conservation areas, business that happens operates within ecological limits. ”

“We work to conserve wilderness and wild places within the urgent context of climate change”

“What’s really exciting is that a clear majority of British Columbians voted for environmental issues.”

“The science is super clear—that, with the 400 tankers that would come as a result of the Kinder Morgan proposal, these endangered whales would likely go extinct. Even without an oil spill. Simply from the sound getting in the way of being able to find their food.”

“Anyone who’s had the great honour of seeing one of these whales knows how amazing they are, and I feel like we all have the responsibility to try and protect their homes so they can survive”

“When I was around 10 years old I went kayaking around Robson Bight and got pretty close to some killer whales… I was pretty small, they were pretty big, and they were very close to our kayak…it made an impression.”

Not just for the whales, also for coastal jobs, and coastal economy, and recreational values, and our climate—there’s so many reasons why [the Kinder Morgan] project is not in the interest of British Columbian’s communities or ecosystems. The whales are one piece of that.”

“[The Kinder Morgan Project] faces 19 legal challenges.”

“We don’t think it’s just or right that these First Nations should have to devote much-needed community funds to pay for these legal challenges when we all stand to benefit from the outcome.”

“In the case of the National Energy Board review, neither Canada nor BC has properly consulted with the first nations. ”

‘Even if only one of the cases succeeds, that will be enough to stop the project.”

“The Kinder Morgan tankers and the whales go on both sides of the border. This is not just a Canadian issue, this is a cross-border issue.”

“The more diversity of people in places speaking up in opposition to this project the greater the financial risk. ”

“There doesn’t need to be a dichotomy between protecting postage-stamp areas over here, and then over here, we’re just going to do status-quo, business as usual. We can look at conservation holistically. We can ensure that outside of conservation areas, business that happens operates within ecological limits. ”

“This is where the ludicrousness of the way we measure economic progress comes into play: an oil spill is good for GDP”

“There are very few jobs, long-term, that would come from these pipelines and tankers, and it would put 98,000 jobs on the coast alone at risk, plus all jobs that depend on a wild salmon economy.”

Dr Andrew Weaver
“I dream of a time when we don’t have Food Banks.  They shouldn’t be necessary.  If you had a level of basic income, you wouldn’t need to have some of the services that we have to support people who can’t make ends meet. With a level of basic income, it helps people during downtimes and lets them rise above.  So it levels the playing field.  It eliminates student debt.” 

“The decision-makers of today don’t have to live out the consequences of decisions they are making, yet it is the youth of the day who do, and they’re not participating in our democracy, with 30-40% showing up at the polls in any given year.” 

“This has got to be the most rewarding job anybody can have, anywhere in the world.  Being able to represent people in decision making, to help people access the system, it’s just a remarkable opportunity.” 

“This is the first generation, my generation, that is going to leave behind a world that is in a worse state than we inherited it from our parents.  That’s a very sad testament to 21st-century society.  It’s a very sad testament.  Greed, personal greed, and the Me generation have taken us to a state now that we’re simply ignoring our effects on others, and the Millennial generation is going to reap the problems.” 

“Ultimately it is the taxpayers who fund the science that we do, and if they don’t realize if the taxpayer doesn’t realize the importance of your science—just look south of the border right now. There’s less of a desire to continue funding it, and you move into this alternate-fact world that they’re now struggling with south of the border, where “my opinion” is suddenly a fact.” 

“Right now they are in a real predicament, because around the world people are no longer looking to them for leadership.  They’re missing out on the opportunities of the 21st-century economy that involve clean energy, the clean tech sector, automation, and they’re going back into the last century.  You know, they will deal with themselves, right now jurisdictions like China, Japan, South Korea, places like Canada, South America, Europe. People recognize the direction the world is heading in terms of investment in clean, renewable energy, and the knowledge economies of tomorrow.  The US can try to chase us back to the 20th century, but they’re be going there alone, maybe bringing Alberta and Christy Clark with them, but the rest of the world is moving forward.” 

“I dream of a time when we don’t have Food Banks.  They shouldn’t be necessary.  If you had a level of basic income, you wouldn’t need to have some of the services that we have to support people who can’t make ends meet. With a level of basic income, it helps people during downtimes and lets them rise above.  So it levels the playing field.  It eliminates student debt.” 

“The species extinction rate happening now makes the five previous great extinction events pale in comparison.” 

“The entire oil spill response put forth by Kinder Morgan for diluted bitumen in coastal waters, was predicated on the existence of 20 hours of sunlight, calm conditions and the wind blowing offshore.  Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to calculate that you can not be anywhere south of the Latitude of Tuktoyaktuk on any day of the year to get 20 hours of sunlight.  So in essence, their oil spill response was done for conditions around Tuktoyaktuk.  Hardly relevant to the Salish Sea.  Yet when I asked them to redo this using realistic values, of both wind etc etc, I was told that they didn’t do it and that the NEB had enough information before them on which to make a decision.  And when I challenged that decision the NEB said, “no, it’s fine.”

“The protests will be long and hard. And “War in the Woods,” that’s nothing, that’s nothing compared to what’s going to happen in the Burnaby area.” 

“It’s sad to think about it, that we would think it’s okay, to ship a raw product, not even a refined product. If Alberta refined it, it would be a different thing.  We’d have at least some of the environmental arguments with respect to oil spills… It wouldn’t affect the orca issue of course, but the fact that we would put some hypothetical pipeline and some hypothetical product, shipping something someone may or may not want in the future because the world is decarbonizing, and we’d risk an iconic species is mind-boggling to me.” 

“We’re in an era now where the strange and unique is accepted and interesting.” 

Dyna Tuytel
“Ecojustice is a national environmental organization, so we have offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Ottawa, and our mandate is to use the law to protect and restore the environment, mostly through litigation.  And we try to prioritize cases where we can set a precedent, so one case can have a broader impact beyond the specific facts of that case.” 

“They modelled the effects of decreased salmon prey, they modelled the effects of noise, they modelled the effects of oil spills and potential collisions with ships, individually and together, and the result of this modelling was a conclusion that with the project they have a greater than fifty percent chance of being effectively extinct this century. Which is pretty stark.” 

“Of course the tankers should have been considered, and of course the species at risk act should have been applied because there’s no practical way that the shipping isn’t part of the project.” 

“People will flock to the side of the ferry to see the whales, and get so excited and go on whale watching tours, and clearly love this species, but maybe don’t know how few of them there are, or how much they depend on this specific area that they live in, or just how unique they are.   The fact that they have their own language and culture, and don’t interbreed with other killer whales, and that there are different types of killer whales.   I think that that information really galvanizes people to care about the whales and to take action.” 

“I feel like I’m fighting on my client’s behalf, but that we are all fighting on the Orcas’ behalf.   Everyone is so committed to protecting this amazing species.  I would describe us as a team that is working for the Orcas.” 

“The start of the problem is that when the NEB reviewed the project, they separated out the pipeline and the marine terminal from the ships.  So they’ve defined the project as ending at Westridge marine terminal, and shipping being related to the project, but not part of it.   And so what that approach means, is that under the environmental assessment act, the environmental assessment is only of the pipeline and the marine terminal, and the tankers were considered and reviewed but only under the more general provisions of the National Energy Board Act, where they consider the public interest broadly speaking and weigh the pros and cons.” 

“So by not considering the tankers as part of the project, and not subjecting them to the same environmental assessment, the NEB has said that the species at risk requirements that are triggered by an environmental assessment don’t apply to its review of the tankers.   So there’s a key provision of the Species at Risk Act, that’s triggered by an environmental assessment, that says that when a project is under review you have to ensure that there are measures to avoid or lessen the impacts on endangered species.  So by treating the ships as separate from the environmental assessment and separate from the project, they’ve said that this provision of the species at risk act does not apply in this case.” 

“The whales themselves can not get standing, but my clients can get public interest standing to represent the interests of the whales, and the environment.” 

“I think the risk of oil spills has somehow been downplayed throughout the review process and since. And just the fact that even in the official DFO recovery strategy it says clearly that an oil spill would be potentially catastrophic for this population is something that doesn’t get talked about very much.  And I think there’s also a tendency to downplay the additive effect of this project.  Sort of saying “oh, it will only be such and such percentage of shipping traffic in the area” or something, whereas it’s really important to keep in mind that the threats facing them, everything is already too bad.  We need to stop adding new threats, and we also need to mitigate existing threats.” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Make Waves with Dyna Tuytel from EcoJustice

David Suzuki

“But if we live in a world of alternate truth, then we really have entered an Orwellian world of 1984, where you can tell people literally 2 + 2 = 5 and people will believe it.  And we’re at that point now.  You only have to look at the Trump use of facts.” 

“How can you make big decisions on your life if you’re not scientifically literate? The most powerful factors shaping our world today are science.” 

“We’re playing in the same goddamn game, and yet the rules are rigged so that we can’t possibly win in a game that is dictated and constrained by economics.  Economics is so fundamentally dysfunctional.” 

“As a Canadian I want my prime minister to make commitments we will then live up to, and he’s not doing anything.  Pipelines should not be on the agenda.  Rail expansion should not be on the agenda.  Coal terminal expansion… we don’t want any of that stuff.  We want to get off fossil fuels.  Period.” 

“I have hope, and that has got to drive us on.  And the fact that people are saying it’s so late, yes, for Christ’s sake listen to that. We can’t piss around anymore.  This is really really serious. I ain’t going to be around, but I know damn well my grandchildren are going to feel the impact if we do, or do not do anything Now. We can’t wait any longer.” 

“If we live in a world of alternate truth, then we really have entered an Orwellian world of 1984, where you can tell people literally 2 + 2 = 5 and people will believe it.  And we’re at that point now.  You only have to look at the Trump use of facts.”

“We’re playing in the same goddamn game, and yet the rules are rigged so that we can’t possibly win in a game that is dictated and constrained by economics.  Economics is so fundamentally dysfunctional.”

“As a Canadian I want my Prime Minister to make commitments we will then live up to and he’s not doing anything. Pipelines should not be on the agenda.  Rail expansion should not be on the agenda. Coal terminal expansion… we don’t want any of that stuff. We want to get off fossil fuels. Period.”

“I have hope and that has got to drive us on.  And the fact that people are saying it’s so late, yes, for Christ’s sake listen to that. We can’t piss around anymore. This is really really serious. I ain’t going to be around, but I know damn well my grandchildren are going to feel the impact if we do, or do not do anything Now.”