Pride this year has much to celebrate again with community, activism, arts and culture. As we enjoy Toronto Pride and its theme of 'can't stop, won't stop', we also acknowledge the festivals and marches throughtout the province and the dedication of june as pride month in the United States, along with new rights for federal workers and states moving quickly on gay marriage.. California's mishap excepted..

The Green Party will have a strong prescence as usual in Toronto. You'll hear from us that the federal Party had the first (only?) openly gay party leader, and were first to support gay marriage, as policy in 1996. Our members were right on the ball and ahead of the game.

But this isn't time to rest. The Party must keep ahead of the curve on queer issues, and let the other parties move ahead with legislation that is Green policy - as happens on so many issues - though preferably with elected Greens soon at the table. We need to be expressing these issues by writing strong new policy because there is still much to do. A panel this week on international human rights for trans people asked if we had really Started the work in Ontario (not just can't stop, won't stop). With gender identity and expression still not in the Ontario human rights code, high suicide, depression and homelessness rates among queer and questioning youth, struggles for proper health care and identity, widespread intolerance through much of the province.. Where do we go from here? We Greens can't stop on what's collectively been achieved. We must work to create new party policies to support rights for queer and questioning youth to those facing difficulties in retirement homes, and people of marginalized communities. We won't stop until people are not treated unequally based on who they are or how they express themselves.

Get involved by contacting us to move rights and dignity forward in all of our values, as well as provincial policies and funding.
And be sure to join us and our leadeship in Sunday's parade!

Darcy Higgins
Policy Coordinator
Green Party of Ontario

This article shows some hope of US-China relations with regards to climate change. These two countries are key, on the fate of the future of people depends on the state of their relations in general, and how they affect climate negotiations, especially on the lead up to the Copenhagen climate conference in December.

Some thoughts on an Earth Day

Three years ago I wrote the first article in a sustainability column giving tribute to environmental heroes who have made an impact locally (Southern Ontario) and internationally. I was reminded last Friday in a talk by Jane Goodall that everything you do every day makes a difference - how you act towards people and treat animals and what you say, what you do to the environment. I think this is the basis of Earth Day and the ability of individual changes to make a combined difference.
It was also a political movement which brought Washington to a stand-still in 1970 and brought 20 million Americans out to participate. Yes, Earth Day is an American creation. It meant peace and ecology and that's still what we're working towards. Today in Ontario we celebrate the institution of a new pesticide act which bans the use and purchase of hundreds of chemicals which may be dangerous to the health of people and wildlife. This is a day for everyone involved in the environmental movement to be proud, all those who worked municipally and provincially on campaigns for legislation - and also to know that green jobs will come with new types of lawn care and naturalization, work that requires higher levels of labour and finance.
We now go beyond to the next challenges of our time including nuclear disarmament, widespread poverty and disease, agricultural transition and the climate crisis, and how we can solve these and others in a new economy and caring society. Luckily we already have the solutions being in things like micro-credit, renewable energy, public transportation, health and clean water solutions, local trade and sustainable agriculture. What we make of the world is up to us, and particularly the younger generations who need to stand up to force others to listen and to make political and personal changes themselves. What are you doing today? Tomorrow?


My colleague Rebecca McNeil and I are working on a new column which will discuss tools of change, providing practical ways that people have made change can how we can organize for a new progressive and sustainable agenda for Canada. Stay tuned.

from: http://darcyhiggins.blogspot.com

A new biggie has moved onto to propose banning the sale of bottled water. Vancouver is looking to step up to the task; sends a good message on sustainability leadership towards the Olympics I think.

A comment on a cbc.ca article:

A visionary comment perhaps. Though, I'd say it's maybe the ideas, not necessarily the individual people/boomers themselves that need replacing.

"I'm glad you wrote this [refers to comment that we need to limit our use of credit], and I think it leads into something bigger. While I appreciate all the things that the Boomers have done to improve the world (and there have been many), economics and the environment have been colossal failures. I think that in the history will look back at 2006-2010 as the time when our generations stepped up to the table, thanked the Boomers for their service, and took control over the kingdom.

There's little doubt that this is a major transition point, but, what are we going to do with it?"

Good news for the environment potentially...but not the Big 3?

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/a-plug-in-hybrid-goes-on-sale-in-china/

Energy Minister Smitherman slammed by Suzuki and young child on new nuke plans.

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