Rally in front of the constituency office of Vancouver-Kingsway MP David Emerson.

TOMORROW: Nation-wide Actions in 20 Canadian cities to Maintain an Oil Free Pacific Coast

Honorable David Anderson to be presented Environmental Award ("Oil Free Coast Achievement Award")

All Events on Wednesday, Nov.23, 2005

Award Presentation to Honourable David Anderson
Time: 10:45 am Award presentation, 10:55 am Anderson available on speaker phone for media
Place: 970 Blanshard St. (near Broughton St.), Victoria

Rally at Honorable Keith Martin’s office Time: 1:00 ­ 2:00 pm
Place: 666 Granderson Rd. (near the intersection of Goldstream and Veterans Memorial Parkway), Langford (west of Victoria)

Rally at federal Minister of Industry David Emerson’s office
Time: 1:00 ­ 2:00 pm
Place: 2148 Kingsway Ave., Vancouver

Tomorrow, the Western Canada Wilderness Committee will be presenting federal MP David Anderson in Victoria with an Environmental Award, the "Oil Free Coast Achievement Award", for his excellent work to keep Canada’s Pacific Coast safe from offshore oil and gas development since 1971. Anderson will be in Ottawa at the time, so his Special Assistant, Lynne Henderson, will be accepting the award on his behalf. Anderson will be available to comment on the speaker phone at 10:55 am.

The award ceremony is part of a National Day of Action to Maintain the Moratorium on Offshore Oil and Gas Development off Canada’s Pacific Coast. Citizens in almost 20 Canadian cities will be leafleting and petitioning outside federal Liberal MP offices and in downtown centers, asking people to write and call the federal government about maintaining the moratorium.

The Day of Action is not a protest, but rather is designed to encourage the federal government to do the right thing and ban offshore oil and gas development off Canada’s Pacific Coast. After the award ceremony at David Anderson’s office, there will be a small rally outside the Honourable Keith Martin’s office in Victoria, and in Vancouver, there will be a small rally outside the federal Minister of Industry David Emerson’s office.

The day also falls on the 1 year anniversary of the results of the federal public input process (the Priddle Process), released on Nov. 19, 2004. Of 3700 respondents, 75% supported the moratorium.

"We believe the federal government should be obligated to adhere to the results of its own public input process and publicly announce that they will maintain the moratorium, or better yet, simply ban oil and gas development from Canada’s Pacific waters," states Ken Wu, the Wilderness Committee’s Campaign Director in Victoria.

"We’re also pleased to give credit where credit is due. David Anderson has been an excellent, rational champion for maintaining the moratorium on dirty fossil fuel extraction off Canada’s Pacific Coast for over 3 decades now. He really deserves this award," Wu continues.

Events will take place in the following Canadian cities: Victoria, Vancouver, Kamloops, Tofino, Haida Gwaii, Sointula, Nanaimo, Qualicum Beach, Oceanside, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Parry Sound, Bracebridge, Gravenhurst, Huntsville, Montreal, Waterloo, Kingston

Concerns about offshore oil and gas development off Canada’s Pacific coast include:

• Daily chronic pollution, including toxic drilling fluids and drill cuttings, toxic waste waters, oil leakages, and small spills that contaminate the marine life.
• Catastrophic oil spills in Canada’s most earthquake-prone region, which would hit the sensitive coastlines of the Queen Charlotte Islands and the mainland coast. In Newfoundland, the Hibernia project is 300 km offshore, whereas in BC the rigs would be as close as 20 km to shore. Currents in Newfoundland take oil spills away from shore, currents in BC would take the spills onto the sensitive shores.
• Seismic testing, where underwater sonic blasts are used to locate potential oil deposits, kills marine life and drives fish and whales long distances away from their feeding and migration areas.
• Substantial greenhouse gas emissions, which contravenes Canada’s commitment to Kyoto.
• Jobs would go in large part to foreigners. Oil companies are not looking for unemployed loggers and fishermen in rural BC as their main labour source, but rather already trained and experienced workers with the specialized skills, generally to be hired from abroad.

For more info contact:
Ken Wu, WCWC Victoria Campaign Director