kar0ling

I’m getting pretty tired of not being able to read the news without an urgent need to write a letter to at least one if not several levels of government regarding the wrongheadedness of their pursuits.  Today, at least, I got a little encouragement. PM Carney’s office replied to me regarding *one* of my messages, assuring me it had been read. Of course, it was the one where I thanked them for deciding to recognize Palestine and stayed mostly in the realm of positivity.  So *I* replied:

 A letter adapted from #BreakFreeFromPlastic’s campaign regarding the UN negotiations regarding a Global Plastics Treaty taking place in Geneva right now.  Send your own letter here Dear Minister Dabrusin CC Leader of the Green Party, interim NDP leader, interim Conservative leader, local MP This is urgent. Manitoba was under the highest air quality advisory yesterday after a summer of smog and cancelled activities. This isn’t just seasonal forest fires or silly accusations of arson. Drought and extreme heat are driving these wild fires – and those are caused by climate change, which in turn is caused by massive industrial extraction of fossil fuels.  Plastic is driving climate change and polluting oceans, rivers, soil, air, impacting humans and other beings. Plastic is poisoning our communities, our homes, and our bodies. Citizens should and must make better choices regarding how they manage the plastic that comes through their hands but we desperately need you ...

A little letter to the FreeP: Thank you for the work of your newsroom. Hearing how PostMedia has taken over Canada, including the major newsrooms in the largest Canadian cities, I'm proud scrappy little Winnipeg has maintained an independent free press.  If I may be so bold as to offer some suggestion/critique... The constant air quality warnings and drought conditions we're experiencing are deeply worrying. What is equally disturbing is the general conversation around it which acknowledges the unpleasantness, blindly hopes it's temporary, and moves on, without addressing the climate change at the root of the conditions – and most importantly, that it is crucial we act in as many ways as we can as quickly as we can to do things to address it. Notably, pressuring our politicians that more pipelines are not the direction to go.  Public transit is an important climate mitigation as well – getting people out of wasteful private vehicles into more efficient buses and onto ...

Another form letter adjusted with my own sentiments added. Click here to send your own, either as is or comments added . 

To the 20 (re-elected) Liberal MPs who signed the Vote Palestine platform.  You signed the Vote Palestine platform.   The time to fulfill your pledge is now.  Gaza is facing mass starvation. This isn’t food scarcity. This is intentional blockage of food as a tool of genocide. Canada’s joint statement with 25 other nations called on all the parties to “uphold the obligations of international humanitarian law.”  But Israel has been flagrantly violating multiple obligations of international law almost daily since October 8, 2023 and certain on every day since Canada’s statement was released. There is no need to wait, to give Israel the benefit of the doubt to do the right thing.  “We are prepared to take further action”, the statement reads. So do it.  Canada must immediately impose a true arms embargo on Israel – a two-way arms embargo – and it must actually put it into force and close all loopholes.  Canada must immediately levy sancti...

 A letter to the organizers: While Russia is carrying out unprovoked war against Ukraine, Folklorama is eschewing holding a Russian pavilion, even though such a display is about 100s of years old Russian culture, not today's regime led by Putin. That's a fair and compassionate decision.  So why is the Israeli pavilion allowed to continue without any censure while Israel commits war crimes condemned by the International Court of Justice? *Jewish* culture is thousands of years old but it's not a Jewish pavilion, it's an explicitly *Israeli* pavilion. It's celebrating the state that is committing genocide. It's celebrating settler colonialism that is going on to this very day. Why are you allowing the Israeli pavilion to continue?