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[This is the fourth in Mr. Hindson's series of five articles about what has been happening in his native Canada.]
It is time to talk about the subject of this series of articles -- Lands for Life. Now called Ontario's Living Legacy, Lands for Life was announced on February 27, 1997 when Ontario's Premier Harris and then Minister of Natural Resources, Chris Hodgson announced 27 new parks and protected areas in Northern Ontario. This same occasion was used to unwrap Lands for Life. In June 1997, Hodgson appointed three consultative groups called Round Tables. The huge planning area was to be broken into three areas - Boreal East, Boreal West and Great Lakes, St. Lawrence - with a Round Table assigned to each. Hodgson described Lands for Life as a "comprehensive new planning process for Crown land in Ontario."
Round Table members, included a former provincial Minister, university academics, appointees from various provincial boards, provincial bureaucrats, environmental planners and people with vested interests in environmental companies and tourism operations. Oh, yes, prospectors and mining interests were given only one representative. In a conversation with Chris Hodgson, he said he had hand picked the members of the Round Tables and established the meeting locations instead of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) President, Monte Hummel, who had wanted to make the appointments and desired all meetings be held in the urban centres of southern Ontario. It is worth noting that Hummel also sits on the Board of the Wildlands League.
The Round Tables were established to receive public comment, to consider alternative approaches for the planning areas and to make recommendations to the government. I personally attended two public sessions of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Round Table plus a working session at Pow Wow Point Lodge near Huntsville, Ontario. The working session employed the consensus approach to decision making thereby omitting motions, the calling of votes and the recording of official minutes. All meetings were led by a facilitator. In an article by James White, Ph.D., he explained that consensus permits the adoption of predetermined outcomes, stifles debate and nullifies dissent. It is the same process that was developed by followers of the Italian Communist, Antonio Gramsci.
The 177,000 square miles covered by Lands for Life on the Southern Canadian shield runs from Smiths Falls, just south of Canada's capital, Ottawa, Ontario, on the east to the Ontario/Manitoba boundary on the west. From Peterborough, Ontario in the south, the area extends north to the Albany River, above the 51st parallel. The area includes virtually all of Ontario's vast resource rich and accessible natural resources. Lands for Life would fit snugly into an area represented by Newfoundland, Labrador and Nova Scotia combined. The area represents 43% of Ontario's land mass.
What the three Round Table groups recommended for protection failed to meet the expectations of the radical environmental groups. In a masterfully choreographed display of collusion between the Ontario government and its environmental sycophants, upward pressure was exerted through the Partnership for Public Lands (PPL). The PPL is made up of: The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), The Federation of Ontario Naturalists (FON), The Wildlands League (WL) and some 30 other environmental groups. The Partnership kicked into action drumming out pleas across the internet and through mass mailings to develop pressure from their dangerously ill-informed supporters, including school-age children. This appeal gave the government the "boost" it needed - a contrived public demand. With these "public demands" in hand, the government could now claim the public had asked for greater protection.
On March 29, 1999, Premier Mike Harris along with members of the Partnership for Public Lands announced the protection of an additional 9,200 square miles (5.9 million acres ) in 378 new parks and protected areas. Much of this land will be made off limits to such human economic use as logging, mining and hydro-electric production. Twelve percent of the Crown-owned land in the planning area will be taken out of productive economic use. In total, how much land are we talking about? It is a lot -- 36,500 square miles! And this is just the beginning! The Kitchener Waterloo Record of the same day quoted Premier Harris as saying, "We are protecting 12 per cent, which is based on the standard set by the United Nations." In other words, Harris was telling us the UN is calling the shots with our land.
Already, the environmental socialists are gearing up their compliant supporters to demand more parks and protected areas -- up to 20% of the planning area. The Partnership's internet site informs us they are readying themselves for the next step in the process, the expansion of existing parks, and the creation of corridors linking protected or core areas established by Ontario's Living Legacy. Next will come the buffer zones to "protect" even more land. This is a textbook match with the Wildlands Project (UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere program) which calls for large core areas, connected by corridors, surrounded by an inner and an outer buffer zone.
The prescribed uses of these areas described by the Wildlands Project is as follows:
Core areas and corridors: No human use or access;
Inner buffer : No human economic use or habitation, limited human access;
Outer buffer or zone of transition: Highly restricted human use, no habitation.
In 1995, Ron Arnold, and Alan Gottlieb wrote "Trashing the Economy." Their book described the tactics used by the environmental groups to deconstruct the economy. They described in detail the finances and background of the largest tax exempt environmental organizations including the WWF and The Nature Conservancy. These leftist organizations formed by the world's self-anointed elite, are actually huge business enterprises. They are funded by governments, foundations, corporations and the politically naive. What is Ontario's Living Legacy if not an economy trasher? The Ontario government, environmental organizations and transnational corporations are working as willing accomplices. In the long run, the transnational resource cartels will secure unrestricted access to the resources which today, are the birthright of every Canadian.
Already the folly of this adventure is coming home to roost. John Snobelen, Natural Resources Minister announced a give-away of government money, $21.5 million to the timber industry to cover loss of use of existing roads and bridges and $7 million will go to economically unproductive fish and wildlife management and planning. What we have yet to learn is how much of this and future revenues will be paid out to members of the Partnership. As usual, these sycophants will get their reward and use it to further trash the enormous economic potential this province has to offer. As these ever-growing sums are paid out to the unproductive, those who produce will have more taken from them in taxes to fund these parasitic drains on the public purse.
If you have access to the internet, the following web sites will inform you about the methods of the environmental movement. They instruct people to follow their instructions including the provision of sample letters. The uninitiated in this philosophical war should not be misled by the welcoming language used to win over and direct the responses of the unsuspecting to their agenda. Think back on the information presented in my last three articles; perhaps the picture now appears in sharper focus.
The Partnership for Public Lands at -- http://www.wildontario.org
The Wildlands League at -- http://www.wildlandsleague.org/parks.htm
Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society at -- http://www.cpaws.org/
Earthroots at: http://www.earthroots.org/" Note: Click on ACTION Alert.
In our last article in this series, we’ll describe how these huge parks or bio-regions have been used to erode national sovereignty, violate rights of private property and cause human suffering.
[Ed. note: we have inserted the emphases of the red highlighting of certain passages.]
Go to final article in this series
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