Dear Editor,
Somehow, thinking over the still present grief from the recent murders of three local women, and hearing that the women’s hot line in Renfrew County gets over 3000 calls per year, and that shelters across Ontario often have to turn women and children away, I get the very strong feeling that the Canada that we know at this time is simply not working for 50% of Canada’s people.
Women are living full time with a degree of insecurity that “the other half” little appreciate or consider most days. The Conservative’s Security Bill C-51 does not address this issue.
While the Conservative candidates talk of “valuing life” and their “Life Means Life” Act and protecting communities, I am finding their words to be words only. When 1200 Native women get murdered or go missing, there is simply no action, just a shrug of the shoulders. As agents of the Crown, the government of Canada has obligations to the Native communities clearly defined in all the Treaties, yet this government has failed miserably to fulfill its obligations, which include investigating these murders and disappearances. .
One of the major causes of crime is poverty. In the past ten years of Conservative “rule”, we’ve seem over 200,000 job losses while the rich have gotten richer, and the Prime Minister’s Office had a budget of $9 billion.
May I offer the idea that there is an economically viable alternative to balance the deficits created by the Conservatives? Other than their plan to continually mine Earth for her natural resources?
Back in 1937, Popular Science magazine’s front cover stated that Hemp was “The New Billion Dollar Crop”, capable of being the natural resource for making 25,000 products, thanks to new technology which could efficiently extract 90% of the stalk’s fiber. Within the year, hemp was banned in the US due to the historically proven efforts of the Du Pont chemical industry and Gulf Oil, with support from cotton, paper mills that used trees for pulp, and the pharmaceutical industry. The loudest protest at the congressional hearings was from the American Medical Association who stated they knew how to use cannabis as a safe medicine and needed it. The pharmaceutical industry told them they could replace cannabis (marijuana) medicines with their (expensive) drugs.
Canada banned hemp the following year due to pressure from the USA and its corporations. You can listen to stories about how this affected the local people and economy as told by a local elder, Garnet Kranz, at: http://hempseedee.com/audio.shtml in the middle of the page. . He grew up on the family farm when hemp was just another very useful crop
The rural farm economy was set to take off in a way that would build the rural community and it still could, if governments would get behind it and fund it like they do oil industries. In the past 17 years, several hemp fiber processing plants in Canada were ready to be built. Yet funding was pulled at the last moment by government and banks. When hemp was “legalized” again in 1998, Health Canada Minister, Alan Rock, stated: “This new crop has a tremendous potential for creating new jobs in agriculture, industry, research and retail.”
No matter which group “wins” the election, let’s make sure that the women of Canada are safe in their homes, on the streets at night, and that men and women have local jobs available that build communities and don’t create pollution for future generations to clean up.
Robbie Anderman
Killaloe ON
