Green Party of Saskatchewan

by Larissa Shasko, GPS Leader  

One week ago we lost a friend, an activist, a colleague, and a young leader. Brad Johnson was only 23 when a morning swim at Last Mountain Lake proved tragic. We will miss him dearly. 

Brad served as Vice President of the Green Party of Saskatchewan from 2010-2011. I was lucky to have heard his thoughts on this crazy world of politics and activism. He was happy, and his quiet smile, objectivity, and eyes and ears wide open take on life will live on in my work as Leader of the Green Party of Saskatchewan and in the work of every young leader.

Brad loved politics. While most activists struggle to see other perspectives on the issues, Brad was naturally gifted at forming an objective opinion. He loved to research and learn as much as he could on an issue so that his opinion was so profound and well thought out while also as objective as possible. 

Brad reminded us all to listen to the timeless wisdom our youth have to share with the world. As part of his comments that he sent to me on the throne speech last fall, when talking about the new innovation fund, Brad so wisely and simply wrote, "it would be great to get ahead of the curve in solar and wind in the prairies where the Sun and the Wind blow." 

 

 

As long as the sun shines and the wind blows... 

http://www.leaderpost.com/Brad+Johnson+loved+life/5179692/story.html

The Green Party of Saskatchewan would like to express our full support and gratitude to the organizers and participants of the 7000 Generations Walk Against Nuclear Waste. Leader of the GPS, Larissa Shasko, will be joining in the walk near Regina and will be there when the petition is presented at the Saskatchewan Legislature.    

 

Information on the 7000 Generations Walk as posted by www.cleangreensask.ca is as follows:

 

Spread the word!  Join us!  Bring a friend!

 

 

7000 Generations Walk Arrives in Prince Albert  Media Release

 

The 7000 Generations Walk arrives in Prince Albert on Tuesday August 2.

The Committee for 7000 Generations has organized an 820 kilometre march against nuclear waste storage and transportation in Saskatchewan. On August 3 the walkers and supporters will gather at 9:30 a.m. Food ‘N Fuel at the Nordale corner and walk to City Hall where they will be welcomed to the city from 12:00 pm-2:00 pm.  A social, featuring Leonard Adam, Violet Naytowhow and Liza Brown, will take place at the Union Centre at 7:00 P.M. the same day. The 7000 Generations Walk will continue on August 4 to Duck Lake and Batoche and will arrive in Regina on August 16.

The 7000 Generations Walk seeks to raise awareness among Saskatchewan citizens about the planned nuclear waste dump as proposed by the Nuclear Waste Management Committee (NWMO) The NWMO, a nuclear industry controlled committee, is working with three communities in northern Saskatchewan in an attempt to find a “willing host” for a site that will store high level radioactive nuclear waste which is being produced in nuclear reactors located in New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario.

The storage and transportation of high-level radioactive waste presents huge environmental and health risks to the community that may be the site of the nuclear waste dump and to all communities that are on the transportation route. As such, the storage and transportation of nuclear waste is an important issue not only for northerners, but for all Saskatchewan people.

In an attempt to counteract the lack of information being made public on this issue, the Committee for 7000 Generations hosted a Forum on Nuclear Waste Storage in Beauval on June 2nd, 2011. Over 200 people from 12 northern and 8 southern communities participated in this forum, which passed a resolution to send a strong message to the Saskatchewan government to “BAN NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE AND TRANSPORTATION OF NUCLEAR WASTE INTO, OUT OF AND THROUGH SASKATCHEWAN”. The Mayors of La Loche and Ile-a-la-Crosse have taken a stand against nuclear waste, leading by example with courage and vision.

However, the Committee for 7000 Generations needs the support of ALL Saskatchewan citizens to send this message to government. We cannot sit back and assume that our leaders will do the right thing for the people. The Committee for 7000 Generations will be collecting signatures on a petition requesting the Saskatchewan Government to legislate a ban on the storage and transportation of nuclear waste in Saskatchewan.  – 30 -

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ITINERARY:  7000 Generations Walk Against Nuclear Waste 

 Pinehouse to Regina      

                                                                                                               

Please call Max to register Walkers:  306-865-9299        Dates are Targets

WALKERS: BE PROUD OF YOUR CROWD!

 FLY A BANNER WITH YOUR COMMUNITY NAME!

 

Date       Communities            _____ Distance km_            Sections*/km           Total Km    Total Days

July 27     Pinehouse to Beauval                        107                 4 - 27         107           1

July 28     Beauval to Green Lake                  103                  4 - 26        210            2  

Joined@ Beauval Forks by NorthWest communities

Joined @ Green Lake by Meadow Lake

July 29          Green Lake to Cowan             29                    --               239             3  

July 30          Cowan to Big River             48                       2 - 24         277             4

July 31          Big River to Debden               38.3                  2 - 19       315              5

August 1       Debden to Shellbrook                 49.6                 2 - 25     365             6                           

August 2       Shellbrook to PA                   45.1                    2 - 22.5      387.5          7

 

August 3        Noon gathering @ Prince Albert City Hall Memorial Square -           8                                                                          Musician LEONARD ADAM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                                                                               

Prince Albert to Saskatoon  - 174.4 km

August 4         PA to Duck Lake           57.6                3 – 19.2               445.1           9

August 5         Duck Lake to Batoche         23                    --                      468            10

August 6         Batoche to Osler           62                   3 - 21                  530            11  

7000 generations walk stop in Osler

The 7000 generations walk will pass through the town of Osler on Aug:06 on its way from Pinehouse and Beauval to Regina.  Osler Mennonite Church is offering camping space, billets and supper to the walkers August 6^th.  There is a public event at the church, starting at 7.30 p.m. with a welcome from the town’s mayor, Ben Buhler.  This will be followed by a shared meal, and some "circle time" in which walkers and others can share and listen to the stories of each others' communities.
(A number of Osler people experienced and resisted the nuclear industry's attempt to move into their community in the late 1970s with the proposal for a uranium refinery just down the road by Warman.  Others who were involved in the campaign against the refinery would be particularly welcome.)
Walk leader Max Morin wrote to Osler Mennonite Church: “We are humbled for your kind and generous offer. We will be leaving Prince Albert on August 4 and camping in Duck Lake. We walk from Duck to Batoche on August 5, Batoche to Osler on August 6, and Osler to Saskatoon on August 7th. We are gathering water from every community, river, and stream that we walk past, and we would be more than happy to collect your water from Osler. This symbolizes that we are all connected by water. We would then pour this water into a jar of all the water collected along the way and Osler. We list every place that water is taken from.”Ben Buhler will present some of Osler’s water to the walkers. 
Everyone welcome.  Some food will be provided, but feel free to bring more and share it.

    

August 7         Osler to Saskatoon           25.2                  --               555.2            12    

Joined by Lloydminster/North Battleford

 

August 7 - Evening of Entertainment in Saskatoon, Ave H &  20th Street                                                                                                                                     13

August 8 - Noon Gathering @ Saskatoon City Hall Grounds     

Musician CHESTER KNIGHT

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Saskatoon to Regina - 260 km

August 9        Saskatoon to Dundurn                    41.9              2 - 21       597                 14                                       

August 10      Dundurn to Kenaston          40.34              2 - 20     637.3             15                                    

August 11      Kenaston to Davidson          34.1                 --               671.4             16                                          

August 12      Davidson to Craik                      30               --              701.4              17                                  

August 13      Craik to Chamberlain                  30               --               731                 18            

August 14      Chamberlain to Lumsden           58             2 - 29         788.4               19               

August 15      Lumsden to Regina                    34.6           -                 823                 20

 

August 16      March the Green Mile to Saskatchewan Legislature, arrive @ noon                                                                                                                                   21                                                                

Musician Andrea Menard tentative. 

                            

August 17      Depart for home                                                                                       22            

*Sections are walked concurrently  

 

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PETITION: The Committee for Future Generations

 

http://www.cleangreensask.ca/

Scroll down to Northern Saskatchewan Says No To Nuclear Waste and Click on Links in article…..

The Committee for Future Generations has launched a petition calling on the Saskatchewan Government to permanently ban nuclear waste storage & transportation into, out of & through Saskatchewan.

Read the Open Letter to the People of Saskatchewan & share widely.

The Committee is planning an 820 km walk from Pinehouse to Regina this summer to raise awareness of this issue.  They will be collecting petitions calling for a legislated ban on nuclear waste.  Stay tuned or contact the group for more details. 

The Committee is encouraging the formation of chapters in other communities to demonstrate solidarity to Say No to Nuclear Waste.

Post on the Facebook page or send an email to

committeeforfuturegenerations@gmail.com

 

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Make a donation to support The Committee For Future Generations "7000 Generations Walk"

 

The Committee For Future Generations needs your support to make this summer's historical walk to Regina a huge success.  

 

Donate by cheque made out to "Committee for Future Generations" to: 

Royal Bank of Canada

130 Centre Street, P.O. Box 728

Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan  Canada  S9X 1Y5

 

DONATE (PayPal):  

http://www.cleangreensask.ca/Home/learn-more/nuclear-waste/northerners-say-no-to-nuclear-waste/make-a-donation

Donations to the Coalition for a Clean Green Saskatchewan for the 7000 Generations Walk will be forwarded.  Once you have filled out the donation amount on Pay Pal, you will see "Add Special Instructions for Seller". Simply make a note indicating your wish to support the walk. 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JULY 20, 2011

The Green Party of Saskatchewan today expressed "profound disappointment" in the outcome of Canada's annual energy and mines ministers' conference, held on Monday and Tuesday in Kananaskis, Alberta.

Party leader Larissa Shasko said, "Instead of planning for an economically and ecologically sustainable green energy future in Canada where jobs will be created and pollution reduced, the energy and mines ministers have irresponsibly chosen to go the route of increased tar sands extraction that will take Canada and the rest of the world past the tipping point of climate change.”

"In describing the Alberta tar sands as a 'sustainable major supplier of energy to the world', the ministers' communiqué distorts the English language to the breaking point. Non-renewable, high-carbon fossil fuels are by their very nature unsustainable," continues Shasko.

We are already seeing the early impacts of climate change globally in record floods, record droughts, record temperatures, increasingly severe storms, the steady decline of arctic pack ice, and the melting of glaciers worldwide.  Weather is becoming more extreme - and not only in rainfall and temperatures in the prairies.  This year so far has seen 900 new temperature records in the USA alone and serious drought throughout the US southwest, as well as prolonged and unprecedented floods in Colombia and the developing tragedy of drought in the horn of Africa.

Professional energy consultant Dr Mark Bigland-Pritchard, who ran for the Green Party in the federal election, pointed out that a graph used in the ministers' report to emphasise "growing global energy demand" describes the International Energy Agency's "current policies scenario", in which increased carbon dioxide emissions would result in a 6 degrees Celsius rise in global average surface temperatures by the end of the century.  This would mean, amongst other things, irreversible loss of the polar icecaps, the loss to fire and die-back of most of the world's great forests, and the loss of much oceanic life through acidification.  "It is unlikely", says Bigland-Pritchard, "that human civilization could continue for long in such an environment, because of unpredictable and extreme weather, the massive loss of agricultural land, the flooding of major centres of population, the inevitable wars over scarce basic resources, and the destructive impact of failed states."

The Green Party of Saskatchewan insists that such a global catastrophe is not inevitable, and that as a province we have much to gain by doing our fair share to avoid it.  Bigland-Pritchard notes the 300 thousand jobs created so far in the green energy sector in Germany.  "By making a radical shift to energy efficiency and clean safe renewable energy sources," said Shasko, "we could create local jobs, strengthen local economies and build local communities throughout Saskatchewan."  Saskatchewan has the best solar characteristics and the best usable inland wind resource in Canada, good hydroelectric resources, substantial potential for sustainable biomass and deep geothermal energy, and massive scope for energy efficiency savings.

"Given the real enduring long-term opportunities which a green energy economy would bring," said Bigland-Pritchard, "I cannot help wondering why Brad Wall and Bill Boyd choose to pursue policies which privilege oil executives in the short term and cockroaches and mosquitoes in the longer term.  They could instead be building a truly sustainable society in which our children can be proud to be citizens."  "A Green government", said Shasko, "would place value on providing for our children, not stealing from them."

                                                   - 30 – 

GPS Leader Larissa Shasko is now on Twitter!  @Larissa_Shasko or http://twitter.com/#!/Larissa_Shasko

Follow Larissa on Twitter on April 1st for Fossil Fools Day posts on the tar sands, carbon capture, and nuclear.  

Check out Larissa's newly updated facebook political page at  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Larissa-Shasko/26422620490

And visit Larissa's newly updated blog at http://revolution-solution.blogspot.com/

 

                                           

For Immediate Release                                                      March 8, 2011

The people of Saskatchewan said, "No to nuclear.  It is by far too expensive an option."  The $30 million to further develop the Canadian Nuclear Studies Centre at the University of Saskatchewan merely trots Cameco, Bruce Power and the Nuclear Waste Management Organization in through the back door which is the University.

On March 2, 2011, Premier Brad Wall and Minister responsible for Innovation, Rob Norris, announced $30 million in public funding for a new nuclear research centre at the University of Saskatchewan.  The announcement was greeted with great enthusiasm by University of Saskatchewan President Peter MacKinnon who said the new research centre will complement and strengthen the university's existing nuclear research infrastructure.