Greenpeace Canada
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Manuscript Division des Division manuscrits GREENPEACE CANADA R4377 Finding Aid No. 2223 / Instrument de recherche no 2223 Prepared in 2001 by Lawrence Tapper of the Social Préparé en 2001 par Lawrence Tapper des Archives and Cultural Archives sociales et culturelles ii TABLE OF CONTENTS HISTORY OF GREENPEACE CANADA .................................................................. iii VANCOUVER OFFICE ADMINISTRATIVE AND CAMPAIGN RECORDS .....................................1 Administrative Records .................................................................................1 Campaign Records ....................................................................................24 TORONTO OFFICE ADMINISTRATIVE AND CAMPAIGN RECORDS ......................................56 Administrative Records ................................................................................56 Campaign Records ....................................................................................62 iii HISTORY OF GREENPEACE CANADA Greenpeace Canada is Canada’s pre-eminent organization dedicated to global peace and disarmament and to the protection and preservation of the earth’s environment. Totally non-partisan, it relies on direct public support and participation for its work and does not receive government or corporate funding. In Canada, Greenpeace has approximately 120,000 members and maintains offices in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. It moved its national headquarters from Vancouver to Toronto in 1984. Greenpeace was founded in Kitsilano, B.C., in 1969 as the “Don’t Make a Wave Committee” by a small group of environmental and peace activists, Jim Bohlen, Paul Cote and Irving Stowe. The Committee focussed attention on US underground nuclear bomb testing off the Aleutian island of Amchitka south of Alaska and, in 1971, launched a protest voyage under the banner “Greenpeace” from Vancouver to that site. This marked the beginning of Greenpeace, and henceforth, the “Don’t Make a Wave Committee” ceased to exist and the Greenpeace Foundation was established. By 1976, the Greenpeace movement had spread to other parts of the globe. In 1979, Greenpeace Vancouver’s dispute with its San Francisco counterpart over use of the name was settled out of court. Later that year Greenpeace offices in Australia, Canada, France, Holland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States joined to form “Greenpeace International” with its office in Lewes, England. Greenpeace International initiates and coordinates international campaign activities and programs. Since 1989, Greenpeace International’s office has been located in Amsterdam. Since that time it is officially incorporated as Stichting Greenpeace Council. Since its founding, Greenpeace has undertaken many environmental and peace campaigns using direct non-violent action. These campaigns have all been in keeping with its philosophy of bearing witness, taken from the Quaker tradition, to environmental abuse and unsound practices which threaten peace and the earth’s ecology. The history of Greenpeace is the story of its campaigns, protest actions, lobbying and research activities, and interactions with citizens, governments, businesses, and multilateral institutions. Many of these campaigns have successfully brought about changes which have contributed to world peace and disarmament and to the protection and improvement of the environment. The purpose of Greenpeace is to ensure the ability of the earth to nurture life and all its diversity. Therefore, Greenpeace seeks to protect biodiversity in all its forms; prevent pollution and abuse of the earth’s oceans, land, air and fresh water; end all nuclear threats; and promote peace, global disarmament and non-violence. Since its inception, Greenpeace Canada has conducted a variety of campaigns. Efforts and resources have been directed at protecting British Columbia’s forests from clearcutting and encouraging ecologically sensitive forest practices as well as the protection of Canada’s land and sea mammals. Other major campaigns are divided into four areas: atmosphere/energy, nuclear/disarmament, ocean ecology, and toxics. In 1999, it launched its GMO (genetically modified organisms) campaign. Greenpeace Canada’s atmosphere/energy campaign is directed at eliminating pollutants and noxious emissions and greenhouse gas emissions and works towards developing renewable energy sources. It seeks a phase-out of fossil fuel and nuclear power, and the phase-in of renewable energy sources. iv Among its nuclear/disarmament campaign achievements, Greenpeace Canada challenged French nuclear weapons testing off Mururoa Atoll. This ultimately led to the sinking of the Greenpeace ship ‘Rainbow Warrior’ in 1985 by the French Secret Service in Auckland Harbour. It protested cruise missile testing over Canadian territory. It has protested port calls of foreign nuclear warships to Canadian ports. It spoke out against the Persian Gulf War in 1991. It lobbied for a Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. It has advocated a halt to construction and called for the dismantling of nuclear power plants in Ontario and called for a ban on uranium mining in Saskatchewan, the sale of uranium, nuclear-fuel rods and Candu reactors. In its early years, Greenpeace Canada’s ocean ecology campaign focussed on several well-known marine mammal initiatives including interfering with the east coast seal hunt and getting white-coat baby seal pelts banned in Europe. It has also mounted campaigns to protect whales, dolphins, turtles and Canada’s fisheries and to eliminate driftnets. It has protested offshore oil drilling and the movement of supertankers off the west coast of British Columbia. Its toxics campaign has opposed the incineration, transportation, and dumping of hazardous and toxic waste materials such as PVCs, PCPs, PCBs, dioxins and other chemicals, organochlorines used in the manufacture of pulp and paper as well as nuclear waste into the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, off the Canadian Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and into the atmosphere. The purpose of Greenpeace Canada's forest campaign is to preserve the unique ecologies of Canada's remaining ancient forests and to promote a switch to sustainable logging practices from the destruction of current industrial clearcutting. This is part of an international Greenpeace campaign to save what little remains of the world's ancient forests. Greenpeace has pursued its objectives by direct actions (e.g. blockading various logging operations to draw attention to the destruction of the forests); publishing research reports about the state of ancient forests and about governments’ lack of action; analyzing the forestry plans of major logging companies; negotiating with provincial and federal governments, First Nations, environmentalists and logging companies; and persuading companies that buy timber and pulp to phase out wood products from endangered forests. Greenpeace Canada's GMO (genetically modified organisms) campaign was launched in 1999. The purpose of the campaign is to stop the environmental release of GMOs. Scientists are already finding that GMOs will cause environmental damage. Despite the health risks, this experimental technology is in our food and the environment without our consent, and with insufficient long-term testing for harmful effects. Greenpeace calls for the removal of GMOs in food, and in the interim, mandatory labelling, the right to refuse GMOs in food, and the segregation of GMO and non- GMO products. GREENPEACE CANADA R4377 Container File File Title Date VANCOUVER OFFICE ADMINISTRATIVE AND CAMPAIGN RECORDS Administrative Records 1 1 Greenpeace Foundation of Canada - Board of Governors (Bob 1975-1976 Hunter) 1 2 Greenpeace Foundation of Canada - Annual General Meetings 1975-1981 1 3 Greenpeace Foundation of Canada - Annual Report Filings 1970-1980 1 4 Greenpeace Foundation of Canada - Annual Reports 1975-1983 1 5 Greenpeace Foundation of Canada - Annual Reports 1984-1995 1 6 Greenpeace Foundation Board of Directors (Patrick Moore’s 1979-1981 file) 1 7 Greenpeace Foundation Board of Directors (Patrick Moore’s 1980-1981 file) 1 8 Greenpeace Foundation Board of Directors (Patrick Moore’s 1980-1982 file) 1 9 Greenpeace Foundation Board of Directors Meetings (Patrick 1982 Moore’s file) 2 GREENPEACE CANADA R4377 Container File File Title Date 1 10 Greenpeace Foundation Board of Directors Meetings (Patrick 1983 Moore’s file) Part 1 1 11 Greenpeace Foundation Board of Directors Meetings (Patrick 1983 Moore’s file) Part 2 1 12 Greenpeace Foundation Board of Directors Meetings (Patrick 1984 Moore’s file) Part 1 1 13 Greenpeace Foundation Board of Directors Meetings (Patrick 1984 Moore’s file) Part 2 1 14 Greenpeace Foundation Board of Directors Meetings (Patrick 1984 Moore’s file) Part 3 1 15 Greenpeace Canada Board of Directors Meeting, Nov. 23-25, 1984 1984: minutes, staff reports (Patrick Moore’s file) 1 16 Greenpeace Foundation Board of Directors Meetings (Patrick 1985 Moore’s file) 1 17 Greenpeace Foundation Board of Directors Meetings 1975-1976 2 1 Greenpeace Foundation Board of Directors Meetings 1977 2 2 Greenpeace Foundation Board of Directors Meetings 1978-1979 2 3 Greenpeace Foundation Board of Directors Meetings 1980-1981 2 4 Greenpeace Foundation Board of Directors Meetings 1982 2 5 Greenpeace Foundation Board of Directors Meetings 1983 2 6 Greenpeace Foundation Board of Directors Meetings, Feb. 5-6, 1984 1984 2 7 Greenpeace Foundation Board of Directors Meetings