Canada’s governments take a stand against misleading anti-forestry campaigns

On Wednesday, May 27^th, close to 30 mayors and other elected officials from communities across Northern Ontario and Northern Quebec held a press conference in Ottawa, Canada’s capital, to highlight the inaccurate and deceptive anti-forestry campaign being waged by Greenpeace and other like-minded activists. Following the press conference, the regional leaders met with a range of federal officials and frankly discussed their concerns regarding market campaign activities, which specifically target the purchase of products from Canada’s boreal forest. The elected municipal officials highlighted Canada’s green credentials, its world leading forestry practices, and the socio-economic importance of the forest products industry to hundreds of communities across the country.

Greg Rickford, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources and Minister for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario, and Denis Lebel, Canada’s Minister of Infrastructure, Communities and Intergovernmental Affairs and Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec issued a strong statement of support, pledging to “strongly defend our nation’s record and reputation against anyone who would claim otherwise.”

Because it is so important, we’re posting links to several news stories and press releases in French and English to give you the full picture of what happened.

• Minister Rickford and Minister Lebel Highlight Unprecedented Support for Canada’s Forest Sector
• Boreal forest – Quebec and Ontario elected municipal officials and forest industry representatives form a united front to better promote sustainable forestry practices
• FONOM And NOMA Supporting Forestry Day On The Hill

We also suggest reading this article originally published in French on the Radio-Canada website.

Photo courtesy of the Ontario Forest Industry Association (OFIA)