UPDATES
– Why we need a clearcutting moratorium – a brief history lesson
David Patriquin in the Nova Scotia Advocate, Apr 4, 2021
Forest Nova Scotia & the 6 to 1 Fillmore Slam Dunk (video)
The Naturalist, Apr 2, 2021
– Province House round-up: Rankin defends resource policies
Jennifer Henderson in the Halifax Examiner Mar 31, 2021. Said Rankin in an interview: “The report does not ask for a moratorium on clearcutting, nor does it actually recommend eliminating clearcutting. So I think that for those that are really interested in evolving to ecological forestry, they should read the report and they should go over the different aspects that actually allow us to get to ecological forestry by working together and by sustaining the industry in the long run.”
– Crowds gather across Nova Scotia to protest changes to Biodiversity Act
Michael Gorman · CBC News Mar 30, 2021
– This just in: Jacob arrested late this afternoon following a sit-in at the Department of Lands and Forestry in Halifax.
Larry Powell, post on Annapolis Royal & Area – Environment & Ecology (public Facebook Group) circa 4 pm Mar 30, 2021: “Jacob has been arrested late this afternoon following a sit-in at the Department of Lands and Forestry in Halifax…He ended the hunger strike today but our own Nina Newington and many others from Extinction Rebellion took up Jacob’s cause today by occupying Lands and Forestry offices across the province.”
Halifax, Mar 30, 2021. I was asked to talk; view my speaker notes
– A shot across the bow: Government offices occupied across Nova Scotia as Jacob Fillmore ends hunger strike
By RobertDevet in the Nova Scotia Advocate Mar 30, 2021 “After 23 days Jacob Fillmore is ending his hunger strike in support of a temporary clearcutting moratorium on Nova Scotia Crown lands. He made the announcement during a well-attended rally at Province House, the third one in as many weeks…The Halifax rally wasn’t the only one to happen this morning. There were additional rallies all across Nova Scotia, in Yarmouth, Bridgewater, Annapolis Royal, Masstown and Wolfville. As well, this morning rural activists coordinated by Extinction Rebellion occupied Department of Lands and Forestry (DLF) offices across Nova Scotia. In Halifax, activists sat in at the DLF and at Premier Rankin’s office. Minister of DLF, Chuck Porter’s office in Windsor is also occupied. Some 10 offices in all are affected, involving 40 activists, Fillmore told reporters at the rally.”
CBC talking to Jacob Fillmore yesterday (Mar 16th, 2021)
UPDATE Mar 24, 2021: – Nova Scotia lands and forestry minister ducks meeting with hunger striker
Jesse Thomas Global News Mar 24, 2021 “There was never a scheduled meeting,” said Porter. “At no point was there a meeting set or any statement made that I was going to meet with him or anybody else.”That contradicts a Facebook video captured Tuesday, that shows Fillmore sitting inside the Lands and Forestry office and speaking with deputy minister Paul LaFleche who tells Fillmore that Porter would meet him.”
– -News brief: Lands and Forestry minister Chuck Porter bails out of planned meeting with hunger striker Jacob Fillmore
Robert Devet in The Nova Scotia Advocate Mar 24, 2021. “As we reported yesterday Jacob had initiated a sit-in at the Lands and Forestry offices on Hollis Street demanding such a meeting, and was then told by the department’s deputy minister that the meeting would occur sometime around 11 PM this morning. Apparently this is also what Porter also told people who were at an anti-clearcutting protest in Windsor yesterday. The plan was for Jacob to be accompanied by Jamie Simpson, an environmental lawyer and Gretchen Fitzgerald, of the Atlantic chapter of the Sierra Club. But no meeting happened. Jacob told a Global reporter early this afternoon that the Minister claims not being aware of his intention to bring two people to the meeting. However, Jacob mentions this both in his letter of late last week and in the conversation with the deputy minister. “That tells me he didn’t read my letter at all, and simply agreed to meet to get me out of his office,” Jacob told a Global reporter.”
UPDATE Mar 24, 2021:
Day 16 of hunger strike: Minister agrees to meet with Jacob Fillmore as people rally at Province House
Robert Devet in The Nova Scotia Advocate. From Nina Newington/XRNS “The Minister of Lands and Forestry, Chuck Porter, has agreed to meet with hunger striker Jacob Fillmore tomorrow. Deputy Minister Paul LaFleche gave Jacob Fillmore and Janet McLeod, one of the Moose Country Forest Protectors, the news today in the lobby of the DLF. A block away, the Stop Clearcutting Our Future rally in support of Jacob was getting underway in front of Province House. Accompanying Jacob in the meeting will be Jamie Simpson of Juniper Law and Gretchen Fitzgerald, National Program Director for Sierra Club Canada.”
UPDATE Mar 20, 2021:
Jacob Fillmore: Open letter to Premier Iain Rankin
On The Nova Scotia Advocate
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Following the demonstration yesterday in support of Jacob Fillmore’s hunger strike/demand of government to bring in a moratorium on clearcutting until the Lahey Recommendations are implemented, there was a media scrum with Jacob:
CBC: As recently as Thursday, the lands and forestry minister told us that there are no plans to bring an interim moratorium while they work on implementing Lahey. With regard to your own personal concerns, how long are you willing to go with this hunger strike?”
Jacob Fillmore: I am gonna go until I end up in the hospital or a moratorium is declared, so I am really hoping it is the latter and not the former.
NSDNR Minister MacDonell at rally in 2010: “There’s gonna be a reduction in clearcutting in Nova Scotia.” View video
UPDATE Mar 20, 2021 Video On Instagram
It’s hardly a radical demand, given government has been promising a drastic reduction in clearcutting since 2010 without delivering (except by changing the language to define or describe a clearcut), we are now almost 3 years on from the Lahey Recommendations, and half of the members of the Minister’s advisory committee have called for a moratorium:
Half of the members of an advisory committee to the minister of Lands and Forestry wrote to him in November expressing deep concern about continued heavy cutting on Crown land.
They also called for a temporary moratorium.In submitting the letter to Derek Mombourquette, the members say they are concerned about “the extended delay in achieving the transition to ecological forestry practices” and say the pause in cutting is necessary until the recommendations of the Lahey Report on forestry practices are implemented.
“We believe that not doing so will result in the failure of government’s latest attempt at forestry reform, with long-term damage to the ecological health, economic productivity, and socio-cultural values that Nova Scotians receive from this critically important public resource,” reads an introductory message submitted along with the letter.
The letter, which the NDP received through a freedom of information request and released Friday, was copied to Premier Stephen McNeil, Lands and Forestry Deputy Minister Julie Towers and William Lahey, the president of University of King’s College and author of the report that provides the blueprint for a change in forestry practices. – From CBC News, Feb 12, 2021
So how about it, Mr. Premier? Please at least give Jacob Fillmore and those he represents a few minutes of the time you had for them during the run-up to the Liberal leadership election.
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Also view
– Members of Minister’s Forestry Advisory Committee request clearcut moratorium
By RobertDevet in the Nova Scotia Advocate, Feb 12, 2021. The article includes a link to the letter written by Members of Minister’s Forestry Advisory Committee.
UPDATE Mar 18, 2021:
– No answers to how key land model will work in N.S. as frustration grows over delays
Michael Gorman · CBC News, Mar 17, 2021 ” Re: [WestFor General Manager] Zwicker said reducing cutting to the extent people are advocating for would cause the industry to grind to a halt and create a shortage of forestry products.” “What they’re asking for is a moratorium on 98 per cent of the forest treatments that private and public operators in the province of Nova Scotia do,” he said. COMMENT, This is clearly an exaggeration, the moratorium sought is for Crown lands not private lands; the industry and L&F tell us that harvests on Crown lands are 20-25% of total harvests in NS; and the moratorium is sought for clearcuts, not all cuts.