2021 June newsletter

Hello RAVEN friends, an eclectic mix of news and events this month. Hope you find something here to interest you….

Do you know a young person (age 13 to 25) who likes to write and would like to see their story published? Please send them the Call for Voices from New Brunswick’s Future. This is an interesting and fun summer project for RAVEN research assistant Kelly Green from St. Thomas University. Kelly has editing experience and is keen to work with the contributing writers to polish a draft to make it suitable for publication by the NB Media Co-op. The project details are HERE.

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The New Brunswick Environmental Network (NBEN) has published the NB Environmental Bill of Rights: An Act to Protect Children, all New Brunswickers and Nature. The Bill was developed by a number of NBEN member groups and launched last week. You can read it, and add the name of you or your group as a supporter, HERE

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The Climate Action Team at Hampton High School (HHS) are not only climate activists but also allies to Indigenous peoples. Their petition was tabled recently in the New Brunswick Legislative Assembly in support of the Wolastoq Grand Council resolution against nuclear energy development and nuclear waste. Read the story HERE, in the NB Media Co-op.

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June 9, 7:30pm: Bill Parenteau & Mark McLaughlin on NB Forestry & Winning the Race to the Bottom

More info on Facebook event or register HERE. With New Brunswick’s Standing Committee on Climate Change and Environmental Stewardship set to discuss glyphosate spraying of the forest, record breaking timber prices and a government unwilling to increase Crown timber royalty rates, environmental historians and Bill Parenteau and Mark McLaughlin will share insights of political economy and historical context to discuss how our forest came to be managed the way it has. This talk is co-presented by Tertulias Fredericton, the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, RAVEN and the NB Media Co-op.

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June 14: Film screening + June 15 7:30pm panel discussion: Invisible Hand – Rights of Nature Documentary

More info and to register, HERE. A virtual screening of the award-winning film Invisible Hand, a documentary exploring the global Rights of Nature movement, followed by a Q&A with organizers from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). Invisible Hand is a “paradigm-shifting” documentary about the Rights of Nature Movement, the defining battle of our times where Nature, democracy and capitalism face off. The film will be available for viewing starting at 7:30pm Atlantic Time on June 14 for you to watch anytime leading up to the live Q&A on Zoom at 7:30pm Atlantic Time on June 15.

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Video: Leslie Kern on Feminist City, HERE. RAVEN partnered with Tertulia’s Fredericton, the NB Media Co-op, the Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network, and book publishers Fernwood, Between the Lines, Verso, and Canadian Scholars | Women’s Press on this event. Last year, former research assistant with the RAVEN project Lauren R. Korn spoke with Leslie Kern about her ideas for a feminist Fredericton. Read the articles here: Feminist Fredericton, part 1: What do women notice? | Feminist Fredericton, part 2: How do we take care of people?

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RAVEN lead researcher Susan O’Donnell was interviewed recently in two articles about the plans by the nuclear industry to add more nuclear reactors on the Point Lepreau site on the Bay of Fundy.

The most recent, published by The Tyee, was prompted after nine US experts in sent a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau about the nuclear weapons proliferation implications of the federal government’s support for the Moltex project in New Brunswick. You can read it here.

The second article, published by the National Observer, reported on the significant opposition that exists to the nuclear infrastructure development being pushed by the industry and funded by governments. You can read it here.

Enjoy June! We have another update on a writing project coming later this week…