Some are guilty, but all are responsible. Be responsible.

I have been preoccupied, as an environmentalist, with the Tar Sands and climate change. I know, however, that climate change, and Canada’s failure to act responsibly on climate change is just part of a bigger picture of a relationship – between people, governments, corporations, and the natural world – that isn’t working, and that needs realigning. There are so many of us keen to realign, and the message is getting out. I truly believe that change is on the way.

Tuesday evening, I ended up going to the Occupy Toronto evening general assembly. I hadn’t been to Occupy TO in a couple of days, and with the rain, I might not have gone if it hadn’t been for meeting that didn’t happen. But I was glad that I went. The rain had pushed the general assembly inside the gazebo where there was a sense of comfort – essential as the participants and facilitators negotiated processes for training and for relating with each other. As an outsider who is inside enough to know that the act of occupying has been a struggle of ideals, personalities, and gender balances, I was impressed with the commitment and patience with which participants worked to build respectful relationships. This is important because I believe that if we want to recover a healthy relationship with the environment and the economy, we need to start with ourselves.

Near the end, from the speakers’ list were a couple of people from Anakbayan Youth, asking for our solidarity in the Occupy movement in the Philippines, especially amid changing laws (“Charter Change”) in the Philippines that further open up land to being sold off to large multinationals. As Canadians, the speakers pointed out, we have a uniquely destructive relationship with the Philippines. Mining companies – mostly Canadian – continue to wreak environmental and political havoc on mostly indigenous lands and communities in the Philippines. Look up the Philippines on Mining Watch for the gory details. At the same time, indigenous and subsistence farmers are at risk of further food insecurity as land continues to be taken under control of mining companies and biofuel growers. Meanwhile, the temporary workers programme takes advantage of Filipina workers, bringing them to Canada to work on temporary visas – taking them away from their families and communities with no hope of permanent Canadian citizenship, and undercutting Filipino-Canadian permanent residents and citizens as job seekers.  

A quote I’ve seen recently and like, is ‘Some are guilty, but all are responsible’. I object to any claims to make me feel personally guilty for historical or far-away tragedies like the colonization of First Nations peoples, or the ongoing destruction of land and life in Canada or in the Philippines or around the world. I am not personally guilty for those events; I, and many other dissenters are as personally powerless as the victims of these crimes. But with the power of cooperation and education, and especially as Canadian citizens and taxpayers, we do have the opportunity – and therefore the responsibility – to stand against the crimes of Canadian mining companies in the Philippines and around the world, to stand against the destruction of the local and global environment perpetrated by the oil companies and the Canadian government in Alberta, and to stand for environmental and social justice. As we restore relationships with each other and with the natural world, we need to restore our sense not of guilt, but of responsible action and voice. Just as so many people are standing up against the megaquarry in Melancthon county around the corner, I hope we can show the same respect and love for people and planet further away.