Water and Canadians
Monday, March 3rd, 2008First, thank you for the Birthday Wishes. We greatly appreciate it and truly feel loved. However, this journal entry isn’t about our Birthday. It is about something much more important than that.
I felt that I had to write about something that is really important to everyone in Canada: Water.
Many water basins across Canada are becoming depleted of their resources. Wild salmon, caribou, bears, deer, moose, wolves, and other wild animals rely on the water for their existence. Not only do wild animals depend on the water resource, but humans.
My people (Carrier Dene) have always depended on the fish for livelihood, especially the salmon. That’s why our villages are located on the lakeshore or along the river. In fact, the fish are so important that my people named the months of the year after them.
Almost a year ago a leaked document revealed that business and government leaders in Canada, the US and Mexico are discussing bulkwater exports. This means draining millions of litres of water from lakes across Canada and exporting it to other countries. This also means endangering wild animals, plant life and stealing from First Nations communities that depend on water.
Currently there is no national strategy to address water issues and no federal leadership to protect our waters. I urge all Canadians to write a letter to Stephen Harper and let him know that Canada needs a National Water Policy. His email is: pm@pm.gc.ca and his mail address is: Office of the Prime Minister, 80 Wellington Street, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2.
Shannon Baker
