Sarah Sobanski
Clean water, clean air and healthy soil are not a part of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Derek Olive, of the Blue Dot Music Cycling Tour, rode his bike from Toronto to Millbrook’s Pastry Peddler to inform citizens of Cavan-Monaghan that this needs to change.
Derek Olive taps his feet and involves the crowd at the Pastry Peddler inspired by the Blue Dot movement. Photo: Sarah Sobanski.
“You can’t have good beer if you don’t have clean water,” said Olive, sipping his beer around his guitar before a full house at the Pastry Peddler in Millbrook last Sunday night. He strummed tunes inspired by his cycling trips across the country with a Bruce Cockburn edge. He says riding a bike, instead of driving in a car, gave him a different perspective of the beauty and fragility of the world.
The Blue Dot Declaration, already passed in the municipality of the City of Kawartha Lakes, aims to have municipalities declare a commitment to environmental rights because they are responsible for community services that directly affect the environment, such as waste management. Once a large number of municipalities have already taken a stand for environmental rights, and the goal for the Blue Dot is to go to Ottawa to have environmental rights locked into the Charter – something 110 other countries have already added to theirs.
Susan Forrester, who co-led the Blue Dot movement with Green Party candidate for the Halliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock riding for Kawartha Lakes, William MacCallum, was in attendance looking for someone to lead the movement here in Cavan-Monaghan.
“What’s happening in Canada is our environmental laws are losing strength,” said Forrester. Canada is third amongst the top ten countries with the largest renewable source of fresh water. “We have to change legislation.”
According to the Blue Dot website, 80 municipal governments have passed declarations recognizing the right to fresh air, clean water and healthy food which by extension is healthy soil. Olive will make three more stops, two in Ontario and one in Montreal, before the federal election in October, which is a great time to be drawing attention to this cause.
“My son told me not to worry, that his generation would take care of the environment,” said MacCallum during an intermission at the concert. “That’s when I decided to run for the first time in my life. If my generation doesn’t start caring, it’ll be too late.”
For more information on the Blue Dot and how to get involved, visit www.bluedot.ca.
