Parvati Magazine October 2014- Equilibrium | Page 29

COMMUNITY

A

t 78, most people
are settled comfortably into their retirement,
living at a gentler pace
and likely not in the public
eye. That cannot be said
of scientist and environmentalist David Suzuki. As
this article goes to press,
the 78-year-old Suzuki has
embarked on a crosscountry tour of Canada
called the Blue Dot tour
to rally people to protect
clean air and water.
The Blue Dot tour, so
named for the image
of the planet Earth from
space, will visit 20 communities over seven weeks.
Its objective is to see Canada do what 110 other
countries around the
world have already done:
enshrine environmental
protection in the nation’s
Constitution. It wants to
add the right to a healthy
environment to the Canadian Charter of Rights
and Freedoms. Anyone
familiar with the history of
political and constitutional wrangling in Canada
knows this is a lofty goal,
but Blue Dot has laid out
a road map to get there.

It starts by motivating individuals to stand up for the
right to clean air, healthy
food and fresh water.
These individuals then call
on municipalities to pass
municipal declarations respecting people’s right to
live in a healthy environment. As a critical mass
of municipalities come on
side, provincial decisionmakers will be inspired
to follow suit. And when
seven out of 10 provinces
represe