 I am Diane Kleiman-Hake and I'm with Kyrus Atlantic Canada and I just want to welcome you and thank you for your patience as we begin. We are going to maybe not take the break in the center of our agenda so that we can give the full time to all the speakers and drummers who have come to share with us today. So I just want to say welcome. Thank you for coming. And we are gathered here in Chavakta or Halifax on Treaty Day in Nova Scotia. We are on the lands of the Miqmah people and live together under the Treaty of Peace and Friendship. This treaty lays out a plan for how we are to live in relation to this place and the land and the water and the plants and animals and each other. I acknowledge that I am a guest on this land and I am grateful to our hosts. I also acknowledge that we are not always good guests and the harms that have been done at the hands of non-indigenous people because we haven't upheld our treaty rights has been grievous. And yesterday being a day to remember with orange shirts, those who were affected by the Indian residential school system. We also remember those who continue to be harmed by systems of oppression that are still being used today to do basically the same thing. And finally, I acknowledge that we have a long road ahead of us as we talk about reconciliation and today we can take a step on that road. I'm grateful to the shared vision of those who are here today to make that a reality. And so thank you very much for coming. I'm going to invite Zach Paul and Matt Johnson from Member 2 and Polytech First Nation to come up and begin the drumming. I'm just going to, I have an offering for them and then they will drum and start our day well. Hi everybody. Thank you all for coming here. I'm Zach from Member 2 First Nation. I am a land defender. I am a water protector and I am a water walker. We are joined by a couple of other people who are on the water walk with us. And I gotta say, Diana is probably one of the best land acknowledge that I've heard in a long time, man. That was really good. You know, it's a little bit easier than the, we are on the unceded Mi'kma'a territory. But no, that was really good. You know, we touched on a lot of things and a lot of stuff and we love it. And you know, I just want to say that part of what this song that we're going to sing here, the honor song is to respect the fact that we are Ulnu. Now for a lot of people, Ulnu means native people in particular. To me, it means human. But we've gotta punctuate that. When the settlers first arrived here, my people didn't think that they were human in the fact that they didn't treat the earth and they didn't treat our relatives with the respect that we're supposed to. So I see that, unfortunately, that it's continued for a long time. But we see here in this group, I'm gonna guess that a lot of you do understand what respect we have to have for our earth and for our relatives here. So I'm thankful for all of you for coming together on this day. Thank you very much. Oh, I don't know how to follow that exactly. Other than to introduce myself, I'm Matthew O. Johnson from Bulbadeck. I'm also a land defender and a water walker. And I'll just keep out of that because I'm not very good at public speaking. Thank you though. Laura. Oh, I'm Kway W. V. Gallo Sylvester. Delay, we're a member two in a mago. Hi, I'm Gallo Sylvester and I'm from a member two in a mago. And I just came to be nail egg here, which is like nosy in our language. And I just show up and yeah, I'm grateful to be here. And today's a special day. I always think about my great-grandfather, Donald Marshall Sr. and my uncle Donald Marshall Jr. on this day because they had a lot to do with making this day happen. So I always keep them close to my heart on this day and as well as my grandmother too, Gullum and Marshall, who I'm named after. So yeah, I really think about them and I think about those little babies that lost their lives as well as we can about yesterday and thinking about our survivors here. And I'm a mother of a four-year-old boy and that really hit last year when that all happened. And I'm grateful for all of you for showing up because that's a start to create and change and to connect in with one another. I always say, we've got to think about the trees and the roots of the tree and how connected they are. That's how we need to be as people. And this is a start right here. So Lolly, I'll go all of you for being here today. Hey. Hi. Great. He doesn't say Salish Prosper, I'll just say Prosper. Lady, Lady Stomper, First Nation. Yes, he's all me and I'm a lot of you. I'm also here to be male, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. It's a dirty English, they will all enjoy you now. Thank you so much. You invited me, but I'll say it back because we're everywhere and there's a lot of work to be done on this. This day is very important, as was yesterday. But I also like to remind myself, because these days exist, it doesn't mean those other 362 days left are any less. And that these topics on specific days aren't any less important to our water, to our children, to our treaty rights, every single day that's been mattered. And that's why we sing for them, and that's why we acknowledge them, and that's why we are here to continue to share that whole life. And to give all of our living things back. Thank you guys all for coming, man. So the song that we're going to sing is going to be the honor song. I would ask that anybody who's recording at this time to please stop. And then afterwards, we'll be singing a treaty-slash-feast song, and this is one of our oldest songs that we've had. It's one of the few that has survived the thousands of years that we've been here in the past few hundred. So thank you guys, please stand for the honor song. And if you feel so inclined, join in. The chorus itself is especially easy and feel free to sing with us. And like I said, this next song is going to be a treaty song, a feast song. It's the song that's generally sung when people come together. And I hope you guys enjoy. Wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing with us. So we're going to talk about the theme of today, which as you all know, because you came, is about our land, air, water, and food. This theme also includes hope because we're here because we believe that we can make a difference. And so coming together with hope can be exhausting sometimes and that's why we need to keep doing this and we need to keep having these conversations. And so I'm so glad that you're here. And part of our group is not here because we had plans of having this streamed online and there were another 25 people or so who were going to be with us online and that can't happen. So we lament prayerfully the damage and loss that nature that is heartbreaking and sad. We lament the loss of our colleagues who wanted to join us online and cannot because of power of nature's wrath on our human infrastructure. Farmers have suffered greatly at the damage and loss of the trees and crops. Perhaps we can include remembering the sound of the wind exactly one week ago today that resulted in the destruction. Perhaps we can even recognize our human complicity in the increasingly powerful destructive causes and consequences of climate change. Surely it's a call to change to protect all aspects of nature that life depends on. I think we've got a video for you now. Indeed, everything is connected. Our first speaker today is Lil McPherson. If you want to start coming up. Lil was born and raised in Nova Scotia. She's the founder and co-owner of the wooden monkey restaurants located in Halifax and Dartmouth. Serving food with a conscience is the restaurant's mission and many awards have recognized the statement. Lil is a trained presenter for Al Gore's Climate Reality Project Canada and has attended United Nations Climate Change Conferences in Copenhagen, Mexico and Paris. She has traveled the world from the slow food international conference in Italy to the chalice sponsor agriculture site in Africa. But her passion remains local issues concerning food security, sustainability and supporting Nova Scotia farmers. One of her favorite things to do is to retreat to her mountain hideaway and hop on her tractor. I am so grateful that you're here. Thank you so much and this is my new sexy voice I have now. I'm just getting over a pretty bad case of laryngitis so I'm just praying that I can get through this 15 minutes so I'm trying not to talk all day today. So thank you Diane for that fantastic land acknowledgement. I'm not even going to, that's fantastic whatever she said. So my first slides, I'll just jump into it because I got 15 minutes and if anybody knows me I go off and tell all these stories so I got to really stay focused with you guys even though I got some great stories. So it's funny that I am started with my first slide is Hurricane. This is actually Hurricane One and we all remember Hurricane One that devastated our province as well. We were though to power for nine days. Believe it or not I actually wasn't here for it. I was grounded in a plane in BC, thank God, thank you. And I flew over two days later and there wasn't, you couldn't hear a needle drop in that plane because everybody was so quiet flying over Nova Scotia to see the devastation of Hurricane One. It was really something and it scared me. And I've been in the food industry for, believe it or not, four zero years, 40 years, I've seen a lot and I know these hurricanes damage a lot of farm properties and I knew in my gut that this was a climate change related hurricane and this was 18 years ago. And I knew as I sat down in my own living room, the dark for nine days wondering what I'm going to feed my own children. I started to think about how much food we have in Nova Scotia. Are we okay? We're almost in Ireland, we're up north. We can be cut off quite simply. I mean we've only got a little piece of land that's connecting us to the rest of the country. Are we okay? So I, these, this question really bothered me. So I set out and decided to get some answers. I asked everybody from government to farmers, anybody that knew anything about food storages, what's happening? Is there something, you know, do we have something, some sort of food security? It's a new word that I started 18 years ago. For us, and the answer was no. We have three days of food left in this province if we get cut off from the rest of the world. And that was, I found that out. Well, in our 19th, the monkey's been around for, we're in our 19th year right now. So this is 2003. And just before COVID hit, I actually went to the Nova Scotia Agriculture Ministers Conference, just when the COVID started. And I watched him stand on stage. It was a huge room packed with probably 500 people, all, all agriculture people, all Nova Scotia, well throughout Nova Scotia. And I heard him say, it was Keith, Keith Caldwell at the time, the liberals. You know, climate change is, it's real, really. And we only have three days of food left in Nova Scotia. And it took everything I had to not jump out of my chair and yell and, and stand up and say, I've been talking about this for 18 years. And shame on us and every color of the government to not bring us forward and give us food security because we got it. We can do this. I do have some hope. So I'm going to stay to my notes because I get so off. So, I mean, lately, I mean, we've experienced COVID and supply issues really affected the world, the war on Ukraine, climate change. It is now the world is in trouble and we all see it and feel it. But there is some hope. And I always, I always, I love that we have to always have hope or we don't have anything. But there is hope. I wouldn't be standing here if there wasn't. So I have the next slide here. This is where the hope comes in. And really, I talk about like, what is food security? And I ask people that all the time, what do you think food security is? And they say, well, I got enough food in my freezer. I went to Costco and I went to Walmart and, you know, I have a lot of frozen food. And that's not food security. That's food security for that person or that family. And they're hoping they have enough for whenever. But food security is when we are strong as a province. And the reason why we have three days, only three days of full up, is because 90%, 85% to 90% of the food comes from away. That's a terrible food business model, terrible economy. It's a huge missed opportunity. It's just, it's unbelievable. We sit here as Nova Scotians and wait for the rest of the world to grow our food and bring it back. 90%. So we have some work to do. And that's why the monkey was born. I was so driven to open this restaurant because I wanted to open a restaurant that supported the new, bringing back the infrastructures of what we lost. Processing plants, the slaughtering houses, all the bakers and all the things that come is a huge package that comes with the food box. And the economics are amazing. And I've got some slides at the end to really show you how we can build this economy. So this is where all the food begins. To me, and I always knew in my gut, that food had such a big part to play in the climate change story. Even back 18 years ago, I even started a soil association to protect the soil. We call ourselves the dirt gang. It's all about the dirt. But I went to the First United Nations Climate Change Conference. I went to, it was in Copenhagen. And they nicknamed it, Hopenhagen. It's kind of cool to have that word, Hopenhagen. Well, it didn't show up there, but it was supposed to be there. So it was Copenhagen, and they nicknamed it Hopenhagen. Because we really thought that the world was going to get together and sign those deals during Copenhagen. And it was really something. And I don't know if anybody's ever been to a United Nations Climate Change Conference. Has anybody been to one here? I wish I could transport you all to one because it is the most magnificent, hopeful, fantastic, phenomenal thing I've ever gone to in the world. The world and all the nations get together. And it's all of us. There's like 30,000 to 40,000 of us. This is our gang. You're with your gang. And it's all over the world. And it's really exciting. And they have green trade shows that people don't think there's money in green. You go to a climate change conference. The deals are making her unbelievable. There's the People Summit. That's where I hung out the most. That's where everybody was talking about firming. And that's where all the kids are. The youth showed up in the thousands. It was almost tearful, singing, marching, preaching, having their own People Summit. And food was a big part of it. And then there's the United Nations Climate. Then there's the Climate Summit that we go to. And all the world are there. And the presidents and their meeting. And that's where not a lot of people hang out. But we're all in the green trade shows in the summits. It's just amazing. But just like the hurricane here was kind of an aha moment for me to change my life. Because once you learn something or something affects you, you just can't turn back. You just, it just changes you forever. And that really did. The monkey has completely changed my life. So there's another part. There's another meeting that I went to that changed my life, too. When I was in Copenhagen, and it's phenomenal, all the stuff, and the meetings that you get into, I wish I could have, tell you, 15 minutes just on that. I squashed myself into a meeting that was packed. Just got into the back door. And there was nine countries there. And they were presenting on small scale, sustainable farmers are cooling down the planet. And I said, what are they talking about? Small scale farmers are cooling down the planet. And then this beautiful story started to unfold. And there was huge dairy farmers. There was beef farmers and pork farmers and all kind of agriculture from all over the world. And they talked about sequestering carbon and the power of nature. It is so powerful. I was so excited. I was like, do you need me? We can actually reverse climate change. And right now, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the IPCC report comes out all the time and goes to all the leaders in the world reports and says, this is how much emissions. Now, I'm a climate presenter, and I've been trained with the Al Gore team. And I've been to a lot of meetings and down to Tennessee. And I really pay attention to the emissions and the atmosphere. I look up every day in the sky, and I know they're going up and they're going up. When I first started training over 10 years ago, the emissions were like 389, and they were kind of really scared to go to 400. Like, you can't get to 400 because it's too much. But now they're 415. Now we've gone over that. So that's kind of scaring everybody in the world. The main hope we have is we can sequester the carbon back down from the atmosphere. We can do it through farming, good forestry. It is absolutely spectacular. And I will show you, OK, this, I think I'm ahead of myself. OK, yes, this right here. You look at this right here. This is the power of carbon farming. Now, there are carbon farming everywhere. And this is what they talked about over 10 years ago. This is the state of New York. In the state of New York, they guesstimated to heat all the homes in New York. In the state of New York, it takes about 290,000 tons of CO2. That's what's going up in the atmosphere. As you're heating your homes, that's going up all the time. All year. The same as the cars. That's 416,000 cars, all the emissions are going up in the state of New York. By regenerative organic agriculture, by carbon farming, they can sequester over 1,000,000.97 million tons pulling it back down. Now, that is a game changer. That is the game changer. That's what we need to run towards. I'm going to go to the next one, too. Now, I want to talk about just how powerful farming can be. So, permaculture farming, carbon farming, regenerative farming, we are cap and trade Nova Scotia. We can actually help our farmers diversify their income and pay them carbon credits. And I've spoken to our premier about this, and I've spoken to other people and government, and they just don't seem to be kind of blind on this. And I want to mention, too, that there is amazing amount of farmers, this is the head of myself, but this is the multiplier effect of what we have. This is what actually can happen when you take. The multiplier effect is the amount of local economic activity that is triggered by the purchase of any one item. And the community economics tells us that more a dollar circulates in the region is better for the whole economy. And Ontario did a study that it just said, if everybody in Ontario just spent $10 a week on local food, just $10 a week in one year that would bring $2.4 billion back in your local economy, that's significant, right? 10,000 new jobs and $20 million in business taxes per year. This is huge. And I was trying to speak to our premier about this. We need to build our farming economy back in Nova Scotia, and we can. And that's what we've been doing for the last, well, I've been trying to do and helping to do with the wood monkey for the last 18 years is buying from farmers. And it's working. Now, I'm going to share a number. My business partner would hate me do this. But I decided to add up what we do as a restaurant because this restaurant model works. It can work everywhere. We had just the restaurant industries alone. Grabbing a whole local economy, we could change the food system of Nova Scotia. So I had up for one month, one restaurant in 30 days, what just local food we bought, $25,000 times two restaurant, that's $50,000. Now think about that multiplayer fact. And think about all the jobs and the farmers that all the employment that they have. It's a huge ripple effect. Local farming is big. And we need more of it in Nova Scotia. We can do that. We have the appetite for it. And anywhere in this country, there's more farmers markets per capita than anywhere in the country. There's more people farming in Nova Scotia than it's really something. We've got a lot of young farmers coming here. So we have a lot of hope here. We just have to give show people the way at what to do. But I want to tell you too, just to mention, there's one farmer I love, her name is Ray, she's Pastor Hill. And she's carbon farming, she doesn't even know it. But she follows this farming, polyphase farm in the United States, his name is Joel Salton. And I just want to let you know what a farmer can do a hundred acres of land. He produced just off 101 year, 1,000 turkeys, 1,000 rabbits, 40,000 pounds of beef, 30,000 pounds of pork, 25,000 dozen eggs, 20,000 border chicken borders, chicken borders. And not harming the land, improving the soil, improving biodiversity, sequestering carbon and reversing climate change. And there always is, people talk about the meat, when you go to a climate conference, it's a big deal when it comes to like, we have to get rid of all the meat, we have to watch our meat, it's the called, it's the meat, it's the cows that we have to talk about. We have to get away from the industrial meat. If you could do one thing, if you can commit one thing, one thing, the biggest thing for your bank for your buck for climate change, say no to industrial meat forever. Just, I'm done. Just go to the farmer's markets, it's true. It is the biggest bank for your buck. You get more of that than you would buy in a hard-bought car, putting solar panels up. It is that big of a deal. And the multiplayer effect is amazing. I'm just gonna look for my notes here. Sorry, I feel like I'm gonna have a coffee tip, but I'm not going to. So what are we gonna do? How can we help this? How can we grow this? Because I really believe we can. We have a lot of farmer's markets and Halifax, and you gotta start driving the people to the market. Take a friend and go to the market and show them, you know, the farmer's markets, we've got two in Halifax, one in Dartmouth, we've got 40 all throughout the province. And it's not more expensive. People say to me right away, oh, I can't afford that organic food. I can't afford organic food. And I said, well, if you're gonna go shop at Pete's, you're probably right. But if you go to the farmer's markets, it's not more. It's the same, sometimes even cheaper. You just have to learn to cook. But that is really, really important in one of the biggest things we can do. It's true, we have to learn to cook again, right? But there's a lot of good stores. We need more local sources and noggins and abattoirs and butcher shops, just in Tata Magush alone. And just to tell you, this is one of the most vibrant communities in the province. Why? Because they're growing a lot of food. They have a lot of food systems. There's butcher shops, dexters in Tata Magush. There's the pork shop in Tata Magush. There's the new Jameson stores in Tata Magush, all local stuff. Ebbett's store, just open two more locations. There's blueberries all over the place. Greenhouses, root cellars. It is really spectacular. That's how you grow economy. We need that model in every community in Nova Scotia. If we do that, we'll win. And I believe we can do that. So I probably passed my time and I'm holding back my coffee. But I really believe, you know what? One of my quotes that I love so much is Mother Teresa. We said, if you feel you can't do something big, feel something big in your life, do something small in a big way. If we all went out and really helped educate people on just going to the markets, try going to the markets, filling their baskets, we should never, ever, ever buy any carrots or apples or onions or any root vegetables from anywhere in Nova Scotia. And drive that, drive that industry because I go to the farmer's markets and I see the farmers packing up at one o'clock and taking food home to the farm. They should be sold out completely. And by doing that, we're growing the economy. We're cleaning the air. We're cleaning the rivers. We're cleaning the soil. We're growing health for our children. You know, there's just so many ripple effects because the industrial agriculture is just so unhealthy. We're manufacturing our own diseases. It's the only way to go and it tastes great. And it's really great. So thank you. And I actually made it a little bit for my voice. What a great beginning to our afternoon. My name is Shannon Neufelt. I'm on staff with Kairos Canada. And I'm here to do a little in-between piece. We're thinking local and we're thinking about global connections. And so we started with that very local view and that inspiration for food security. And I believe too that you can do it in Nova Scotia. Hearing about all those farmers markets, I wanted to move here, right? So we wanna keep that in mind for our lives and think about what it means to be part of food security all around the world. And so I invite you to listen to some global partners today. I want to say I'm glad you asked who has been to an international climate conference. I have not, but I know 11 people who are going this year. And the voices that I chose to share with you today are voices from the Kairos for the Love of Creation delegation that will be going to Egypt in November. And they recorded some introductions of themselves, introductions to the community. The questions they were asked are how is climate change affecting your work in the places where you are? And as well as telling a little bit about themselves. So we're gonna hear from a few of them interspersed today. And we're going to start with a few words from Chantel Belulu, who is the project manager for Women, Peace and Security Program at RTA de la Justice in the Democratic Republic of Congo. So let's hear from Chantel now. The climate change affects our work in the sense that we also fight for the autonomy of women and young women. And here at home, women and young women are invested in agriculture and livestock. And there, with the climate change, the consequences of climate change, we find that cultured women no longer collect. There is no more income and there is no more harvest. And here we ask the Canadian federal government to help us in the actions of the majority towards our national and international authorities to face climate change. And also... Thank you. And I realize now that those subtitles were very, very tiny. So I'm going to give you a little summary. I wanted her to be able to present in her own voice. And she says to us, global warming affects our work in the sense that we strive for empowerment of women and girls. That is the primary objective of her organization and her program. And here in her country in the Democratic Republic of Congo, women and girls engage in agriculture and husbandry. And now with the disruption of climate and the consequences of climate warming, what happens is that the women plant but get no harvest. There are no yields anymore. There's nothing. There's no harvest. No food security. And so they go into this climate delegation to the United Nations COP 27 conference this year asking for all of our support and asking for the Canadian government support to lobby for loss and damages and for support in their advocacy. I want to just share with you a couple of other people. So let's quickly go to the next slide. Paul is in the Philippines and there as well. Climate change and climate imperialism impacts on indigenous communities and rural communities every day, as we know everywhere. And we'll see Noble as well, the next one. Noble is in Ghana and there as well. It affects agriculture and people's livelihood, especially those who rely on agriculture. The quality of the water is changing, mangroves is changing, communities are no longer able to make a living off their primary economic pieces. So we're seeing this all around the world and these people are leading the charge in their own regions to gather together and to advocate for change. I'm going to leave it at that for the moment and invite you into discussion groups. This is why we're in little horseshoes, that you could pull those horseshoes together a little tighter, maybe if your group is small you could join with another or you can just gather together and we have some questions. So there are five questions up on the screen and you can choose from the questions and anyone who's tracking the time, how much time are we having for each discussion group? It's saying about five to seven minutes just to think and meet your neighbors and discuss and you can choose and the most important question is typically at the bottom, how can we participate in bringing about what we hope for? So food security is our topic, talk to your neighbors. Friends, I think we're going to continue on. So we are going to move forward now with our next presenter and talking about the forest depending on our forest land and our biodiversity. Nina Newington, Nina is a writer, gardener, carpenter and forest protector. Her second novel, Cardinal Divide was published in 2020. Do you have any here with you? No, okay, they're not here but we will find them. She lives with her wife on the north mountain of Gaspakwik, district one of the seven traditional districts of Magmagi. Nina says, what kept me alive through the turbulent youth was the joyful knowledge that I am part of something vast and mysterious and beautiful. I owe nature my life. It feels right to get in the way of what damages her. Forests are under assault and they need our help. Hey everybody, it's very wonderful that everyone is out today and that it's treaty day and we're doing something that's important about honoring our part and the treaties of peace and friendship which is to look after the earth here and protect the earth because Nova Scotia has not been served well by settlers. There's an estimate that the forests here have gone through five removals since settlers arrived between massive cutting and fire and massive cutting and mole cutting and clear cutting. So what we have to protect is already vulnerable. It's already damaged. And a figure that really sticks in my mind, perhaps partly because I was born in 1958. In 1958, a quarter of all the forests in Nova Scotia were over 80 years old. Now that figure is between one and 5%. So that's not very much. And the message, the simple message I wanna give at the beginning and the end of this is we need to stop cutting those older forests because they are the reservoir of biodiversity that we have to work with. Only about 30% of the forests in Nova Scotia are on crown land. That's what we will find it the easiest to protect theoretically. So that's the backdrop and I'm gonna talk a little bit about how we did succeed in protecting for the moment a small forest in Annapolis County that we call Last Hope. Last December, actually the end of last November, I happened to see a Facebook comment and it was really happened by a local guy saying, they are gonna come and cut this forest and I've done everything I can. I've tried to stop them, I've got my MLA involved, I've talked to the Department of Natural Resources, I've talked to Westfall which is the consortium this government created to manage crown lands in Southwestern Nova Scotia. And they say they're gonna come and start cutting somewhere in the next two weeks. So I messaged him and said, can we talk? And a couple of days later, he and I and another forest protected, did a little drive around and he showed us this little forest. It's not huge, 25 hectares, that's about 60 odd acres. But you can see this forest because all around it is clear cutting. And that's how it is on the South Mountain in my part of Nova Scotia and in so many parts. The forest that'll left, you don't have to guess where they are when you read that they're gonna go cut another one. You drive along and look at the clear cuts and then you see the trees standing up. Those are the ones that are gonna go and cut. So there we were looking at this forest, right by Bealsbrook, beautiful brook. And he pointed to this little spot and I'm looking going, that's a good place for a camp. And he says, this is where in 1923, the last hope hunting camp was built. And it was called the last hope camp but because by then settlers had already destroyed so much of the wildlife that moose and caribou were getting scarce and deer are invasive. They weren't really here yet. But this was such good habitat for moose that there was still moose there. So when the hunter couldn't fill their ladder for the winter, they would come to last hope and it would be their last shot at getting their winter meat supply. So that seemed like a good name for a camp. So really within four days of seeing that Facebook post some of us had a camp set up there right by this bridge that they would have to bring the logging equipment over. And we camped there in the end for six and a half months. And it was a little rugged last winter as some of you may remember. But one of the things we've learned from doing these things is you need to do things that are difficult. You know, if it's all cozy camping, people go, well, you're just on vacation. We weren't on vacation. But I'll also tell you, I don't regret a single day of the time that I spent camping there. And nor does anybody I know who came out. And there were a lot of, I think we had 60 different people came and camped over that time. And over a hundred people came to visit. And one of those visitors was Marilyn Lee Francis, who's the district chief of Guestburg-Wake-Avara part of Big Maggie. And she came with her mother and her baby daughter, who we should actually take a moment to have a thought about because she's in hospital at the moment. Evelyn, Evelyn G is her name. Yeah, actually, just for a moment, just have a thought for a baby who's in hospital who needs our warm hearts. Thank you. Marilyn Lee and her baby daughter and her mother came in on what was quite perilous roads. And presented us with the flag of the traditional seven districts and gave us permission to fly it and thanked us for our sacrifices in protecting the land and the animals. And that was very powerful and important to us. And then later, Doreen Bernard, who's here, came and did a water ceremony on the Bealsbrook. And I say that because part of why this camp felt so good was that our intentions were very clear and simple. You know, our intentions were to protect this forest. And when you're there, camped in a place that you're protecting, it feels good. You know, it's a good basis for talking the people who come are good. We began to have lots of elders came. There was a moment when we had a prospectus tent and there were six people in there and our combined age was 449. We had an 85-year-old, an 83-year-old, a 77-year-old, a 73-year-old and a couple of us chickens in our 60s. There's such a spirit to come together and protect. And we didn't know how we were gonna do it. We didn't know what the end point was gonna be. We knew that West 4 really desperately did not wanna give us a win. But one day, actually the day after Marilyn Lee, Francis came to visit, we had put out a word for a lichen expert to come. And he came and he took a look around and he found a couple of, he found three different species that risk lichens, each of which, under the law, get a hundred meter buffer around them. And we said, hmm, well, if you can find those with two and a half feet of snow on the ground, maybe when the snow melts down a bit, we can find some more. And eventually we found enough, and I will tell you, I spent a lot of time combing those woods learning about lichens, but we found enough that we could protect 60% of that forest. And we made access to the rest of it very difficult. So we're still keeping an eye on that other bit. But we were able to stop the cutting of this forest. Yay, you know. Some of what we were doing though, and this is true about any kind of direct action is, part of it is the very strong, powerful thing to me that the wonderful water protect, salmon protector from BC, whose name is currently completely Alexander Morton. She has a very simple line. She says, if you can do it peacefully and honorably, there is nothing more powerful than putting your body in the way of what damages the earth and it works. And there she really ended up working with First Nations and has made a real difference to what's happening to salmon there. So some of it is protecting directly, but you're also always inviting people to join the story. You're always telling a story about the bigger picture. And the bigger picture is, we can change the way we treat nature. We can come together and protect. We can get in the way of industrial forestry, which has pretty much owned this province for the last 100 years. They've had their way and they wanna go on having their way. But it is possible for us to get in the way and it isn't only the people who come and camp. It's everybody. It's everybody who comes together and writes a letter, sends a donation, writes a petition, talks to their neighbor about it. And that's what we need to do. We need to protect and restore nature. We can't address climate change without protecting and restoring nature. And we actually have a little tiny bit of leverage here to do it. This government got elected on a promise to protect 20% of Nova Scotia's lands and lands and waters by 2030. They ran kind of to the left of the liberals who only promised 17%. That 20% in Nova Scotia, which is a relatively small province, is very significant. It means that they are gonna need to add three Tobiatic wildernesses. They're gonna need to add 330,000 hectares of protected land in order to meet that commitment. And they put that commitment into law. It was legislated early on. That's 815,000 acres. It would more than cover all of the forests over 80 that are on crown land. We could take those off the table. Say, nope, let's just say right now we're gonna protect those. What is happening is that just in line with all of the tradition that goes on in this province, which is by roughly called talk and log, where they make promises and they have reports and they have recommendations and it all sounds good, but actually they just keep on logging. The same thing is gonna happen with this. They're going in after the most ecologically valuable old forests, because guess what? Those forests also contain the most wood. Southwest Nova Scotia is kind of regarded by the industry as the fiber basket of Nova Scotia. It's the place where the most old forest is left, where the most mixed natural forest is left. So we all need to come together. In what I think of as the last hope campaign, because it is, if those forests are gone, yes they may grow back, but under climate change and with the invasive insects that are coming, we have no guarantee that forests are gonna grow back. Anything like what they have been. And in fact, we have a pretty good guarantee they're not going to because if you keep cutting and taking away the organic matter, the soils grow poorer and poorer. And in some parts of Nova Scotia, there are rich, limey soils, but most of Nova Scotia is on poor, acidic soils. And some of those, and I have seen this in the area around last hope, they were clear cut. I thought it was about four or five years ago. When I looked at the records, it was 13, 14 years ago. They're just not growing back. And that's happening in a lot of places. There are forests that are just not growing back because the assault on the earth has been so intense for so long that that healing is not happening. So this is a really dire and desperate thing that we need to address. But it's also something we can address, and we can try to help people get more connected to the places where they live and become guardians of those places, become people who watch to see if there is gonna be cutting, just like the fellow who put the comment out on Facebook saying, hey, they're coming in. We need to know that. And then we need to help people all around the province take action and get in the way. In whatever way is available to them. But I am completely committed to doing that and I know that lots of people are. And what we need to do is be trading information and talking about that. So in a very simple low-tech fashion, if you would like to be part of that kind of direct Last Hope campaign forest protector, there's a sheet of paper up there and a pen. I'm not even really gonna talk about the other thing that I'm involved in right now because I'll bet you that my time is up. Am I right? Okay. A little tiny thing about what also we're doing right now which is every year this province approves aerial spraying with glyphosate-based herbicides farce on private land. Since 2010, there has been no spraying of that aerial, none of that aerial spraying of that herbicide on crown land. And we need to keep it that way. And the industry is pushing quite hard to be able to start spraying again on public lands. And we need to stop that. And one of the ways to stop that is to absolutely totally refuse to subsidize it because they probably won't even do it if it's not subsidized. But the other thing is just to make it really clear that there is a serious political cost to anyone who in government who thinks it would be a good idea because my experience with this annual list that comes out from Nova Scotia Environment of places they've approved for spraying is when you tell people they're like, what, they're still doing that? They got a helicopter coming and spraying a forest to kill all the hardwoods, everything with a leaf. So only the trees that have needles are left because that's what they want for their pulp mills. That's what they're doing, really. This year wonderfully, in my part of the province, there were 13 sites approved for spraying and within days of us getting a map up and posting it and getting that information out to people, there were camps getting set up to get in the way. At this point, 10 of the 12, one of the sites is off because they screwed up the notification so we were able to stop that one. But there are 10 of the 12 that actually have citizens camped out there willing to get in the way of the spray, willing to go and be on that spray site so they can't spray it. And that's the kind of direct action that we have to start taking because nothing else really makes a difference. But we have been 100% successful in protecting every site that we have camped on for the last three years. The spray season was supposed to end yesterday. It was publicized as going from September 1st to the 30th with the special required notifications. I spoke to the administrator on Tuesday and she said, oh no, they can spray after the 30th. I mean, it makes a complete mockery of what they're doing. So we can impose some political costs but meanwhile we're keeping camping, not me today, we're keeping camping until the leaves drop. Nature is on our side, the leaves are gonna drop and they're not gonna be able to spray because it won't work. But this kind of insanity, we need as many people as possible going, no, just no. You know, this is ridiculous. We're in a climate of biodiversity crisis and you're saying it's okay to go drench 5,697 acres with a herbicide that kills not just everything with the leaf but any amphibian it touches because they can't, anything that breathes through its skin so every frog, toad, salamander, snake, if it gets into water and guess what, there's a lot of water moving around, it kills aquatic life. And it seems like the UN is saying it's a probable cost-intigent for human beings. So not gonna go into a long thing about that because we don't have time, I'll just tell you there's a petition up there, I'm not a big fan of petitions but this is a good way for us to get it brought up in legislature. We have an MLA who's working on-site with us who's been good. There's postcards there that you can sign and send if anybody's connected to a business that will be willing to carry those postcards and a petition and get people to sign them and preferably you put a stamp, the business put a stamp on them, mail them off in a packet. I think that's what I have to say in the time available, thank you very much. Protection of the land, relationship with the land is so important. And I want you to hear in their own words from three speakers who are indigenous to Turtle Island who will be joining the global delegation to COP 27 in November. So we'll hear from Clifford now. So from Clifford. Hi, my name is Clifford Mosquash. I'm a member of Pagashin or Pace Plot Firstation on the North Shore of Lake Superior. I currently live and work in Thunder Bay, Ontario. And I was born and raised in Sula Cut, Ontario on the traditional territory of Black Sula Firstation. I'm currently a Masters in Public Health student at Lakehead University. And I'm completing a specialization in indigenous and northern health. My research and my practice interests are on ways to decolonize indigenous health research and ways in which we can work to provide a more equitable level of access to the pursuit of health for indigenous people on Turtle Island. Climate change has affected the livelihoods of people in Northwestern Ontario with increased flooding and wildfires throughout the year, sometimes requiring either the partial or full relocation of people or the community. Indigenous people were environmental stewards of Turtle Island since time immemorial and cared for the environment in a way that was enough to support our livelihoods while still protecting it for use by future generations. For the Anishinaabe, we understand ourselves to be extensions of the land and the land to be a part of us. I think when we see ourselves in the environment and see the environment in ourselves, decisions taken by governments across all jurisdictions and industries will produce policy and action that not only prioritize environmental protection and mitigate the effects of climate change, but these decisions and these actions will also improve the health of all people on Turtle Island, Miigwetch. We understand ourselves to be extensions of the land and the land to be a part of us and that understanding, in his words, is the root of where we start when we're thinking about this. Let's go to the next slide. I want you to also meet Tia Kennedy, who talks about mental health and the struggle that climate change is bringing to mental health. It's difficult to focus on health policy, which is what her job is, when the health of our planet is so scarce. How can we manage to heal ourselves when we can't heal the earth? Without her medicines, we will perish. And I've heard this once today already and we will hear it more in regards to climate change. We need land back. You can hear more from these particular delegates if you're interested to hear their full interviews. These are quotes from their interviews and they are recorded and they are on the Kairos website. Next. Okay, I think we're going to move on. Let's bring our discussion back. Do that now. So I'm going to invite Zach and Matt to come back up if you would and sing us into our next segment about water. So this next song that we're going to be singing is the Swirling Water Song. And I was introduced to this song when we were staying at the Avon River. We spent 18 months. My partner and I, Matt, joined us for a few as well, trying to advocate for a river that's been blocked to be reopened. Thankfully right now it looks to be going pretty good, which is awesome. You know, the fish are going to be flowing again and swimming freely, it's going to be great. But this song I was told kind of represents the rushing of the water, especially the tide as it comes in. And as you know, in that part of the minus basin, the tide is very high, 40 feet, 50 feet, maybe on a good day, bad day, depending on where you are. And on a day like this, I like to think that it's the tide of new people that are coming and the new energy that's coming in and we're realizing that we need to do something and I'll wake everybody else up. Doreen Bernard, I can't believe that. I'm so excited you're here. Doreen was supposed to be joined by Catherine Anderson and so let's remember Catherine. Catherine is having a family member who's very ill and she's had to go and be with her. So she's traveling today across the country so I ask you to keep her in your prayers and your thoughts as she's traveling. In her place, Yvette is going to join in. Yvette, I have no information about you. So Yvette and Doreen, I have a biography. She's a Mi'kmaq grandmother, Mi'kmaq grassroots grandmother, a water protector, a land defender, a water walker, a cultural teacher. She draws her strength and courage from the indigenous women in her life, survivors of residential schools, elders, teachers, leaders, movers and shakers who inspired her in her work, social work, social justice, with survivors of residential school on Mi'kmaq treaty rights, resisting environmental racism and awareness of the missing and murdered indigenous women and relatives and the protection of water and climate justice. Would you both please join me up here? Good afternoon, everyone. I'm so happy to be here on behalf of Catherine Anderson and Catherine was staying with me last night when she received a call that she had to fly to BC this afternoon to be with her sister. So I'm basically reading her notes and so as I read it, it might sound as if it's actually her words. So Catherine's been invited to speak to us about the success of the campaign, the success of the campaign by the sustainability network of Nova Scotia, which she was a big part in organizing. Here I quote from Catherine. The story of sustainable Nova Scotia, sustainable Nova Scotia begins in 2017 when our beloved monthly newspaper, The Light, which has now been extinguished or extinct, arrived in our mailbox with the headline, there's gold in their hills. There's gold in them their hills. So there was a newspaper article 2017. I knew then that my commitment to solidarity with the struggles of indigenous people, resisting the imposition of mining, had come full circle to my own backyard, that is, the watershed of the French River. The French River is right next to the Tatanagouche Center and a block from where, from my home. I was not the only person concerned. By January, 2018, we had formed sustainable North of Nova Scotia with the goal of preventing gold mining in our watershed. In spite of the provinces and the Department of Energy and Mines determination to invite major mining companies to explore for gold in the cobalt hills. This had been planned for many years without the knowledge of anyone in the region until they were legally required to have an open house. We began to organize. I want to leave plenty of time for Doreen to speak. And I will only explain briefly what we, this sustainable North of Nova Scotia committee did. We were, we had three major ways in which we organized. And this, I have to tell you, it's been a successful campaign. What our plan was, the committee, they would work in the area of research, communication, community education, and action. We wouldn't have one without having all the elements, research, communication, community involvement, and action. That's the pattern that we needed to have. We would not have won our campaign without the credible research by Dave Gunning and his brother Matt. They called it, this is the research section, factivism. Matt and Dave had worked this, did this, did this kind of work when they were objecting to North and Pulp. We got a grant and we hired a geochemist who, using the province's own geological information, proved that the mining indeed would be risky to our pristine waters. We got a second grant to bring the geochemist to Nova Scotia, and she spoke publicly in Tadamagush, as well as Halifax and Shriblook. So one aspect was research, so a few people in the committee did research, got facts. A second aspect was communication. Signs were made up, like the sign that we hear, water and up gold, and they were distributed to the people in the area. Chatham says, the sign of Hosea, if you want one, the five dollars a piece. They were press releases, they were CBC interviews, two short movies were prepared, and they were sent to the MLAs and to the Minister of the Environment and Northern Indian Affairs. They were letter writing campaigns, different letter writing campaigns throughout the campaign, like 2017 onwards. So there was always an attempt to keep everything on the table, research, communication, and then community education. There were meetings, like there were meetings, this is an advertising for a meeting at the Tadamagush library, and the members of the committee chose to attend the meeting of the watershed land advisory, which was a committee that was existing even before this mining was proposed, there was a land advisory. So members of the committee went to the meeting, and the interesting thing is it is that land advisory that ended up making the recommendation against further development. And I'm bringing that up because today in one of the petitions that I was asked to sign, I was told that the decision was gonna be made by an advisory committee, I'm talking about, and this is what happened there, it was an advisory committee and the members of Nova Scotia, sustainable Nova Scotia infiltrated or participated at all the meetings. One of the most important relationship was the relationship with the Mi'kma'u mothers, Mi'kma'u elders, Mi'kma'u women. We were dealing, I'm talking using Katta's word, with the same issue, water protection, and so there was a bit of money available to hire a young Mi'kma'u woman who worked with us and with the Mi'kma'u woman to organize the water walks, and I'll let Doreen talk a little bit more about the water walks, but basically that was the most important relationship. Again, we were together on a cause. So this is a positive outcome of a campaign that was well organized and well led, and I mean we're continuing to fight for the water rights, and thanks to the Mi'kma'u woman and the water walks, that pushed the issue to the point where it could not, it didn't proceed. So I'll let Doreen talk about the water walks. Thank you. Ndela Waseek, I said I'm Dandali Unwui, Gilnit Clan, Akwikwagi. I just wanna give thanks for allowing me to comment, share some of these water teachings. I think they're really important to have, to hold in our hearts for whatever we do. I love my teachers, my knowledge keepers and the elders, ceremony leaders, those that grandmothers and grandfathers. Many are my ancestors now that guided me in what my role would be where I am right now as a water keeper and water walker. The first part of my life was, I think preparing me for what we do today was on a healing journey for the first 35 years and long. And it's sad to say, but we just celebrated the National Day of Truth to my Conciliation. Yesterday, a lot of our teachers were survivors of residential school. Isabelle Knopf, my aunts, Rita Stevens and Victoria, a lot of my, I had a lot of elders in my life that I looked up to and raised awareness about the healing that we needed to do as survivors, to revive our culture and our connection to the land. And they were doing this in Boston and others like other people that we looked up to at the time, Anime Apoche, Anime Pito. She was a role model for us who were growing up, standing up for our indigenous rights, standing up for other people's rights to the land and the water, actually dying for those things. We have many people across Turtle Island, across Mother Earth that are standing up in their territories, giving their life for the people, for the land and for the water, giving their voice to all those that don't have a voice, for the flyers and the swimmers and the plants and the trees, the rivers and all their sacred beings. They're the ones that set the path for us and what we do today. And those teachings are really important, but they're not just important to us, they should be important for all mankind. The life and culture and strength of indigenous peoples cannot be separated from the land and the water. The Earth is our mother that provides all that is needed to live. The water is her lifeblood and we must all remember that it is sacred, it has life, it is alive, it has a spirit. Today, many people have forgotten the sacred relationships they have with water and Mother Earth. Water has always been central to indigenous peoples' cultural practices, ceremonies, ways of life. Water holds the greatest significance in the teachings and ceremonies, sweat lodge, fasting, sundance, rites of passage in our prayers and our medicines and our healing and our songs. These are what helped me to heal and brought me back to this connection to the land and the water. Many sacred ceremonies connect us to the land and the water and our ancestors in Provaun ways. During the fast ceremony, we go without food and water for four days and four nights out on the land alone with our prayer, sacrifice, praying for the good of Mother Earth, for the water, for those who are sick, even those on their spiritual and asking for that help and guidance from our ancestors. During that time, we have an intense relationship with water, gain that understanding how sacred it is. So when we come back from the fast in the sweat lodge, that first drink of water, that first sip of water that we get, we could feel the life coming back into our bodies, our minds, and our spirit. That's when you know that relationship of how sacred water is. Indigenous peoples embrace that life emanates from water. We must have access to our lands and waters to survive. We are all survivors as we carry an ancestral memory of the DNA of our historic trauma, of colonization, systemic racism, oppression, residential schools, day schools, the infringement on human rights and on indigenous rights, and the impact to our families and our communities and our nations and our lands and our waters. Our only way of the doodling guidance of our creator, our ancestors and the indigenous knowledge keepers, our grandmothers and grandfathers has helped us to heal and gain understanding, resilience, and strength to survive. We survive genocide. This is what the rest of the world needs to learn so that all life, our Noguma, can survive as well in these times of climate crisis. The women's teachings of the role of women as sacred beings, life givers, being gifted with the ability to bring new life into this world. Women carry the child in the womb surrounded by water, protected by water. Where we can drink the water, breathe the water, we are the water. We are over 70% water when we come into this world. We come through the water. When we take our first breath of air, women have also been given that responsibility to protect the water on Mother Earth, not only for the child that they bring into this world, but for all life, including all that cannot speak, all our Noguma, the land, the animals, the flyers, the swimmers, the crawlers, the plants, the trees, the rocks, and all future generations that need clean water to survive. Women carry many rituals and ceremonies that include the water, birthing ceremonies, even death ceremonies. Moon ceremonies, healing and water ceremonies. And more, water is critical, central to women's roles and teaching that we are all part of creation, interconnected and interdependent. And it is our responsibility to practice these teachings while caring for our families and our communities. Growing, preparing, cooking food, nurturing and washing the babies, protecting the health of the water in our environment, which contributes to the health of our families and communities. Women's role as water protectors, land defenders, is to teach and uphold these spiritual teachings in asserting our rights, our inherent rights, and responsibilities as owner, the laws of Ndudulim, taking only what is necessary and to sustain life and protecting the integrity of Mother Earth and the water to leave what is needed for our future generations. As a traditional grandmother, I learned about the Mother Earth Water Walk and I got the grandmother Josephine Mandemamban, Bedaz again, who began this water ceremony in 2003, walking around the Great Lakes. In 2007, we started to have water walks here in Djibukduk to raise our voice to support her work, what she was doing, walking around the Great Lakes to raise awareness about the pollution of water on Mother Earth. We started off with a few women drummers walking around the Point Pleasant Park during the times when she was walking and over seven years that walk grew, more people were coming every year. We were getting together to talk about the water here in Mignagi and how we can speak for that water and protect the water. And we were bringing people together, grassroots grandmothers, working to build an alliance with others who wanted to work together in reconciliation with respect, relevance, reciprocity and responsibility to protect the water and the land. Many of those environmental issues with impacts to the water were brought to the table, our kitchen tables. And then we met, started meeting at the Eagles Nest in Indian Brook to talk, welcome people to come and speak for their water and their issues to protect the land from industrial pollution, from fracking, from, I think there was other issues when they were expanding the mining, other things that came through that were resulting, bringing our people together, having people come in from different parts of the province. We understand that there's a direct correlation to violence against women, indigenous women, around the world. And many missing and murdered indigenous women and girls and relatives many women have been murdered and have gone missing while standing on the front lines against the oil and gas extraction industries at the hands of corporate security, government, state police, military and vigilantes. Many more men and boys have also been murdered or have gone missing while defending the women and children in their remote communities. We have witnessed what happened to the wet-so-wet and the giddim, giddimden, the Lakota, the Lakota, the Nishnabeg, the Mi'gma and other indigenous and allies who have taken a stand to protect their unceded territories, their lands and their resources. Reporters who have documented the many human rights atrocities of the state have been arrested and charged for sharing the truth with the world. This is happening across the globe where people stand on the front lines to stop the oil and gas extraction, to stop climate change, to protect Mother Earth and the water. The land and the water have been brought, bought and sold, destroyed by industry and governments that only see the mass commodities. The land and the water, the people, animals, and all life that are destroyed are viewed as collateral damage and inconvenience expendable through the quest for wealth and greed. Indigenous people and allies are being criminalized for standing up to protect the water and the land for their families and their nations, their communities, and the life of future generations. The government and police now have more overreach and powers with the Emergency Measures Act that will be used to protect the pipeline against indigenous peoples and their protection of the land and the water and imprison those who stand up to stop and continue destruction that causes for global climate change. We are at a crossroads where every human being is being called in solidarity with peoples across Mother Earth to stand together where water and land are at risk to industrial desecration, environmental racism, fossil fuel, infrastructure. Climate change, the state laws and the violence and the greed that have put lives at risk in the past, in the present, today, and risk the lives of our future generations. Knowledge keepers have been sharing the teachings and prophecies about what is happening on Mother Earth for years. Some of these prophecies are that there will come a time when an ounce of water will be more valuable than an ounce of gold. And no matter how much money you have or a gold you have, you will not be able to buy that water because of how precious it is. You can't drink gold. Another prophecy talks about the next world war. Don't be to fight for oil and gas. It will be for clean water. You can call on everyone to stand up and take responsibility and action for what is right and just, for the protection of the land and the water that we all need to survive. We didn't know it then, back then, when we were following on our healing journey, but we were being prepared for what is happening today. What is happening now? There are a few wins, I guess you would say. You don't know how if they are wins yet, but we stopped out on gas from destroying our ship-negative river. They just decommissioned, announced the decommissioning of that project in December, 2021. We're still waiting in Indianbrook, Sabaganagati to be consulted about the decommissioning process as we, as grandmothers, want the pipes removed. All the land to be restored, all the gas wants to leave the pipes in the ground. They're saying that it would cost too much damage to remove the pipes, but I think that's just to their pocketbook because they leave that in the ground, they can sell that in the future to another proponent, maybe use that as a pipeline for fracking food right into our river. So we think ahead, we think about the remediation of the land and the water. We need all that removed, not just the surface buildings, but also the underground infrastructure. That's our demand anyway. But there are many wins that we've had. Elsie Book-Dook stops SWN from fracking in their territories. In Imumagi, the people stopped Petroworth from fracking Lake Ainsley. We were hoping that we stopped the LNG terminal in the man camps, but it looks like the Chiefs have that back on the table again. And so we have more fights, more things that we need to do to convince them that that's not something that our people want to be behind. We saved Al's head. People saved Al's head. Grassroots people saved Al's head from being sold by the government to wealthy foreigners and protecting that water and that land, the beautiful land and making it into a park that everybody thought it was. So we can take actions when we learn about the developments and industry that propose environmental assessments that do not protect the water, then it's up to us to make sure that those, Naduralim, what's in the legislation is followed. And I think there's a lot to be said for how we come together as people that care, loving heart, mind, everyone that comes together. When we call on our ancestors, the Creator to come to be with us, to guide us, to protect us. And I think that's for us, that is always the first thing that we do. And we don't stop, we feed those ancestors when they're here helping us. And then we thank them after, long after we continue to thank them for that help. We need to continue to do that. So I'd like to close with a little water ceremony. I don't know if you drank your water already. But this ceremony was gifted to us by grandmother Josephie Mandemann, who came to our territories where we walked with her on the water walk. She came to bring back these teachings. This teaching is for everyone. She says, we need to pray, we need to pray for the water, we need to, we need to make relationship with the water. So many people have forgotten that connection to the water. You remember I was saying how much water we are. You must never take the granted that you'll always have clean water to drink. You'll go turn the tap on and you're gonna be able to drink that water. There's so many people on Mother Earth that don't have clean water. So she says, we must reconnect with the spirit of the water, the water that's inside of us, this water that's in your cup. And think of this water as all connected to all the waters around the world, below us that comes down from the sky, the water we see out, the salt water, the fresh water, those tears that we have, all the water. Tonight before you go to sleep, put your water. How many of you already take water and put it beside you when you go to sleep? A lot of people already do that. I was finding out that. A lot of people did that. I thought it was just my grandma. A lot of people do that. So we're gonna take it one step further and have a relationship with the water. We're gonna tell the water to hear us. The water can see you, feel you, it knows you. So in the morning when you wake up, it has listened to your snoring, listened to your dreams, your worries, all those things. So you're gonna tell the water, someone gets all the water. I love you, water. I thank you, someone, a lot of water. I respect you, someone, a lot of water. Once you acknowledge this water, first then you can ask for it to be your medicine. Ask the Creator to bless this water, make this water a medicine. So when I drink this water, it goes to my mind, my body, my spirit, my emotions, wherever it's needed for me, for good health, for health, for happiness, and for understanding. Those are the four things you can ask for. Then you go out. You can offer tobacco, it's like this tobacco that was a gift to me to speak today. You can offer a pinch of tobacco to Mother Earth and acknowledgement for this water. Or you can use cornmeal, use cornmeal, some offering a gift. So when you take something, you always give something back. You take a plant for medicine, you always give something back. It's a reciprocal relationship. Never take anything, don't take it for granted. When you do that, tell the water, I love you. I love you. Water, I respect you. Water, I thank you. So I'm gonna sing this song. I'll sing one verse in Nishnabe. Saying the same thing I just said. And I'll sing one verse in Mi'gma'a, just to tell everyone that this ceremony was gifted to the world. And Grandmother Doreen Day, this song that she sings, was gifted and it can be put in any language. And if you can't sing it, then say it. Water, I love you, I thank you, I respect you. Water is like, Nih-be-gi-sa. Water is like, you can drink your medicine and do this again tomorrow. Sinu-ma-la-la. We have a couple more voices to hear from. And so we've heard about the sacredness of the water and the importance of the water and all that we can do to protect the water. And I want you to hear two voices that will talk about what happens when we don't. So first, we'll hear from Joanne Roberto. Hello, my name is Joanne Rachel. I work with South Sudan Council of Churches as the advocacy coordinator. And I'm also from South Sudan. So my work is on analyzing peace processes in particular, the revitalized agreement on the resolution of conflict in South Sudan, which was signed in 2018. And also I do advocacy on issues to do with gender-based violence and inclusion of women and youth in peace and governance and also advocacy on climate change, which has become a big issue in South Sudan as thousands of South Sudanese are affected by floods with no access to food and safe drinking water. And this has been challenging us. These areas are inaccessible and they lie within the scope of our work of conflict resolution. As an organization, this has become a challenge because these are areas that we work in and they are inaccessible now. And this is because there is no sufficient early warning system and also because the mobility has become a challenge. The road network is not that great. So that makes it really hard for us to do our work. It has also become difficult for us to shift our priorities from conflict resolution and peace building to responding to the impact of climate change. I think that our partners, such as the Canadian federal government can come in to support technically by providing capacity building on responding to the impacts of climate change and also on how to establish a strong early warning system especially for us as an organization in terms of the impact of climate change and also for the people of South Sudan that are in areas that are prone to being affected largely by the impact of climate change. Thank you. So Jelanne Rachel talks about the problems that even a peace organization, conflict resolution organization encounters when the floods come without any warning and they are calling to Canadians support us in the development that would supply early warning systems as well as other mitigation. Let's go to Hannah's slide as well. In Palestine, people suffer from climate change as a result of rising temperatures and waterfall decreases. So in South Sudan it's flooding and in Palestine they're having droughts. People suffer from water scarcity and agriculture is affected. Unfortunately the climate change crisis is progressing faster than government and civil society can handle and for us Israeli occupation makes the Palestinians suffer double. So we are looking forward to hearing as these delegates speak together. They don't know each other. So I am looking forward to hearing the conversations that will come when Hannah and Joanne and Chantel and Tia and Clifford and all 13 of them will be in the same hotel for eight days and we'll have gatherings together from all around the world. Just this one delegation then into the United Nations COP 27 meetings to raise the voices of women of African partners of indigenous peoples around the world and that brings us to another set of questions. Was there anything new or surprising that stuck out for you in this section? What is the greatest threat to clean water in your own area? What needs to change and what gives you hope? Okay, it's time for us to come back together and hear our last speaker. So I'm going to invite our last speaker, Chinat, to come up and be with me. Chinat has a BA in international development and politics, worked in media communications for more than 30 years and most recently as the founding editor of Buddha Harma, Buddha Dharma, there we go. Practitioners Quarterly. She stepped down as the editor of the journal at the end of 2020, after nearly 20 years in order to lend her skills to addressing the climate crisis. She joined the Sierra Club Canada at the start of 2021 to head up communications on its Beyond Coal Atlantic campaign. I'm going to invite you to come up and tell us a little bit more about your family. Hi folks. I just recently acquired a new credential thanks to the Chronicle Herald. I have been dubbed one of Coal's most vocal critics in Nova Scotia. Thank you. Thank you. I'm very proud of that, because I didn't start until January of 2021. So it's not bad. Thank you. Let's go to the next slide there, Susan. So I mostly want to talk about energy democracy, but I have to tell you a little story for why I went from Beyond Coal Atlantic to now only really wanting to talk about energy democracy. Next slide, please. So when I started in January of 2021, a couple of months later, you'll recall Ian Rankin became Premier of Nova Scotia and go figure he announced that Coal should be shut down by 2030. And that was actually the key mandate for the Beyond Coal campaign. And then five months later, Premier Tim Houston he's the new Premier. And he also says we're gonna retire Coal by 2030. So it's like, well, great. But then you catch one breath and then you start looking at the details. As they say, the devil's in the details. Next slide, please. So any way you slice it, I could either talk about Nova Scotia powers, what did they call it, the 10 year system outlook, or we could look at the government's policies and so on. Basically, it's kind of like listening to my teenage son saying he's going to clean his room. And I mean that. The problem with that is that there are several election cycles before 2030, right? And you can always blame not being able to reach a commitment on something, right? So for example, Nova Scotia power did not meet its renewable energy commitment in 2020. It was required to have 40% renewables on the grid by 2020. It wasn't gonna make that. So the government, so first of all, the utility cried COVID, okay? And then also muskrat falls being delayed. So fast forward, the government gave them a two year extension. So as of a couple of weeks ago, Nova Scotia power was already making noise to say that they're not going to be able to make the new deadline, which is the end of 2022. They will not be able to meet their 40% renewable deadline. So like I said, maybe your teenagers clean their bedrooms. We're going on wishful thinking that the governments are really taking their commitments seriously and will enforce what the utilities are required to do and that the utilities are taking their deadlines seriously. And there's no evidence of that. And I think it's important to look at the evidence to go beyond the promise. Next slide, please. So that kind of gave rise to our first report, which was beyond climate promises. And that sort of became the theme for the rest of, for the past year and a bit, dismantling what they're telling us and looking at what they're actually doing. Next slide, please. Yeah, I remember when Ocean, who's a magnificent graphic designer, came up with that slide for one of our newsletters. And I was like, and he was like, yeah. You know, and I was like, okay. But it takes you back, you know? So how many, you know, we've been signing agreements since the Kyoto Protocol in 1990, something like that. And we're still sinking, right? Next slide, please. To put a little Canadian spotlight on this. So the Canadian, what's it called here? The Commissioner on Environment and Climate Change. That's actually a government commissioner, a government paid commissioner that operates out of the office of the Auditor General. So they came out with a report last November, titled, Lessons Learned from Canada's Record on Climate Change. Next slide, please. This was the takeaway for me. This was the lead researcher on the report, Kimberly Leach, she did, yeah, that's a quote. Canada has never met a greenhouse gas reduction target that has set. Next slide, please. Since we've began signing agreements in 1990, our emissions have increased by 20%. I think one of the things I struggle with is in hearing people again and again say we have to push government to up the ante, to come up with stronger regulations or better policies. And at this point, and I speak for myself personally, I don't know that this is actually Sierra Club's position on this, but I don't think their promises are worth the toilet paper they're written on. And so one of the things I really appreciate about all the presentations I heard today is I heard about everyday people and communities finding ways to make things happen. Not finding ways to get government to make more promises, but you stop the glyphosate spraying. You stop the clear cutting. You spent $25,000 on local produce. And we stopped Alton gas, among other things. A little fun fact before we move on. Canada actually has the worst record on emissions reductions since signing the Paris Agreement of any of the G7s, and the G7s are the big countries on the block. All right, next slide please. You could be forgiven for thinking that the reason that we're not transitioning to wind, water, and sunshine is because it's too expensive. I mean, does anyone recall hearing their Nova Scotia power talk about it's gonna be costly to transition to renewables? So that's a lie, and I'm prepared to call them on that lie. The cost of wind and solar is significantly cheaper than coal natural gas, which is a fossil gas. It's nothing cleaner than anything else. But the only difference is it's not profitable for the utilities, okay? What will be costly for us is the utilities passing along the cost of writing off their coal fire plants before the end of their useful life. So if they're to retire their coal fire plants by 2030, they've already told the utility and review board that ratepayers and we're ratepayers, customers, can expect a bill for $681 million. However, that's not the total. What they're not telling you is that there will be interest accrued on that $681 million over the period until it's recouped. And when I spoke, I presented at the UARB, the Utility and Review Board, and explained that their interest rates are almost 8%. Next slide, please. This slide actually predates the inflation of the past year, so you could add a few more factors here in terms of how much more expensive coal is in particular. Next slide, please. So a couple of nights ago, Wednesday, I believe it was, and I'll share a link to this webinar with Linda to share with you. One of the world experts on pathways to 100% wind, water, and solar, agreed to a webinar with us. And I put the question to him that because utilities, including our utility here, will tell you you can't transition yet to 100% wind, water, and solar because it's not reliable. So we still need to hold on to the coal to have some sort of power source. So you bring a world expert like Stanford professor Mark Jacobson to the table and he and his colleagues have written numerous reports and he'll basically say, that's a lie, okay? So it's not cheaper, it's very technologically feasible and I'm not gonna go explain all the arguments why it's technologically feasible. I invite you to listen to the webinar. Mark Jacobson does an excellent job of explaining it. He has several co-authored peers reviewed reports. Next slide, please. So okay, if it's cheaper to transition to renewables and it's technologically feasible, and I also forgot it's way faster than anything else we can imagine. So why aren't we doing it? Any guesses from the audience? Okay, now we're getting somewhere. We heard global profits and money. Next slide, please. Everybody's afraid to sort of bad mouth capitalism. But I, not this crowd maybe, but I think one of the things that it's important to be aware of is that capitalism has evolved over time. It has become much more concentrated in the hands of fewer people. Next slide, please. When I presented to the Nova Scotia utility and review board, and actually maybe Linda, I'll share that recording with you too because I explained basically how the scam works, and it's a pretty good one. But one of the concerns is that you're presenting to a regulatory board. So I wanna say something about regulatory capture, which is also a phenomenon that we have to face up to. So regulatory capture refers to the phenomenon of government agencies created initially to serve the public interest, serving instead the interests of the companies and industries they regulate. And as a result of deliberate efforts on the part of those companies and regulators to co-opt them, to co-opt the agencies. And that is a definition from the concise encyclopedia of business ethics. So we have utility monopolies that don't wanna lose profit. We have review boards and regulatory agencies that are captured by corporations. And governments that are basically doing business with corporations. And once in a while, we get a win. And boy, those are sweet, you know? But it's kind of a war of attrition. There are too many wars to fight and they've got too much money and they can drag it out. And so we gotta think smart. How are we gonna do it? Next slide please. One thing I will say is that we don't wanna devolve into a kind of hunger games scenario. And it's already happening to a large extent where, you know, just to give you an example in Numagi in Cape Breton, the Donken coal mine just reopened. So go figure, we're supposed to retire coal, but hey, even after this company got 152, I believe it was, citations from the Department of Labor. It's like, okay, well, they'll be better next time, right? But the workers up there, you know, they need jobs. And so it's already dividing the community amongst those who either wanna protect the local environment because coal mines are extraordinarily contaminating and Cape Breton's already dealing with trying to clean six billion liters of water from abandoned coal mines every year. They have to do this, okay? So, but the strategy is to get us to fight each other. Okay? It's a pretty effective strategy, so we have to zoom out and remember that. Next slide please. So what's energy democracy? Energy democracy is bringing things back to the community level and saying, okay, you could try talking to the utility monopoly till you're blue in the face or the regulator for that matter. It's not gonna change the situation. So how do we take the situation into our own hands? And just like Nina spoke and Doreen and Lil, there are things that communities can do. And I'm not talking here about putting solar panels on your roof, though good on you if you do that, but talking about a different model for how we organize energy. Next slide please. I wanna say too, as you're looking at these pillars of energy democracy, this exists. I'm not making something up, this is something that's happening. It's happening in Europe in particular. It got its big promotion about 10 years ago after a trade union conference basically launched the term energy democracy. So it came out of that trade union effort. And there are plenty of examples of it in North America. So the pillars, my apologies, universal access to safe, affordable, reliable energy, community ownership and governance, clean, renewable, local energy, social justice, prioritizing marginalized communities and reconciliation and creating local green jobs with fair pay. Those are non-negotiable. Next slide please. Although it seems like some new fangled idea actually the historical examples are really rich. Now I'm not saying that in this case the American electric cooperatives are the perfect models of energy democracy, but they bring a lot to the table. Energy electric cooperatives in the US started I guess around the turn of the 1900s to bring electricity to rural areas because companies, private companies only wanted to service the cities where it was more profitable. And those electric cooperatives still, many of them still exist today and they cover 56% of the nation's land mass. That's pretty significant. Next slide please. One of the things that I find particularly heartening about these co-ops is that they do so much more than just generate electricity or distribute electricity. They, you know, if their communities don't have access to broadband internet, they're like, okay, I guess we're gonna have to work on that now. So they do. You know, if you go to their website, you'll read these beautiful stories of how the communities and co-ops work together to bring broadband to all these communities. I'm reading here, yeah, 250 are developing or planning to deploy. Another one I read too was about building daycares. But yeah, why not? You know, it's a kind of anchor organization that can do so much more than just deliver electricity. Next slide please. So in Atlantic Canada, we actually have a handful of municipally owned and operated utilities. There is a precedent for this. At one time, almost every community had their own municipally owned utility and operated utility. But with, you know, sort of the neoliberal push of let's just corporatize everything, it's like the Pac-Man model of eating up all the smaller entities. So, but the ones that remain are really interesting models to look at because they're transitioning much more quickly to clean renewable energy. In fact, by the end of next year, Antigonish and Mahon Bay, I believe it is, could have achieved already 80% renewables, which is the target that the provincial government has for 2030, which at the moment is not gonna make. And yeah, I'll share some resources, but we had a great webinar with the municipal services person for summer side electric. They're doing amazing stuff and they're creating a whole micro grid for the community. One of the things about these municipal utilities is that they're also very resilient, you know, in many cases because they're not relying on, you know, one massive infrastructure. They have, you know, they're relying on some solar, some wind, some wholesale imports and so on. Whereas those of us, next slide please, those of us who are reliant on one big utility with very centralized electricity systems, we are more vulnerable. Next slide please. This is a little snapshot from a recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. They came out with a report on adaptation and resilience. And one of the things they point out is that we need diversification. So diversification, as I mentioned, could be a combination of solar, wind, small scale hydro and battery. And we want that to be decentralized, not centralized. Not if we're gonna be able to meet what's coming in terms of extreme weather events. And demand side management refers to being able to know when is the most opportune time to run your dishwasher or wash your clothes so that you won't be stressing the grid. Next slide please. So the message of energy democracy is yes we can. It's hard, like anything, but it's happening at the municipal level, not at the provincial and national levels. And what's happening with energy democracy is it's become a movement of municipalities around the world and communities that are trying to both address energy security and energy poverty and renewable energy, all of these things. And living wages, all of that matters. Next slide please. I think we have to believe in ourselves if we're gonna get there. So often we think that we have to ask for what we want. We have to supplicate the elected officials or the CEOs. And I think part of what's important to me is just kind of reframing in our own minds to say no, that isn't okay, what you're doing. That's a lie. I'm going to be able to call you on that lie. And I'm not going to accept that I only get a vote once every four years and then have to wait again, right? So can we shift our mindset a little bit too to say if we really believe this stuff, right? If we really believe that we're in a climate crisis, that energy poverty is real, that we are facing threats to food security, clean water security, and so on. I don't know about you, but I'm not going to hold my breath and hope that if I just call my elected official enough times that the next time maybe they'll listen. And the same with the regulatory agencies. And we've got some good regulations on the box, but who's enforcing them? Remember that one about the extinction, the species at risk of extinction, that's been around what, 18 years? How's that helping the moose today, you know? So I think we have to get a little creative and maybe a little playful, but we need to shake it up. Next slide please. You can go to our website for information on energy democracy and it is what I'll be focusing on, going forward and offering webinars on it and connecting with the international groups that are doing this work. Next slide please. So some information if you wanna find me and I think let's continue to think local, community scale, talking to each other and figuring out what we can do at that level, whether we're trying to change our energy systems or food systems or protect what's left because we're pressed for time as you all know. Thank you. Thank you so much. We thank you for your challenges, your encouragement and your good information. I want to bring your attention to one more global voice and can you put up the next slide for me? The video didn't actually have great sound quality so I'm going to just read you the quote that I wanted you to hear and I think this fits for, we wanna be beyond coal and I wanna introduce you to Nobo Wadza. He actually was in a picture earlier this afternoon. He is the coordinator of Oil Watch Ghana, part of Oil Watch Africa and a Kairos Global Solidarity Partner. And he says that the philosophy of the Oil Watch Africa campaign, keep the oil in the soil, is informed by the need to transit away from fossil energy, as we just heard, in a way that the world becomes a more transformational society for all of us. Next slide please. So you've heard little snippets from global partners all around the world as well as some folks from Turtle Island and there were three more that we didn't actually see today. Kairos has designated September as Climate Action Month just so that we can highlight more voices and there are a whole month's worth of climate blogs. I encourage you to go to the Kairos website. And to meet these delegates, we are having an event on Thursday, November 3rd and in order to meet when everyone is naturally awake. We are doing it at 9.30 a.m. on 9.30 Atlantic time, 8.30 Eastern time on Thursday, November 3rd when you could meet in a live Zoom session with these 13 delegates that will be taking our concerns to the UN COP 27 meeting. So I encourage you to come and there is, it is not on the website yet because I haven't put it there yet, so. But it will be soon and watch for more information in a follow-up email. And my last piece is going to be, to sound contrary to our last speaker, I think we do need to hold our governments accountable and do all those other things that are not waiting for them. So there are three bills on the table, one of which we think is probably gonna make it this time maybe with a little extra push and that is a bill to end environmental racism and of course we know that the bill itself does not end environmental racism but we want to lay the framework for that. And so we encourage you to write to your MP today. If you put Kairos, K-A-I-R-O-S, and Advocacy into Google, it'll pop up the page that explains and gives you the letter if you want or you can write it out by hand which gets a little more attention than those form letters that you send. So I want to thank you for listening to all of these pieces. Thank you very much, folks. It's been great to be here. So we'd like to invite your feedback, your questions and comments and just so you know there will be a form at the end of this sent to you to help us to gauge whether this was a helpful forum for you to be a part of or how you would like to see changes so that will be coming as well. But does anybody have questions or comments that they would like to make about today's event? Speakers, comments, ways that you would like us to join you in what you're doing on the ground, anything like that. Seeing nothing else at this point, I am going to call on our youth, young people, young adults, call to action. So, Marin, will you join me up here? Marin Mealy. Hi, I'm Marin. I'm a youth here in Djiboukduk and I was asked to give a call to action today on behalf of youth. I have organized with Climate Strike Halifax and Climate Strike Canada previously, working to rally youth around climate justice. And I've struggled a bit to know what to give as a call to action because you all are here because you have deep care for this land and for climate justice. And also you've, I'm sure many of you have heard many youth talking about how they're afraid for their futures and adults need to step up. You've probably heard some of my friends at Climate Strikes, if you've attended those, just talking about how fearful they are for our futures. And I don't really think that fear is enough to motivate us to be where we need to be. I mean, right now we're, we just had a climate strike cancel because of a hurricane, so clearly things aren't really working out all that well. So I guess I don't wanna be just another young person telling you that I'm afraid and that you need to act because I don't think fear is gonna get us to where we need to go. I think we've heard, I've only been here since four, so I haven't heard all the good teachings and good stuff that you've heard. But I've heard so many beautiful examples of how actually rallying around community care instead of fear is really powerful and beautiful as well. And I think that my call to action for you is to imagine what our communities would look like if we acted out of a place of care and of hope for a future that is loving and just instead of just being motivated by being afraid of the worst case scenario. And I think that if we act out of that place of care for one another, care for our land, care for honoring the people who live on the land, honoring the treaties, I think that we will be in a better place. And I think that if we're truly acting out of that place it compels us into action towards climate justice and seeking to uplift marginalized voices and fight on the behalf of others in our communities that are struggling. And so I guess my call to action is not a traditional one where I'm just a young person being like, hey, help us. But I know as youth we're really weary of being afraid because it's paralyzing and it's not getting us anywhere. And so I'd like to just invite you into acting from a place of care and hope and love for one another and that that would actually work out into real action and being transformational for the communities around us. So I guess that's what I have to say. Thank you all. So this brings us to the end of our program just about. We know that we can't do this alone and I'm so happy that this community is together and that we can continue the conversation. So I'm hoping to see you again at our next event now that we're in person again. And to close us out, I'm going to ask Zach and Matt to come back and drum us out and please stick around and have conversations after at the tables if you like. I'm gonna sing us out with a gathering song. It's one of my favorite songs. This one speaks so I'll tell you guys the lyrics real quick. My relations are coming. They're right here, right now. They're having a gathering and everyone is happy. The spirits are coming. They know where they are going. The road is straight. My family is coming. I'm looking to drum all night. One of my favorite songs, man, I love it.