December 07

November, 07

October 07

Animals, Culture and the Law

The struggle for human rights is lengthy and ongoing—but what about non-human rights? Denman Island's Community Vegan Potluck Series is pleased to welcome law professor Maneesha Deckha as this month’s guest speaker on Sunday, October 21st. Everyone interested is invited to attend what promises to be a fascinating exploration of some challenging contemporary issues.

Deckha teaches a University of Victoria law course that examines the gap between how animals and humans are treated by the legal system. “Animals, Culture and the Law,” was recently awarded the distinguished Animals and Society New Course Award from the Center for Respect of Life and Environment, an affiliate of the Humane Society of the United States. The course explores whether animals should have legal rights, whether the law should recognize some other interests for animals and whether some animals are more equal than others. Deckha draws comparisons between the struggle for rights by other groups, such as women and indigenous people, and the question of legal rights for animals, encouraging discussion on whether animal rights can coexist with human rights.

The assistant law professor’s academic research interests include feminist legal theories, law and culture, bioethics, and the boundaries between property and personhood, especially as they relate to nonhuman animals. Her work has been published in the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, the Osgoode Hall Law Journal, the Hastings Women’s Law Journal, the UCLA Women’s Law Journal, the Harvard Journal of Gender and Law and the Journal of Animal Law and Ethics.

Deckha is a graduate of McGill University (1995), the University of Toronto (1998), and Columbia University (2002). She joined the University of Victoria Faculty of Law as an assistant professor in 2002 after completing her graduate thesis on gender and cultural equality at Columbia Law School. She is a member of several academic associations and also serves as part of the National Steering Committee for the National Association of Women and the Law.

Deckha is generously making time for her visit to Denman as a member of UVIC’s speaker’s bureau. Admission is by donation (suggested $3), and anyone unable to attend the potluck portion of the evening is welcome to arrive later for the guest speaker’s presentation.

Denman’s monthly vegan-friendly potluck suppers get underway at 6:30 pm, accommodating folks arriving on the 6:00 pm ferry from Buckley Bay. Any 100% plant-based entrée, salad, dessert or single-item dish (free of eggs, honey, dairy and gelatin, please) that all may share is a suitable contribution. The series also stives to be scent-free, for the comfort of chemicaly sensitive individuals.

September, 07

It's been a long summer hiatus, and the Potluck Series is ready to reconvene on Sunday, September 16th with a Fall Harvest feast! After supper, rock gardening enthusiast and naturalist Bernie Guyader will be on hand to share his knowledge and love for apline meadows, with a slideshow documenting three seasons in Strathcona Park!

May 2007

Natural Building, May 20th

On Sunday, May 20th, the Lasquiti Island Mud Girls will join the Denman Community Vegan Potluck series for an evening discussion about natural building and energy efficiency. The MudGirls are a natural building collective aiming to empower people with self-sufficiency skills to build both shelter and community.

Specializing in cob- a mud made of clay, sand and straw that is sculpted into form for use in building everything from outdoor clay ovens to outhouses, cottages and homes- the Mud Girls have expanded their horizons recently to include building to-code hybrid projects that can incorporate elements of adobe, strawbale and earthbags.

Says MudGirls member Amber Hieb: " Because I come from a long line of builders who were all men- my brothers, my uncles, father and grandfather- to be able to reclaim building for myself, in a way that is using what is readily available and accessible around me is rewarding on many levels". Although the group offers courses for both women and men, there is an emphasis on women for this very reason: to change not only what is built, but also how.

"Where presently we have a more rigid, square, hierarchical model of construction, the MudGirls represents the shift towards a more fluid, feminine, cooperative way of building- from the bottom up", says member Julie Chadwick.

"We seek new and ancient ways to live in harmony with the earth and have a singing dancing laughing good time while doing it," adds founder Jen Gobby.

Please bring a 100% plant-based dish that all may share to the 6:30 pm potluck in the BackHall (vegan-friendly means no eggs, dairy, honey or gelatin, please). Admission is by donation, suggested $3. And thanks for helping keep our events scent-free so folks with chemical sensitivities can also attend.

Link back to the potluck website to find information on this issue, and lots of other details about the potluck series. And see the relevant link also in the column to the right of this blog entry to access the Mud Girls fun website!

April, 2007

Far more than your average birdwatcher, Mike Yip is a man on a mission! He 'accidentally' discovered the joys of photographing birds only a few short years ago, but the Nanoose Bay resident has been hooked ever since. In his first book, proudly presenting 124 colorful images of frequently and infrequently seen west coast species, the author's descriptive narratives portray a deep understanding and empathy for bird life, and the ecological challenges they face. Yip's new edition of "Vancouver Island Birds", will soon be hot off the presses, containing another 90 species not included in his first beautiful, full color book.

The photographer has been invited to share his wonderful images in an audio visual presentation on Sunday, April 15th, following our community vegan potluck supper in the Back Hall. Yip's desire to share his enthusiasm with other nature lovers is born out on line, where anyone can view the birds contained in his first book for free and enjoy referencing their own sightings. Please come on out to celebrate and learn more about the fascinating feathered species that share our island region!

March 2007

Happy Earth Week!

Please note the following change in our evening presentation. French director Jacques Perrin's gorgeous documentary "Winged Migration", will be taking the place of "Being Cariboo", previously advertised for this date. Perrin's film looks at the migration patterns of dozens of bird species and involved hundreds of people to make, including 17 pilots and 14 cinematographers. They were broken down into five teams that followed the birds into 40 countries, venturing from Iceland and Alaska to Senegal and Mali with more breathtaking stops in between. Spectacular, and a must see on the big screen!

"Migration" will be preceeded by a delightful 20 minute 'rough cut' (work in progress) titled "Surfin' the Waste". This thought provoking film about dumpster diving involves a handful of friends from the Comox Valley who moved to Montreal and found an edible island overflowing with food! Our all star cast bikes through the back-east winter in search of culled bounty in an all-singing, all-dancing, all-recycled musical documentary about actively reducing environmental impact. Featuring musicians Alden Penner and Mike Kirk from Campbell River, Allison Trumble from Cumberland, Liz Whittaker from Black Creek and director Tomoe Yoshihara from Denman Island!

February, 2007

No More Silence by Fireweed

When American scientist Rachel Carson published her now famous expose on chemical poisons back in the early 60's, the book's title "Silent Spring" roused a nation. It's been said that while others had been cautioning about pesticide dangers for some time, it was Carson who struck upon the metaphor that would draw all these dire warnings to a point.

"There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings ... Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change ... There was a strange stillness ... The few birds seen anywhere were moribund; they trembled violently and could not fly. It was a spring without voices. On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of scores of bird voices there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh." (Silent Spring, 1962)

How fortunate that here on Denman and elsewhere around our lively west coast, we can look forward to spring being anything but 'silent'. Even while winter's chilly grasp continues to hold on tight, February's promise of rebirth and renewal cannot be denied. Before we know it, those boisterous sea lions and raucous gulls will be kicking it up a notch, celebrating the returning herring with all the noisy fanfare the rest of us seaside dwellers have come to take for granted!But can we afford to be complacent?

According to the results of the Fourth Waterbird Population Estimate survey released this week from the Netherlands by Watershed International, nearly half of the world's waterbird species are in serious decline. Not surprisingly, coordinators of the study covering 100 countries, attribute the most frequently known cause of population decrease to habitat destruction, "often caused by unsustainable human activity". Besides the more obvious forms of encroachment like urban sprawl, it seems to be becoming clearer everyday that global warming is contributing to increasing drought and rising sea levels that disappear habitat also.

And of course even while so many of us dream the final days of winter away pouring over open-pollinated seed catelogs and organic gardening plans, the right to adequately protect our own personal and ecosystem health from chemical contamination is nowhere near a given. While Cumberland and Comox have now joined other communities across Canada in adopting at least regulatory bylaws for the cosmetic use of pesticides (banned in places like Halifax, Toronto and Vancouver), Courtenay recently decided to stick with the 'educational approach' rather than opt for legislation.

The over-stretched bylaw officer I spoke to made it clear that in his opinion there's little point in enacting regulations he doesn't consider enforceable! City Council still needs to be convinced of the reality that wherever such bylaws do get passed, significantly more public compliance has been shown to follow than where voluntary education options exist alone.

According to the Cancer Smart Consumer Guide, an expanding body of evidence points to a correlation between our increased use of pesticides, household cleaners, food additives and other chemicals and rocketing cancer rates. In the 1930's, 1 in 10 Canadians could expect to develop cancer. By the 1970's cancer rates had risen to 1 in 5, and today 1 in 2.4 Canadian men and 1 in 2.7 Canadian women can expect to develop cancer over their lifetime.

While the damage being done by poison chemicals around the world today is far worse than when Rachel Carson wrote her now famous book on the subject, "one shudders to imagine how much more impoverished our habitat would be had Silent Spring not sounded the alarm." (environmental writer, Peter Matthiessen)"

"The beauty of the living world I was trying to save," wrote Rachel Carson in a letter to a friend in 1962, "has always been uppermost in my mind - that, and anger at the senseless, brutish things that were being done. I have felt bound by a solemn obligation to do what I could - if I didn't at least try I could never be happy again in nature. But now I can believe that I have at least helped a little. It would be unrealistic to believe one book could bring a complete change."

Carson died herself of cancer, at the age of 56. This year marks the centenary of her birth, and renewed appreciation for her important contributions to the world.

Gaylene Rehwald, mother and regional health and safety promoter, is a modern day crusader for pesticide reduction. Two years ago this month Gaylene was scheduled to make a presentation at our community vegan potluck series on behalf of the group she co-founded in Courtenay, Valley Green. A last minute cancellation due to illness intervened, but at the invitation of Denman Islander Peter Thomsen, she braved winds and choppy seas to finally attend our DIRA meeting last month. In honor of the Potluck Series choosing this month to celebrate Rachel Carson's centenary, I'm delighted to report that Gaylene is happy to share her knowledge and inspiring spirit with others in our community once again on Sunday, February 18th.

Among other issues, Gaylene is sure to touch upon the fact that aerial spraying for the gypsy moth is scheduled to happen in the Courtenay area three times between May 15th and June 30th this year. While the deadly DDT used for such purposes back in Rachel Carson's day has been replaced by the comparatively benign Foray 48B - containing Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki (Btk) - many aerial spray opponents take issue with government claims that the health risks are negligible. Concerned citizens can find plenty of evidence to the contrary compiled by STOP, Society Targeting Overuse of Pesticides, accessible on line @ http://www.vcn.bc.ca/stop/

Gaylene's advocacy work through Valley Green first came to my attention when she and other mothers descended upon Courtenay City Council chambers a few years ago in concert with their children…the latter dressed as ladybugs and butterflies. Children are exceptionally vulnerable due to their small size, physiology and lifestyle, according to the Sierra Club of Canada. Kids typically play in grass and dirt, put toys and hands in their mouths, consume considerably more pesticides than adults do per pound of body weight, and have immature metabolic systems that can't process or excrete toxins like adults' systems.

For their sake, and the health of our planet, I believe activists like Gaylene Rehwald deserve our full attention and support. We've still a long way to go to do justice to Rachel Carson's legacy, and it's up to all of us who share her passion to rise to the occasion and make whatever difference we can. For further information and links, please google Denman Potluck Series online or call 335-1209.

January 2007

World-renowned musician and human rights worker, Michael Franti, shares his travels to Iraq, Palestine and Israel in this wonderful documentary entitled, "I Know I'm Not Alone".

The Community Vegan Potluck Series was pleased to kick off the New Year potluck series with this film on Sunday, January 21st., for an appreciative audience of about 40 people.

Franti succeeds in appealing to a multigenerational audience with the soundtrack, visual and musical montages, and his intimate commentary. The film's guerilla style footage captured in active war zones, makes this documentary unlike the many academic and politically driven pieces provided by the mainstream media.

This film (available for loan now from the Potluck Series for small private showings) is an opportunity to hear the voices of everyday people living, creating and surviving under the harsh conditions of war and occupation. "I Know I'm Not Alone" is a tribute to the courage of the human heart, and an antidote to despair. Power to the Peaceful!

December 2006

Our Solstice Celebration was lovely...even only two days away from Christmas, we still had a good turnout, and lots of folks stayed after our delicious feast to sing solstice carols, and light candles with peaceful wishes for the new year that lies ahead. We were lucky to have some respite between all the high winds and crazy weather that actually allowed people to get out and gather together around the Yule fire in our warm and cozy back hall!

November 2006

Paul George is one of the hero's of the BC environmental movement. He and partner Adrianne Carr (current leader of the BC Greens) are an inspiration to many. George's 25 year history of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee's activism in this province and beyond is fascinating! Potluck goers helped raise enough to purchase a copy of "Big Trees, Not Big Stumps" for our local Dora Drinkwater Library!

October 2006

Two members of the Comox Valley chapter of Amnesty International presented case files that their group works on (specificly two young law students incarcerated for protesting in favor of democracy in Burma), along with some of the history of AI. A good turnout with at least 20 letter writers involved, and a postive act of Denman solidarity with this important organization's work for justice and human rights worldwide!