“Ecoterrorist” slurs won’t scare Sierra Club Canada, executive director says
by Carlito Pablo / Straight.com
Getting branded an “ecoterrorist” is the least of John Bennett’s concerns.
“We already have been. That’s the point!” the executive director of Sierra Club Canada told the Straight.
In a recent phone interview, Bennett discussed his organization’s deliberations on whether or not to use civil disobedience in its efforts defend the environment.
The Straight asked him how he would view being potentially labelled as an “ecoterrorist” if Sierra Club Canada decides to go the path of nonviolent civil disobedience.
“Without having done anything, we’ve been attacked as though were some kind of evil force in the society,” the Ottawa-based environmental leader said.
Bennett was referencing a January 2012 statement by federal environment minister Joe Oliver asserting that groups with a “radical ideological agenda” are out to derail Canada’s bid to “diversify” its “energy markets”.
“And that’s another kind of thing that makes people wonder what they should do next,” Bennett said. “If basically asking to be part of a public hearing into anything results in the government of the day calling you radicals and terrorists and pawns of foreign interests, what’s the worst thing that could happen? What could we do to our reputation that they already haven’t attempted to do?”
