Anyone who knows me, understands I’m no fan of unrelenting environmental giant Greenpeace. Indeed, there’s a bumpersticker over my four poster bed that reads, "Save the environment…from Greenpeace.
In the past four years, Toronto Free Press has wielded its pen like a sword against the hypocrisy of Greenpeace. In the past two years alone, TFP has taken, first the Greenpeace newsletter, and then the olive oil bottled in Italy by late Greenpeace founder David McTaggart to Philips Environmental for toxin analysis. Some toxins were scientifically proven to exist in both products.
When the rag tag group of Canadian hippies started out on Greenpeace 30 years ago, they had the most noble of intentions. But somewhere along the way, the hippies became as corporate--not to mention as rich and as fatcat--as the biggest corporations they fight. In my books, the environmentalists of Greenpeace have gone from saving the whales to the acrobatic scaling of walls and plowing the oceans in sailing ships better described as "boy toys".
So how is it that I find myself in full sympathy with Gary Connolly and OPEIU 343?
Connolly and company are the entire Greenpeace Toronto Door Canvass, left out in the cold in an allegedly illegal and unfair shut down by former city Councillor Peter Tabuns, Executive Director of Greenpeace Canada.
OPEIU 343 is a tiny union local with only 25 members. They are the environmental giant’s front line; the loyal monkeys out there with tin cups that raised millions over the years for Greenpeace Canada. Dedicated to the cause, believers one and all, they got their walking papers from Tabuns and company just before Christmas.
How’s this for the dark green heart of Greenpeace Canada?
Door canvassers for Greenpeace haul in big bucks, but don’t make big bucks--about $60 a day with sometimes and hotly argued commissions. Tree huggers and anti-environmental lobbyists alike would have to agree that these are the little people, who believe with every fibre that all the money they bring in is going to the whales and the tigers.
While I disagree with the agenda of their employer, (advancing politics instead of saving the environment) I sympathize with the naiveté of OPEIU 343.
The Toronto Door Canvass has been an integral part of Greenpeace for the last 14 years.
They have raised millions of dollars, signed up countless members and reached out to thousands of people.
They have volunteered for hundreds of protests and public activities, and, in fact, have been the heart of Greenpeace action for years.
The worst thing that can happen to a Greenpeace canvasser is not to have the door slammed in their face. Many have been arrested over the years for participating in Greenpeace protests.
While they’re out on the cold street, Greenpeace management is sipping on lattes and totalling up the day’s take--courtesy of a new group called Caring Together, to whom they have farmed out the work.
From a management perspective, this is a spiteful fight. Returning home from a cold day on the picket, Connolly, the local’s main union steward, found a member from Caring Together at his own door.
If you’re a Greenpeace supporter, the best way to help the 25 canvassers on the street is to show the door to Caring Together. OPEIU 343’s right to be on the job is guaranteed in the CBA which does not expire until Dec. 31, 2003, making Caring Together members, in effect, scabs.
Thirteen OPEIU members, with seniority of up to eight years, are now unjustly unemployed--including one whom is still facing charges for being arrested in a Greenpeace protest.
Support from the Greenpeace-loving mainline media has been less than impressive. According to Connolly, this includes the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, who interviewed them weeks ago, but never televised the interview.
Democracy may not reside at Greenpeace, but a Collective Bargaining Agreement is a Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The Greenpeace show is run by Amsterdam. If Greenpeace Amsterdam has any integrity, it should force Tabuns to honour the CBA.
If he doesn’t, they should shut down Greenpeace Canada’s expensive office at 250 Dundas West.
Meanwhile, the honesty of Connolly and his tiny group about Greenpeace is as rare as it is refreshing. It’s cold out there and it’s Christmas. If you’re a motorist passing by 250 Dundas West, honk like a goose.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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