'Dark' websites flay omnibus budget bill

David Suzuki, left, and former Conservative fisheries minister John Fraser at a news conference Monday in Vancouver, where they and other environmental activists spoke out against the federal budget Bill C-38.

Photo, Jonathan Hayward, Canadian Press

'Dark' websites flay omnibus budget bill

Tories sell vision of resource exploitation

Julian Beltrame, The Canadian Press;

With Files From Kelly Cryderman,

Calgary Herald.

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Opposition to the Harper government's controversial omnibus budget bill went viral Monday as more than 500 organizations shuttered their websites to protest against measures they say will destroy the environment and silence dissent.

But there was little sign the federal Conservatives were listening.

As hundreds of websites went "dark," the government dispatched 10 of its ministers across the country from St. John's, N.L., to Surrey, B.C., to sell its vision that having fewer checks on resource exploitation isn't necessarily bad for the environment.

The battle over Bill C-38 continued throughout the day, with opposition parties taking the fight to the House of Commons. MPs wore black-over-white pins in support of the cyber "Blackout Speakout" campaign dreamed up by 11 environmental groups in May.

It has since spread to include unions, human rights advocates, churches, First Nations, ordinary citizens and celebrities such as author Margaret Atwood.

Canadians logging onto the David Suzuki Foundation website, along with many others, encountered a mostly black screen with a bilingual message expressing support for the campaign.

"We're still here, doing what we do every day," the Suzuki site declared. "But today, we're joining hundreds of organizations across the country as a single voice for Canada's nature, for human rights, and for democracy."

Gillian McEachern of Environment Defence Canada said the government hasn't listened to opposition parties, maybe they will listen to the grassroots in Canada.

The groups are opposed to changes that would speed up the approval of large resource projects, such as the Northern Gateway pipeline the government wants to build to take oil from Alberta to a B.C. port.

As well, they accuse the government of attempting to gag environ-mental groups by denying charitable status to those that get too involved in political advocacy.

The opposition has attracted the usual civil society groups, but also some strange bedfellows. Former Conservative fisheries minister John Fraser appeared with David Suzuki for a news conference in Vancouver denouncing the government as anti-democratic.

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