Recognizing the Rights of Nature in Nova Scotia: A Q&A with CELDF

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/857336021477759/

Join us for a Q&A with Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund organizers. CELDF has helped dozens of communities in the US and around the world in recognizing the Rights of Nature and asserting their right to local self-government.

How can we do this here in Nova Scotia? Can we join the Rights of Nature movement and build the local power necessary to stop the corporate assault on our forests and watersheds? What are the barriers stopping our local communities from protecting our ecosystems and saying no to clear cuts and aerial herbicide spraying? We’ll continue our conversation on the rights of nature and try to answer some of these big questions among others.

We’ll also look into a local case study from Inverness County that passed a bylaw banning fracking within it’s jurisdiction to see what we can learn to help our communities stop the spraying and cuts at the local level. Check out the discussion section to have a look at the case study and bylaw.

For more info on CELDF and some recommended reading prior to the Q&A check out the discussion section. Also let us know if there are any related topics or questions and we’ll try our best to include them.

***Please RSVP for the Zoom link at colin.rotsaert@gmail.com

Joining us for the Q&A:

Tish O’Dell is the Ohio Community Organizer for CELDF assisting Ohio communities since 2013 to organize rights-based initiatives in their communities, including the Lake Erie Bill of Rights. Tish also co-founded the grass-roots organization in Broadview Heights, OH, that successfully campaigned to adopt a Home Rule Charter amendment creating a Community Bill of Rights banning shale gas drilling and fracking.

Ben Price is the National Organizing Director for CELDF. Before moving into the national director position, he led work across Pennsylvania, where over 100 communities have enacted CELDF-drafted laws. Ben is a Democracy School lecturer.

Terry Lodge has nearly 50 years’ experience as an activist, civil and environmental rights litigator. Terry has filled much of his past six years with CELDF filing countless briefs in support of direct democracy, Community Rights, and the Rights of Nature in Ohio.