Solidarity Justice Group November 20, 2024 – November: Month of Remembrances
To arms, citizens!
In November we commemorate all our dead, especially those who gave their lives for us in the name of peace and solidarity.
The Collectif Échec à la guerre recalls the courage of the veterans of the Great War (1914-1919). Beyond the heroic gestures and the horrors of the trenches, they came together to treat the traumas that only they could know. They went from military service to service for amputees – veterans or children. From their experience, we can understand their appeal: Never again war, war never again!
I remember! 25 years later: Second World War (1939-1945)
And the wars and deaths remind us once again: Never again war, war never again!
But: …Vietnam… Korea… I remember??? Really? There’s a saying: If you want peace, prepare for war. Do we have any recollection of this method having a lasting success? Do weapons create peace? Without war, there can be no peace? Really?
Tears of war
We now have access to social media which show us day after day the distress of families looking for their children in the rubble of a bombed-out neighbourhood. The tears of a little boy wandering alone, having lost everything, even his identity.
We weep for the trade in hostages who serve as bargaining chips between belligerents who no longer even know who their enemies are. We mourn the devastation of a planet that is losing its age-old riches in the name of fanaticism or nameless greed. Does all this herald peace? Really?
Alarms
Still today, a large part of the planet lives on a minefield. Alarms sound and warn on all sides. It feels like only yesterday when, on October 4, 1965, Pope Paul VI’s address to the UN expressed the wish that “no one, as a member of your Association, be superior to the others: not one above another… not that you are equal, but that here you make yourselves equal…. Peace, it is peace, which must guide the destiny of the peoples and of all mankind! “This speech, delivered standing and in French, deserves to be meditated on to help us support our efforts for peace. Our conversion demands that we make ourselves equal, members of the same family, building, step by step, our humanitude.
Denise Brunelle, CND
EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
At their November 5 meeting, executive committee members discussed Patrick Moreau’s text, La gauche et la droite au XXIe siècle, published in Le Devoir on October 21. Notions that vary over time and are no longer linked to social categories. We recognize ourselves more in the concepts and reality of progressivism or conservatism.
In addition to ratifying the budget assumed by Marguerite-Bourgeoys Province, the members juggled with the issue of biodiversity in preparation for the dossier in this edition of L’Heure juste.
They took note of the comments received about the last Heure juste and were once again encouraged by its radiance.
A LOOK AT BIODIVERSITY
Context
The United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (COP16), was held from October 21 to November 1, 2024, in Cali, Colombia. This summit meeting came to an abrupt end. Countries have failed to adopt ambitious rules and reliable indicators. The great United Nations conference did not achieve its objective of financing and stimulating humanity’s timid efforts to halt its destruction of nature.
COP16 followed on from COP15, held in Montréal in 2022. Fortunately, the conference ended with an agreement to protect 30% of the world’s terrestrial, aquatic, coastal and marine areas. COP16 was to follow up on this.
What is biodiversity?
Biodiversity refers to all living beings and the ecosystems in which they live. This term also includes the interactions of species with each other and with their environment. Although biodiversity is as old as life on Earth, the concept only emerged in the 1980s.
Biodiversity refers to the variety of life forms on Earth. It encompasses the diversity of ecosystems, species and genes in space and time, as well as the interactions within and between their levels of organization.
State of biodiversity
Biodiversity is eroding at an alarming rate, so much so that current extinction rates indicate that we are living through a sixth period of mass extinction, comparable to that which led to the disappearance of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. According to scientists, we are facing what they call a potential mass extinction.
Around 75% of the Earth’s surface has been significantly degraded by humankind – a figure that includes cleared forests and ecosystems converted to farmland or urban areas. Wetlands, the hardest hit, have disappeared by 87% over the last three centuries. Of the estimated eight million plant and animal species on the planet, one million are threatened with extinction.
Quebec, meanwhile, is home to a diversity of natural environments and climates, from maple groves to rivers, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the tundra. There are around 850 vertebrate species, 6,300 plant species and almost 30,000 invertebrate species.
What is the state of Quebec’s biodiversity? In terms of flora, 59 species are designated as threatened, 18 species as vulnerable, 433 species likely to be designated as threatened or vulnerable, and among wetland and aquatic plants, around 20% are in a precarious situation. As for wildlife, 37 species are designated as threatened, 28 as vulnerable, and 115 as likely to be designated as threatened or vulnerable. As for the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence River, the presence of pesticides exceeds thresholds harmful to the protection of aquatic life, microplastics are in worrying concentrations and more than 60% of the coastlines are eroded, especially in Gaspésie, the Magdalen Islands and Côte-Nord.
What is threatening biodiversity?
For the UN, the biodiversity crisis has five factors, all of human origin, dubbed the “Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” In descending order: habitat destruction, overexploitation of resources, climate change, pollution and invasive species.
As we all know, industry, urban expansion and climate change are destroying ecosystems and causing the permanent disappearance of the wild species they shelter. The prevalence of industrial development over nature conservation is decisive for the fate of the environment. Quebec, for example, is depriving itself of significant resources to meet its commitments to protect biodiversity. The surface area of Quebec covered by mining exploration permits continues to grow.
The Northvolt battery factory project is a distressing example. To prepare the site for construction, 8,000 trees were felled, in addition to the 130,000 square metres of wetlands destroyed. Foreseeable discharges during industrial operations seriously compromise water quality in the Richelieu.
The predominance of mining and industrial projects is strongly deplored by the Société pour la nature et les parcs du Québec (SNAP Québec), Nature Québec and Coalition Québec meilleure mine. How, with these organizations, can we fail to recognize and deplore the greed at the root of the ecological tragedy?
Protecting biodiversity
We understand that biodiversity is unique and irreplaceable. Protecting it requires a firm commitment from the public and private sectors, but also from individuals. With regard to individuals, us, for example, the key remains responsible consumption. As for public authorities, they will always be the indispensable guardians of ecological health, and we appeal to their decision-making responsibility in prioritizing their development objectives.
In terms of social responsibility, we need to promote a collective solution known as the circular economy. Among other things, it presents two environmental and economic challenges. On the one hand, it is a question of responding to the problem posed by programmed obsolescence, when products are thrown away at the end of what appears to be their useful life. The circular economy plays an important role in waste and recycling management. In contrast to the linear economic model of “extract – produce – consume – throw away,” the circular economy aims to give products a second life, in particular by reusing, repairing and recycling. It allows us to create wealth in a different way, while reducing our environmental footprint and respecting the planet’s limits.
As for us, let us find ways to show solidarity with the living world of which we are a part!
Céline Beaulieu, CND
ECHOES OF MOVEMENTS
On October 29, Debout pour l’école held its annual general meeting. Some sixty people took part, with Céline and Denise virtually present.
After the 2023-2024 activity report was posted on the web, we turned to the 2024-2026 action plan.
The draft citizen’s white paper on education, a version preparing a broad national consultation, will be presented shortly on the organization’s website.
Without financial support, such an undertaking would not be possible. In view of the project’s impact, the Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon has agreed to fund it until September 30, 2027. Immense gratitude for this important support to the cause of education in Quebec.