I understand the sense of…

I understand the sense of urgency that active and proposed US tariffs have created, and I agree that our provincial and federal governments should respond in ways that protect our sovereignty and economy. But the responses should not fatally degrade regulations and institutions that were created to protect human wellbeing and the wellbeing of all the other species that we share this place with. Nor should our responses weaken or completely bypass the rights and voices of Indigenous peoples who should have complete sovereignty over lands that either are already formally acknowledged as theirs, or are part of an active land claim.

I strongly believe that the current Ontario government is opportunistically using the upsurge in nationalistic attitudes to demolish guardrails that protect the environment in order to fast track development initiatives that benefit private interests over the public interest, and that will be impossible to reverse even if the environmental and social costs are clearly negative. I therefore, as a citizen of Ontario, register my opposition to Bill 5 as proposed, and withhold my consent for its ratification.