For two decades, I have conducted a program called “Children in the Woods” for Ontario Nature. Ontario Nature launched its first Earth Summit for Youth in 2010 at Cedar Glen YMCA Centre in York Region. The Summit moved from the Cedar Glen site to many years on the wonderful Lake Simcoe location at Geneva Park near Orillia until Covid hit. The Youth Summit for Mother Earth has risen like a Phoenix and found a new nest at renowned Camp Tawingo in Huntsville.
This year I will be delivering the same program, “Children in the Woods” to a new generation of youth leaders at Camp Tawingo. Whether it is woods, fields, ponds, rivers or lakes, like Lake Ontario, these youth are on fire to protect their present and future. Theirs is the passion that encouraged me to continue to keep speaking out for environmental policy sanity at a point when I was about to throw in the towel.
I had launched Global Perspectives: The Periwinkle Project in 1989 as a response to the message of Our Common Future and the World Meteorological Organization warnings about accelerating climate change. It was an appeal to educational institutions to make Environmental Literacy a key component of the 21st Century curriculum. Research real problems, search for real solutions.
The Ontario Teachers Federation had just approved a ten point agenda for the inclusion of environmental and social justice issues as a mandatory part of the school curriculum. Then came Mike Harris and his Common Nonsense campaign. This racist, eco-illiterate Premier dismantled all of the curriculum we had put in place to educate students to prepare for their future. HIs chief-in-staff, Guy Giorno, responding to a complaint that all critical thinking skills were being removed from the curriculum, allegedly saying, “It is not our job to nurture critical thinkers; it is out job to train productive consumers!”
The Harris government dismantled all of their Environment Ministry staff who had been a fabulous education resource for schools seeking solid fact-based information for their projects. My contact at the Ministry was labelled a “hostile employee” for continuing to provide me with inside information until her dismissal.
I was more than angry – we were just beginning to raise awareness and turn the tide and we elected a racist troglodyte to lead us. My wife said, “Don’t water the rocks.” I put all my slide shows and presentations away and went into my cave. And then I got a call from Ontario Nature to present at their First Annual Youth Leadership Summit. Cedar Glen was right around the corner from our home in Caledon. I remember thinking, “Once more into the breach dear friends, once more.”
The positive energy and enthusiasm of the ON leaders and the youth in attendance, reignited the fire in my belly. If they were willing to pick up the torch, I was not going to stop fanning the flames. This is our home, and the care and security of our home should be dominant in the hearts, minds and spirits of every citizen of this planet. We are a miracle. For those of us not living in Gaza or Sudan or Ukraine, where basic needs of survival are dominant, we who live in the fairy tale world of North America should be able to give our energies to something greater than our cell phones and streaming media.
So, now I find myself about to head to Huntsville. In a world governed by Fords and Trumps. They keep us all in a constant state of fear with their taxpayer funded ads of “Protect Ontario”, and “Tariff Terror” messaging. Not quite the encouragement to our youth to fight for environmental literacy, social justice, economic security, and respect for the integrity of creation. Not on our current Ontario provincial government’s agenda due to developer greed. Reduced to the back burner of our federal agenda due to Trump’s Terrible Tariff War. But these youth refuse to give up. So, in my elder years, I will give you whatever you need to never give up.
From another old poker player passing on wisdom:
“You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em,
Know when to fold ‘em,
Know when to walk away,
Know when to run.
You never count your money
When you’re sittin’ at the table.
They’ll be time enough for countin’
When the dealin’s done.’
And remember children, the deck is marked, and the house always wins … unless someone like us cares a whole awful lot. The way I see it.
Skid Crease, Caledon