IJC Makes It Virtually Impossible to Follow It’s Three Day So-Called ‘Public Forum’ in Niagara Falls, Ontario Online
So Much for he IJC as a Voice for our Great Lakes. Time to Move On To Something New and More Progressive
If the IJC is Saying To Hell with Us, Then Maybe We Should Say To Hell With It!
By Doug Draper, Veteran environment writer and reporter in the Great Lakes region
Posted September 27th, 2022 on Niagara At Large
The IJC many not care, but toxic algae making a deadly comeback in Lake Erie. Untreated runoff of contamination from farmlands and urban areas are major sources
The Canada/U.S. International Joint Commissions so-called , three day “public forum” on our Great Lakes this September 27th thru September 29th was billed as an opportunity for members of the public in the Great Lakes region to express their concerns about the health of these precious waterbodies.
But then this Commission turned around and holds this meeting at a Fallsview Hotel near the Rainbow Bridge and Clifton Hill where parking cost are ridiculous for many of us residents, and they offer a virtual or online venue to this forum, through zoom, that is virtually impossible to navigate, compared to similar livestream or zoom meetings at, for example, the municipal government level.
This is also an organization, whose commissioners are appointed by the U.S. and Canadians governments in charge, that bends to the lack of interest those governments place on our Great Lakes.
That leaves this reporter who, a decade ago, received a binational award from the International Joint Commission “in recognition,” for what the IJC called, “the contribution made to Canada-United States relations in addressing trans boundary concerns and in furthering cooperation between Canada and the United States envisioned in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement
Canadians and Americans in the Great Lakes region need new voices to speak out for our Great Lakes. The IJC is not doing the job.
I get the message that this reporter, and citizens across this Niagara region, are not welcome at this three-day conference. The current Trudeaud and Biden appointed members of this commission really don’t want us there.
Therefore, Niagara At Large will not be covering any of the B.S. coming out of this sham of a public forum in a venue many of us cannot afford to pay the parking fees at or figure out how to navigate their damn zoom site.
I am sorry to say this but to hell with the International Joint Commission. It is time to can this out-of-touch organization. Our countries need gourps and agencies that are new as venues for protecting our precious Great Lakes .
In a 21st Century of environment crisies that this International Joint Commission does not seem to understand, and where we face a climate crises and continued issues around the over flow dumping of rural, urban and industrial contaminants into the Great Lakes, we need a new, more progressive voice for protecting and preserving world-class, freshwater bodies that sustain the health and economies of tens of millions of people on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border.
– Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
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Niagara At Large 
Good for you for not covering it. More and more serious ‘public forums’ are marginalized. It is a Dress Show, nothing more.
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