Media Releases
Green Party Leader David Coon to Speak on International Day Against Homophobia
Thursday, 16 May 2013 12:34
"Tomorrow, on the International Day Against Homophobia, 25 students from Oromocto High, St. Stephen High and Sir James Dunn Academy in St. Andrews will be traveling to Toronto to participate in OUTShine, Canada's very first National GSA Summit, representing their schools and our province over the next three days," said David Coon, Green Party Leader. "As a New Brunswicker and political leader, I am proud of these schools and all 13 high schools that have established Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) clubs to provide a place for students to support each other while working to end homophobia, and I encourage those schools without them to get to work," said Green Party leader David Coon.
OUTShine will be a gathering of youth and educators from across Canada with a focus on promoting safer and more inclusive schools for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) students. Students will participate in workshop and discussion groups with some of the best inclusive education facilitators from across the country. Teachers will take part in special sessions of the Toronto District School Board’s ground-breaking Positive Space Training program.
"The efforts of our high school students and their teachers to create safer and more inclusive schools for LGBT youth should stand as an inspiration for us all to accept and respect each other," said Green Party leader David Coon. "While discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation is illegal, homophobia, and the bullying and hate it can breed, is a blight on the soul of our province. As our young people are teaching us, if we don't talk about it, if we allow homophobic behavior to go unchallenged, then we perpetuate the problem," said Coon.
Green Party Leader David Coon will speak at a rally in front of the Legislative Assembly on Friday May 17 to mark the International Day Against Homophobia.
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Links: http://www.mygsa.org/outshine/
Time to File the Blueprint and Leave the Shale Gas Underground
Friday, 10 May 2013 18:49
Fredericton- Green Party Leader David Coon says the Alward government's Oil and Gas Blueprint is nothing more than a public relations exercise to put a ribbon around fracking, noting a majority of New Brunswickers do not support the practice.
"Incredibly, the Oil and Gas Blueprint fails to make the protection of public health one of its key priorities, despite the recommendations of our Chief Medical Office of Health," said David Coon. "And surprisingly, it relies entirely on a 25 year old outdated regulation for environmental assessment to protect the environment, " said Coon.
Coon said, that instead of helping rural parts of the province by creating tools for rural economic development, the government is imposing an industry that is a threat to public health and water and unwanted by most , noting that a police officer had been stationed at the entrance to the hotel where Energy Minister Craig Leonard released his blueprint.
"The government does not have the consent of the people to push ahead with shale gas development, but it is determined to impose it on people's communities, so now we have rural residents gearing up to turn back the industry when it shows up in their neighbourhood” said Green Party Leader David Coon, referring to civil disobedience workshops that have been held in Kent County.
``It is time for Premier Alward to hit the stop button, suspend his public relations campaign, and listen to New Brunswickers,`` said Coon.
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Green Leader Refused Information on Shale Gas Royalties
Thursday, 09 May 2013 11:14
Finance Minister Blaine Higgs has turned down a Right to Information request made by Green Party Leader David Coon for studies carried out for the government on shale gas royalties.
The Green Party leader had requested copies of the contractual agreements made with consultants contracted to evaluate and/or propose shale gas royalty systems or taxes, along with copies of their reports to government.
"Wild claims have been made by everyone from the Premier and his Energy Minister to the Vice-President of the TD Bank about the money that would roll into government coffers from tearing up the countryside to frack for shale gas," said Green Party leader David Coon. "Historically, New Brunswick had earned very little in the way of royalties from timber, minerals and natural gas. I think it is reasonable that the Alward government back up it claims by releasing the studies it has commissioned," said Coon.
Coon was even denied copies of the government contracts with the consultants in question. The Green Party leader has filed a complaint to Access to Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Bertrand. She is investigating.
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Green Party Calls for Royal Commission on Retirement Income
Tuesday, 07 May 2013 12:50
Fredericton -At a news conference this morning, the Green Party called for the Alward government to establish a Royal Commission on Retirement Income to examine the state of retirement income in both the public and private sectors.
"The first duty of pension trustees, such as the Province, is to the beneficiaries of that trust" said Norman Laverty, the Green Party's advocate for economic and social development, and a former Superintendent of Pensions for the Government of New Brunswick. " The Province intends to violate its role as trustee by abandoning retroactively its commitments to pensioners in the public sector. It's unacceptable," said Laverty.
The Green Party wants a Royal Commission to determine if there truly is a crisis in the funding of retirement income for New Brunswickers in the public and private sectors, and to propose long-term solutions.
"Existing commitments to pensioners, whether in the private or public sector must be honoured, and we need to ensure that people in the workforce today have adequate income when they retire," said David Coon, Green Party leader. "We believe a Royal Commission of inquiry is the best way to bring clarity to the many complex issues surrounding the future of retirement income whether people are working in the public, private sector or voluntary sectors, or are self-employed" said Coon.
View Royal Commission on Retirement Income proposal.
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