Dru Oja Jay

The Courage coalition wants to transform the social and economic configuration of Canada. In an interview, two members discuss the efforts to focus, embolden, and strengthen the left.

The forestry model conventionally pursued by the Canadian forestry industry has long been battering community economies, trampling Indigenous rights, and damaging forestry ecosystems, all the while empowered by colonial and capitalist legislative frameworks. Sustainable forest management is gaining traction as allied forestry workers, grassroots environmentalists, and First Nations create new models of forestry.

Electoral politics and grassroots movement building are often at odds; significant change in Alberta will hinge on independent organizing.

Why have environmentalists become so much less effective than they used to be?

This article is excerpted from Paved with Good Intentions: Canada’s Development NGOs from Idealism to Imperialism, released April 2012 by Fernwood Publishing fernwoodpublishing.ca