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e-2827 (Environment)

E-petition
Initiated by Amita Kuttner from Lasqueti Island, British Columbia

Original language of petition: English

Petition to the House of Commons in Parliament assembled

Whereas:
  • The climate crisis and destruction of ecosystems (ecocide) are the result of many years of harmful industrial activities permitted by law, with many of the risks having been known for decades by the companies choosing to continue these practices and the governments who subsidize those activities;
  • Canadian citizens and residents can and must take some responsibility for what is consumed, but it is industry, finance and government who make high-level investment and policy decisions;
  • The international community lacks a legal framework ensuring shared-nation responsibility for financing humanitarian and environmental aid and assistance to ecocide territories despite numerous treaties, agreements and civil lawsuits;
  • As a UN Member state Canada shares a collective legal duty "to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom" in terms of the Preamble to the UN Charter 1945; and
  • Amending the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to include ecocide as a crime, alongside genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes of aggression, could provide a simple, effective deterrent for those in positions of corporate and financial responsibility and mandate a duty to protect for government officials, enforceable within existing criminal justice systems.
We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the House of Commons in Parliament assembled to declare its support for an amendment to the Rome Statute and advocate its adoption internationally in the knowledge that many countries must stand together for the long-term protection of all life on Earth.
Open for signature
September 2, 2020, at 12:03 p.m. (EDT)
Closed for signature
October 2, 2020, at 12:03 p.m. (EDT)
Photo - Jenica Atwin
Fredericton
Green Party Caucus
New Brunswick
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