Groups blacked out their websites

The Yukon Conservation Society and the local chapters of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) joined with hundreds of organizations across the country Monday to speak out against the federal omnibus budget bill.

The Yukon Conservation Society and the local chapters of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) joined with hundreds of organizations across the country Monday to speak out against the federal omnibus budget bill.

Each group posted a banner redirecting site visitors to BlackOutSpeakOut.ca.

The banners let visitors know they had come to the right site, and the organization was still working the same as every day.

“But (Monday), we’re joining hundreds of organizations across the country as a single voice for Canada’s nature and democracy,” it says.

“While our website may be dark, our voices are loud as ever.”

Lewis Rifkind, the society’s mining co-ordinator, said Monday the organization is particularly concerned about the changes to the Fisheries Act included in the budget bill.

“The de-emphasis from habitat to just fish, we think will have catastrophic changes on the fish populations in the Yukon,” he said.

Rifkind also questioned why the change was included in the budget bill.

Mike Dehn, the executive director of the Yukon chapter of CPAWS, said Monday his organization’s key concern with the omnibus bill is that it aims to gut Canada’s environmental review process.

“That will encourage industrial development that may not be in tune with nature and may not be best practices,” he said.

He’s concerned also with “the Harper government’s attempts to weaken and undermine charitable and environmental organizations in Canada.”

“Our general concern is that the federal government is trying to paint anyone and any groups who are concerned about the environment as fringe groups and as irresponsible,” he said.

Other organizations that blacked out their websites, redirecting them to BlackOutSpeakOut, included the federal New Democratic Party (the site was in black and white Monday), Oxfam Canada and Quebec, the Pembina Institute and the Sierra Club.

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