Activists vow to go to court over oily loonies
Arizona Coin Collector
http://www.timescolonist.com/Activists+court+over+oily+loonies/1276770/story.html
Activists vow to go to court over oily loonies
By Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist
February 11, 2009
The Dogwood Initiative is sticking with its stickers.
Last week, the environmental group received a letter
from Ottawa lawyer Kathryn Reynolds on behalf the
Royal Canadian Mint ordering it to stop distributing
removable decals that turn the loon on loonies into
an oil-soaked bird, swimming on an oily ocean or
risk being taken to court.
"We have consulted lawyers and they all thought we
are within our rights," said Charles Campbell,
Dogwood communications director.
"The ball is now in the hands of the mint. We are
prepared to defend ourselves in court," he said.
However, Reynolds, when contacted by the Times
Colonist, said she could not comment.
"We are going to have to wait until we get a
response," she said.
The call was referred to the mint's communications
department, which did not return the call.
Campbell said Dogwood's letter, sent to the mint on
Friday, expressed surprise at the "heavy-handed
response."
The removable decal is part of a campaign to raise
awareness of the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway
project which would ship crude oil from the Alberta
oilsands to Asia through pipelines and a tanker port
at Kitimat.
In a letter to the Times Colonist, Steven Greenaway,
spokesman for Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines,
said tankers would travel through Principle Channel
or Caamano Sound and Douglas Channel, but not through
the narrow Inside Passage.
Campbell said the mint's assertion that Dogwood is in
contravention of the Currency Act does not make sense.
"The mint's brazen attempt to use a law intended to
stop people from melting down coins is nothing but a
heavy handed effort to silence our campaign," he said.
More than 150,000 decals are now in circulation and
the target is one million, he said.
..
Jon Purkey
Even if the courts side with the mint, the media has already given
their cause far more attention than the stickers alone would ever
have.