Sir Richard Branson on polar bear duty in Toronto

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Sir Richard Branson on polar bear duty in Toronto

BY CAITLIN ORR, MARCH 6, 2012

TORONTO — Sir Richard Branson visited Toronto Tuesday to announce that
legislation protecting Canada's polar bears will soon be brought to
Ontario's legislature.

The legislation, he said, will be introduced as a private member's bill
this spring, and is being pushed by the international wildlife
conservation organization WildAid.

Branson, entrepreneur and founder of the massive Virgin Group, said:
"What we're asking today, it's not a big ask, it's not going to cost lots
of money. It's just a tweak that actually could make the difference
between the polar bear ultimately disappearing or the polar bear being
saved."

He was in Toronto with his foundation Virgin Unite, supporting the
Canadian branch of WildAid. He was joined by Dr. William Rapley, the
Toronto Zoo's executive director of conservation and wildlife; actress
and WildAid board member Bo Derek; Rob Sinclair, executive director of
WildAid Canada; and Peter Knights, executive director of WildAid.

Knights said the Polar Bear Protection Act would seek to manage the
captured polar bear population better and allow for more research and
positive intervention, such as providing supplementary feeding. Manitoba
has had such an act since 2002.

Sinclair said he is hopeful the legislation has enough broad-based
support to go through.

"We have politicians of all parties on this bill," he said, although he
declined to identify them by name.

Ontario is home to about 1,000 polar bears — a fact two-thirds of its
citizens are unaware of, according to WildAid — while Canada has two-
thirds of the global population. The animals are threatened by climate
change and the loss of Arctic ice.

Branson and WildAid also thanked the City of Toronto for its recent ban
on shark fin products and encouraged the federal government to ban the
importation of shark fin to Canada.