After nearly a month of being verbally abused, social networked harassed, receiving death-threatening emails for my commentary on environmental issues - I've decided the gloves are off. But my question to you is: should they be?
Since showcasing my Tar Sands documentary on MTV News last December, offering some pretty strong commentary in opposition of the project and showcasing the highly sensitive issue of deterioration of the health of the Indigenous downstream, I have become the new public enemy #1 to dozens of folk across Canada. Of course, I knew that there was going to be some backlash, but not to the extremes I have received.
However, for the past while, I have been maintaining a policy of disengagement with my new found enemies. Attempting to just let both sides speak their mind, as the point of the documentary was to stir up a stronger debate amongst young people on this most important environmental issue in Canada. In the documentary, I offered my side, a little heard side in Canada, if you ask me, to the mainstream. Now, it was everyone else's turn to respond back and offer their side, including on a Facebook group I created for that purpose (see: http://bit.ly/5hyrwt). Creating a forum, if you will, for the dialogue to continue post-documentary screening, whether their comments were positive or negative. But finally today I received Twitter hate and I felt that enough was enough.
It was a response to a different environmental dilemma I took issue with, a tweet I had written on the new Canadian government strategies to keep alive the seal hunt by shipping off products to Chinese markets instead of European (background: the EU now bans seal products, making impossible for the industry to thrive). In response to my opposition on Twitter about this issue:
@RadicalOmnivore said:
"Go get a real job & stop pimping your old man's tired hate memos. Canada's sealing is sustainable and ecologically appropriate."
There are obviously several reasons to take offense on this, but probably the thing that gets me the most isn't anything he wrote here. It's what's not written. Looking at his profile, RadicalOmnivore considers himself somewhat of an activist and environmentalist, from what I gather. And so, it’s my very own movement that is attacking me for my first-hand experience in the anti-seal hunt wars and commentary about the continuation of this hunt. And there in lies the problem, a problem I face with this movement, especially with what I witnessed during the Copenhagen climate conference...we're divided. And divided we fall. We'll never win this battle to save the planet, if we're at each other's necks. This movement is currently weak because we are divided, divided on issues, agendas and approaches. I hope for unity, for us to be a stronger movement by joining forces, but I know I need to do a lot more than hope. I need to learn from my enemies, like my enemies of the tar sand and my foes inside the movement, as well as they need to learn from me.
I admit, at first, I attacked back to RadicalOmnivore via twitter (that's where my gloves came off), saying he had only listened to propaganda, and responses of that sort. Later, analyzing the situation, I have taken down my comments and offer this blog instead. I am not looking for us to holds hands across the world and sing "Kumbaya" together, but I am looking for some common ground. Because it's only there will we actually evolve.
So maybe the gloves need to go back on and instead a dialogue needs to begin.
-Emily
Since showcasing my Tar Sands documentary on MTV News last December, offering some pretty strong commentary in opposition of the project and showcasing the highly sensitive issue of deterioration of the health of the Indigenous downstream, I have become the new public enemy #1 to dozens of folk across Canada. Of course, I knew that there was going to be some backlash, but not to the extremes I have received.
However, for the past while, I have been maintaining a policy of disengagement with my new found enemies. Attempting to just let both sides speak their mind, as the point of the documentary was to stir up a stronger debate amongst young people on this most important environmental issue in Canada. In the documentary, I offered my side, a little heard side in Canada, if you ask me, to the mainstream. Now, it was everyone else's turn to respond back and offer their side, including on a Facebook group I created for that purpose (see: http://bit.ly/5hyrwt). Creating a forum, if you will, for the dialogue to continue post-documentary screening, whether their comments were positive or negative. But finally today I received Twitter hate and I felt that enough was enough.
It was a response to a different environmental dilemma I took issue with, a tweet I had written on the new Canadian government strategies to keep alive the seal hunt by shipping off products to Chinese markets instead of European (background: the EU now bans seal products, making impossible for the industry to thrive). In response to my opposition on Twitter about this issue:
@RadicalOmnivore said:
"Go get a real job & stop pimping your old man's tired hate memos. Canada's sealing is sustainable and ecologically appropriate."
There are obviously several reasons to take offense on this, but probably the thing that gets me the most isn't anything he wrote here. It's what's not written. Looking at his profile, RadicalOmnivore considers himself somewhat of an activist and environmentalist, from what I gather. And so, it’s my very own movement that is attacking me for my first-hand experience in the anti-seal hunt wars and commentary about the continuation of this hunt. And there in lies the problem, a problem I face with this movement, especially with what I witnessed during the Copenhagen climate conference...we're divided. And divided we fall. We'll never win this battle to save the planet, if we're at each other's necks. This movement is currently weak because we are divided, divided on issues, agendas and approaches. I hope for unity, for us to be a stronger movement by joining forces, but I know I need to do a lot more than hope. I need to learn from my enemies, like my enemies of the tar sand and my foes inside the movement, as well as they need to learn from me.
I admit, at first, I attacked back to RadicalOmnivore via twitter (that's where my gloves came off), saying he had only listened to propaganda, and responses of that sort. Later, analyzing the situation, I have taken down my comments and offer this blog instead. I am not looking for us to holds hands across the world and sing "Kumbaya" together, but I am looking for some common ground. Because it's only there will we actually evolve.
So maybe the gloves need to go back on and instead a dialogue needs to begin.
-Emily
