Last week Greenpeace showed up at the offices of book publishers in New York City to deliver a petition regarding their misleading campaigns in the boreal, a document that repeated some of the same falsehoods that they admitted in court were “non verifiable statements of subjective opinion” and “rhetorical hyperbole.”
Why is Greenpeace investing its resources travelling from coast to coast to harass book publishers at their NYC offices, instead of visiting the communities directly affected by their campaign of misinformation?
Greenpeace claims they “want to talk to the workers who know the conditions on the ground best, [and] the men and women in the forest industry must be at the discussion table.”
But many thousands of citizens across Canada’s boreal region have reached out to Greenpeace. They have expressed their concerns by phone, on social media, during large public demonstrations, as well as through letters and direct mail initiatives. They asked Greenpeace to stop campaigns that misinform the public and threaten the livelihood of their communities.
How did Greenpeace respond to that avalanche of heartfelt appeals about the real harm they have caused? The answer is simple: They ignored them.
Below are just some of the boreal communities directly impacted by Greenpeace’s misinformation campaign targeting Resolute Forest Products. Will Greenpeace muster the integrity to visit these communities any time soon? We aren’t holding our breath.
"I invited the director of Greenpeace Quebec – I won’t name him – to come visit us, and to give me just 24 hours’ notice. I told him, 'We won’t change a thing in the mill’s operations, I’ll show you anything you want to see. I’ll go with you.' But I never heard back."
- Ghislain Laprise, Mill Employee & Union President, La Doré, Quebec
"Greenpeace, in our view, is an environmental group that goes to the extreme, that doesn’t seek a balance between conservation and forest management."
-Jack Picard, Band Council Member, Innu Nation of Pessamit, Quebec
“Greenpeace definitely doesn’t speak for people here when it comes to the boreal forest.”
-David Côté, Mill Superintendent, Saint-Prime, Quebec