On behalf of all of us from Vancouver Island Water Watch Coalition, I want to thank everyone who attended our two day event! From all of the feedback thus far, it was a resounding success. We are hoping that the information you got from all of our wonderful speakers is information that will spur you into some kind of involvement and possibly some action down the road to protect what is ours, what should become ours and what must be in public hands.....and that is our WATER.

I went to each of these presenters over the weekend to see if they could send their presentations for posting on the website. They are on Part's one through 5.

The first is a letter from Ingmar Lee who has written to all of the participants of the froum. His letter says;

Dear fellow participants in the "Your Water, Your Future" conference at Nanaimo!

I think it might take a few days to let the significance of what happened over the weekend to sink in, but I expect that this very empowering conference will have gotten us a long, long way towards our clear and simple goal:

(suggested goal statement, -any wordsmithing or suggestions welcome)

~to acquire complete public control of the entire Nanaimo Community Drinkingwatershed,

~so that it may be repaired, and protected in the best possible condition for the the sole purpose of producing pure drinkingwater, in perpetuity, for the benefit of the people living in the Nanaimo region, and for the benefit of all beings which depend on the healthy Nanaimo River system.

I sincerely believe that this is an imminently achievable goal, and I encourage everyone to maintain and improve the momentum that was gathered over the weekend and start applying your particular expertise to the effort! I would encourage that we avoid entrenching our efforts in any over-organized conventional structure which might reduce peoples freedom to express their action in their own way. People should be able to situate themselves as centrally, or as peripherally to the effort as they are comfortable with. I recommend that we are clear that this will be a model exercise in persistent non-violent civil-disobedience. Our efforts will be watched by other communities who are wrestling for control of their water. I expect that we should not need to waste valuable energy in fund-raising, and that we should abstain from corporate sponsorship of any kind. This should not be an expensive campaign, and on the contrary, will be much more appealing to the general public if conducted on a very economical minimal shoe-string budget. I also recommend against any sort of message management. Everyone should feel free to speak the issue to the media and wider community.

This will be a very enjoyable project, -it's a spectacular, beautiful area throughout the Nanaimo River watershed area, voracious logging destruction notwithstanding... I recommend that people put only good energy into the project and enjoy working to protect that which ought to be protected.

Recognizing that First Nations have lived in the vicinity of the Nanaimo River for many thousands of years, and that the lands comprising the Nanaimo River system is their traditional territory, I suggest that we respectfully send a letter to local Chiefs and Council to request their blessing to commence this campaign, and for their permission for us to travel freely in the watershed.

I would encourage everyone to start getting to know the area, so that they familiarize themselves with its every aspect. There is a place, and a need for everyone's particular skill-set in this effort~and I am fully confident that we will succeed in wrestling the Nanaimo Community Drinkingwatershed away from its dreadful, Bermuda-based corporate 'owners.'

It is clear that Island Timberlands has got utterly nothing left to log in there. The Bermuda-based corporation will be exploring opportunities to divest themselves of these properties, and will be expecting top, tax-dollar compensation. I firmly believe that the good people of Nanaimo owe nothing whatsoever to the Bermuda-based Island Timberlands Logging Corporation. Industrial clearcut logging, -their business, is utterly incompatible with the natural processes required to produce pure drinkingwater. The Nanaimo Community Drinking Watershed should be simply confiscated away from them.

I look forward to working with all of you!

Cheers, Ingmar

Ingmar Lee
Box 60,
Denny Island BC
V0T-1B0
(250) 957-7598

www.ingmarlee.com

Arthur Caldicott's presentaion can be found at:

http://www.sqwalk.com/media/WatershedsInPeril_Nanaimo_20100530.pdf

....continued in part 2