Ontario's Own Sarah Palin - Minister Of Natural Resources Donna Cansfield - hits all time low in park protection
(Disclaimer: This photo has been manipulated)
The Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park will allow an open hunting season on all wildlife declared ‘game’ or ‘nuisance’ if Ontario’s own Sarah Palin - Minister of Natural Resources Donna Cansfield - has it her way. Not only can people hunt, trap and fish throughout the Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park, Minister Cansfield has added new species to kill such as snapping turtles, common grackle and cow birds – for the sheer fun of visiting Ontario’s provincial parks.
The park’s lakes will also be stocked with Splake – a Frankenstein fish created by combining brook and lake trout. Splake is an artificial fish that does not naturally exist anywhere in the world but is stocked in Ontario waters to please anglers.
The open hunting season extends from September 1 to the Victoria Day long weekend - all year except for three months in the summer.
This proposal makes a mockery of the New Provincial Parks Act which identifies ‘ecological integrity’ as its governing principle. Expanding hunting opportunities also means expanding the use of ATVs and snowmobiles because many hunters and anglers do not have the stamina to hike across a woodland or the strength to drag a carcass out of a wooded area without the use of a motorized vehicle.
If this proposal goes forward, it will likely set a precedent for extending hunting to wilderness parks. How can Cansfield state that hunting and fishing has no ecological impact in the Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park but yet ban the activity from wilderness parks? We need a tidal wave of letters into Dalton McGuinty’s office telling him that:
- no hunting or fishing should be permitted in the Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park or any protected areas;
- that these areas should be considered wildlife sanctuaries where wildlife can live and thrive in peace without the pressures of hunting and fishing;
- that this proposal violates the very spirit of a protected area and the intent of the Provincial Parks Act;
- it makes an area unsafe for those individuals not enagaged in the act of recreational hunting, and;
- labelling the recreational killing of wildlife as a 'tradition' makes a mockery of true cultural tradition that defines a person's heritage.
Download our petition here.
Hunting Proposal is posted on the Environmental Bill of Rights registry for public comment until December 6, 2008:
Please send all comments directly to Dalton McGuinty. His office will forward your comments to
the Ministry of Natural Resources where they will be counted and recorded. This guarantees that the Premier’s office reads your comments too. Please send all comments to http://www.premier.gov.on.ca/feedback/default.asp
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