At a time when people around the world are trying to address climate change and save what's left of an over-paved world, Canada - my home - is arresting and assaulting peaceful protesters, tearing down precious old-growth forests and obliterating deeply complex ecosystems in the name of short-term profit under near-sighted leadership.

I am a carpenter and I do not want this blood lumber.

Canada's "leaders" are not only allowing this to happen; it appears police have been given a free pass to IGNORE a Supreme Court ruling that permits media reasonable access to the very sites where aggressive arrests, assaults, theft and vandalism by RCMP and other officers are happening daily. The public hears next to nothing of this issue because police are creating illegal exclusion zones and snuffing media out at gates. POLICE ARE BREAKING THE LAW. These officers are not out there arresting criminals; they are in forests arresting people trying to do the right thing. There have been articles about a "deferral" but roads and other logging activity continue; the word was used on purpose to make people think things are ok at places like Fairy Creek. They are not.

Canada is allowing this destruction at a time when, as I write this, there are 265 active wildfires in BC alone. This, while simultaneously Canada clear cuts a million acres of boreal forest every year, sometimes more. From 2001 to 2017, we lost nearly 40 MILLION hectares of forest. And still, government alongside industry giants like Teal-Jones and Resolute march on as though there are no issues that warrant serious, urgent changes. They seem to believe we have an endless supply of forest and that simply replanting a few trees will be enough to rebuild entire ecosystems lost to machines and misguided employees then left to perish silently after there is no monetary value left to extract.

THIS. IS. NOT. MY. CANADA.

MY Canada is a fresh, empathetic country who has outgrown its immature, entitled, power-hungry attitude and listens to its citizens. It no longer hides from its history and has no reason to hide from its present because it has learned to do the right things for the greater good. Its leaders are commendable and make decisions with a healthy, peaceful future in mind. MY Canada actively protects and honours a bountiful, flourishing environment and educates its people on how to design, build and grow more responsibly.

The current reality is that I feel ashamed of my country. I am deeply disappointed by the decisions leaders continue to make over and over again. I am weighed down by the bleak future such a narrow focus on economy has left us all with. And I know I am not alone.

I am a trained tradesperson. I work hard and everyone I've ever met in the trades works hard. The work I do uses lumber and sheet goods and engineered woods and I do NOT want this to come from old growth, wild places. I don't want to lose any more forests for lumber or for toilet paper or for anything. We have far too many alternative, renewable resources and clean waste products that can be used for so many things. I will be ok if I have to figure out an alternative or wait for sustainably sourced lumber. I will never be so desperate for it that I will feel framing that doorway or roof was worth losing a forest for.

I am a designer and a builder AND I WANT FORESTS PROTECTED.

I am NOT OK with the materials I use to have been torn from some beautiful, rich ecosystems. I am NOT OK with government breaking its OWN LAWS in the name of systematic oppression and guarding of archaic, harmful processes. I am NOT OK with permanently losing massive swaths of green, shaded land at a time when the world is at serious risk of losing food sources, water and all sorts of life due to increasing temperatures. I am NOT OK with single-use logging roads being left behind in states where nothing else can grow. I am NOT OK with the lies being fed to us as though we can't tell the difference between truth and deception.

The WORLD needs MORE forests, not fewer. We no longer have time or energy for outdated policies and approaches to economy that ignore the fact that we are directly tied to the environment. We need to update our knowledge, learn more and help each other to implement modern, sustainable designing and building practices. We need to present ALL citizens with better job opportunities that HELP our communities instead of hurting them in the long run. We should feel proud when speak of our elected representatives because they have made decisions we can look to as models of positive progress. There are people all over the world doing all sorts of sustainable work; we can learn from them and bring that knowledge to Canada and prosper in new, inspiring ways.

I am a tradesperson and I do not support logging of old-growth forests.

If you feel it's high time we propel things into a better direction, please sign, especially if you are connected to the trades. We need to hear from the building industry.

Thank you!
MB