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Organizations—including Équiterre—that are fighting against neonicotinoids (neonics), the most widely used class of insecticide in the world, are finally gaining ground and can count on our decision-makers to act on this public health and environmental issue.
Following extensive consultations, the Ontario government adopted a regulation on June 9 to reduce the number of acres planted with neonic-treated corn and soybean seeds by 80% by 2017. Équiterre welcomes the decision and urges the Québec government to do the same and take responsibility in the matter: “The Couillard government should join Ontario and adopt a regulation to ban these harmful pesticides,” declared Sidney Ribaux, Équiterre's Executive Director, at meetings with various groups on the pesticide issue in Toronto.
Please act to ban the use of neonics
Équiterre and the David Suzuki Foundation are gearing up to send tens of thousands of missives from citizens to the Québec government calling for a ban on neonics, the pesticides responsible for the decline of bees and recognized as a real threat to the environment and potentially to human health by the international scientific community. The City of Montréal recently passed an anti neonics motion that requires users of this particular class of pesticide to find alternatives by the end of the year.
You’d like to join fellow residents and call on the Québec government to act on this issue ? Please sign our call to action before June 17th, day on which we will send tens of thousands of missives from citizens to the office of the minister of Développement durable, de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques!
To all interested parties: On June 17 at 11:15 a.m. at the Centre for Sustainable Development in Montréal, Équiterre will be holding a press conference. Speakers include a Québec researcher, involved in the prestigious Task Force on Systemic Pesticides (a group of 50 international scientists who conducted the largest scientific literature review to date on neonics), a beekeeper and a field crop farmer, who have made the choice to not use seeds treated with neonics. A theatrical presentation featuring a bee harmed by neonics will be performed after the conference. There will also be an information booth and the signing of letters for the relevant Québec ministers.
