“My name is Laura Anderson, and I am a member of the Youth for a Better World organization from the Smithers Secondary School. I and my two other members, Skeena and Arctica, are fully opposed to the Northern Gateway pipeline and its affiliations with the tar sands in Alberta and the tankers that will be crossing the waters. This issue is not something that the government of Canada can decide for its own. This project will jeopardize the livelihoods of many Canadians in all walks of life in British Columbia, and it should be our decision if we want a ticking time bomb or not. I can assure you that the youth of Smithers are opposed to it. We will not wait around for the adults of the nation to destroy our future, the future that we will be living in and dealing with the consequences of their actions during our lifetime.”

– Laura Anderson

“As a three-time competitor at the Canada-Wide Science Fair I have seen hundreds of projects based on renewable energy ideas. The ideas are out there, what they need is support and funding. So I ask you, rather than putting more money into expanding our oil industry and creating new markets for our oil industry, why not focus on renewable energy sources, which we know are the way of the future?”

– Arctica Cunningham

Joint Review Panel Hearings Smithers, B.C. April 26-27, 2012

The National Energy Board’s Joint Review Panel (JRP) community hearings began in Smithers Monday April 23, 2012. In an attempt to provide you with a sense of what is being said at these hearings, we have selected excerpts from some of those presenta-tions and will continue to do so through to the end of the hearings in July. For those of you wishing to read the complete text of a statement, it is available on the JRP website: gatewaypanel.review-examen.gc.ca/clf-nsi/prtcptngprcss/hrng-eng.html

As you may have realized, I was named after the Skeena River. My parents chose this name as tribute to the natural beauty and stunning scenery of the areas between Prince Rupert and Smithers. They were so in love with the Skeena and its surrounding environment my parents went as far as to dip my feet in its waters when I was few weeks old. The scariest thing I can think of would be seeing a sign on the bank of the Skeena, such as the one posted along the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, reading: “By order of the Public Health Department, this river is closed for swimming, boating and fishing until further notice. Recent contamination as a result of the Enbridge Energy oil spill have made this river unsafe to use.”

– Skeena Lawson

“I’m a teacher, artist, and parent who resides and works here in the Bulkley Valley, moving here 10 years ago from Ontario. As teacher-advisor to our student group, Youth for a Better World from Smithers Secondary, I have seen the incredible motivation by these students to become better informed on this issue; not only the core of the group whom you have just heard but a significant portion of the student population and other teachers as well. As an educator I seek to create opportunities for growth and discovery for my students. This project is promoted as an opportunity that we must seize. But that is a cloak, it is really a peril. This is just a bad idea and it’s a bad idea on a monumental scale with repercussions fanning out to affect many, many aspects of life. We also teach our students to not tolerate intimidation and bullying. And yet our federal government employs these tactics to threaten regular folks who helped to make this country what it is. These youth, I applaud their courage and conviction to speak up, to feel compelled on behalf of all the others, to articulate their deepest concerns for what they could inherit.”

– Perry Rath

I lived in Bhutan last year, which is a small Himalayan nation sandwiched between two giants, India and China, and I was working at the Royal University of Bhutan there in education. And there’s been a lot of pressure put on Bhutan for natural resources.

India and China have a lot of overpopulation. And the King of Bhutan has stressed something, you might have heard, called GNH, which is called gross national happiness, as opposed to GDP, gross domestic product, and it focuses on the value of the environment and the happiness of the people, which is a social value. This concept transferred into gross national happiness was introduced last week to the United Nations in New York City. This is a direct contrast to gross domestic product. So the fourth hereditary King, the Democratic Parliament and the Prime Minister of Bhutan have now endorsed this idea that as a country they need to rethink how to measure progress, and I believe we do also. Is Enbridge’s pipeline progress? Are the supertankers progress? Is the environment valued? Is the happiness of the people, a social value, valued?

– Natalie Charlton

“And I’m telling you this story because I know the future of this wild coast is in your hands, and when you make your decision about whether 200 or so supertankers should go through these straits, these rocky narrow passages, keep in mind the extreme weather that can happen on very short notice. I’m not a meteorologist, but some of the numbers I’ve heard recently are 200-kilometre-an-hour winds and 25-metre waves. You know, when I look at that map, I get scared and for a long time we’ve had a ban on tanker traffic on this coast and it was created for very practical and still applicable reasons.”

– Richard Audet

“This pipeline and tanker proposal is a threat to the health of the entire northwest region on an environmental level, an economic level, a social level, and a cultural level, particularly, for the First Nations whose culture and traditions are intrinsically linked to their water and their land. And I would like to take this opportunity to add my voice to theirs in support of their unceded rights and respectfully stand behind them in their opposition to this pipeline proposal. In January this year I was proud to become a Canadian citizen. And I don’t expect that many Canadians will know this, but in the study guide that the government gives you to help you prepare for the citizenship test called “Discover Canada, The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship”, it states on page 9 that one of the responsibilities of being a Canadian citizen is, and I quote: ‘Protecting Canada’s natural, cultural, and architectural heritage for future generations.’ The reason I’m here speaking to you today is to uphold that responsibility, just like the government tells me I should.”

– Caroline Bastable

“The trickle effect of tourism dollars might take a while to work its way through our provincial economy, but it does, and we all share in the benefits. As tourism economy increases, the need to rely on resource-based economy decreases. Each time we share what is so fantastic about northern B.C., we find ourselves in a slightly better position. Do we still need to sell logs to China if we can attract Chinese tourists to check out our old growth forests? Do we need to dam our rivers and sell electricity to our southern neighbour if we can send Americans on epic guided rafting trips? Do we need to rip mountains apart for the minerals inside if we can send Europeans on back country skiing expeditions they’ll never forget? Each time we capitalize on what we already have, great landscapes and great experiences, we move towards a balanced economy. And the best thing is, experiences are limitless, renewable. Resources are not.”

– Matt Simmons

“My husband is our mayor, my boss is our MLA, my friend is our MP, and I’m raising my children on Wet’suwet’en territory. Four levels of government in this area that have publicly stated their opposition to this project. The vast majority of people who have come before you have stated their opposition to the project. It is a doomed project supported by corrupt governments and backed by greedy corporations that don’t care what is at stake here.

And this is nothing new. The same drama has been playing itself out in human history since the beginning. I believe people will prevail because without social license, which this project obviously does not have, it cannot succeed. Just like Kemano II and salmon farming and coal bed methane before it, I believe Enbridge will be added to this list. The Northern Gateway Project will one day be a distant memory of a bad plan that people stood up to and stopped.”

– Michelle Larstone

“Democracy and democratic responsibility are the cornerstone -- no, they are the foundation on which this environmental review process is predicated. So I went on a hunt to understand democracy and power. This particular quote resonated with me, particularly in light of the last few weeks. “Naturally, the common people don’t want war, neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy and it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” This illuminating quote on the use of power comes from Hermann Göring. You may not all remember Hermann Göring. He was a leading member of the Nazi Party and, at one time, Adolf Hitler’s successor. In today’s age, we could substitute the word pacifist with the name of any Canadian who has dared to express concerns about this pipeline project in particular and the government’s actions with respect to it.”

– Pat Lehoux

“While I was there, I saw a boat about the size of the tugs that they’re supposedly going to tether to these super tankers to keep them on course, and with the incredible winds and the high seas that are blowing up and quickly, if you had 200-mile -- or 100 or 150-kilometre winds and they hit the broadside of a super tanker, the tugs would not be moving the super tanker. The super tanker would be pulling the tugs.”

– Milan Stanga

“But I will tell you this, from my personal experience; when I was a young girl growing up in Kitimat a favourite winter activity is to climb up the steep snow banks and jump off the peak of my two storey roof into the snow. That’s how much snow they get there. There’s so much snow and it’s piled so high that neighbourhood moms, when I was a child, formed a watch group to make sure their children stayed off the snow piles that were eye-level with the hydro lines. Massive snowfalls, ice jams, floods, mudslides, rockslides, high winds, torrential rainfalls, these are the real and likely risks the two pipelines, the port and the very large crude carriers will face, and no emergency response team can respond during these conditions. What we are left with is extensive lasting damage from a project that offers inexcusable risk.”

– Jane Stevenson

“We bought a canoe; we hired local contractors to fix up our house and our barn and our fields. I’ve lost track of how many pairs of skis my husband has bought from Valhalla Pure, a business here on Main Street. He still hires Northern Sun Tours to take him into the beautiful British Columbia backcountry safely every February. Mountainview Trail Rides is still a going concern. Those places that we first -- those companies that we first started patronizing 19 years ago, they’re all still here. And now we invite our friends to come and to take part in the beauty that the tourism industry here in the Bulkley Valley is able to offer to visitors.

I’m just one person. My husband and I are just two people, but if you multiply all the advantage that we’ve taken from the tourism industry here by all the other people who come to fish for steelhead, to canoe the rivers, to ski, what you have is a sustainable economic system that uses the resources of this place, but never uses them up.”

– Diane Suter

“I have days, as I’m sure most of you do, when the busyness of life overwhelms me and I feel disconnected. To help me connect with God and the spirit within me, I need to spend time with the trees, with the water, with the birds and with the air. I believe that this experience is what draws people to nature and to this area. In the book of Job in the Bible, Chapter 12, Verses 7 and 8, it says: ‘Just ask the animals and they will teach you. Ask the birds of the sky and they will tell you. Ask the earth, and it will instruct you. Let the fish of the sea speak to you.’ When I listen to creation, it tells me to preserve it and to treasure it, not to damage it or exploit it. I’m not a scientist, but I know in my heart that the environment is powerful and precious and the risks of the Enbridge pipeline put my spiritual health at risk. I hope you’ll have the opportunity to feed your soul before you go.”

– Shelley Worthington

“Shouldn’t we, the intelligent human race, us, you, me, all people, politicians, captain of industry, all these guys, CEOs, corporate executives, bankers, and all you wealthy dudes out there that are profiting from all this stuff, shouldn’t we be doing something to protect that which sustains our very existence? Don’t you think it would make good business sense to come together to develop an attainable, responsible, sensible, sustainable, reasonably clean, and yes, profitable plan that will wean us off of the fossil fuels and begin the process of converting to alternate sources of energy?”

– David Watts

“I’d like to read a quote from a paper written by -- as a collaboration of several government agencies: ‘At least 38 large catastrophic landslides, each either larger than .5 million cubic metres, or longer than a kilometre, have occurred in northern British Columbia in the past three decades. The frequency of the large landslides in northern British Columbia appears to be increasing.’ Two recent examples are the Howson Slide near here, and also the Copper River Slide, which is a -- a mountain just on the east side of Terrace that -- that gave away in 2007 and completely blocked off the Copper River and severed a natural gas pipeline. If that had been tar sands oil in that pipeline the consequences on the salmon habitat in the Copper and the Skeena Rivers downstream from there would have been quite devastating for generations. If this isn’t enough there’s also the threat of earthquakes near the coast of B.C., a well-known area of high seismic activity.”

– Jim Senka

“I’m an aquatic ecologist, now retired from my consulting business. For nearly 40 years I researched the water quality and aquatic health of our rivers and lakes in the Skeena watershed. I took part in multi-year federal and provincial water quality trend studies. I authored an assessment on water quality on the Skeena for DFO. Over the years I’ve conducted numerous environmental effects monitoring studies throughout the watershed for various levels of government and industry. The definition of risk is probability times outcome. In other words, whether the amount of risk in a project is acceptable or not depends on the probability of something going wrong times the severity of the outcome. So if the probability is low and the outcome is minor, you’d probably say that’s acceptable risk. But if it’s highly probable that something will go wrong and the outcome is severe, a rational person would consider it an unacceptable risk. Let’s talk about this proposal and the probability of a pipeline rupture and a diluted bitumen spill. Honestly, my first thought when I heard of this proposal was, they don’t know what they’re doing.”

– Dawn Remington

“The diluted bitumen of the Alberta tar sands contains large amounts of polycyclic hydrocarbons or PAHs. In fact, at least 26 have been documented, different members of this highly toxic chemical family, including well-studied napthalenes, toluenes and benzopyrenes. Cancers of the GI tract, bladder, skin, and lung are linked to these compounds. They are also known to pass the placental barrier, cause birth defects and reproductive problems. Defining safe exposure standards for this combination of PAHs is a virtual impossibility as there are so many chemicals, all of which have different toxicity levels, and no studies are available to see what true toxicities will result in the long-term with exposure to so many of this chemical family all at once.”

– Dr. Biz Bastian

“I stand with hundreds of my friends and neighbours, with thousands of Canadians in opposition to the Enbridge project. We know this proposed project has the very real potential to destroy much of what we hold dear, our pristine -- and you’ve heard that word so often -- our pristine lakes and rivers, our life-giving ocean, the wild salmon and adventure tourism economies that sustain so many of our families, the rich and vibrant First Nation culture that makes the northwest such a special place to call home.”

– Shelley Brown

“I’ve not seen Enbridge change its stance from their original when it comes to spill cleanup. As I’m sure it’s been pointed out, their assumption is that the oil will float and that booms will be an effective measure to capture spilled oil in waterways. We have learned that diluted bitumen does not float as expected, and once oil is submerged, it’s terribly hard to remove from the marine environment. We also witnessed that cleanup is not a winter activity. And our winters are more of a factor here than they are in Michigan. Returning a spill site to its natural state is seemingly outside of our current abilities. The cost involved in cleanup of a single maritime mishap could easily eat up the life expectancy revenue generated for the federal government by the project, Enbridge having no responsibility or liability for marine shipping disasters.”

– Nathan Bond

“When I was a kid back in 1964, I remember huge seismic activity that had taken place here when the Alaskan earthquake took place. I remember the ground shaking for about 30-40 seconds. And it was the largest upheaval of land from Alaska all the way to central Alberta, and they had scientists coming from all over the world to check this out. And they said it was the largest upheaval of land in modern history. And prior to that, in the ‘40s there, the same thing happened just south of the Queen Charlotte Islands. And they said there that everybody on the street was laying down. They said the ground was waving and in Terrace, they said people -- the cars were driving off the road. We are in a seismic zone here, and we are going to be impacted. It’s not a question of whether it’s going to happen; it’s when because all the seismic activity comes in waves. And believe me, there’s not enough, you know, strength in these pipelines to go against the forces of nature. ”

– Adam Gagnon

“The (Morice) river’s changing all the time. In these raging floods, it actually changes the channels. New channels get cut in the river. And what’s exposed are the deposits that were laid down in previous floods. And I would hate to think that one of those deposits that’s going to be exposed years from now would contain bitumen from the tar sands.”

– Tony Harris

So I feel the risks of ruptures on the river and spills on the ocean that could destroy our salmon economy and tourism values outweigh the potential benefits of a relatively small number of jobs and revenues that I know just get swallowed up by Ottawa. I work for the provincial government and I know how revenues get swallowed up. Furthermore, by extracting and exporting all of this oil for short term gains we are also squandering the energy security of our future generations. We’re limiting their options.”

– Ryan Holmes

“If people speak and are collectively ignored, if there is a devastating spill that erodes the fabric of our communities and our way of life we are risking the physical, emotional, spiritual and economic wellbeing of all us for many generations to come. That is not a risk worth taking, and we have a chance right now to prevent that level of potential disaster from happening. We could be respective and innovative leaders in our world regarding environmental responsibility instead of potentially destructive. Yes, we need more jobs; I am in full agreement, but Canada has the full potential to be innovative and creative in the creation of clean energy projects and jobs. Please spend my tax dollars in funding clean energy projects, I’m good with that.”

– Aleila Miller

“I would say that certainly when an injury interferes with somebody’s ability to work there is stress related to that loss of income; it’s inevitable, but I guess what I’ve consistently observed, and I think is useful to share, is what’s more upsetting to clients when they’re injured is the loss of their vitality, right, the vitality that consists of so many interconnected components it’s impossible to define. It’s difficult to comprehend until you lose part of it yourself, and often, although we can restore function and components of it, it’s never the same system once it’s been disturbed. So there’s a lot of parallels within our own body systems to the environment and the ecosystems in that sense.”

– Gabriel Newman

And if you lived -- if you come from a pre-industrialized place like I did, the United Kingdom, you would realize how special this is. It’s mind blowing. It’s so beautiful, so quiet. Tony called it a jewel. It is an absolute jewel. You can feel the spirit of this place just leaking into you when you live here. Of course, that’s just the surface. You’ve got many other beautiful places, you’ve got the wild salmon. If you don’t come from a different place, you don’t understand how special it is. You’ve got the Great Bear Rainforest, you’ve got unspoiled marine life. Find that in Europe, there isn’t any. It’s all spoiled, it’s all polluted.”

– Mark West

“I work as a civil engineer and my only encounter with oil pipeline projects to date was being involved in the design and construction of a new water transmission main. And that was required because the drinking water supply for the community of Chetwynd B.C. was compromised by an oil pipeline spill in the Pine River in 2000. And I guess you could say that the engineering firm that I worked for derived some benefit from that spill, but I find it hard to consider that incident in a positive light.”

– Laura Bakermans

“I am an artist. I attempt to put down on a flat surface with paint the essence and feeling of this clean, rugged, beautiful land. Everything about it embraces my spirit. I have always known my kin, my tribe is in this land and together we will stand, true north strong and free. I will leave you with an image. Sitting here all week, listening to each testimony, I began to see each person as a unique golden thread. These threads began to weave together, creating the most incredible tapestry. It was stunning. I could imagine it could be seen from the -- way out into the cosmos. There are some of us who refuse to go along with the constant assault to the earth, the constant violence to the natural world. For what? To line a few pockets with more profits? To that I say no. Let’s put our value house back in order.”

– Pashan Bassett

“But most of all, I want to thank you for this process. Even though it may just be window dressing for a deaf government, your presence here has done so much. You have provided us a point of focus for collectively bringing our thoughts together, a forum to express ourselves amongst ourselves, sharing ideas, strategies, forming alliances and, most of all, strengthening our collective resolve. We cannot have done it without you. This process to legitimize Enbridge’s proposal has backfired. Instead, it has become an exciting democratic event for galvanizing us into a powerful force. Mark my words, Enbridge will be Canada’s dismantling of the Berlin Wall, our Arab Spring.”

– Monty Bassett

“When I was reading about the proposed pipeline on Enbridge’s website, I came across words such as ‘extensive training of our employees’, only to find an article about Enbridge being cited for not properly training its employees. Or another statement, ‘If an incident should occur, Northern Gateway will be there quickly to control, contain and clean up’. This made me think of the Kalamazoo River, which was polluted in July 2010, and crews are still now cleaning it up. Or another statement, ‘Enbridge invests heavily in pipeline safety’, while at the same time being cited for improper corrosion monitoring.”

– Simone Groth

“When I came to use a search engine to establish dates for the slide events I mentioned, I was stunned by two studies I came across. The first was entitled “Flooding and Landslide Events in Northern British Columbia, 1820 to 2006”. The author of this report is D. Septer and it is published by the Province of B.C., Ministry of the Environment. The chronological list of events fills 193 pages. The write up for each event ranges from five lines to a page in length. Understandably, there are very few reports for the early years, but the number of reports increases with the greater availability of information.”

– Dennis Courtliff

“So when we look at the map projected up here, how many rivers and streams does it look like there will be a crossing of? The maps are great, but you have to remember that every map being authored consists of a series of deliberate choices. And the shortcoming of this map is its lack of detail. I might guess 100 streams will get crossed on that map but the truth is that I found 681 stream crossings in B.C.; 681 streams and rivers, roughly one every kilometre. The pipeline route also manages to hit the watersheds of 11 major rivers. To tell you how remarkable this is let me say there are only a couple other places you could run a pipeline across B.C. and hit that many watersheds. We have the Smoky, the Pine, the Parsnip, the Peace, the Fraser, the Stewart, the Babine, the Nechako, the Morice Bulkley, the Zymoetz and the Kitimat. You could conceivably, and I’m not saying this will happen, but you could conceivably send pollution from this pipeline, simultaneously down the Skeena to the north coast, down the Fraser to Vancouver, and up the Peace to the Arctic Ocean. You have to agree when they say it cuts right through the heart of the country.”

– Morgan Hite

“Enbridge proposes to build a pipeline to transport bitumen through hundreds of miles of rugged terrain, across hundreds of watercourses to the coast where it will be loaded into supertankers that will then try to make their way through extremely difficult waters, on to the open sea and eventually to China; a country noted for its abysmal environmental standards.

This is a project that B.C. residents oppose, the Union of B.C. Municipalities opposes, more than 100 B.C. First Nations oppose, and the city councils of Prince Rupert, Smithers and Terrace oppose. Our MLA and our MP have also spoken out strongly against the pipeline.

The reasons for this opposition have been eloquently and repeatedly stated through these hearings, and will, if this process is not hijacked, continue to be expressed by scientists, business people, farmers, educators, working people, mothers, fathers, grandparents, in short, Canadian citizens hoping that this review is a fair process and that good sense, good evidence and the true value of this land, these communities and, most importantly, these waters, rivers, lakes and ocean will prevail.”

– Richard Jenne

“What we can agree upon is that, without question, water is our most valuable resource. All living things depend on water for survival. Around the world clean water sources are disappearing through depletion and pollution at an alarming rate. We can’t ignore the risks that certain industries pose to this essential resource, especially when considering how these effects flow downstream. Stewardship of our waters is a responsibility that we all bear to safeguard our most precious resource. Water belongs to the people who depend on it, not a far-off government who is willing to risk it because it’s not in their backyard. Our kids can’t vote, and future generations not yet born will be the ones who will be the most impacted by the decisions made by this Joint Review Panel.”

– Andrea Newell

“The following is just a short list of symptoms following acute exposure to oil: Vision loss; burning pain in ears, nose, mouth and throat; abdominal pain; nausea and vomiting; low blood pressure; breathing difficulty; throat swelling; convulsions; confusion; dizziness; headaches; weakness; seizures; skin blisters; burns and irritation. Many people after both the Kalamazoo River spill and the BP spill experienced respiratory illness, throat and eye irritation, headaches, dizziness, nausea and vomiting. As you can see, symptoms can be widespread and once the crude oil is in the body, the chemicals can enter the bloodstream and circulate rapidly. These chemicals can move through cell walls and change the way cells work, damage DNA and disrupt normal hormonal body functions. Reproductive abnormalities, infertility, immune suppression and abnormal blood cell development has also been documented. There is no safe level of exposure to oil as it contains ingredients that can cause mutations and cancer.”

– Samantha Ormond

“Encountering whales while sailing through the inside passage makes a human being feel humble on this planet. I don’t know if you Canadians realize it, but there’s a big contrast with Belgium, the country I have lived in for 45 years. I have seen what happens with a country when governmental decisions destroyed most of our nature because they decided to give priority to making money instead of preserving the environment. It made Belgium, along with Cyprus, the most polluted country in all of Europe. With this oral statement, I hope I can help to stop this insanity because I know what lies at the end of the tunnel. I have been there. It was my natural habitat for 45 years, a land with almost no natural forests left, with almost all fauna completely wiped out. We don’t know what wildlife is any more because we hardly have any wildlife in Belgium, a land in which rivers are so toxic and polluted, they support almost no life.”

– Ivan Polfliet

“When I was a teenager, people would sew a Canadian flag on their backpack prior to going overseas and be welcomed by host nations because of the deeds of generations past. We are now looked upon as environmental dinosaurs by an ever more environmentally conscious world. We have an opportunity to start to change that perception with this process. I’d like my grandchildren, when they’re old enough to go abroad, to proudly put our flag on their backpacks too and be greeted as Canadians, with environmental integrity added to the list of positive attributes of our nation.”

– George Stokes

“I contend that this project will lead to increased gas and oil prices for all Canadians. The reason for this project is to expand exports of oil to China and others willing to pay world prices. Any short term economic gains for workers and taxes and royalties collected by the government will not be more than what inflation will erode. And what about the huge cost required to cleaning up spills from the pipeline ruptures or tanker accidents along the coast? These bills could be staggering.”

– Ron Vanderstar

“I keep hearing that it’s in the national interest to build this pipeline and I’m wondering how it can be in the national interest to sell off an unrefined product. Like why not build a refinery? Why not have a national oil policy and build a refinery? And there’s where you’re going to get the jobs, if you want to create jobs, building a refinery is the way to do it. And maybe if we had lower gas prices here -- like we sell -- we sell most of our oil to the United States and the people that live along the border, they get to go across the border and buy cheaper gas. Like where is the sense in that?”

– Eric Anderson

“I’d like to finish with a quote from anthropologist, Margaret Mead:

‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.’”

– Todd Stockner