Well, Thank You, Dr. Suzuki!

It needed to said, and he said it. Speaking nothing less than the truth. That the current mayor of Ottawa is an ignoramus. Mind, his predecessor was little better on the topic. And although some members of Ottawa City Council are fully aware of the deleterious effect on the environment and the health of people and animals with the use of cosmetic pesticides, the balance obviously are just as ignorant, setting up barricades against the banning of same.

Which leaves this city, capital of the nation, second most populous municipality in the province, odd city out. In that more than one hundred other Canadian cities have banned cosmetic pesticide use. It's only good sense to do so. The data is fairly convincing, that the use of pesticides/herbicides has a damaging effect on the environment. And all to satisfy the egotistical conceit of some home owners.

Cosmetic pesticide use has been implicated in nervous-system disorders, in cancers, and a whole host of other medical-health disasters that plague mankind. Run-off into waterways have demonstrable harmful hormonal effects on aquatic wildlife. Birds that rely on insects and worms that have become contaminated with pesticides become ill and perish. Household pets suffer ailments through exposure to chemical pesticides.

Chemical pesticides sprayed on a lawn have a tendency to stray. Over to lawns owned by people who consider this spraying a direct infringement on their health, their near environment and their morals and principles. The wind picks up and wafts about the chemical spray to areas designated off reach, but inundated regardless. Including the interiors of homes.

So when, during a panel discussion at Ottawa's Congress Centre, part of the Canadian Public Health Association's annual conference where Dr. David Suzuki, along with Sweden's ambassador to Canada, and an environmental health expert discussed the contrasting environmental policies between Canada and Sweden, (which country takes a far more serious and aggressive role in ensuring the health of Sweden's environment and the population), Dr. Suzuki characterized Mayor Larry O'Brien as "ignorant", it felt pretty good to this reader.

Sweden's environmental policy can be summed up as a commitment to the "precautionary principle", where legislators "take action before damage is done". Unlike Canada's where the official environmental policy places the onus directly on those who have become ill as a result of exposure to toxins utilized carelessly in the environment, to fight a battle to prove their contention that removal represents a public good.

Dr. Suzuki addressed the issue of responsibility of the chemical industry in Canada; the manufacturers of pesticides, and particularly those members of the industry espousing, cajoling and selling Canadians on cosmetic pesticide use. Public relations and salesmanship aside, he castigated them for their denials, and ongoing opposition of safety-use regulations and attempts by concerned citizens to outlaw the casual use of pesticides.

Doggone right, Ottawa has been cursed by a succession of environmentally ignorant mayors, and cautious, vote-sensitive city councillors. I'd like to think we deserve better, but perhaps we don't, after all.