Guest blog by Bobby Arbess,

Victoria BC

In response to Dogwood’s call for grassroots action to stop tankers, a little No Tankers banner action took place on the Galloping Goose switch bridge over the Trans-Canada highway (Victoria) at rush hour Friday, April 9th.

The call around went through the network of  Parents and Children for the Earth (PACE), a local, loose-knit group whose mission is to “foster a strong sense of connection between children and nature and to encourage our children to become active citizens and responsible stewards of the planet “.

In the past we’ve staged a parade and public puppet show for endagered species legislation in B.C, opposed the Spencer Road interchange and the destruction of red-listed landscapes and species around Langford’s  Spencer’s Pond and gotten families out for some memorable rambles in the wild.

The Galloping Goose banner signaled PACE’s official entry into the campaign to keep Alberta oil from entering BC’s  fragile marine environment.

Sol Kinnis, Garbriela Gurra Kinnis (age 6), Honor Cienski and Jonas Cienski (age 9), Bobby Arbess (myself) and my son Mischa Arbess-Goudge (age8) participated.

“We wanted to involve the kids in this campaign because we think it can be won…”

We wanted to involve the kids in this campaign because we think it can be won and we want them to directly experience the triumph of public interest and ecological sanity over blind corporate greed and economic short-sightedness. 

Sol and I came up with the idea for something fun and non-threatening the kids could do. She gave me a queen-sized sheet and some paints and I painted the banner in an hour.

The kids really enjoyed the experience of helping to hold the banner from swinging in the wind and were encouraged by he dozens of motorists honking and signaling their support for a tanker ban with thumbs up.

They were all keen on doing it again and we’ll fly the banner next on May 9 2010,  when Alexandra Morton arrives on foot from Sointula, for wild salmon.