Who needs clean water, anyway?

Canada, long considered an important moderating international player, is rapidly becoming an international pariah under PM Harper’s government.  On climate change, we’ve announced that we will be making no effort to meet our Kyoto obligations and we’ve more recently hampered progress during the Bali negotiations.  On indigenous rights we were one of only four nations to oppose the UN’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DRIP), negotiated with Canada leading the way under the previous Chretien/Martin governments.  Now, it turns out Canada led the way to defeating a UN resolution to enshrine a universal right to clean water.

The Green Party of Canada has long advocated enshrining the right to clean air and water into the Canadian constitution.  We should be sure that the air we breathe and the water we drink is free of carcinogens, terratogens, pathogens and other toxins.  We recognize human rights to employment and to free speech.  Isn’t water even more fundamental?