Firstly, the ad is emotional and intended to incite anger against clear-cut logging in British Columbia. The policy of Greenpeace is to establish ever more wilderness regardless of the social and financial cost to the families and communities who depend upon our natural resources for their livelihood. This purpose is in contradiction to Christian values. Secondly, it is a deceiving ad because it implies that clear-cut logging is permanent destruction of the forest landscape and of wildlife habitat. It shows only pictures that exaggerate the most recent clear-cuts, but none of the vigorous new forests 10 to 20 years later.
Prompt reforestation is the law in British Columbia.
Patches of young forest dispersed through the old forest greatly enhance the bio-diversity of the larger ecosystem and provide improved habitat for nearly all forms of wildlife, especially bears that thrive on the lush new vegetation. Greenpeace deserves neither the credibility nor the space to promote its unworthy cause in a Christian newspaper. The late Bishop Kenneth Maguire's legacy to the retired priests in the Montreal diocese was a remarkably generous act and the announcement of it has stirred my memory about his tenure in Montreal. I was on the board of directors of the Julia Drummond Residence that contained a small chapel that served the spiritual needs of several generations of young working women who lived there. We duly gathered in the chapel after our final meeting and the bishop led us through some prayers and a brief homily lamenting the closing of the residence.