Activists vow to go to court over oily loonies

Judith Lavoie, February 11, 2009, Times Colonist -- The Dogwood Initiative is sticking with its stickers.

Last week, the environmental group received a letter from Ottawa lawyer Kathryn Reynolds on behalf the Royal Canadian Mint ordering it to stop distributing removable decals that turn the loon on loonies into an oil-soaked bird, swimming on an oily ocean or risk being taken to court.

"We have consulted lawyers and they all thought we are within our rights," said Charles Campbell, Dogwood communications director.

"The ball is now in the hands of the mint. We are prepared to defend ourselves in court," he said.

However, Reynolds, when contacted by the Times Colonist, said she could not comment.

"We are going to have to wait until we get a response," she said.

The call was referred to the mint's communications department, which did not return the call.

Campbell said Dogwood's letter, sent to the mint on Friday, expressed surprise at the "heavy-handed response."

The removable decal is part of a campaign to raise awareness of the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway project which would ship crude oil from the Alberta oilsands to Asia through pipelines and a tanker port at Kitimat.

In a letter to the Times Colonist, Steven Greenaway, spokesman for Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines, said tankers would travel through Principle Channel or Caamano Sound and Douglas Channel, but not through the narrow Inside Passage.

Campbell said the mint's assertion that Dogwood is in contravention of the Currency Act does not make sense.

"The mint's brazen attempt to use a law intended to stop people from melting down coins is nothing but a heavy handed effort to silence our campaign," he said.

More than 150,000 decals are now in circulation and the target is one million, he said.