This article by Tom Henry appeared in The Toledo Blade, February 18th, 2019. Toledoans for Safe Water said at a news conference Monday that its proposed Lake Erie Bill of Rights is being smeared on radio advertisements by a Columbus-based firm with deep pockets. Markie Miller, Toledoans for Safe Water organizer, said Strategic Public Partners Group is “putting [...]
This letter to the editor by Stefania Czech appeared in The Toledo Blade, February 17th, 2019. In response to the letter “Toledo City Council had no choice on ballot issue,” Feb. 8, Democracy is not a public opinion poll. Democracy is voting for the changes you wish to see in the world. Matt Cherry, president [...]
This article by Timothy Williams appeared in The New York Times, February 17th, 2019. The failing health of Lake Erie, the world’s 11th largest lake, is at the heart of one of the most unusual questions to appear on an American ballot: Should a body of water be given rights normally associated with those granted [...]
This article by Antonio José Paz Cardona appeared in Mongabay, February 11th, 2019. It's important to note when reading this article that "concessions" are equivalent to "permits" granted to corporations in other systems of law. A court in Ecuador’s Sucumbíos province has ordered that the mining concessions already in operation on territory claimed by the Cofán [...]
This article by Jennifer Bjorhus appeared in The Star Tribune, February 9th, 2019. Minnesota’s natural wild rice holds deep cultural, spiritual and economic importance for the state’s American Indian tribes. Now, in one part of the state at least, the native grass holds even more: its own legal rights. Girding for a fight against a [...]
First law securing the rights of a plant species to exist and flourish A press release by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) issued, February 6th, 2019. MERCERSBURG, PA: The White Earth Band of Ojibwe – part of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe – adopted a Rights of Manoomin law. The law protects legal rights of manoomin, or [...]
This letter to the editor by Carolyn Harding appeared in The Toledo Blade, February 3rd, 2019. I encourage Toledo citizens to vote for the Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR) to give our state’s national treasure for fresh water, tourism, water sports, and livelihoods, the right to exist and flourish. LEBOR will give all Toledo [...]
A Cartoon by Kirk Walter's published in The Toledo Blade, January 30, 2019. This cartoon was inspired by the campaign to grant Lake Erie the right to exist and flourish as an ecosystem. The Lake Erie Bill of Rights will be voted on by Toledo residents on February 26th, 2019.
The High Court has given orders to give some legal rights to all the rivers in Bangladesh This article by Nawaz Farhin Antara was published in the Dhaka Tribune, January 30th, 2019. -- The High Court on Wednesday accorded the Turag river the status of “legal person” to save it from encroachment and said that [...]
This opinion piece by Thomas Suddes of Cleveland.com was published, January 26th, 2019. Wherever they are, Theodore Roosevelt and his allies at Ohio’s 1912 constitutional convention must have smiled Wednesday. That’s when the state Supreme Court refused to yank from Toledo’s ballot a voter-initiated city charter amendment creating a Lake Erie Bill of Rights. It’ll be on [...]
