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Like all Canadians, Prince Edward Islanders are deeply
concerned about issues related to their quality of life,
community and human rights, and environmental issues.
Many associations and committees bring Islanders together
to address these questions, raise public awareness, and
strive for social improvement.
Providing services for other Island associations, the
Prince Edward Island Environmental Network counts some 30
groups among its membership. Some are locally-based,
concerned primarily with their own community or
watershed. These include, among several others, the Mill
River Committee and the Bedeque Bay Environmental
Management Association. Others take in a broader scope,
addressing global issues as they relate to life and
practices in Prince Edward Island. They range in approach
from a broad, inclusive involvement in community life to
a more radical or critical stance. At various points
along this spectrum, we find groups such as the Island
Nature Trust, the Natural History Society, Friends of the
Island, ECOPEI (the Environmental Coalition of Prince
Edward Island), Earth Action, and Sierra Club Youth. Some
groups, such as the Prince Edward Island Forest
Improvement Association and the Organic Crop Improvement
Association take a more sectoral interest in
environmental issues. Though they address the problem in
different ways from different perspectives, all are
committed to protecting the Islands natural
environment.
Many Islanders are also involved in solidarity groups
through their local churches and through numerous
secular, non-governmental organizations. Two of these are
Development and Peace and Youth for Social Justice. CUSO
is a Canadian organization working with people striving
for freedom, self-determination, cultural survival, and
gender and racial equality in countries around the world.
Every year, people from communities across the Island
become CUSO co-operants, travelling to other regions of
the world where their skills will be useful. Oxfam-PEI
seeks to address the structural causes of poverty and
related injustices. The organizations most recent
local activity involved the establishment in
Charlottetown of a community organic garden. This project
served as a centrepiece for education about global food
security.
Many groups engaged in social advocacy are involved in
issues related to women, persons with disabilities, the
law, learning, advocacy, and education. Some of these
organizations are the Advisory Council on the Status of
Women, the Disabled Womens Network, and Queens
County Disability Advisory Committee. Anderson House and
Transition House and their respective help lines provide
support in the form of services and programs to women and
children who have been abused or live in fear of
violence. Prince Edward Island Citizen Advocacy, for
example, protects the rights of people labelled
mentally handicapped, providing individual
support and advocacy.
Labour on the Island has a number of voices through
various unions in trades and in the public sector. The
Canadian Labour Congress, the national voice for the
labour movement, has a presence on the Island in the form
of the Prince Edward Island Federation of Labour. This
organization advocates decent wages, working conditions,
improved health and safety laws, fair taxes, social
programs, childcare, Medicare, and pensions.
Advocacy groups in the province enjoy a unique benefit
stemming from the provinces small size. Prince
Edward Island offers countless opportunities for
coalition-building and sharing resources. Consequently,
it is not unusual to see environmental, labour,
womens, solidarity, and citizen advocates sitting
around the same table, discussing social issues that
concern them all.
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