Yesterday, we reported the federal Greens are "building a team of volunteers to help write letters to the editor, make calls to phone-in radio shows, email comments to TV news programs and write comments on websites and blogs." But it seems work is already underway to correct the "twisted facts" and "untruths" told by the nation's headline writers and, er, anyone else who takes a swipe at party leader Elizabeth May. Last week, press secretary Camille Labchuk encouraged party members to send letters to the editor responding to columns written by The Toronto Sun's Michael Coren and the Edmonton Journal's Lorne Gunter. Of course, we're confident those letter writers self-identified themselves as Green members. The following is a complete copy of the aforementioned emails.

From: clabchuk@greenparty.ca
Subject: Attention Greens in the Toronto area
Date: Mon, 7 May 2007 17:07:35 -0400

****This email has been sent to all CEOs and Communication Chairs of all EDAs. It is only intended for those in the Toronto area (but our new CRM system does not yet have a function to sort by region), so please disregard if this if it does not apply to you. Apologies if this email does not apply to you.****

Attention CEOs and Communication Chairs in the Greater Toronto Area:

An appalling piece by Michael Coren appeared in Saturday’s Toronto Sun. We are really hoping to flood the Sun with letters to set the record straight. I have pasted the piece below, along with responses Elizabeth has already written to various other papers over the course of the last week. If you could take a few moments to forward this message on to your EDA exec and members and/or fire off a letter to the Toronto Sun yourself, it would go a long way toward countering untruths that are being propagated. Letters can be sent to torsun.editor@sunmedia.ca. Please read the article and consider the points made below.

Elizabeth did not cry during the speech she gave in London and Coren makes no mention of the fact that Elizabeth was merely referencing a statement by George Monbiot, a very well-respected British journalist with The Guardian (UK) and author of the recent best-seller “Heat” - a book on climate change. Elizabeth did not compare Stephen Harper, climate change or Nazis to anything - the quote from Monbiot was merely meant to illustrate the damage that Harper’s government has done to our country’s international reputation. Also, Coren attempts to paint Elizabeth as a fundamentalist. He clearly fails to recognize climate change as a legitimate threat to all life on this planet and refers to the current thinking on climate change (i.e., that it is a real and very threatening phenomenon) as “fashionable”. This article merely reflects desperation on the part of those who are unwilling to act on climate change (such as the government), and represents an attempt to divert attention from the real issues. It is crucial that we correct this.

Please contact me if you need any help with this. It would be extraordinarily helpful if you can find the time to write a letter.

Many thanks,
Camille Labchuk

***

From: clabchuk@greenparty.ca
Subject: Attention Greens in Alberta
Date: Mon, 7 May 2007 17:05:19 -0400

****This email has been sent to all CEOs and Communication Chairs of all EDAs. It is only intended for those in Alberta (but our new CRM system does not yet have a function to sort by region), so please disregard if this if it does not apply to you. Apologies if this email does not apply to you.****

Hello Alberta Communication Chairs and CEOs,

A rather unpleasant piece by Lorne Gunter appeared in the Edmonton Journal on Friday, attacking Elizabeth May. We urgently needs Greens in the area to flood the Edmonton Journal with supportive letters to the editor. This will go a long way to help set the record straight. I’m hoping that each of you can send this to your members and EDA Exec, encouraging them to write to the Edmonton Journal, and that you can write a letter yourself. I have pasted the article below, along with several responses that Elizabeth has written over the past week to help give you something to go on. The address is letters@thejournal.canwest.com.

Please contact me if you need any help with this. It is extremely important that we don’t let this piece go unanswered by Alberta Greens. Thank you in advance for your help!

Camille Labchuk
Press Secretary
Green Party of Canada