NOTE: The Glenview Declaration and Proposals were developed by a group of Canadian citizens meeting in a private home and a local church on Glenview Avenue, sharing common concerns about the state and future of the world. The street name was retained to highlight the importance of local voices everywhere. Our intent is to call for new values, new senses of responsibilities, and to share in and support inspired local, national and international leadership.

Dear Friends,

We invite you to join our campaign to speak with one voice to the elected heads of Governments of Canada, the USA, UK, Japan, France, Germany, and Italy, beginning with the G7 Economic Summit to be held in Halifax, 15-17 June, 1995.

Included with this letter of invitation is a copy of the Glenview Declaration and Proposal.

The Glenview Proposals were formally submitted on May 30th 1995 to the Rt. Hon. Jean Chretien, Prime Minister of Canada - who is the Chairperson of the Economic Summit.

With it, was a letter indicating that widespread national and international support is being solicited. The results and extent of this support will be reported in a public forum to the media in Halifax at the time of the Summit, and, for as long as additional support flows in, we will continue forward information and suggestions to the G7 Leaders and to authorities generally. This submission is the beginning of an ongoing campaign.

We invite to you join by:

a) reading the attached Glenview Declaration and the Glenview proposals to the Summit, and consider their implications for you;

b) registering your support by sending your information to the address on the Declaration itself.

c) making at least ten copies of the Glenview Declaration and Proposals

d) passing them on to family, friends, neighbours, colleagues etc, and asking them to do the same. (Please use Email as much as possible - cheaper!)

We look forward to your support and participation.

Sincerely,

Signed

John Maskell
Convenor, The Glenview Campaign.

Jeremy Wright
Cosponsor
The Wellness Foundation

We speak out of concern for our children's futures, for the Earth's beauty, and for the destiny of humanity. We invite you to join us.

We claim the Global Commons as the heritage of all humanity;

We claim responsible stewardship of our biosphere, atmosphere, ozone layer, water, soils, forests, oceans, and of the global information highway, as necessary for human survival;

We claim responsible social and economic investment in our communities, in our children, and in our common future as preferable to speculation;

We claim personal and political sovereignty as preferable to the servitude of personal and political indebtedness in any form;

We claim new economic, ecological and social policies - predicated on ethical value systems, new forms of cooperation, and less violent methods of conflict resolution - as essential for reducing disparities between peoples everywhere, and for bringing about a more caring and sustainable world;

We call for a new emphasis and understanding of the ideal that enrichment is achieved as much by giving as by receiving, and that these are complementary;

We further call for a new Covenant of responsibility to be created among people everywhere, and between people, their institutions and their leadership.

We invite people of like mind and heart in every part of the world to join us in making a difference to the future of their families, to the betterment of their neighbourhoods, their communities, their nations and to the renewal of their world and support this proposal to The G7 Economic Summit in Halifax.

Support By Email to
wfdn@globalx.net
maskellj@web.apc.org

Support and Donations - By Mail
John Maskell - in Trust, 39 Laurel St.
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2J 2H3

Submitted to The Rt. Hon. Jean Chretien, Prime Minister of Canada, G7 Economic Summit Chairperson; May 30, 1995.

We, the undersigned group of Canadian citizens, wish to express concern that:

• the health of our atmosphere, our water, our forests, and our soils, our bioregions, our communities, our inner cities, our families and our economic systems is deteriorating;
• rising financial indebtedness is eroding personal and political sovereignty - subjecting our leaders, our children and ourselves to the servitude of debt;
• the instability of international currency markets is increasing, - leaving individuals, businesses and nations hostage to higher interest rates and injurious consequences of speculation;
• the current economic systems are not meeting the goals of basic sufficiency, improving standards of living and quality of life, full employment, opportunities for youth, human rights, gender equality, and social and eco-justice for all. Such growing disparities - as evident in inner cities and more generally between rich and poor, between North and South, - are unhealthy and untenable.

We believe that:

• the Global Commons - including the global communications highway, near space, and our intellectual and cultural resources - must be treated as the heritage of all humanity and must be responsibly managed in trust for all future generations yet to come;
• the present issues of financial stability, global security, sovereignty, equity, justice, personal and societal growth, rights, responsibilities, and of the stewardship of the Global Commons are fundamentally different from the more focussed concerns and policies of reconstruction and development faced by the world at the end of World War II, when many of our present international institutions were formed;
• behaviours, which value consumption beyond reasonable need and which harvest the biosphere beyond its annual sustainable yields in the name of development, are no longer viable;
• the world is entering a new era of global inter-dependence and synergy among individuals and cultures, and between humanity and the planet itself. Increasing participation of civil society in the political process is due to the emancipation of individuals, to education and to our advancement to higher levels of development;
• the next phase of social and economic activity must be predicated on more ethical values, on the principles of stewardship, caring for all creation, ecological renewal, respect for strength in diversity, and of the restoration of sovereignty over the servitude of debt.

We note the historic convergence of two international political debates in Halifax:

• from The Naples 1994 Economic Summit - which placed the issues of sustainable development and institutional change on the Halifax 1995 Economic Summit Agenda, and
• from The Copenhagen 1995 World Summit for Social Development - which also referred to the Halifax G7 Economic Summit the emerging global awareness of the need for financial reform as central to the resolution of social and ecological concerns.

I. Proclaim the Global Commons

Given that 'over-arching' jurisdiction over the Global Commons is beyond the sovereignty of any one nation, the leadership of the G7 nations at this Summit is requested to:

proclaim the principle that the Global Commons is the heritage of humanity, of all present and future generations;

protect this heritage and initiate a detailed study to design methods for humankind to preserve and effectively regulate the use of the Global Commons. Such a study should include ways of:

• defining optimal conditions for the preservation and uses of the various Commons including methods of establishing best practices, standards, regulations etc,
• establishing a fairer distribution of costs and benefits of the use of the Global Commons; implementing strategies for the imposition of licences, royalties, user fees and/or levies; determining the various uses of those funds (e.g. social / environmental / peacekeeping) and methods of allocations between these uses; and
• establishing and vesting responsibility in an international authority with the mandate for effective policing.

II. Restore Monetary Stability and Personal and Political Sovereignty

New ways to restore personal and political sovereignty over the servitude of debt must be found. This must include curbing international speculation, money laundering and the use of tax havens. It would enable global resources to be redirected to the emerging priorities, life-long learning, personal growth, local social and ecological investments, the protection of bioregions, the promotion of healthy cities and sustainability of rural areas. It would initiate the process of the restoration of personal and political sovereignty.

We therefore recommend that the G7 leadership support and participate in a detailed review to curtail international tax avoidance and speculative strategies. This review should examine ways for the monetary and political authorities of effectively curtailing international currency speculation including:

• imposing a special international tax on currency trading to be levied at the same time as normal brokerage commissions to fund global social and ecological renewal;
• establishing special "circuit breakers" for currency markets similar to the Wall Street cessation of program trading in times of high volatility;
• reducing leverage by increasing required margins by the Exchanges and making currency speculation less attractive.

III. Accelerate Economic Conversion

With the end of the cold war, the opportunity exists to redirect resources toward more peaceful methods of dispute resolution. Economic conversion to these ends is both necessary and possible. The reorientation of scarce resources toward environmental regeneration, social development, education and health can become the new socioeconomic engines of all societies.

We recommend that the G7 show leadership to all nations by championing such domestic and international conversions. Such conversions must be designed to reduce the causes and capacity for armed conflict, and establish a surer basis for democracy, economic sufficiency, literacy, equality, health, and social integration.

IV. Facilitate Debt Writeoffs

On top of traditional foreign exchange difficulties and chronic problems of debt servicing, many countries face desperate problems of climate uncertainty, chronic drought, the removal of their forest cover, and new threats of disease and famine. These are no longer solely local problems. They are matters of global concern, posing threats beyond national boundaries.

We recommend that the leadership of the G7 Nations initiate a new program of debt writeoffs for such countries, particularly with multi-lateral lending institutions, and simultaneously examine new ways of providing international assistance for the purposes of soil conservation and restoration of local ecologies. We further recommend that a portion of such assistance no longer be tied to interests of the donor countries, but be made available to local areas to generate new local solutions in locally creative ways.

V. Fulfil Recent International Commitments

Social, ecological and economic issues are now converging. Commitments made in international agreements are only achieved when they are fully acted on by the responsible international, national and local authorities. The leadership of the G7 nations is respectfully requested to ensure that new commitments to all agreements in recent international meetings, including The Children's Summit, New York ('90); The Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro ('92); The UN Human Rights Conference, Vienna ('93); The UN Population Conference, Cairo ('94); and The World Summit for Social Development, Copenhagen ('95) are translated into action.

Opportunities

The adoption of the above proposals by the G7 leadership at this Summit will help us all to:

• preserve the health of humanity and the ecology of the Global Commons for future generations;
• improve the economic climate, monetary and fiscal stability and curb speculation;
• foster the increasing participation of civil society in the collective decisions affecting us;
• re-establish personal and political sovereignty over the increasing servitude of debt.

Marilyn Ashby, Glenview co-Convenor; Coordinator Campaign for the Earth, Canada; Representative to WSSD; Member Junior League of Toronto; Past Chair Markham Social Planning Council; former National Board Member Canadian Home and School Association.

John Benesh, International Business Consultant, Lawyer, Educator, Associate member of the Niagara Institute, Former Executive Director of the Canadian Bar Association, active in many volunteer capacities.

Sam Bowman, Representative for the Canadian Federation of Agriculture to WSSD; Proponent for the Rights of the Child; 40 year Veteran of social, cultural and economic development initiatives.

Tim Johnson, Professional Agrologist, Financial Planner; Member Social Investment Organisation.

John Maskell, Glenview Convenor; entrepreneur, professional economic developer; part time graduate student; Representative to WSSD for Faculty of Environmental Studies, U of Waterloo; Elder, Mennonite Church.

Ron McDonald, Executive Director 'Self-Help Development' Zambia, 30 years experience in local development in a wide variety of executive, managerial advisory and practical roles.

The Reverend David Pfrimmer, Director Lutheran Office for Public Policy

Sahira Piracha, representative to WSSD; Prep Com III for Coalition of the Rights of Children; Youth Ambassador to the World Summit for Children; former Director of Canada 125 Corporation.

Thomas Ponniah, Professor, Community Workers Programme, George Brown College.

Malcolm Shookner, Ontario Social Development Council, NGO Delegate to WSSD.

Robert Simpson, Businessman, Member Software Publishers Association.

Naresh Singh, Program Director for Poverty, Empowerment and United Nations Activities, International Institute for Sustainable Development; Adjunct Professor, University of Manitoba; Fellow, Lester Pearson Institute, Dalhousie U; former Executive Director Caribbean Environmental Health Institute.

Laila Smith, Youth Coordinator of Canadian NGO Delegation to WSSD; Liaison officer, Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women.

Muriel Smith, NGO delegate to WSSD; Vice President, United Nations Association, Canada.

Jerzey A. Wojciechowski, Professor Emeritus, Philosophy, Ottawa U; Past President and First Honorary Member Canadian Philosophical Association; member, Canadian Association of The Club of Rome; Originator of the Theory of The Ecology of Knowledge.

Jeremy Wright, President, The Wellness Foundation, former senior economist Social Policy, Privy Council Office, and recent senior advisor to the Canadian Federation of Labour on Canada/ US Free Trade Agreement and NAFTA.

For further information, please contact:

John Maskell, Convenor,                Jeremy Wright, co-sponsor
The Glenview Campaign,                 The Wellness Foundation
39 Laurel St., Waterloo,               181 Maple Lane, Ottawa
Ontario, Canada, N2J 2H3               Ontario, Canada, K1M 1G6
Email : maskellj@web.apc.org           Email: wfdn@globalx.net

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Posted by Information Habitat: Where Information Lives - 15 June, 1995