Dear editor,
Megan Tomlinson’s cogent Nov. 2 piece in the Viewpoint section,“Healthcare professionals call for an end to fossil fuel industry’s greenwashing techniques” details a situation in which the fossil fuel industry promotes misuse and misleading information on the fossil fuel and the impacts on our environment.
During the past election the wood stove industry, led by the Health Patio and Barbecue Association (HPBA), placed inaccurate ads on the side of our buses. The ads proclaimed, in loud and clear lettering replete with visuals claiming “The CVRD still wants to ban wood stoves.” This is untrue. The CVRD has never endorsed a policy to ban wood stoves. In contacting the CVRD transportation department I was informed that BC Transit controls bus advertising and has refused to remove them, based on the concern that the ads were not probably inaccurate and, perhaps more significantly, that they feared legal retribution by the ad placers if they were removed.
In this day and age in which the air we breathe is under attack, it is unconscionable that BC Transit would not vet such ads placed on publicly funded buses. If you agree honesty in advertising should be protected, especially when it is a publicly funded enterprise as BC Transit, please send your emails of concern to victoria_busline@bctransit.com.
Steve C. Faraher-Amidon
Comox