Sunday, March 25, 6 pM - The Toronto Heschel School

Exposing
Victoria’s Dirty
Secret (and other
environmentalist
adventures)
Tzeporah Berman
Environmental Activist
As comfortable in a suit as she is on a blockade,
Tzeporah Berman has negotiated with CEOs and political
leaders to help reshape policies and practices, from
the preservation of our forests (including the Great Bear
Rainforest and the boreal forest) to the wood-and
paper-purchasing practices of some of the largest
corporations in the world.
Berman has been an influential activist and leader,
instrumental in shaping the tactics and concerns of
modern environmentalism for almost twenty years. In the
early nineties she joined protests to save the endangered
rainforests of Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island.
For her role in organizing blockades on logging
roads – then the largest act of civil disobedience in
Canada’s history – she faced nearly one thousand
criminal charges and six years in prison. Later, she
took on Victoria’s Secret with a well-publicized photo
of a chainsaw-wielding lingerie model, pressuring the
catalogue manufacturer to stop using paper made from
old-growth forests. Berman founded PowerUp Canada in
an effort to fight climate change, and continues this fight
in her current role with Greenpeace International.
The Royal BC Museum has included Berman in a
permanent exhibition as one of the 150 people who
have changed British Columbia’s history. She was lauded
as “Canada’s Queen of Green” in a Reader’s Digest
cover story and the Utne Reader recognized her as
one of 50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World.
Berman is the author of This Crazy Time, Living Our
Environmental Challenge (Knopf), which is part memoir,
part impassioned plea for a better world.
Tarek Fatah is a liberal Muslim and critically acclaimed
author. In his latest book, The Jew is Not My Enemy:
Unveiling the Myths that Fuel Muslim Anti-Semitism, he
explores the historical, political and theological basis for
centuries of Muslim animosity towards Jews, debunking
long-held myths and tracing a history of hate and its
impact today.
To Fatah, no subject is taboo. He calls himself a secular
Muslim and ranks as one of Canada’s most fearless
critics of Islamism – the ideology that promotes Islam
as a political system as well as a religion. In 2008, he
published Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an
Islamic State, arguing that when Muslims buried the
Prophet they also buried many of its values. Professor
Shlomo Avineri of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
said, “It is courageous people like Tarek Fatah, who
build bridges of understanding between Muslims
and Jews. His new book is an important
contribution towards this goal.
Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Fatah settled in Canada in
1987 and became best known after 9/11 as founder
of the Muslim Canada Congress, an alternative to the
country’s many Islamist organizations. He writes op-ed
pieces, appears as a TV pundit, and co-hosts a nightly
talk show on 1010 radio.
The Jew is
Not My
Enemy
Tarek Fatah
Canada’s Most Outspoken
Reformist Muslim and Author
Serving:
Salmon
Serving:
Chicken
Hosted by,
Gail Baker and Sandy Buchman
Hosted by,
Judi and JASON Berman
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