Elizabeth May hosts David Suzuki in Sidney, BC for Talks and Film Screening of a “Force of Nature” on Suzuki’s life

David Suzuki will speak with Elizabeth May, Canada’s Green Party leader, at a film screening of a “Force of Nature”, a new documentary about Suzuki’s life by filmmaker Sturla Gunnarsson.

The event, hosted by the Saanich-Gulf Islands Green Party, will occur at the Mary Winspear Centre on Saturday, April 2, from 6:00 – 9:30 pm.

The event will feature introductory speeches by Canada’s two most highly respected conservationists, David Suzuki and Elizabeth May, followed by a screening of the renowned film, which recently won the People’s Choice Award for best documentary at the Toronto International Film Festival. “Force of Nature” was released in late 2010 by the National Film Board of Canada and Legacy Lecture Productions. The event is non-partisan in nature, as Suzuki and May have known each other and worked together for decades.

“Force of Nature” follows Suzuki’s ideas and his journeys over a lifetime, from his childhood in the Slocan Valley during the internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War, through his days as a young genetics professor at UBC and CBC broadcaster in the 1960’s, his campaigns to protect old-growth forests in the 1980’s in Haida Gwaii, and the growth of his wide-ranging sustainability campaigns at the David Suzuki Foundation. After the screening, Suzuki and May will field questions from the audience.

“David Suzuki, more than any other individual Canadian, is responsible for the growth in real environmental consciousness across our country. His profound ideas, about humanity’s necessary connection to nature, the limits to growth, and how our survival requires the restructuring of our economy to operate within the context of environmental harmony, is one that has taken root across a major section of the Canadian population,” stated Elizabeth May. “Suzuki is a true Canadian hero who always inspires me and has built the greatest legacy in this country – a nation filled with environmentally conscious and engaged citizens.”

Tickets for the event are $20 and are available at Tanners Books (Sidney), Seahorse Cafe (Brentwood Bay), The Roost Farm Centre (Central Saanich), Saltspring Books (Saltspring Island), the Women in Need – WIN Store at 785 Pandora St. (Victoria), and at Elizabeth May’s Green Party office at 2417 Beacon Avenue (Sidney). For more info on tickets to the event phone the Saanich-Gulf Islands Green Party at 778-426-4494

Proceeds from the event will go partly to Victoria’s Women In Need (WIN) Community Cooperative.