In this exercise, you will see a number of quotations from different "interest groups" or "lobbies". A lobby or interest group is a group of people who have a common interest and who work together to publicize and promote their point of view. In the exercise, you will read quotations from five lobbies:
The forestry industry: The forestry industry makes money from cutting down trees. Therefore, they want to be able to continue to cut trees, and they want to discourage any alternative ways of producing pulp and paper.
The environmentalists: The environmental lobby want to protect the forests against logging companies, so they would like to show how destructive logging is, and how valuable the forests are.
The hemp farming lobby: The hemp farmers would like the fibre hemp plant to be legal so that they can grow it. They want to show how useful it is for making paper and other products, and they would like people to understand the difference between the marijuana plant and the fibre hemp plant.
The marijuana legalization lobby: These people would like marijuana to be legal. They are interested in linking the fibre hemp plant with marijuana because they think it may be possible to legalize BOTH kinds of plant. They want to show how useful industrial hemp is, and at the same time, they want to convince people that marijuana is harmless.
The Canadian government: The Canadian government has just legalized industrial hemp, but they want to keep marijuana illegal, so they want to show that it is dangerous. They also get lots of taxes from the forestry industry, so they do not want to restrict logging too much.
"The rainforests are quite simply the richest, oldest, most productive and most complex ecosystems on Earth."
Well done! The environmentalists think of the forests as rich ecosystems. This quotation comes from the Rainforest Action Network.
Try again!
The right answer is: B, the environmentalists
The environmentalists think of the forests as rich ecosystems. This quotation comes from the Rainforest Action Network.
"Some have calculated that if Canada converted the entire pulp and paper production in Canada to hemp, it would be necessary to plant hemp over 18% of the country."
Well done!
Correct! The forestry industry is trying to show that hemp farming is not a practical way to produce paper. This quotation comes from the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association.
Try again!
The right answer is: A, the forestry industry.
The forestry industry is trying to show that hemp farming is not a practical way to produce paper. This quotation comes from the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association.
"Farmers... can grow hemp without pesticide or herbicide application because it grows quickly and is not likely to fall to disease."
Well done!
Correct! The hemp farming lobby would like to show that hemp is an effective and safe agricultural crop.
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The right answer is: D, the hemp farming lobby.
The hemp farming lobby would like to show that hemp is an effective and safe agricultural crop.
"Each year, forest fires destroy more forests than are used for making pulp and paper."
Well done!
Correct! The forestry industry would like to show that its logging practices are actually less destructive than natural processes. This quotation comes from the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association.
Try again!
The right answer is: A, the forestry industry.
The forestry industry would like to show that its logging practices are actually less destructive than natural processes. This quotation comes from the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association.
"Decriminalizing cannabis could well result in a greater use of the drug by Canadians, thereby increasing the health and safety hazards associated with it."
Well done!
Correct! The Canadian government does not want to legalize cannabis, so they argue that cannabis is dangerous. This quotation comes from the Department of Justice.
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The right answer is: A, The Canadian government
The Canadian government does not want to legalize cannabis, so they argue that cannabis is dangerous. This quotation comes from the Department of Justice.
"67% of the fibre used to make Canadian pulp and paper comes from sawmill residue and recovered paper that used to be disposed of in landfills."
Well done!
Correct! The forestry industry would like to convince us that they are doing lots of recycling instead of cutting down trees. This quotation comes from the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association.
Try again!
The right answer is: A, The forestry industry
The forestry industry would like to convince us that they are doing lots of recycling instead of cutting down trees. This quotation comes from the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association.
"Hemp is about business and the environment. Marijuana is a moral question about the government's control of what drugs people consume. These two questions have nothing in common but the shape of the leaf, and we have to separate the issues."
Well done!
Correct! The hemp farmers are not interested in legalizing marijuana. They think it will be easier to make hemp legal and successful if people do not associate it with marijuana. This is a quotation from Geof Kime, a hemp farmer in Ontario.
Try again!
The right answer is: D, the hemp farming lobby
The hemp farmers are not interested in legalizing marijuana. They think it will be easier to make hemp legal and successful if people do not associate it with marijuana. This is a quotation from Geof Kime, a hemp farmer in Ontario.
"In the Vancouver Grasstown Riot, of 1971, police attacked and injured hundreds of peaceful marijuana smokers in one day."
Well done!
Correct! This quotation, from HempBC, is trying to depict marijuana smokers as peaceful and the law as violent and wrong.
Try again!
The right answer is: B, the marijuana legalization lobby.
This quotation, from HempBC, is trying to depict marijuana smokers as peaceful and the law as violent and wrong.
"Logging is still the biggest employer and the single biggest contributor to tax revenue in BC."
Well done!
Correct! The forestry industry wants to emphasize its own economic importance to the province, to discourage the government from regulating the industry too heavily. This quotation comes from Logging and Sawmilling Journal.
Try again!
The right answer is: A, the forestry industry.
The forestry industry wants to emphasize its own economic importance to the province, to discourage the government from regulating the industry too heavily. This quotation comes from Logging and Sawmilling Journal.
This work includes material from the following sources:
Study zone. University of Victoria. http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/studyzone/570/pulp/hemp11.htm Licensed under a Creative Commons NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
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