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LETTER: Important to be welcoming, accepting community

Editor: The wildlife conservation movement has a long history of perpetuating social oppression, including against 2SLGBTQI+ communities, in part by labelling and dichotomizing “natural” and “unnatural” behaviours in both “wild” and anthropocentric

Editor:

The wildlife conservation movement has a long history of perpetuating social oppression, including against 2SLGBTQI+ communities, in part by labelling and dichotomizing “natural” and “unnatural” behaviours in both “wild” and anthropocentric settings.

As a member of this conservation movement who has worked hard to reformulate our efforts so that they include justice and equity for human communities, I was disheartened to read Kelly Mager's letter “Businesses should face punishment, naming”.

Wildlife conservation does not need to be at odds with a community of care for those experiencing social oppression, and positioning these two endeavours at odds with one another hurts both.

I was likewise disheartened to read Hugh Hancock's letter “Reach out to business if more needs to be done”. The past version of Canmore that “looked after each other” was also a violent and repressive place for many 2SLGBTQI+ individuals. I lived in that version of Canmore, too.

Who exactly was being looked after, and who are we being asked to look after today? Like the wildlife conservation movement, movements that elevate localness, including local food movements, have long been criticized for failing to understand that local is a key scale at which violence is experienced.

Lacking better evidence, “looking after each other” in this context reads as insularity and exclusion rather than mutual support. I’ve committed my professional and personal lives to wildlife conservation and building communities of care, but neither of these letters describes a community that I aspire to.

Adam Linnard,

Exshaw

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