MONTREAL - Greenpeace is pointing the finger at a number of forestry companies and their clients, saying they are responsible for destroying Canada's boreal forests to produce everyday consumer products.
In a report released Monday, the environmental group says logging and pulp companies such as Abitibi-Consolidated, Bowater, Kruger and SFK Pulp are among the worst offenders, responsible for destroying nearly 200,000 square kilometres of boreal forest.
The group also released a list of 35 companies that use products fashioned by those companies, including Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Toys "R'' Us, Sears, Harlequin Books, Time and Rona.
The group is calling on customers of the logging companies to suspend their business ties with them until the so-called destructive logging practices are stopped.
"It's financial pressure, it's not a call to boycott,'' said Greenpeace spokeswoman Nadine Filion.
Greenpeace is also unhappy with the Ontario and Quebec governments' response to protecting the forests. The group says Ontario and Quebec protect less than nine and five per cent resopectively of boreal forests from industrial development.
But organizations representing the forest industry dismissed the report, saying Greenpeace's numbers are off base and misleading.
Guy Chevrette, president of the provincial forestry industry council, said Greenpeace's figures are about five years out of date.
Sustainable development, as defined by the United Nations, calls for a balance between human development, economic development and environmental protection, Chevrette said.
Chevrette said Greenpeace is targeting an industry that is the lifeblood of hundreds of Quebec municipalities and employs thousands of Quebecers.
The former provincial politician went as far as wondering whether Greenepeace was working as lobbyists for the concrete and steel industries, which are in direct competition with the forestry industry in the construction sector.
The Quebec Federation of Municipalities also questioned the figures in the Greenpeace study.
