Photo by Rachel Gutman

Joe Martin from the Tla-o-qui-aht Nation has lived in Tofino his whole life.  He is a master woodcarver, known for his dugout canoes carved from giant Western Red Cedar. While some are sold, gifted, or displayed across Canada in museums and galleries, others are still paddled by Joe and his family.

Living Democracy from the Ground Up takes an up close and personal view of what is at stake if the federal government continues its rollbacks of Canada’s environmental laws, including the exclusion of concerned citizens from environmental assessment hearings.