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City officials, councillors and the mayor "talk the talk" of a green Kingston. See, for example, the front-pageWhig Standard story "Green light" (Feb. 22), featuring John Giles, the city's manager of solid waste." And, in the March 5 Whig Standard, councillor Dorothy Hector wrote, "Let's make Kingston the eco-friendly city." She added that city council had adopted "the vision that Kingston is Canada's most sustainable [i. e., Green] city."

Yet in the face of green rhetoric by city officials and councillors, the city has again approved Kingston as the site of the cigarette boat poker run in early August. These monstrous boats -- especially when operated en masse, as at the poker run -- are prime examples of flagrant air, water and noise pollution. Engine fumes and gas slicks on the water are part and parcel of this egregious anti-green event. On the noise front alone, it seems to be in violation of City of Kingston bylaw No. 2004-52, in which noise is defined as "sound that is excessive, or that is unwanted by or disturbing people." The poker run noise is certainly excessive and unwanted by most of us who live on the waterfront at Confederation Basin.

I urge councillors and city officials to not just "talk the green talk" but also to "walk the green walk" and cancel the poker run.